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www.JewishFederationLCC.org Vol. 38, No. 3 n November 2015 / 5776

Program notes

n Leni Sack

PURIM FESTIVAL

www.JewishFederationLCC.org Federation Events 2015 ~ 2016

Could you forgive the person who hurt you or a family mem-ber or a friend? Why do we

forgive? And are some acts just un-forgiveable? Come to the Wednesday, November 18 discussion at the Jewish Federation office to talk about these

and other ques-tions presented in Simon Wie-senthal’s book, The Sunflower: On the Possibili-ties and Limits of Forgiveness. This classic of Holocaust lit-erature, written

almost 40 years ago, has been chosen as this year’s One Book Southwest Florida read.

Wiesenthal asked readers to put themselves in a position of a prisoner in a concentration camp when a dying Nazi soldier asks for forgiveness. Then Wiesenthal asked, “What would you do?” and posed the question to a num-ber of prominent people whose respon-ses, along with his, were published in The Sunflower. Written in 1976 in Ger-man, the book was printed in English in 1997 and continues to be reprinted and expanded because the ethical questions posed remain as relevant and challeng-ing as when they were first asked.

Please read the article by Ida Mar-golis on page 7 for more information about this classic, and the reason it was chosen as the 2015-2016 community read. The Jewish Federation is proud to participate again this year with the Lee County Public Library, the Col-lier County Public Library, and the Holocaust Museum & Education Cen-ter of Southwest Florida in One Book Southwest Florida. You can also find a schedule of all the related events in this issue. (BTW: Jewish book month is November 6 through December 6.)

On a much different note, we have

a couple of new programs starting at the Federation.

Interested in your family‘s his-tory? Come to the Jewish Genealogy SIG (special interest group) starting on Thursday, November 12 from 10:00 to 11:30 a.m. Dr. Arthur Sissman, who will lead the group, has been doing Jewish genealogical research since 1999. He has been leading a similar group in Collier County since May 2013. Dr. Sissman will help you learn the basics of researching your family history or help you with strategies and ideas to further the research you have already begun. There is no cost to at-tend and you may just get “hooked on your genealogy!”

Starting on Wednesday, November 18 is a Tai Chi class taught by Dr. Mark Gottdiener, a certified fitness instructor and experienced Tai Chi teacher. Tai Chi is a sequence of gentle movements that, when practiced regularly, helps you achieve better balance, strength and coordination, as well as establish a foundation for better health and fit-ness. The class is recommended for people at any fitness level. It will meet in the Federation Community Room on Wednesdays and Fridays from 11:00 to 11:50 a.m. from November through May. The cost is $3 per class or $18 per month. Space is limited. To reserve your spot, contact me at 239.481.4449 x3 or [email protected].

If it’s November, then the annual Jewish Film Festival of Southwest Florida must be around the corner. This season’s festival will begin Janu-ary 14 and run through February 9, showing films on Tuesday and Thurs-day evenings. Also included in this year’s schedule is a 1:00 p.m. movie on Wednesday, January 20, and a 3:00 p.m. movie on Sunday, January 31. The film festival committee has again done an outstanding job selecting a di-versity of Jewish-themed movies for your viewing pleasure. The December

JEWISH FAMILY SERVICES of Lee & Charlotte Counties

Our Mission To strengthen and enrich the Jewish Community by providing and supporting philanthropic, educational and social service programs locally, in Israel and throughout the world.

Our Vision A Jewish Community that is based on Jewish values such as Tzedakah (benevolence), Tikkun Olam (repairing the world) and K’lal Yisrael (taking responsibility for one another).

Our dedication to service comes from our commitment to ancient

Jewish values: benevolence, taking responsibility for one another and repairing what we can in our world.

We do this by developing and maintaining community outreach programs such as Jewish Family Services, offering information and referrals to the elderly, the indigent and families with special needs.

Family services provides support groups for those suffering separation, bereavement and other challenges of life.

The Food Pantry provides groceries and food cards to those in need.

On Jewish holidays our children and adult members visit senior facilities and private

homes, bringing gift baskets, greetings and cheer to our community’s aging members.

Preparation classes for the SAT exam are provided at a reduced cost.

Needs-based scholarships are available for college attendance and educational

programs in Israel.

The Jewish Federation of Lee and Charlotte Counties. We are the thread that runs through and unites our Jewish community.

Connect with us. Join us. Support us!

issue of L’CHAYIM, which will be in your homes at the end of November, will have a listing of all the films and how to purchase tickets.

Be sure to mark your calendars for Sunday, December 13 for our annual Community Breakfast. More informa-

tion about the breakfast will be in next month’s issue.

We have a busy calendar, so check the articles and ads each month in L’CHAYIM, and if you aren’t receiving the weekly Federation eblasts, be sure to send me your email address.

For a continuously updated calendar of events, visit

www.JewishFederationLCC.org.

2 L' CHAY IM NOVEMBER 20 1 5 Jewish Federation of Lee and Charlotte Counties

L’CHAYIM invites correspondence on subjects of interest to Jewish people. Partisan political opinions will not be published, but opinions on subjects affecting the Jewish community are welcome. All inquiries regarding copy for L’CHAYIM should be directed to the editor. All news material must be very clearly printed or typed (not in all-capital letters) and double-spaced. Electronic submissions encouraged. The editor reserves the right to edit for space and content.

Photographs should be clear, black-and-white or color prints. If you wish a photograph returned, include a stamped, self-addressed envelope of appropriate size.

The Jewish Federation of Lee & Charlotte Counties disclaims responsibility or endorsement of the views expressed by the writers and claims by advertisers.

Jewish news published monthly byJewish Federation of Lee & Charlotte Counties

9701 Commerce Center Court, Fort Myers, FL 33908 (239) 481-4449 • Fax: (239) 481-0139

Online at www.JewishFederationLCC.orgn

November 2015 • Volume 38, Number 3n

Co-Presidents: Barbara Siegel & Rozzi OstermanBoard: Paul Bartrop • Larry Eisenfeld • Herb Fried

Carolyn Gora • Jerry Greenfield • Andi HorowitzCharles Idelson • Marsha Kistler • Sara Krivisky Michele Laboda • JoAnn Lewin • Sylvia Simko

Jerry Snyderman • Paul Weinstein Guy Whitesman • John Wolf • Sherri Zucker

Executive Director: Alan IsaacsProgram Director: Leni Sack

Executive Assistant: Lori RamosJewish Family Services: Lisa Bendetowicz, M.S.W.

nEditor/Designer: Ted Epstein (239) 249-0699

Advertising: Jim Lewin (239) 634-6923n

DECEMBER ISSUE EDITORIAL DEADLINE:Thursday, November 5

FEDERATION

In this issue: 4 Our Community 10 Jewish Interest 16 Israel & the Jewish World 20 Commentary 21 Marketplace 23 From the Bimah 25 Focus on Youth 26 Organizations 29 Temple News 29 Community Directory 31 Community Calendar

CHARLOTTE COUNTY BRUNCH AND MOVIE SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 1 11:00 a.m

Enjoy a delicious breakfast and watch The Sturgeon Queens a delightful documentary about four generations of a Jewish immigrant family that create a Lower East Side fish emporium. Lox, bagels and whitefish… need we say more?

Held at: Temple Shalom 23190 Utica Avenue Port Charlotte 33949 Covert: $10/person

STILL TIME TO RSVP to Leni Sack at [email protected] or 239.481.4449 x3 or Odette Port at [email protected] or 941.286.1409

EVERYONE IS INVITED TO ATTEND. Co-sponsored by Jewish Federation of Lee & Charlotte Counties and Temple Shalom of Charlotte Harbor and the Gulf Islands.

Jewish Federations awarded funds for groundbreaking Holocaust survivor careThe Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA)

is proud to announce that the United States Department of Health and Human Services has

awarded the organization $12 million over five years, pending the availability of federal funds, to advance innovations in person-centered, trauma-informed sup-portive services for Holocaust survivors. This award will help Jewish organizations and the broader Aging Services Network support the compounded and urgent needs of Holocaust survivors, and ultimately, all aging survivors of trauma.

“We are honored and humbled to partner with the federal government to provide much needed assistance to Holocaust survivors,” said Mark Wilf, chair of JFNA’s National Holocaust Survivor Initiative. “With this award, we will be able to advance our efforts to provide crucial services to vulnerable survivors, in-cluding those living in poverty, those in the Orthodox Jewish community and those from the former Soviet Union. These are our mothers and our fathers, our teachers and our mentors. They deserve to live their remaining years in dignity, and this award will help make that hope a reality. Our gratitude goes out to the Administration for Community Living and Assistant Secretary for Aging Kathy Greenlee for recognizing this particularly vulnerable population.”

Today’s announcement is in line with Vice Presi-dent Biden’s three-pronged initiative announced in December 2013 to inspire public-private partnerships to address this dire need. When combined with match-ing funds, the $2.5 million each year will support $4.1 million in programming annually for organizations that help Holocaust survivors, including many Federation-affiliated agencies. Through a competitive award pro-cess, this program will allow local agencies to expand their provision of comprehensive supportive services

for survivors. In addition, the program will allow for the development of a national technical assistance center, housed at JFNA, to facilitate the spread of information about person-centered, trauma-informed approaches to serving Holocaust survivors.

“We thank the U.S. Senate and House Appropria-tions Leadership for funding this vital program and we are grateful for the unending bipartisan leadership of Senator Cardin, Senator Kirk, Congresswoman Was-serman Schultz and Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen for calling attention to the needs of Holocaust survivors,” said William Daroff, Senior Vice President of Public Policy and Director of the Washington office for Jew-ish Federations.

JFNA will implement this program together with the organization’s partners at the Association of Jew-ish Family & Children’s Agencies, the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany and other partners including UJA-Federation of New York, Selfhelp Community Services, Bet Tzedek Legal Services, The Blue Card, Agudath Israel of America, the Orthodox Union of America, LeadingAge, Meals on Wheels America, the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging (n4a) and the National Council on Aging (NCOA).

JFNA’s National Holocaust Survivor Initiative links support from Federations, foundations, private citizens and federal, state and local governments to help aging Holocaust survivors live their remaining years with dignity, security and peace of mind in the comfort of their communities.The Jewish Federations, collectively among the top 10 charities on the continent, protects and enhances the well-being of Jews worldwide through the values of tikkun olam (repairing the world), tzedakah (charity and social justice) and Torah (Jewish learning).

Tai chi at the JFED Wednesdays and Fridays

11:00-11:50 a.m. From November 18 through May 2016 Tai Chi is a sequence of gentle movements that when practiced regularly helps you achieve better balance, strength and coordination, as well as establish a foundation for better health and fitness. The class will be taught by Dr. Mark Gottdiener, a certified Personal Fitness Trainer and Group Fitness Instructor with over 40 years of experience in martial arts. This class is open to people at any fitness level. The cost is $3/class or $18/ month.

Reserve your space now. Contact Leni Sack at 239.481.4449 x3 or [email protected].

Reach 5,000 local Jewish

residents through L’CHAYIM.For more

information or to place an ad, call Jim at 239.634.6923

or send an email to

[email protected].

3 L' CHAY IM NOVEMBER 20 1 5 Jewish Federation of Lee and Charlotte CountiesFEDERATION

Sunday March 1st

The Jewish Federation Annual Campaign provides the resources to strengthen and enrich our Jewish community locally, in Israel and around the world.

YOUR SUPPORT

Promote KINDNESS Share your

MITZVAH

Strengthen & enrich JEWISH COMMUNITY Honor/

Remember A LOVED ONE

This year please consider making an additional campaign contribution in honor or in memory of a loved one. Because kindness is contagious we would like to highlight your generosity in L’CHAYIM and notify personally those whom

you honor. You may choose how your generosity is noted and how we share your mitzvah with our community.

FOOD PANTRYThe Federation thanks the following for their generous donations to the

Federation Food Pantry:Anonymous Angels

Lila WilliamsonMellow Mah Jongg Ladies

Israeli DancersShalom Life Center

Temple JudeaTemple Beth El

Sara & Brian Krivisky

Each month, L’CHAYIM will list your Life Cycle events – births, B’nai Mitzvah, engagements, etc.

Submit your events to [email protected].

Each Tuesday afternoon, an open session of Mah Jongg is held at the Jewish Federation.

Players must be at least advanced beginners, as no lessons are given.

DAY: Tuesdays, 12:30~3:30 P.M. FEE: $1 per week

for more information call Rona Strausberg at 239.949.9003 HANUKKAH

GIFT BAGS FOR SENIORS

Do a Mitzvah and help us pack and deliver our Hanukkah gift bags to the Jewish residents in our community living in

nursing home and assisted living facilities in Fort Myers and Cape Coral. The residents enjoy not only the contents

of the gift bags, they love being visited by the members of the community who deliver them.

Bags will be packed on Wednesday, December 2 at 11:00 a.m.

Bags will be delivered on Sunday, December 6. Volunteers can pick up the bags from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

(Other pick-up and delivery times can be arranged, if needed.)

This is an opportunity for all family members to get involved. Seniors love having young children visit. From babies to

bubbes — it doesn’t get much better than that!

RSVP to [email protected] or 239.481.4449 x3

Let’s teach our children that Hanukkah can be a time of giving as well as receiving.

Joseph Horowitz Israel Travel Grants Available

The Joseph Horowitz Israel Travel Grant is available through the Community Foundation of the Jewish Federation of Lee and Charlotte Counties. The grant may be used for travel to Israel to participate in programs that are volunteer or educational in nature. Our hope is that these programs will enhance Jewish knowledge and identity in preparation for participation in American Jewish life. This grant is for Jewish residents of either county who are 25 years old or younger and can demonstrate a financial need. Academic standing and community involvement may also be considered. For more information or an application, please visit our website at www.JewishFederationLCC.org or contact the Federation at 239-481-4449, ext. 4 or email [email protected].

COMMUNITY BREAKFAST

Sunday, December 13, 2015

10:00 a.m.

Mark your calendars now and plan to attend our Annual Community Breakfast at

the Gulf Harbour Yacht and Country Club. The entire community is invited to attend. We look forward to seeing everyone there.

4 L' CHAY IM NOVEMBER 20 1 5 Jewish Federation of Lee and Charlotte Counties OUR COMMUNITY

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5 L' CHAY IM NOVEMBER 20 1 5 Jewish Federation of Lee and Charlotte CountiesOUR COMMUNITY

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Honoring our military servicemen and women

November is the month we honor our military servicemen and women, both past and present.

This year marked a special anniversary for those who served in World War II – the 70th anniversary of the end of the war in Europe and the Pacific. It also marked the 70th anniversary of the liberation of

the Nazi concen-tration camps.

A s e d u c a -tors with a focus on the history of World War II, we know the value of teaching students about this impor-tant period. We know the lasting

impact on those who hear the personal stories of someone who directly expe-rienced World War II. Rather than a dry recitation of dates and facts, which quickly disappear from memory, his-tory learned through personal stories remains in the mind and heart. The testimony of a survivor, liberator and veteran puts to rest the stories that the

Holocaust never happened or that war is a glorious adventure. Students are provided an experience they will carry forward the rest of their lives. Through these personal stories, our programs encourage students to make a positive contribution to their families and com-munities, showing how one person truly can make a difference.

Since the founding of the Museum, we have been privileged to work with local residents who are liberators and WWII veterans. They have been unfail-ingly generous with their time, sharing their stories with students, community members and Museum visitors. Each brings a unique viewpoint to teaching the history of WWII. Their stories vary widely and all were impacted by the war in some way. They have spoken with students from middle school grades through college and university. These audiences are often the same age now as the storytellers were then, which makes quite an impact on the students. Some have donated items to the Museum’s permanent collection that they acquired during their tour of duty.

Among those who spoke of their experiences in the European theatre were Seymour Taffett, a physician who was a liberator. Fred Balfour worked on the staff of the Allied Prosecution team at the Nuremberg Trails. Bob Miksa saw it all, from D-Day to the Battle of the Bulge to the liberation of a concentration camp. Phillip Sno-berger’s unit liberated 12 work camps, of which he participated in the liberation of ten of them. Bob Grossman was in the Battle of the Bulge and witness to evidence of a women’s concentration

camp prior to its liberation. Dorothy Carlson was a nurse who spent time in a field hospital treating victims of Dachau, and donated photographs and her uniform to the Museum’s permanent collection.

The Museum’s Oral Visual History Project preserves for future generations the stories of many Southwest Florida residents who were liberators and veterans. If you know someone who served in World War II, encourage them to tell you their story. Each one is important, and it is important that they

are acknowledged before time takes its inevitable toll.

The people listed above have participated over the years in our Education pro-grams, Teacher Workshops, Liberator Panels and com-munity outreach. We honor them and thank them for their service and sharing their per-sonal stories so that history won’t be forgotten.

Bob Miksa (photo by Erik Kellar) Photo courtesy of Dorothy Carlson

This season’s exhibits, events and programs at the Holocaust Museum & Education Center of SWFLThe Holocaust Museum & Edu-

cation Center of Southwest Florida in Naples celebrates its

15th anniversary in 2016. Thanks to our generous members, donors and com-munity partners for helping us reach this milestone. Special thanks to the Jewish Federation of Collier County, which has been a supporter since our founding.

We have a great selection of exhib-its, programs and events in 2015-2016:Education ProgramsOver 145,000 Southwest Florida stu-dents, grades K-12 through college/university, have participated in our Education programs. At the close of each program, students are challenged to take the lessons learned from the Holocaust, and go forth to make a posi-tive difference in their lives and their communities.

This year, two more programs were introduced: the “5-8-10 Program,” designed to reach every student in grades 5, 8 and 10 with age-appropriate instruction on the Holocaust, and an afterschool learning program in con-junction with Grace Place for Families and Children. The afterschool program is funded by generous grants from The League Club and Naples Children & Education Foundation, founders of the Naples Winter Wine Festival. Museum ExhibitsTwo new exhibits debut in 2015-2016: Picturebook History: Telling the Story to Children (November 3 - December 27, 2015) and At War’s End – The Nurem-berg Trials (January 12 - May 1, 2016). Both were created in-house.

Picturebook will show how cre-atively written, sensitively illustrated

children’s books can convey age-appro-priate information about the Holocaust to young readers.

At War’s End shows how the Nazi hierarchy was brought to justice after World War II. This exhibit is a joint effort between the Museum and the Museum Studies class at Florida Gulf Coast University. Materials from the Museum’s permanent collection will be

utilized, including a rare set of briefing books used by Allied prosecutors. Both exhibits will also include associated special events.Events and ProgramsThe Museum will again participate in One Book Southwest Florida. The community reading program’s selected book this year is The Sunflower by Simon Wiesenthal. Two of the four Book Discussion groups will be held at the Museum, and two at Collier County Library branches. An additional discussion group will be held at a Lee County Library location. The program will end with special appearances by Mark Weitzman of the Wiesenthal Center. The program is co-sponsored by the Museum, GenShoah of South-west Florida, the Collier County Public Library, the Lee County Public Library and the Naples Daily News. Contact the Museum at 239.263.9200 for more information.

The popular Elliott Katz Holo-caust History Subscription Lecture Series returns in 2016. Six programs – four morning and two late-afternoon sessions – will be presented. Reserva-tions are required for all lectures. The cost is $10 per lecture. If you purchase seats for all six lectures before January 4, 2016, the total cost is $50. Seating is limited, so contact the Museum now to reserve your place. All major forms of payment are accepted.

The Museum sponsors its first Author-in-Resi-dence program Feb-ruary 22-24, 2016. Edwin Black, the prolific author and Holocaust historian, will give several

presentations in Naples. Most events will be free and open to the public, with reservations required. Contact the Mu-seum for additional information.

The Holocaust Survivor docu-mentary We Testify will be shown at the Museum on November 29, 2015 and February 28, 2016. It was created by ABG World Video & Audio Produc-tions of Naples, using footage from our Oral Visual History project of survivor and liberator testimonies. Reservations are required. Contact the Museum for more information and to reserve your seat.

Two fundraisers will benefit the

Museum’s Education programs: the “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” Ladies Lun-cheon will be held on December 10, at The Ritz-Carlton Beach Resort. Mar-garet Cardillo, author of the children’s book Just Being Audrey, will speak at the luncheon. Reservations are required. Contact the Museum for more informa-tion.

Our annual fundraiser, Triumph 2016, will be held on March 13, 2016. It will be a special celebration of the

Museum’s 15th anniversary. Reserva-tions are required, and details will be forthcoming.

For more information, please visit our website at www.HolocaustMuseum SWFL.org or call the Museum at 239.263.9200.

The Museum is located at 4760 Tamiami Trail North (US 41), just south of Pine Ridge Road in Naples. We hope to see you, your family and friends at the Museum this coming year!

Edwin Black

The Museum is supported by individual contributions, foundations, memberships and grants from the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture, the Miami-Dade County Tourist Development

Council, the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners and the City of Miami Beach, Cultural Affairs Program, Cultural Arts Council.

301 Washington AvenueMiami Beach, FL 33139305.672.5044 • [email protected] Tuesday-Sunday 10am - 5pm Except Holidays

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On view through November 15, 2015The Seventh Day: Revisiting Shabbat

MARK PODWAL: ALL THIS HAS COME UPON US...

November 10, 2015 – March 13, 2016 Mark Podwal is best known for his drawings on The New York Times OP-ED page.

This exhibition features his depictions of historical threats of antisemitism, from slavery in Egypt through the Holocaust, combined with verses from the Book of Psalms.

Exhibition Sponsors: Funding Arts Network, Robert Arthur Segall Foundation, Dr. Paul Drucker, Kenneth and Barbara Bloom, Burton Young, Anonymous Donor.

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PLEASE SUPPORT OUR ADVERTISERSTHEY HELP MAKE L’CHAYIM POSSIBLE.

OUR COMMUNITY

Community Free Synagogue events open to the community

This publication is brought to you each month thanks to the support of our advertisers. Please be sure to use their products and services, and mention that you found them in L’CHAYIM.

This month’s advertisers

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Brown Bag Movie NightThe Community Free Syna-gogue’s Thursday, November

26 Brown Bag Movie Night features the documentary Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Gold-berg, the true story of tele-vision pioneer Gertrude Berg, the creator, princi-pal writer and star of The Goldbergs, a popular ra-dio show that debuted in 1929 and later became a popular television sitcom.

Pack you dinner, C.F.S. provides compli-mentary soft drinks and snacks. Showtime is at 6:30 p.m. Free and open to all. Bring your Thanksgiv-ing company!Hanukah celebrationThe Community Free Synagogue’s 10th Anniversary Hanukah celebration starts at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, Decem-ber 6, the 1st night of Hanukah.

The high point of this catered ban-

quet will be the dedication of the con-gregation’s newest Torah scroll, pur-chased to honor the memory of Rabbi Bruce Diamond’s father who died in August.

The evening will begin with the lighting of the con-gregation’s giant outdoor me-norah, and will also feature a pictorial retrospective on the congregation’s first 10 years. Hanukah music will be offered by the C.F.S. Shirat Hayam Musical Ensemble.

This event is open to all at no charge, but seating is

limited to 150 reserved participants. Reservations can be made by emailing [email protected] or calling the congregation’s 24-hour message center at 239.274.7485.

The synagogue is grateful to the physicians of Advanced Pain Manage-ment for underwriting Cohen and Co-hen’s catering of this event.

Papal Nuncio to visit Temple JudeaArchbishop Bernadito Auza, Pa-

pal Nuncio (ambassador) and Permanent Observer of the

Vatican to the United Nations, will visit Temple Judea on Saturday, December 5. Archbishop Auza will address the Jew-ish community during the Shabbat morning service.

Archbishop Auza, a native of the Philip-pines, was ordained in 1985 and received his doctorate in Theology and entered the Vati-can’s diplomatic corps in 1990. He has served positions in the Secretariat of State at the Vatican and diplomatic posts in Madagascar, Bulgaria and Albania. The archbishop was appointed Apos-

tolic Nuncio to the United Nations in July 2014. He was also appointed Per-manent Observer of the Vatican to the Organization of American States that same year.

The archbishop comes to Fort Myers to speak at dinner of The Path to Peace Founda-tion that Saturday evening. The Path to Peace Foundation supports the Vatican’s mis-sion at the United Nations, seeking to foster dialogue and peace among nations.

In visiting Temple Judea, Archbishop Auza seeks to express friendship and com-monality with the Jewish

people on the eve of our respective fes-tivals of lights.

The service at Temple Judea is open to the entire Jewish community.

Archbishop Bernadito Auza

MAJ JONG CARDS! MAJ JONGCARDS! MAJ JONG CARDS!IT’S TIME TO ORDER YOUR 2016 MAJ CARDS.

STANDARD CARDS ARE $8 AND LARGE PRINT CARDS ARE $9. PLEASE MAIL YOUR CHECKS, PAYABLE TO THE JEWISH FEDERATION,

TO SARI RUTT, 1702-2 PARK MEADOWS DR., FORT MYERS, FL 33907.IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS, PLEASE CALL SARI AT 239.851.2021.

Where does the soul go after it departs this world?Chabad of Cape Coral offers a new course on the spiritual side of existence.

Some questions are universal to the human experience. Is there life after death? What happens

to the soul after we die? What is it like for those who have traveled over to the Great Beyond? These are but a few of the questions addressed in the newest course from the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute (JLI).

Beginning Monday, October 26, Chabad of Cape Coral will present “The Journey of the Soul,” a new six-session fall 2015 course. Rabbi Yossi Labkowski will conduct the sessions on Monday evenings from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. at Chabad of Cape Coral, 1716 Cape Coral Pkwy., W.

“The Journey of the Soul” provides spiritual insight into the soul’s journey through life, death and beyond, as well as ancient Jewish wisdom that sheds light on the philosophical, emotional and practical aspects of coping with death and mourning.

“Science knows very little about the soul and what happens to it post-mortem,” said Rabbi Labkowski. “It’s about what is truly valuable and mean-ingful in life, which is relevant to ev-eryone, and many have expressed their curiosity to learn about the topic, so we’re expecting a good turnout.”

Professor Sheldon Solomon of Skidmore College, who co-authored the book The Worm at the Core: On the

Role of Death in Life, commented about the JLI course: “This course strikes me as a very fine juxtaposition of ancient theological wisdom with contemporary empirical science. My sense is that this will be an interesting and rewarding educational and personal experience.”

Similar sentiments were expressed by other experts in the field, including Professor Jeff Greenberg of University of Arizona; Dr. Casey Skvorc from the National Institutes of Health; Pamela Blair, co-author of I Wasn’t Ready to Say Goodbye; and Bianca Nogrady, author of The End: The Human Experi-ence of Death.

The course is being offered in joint sponsorship with the Washington School of Psychiatry, enabling medi-cal and mental health professionals to earn up to 7.5 AMA, APA, CBBS and ASWB continuing education credits.

Like all previous JLI programs, Journey of the Soul is designed to ap-peal to people at all levels of Jewish knowledge, including those without any prior experience or background in Jewish learning. All JLI courses are open to the public, and attendees need not be affiliated with a particular syna-gogue or temple.

Interested students may call 239.963.4770 or visit www.chabad cape.com for registration and other course-related information.

Why choose an “old” classic for One Book Southwest Florida?

Jewish Young Professionals at a potluck dinner a few weeks ago at the Jewish Federation office.The next event is at the Fort Myers Brewery for “Food Truck Night” on Thursday, November 12

at 7:00 p.m. The event is open to all JYPs in the area.

Jewish Young Professionals


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See Art, Love Art, Buy Art!

Chabad of Cape Coral offers a new course on the spiritual side of existence.

Role of Death in Life, commented about the JLI course: “This course strikes me as a very fine juxtaposition of ancient theological wisdom with contemporary empirical science. My sense is that this will be an interesting and rewarding educational and personal experience.”

Similar sentiments were expressed by other experts in the field, including Professor Jeff Greenberg of University of Arizona; Dr. Casey Skvorc from the National Institutes of Health; Pamela Blair, co-author of I Wasn’t Ready to Say Goodbye; and Bianca Nogrady, author of The End: The Human Experi-ence of Death.

The course is being offered in joint sponsorship with the Washington School of Psychiatry, enabling medi-cal and mental health professionals to earn up to 7.5 AMA, APA, CBBS and ASWB continuing education credits.

Like all previous JLI programs, Journey of the Soul is designed to ap-peal to people at all levels of Jewish knowledge, including those without any prior experience or background in Jewish learning. All JLI courses are open to the public, and attendees need not be affiliated with a particular syna-gogue or temple.

Interested students may call 239.963.4770 or visit www.chabad cape.com for registration and other course-related information.

By Ida Margolis

Why choose an “old” classic for One Book Southwest Florida?

Mark Weitzman

I recently overheard someone ask why the One Book Southwest Florida committee would select a

30-year-old book for discussion. This is a very valid question and one that deserves an answer. The One Book committee consists of individuals from the Collier County Library, the Ho-locaust Museum & Education Center of SWFL, and GenShoah SWFL who work together to select a book to be used for the One Book community reading program which takes place during Janu-ary, Jewish History Month in Florida. After having previously worked on numerous One Book committees, this One Book is unique and a great example of cooperation.

The Collier County Library presents a great variety of excellent programs throughout the year, and has presented programs for Florida Jewish History Month. When GenShoah SWFL pro-posed the One Book concept to Amy

Snyder, Executive Director of the Holo-caust Museum, Amy then suggested that Pat DeGroot, Administrative Supervisor of the Collier County Libraries, might be interested in a One Book, One Com-munity reading program as one of the events during Florida Jewish History Month. Mrs. DeGroot was indeed inter-ested. Adapting the parameters set forth by the American Library Association for community-wide reading programs, our One Book Southwest Florida began with Gertruda’s Oath by Ram Oren as the first selection.

Due to many requests to continue the program, the committee met and decided that since 2015-16 marks the 70th anniversary of the Nuremberg Tri-als, a book related to that topic would be the choice for the upcoming season. After reading a number of books, the committee felt that The Sunflower by Simon Wiesenthal met the criteria for a community read. It was currently easily

available in paperback and e-book, it was a reasonable length, it could be read by both students and adults, and it would lend itself to discussion. The Sunflower is also considered to be a classic.

The Sunflower has been reviewed for over 40 years, and has been reprinted and ex-panded. Essays have been written about what makes a book a classic. These es-says include criteria such as a book that merits re-reading, and that with re-reading offers even more enlightenment than the first reading, exercises in-fluence, does not exhaust what it can say to the readers, and a book to which the reader cannot re-main indifferent. And reviews of The Sunflower include adjectives such as powerful, extraordinary, riveting, impactful, fascinating and intense. Ad-ditionally, the theme of The Sunflower is forgiveness – who can grant it, under

what circumstances, is it required of us, can we refuse to offer it? This is a timeless and timely discussion for any community.

Please join members of the com-munity in reading The Sunflower,

sharing your thoughts and feelings at one of the many discussions that will be held. Then plan on hearing Mark Weitzman, the Director of Government Affairs and the Task Force Against Hate and Terrorism for the Wiesenthal Center, who will be at South Regional Library at 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, January 19, and in Lee County on Wednesday,

January 20. Sponsorship reserved seat-ing will be available for Mr. Weitzman’s presentation at Temple Shalom in Naples on Thursday, January 21.

For more information about One Book Southwest Florida, contact me at [email protected] or 239.963.9347.

Lee County: Holocaust Boxcar: South County Regional Library

from November 9-25

Book Discussions of The Sunflower:

South County Regional Library — November 10 at 2 p.m.

Jewish Federation — November 18 at 6 p.m.

North Fort Myers Public Library — November 19 at 2 p.m.

East County Regional Library — January 4 at 3:30 p.m.

Paper Clips screening: South County Regional Library

November 17 at 6:15 p.m. — Award-winning documentary about Tennessee middle school students’ attempt to collect six million paper clips as a school project on the Holocaust.

Speaker from the Holocaust Museum & Education Center South County Regional Library — November 21 at 2 p.m.

Dr. Mark Weitzman of the Wiesenthal Center will speak at the East County Regional Library — January 20 at 6 p.m.

Collier County: Book Discussions:

Naples Regional Library — November 17 at 2 p.m.

Dr. Mark Weitzman will speak at the South Regional Library on January 19 at 4 p.m. and at Temple Shalom on January 21 at 7:00 p.m.

For more information about events in Collier County, contact Ida at [email protected] or 239.963.9347.

8 L' CHAY IM NOVEMBER 20 1 5 Jewish Federation of Lee and Charlotte Counties OUR COMMUNITY

PLEASE SUPPORT THE ADVERTISERS WHO HELP MAKE L’CHAYIM POSSIBLE

Author Martin Goldsmith to speak at Kristallnacht Commemoration and book signingBy Jeff Margolis

The Lee, Charlotte and Collier county communities are invited to attend the commemoration

of the 77th anniversary of Kristallnacht, “The Night of Broken Glass,” on Sunday, November 8 at 2:30 p.m. at St. William Catholic Church, 601 Seagate Drive, Naples.

This program, free and open to the public, is jointly sponsored by the Catholic-Jewish Dialogue of Collier County, the Jewish Community Rela-tions Council of the Jewish Federa-tion of Collier County, the Diocese of Venice in Florida, and the Holocaust Museum & Education Center of South- west Florida.

Each year, our community pays

Weaving the fabric of life together

By Gayathri Ilango

Ira and Sue Lances present fiber wearable art at 16th Bi-Annual Estero Fine Art Show™, November 21 & 22 at Miromar Design Center

Textile has created history since the beginning of civilization as an essential part of mankind.

Though the functions of textiles have remained the same, the methods and materials used to make them have expanded enormously. Fabric art has developed from the beginning as an expression of finesse and an identity of rich and varied culture. People from dif-ferent parts of the world have uniquely developed this art and contributed to the history of their heritage.

Fabric was merely a form of woven material for the couple, Ira and Sue Lances, until they realized that they are creating fine pieces of art. Back in

the 1980s in New York City, they were concentrating on boutique clothing for women as a source of family revenue. As the items became more creative, Ira and Sue felt the need to add value to

their work. There was an opportunity to display and sell their work at arts and craft shows, thus a new beginning for the Lances in the creative industry. Ira and Sue decided to pursue this avenue, and began selling their fiber pieces at various arts and craft shows throughout the country.

Ira and Sue’s Jewish parents and grandparents are from Russia, Poland and Pennsylvania. Ira is a third-gener-ation family member making clothing – he currently uses the sewing machines used by his father and grandfather – add-ing history to his work. Sue was later joined by Ira, who is the artist behind each piece’s creative “expression of life.”

The Lances use several kinds of techniques to make their fine pieces of fabric. One of the techniques is hand-made chenille, in which fabric is made with four layers of various rayon materi-als, stitching them together then coming back cutting through three layers, leav-ing one of the layers to be the lining. This process makes the fabric reversible. They also use other techniques where pieces of fabric are stitched in the form of lace work and as an appliqué pattern.

Currently residing in Boca Raton, the Lances have customers who own more than forty of their pieces and have proudly said that they have been appreciated when they wear their pieces of art made by Sue and Ira. The Lances have developed their work over a period of time. They use fine yarn and materi-als from recycled rayon, which makes their clothing more sustainable. There is a wide range of fabrics with different textures and colors that can be worn both

for day and evening. Fabric created by the Lances are machine washable and dryable, too!

The Lances have been the recipients of many awards for their unique designs. One should never miss an opportunity to personally visit Ira and Sue at the shows and buy their work. The Lances would

be happy to assist you with selecting the best fiber piece that suits not only your wardrobe but a fine piece of art that compliments your life.

Ira and Sue will be presenting fiber wearable art at HotWorks.org’s 16th Bi-Annual Estero Fine Art Show™, November 21 & 22 at Miromar Design Center – the new home of the art fair, previously held at Miromar Outlets Mall. The Estero Fine Art Show is voted in the top 100 art fairs in the nation, among 2,000+ other art fairs evaluated

by Sunshine Artist magazine. The pa-trons have been the pinnacle of support for the Estero Fine Art Show in achiev-ing its goals. More than 130 juried fine art and fine craft artists will be selling their original and personally handmade art. Hot Works Estero Fine Art Show identifies such unique talents not only for their original art work but also for each artist’s passion in what they create.

Event hours are Saturday and Sun-day from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. daily. A $5 donation helps support Institute for the Arts & Education, the 501(c)(3) non-profit arm which focuses on visual arts, diversity, community enrichment, and fostering art education amongst the youth.

While at the art fair, be sure to visit the Youth Art Competition for grades K-8 or ages 5-12, in which students are encouraged to submit their original and personally handmade art. All youth art entries are publicly displayed un-der the “Youth Art Competition” tent, sponsored by Monkey Bars Storage Solutions of Southwest Florida. There is $250 in Youth Art awards, presented on Sunday, November 22 at 3:00 p.m. For more information, please visit www.hotworks.org.

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Million Dollar Quartet


Author Martin Goldsmith to speak at Kristallnacht Commemoration and book signingBy Jeff Margolis

The Lee, Charlotte and Collier county communities are invited to attend the commemoration

of the 77th anniversary of Kristallnacht, “The Night of Broken Glass,” on Sunday, November 8 at 2:30 p.m. at St. William Catholic Church, 601 Seagate Drive, Naples.

This program, free and open to the public, is jointly sponsored by the Catholic-Jewish Dialogue of Collier County, the Jewish Community Rela-tions Council of the Jewish Federa-tion of Collier County, the Diocese of Venice in Florida, and the Holocaust Museum & Education Center of South- west Florida.

Each year, our community pays

tribute to the victims of the Holo-caust with the annual commemoration of Kristallnacht which occurred on the night of November 9, 1938. The systematic, government-sponsored, anti-Jewish riots resulted in the de-struction of synagogues, homes and Jewish-owned businesses in Germany and Austria, and generally marks the beginning of the Holocaust in Europe. Holocaust survivors, along with Jewish and Catholic community members in Collier County join anti-racist groups worldwide to remember this day.

The keynote speaker for this year’s event will be Martin Goldsmith, Ameri-can radio personality and author, best known as a classical music host on

National Public Radio and Sirius XM. Mr. Goldsmith is also known as an author of Holocaust-related books. The Inextinguishable Symphony is the true story of his parents’ experiences as Jewish musicians in Nazi Germany, and Alex’s Wake tells the story of Mr. Goldsmith’s family on the ill-fated voy-

age of the ship The SS St. Louis. The topic of Mr. Goldsmith’s presentation at the commemoration will be “Alex’s Wake, My Family’s Saga.” On the evening prior to the commemoration, Saturday, November 7 at 7:30 p.m., Mr. Goldsmith will speak and sign books at Beth Tikvah, 1459 Pine Ridge Road, Naples.

Mr. Goldsmith holds a bachelor’s degree from Johns Hopkins Univer-sity and has participated in the podcast “Voices of Anti-Semitism” sponsored by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

For more information, please con-tact the Catholic-Jewish Dialogue at [email protected].

Broadway Palm’s upcoming season of eventsLocated in Fort Myers, Broad-

way Palm is the Southwest Pre-mier Dinner Theatre, providing

quality entertainment at a great price. Broadway Palm is open year-round and includes the main stage with 450 seats, a 100-seat theatre called The Off Broadway Palm, a lobby bar, gift shop and art gallery. Broadway Palm fea-tures nationally-selected performers, dazzling sets and costumes, and a live orchestra.

The main stage features a sumptu-ous buffet and at least eight Broadway-style musicals each year. Shows are offered Tuesday through Sunday (no Tuesday shows May through October). Currently on stage is the electrify-ing musical Million Dollar Quartet in

which rock ‘n’ roll icons Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins come together for one unforgettable night! The 23rd Season also includes the holiday classic A Wonderful Life, the Broadway masterpiece Show Boat, the musical sensation Sister Act the Musi-

cal, the hit based on the life of Fanny Brice Funny Girl, The Hilarious Cel-ebration of Women and The Change® Menopause the Musical and family fa-vorite The Wizard of Oz.

The theatre’s 2016 Concert Series includes national acts such as Rhap-sody & Rhythm: The Gershwin Con-cert Experience, Jay White as Neil Diamond, Dwight Icenhower’s Tribute to the King, Charlie Thomas’ Drifters, Sinatra Forever Featuring Rick Michel and Back Home Again: A Tribute to John Denver.

Broadway Palm also produces four professional Children’s Theatre pro-ductions each year with complete sets and scenery. The Chef cooks up a spe-cial buffet designed specifically with

kids in mind, and tickets for lunch and the show are just $19 for all ages, so bring the whole family. Children’s Theatre pro-ductions for this season include Fancy Nancy the Musical, A Velveteen Rabbit Christmas, James and the Giant Peach and Disney’s 101 Dalmatians!

Aside from the dazzling main stage, Broadway Palm’s second performance venue, The

Off Broadway Palm, presents comedies and musical reviews in a more personal atmosphere. This season’s productions include Second Chances: The Thrift Shop Musical, Plaid Tidings, Unneces-sary Farce, Who’s Under Where? and Don’t Dress For Dinner.

Outside-the-box holiday gift ideas

Million Dollar Quartet

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Temple Beth Shalom Food Drive

Stars of DavidBy Nate Bloom, Contributing ColumnistEditor’s note: Persons in BOLD CAPS are deemed by Nate Bloom to be Jewish for the purpose of the column. Persons identified as Jewish have at least one Jewish parent and were not raised in a faith other than Judaism – and don’t identify with a faith other than Judaism as an adult. Converts to Judaism, of course, are also identified as Jewish.

Editor: YoniGlatt, [email protected] Solution on page 22

Jerusalem Post Crossword Puzzle“English Class” By Yoni Glatt Difficulty Level: Manageable

Across1. Fixes a torn kittel5. Joins a Seder9. Billy Crystal might do this when hosting14. Dreyfus made one15. Rabbinic contemporary of Ravina16. Who opposed Joshua leading the Jews after Moses died?17. Uncle of Judah18. Author often taught in high school20. Abraham gets into a dispute over them22. They make (kosher) waffles23. High Holiday time: Abbr.24. Lift to the top of Hermon26. Before Einstein was Doktor28. Geoff Schwartz and others: Abbr.29. Plots, like Haman32. What Marty calls Emmett Brown34. “___ Myself” (“The Producers” song)35. ___flot, cheaper way to get to Israel, often38. Levi to Leah42. Slash called her “A shot in the arm for music”44. Dreidel45. Jake Gyllenhaal wears one on his wrist sometimes46. Murderous Judean king47. “The 25th ___” (David Benioff novel and film)49. Make smooth for Shabbat50. Oy52. Bring to a total, as Dershowitz might do at the end of an argument54. “___ La-La” (1964 Manfred Mann hit)57. Many a Jewish custom: Abbr.60. Say “lo”61. Quaker that’s Kosher63. Rages, likes Moses after the golden calf incident65. Bear that must have traveled a long way to get to Noah’s Ark68. Author often taught in college71. Magazine that called Netanyahu “King Bibi”72. Locale for doing the mitzvah of shiluach hakan73. One of a plague in Egypt74. Singer Day in Landis’s “Animal House”75. Kill, biblically76. Heaven-___77. Clark created by Siegel and Shuster

Down1. Gush forth, like a rock did in the Torah2. “Anything ___” (2003 Woody Allen film)3. Bloomberg, compared to millionaires4. Author often taught in grad school5. A fan may send one to get Ryan Braun’s autograph: Abbr.6. Main setting of a Helen Hunt - Tom Hanks film7. Sciatic nerve local8. One started on 10 Tevet9. ___ Maamin10. Kosher forest animals11. Schlemiel12. Like a schlemiel13. Zets (yiddish)19. Amen, in slang21. Shortened name of two Judges25. Portman’s “V for Vendetta” co-star27. Campus military org. not at YU29. Iran ruler, once30. Make like Egypt in ’6731. Third son33. Author often taught in middle school36. Hopper in novelist Elliot Perlman’s homeland37. “The Mishneh Torah,” e.g.39. Dweller in Judah, once40. Mel Brooks, to many41. A ready challah in the oven43. Nusach ___ Hamizrach48. Go up against Bibi51. ___ Lehnsherr (Magneto)53. Howard Stern’s hair54. Shabbat crashing items55. Ladies locale in Esther56. Video game name once owned by Jack Tramiel58. Some Israeli citizens59. He played Elias in Stone’s “Platoon”62. Mashugana fit64. Very little of it is asked to be shown in Meah Shearim66. Ugandan madman67. It’s what Shabbat is for69. Zayin counterpart70. El Al plane reading: Abbr.

Studying family history brings more than just historical knowledge, it builds relationships. Learning the stories behind names and dates teaches a personal history that explains

more than just how each person came to be.

Join the newly-formed Jewish Genealogy SIG (Special Interest Group) First meeting: Thursday, November 12 — 10:00 - 11:30 a.m.

LEARN HOW TO BEGIN RESEARCH INTO YOUR FAMILY’S HISTORY OR GET HELP FINDING NEW STRATEGIES TO ENHANCE THE SEARCH

YOU HAVE ALREADY STARTED.

There is no cost to attend. RSVP to Leni at [email protected] or 239.481.4449 x3. Meetings will be held at the Jewish Federation ● 9701 Commerce Center Ct. ● Fort Myers 33908

OUR COMMUNITY / JEWISH INTEREST

Reconstructionist Jews at Temple Beth Shalom?

Temple Beth Shalom celebrated the beginning of the new year with a food drive. Then, on

October 5, Brotherhood leader Joel Barlow, Larry Epstein and Nate Bly-veis delivered 700 pounds of collected non-perishable foods to the Cape Coral Caring Center run by Julie Ferguson,

Wendy Wooten and a large host of vol-unteers. The caring center administers to local people who are very much in need.

This annual event is supplement-ed with profits from the Temple Beth Shalom Brotherhood Golf Tournament that occurs every spring.

Wendy Wooten, Joel Barlow and Julie Ferguson

Nate Blyveis and Larry Epstein unload groceries at Cape Coral Caring Center

No, Temple Beth Shalom con-gregants are not Reconstruc-tionist Jews; they just invented

a way to re-construct the sukkah over and over every year.

It’s been nine years since PhD Chemical Engineering Professor and Brotherhood leader Joel Barlow de-signed and built the portable sukkah. It has adorned the front of the temple and ushered in the harvest ever since.

It is called a dodecahedron. The nubs on the rings anchor into the poles, and a simple strap system holds the rings to the poles, anchoring every two to three poles together. There are 25 poles, 11 hubs; each hub has five con-nections except the base hubs that have only four. And every year it is a labor-saving project to erect the sukkah, and a simple job to disassemble it for next year.

Marty Burnette, Jerry Razowsky and Joel Barlow raise the roof

For a continuously

updated calendar of events, visit

JewishFederationLCC.org


Stars of DavidBy Nate Bloom, Contributing ColumnistEditor’s note: Persons in BOLD CAPS are deemed by Nate Bloom to be Jewish for the purpose of the column. Persons identified as Jewish have at least one Jewish parent and were not raised in a faith other than Judaism – and don’t identify with a faith other than Judaism as an adult. Converts to Judaism, of course, are also identified as Jewish.

Ten years of doing a Jewish celebrities column has turned Nate Bloom (see column at left) into something of an expert on finding basic family history records and articles mentioning a “searched-for” person.During these 10 years, he has put together a small team of “mavens” who aid his research. Most professional family history experts charge at least $1,000 for a full family tree. However, many people just want to get “started” by tracing one particular family branch.

So here’s the deal:Send Nate an email at [email protected],

tell him you saw this ad in L’CHAYIM, and include your phone number (area code, too).

Nate will then contact you about doing a “limited” family history for you at a modest cost

(no more than $100). No upfront payment.

Interested in Your Family’s History?

Football and YogiThe following five Jewish players were on an NFL (National Football League) team as of September 24. Jewish Sports Review magazine aided this item:

NATE EBNER, 26, free safety, New England. Now in his 4th season, Ebner has established himself as an outstanding special-teams player.

TAYLOR MAYS, 27, free safety, Oakland Raiders. In a happy way, Mays could quote the famous Godfather III line: “I thought I was out, but they brought me back-in!” A college star at USC, Mays had a so-so career in four seasons with Cincinnati. Released at the end of last season, he was signed and then quickly released by Minnesota, Detroit and Oakland (August. 25). How-ever, on September 15, he was re-signed by Oakland following injuries to Raider safeties. He started in the team’s home opener. Mays, by the way, is a son of an African-American, non-Jewish father (Stafford Mays, an 8-year NFL player, now a Microsoft executive) and a white Jewish mother who is a Nordstrom ex-ecutive. He was raised Jewish and had a bar mitzvah.

ALEXANDER “ALI” MARPET, 22, guard, Tampa Bay. He’s the only Jewish rookie this year. Marpet has de-fied the odds. He made the NFL after a small-school career (Hobart College in upstate New York) and he started the Bucs’ first two games. Marpet went on a Birthright trip to Israel (his father worked in Israel during the mid-1970s as a TV cameraman).

GEOFF SCHWARTZ, 29, guard,

N.Y. Giants. Now in his 7th season, Schwartz was injured most of last season. Healthy now, he started the Giants’ first two games.

MITCHELL SCHWARTZ, 26, tackle, Cleveland Browns. Mitchell, a very good, steady player, and the brother of Geoff, has started in all the Browns’ games since being signed in 2012 (50 straight games as of September 20, 2015). Fun facts: Mendel is Mitchell’s Hebrew name, and Gedalia Yitzhak is Geoff’s Hebrew name.

The Arizona State football team de-feated UCLA in a big upset on October 3. What’s more remarkable is that both Division I teams had Jewish starting quarterbacks (MATT BERCOVICI, 22, Arizona, and JOSH ROSEN, 18, UCLA). No Jewish sports maven can recall this happening before.

New York Yankee great Yogi Berra, who died in late September, was famous for his baseball skills and his memorable one-line comments (like “It ain’t over ’til it’s over” and “You can observe a lot by just by watching”). Sadly, many well-known remarks attributed to Berra were writers’ inventions.

Berra verified that he actually said one of my favorite quotes in his 1998 book, The Yogi Book, I Really Didn’t Say Everything I Said! In 1956, New York papers were full of stories that Dublin, Ireland, had elected ROBERT BRISCOE its first Jewish Lord Mayor. Berra was asked about Dublin electing a Jewish mayor and he replied: “Only in America!” In his book, Berra explained: “Geography was never my strong suit.”

More New TV Season HebrewsThe sit-com Grandfathered premiered on Fox on September 29 at 8:00 p.m. (new shows on Tuesdays). John Sta-mos (Full House) stars as Jimmy, a suave restaurant owner who finds out that not only is he a father – his previ-ously unknown-to-him son has a young daughter. JOSH PECK, 28, an actor whose charm and talent, I think, sneaks up on you, plays Jimmy’s son, Gerald.

The Grinder airs on Fox right after Grandfathered (8:30 p.m.). Rob Lowe plays Dean, an actor who decides to move back home to Idaho and join his family’s law firm after eight years playing a lawyer on TV. Problem is that Dean has no law license or formal legal training. His brother, Stewart (FRED SAVAGE), is a real-life lawyer who has to cope with Dean injecting Hollywood into his law practice. This is Savage’s first big acting role since The Wonder Years. He’s been a very busy TV direc-tor. He has three kids with his Jewish wife, JENNIFER. Lowe isn’t Jewish,

but his wife of 24 years is Jewish, and the couple’s two sons were raised in their mother’s faith.

Red Oaks premiered on Amazon TV in October and the whole first season was released at once. The year is 1985 and most of the action centers around Red Oaks, a New Jersey country club that is mostly Jewish. The central char-acter is David Meyers, a Jewish college student who works at the club. Getty (PAUL REISER, 58), one of the club’s richest guys, takes an interest in David and mentors him. Meanwhile, David’s father, played by RICHARD KIND, 58, is more working class and he and Getty sometimes clash.

JEWISH INTEREST

Nate Blyveis and Larry Epstein unload groceries at Cape Coral Caring Center

Marty Burnette, Jerry Razowsky and Joel Barlow raise the roof

What do you think?

L’CHAYIM wants to know! Email your comments to [email protected].

12 L' CHAY IM NOVEMBER 20 1 5 Jewish Federation of Lee and Charlotte Counties JEWISH INTEREST

How to design a wine By The Wine Whisperer

n Jerry Greenfield

Personal Chef Dalia Hemed can be reached at 239.887.1986

or [email protected].

Stuffed Figs with Goat Cheese – recipe by Dalia HemedI love autumn for many reasons. The

leaves are turning, the air is crisp, and many of my favorite fruits

and vegetables are in season. One of the most elegant of all fall fruits is the fig. This sweet and succulent fruit has a rich and dramatic history stretch-ing back to Biblical days beginning with Adam and Eve using fig leaves to cover themselves. Figs are one of the “Seven Species” of Israel referred to in Deuteronomy.

The fruit is in season twice per year. In Israel, the summer season is historically marked by the time be-tween the first and second fig harvests.

We all know figs as fruit, but you might be surprised to learn that the fig is actually a flower inverted onto it-self. The interior seeds are the actual “fruit” – the fig itself is the flower. It is likely that the fig first grew in south-ern Arabia. Archaeologists have found evidence suggesting that the Assyrians and Sumerians knew figs and incorpo-rated them into their diets. Those figs were likely wild. The fruit wasn’t culti-vated until ancient farmers grew them in Mesopotamia.

This Stuffed Figs and Goat Cheese recipe combines a few ancient ingre-dients into one sweet and savory treat.

In Biblical times figs were picked straight from the tree, ripe and succu-lent. Cheese was made from the milk of goats that roamed the Judean hills. Dates were harvested from palm trees and enjoyed for their natural sweet-ness. Combine these three ingredients and you get one delicious appetizer.

These figs are addictive. They are perfect for a dinner gathering and they all natural and gluten free. Enjoy!Stuffed Figs Ingredients:

• 12 fresh figs• 4 oz. soft goat cheese • 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil• Salt and freshly ground black

pepper• 1/4 cup date honey, or you may

substitute regular honeyMake a batch of date honey in ad-vance of this recipe for best flavor, or you may substitute regular honey.Date Honey Ingredients:Yield: Makes about 1½ cups

• 3 cups boiling water• ½ pound pitted dates

Date Honey Directions: X In a bowl, combine 1 cup boiling

water and dates. Soak 20 minutes. X Mash dates with your hands. Add

remaining 2 cups boiling water. Let stand 5 minutes. Drain through a medium-mesh sieve set over a large bowl. Strain again through a fine-mesh sieve, pressing mixture with a wooden spoon to extract as much of the thick liquid as possi-ble. Discard pulp. Pour liquid into a large, non-reactive saucepan.

X Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, to prevent mixture from sticking to sides of pan, un-til it reduces to the consistency of honey, 40 to 45 minutes. Let cool. Transfer to a glass jar with a tight fitting lid and refrigerate for up to 3 months.

Stuffed Figs Directions: X Preheat oven to broil. Trim off stems

of figs and cut an “X” in the top of each fig 1/3 way through. Place the figs on a greased, parchment paper. If they are a little wobbly, you can shave a bit off the bottoms of the figs so they stand upright.

X Place goat cheese in a plastic or piping bag and massage with warm hands until softened. Cut a tip off one of the bottom corners of the bag and pipe the cheese into each fig, dividing your 4 oz. cheese evenly between the 12 figs.

X Lightly brush the figs with olive oil and sprinkle with a little salt and a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper.

X Broil the figs for about 4 minutes or until you can see little brown bits on the goat cheese. Date honey or regular honey should be gently warmed in a small saucepan at this point; it should be easily pourable and warm but not hot.

X Remove figs from oven and drizzle with warm date honey.

X Serve warm or at room tempera-ture.

After spending more time in the advertising and market-ing world than I care to men-

tion, I’ve gained a real appreciation of the many clever ways winemak-ers try to make their products more appealing to the consumer. And it’s not al-ways by improv-ing the way the stuff tastes.

After all, when you see a bottle on the shelf in your local wine boutique and you’re not familiar with the particular varietal or producer, how do you decide wheth-er to plunk down $30 or $40 on a liquid that may well be a mystery?

Of course, if it says “Cabernet Sau-vignon” you may have a general idea of what that particular varietal is sup-posed to taste like, and if you’re fon-

dling a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand, you have every right to expect flavors of grapefruit, pineapple, scents of new mown hay, and maybe a little lychee on the finish. Fine.The Wine Bottle MysteryThe fact is that no consumer product tells you less about what’s in the pack-age than a bottle of wine. So how do you decide?

If the producer is new to you, all you have to go on is the brand name, the label design, and possibly the shape of the bottle. That’s where the creativ-ity comes in. These days, winemakers are falling all over themselves to cre-ate that all-important first impression. They’re coming up with cute little animals (“Yellow Tail” being a good example of a whole class of libations that have come to be known as “critter wines”), hand painting the labels, in-venting outrageous product names, and developing bottles that are most decid-edly non-traditional in shape.

One favorite is an old standard: Perrier-Jouet “Fleur de Champagne” comes in a bottle painstakingly hand painted with little white and gold flow-ers. It’s dear to me because my wife and I drank a magnum of it (or two) on our wedding night. And the bottles are collector’s items.

Then there are “artist series” wines that come in similarly hand-painted bottles. Kenwood is perhaps the most famous producer that’s climbed aboard this bandwagon.

The most historic “artsy” labels belong unquestionably to Mouton-Rothschild, whose bottles showcase the work of a different famous artist every year. We’re talking Miro, Cha-gall, Braque, Andy Warhol and others of that ilk. In 1973, when the wine was finally elevated to “First Growth” sta-tus in Bordeaux, the label was painted by Picasso. The King of Wine DesignMy very favorite wines, though, in

terms of quality, creativity and sheer marketing genius, come from a winery called Sine Qua Non, and its owner, Manfred Krankl. He makes outstand-ing, teeth-purpling grenache, syrah and other huge reds, puts them in differ-ent weirdly-shaped bottles every year, sells them for upwards of $300 a pop, and gives them different names, like Eleven Confessions, Dangerous Birds, Over & Out, and The Nineteenth Nail in My Cranium.

Of course, the real test comes upon the extraction of the cork. All the art-work in the world won’t make a bad wine taste good. But it may influence your decision about what to pull off the shelf.Jerry Greenfield is The Wine Whisper-er. He is Creative Director of Green-field Advertising Group, and his new book, Secrets of the Wine Whisperer, is now available through his website or on Amazon. Read his other writings on his website, www.winewhisperer.com.

Happy Challah-days!

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Women Who Care, a newly-formed group, invites all Jewish women to its workshops. The members create vases, make crafts, knit and crochet items such as scarves, hats, lap blankets and shawls, and donate them to women undergoing chemotherapy as well as to parents and children at the Golisano hospital.

The group meets every other Monday from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. at the Federation office. Please join us. Our next meeting is on Novem-ber 2.

Become part of this caring group of women and share your handiwork. It’s a pleasure and a mitzvah.

For more information, please contact Sheila Sklar at [email protected] or 239.432.9877.

Women Who Care


©2015 Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, Inc. Hadassah is a registered trademark of Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, Inc.

Israel’s terror victims come through Hadassah’s hospital doors every day.

We can’t stop the bloodshed.We can stop the bleeding.

· American Richard L. was stabbed in the heart in a terrorist bus attack and remains in critical condition.

· Odel B. had deep wounds in her neck when she arrived at the hospital, after her husband was stabbed to death in Jerusalem’s Old City. Her toddler son also had knife wounds. They are recovering.

· Teenager Naor B. was putting air in his bicycle tire when he was stabbed. He is in serious condition after complicated surgery.

The most difficult cases are rushed to Hadassah’s hospitals, world-renowned for trauma care and a team of surgeons that don’t give up. They fight to save lives and stop the bleeding.

Help us #stopthebleeding

To donate: 727-799-0618 or hadassah.org/stopthebleeding

HADASSAH THE WOMEN’S ZIONIST ORGANIZATION OF AMERICA, INC.

JEWISH INTEREST

Personal Chef Dalia Hemed can be reached at 239.887.1986

or [email protected] Figs Directions:

X Preheat oven to broil. Trim off stems of figs and cut an “X” in the top of each fig 1/3 way through. Place the figs on a greased, parchment paper. If they are a little wobbly, you can shave a bit off the bottoms of the figs so they stand upright.

X Place goat cheese in a plastic or piping bag and massage with warm hands until softened. Cut a tip off one of the bottom corners of the bag and pipe the cheese into each fig, dividing your 4 oz. cheese evenly between the 12 figs.

X Lightly brush the figs with olive oil and sprinkle with a little salt and a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper.

X Broil the figs for about 4 minutes or until you can see little brown bits on the goat cheese. Date honey or regular honey should be gently warmed in a small saucepan at this point; it should be easily pourable and warm but not hot.

X Remove figs from oven and drizzle with warm date honey.

X Serve warm or at room tempera-ture.

14 L' CHAY IM NOVEMBER 20 1 5 Jewish Federation of Lee and Charlotte Counties JEWISH INTEREST

Fast-paced, globe-spanning thriller takes readers from Hawaii to HebronBook review by Philip K. Jason, Special to L’CHAYIM

Saving Sophie, by Ronald H. Balson. St. Martin’s Griffin. 416 pages.

Trade paperback $15.99.

Phil Jason

Ronald Balson (photo by Monica J. Balson)

This exciting, information-packed novel is almost bursting at the seams of its ambition. In it,

author Ronald H. Balson orchestrates several intersecting storylines that cover a broad geographical, generational and geopolitical span.

The two main narratives follow an $88 million em-bezzlement case in Chicago and a sophisticated ter-rorist plot mas-terminded out of Hebron. When the payoff from a colossal business

deal engineered in part by accountant (and single father) Jack Sommers goes awry, the money not deposited in the authorized account, Jack is among those under suspicion.

So he takes on a false identity and hides out in Hawaii.

The complicated legal case trig-gered by the embezzlement requires the skills of key characters from Once We Were Brothers, Balson’s first novel. They are attorney Catherine Lockhart, once fired from the firm that now needs her, and private eye Liam Taggart. These two have a long-simmering romance that percolates throughout.

They are also tied to the terrorist plot headed by Jewish Jack’s Muslim father-in-law, Dr. Arif al-Zahani, from his home in Palestinian Hebron. The doctor is a leader of the Sons of Canaan, a sinister group preparing a devastating

action designed to kill thousands.Liam is recruited to work with a

beautiful counterterrorism agent, Kayla Cummings, who is at first identified as attached to the U.S. Department of State. The mission is to rescue Jack’s daughter, Sophie – who has been kid-napped by her grandfather, al-Zahani – and to foil the looming attack.

A degree of teasing romantic repar-tee develops between Kayla and Liam that suggests his lack of commitment to Catherine. However, in the end, Kayla actually helps Liam adjust his behavior in order to deserve and win Catherine. Here and elsewhere, Balson’s represen-tations of interpersonal relationships are drawn with subtlety and sophistication.

But what of the money? Where is it, and what will it be used for? Perhaps it’s the price of Sophie’s release: a huge bankroll for future activities of the Sons of Canaan, whose motto is “From the Golan to the Gulf.”

In Hawaii, Jack runs into Marcy, the best friend of his deceased wife, Ali-na, al-Zahani’s rebellious daughter. Alina, it turns out, was an early victim of her father’s bacteriological weapon, punished for her disobedience to his rigid expectations, which in-cluded marrying Jack and leaving Hebron. Marcy is willing to help Jack and become a second mother to Sophie, assuming the captive child can be rescued.

Into the plot salad Balson tosses Russian mobsters who seem to trail the action, bumping off anyone with information about the journey of the

embezzled money. Is Jack their next target, or is he in league with them? Or is he only a target of law enforcement, which must be kept at bay so that he can manage the rescue of Sophie?

(A subplot, perhaps overly distracting from the main business of the novel, involves a college-basketball point-shaving racket run by one of the principals in the business buyout.)

One of Balson’s goals is to create a rich context for the action that taps into 20th-century Middle East history as well as the history of the region as enshrined in Biblical narratives beginning with Abraham’s land purchase.

His vehicle for this exposition – which is ultimately pro-Israel but strenuously attempts to balance Jew-ish and Arab-Muslim perspectives – is primarily dialogue. Rather than using

the narrator’s voice, he feeds his facts through the exchanges of his characters. In this, Bal-son’s execution is bor-derline unwieldy.

Even though the expository conversa-tions are motivated by the circumstance of one character having knowledge and another needing to be educated, too often they read like

prepared speeches. After a while, more becomes less.

These excesses do little damage to the overall impact of the novel, though, which remains strong, colorful and con-stantly suspenseful. Many of the best scenes in the later chapters focus on the doings of the determined and capable

Kayla Cummings, who is revealed to be an Israeli agent.

Readers will also admire the scenes be-tween the doctor and his granddaughter,

with their complicated emotions and unresolvable conflict. The meetings of the Sons of Canaan are drawn deftly, the group’s members humanized and individualized. But best of all may be the exchanges that convey the growing relationship between Jack and Marcy, filled with desperation, romance and moral reverberations concerning re-sponsibility and guilt.

With its well-handled, vividly painted settings in and around Jerusalem and Hebron, Hawaii and Chicago, Sav-ing Sophie will keep readers engaged from first to last. And educated, too. (It’s generously stocked with supplementary materials for reading groups.)

This review, which first appeared in the online Washington Independent Review of Books, is reprinted by per-mission.Philip K. Jason is Professor Emeritus of English from the United States Na-val Academy. He reviews regularly for Florida Weekly, Jewish Book World, Southern Literary Review, and other publications. Please visit Phil’s website at www.philjason.wordpress.com.

Because this is the way retirement should be, and the only thing missing is you. Fitness that energizes. Neighbors who become lifelong friends. The assurance that comes from not worrying about the future. The security friends and family feel about you having a plan. How can we be certain you’ll love Cypress Cove? What’s not to love about peace of mind, great value, scenic beauty, delicious food and a community of caring friends?

Call 239-481-6605 or visit us online at www.CypressCoveLiving.org. Visit us to see all there is to love!

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Cypress Cove is a non-profit organization, sponsored by Lee Healthcare Resources; a support organization to Lee Memorial Health System, one of Southwest Florida’s most well-respected healthcare providers. Cypress Cove was first in the state of Florida to achieve Person Centered Accreditation in its healthcare areas.

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15 L' CHAY IM NOVEMBER 20 1 5 Jewish Federation of Lee and Charlotte CountiesJEWISH INTEREST

n Dr. Paul Bartrop

By Paul R. Bartrop, PhDAtrocity and punishment in November 1945

Two related events – one largely unknown, the other very well known – took place 70 years ago

this month.The first saw the discovery of a

mass grave of murdered Jews near Iwje, Poland, where, on the eve of the Ho-locaust, some 3,000 Jews lived. The town of Iwje, today part of Belarus, was lo-cated between Vilna and Minsk. It was comprised largely of tradesmen, artisans

and factory owners; Jewish political parties and youth movements, together with religious and educational institu-tions, were all active in a vibrant Yiddish environment.

About a week after the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Iwje fell into German hands. That August, the Nazis rounded up 224 of Iwje’s Jewish intellectuals, including rabbis and teachers, and, with the as-sistance of local Lithuanian auxiliaries, shot them in a nearby forest.

A ghetto was then established in Iwje, and by April 1942, hundreds more Jews had been transferred there from neighboring villages. On May 12, 1942, thousands were gathered in the ghetto’s market square. Some 2,300, including many women and babies, were taken to the same site in the forest, where they were murdered.

It was only on November 12, 1945, that their grave was located and news made public of their murder.

November 20, 1945, a few days later, was the opening day of the Inter-national Military Tribunal (IMT), based in the German city of Nuremberg, which sat for the purpose of trying twenty-two major Nazis, accused under any of four counts: Crimes against Peace, War Crimes, Crimes against Humanity, and (the chief indictment) Conspiring to Commit any of the foregoing in a “Common Plan.”

Known colloquially as the “Nurem-berg Trials,” the Tribunal was convened by the victorious Allies (France, Great Britain, the USSR and the United States), each of whom sent two judges. Their task was to try the leaders of the Nazi hierarchy as well as six Nazi orga-nizations (the Nazi Party, the Gestapo, the SA, SD, the Reich Cabinet and the Army General Staff).

The city of Nuremberg was chosen, after the initial choice of Berlin was rejected, because of its infamous asso-ciation with the anti-Semitic Nazi racial laws of 1935.

The trials took place at the Palace of Justice, and were to set the tone for all subsequent war crimes trials down to the

present day. The major emphasis of the IMT lay in a concern to bring to justice those who had upset the international order by waging aggressive war. At the time, nothing was seen as being more criminal than the foisting of aggressive war upon a world which had previously been clearly committed to avoiding it.

Nuremberg was therefore not a trial that sat in judgment on the Holocaust. In the popular awareness, however, since November 1945 there has been a perception that the International Mili-tary Tribunal actually sat in judgment on the Holocaust, owing to the shock-ing disclosures and film footage that came to light in evidence. Yet while the Holocaust itself was not on trial, what was revealed served to confirm for people around the world why the struggle against the Nazis had been too important to lose.

The Charter of the Nuremberg Tri-als was unprecedented in international law, and a vital step on the road to a uni-versal anti-genocide, anti-crimes against humanity, and anti-war crimes regime that would be binding upon all.

Most significantly, the IMT rejected as a defense position that of “following superior orders,” emphasizing, instead, the principle of individual responsibil-ity provided there was a moral decision to be made. This set the stage for not only the United Nations Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948), but the later International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the Interna-tional Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in the 1990s. It had its crowning moment in 2002, with the establishment of the International Criminal Court.

When the International Military Tri-bunal handed down its decisions, there were few surprises. Six of the accused were found guilty on all four counts; another six were similarly sentenced after having been found guilty of some of the counts.

Twelve of the defendants were sentenced to death: they were Herman Göring (who committed suicide prior to the sentence being carried out), Joachim von Ribbentrop, Wilhelm Keitel, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Alfred Rosenberg, Hans Frank, Julius Streicher, Fritz Sauckel, Alfred Jodl, Arthur Seyss-Inquart and Wilhelm Frick. Martin Bormann, head of the Reich Chancellery, was sentenced to death in absentia.

Sentenced to life imprisonment were Rudolf Hess, Walter Funk and Erich Raeder.

Sentenced to various length prison terms were Albert Speer, Konstantin von Neurath, Karl Döenitz and Baldur von Schirach.

Acquitted were Fritz von Papen, Hjalmar Schacht and Hans Fritzche.

Also indicted was Robert Ley, leader of the German Labor Front, but he committed suicide prior to the start of the trials. Adolf Hitler had already committed suicide the previous April, as had Heinrich Himmler in May.

The massacre of the Jews of Iwje, Poland, and discovery of their com-mon grave in November 1945, shocked many, but was missed by most. The start of the trial of major Nazi war criminals that began a few days after this dis-

covery was a further reinforcement of why the war against the Nazis had been fought, and of why the fate of the Jews of Iwje had to be remembered by future generations. Especially today, in these uncertain times, both events still need to be recalled, together.Dr. Paul Bartrop is Professor of History and the Director of the Center for Ju-daic, Holocaust, and Genocide Studies at Florida Gulf Coast University. He can be reached at [email protected].

On Friday, November 20, to mark the 70th anniversary of the opening day of the Nuremberg

Trials in 1945, FGCU’s Center for Ju-daic, Holocaust, and Genocide Studies will be holding an all-day symposium entitled “The Nuremberg Trials after 70 Years: Justice or Vengeance.” Speakers will include Dr. Paul Bartrop (FGCU), Dr. Steven Leonard Jacobs (Univer-sity of Alabama), Dr. Herbert Hirsch (Virginia Commonwealth University), Dr. Alex Alvarez (Northern Arizona University) and Mr. Michael Dickerman (Stockton University). The symposium will be held in the Cohen Center, room 214, from 9:15 a.m. onwards. There is no registration required.

Then, on Monday, November 23, the Center for Judaic, Holocaust, and Genocide Studies, in conjunction with FGCU Community Outreach, will be

Events at Florida Gulf Coast University in November

hosting Holocaust survivor Mrs. Eva Kor, who will be addressing us on the theme “Echoes from Auschwitz.” Mrs. Kor, who as a child survived experimen-tation at the hands of the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele, will be recounting her experience in Auschwitz and her deci-sion to forgive. This event will be held in the Cohen Center Ballroom at 6:00 p.m. No registration is required.

Full details on both events can be found by looking at “Forthcoming Events” on the Center website, http://www.fgcu.edu/HC/events.html.

For the event on November 20 it is mandatory that you collect a park-ing permit from the Welcome Booth as you enter the university if you are not a member of the university community.

Florida Gulf Coast University is located at 10501 FGCU Blvd., Fort Myers.

16 L' CHAY IM NOVEMBER 20 1 5 Jewish Federation of Lee and Charlotte Counties ISRAEL & THE JEWISH WORLD

For daily news stories related to Israel & the Jewish world, visit the Federation’s

website at www.JewishFederationLCC.org.

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demographic and reach 5,000 readers each month for pennies per reader!

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TEMPLE JUDEACommunity Tour of Berlin, Munich & Prague

Join Rabbi Marc Sack and the Temple Judea community as we explore Munich, Nuremberg, Prague, Dresden and Berlin.

Together we will discover what was lost and what has been rebuilt. And along the way, we will meet with members of local communities to learn about the remarkable resurgence of Jewish life taking hold in the heart of Europe.

SEPTEMBER 4-15, 2016

Learn More @ www.templejudea2europe.org

For questions about the program call Rabbi Sack at 1-239-433-0201. For registration-related questions, call Bonnie Shoval at 1-202-537-6056 or [email protected]

12 technologies that are about to transform your homeBy Abigail Klein Leichman, ISRAEL21c, www.israel21c.org, October 1, 2015Israeli companies are tops in ‘smart home’ solutions to save you time, worry, energy and water.

Bezeq, Israel’s largest telecom, recently set up a model “smart home” at its Tel Aviv headquar-

ters and in the IKEA store in Netanya to demonstrate its Bhome subscription service – a cutting-edge package of Wi-Fi-enabled sensors and monitors to help keep out intruders and save energy.

But you don’t necessarily have to live in Israel to take advantage of sophis-ticated Israeli smart-home technologies.

Whether you want to control tem-perature, humidity and lights, monitor and optimize water usage, activate audio systems and alarms through a mobile phone or tablet, there’s a product on the market – or close to market – to help you do it with the magic of the Internet of Things (IoT).

Here are a few of the many options available now or coming soon.

1. SwitchBeeThis Netanya-based startup pro-

vides a platform including program-mable switches, a central control unit, a smartphone/tablet application and cloud-based data services. The plug-and-play devices, featured in the Bhome model smart home, are designed to embed in existing outlets quickly and wirelessly.

The company says you can convert a light switch into a smart switch in less than two minutes, or turn your whole house into a smart home in less than 90 minutes. Using the app’s secure dash-board, the user can program custom preferences for each SwitchBee-enabled light or device including on/off and fine adjustments.

2. SinglecueSinglecue is a standalone device

that lets you use touch-free gestures to control infrared- and Wi-Fi-enabled media and smart-home devices in its range of sight. You can do everything from lowering the thermostat to low-

ering the TV volume to lowering the blinds. CNN named Singlecue one of 36 “coolest gadgets of 2014.”

Singlecue is made by eyeSight

Technologies, a Herzliya company whose machine-vision systems have been built into devices made by OPPO, Lenovo, Toshiba, Hisense, Phillips and other manufacturers since 2005.

3. EarlySenseThis digital health company in

Ramat Gan recently released myEar-lySense, an under-mattress automatic sleep-monitoring system designed to integrate with smart-home solutions. Users can adapt their home environment based on the sleep-cycle data collected from the myEarlySense sensor – for example, arming and disarming home security systems, turning off the TV, turning on the coffeemaker, and adjust-ing the thermostat. The myEarlySense technology is built into Samsung’s new SleepSense IoT device.

4. Smart Garden Hub by GreenIQRecently launched at Home Depot

stores across the United States and also sold online, GreenIQ’s Smart Garden Hub allows you to adjust irrigation based on past, current and forecast weather – without stepping outside – yielding water savings of up to 50 percent.

The device connects to the Internet via Wi-Fi or cellular connection and is controlled from an iOS or Android app. The Petah Tikva-based company’s app

can also adjust outdoor lighting and can connect to a Netatmo weather station and rain gauge or a water-flow sensor for leak detection.

5. WeR@Home by EssenceThis cloud-administered wireless

system lets users manage and commu-nicate with a large variety of third-party connected home devices, such as light-ing, thermostats and door locks. Essence is based in Herzliya.

6. SensiboSensibo’s tagline is “Give your old

air conditioner a brain.” The system includes a pod that sticks onto your A/C and heating unit, and an intuitive app that lets you monitor and modify your settings from any smartphone, tablet or computer. If you’ve got a Samsung in the living room, an LG in the bedroom and a Friedrich in the study, Sensibo will control all of them with one interface. A new public API for developers will enable integration of Sensibo with other home appliances as well.

7. SmarTapSmarTap’s digital

shower system, currently available in Israel and the UK and next year in the United States, was cho-sen for Bezeq’s Bhome demo to show how the product can reduce wa-ter and energy use by enabling precise control of flow and temperature.

An app lets users program actions such as preheating the shower, setting a maximum tem-perature and flow rate, and specifying how high to fill the bath. The Nesher-based com-pany will be adding functions such as automatic leak detection, opening cold-water pipes to prevent freezing, and monitoring usage patterns; the software will be upgraded remotely with each new feature. IBM Research in Haifa is now researching how SmarTap can help reduce water and energy use in commer-cial buildings.

8. PointGrabAnything plugged into a power

source can be connected to PointGrab’s PointSwitch product to enable gesture-controlled adjustments and on/off ac-tions up to 17 feet away, even in full darkness. This Israeli gesture-control technology is already powering tens of millions of devices made by Fujitsu, Acer, Asus, Lenovo, Samsung, TLC and Skyworth. The company is based in Hod Hasharon.

9. ENTR by Mul-T-LockThis battery-operated smart lock

from Mul-T-Lock in Yavneh is designed to be retrofitted into existing doors.

ENTR lets users control entry from a smartphone, tablet or other Bluetooth-enabled device. You can create or disable virtual keys immedi-ately, lock or unlock the door at prepro-grammed times, and monitor the system remotely. The under-

lying algorithms were developed at the Israeli R&D facility of U.S. chipmaker Freescale.

10. EvozEvoz turns an iOS device into a vir-

tual baby monitor. Its technology is built inside the Belkin-Evoz WeMo moni-tor, which stores and graphs baby’s cries and analyzes the information to provide parenting tips; and in Brit-ish Telecom’s next-

generation home video devices. Evoz also can be used for monitoring house-bound seniors, detecting and sending alerts about safety and security, and evaluating electricity usage.

11. SmartH2O by BwareITAttach the SmartH2O home water

meter to your sink or shower tap or your garden hose, download the app and start seeing exactly how much water your household is using, how long the water is running and at what temperature, and how much it’s costing you.

Now being incubated in Startup Scaleup, the European Commission’s IoT accelerator, the device could be on the market within a year to give conser-vation-oriented users an unprecedented awareness of water consumption. The app will also inform you of any leaks,

and show how your water usage com-pares with the average in your region or country. If you’re proud of how you stack up to your neighbors, you can share your rating on social media.

12. MybitatThis IoT company, headquartered

in Herzliya, is partnering with Samsung to develop a smart-home solution aimed at helping the elderly remain in their own homes longer and enhancing their quality of life. The technology combines advanced sensors, cloud-based software and behavior analytics to monitor an in-dividual’s daily routine and wellness. If it detects changes in behavior or health, the system will send alerts to preselected family members or caregivers.Abigail Klein Leichman is a writer and associate editor at ISRAEL21c. Prior to moving to Israel in 2007, she was a specialty writer and copy editor at a daily newspaper in New Jersey and has freelanced for a variety of newspapers and periodicals since 1984.

The meter makes it easy to watch water usage on any faucet

Singlecue recognizes hand motions for remote control

Put the device in your garden and control it by app (photo courtesy of GreenIQ)

The WeR@Home suite

Israel holds the solution to world water crisis

By Abigail Klein Leichman, ISRAEL21c, www.israel21c.org, September 16, 2015

Hundreds of millions could find the tap running dry in just a few years unless they follow Israel’s example, warns author of Let There Be Water.

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Israel holds the solution to world water crisis

By Abigail Klein Leichman, ISRAEL21c, www.israel21c.org, September 16, 2015

Hundreds of millions could find the tap running dry in just a few years unless they follow Israel’s example, warns author of Let There Be Water.

I’m a man on a mission,” says Seth Siegel, author of the newly released Let There Be Water: Israel’s Solu-

tion for a Water-Starved World (Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press). “My goal is to raise consciousness about the danger of not having a plan to address the coming water crisis. Hundreds of millions of people could find themselves without adequate water in just a few years, and this is not as high a priority as it should be.”

The New York columnist, entre-preneur, branding guru and Broadway producer was surprised to discover the best working model of a water master plan in Israel.

Despite its desert terrain, rapid population growth and meager rainfall, Israel currently boasts a water surplus. It shares water with Jordan and the Pales-tinian-administered territories in the West Bank and Gaza. It exports water tech-nologies worth $2.2 billion and growing.

Among Israel’s g r o u n d b r e a k i n g products and poli-cies are drip irriga-tion and “fertigation,” dual-flush toilets, seawater desalination, advanced waste-water treatment and reuse, free-market pricing of water, drought-resistant seeds, cutting-edge metering and leak-detection systems, conservation educa-tion and precision agriculture.

“With a global water crisis loom-ing, the Israeli inclination toward taking bold steps may be the most important contribution of its water philosophy to an increasingly water-starved world,” Siegel writes.

According to his book, more than 150 countries already have welcomed assistance from the Israeli government, private or nonprofit sectors to address their water problems. Israel provides training in water management and ir-rigation to its Palestinian and Jordanian neighbors and to more than 100 devel-oping countries, 29 of them in Africa.

“Israel has gotten savvy about wa-ter use on just about every level, and it’s a remarkable story,” Siegel tells ISRAEL21c. “I had an ongoing feeling of excitement about telling an unknown story and being inspired at the same time. It was a reaffirmation of why Israel is special.”

The timing of the book’s release in the United States coincides with increasing alarm over long-term water shortages in 40 states, most notably California and Texas. Siegel maintains that Israel should be an example to every one of these states, “based on its

own experiences, its own trial and error, its own failures, and ultimately its own solutions.”

As ISRAEL21c has reported, Cali-fornia already is in close contact with Israeli water experts and agricultural experts, and Israel’s IDE Technolo-gies is building a desalination plant in California that will be the largest in the Western hemisphere, providing 50 mil-lion gallons of water per day.

“California did what countries with water problems around the world have been doing for decades: It turned to Israel for partnership and help,” Siegel writes.

Yet California had nothing to do with his decision to write the book three years ago. At that time, few people rec-ognized the coming crisis. His motivator

was a seminar he attended as a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, an inde-pendent nonprofit think tank. There he learned that the U.S. government was projecting a water crisis to hit with ac-celerating force over the next few decades.

Siegel immediately start-ed searching the Internet to find out if any countries had

sound water-management policies.“I saw that Israel had a very sophis-

ticated water system. I was shocked be-cause I go to Israel several times a year and I didn’t know this. I started telling friends about this, and everybody said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’ Nobody seemed to know that Israel is so smart about water. So I decided this is a story worth telling.”Water superpowerThe readers he hopes to reach fall into several categories: environmental activists, public policymakers, elected officials, concerned citizens and heads of non-governmental organizations. “The chapter on the business of water would be interesting for investors to understand the enormous opportunity,” he adds.

The book is the result of 14 months of research and interviews with more than 220 people responsible for Israel’s success in water management and tech-nology.

What emerges is a clear picture of classic Israeli risk-taking, thinking out of the box, massive investment in research and development, and refusal to accept that anything is impossible.

“Israel is a water superpower,” Siegel writes. “Thanks to decades of planning and sacrifice, everyone in Is-rael today gets all of the safe water on demand that they want – provided they are prepared to pay for it. The country benefits from wise water laws. It has a

large cadre of highly qualified regulators and utility mangers. And due to technological ad-vances introduced by Israeli professors, scientists and en-trepreneurs, Israel’s water security is only growing.”

His interviews revealed that despite complicated geopolitics, business relations between Israel and so-called enemy countries are quietly robust.

“If people are wise, water will trump politics,” he tells ISRAEL21c. “People ultimately come to pragmatic conclusions, but the question is how much pain they’ll go through till they get to that pragmatic conclusion.”

Even before Let There Be Water hit stores on September 15, Siegel was al-ready deluged with speaking invitations. He’ll be appearing at Google’s weekly author series in California; at the Com-monwealth Club of San Francisco; at the Center for American Progress think tank in Washington, D.C.; at churches,

synagogues and Jewish community centers across America; and at campuses including Columbia, UC-Berkeley, Harvard and Cor-nell. He will be the keynote speaker at Jewish National Fund water seminars in 12

U.S. cities.In his first full-length book, he says,

“I tried to share the stories of the people who moved things forward to make it clear that everyone can do what Israel did, and can do it with the benefit of Israel’s experience. There is no time to waste.”

For more information, visit www.sethmsiegel.com.Abigail Klein Leichman is a writer and associate editor at ISRAEL21c. Prior to moving to Israel in 2007, she was a specialty writer and copy editor at a daily newspaper in New Jersey and has freelanced for a variety of newspapers and periodicals since 1984.

Seth Siegel (photo by Talia Siegel)

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COMMUNITY BREAKFAST

Sunday, December 13, 2015

10:00 a.m.

Mark your calendars now and plan to attend our Annual Community Breakfast at

the Gulf Harbour Yacht and Country Club. The entire community is invited to attend. We look forward to seeing everyone there.

18 L' CHAY IM NOVEMBER 20 1 5 Jewish Federation of Lee and Charlotte Counties ISRAEL & THE JEWISH WORLD

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November 1*, 8, 15, 22

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ISRAELI TEAM ADVANCES IN LUNAR SPACECRAFT COMPETITION The Israeli nonprofit group SpaceIL has signed a contract with American aero-space manufacturer SpaceX to launch an unmanned spacecraft into lunar or-bit – the first step in an international competition sponsored by Google to send a privately-funded spacecraft to the moon.

The Israeli group is the first of 16 teams to finalize a contract with a launch provider. (AP-Ha’aretz)

REALITY-BASED DEMOGRAPHYIsrael’s Central Bureau of Statistics reported a Jewish fertility rate of 3.11 births per woman in 2015, a rate that is trending upward. The Arab fertility rate in 2015 was 3.35 and is declining.

In 2015, Israel’s Jewish births con-stitute 78% of total births, compared with 69% in 1995.

The documented number of Arabs in the West Bank is 1.7 million – 1.1 million less than the number claimed by the Palestinian Central Bureau of

Statistics. The Palestinian census of 2007 included many people with myth-ological life expectancy, who were born in 1845, 1850 and 1860.

Arab net-emigration from the West Bank was 20,000 in 2013 and 25,000 in 2014. (Yoram Ettinger, Israel Hayom)

POLL: PALESTINIANS SUPPORT RENEWED ARMED INTIFADA 57% of Palestinians support a return to an armed intifada, up from 49% three months ago, according to a poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in the West Bank and Gaza on September 17-19, 2015.

65% want President Abbas to re-sign.

52% of Gazans say they seek im-migration to other countries, as do 24% in the West Bank.

In Gaza, only 42% say Hamas came out a winner in the 2014 war; a year ago, 69% in Gaza said Hamas had won.

60% of Palestinians reject and 37% accept a French proposal that would

request the UN Security Council to af-firm the establishment of a Palestinian state on the pre-1967 lines.

Only 40% support mutual recog-nition of national identity – of Israel as the state for the Jewish people and Palestine as the state for the Palestinian people – while 58% oppose it.

50% believe that Israel intends to destroy the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock and replace them with a Jewish temple.

80% say the Arab world is too pre-occupied with its own conflicts, and that Palestine is no longer the Arabs’ principal cause.

58% believe that there is an Arab Sunni alliance with Israel against Iran.

83% support and 13% oppose the war waged by Arab and Western coun-tries against ISIS. (Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research)

U.S. FIRM LIVEPERSON EMPLOYS 400 IN ISRAELRob LoCascio is CEO of LivePerson, a U.S. company that provides help ser-vices for online businesses in the form of help chat services, analytics and

other forms of customer engagement.LoCascio says the company re-

mains committed to Israel because of the high quality of work LivePerson gets out of its workers here.

“We’ve been in Israel for fifteen years,” LoCascio said. “We are in Is-rael by choice – and not because of any ethnic, religious or political ties.” (David Shamah, Times of Israel)

CHRISTIAN EVANGELICALS IN JERUSALEM SHOW LOVE FOR ISRAEL Thousands of evangelical Christians from more than 80 countries descended upon Jerusalem recently to show their support for the Jewish state, including pilgrims and politicians from countries with a history of hostility toward Israel.

“Israel has no better friends throughout the world,” Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said in a video-taped address Tuesday, September 29.

The annual weeklong Feast of Tab-ernacles, held during the Jewish holi-day of Sukkot, included a flag-waving parade through the streets of Jerusa-lem. (Daniel Estrin, AP-U.S. News)

BON JOVI STANDS UP FOR ISRAEL - AND AGAINST THE BOYCOTTERSBon Jovi played Tel Aviv on Saturday, October 3 – the latest band to flip off Roger Waters and the rest of the odi-ous Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement.

For years now, Pink Floyd co-founder Waters has hectored other art-ists to stop performing in Israel.

Asked about Waters’ whines, Jon Bon Jovi said simply, “It doesn’t in-terest me. I told my managers to give one simple answer: that I’m coming to Israel, and I’m excited to come.” (New York Post editorial)

PALESTINIAN GROUPS AHEAD OF ISIS IN DESTROYING ANTIQUITIESFrom July to September 2015, 13 editorials and articles appeared in the Washington Post alone on the threat


residents through

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to, and eventual destruction by ISIS of the ancient Roman city of Palmyra in Syria. Yet, ISIS is far from alone when it comes to defacing and destroying evidence of ancient, non-Islamic civi-lizations.

In 2013, more than 200 terror at-tacks occurred at Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem, where the Jewish matri-arch Rachel is said to be buried – 119 of those attacks included the use of explosives at the sacred site. In the course of the second intifada, Jewish worshippers at the Western Wall in Jerusalem were stoned by Arab mobs on the Temple Mount above them. The Temple Mount is considered to be the holiest site in Judaism. Its sanctity long predates the building of the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque at the same location in the century after the Islamic conquest.

During Jordan’s occupation of Jerusalem and the West Bank (1948-1967), Jewish holy places in eastern Jerusalem were desecrated and de-stroyed, and Jews were denied entry to the Temple Mount and the Western Wall.

In 1996, the Muslim Waqf religious trust brought in heavy machinery to the Temple Mount and excavated and re-moved 6,000 tons of earth, dumping it in the Kidron Valley. Subsequently, archaeologists have found Jewish ar-tifacts among the rubble. The director of Israel’s Antiquities Authority, Amir Drori, called the Waqf’s act an “ar-cheological crime.” Attorney General Elyakim Rubenstein referred to it as “an assault on Jewish history.” (Sean Durns, CAMERA)

BAR KOKHBA-ERA ANTIQUITIES SITE RAZED BY PALESTINIAN VANDALS An antiquities site that served as an encampment for Jewish leader Shimon Bar Kokhba during his revolt against the Romans from 132 to 136 CE has been destroyed by Palestinian vandals.

The Kiryat Arabia site is located near the Arab village of al-Arub in Gush Etzion in the West Bank. In 1968, a winding, branching cave was discov-ered at the site, one of the caves where Bar Kokhba hid.

The cave was originally dug be-neath the ancient community of Kiryat Arabia, which is mentioned in scrolls found at Nahal Hever in the Judean Desert. The scrolls include military correspondence between Bar Kokhba and his fighters.

The Kfar Etzion Field School re-cently resumed trips to the area and discovered the destruction of the site. The ancient structures were ruined, and the mouth of the cave was almost com-pletely filled in.

Field school director Yaron Rosen-thal said, “While the cultured world is appalled at the destruction of ancient cities in Iraq and Syria by [Islamic State], we are witnessing broad-scale destruction of antiquities in our coun-try.” (Efrat Forsher, Israel Hayom)

ISRAEL TO DOUBLE ATTACK RANGE OF F-35 STEALTH FIGHTER Israel has publicly announced the ef-forts of its air force to double the flight range of the F-35 Stealth strike fight-ers.

The Israeli version of the plane, manufactured by Lockheed Martin according to Israeli specifications, is called Adir (Awesome). The first two Adirs will be delivered to Israel in December 2016.

An Israeli air force officer, one of the initial cadre of pilots tapped to fly the F-35, told Defense News that with the plane, “your options for attack-ing the enemy are much more numer-

ous and practical. The things that we could do before will entail much less risk, and the things we might not have been able to do before will be rendered doable.”

He said that the stealth fighters change “the psychology of the arena by allowing you to hit the enemy without him being able to stop you... It really is a game-changer, and the enemy knows that.”

Lockheed Martin is now working with Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. to adapt Israeli-made air-to-ground weaponry to the plane.

At the same time, Lockheed Martin is considering Israeli ideas for (prob-ably detachable) external fuel tanks on the plane’s wings in order to extend their range. (Ran Dagoni, Globes)

HANDHELD RADAR SYSTEM CAN SEE THROUGH WALLS The Xaver-100 handheld radar system developed by Camero was deployed by IDF special operations units during the 2014 Gaza war.

Amir Be’eri, founder and CEO of the company, said the system “enables fighters to determine, in the course of operational activity in an urban envi-ronment, in real time, how many peo-ple are present behind the wall, how far they are positioned from the wall, what their spatial attitude is, and whether they are moving closer to or away from the wall.”

“The system transmits to a range of 20 meters and several such sets may be employed to form a network.”

“Camero also manufactures the Xaver-800 system – a larger but still portable system. It offers 3D-imaging of the room space and the people in it, and is used primarily for complex situations in hostage rescue and intel-ligence collection operations.” (Eyal Boguslavsky, Israel Defense)

NASA AND ISRAEL SPACE AGENCY SIGN COOPERATION AGREEMENTWithin the framework of the 66th In-ternational Astronautical Congress that recently took place in Jerusalem, NASA Administrator Charles Bold-en and Israel Space Agency Director General Menachem Kidron signed a wide-ranging cooperation agreement on October 13, 2015. The new agree-ment, which is more far-reaching and in-depth than its predecessor in effect from 1996-2005, will enable NASA and ISA to cooperate in the exploration and research of space for the better-ment of mankind and for peaceful use.

At the signing ceremony, Adminis-trator Bolden said: “Our two countries have had a long history of cooperation in space exploration, scientific discov-ery and research, and we look forward to the opportunities this new agree-ment provides us to build upon this partnership. You are known for your innovation and technology, and this agreement gives us the opportunity to cooperate with Israel on the journey to Mars as we open up new opportunities for all of our children.”

ISA Chair Isaac Ben-Israel re-sponded that “Israeli space technology is known for being extremely light-weight. Seeing that conserving energy will be vital in any future mission to Mars, we expect our technology to play a key role in such endeavors.”

Among the potential areas of co-operation enabled by this agreement are: joint missions, personnel and sci-entific data exchanges, ground-based research facilities, space exploration and operations missions, joint work-shops and meetings, scientific instru-ments onboard aircraft and spacecraft,


residents through

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sounding rocket and scientific balloon flights, space communications, educa-tional outreach, and other spacecraft and space research platforms. The goal of the agreement is to provide the framework for discussions of areas of cooperation between the agencies which could then lead to more specific agreements between the two sides.

“The implications of this agree-ment for Israel’s space and scientific communities are tremendous,” said

Minister of Science, Technology and Space Ofir Akunis. “The agreement provides us a platform for mutual cooperation between the Israeli and American space agencies, and thus allows the science communities in both our countries important access to projects that offer the promise of sig-nificant development and growth in the years ahead.” (Israel Ministry of For-eign Affairs)

December issue editorial deadline: November 5

20 L' CHAY IM NOVEMBER 20 1 5 Jewish Federation of Lee and Charlotte Counties COMMENTARY

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Attacks against Israelis: The world’s silence is deafeningBy David Harris, Executive Director, AJC, October 11, 2015

For days now, I have been watching in dismay as Israeli citizens face random attacks, some deadly, by

Palestinian assailants on the streets of their cities and towns. Children have been orphaned, parents have lost chil-dren, and some survivors are doubtless scarred for life.

I have been waiting to see whether Palestinian Authority President Mah-moud Abbas, whose false claims about Israel supposedly changing the status quo at a Muslim holy site helped trigger the unrest, would seek to calm the situ-ation or inflame it still further.

I have been following the journal-istic acrobatics of some mainstream media, such as the BBC and The New York Times, which seek to avoid calling a spade a spade in reporting what’s hap-pening, blurring the distinction between who are the arsonists and who are the firemen.

I’ve been observing the interna-tional community largely languish in silence or, at best, issue mealy-mouthed statements calling for “restraint” on both sides, hewing to the 50-yard line.

And I’ve been wondering, not for the first time, what it would take for the world to wake up and acknowledge – without equivocation, resort to moral equivalence, or diplomatic gobble-dygook – that Israel, the lone liberal democracy in the Middle East, is fac-ing violence that must be condemned unequivocally, and that it, like any other nation, has the obligation to defend itself.

It’s striking how, when it comes to these issues, some otherwise intelligent and thoughtful people in government, media or think tanks, just shut down their critical faculties. Instead, they resort to a Pavlovian response mecha-nism that essentially rejects any possible legitimacy for the Israeli position and blindly defends whatever Palestinian narrative comes along.

In this mindset, if Israelis are being shot or stabbed, they must have done something to “deserve” it.

If Israeli authorities mobilize the army and police to stop the terrorism, then, by definition, Israel is using “ex-cessive force.”

No matter how inflammatory Presi-dent Abbas’s speeches at the UN may

be, he is a man of “peace.” No matter how many times Israeli

leaders call for face-to-face negotiations with the Palestinians, Israel is always branded as the “obstacle” to peace.

Isn’t it long overdue to get real, see things as they actually are, and stop liv-ing in a world of self-imposed illusions and falsehoods?

Undoubtedly, some of the individu-als who express these views, and the institutions they represent, are ideo-logically blinded. Down deep, they just can’t abide the notion of Jewish self-determination, even as they place the Palestinians on a political pedestal.

But there are others who hope to see a two-state accord, allowing both Israelis and Palestinians to pursue their national aspirations alongside one another, and I have no reason to doubt their sincerity.

Yet I do question their strategy. While they do not hesitate to push,

prod and criticize Israel when they believe, rightly or wrongly, that Israel isn’t acting in the spirit of a two-state vision, they’re too often deafeningly silent when it comes to Palestinian be-havior – including right now.

This double standard is the height of condescension or, indeed, infantiliza-tion.

By indulging the Palestinians, ratio-nalizing their every misstep, coddling their leaders, going along with their unilateral steps at the UN and elsewhere, ignoring incitement and glorification of “martyrs,” and excusing every turn-down of an Israeli two-state offer, these presumably well-intentioned actors are making the achievement of a two-state agreement less, not more, likely.

After all, if the Palestinians aren’t held to a higher standard of conduct (or are quietly believed to be incapable of it), how in the world could they ever responsibly govern a state of their own, and not become yet another volatile, undemocratic Arab nation?

And if that’s the prospect, why would Israel, already facing a region in turmoil that only promises to get still more so, now conclude that the Palestin-ian leadership can be a reliable partner for peace?

Apropos, I recently met the foreign minister of a Latin American country,

and we discussed his nation’s voting pattern at the UN on Israel-related is-sues. He said proudly that he considers carefully each of the (endless) resolu-tions before giving instructions on how to vote, paying particular attention, he stressed, to its implications for Israel’s security. This sounded pretty good and he certainly came across as genuine. But I then asked him when was the last time he had visited Israel to see the evolving situation on the ground and along the country’s borders. He replied that he had never been there, but hoped to go one day.

Forgive me, but how can someone thousands of miles away who has never laid eyes on tiny Israel, not even once – never stood at the border with Lebanon to see Iran-backed Hezbollah forces on the other side, never traveled to the Gaza frontier to understand Hamas’s proximity, never realized that Islamist cells operate in the West Bank just a few miles, if that, from Israeli popula-tion centers, and never gazed across the border with Syria, where the only thing all the warring factions agree on, from ISIS to Assad’s forces, is their hatred of Israel — determine what is and is not in Israel’s best security interests?

But with all my grief at the attacks in Israel, and all my despair about how much of the international community is (and is not) reacting, there’s one thing that gives me hope – Israel itself.

No matter the danger, Israel remains unbowed and unbent. It will defend itself as it must, and it will teach the world, which faces its own terrorist threats, a few lessons in the process. It will continue to yearn for enduring peace, even as its adversaries clamor for Jewish blood. And the people of Israel will not for a single moment stop living and contributing to one of the most exciting, innovative and creative countries on the planet.

Shortly after a Tel Aviv discotheque was attacked by a Palestinian terrorist 14 years ago, killing 21 young people, someone came along and wrote on the charred building façade: “They won’t stop us from dancing.” Indeed, they won’t.For more information, visit www.ajc.org.

Read the current and previous editions of L’CHAYIM online at www.JewishFederationLCC.org.

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22 L' CHAY IM NOVEMBER 20 1 5 Jewish Federation of Lee and Charlotte Counties COMMENTARY

COMMENTARY BRIEFS The legacy of Yitzchak RabinOn September 13, 1993, Israeli

Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin stood on the south lawn of the

White House, together with President Bill Clinton and Chairman Yasser Ara-fat, after the signing of the Oslo Ac-

cords, and said, “We who have come from a land where par-ents bury their chil-dren, we who have fought against you, the Palestinians, we say to you today in a loud and clear voice: enough of blood and tears, enough.”

In speaking these words, Rabin was not extending a hand in friend-ship. After reluctantly shaking Arafat’s hand, Rabin said, “Of all the hands in the world, it was not the hand that I wanted or even dreamed of touching.” Rabin, instead, meant exactly what he said – that it was time to stop fighting.

Earlier in his career, Rabin sup-ported Israel maintaining control of the West Bank and Gaza. He also rejected the idea of negotiating with Arafat and the PLO. But because there was no lo-cal Palestinian leader who had the abil-ity to make and enforce any agreement, he became convinced that he’d have to deal with Arafat, who was living in Tu-nis at that time. Rabin had changed. In an interview with the Jerusalem Post in July 1993, he said, “I believe it is my moral and political responsibility to

n Rabbi Marc Sack

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THE HYPOCRISY OF THE BOYCOTTSeptember 22, 2015The Reykjavik City Council in Iceland decided last week to boycott all prod-ucts from Israel. I have a few questions:

� Does the boycott include products made by Israel’s Arab minority which is 20% of the population?

� Does the boycott include the 14 Arab Israeli parliamentarians who sit beside me in Israel’s parliament?

� Does the boycott include Israe-li factories which employ tens of thousands of Palestinians for whom this is the only opportunity to provide for their children?

� Does the boycott include Israeli hospitals at which tens of thou-sands of Palestinians are treated every year?

� Does the boycott include Microsoft Office, cellphone cameras, Google – all of which contain elements in-vented or produced in Israel?

� One of the best kept secrets about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is that it is one of the smallest con-flicts in the Middle East. In the past 67 years, fewer innocent Palestin-ians were killed than in one week in Syria. In fact, in that same pe-riod around 12 million people were killed in the Arab world.

� The boycott industry is a vast in-dustry of media and public rela-tions organized by Islamist groups funded by Qatar and Iran. Their purpose is not the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel but a Palestinian state on the ashes of Israel.

� Hamas has no intention of creat-ing a Palestinian democracy but a dark theocracy in which homo-

sexuals are hanged from telephone poles, women aren’t allowed to leave their homes, and Christians and Jews are murdered for being Christians and Jews. Are those values acceptable to the Reykjavik City Council? They voted in favor of them.(Knesset Member Yair Lapid, head

of the Yesh Atid party, and former Is-raeli finance minister)

CIVILIAN CASUALTIES: DOES U.S. HOLD ITSELF TO SAME HIGH STANDARDS IT HOLDS ISRAEL?October 6, 2015In August 2014, the State Department called Israel’s shelling of a UN school in Gaza “disgraceful,” adding: “The suspicion that militants are operating nearby does not justify strikes that put at risk the lives of so many innocent civilians.” This week AP reporter Matt Lee asked Deputy State Department spokesman Mark Toner about U.S. pol-icy in light of Saturday’s U.S. bombing of a hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, that left 22 patients and staff dead.

While Toner apologized for the loss of life and stressed that the U.S. avoids civilian casualties, he told Lee to “give me a pass [while] we wait for the investigation to run its course.” His response flies in the face of last year’s instantaneous criticism of Israel – made long before any investigation had even begun.

Enemies like the Taliban, Hamas and Hizbullah quite intentionally hide among civilians, using them as human shields. Israel has known that for a long time – and now the Obama administra-tion is painfully coming to learn it, too. (New York Post editorial)

THE PALESTINIAN VICTIMHOOD NARRATIVE AS AN OBSTACLE TO PEACEThe speech recently delivered by PA leader Mahmoud Abbas at the UN General Assembly was proof, once again, that the Palestinian “narrative” of victimhood has become a threat to any practical prospect for peace. No mention can be made of the recent rise in Palestinian terror activities; no men-tion of the Palestinian decision to walk away from the framework advanced by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry; no word on Hamas’ habitual shelling of Israeli civilian targets. There is also

no mention of the collapse of all past peace efforts. In other words, all that the Palestinians have ever suffered is someone else’s fault.

Any sober assessment of what it would take to strike an Israeli-Pales-tinian deal inevitably leads to the clear understanding that painful but practi-cal political compromises are required from both sides. Alas, this concept seems alien to many in the region, particularly to Palestinians; and the international community is not doing its part to help the Palestinians mature towards this realization. Global actors that want to help achieve peace need to assist the Palestinians in moving be-yond wallowing in self-pity and rituals of bashing Israel. (Col. (res.) Dr. Eran Lerman, Begin-Sadat Center for Stra-tegic Studies-Bar-Ilan University)

WHAT IF ISRAEL HAD GIVEN UP THE GOLAN HEIGHTS? A LESSON FOR SYRIA’S CRISISAs Syria continues to be ravaged, I wonder what would have happened had U.S. efforts succeeded in negotiat-ing an Israeli-Syrian peace agreement in the 1990s. I was part of a U.S. nego-tiating team that tried to reach such a

deal. But had we succeeded, the results might have been catastrophic for Israel and for the U.S. Rarely did we focus on the prospect that an Israeli-Syrian accord might be at risk if instability in Syria led to a change in regime.

With Hafez Assad there was an as-sumption that his brutality in suppress-ing dissent would guarantee stability. Rarely has a political judgment been more wrongheaded. What we failed to realize was that any deal to return the Golan Heights occupied by the Israe-lis in 1967 was likely to be the most fraught precisely because Assad was so cruel in his policies and that his regime consisted of an Alawite minority gov-erning a Sunni majority. It was only a matter of time before Syria experi-enced real instability.

Had Israel given up the Golan, to-day it would face a hot front confronting Hizbullah, Iran and a range of Islamist jihadis. Given the Golan’s strategic im-portance, Israel would have had to re-occupy it and would have found itself in the middle of Syria’s civil war. It’s a cautionary tale for well-intentioned U.S. and Israeli peacemakers alike. (Aaron David Miller, vice president at the Woodrow Wilson Center for Schol-ars, Wall Street Journal)

Jerusalem Post Crossword PuzzleSolution to puzzle on page 10

Joseph Horowitz Israel Travel Grants Available

The Joseph Horowitz Israel Travel Grant is available through the Community Foundation of the Jewish Federation of Lee and Charlotte Counties. The grant may be used for travel to Israel to participate in programs that are volunteer or educational in nature. Our hope is that these programs will enhance Jewish knowledge and identity in preparation for participation in American Jewish life. This grant is for Jewish residents of either county who are 25 years old or younger and can demonstrate a financial need. Academic standing and community involvement may also be considered. For more information or an application, please visit our website at www.JewishFederationLCC.org or contact the Federation at 239-481-4449, ext. 4 or email [email protected].

23 L' CHAY IM NOVEMBER 20 1 5 Jewish Federation of Lee and Charlotte Counties FROM THE B IMAH

We must speak up

The legacy of Yitzchak RabinOn September 13, 1993, Israeli

Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin stood on the south lawn of the

White House, together with President Bill Clinton and Chairman Yasser Ara-fat, after the signing of the Oslo Ac-

cords, and said, “We who have come from a land where par-ents bury their chil-dren, we who have fought against you, the Palestinians, we say to you today in a loud and clear voice: enough of blood and tears, enough.”

In speaking these words, Rabin was not extending a hand in friend-ship. After reluctantly shaking Arafat’s hand, Rabin said, “Of all the hands in the world, it was not the hand that I wanted or even dreamed of touching.” Rabin, instead, meant exactly what he said – that it was time to stop fighting.

Earlier in his career, Rabin sup-ported Israel maintaining control of the West Bank and Gaza. He also rejected the idea of negotiating with Arafat and the PLO. But because there was no lo-cal Palestinian leader who had the abil-ity to make and enforce any agreement, he became convinced that he’d have to deal with Arafat, who was living in Tu-nis at that time. Rabin had changed. In an interview with the Jerusalem Post in July 1993, he said, “I believe it is my moral and political responsibility to

make compromise, because otherwise there is no chance for peace.”

The Oslo Accords were negotiated quietly in 1993, with Yair Hirschfeld and Ron Pundak, professors of Middle East History at University of Haifa and Hebrew University respectively, representing Israel, and Ahmed Ali Mohammed Qurei and two other men representing the Palestinians. Pub-lic discussions between Israel and the PLO, taking place simultaneously in Washington, were going nowhere. The talks in Oslo on the other hand, with Rabin’s full consent, made steady prog-ress. Both sides knew they would not get a perfect deal but saw these talks as the first step to a full disengagement and peace agreement.

Two years later, in September 1995, the Knesset passed Oslo II, an expanded version of the original agreement. Rabin’s opponents ran ads portraying him wearing a Nazi SS uniform. Some called Rabin a traitor, even a murderer. He was unbowed. He decided to begin a public speak-ing campaign to promote the treaty. On Saturday night, November 4, the Prime Minister spoke at a rally in Tel Aviv to more than 100,000 people. He said to Shlomo Lahat, the former mayor of Tel Aviv, that this was one of the happiest days of his life. Rabin was murdered at 9:35 that night by Yigal Amir.

Yitzchak Rabin’s friends and fam-ily say that he was a quiet man who did not enjoy the limelight. He would

not have wanted streets named after him and a museum in his memory. His greatness was his pragmatism and will-ingness to take uncomfortable risks for the sake of his country. In September 1993, shortly before the signing of the Oslo Accords, Rabin said, “…peace you make with your enemies, includ-ing despicable enemies. I’m not going to beautify them. I can’t tell you that some formulas in the agreement don’t give me stomach pains. I have such

pains, but I have to see also the com-prehensive picture. We have to take risks.”

This month marks the twentieth anniversary of Yitzchak Rabin’s assas-sination. This rabbi is waiting for an-other great leader who will follow in Rabin’s footsteps and take bold steps to stop the fighting and even, with God’s help, bring some peace.Rabbi Marc Sack serves at Temple Judea in Fort Myers.

n Rabbi Marc Sack

There is more than one reason that we American Jews can scarcely afford to sit back and

do nothing as practitioners of other his-toric faiths are subjected to intolerance and bigotry in our country.

Of course, on a moral level it’s just plain wrong to op-press people for their religious con-victions, as long as those people are will-ing to coexist with us peacefully and do not pose an actual threat to our persons and liberties.

It should go without saying that lumping members of a faith group together with bad actors around the world who carry the same religious label is just plain unfair. By-in-large, would most American Jews care to be associated in the popular mind with those violent militant Jewish fanatics in Israel and on the West Bank?

On a civic level, religious discrim-ination is just plain un-American. It is in the very founding DNA of our na-tion that religious intolerance must be anathema to good citizenship in these United States. In the famous words of newly-elected President Washington to the Jews of Newport, Rhode Island:

“It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it were the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights, for, happily, the Govern-ment of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution

no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.”

And then there is a third, more practical reason why we American Jews cannot condone religious intol-erance, even passively, by our silence. One lesson we have learned time and again from our history is that when a nation as a whole rises up against one of its minorities, it is inevitable that we will be swept up in the persecutions.

That is what happened when the Spanish Catholic sovereigns of the 15th century went after the Moslems of Southern Spain, which resulted also in the expulsion of Spain’s Jews. A little over a century ago the same thing hap-pened to the Jews of Western Ukraine when the Cossacks went after Poles living among them, which also sparked horrific anti-Jewish pogroms.

We Jews cannot allow “the other” among us to be targeted. After all, his-torically more than any other group we are the ultimate “other.”

That is why, even when we are sorely tempted to pile on, or at least do nothing to stop it, when groups that we may not like and who don’t care for us are taking it on the chin in the United States, we must speak up and act up in their defense.

After all, are not we Jews com-manded not to “stand idly by” while our neighbors bleed (Leviticus 19:16)?Rabbi Bruce Diamond serves at The Community Free Synagogue in Fort Myers.

n Rabbi Bruce Diamond

Don’t worry, be happyThe Talmud teaches us “From the

beginning of Adar we increase in joyousness.” So start being

happy now. It is official and required.Of late, many organizations have

created campaigns to encourage their employees to be happier. Why? Be-cause happy em-ployees make more money than disgrun-tled ones. In fact, a book has just been published in Sweden with an incredible

call to arms and no-holds-barred title: Happy Hour 9 to 5.

Who would not embrace such an intoxicating work schedule? Strange as it may seem, some are reluctant, hesi-tant and even suspicious. Their col-leagues are puzzled. Why are they so reluctant? The explanation? “We are not used to being happy.” “Our talent flourishes on the downside of things.” “Our history is generally not comfort-able with joy.”

But sooner or later, all join the pa-rade. But that still leaves the question: Why are some reluctant to be happy?

Our happiness, like our money, is

n Rabbi Devora Buchen

stored in an internal strong box. We are all misers. We are all hoarders. We think that what we have is all that we will ever have and there will be no re-plenishment. And that if we spend or give too much there will be nothing left for us.

So before reaching such depriva-tion, I make a deal with myself. I will ration my happiness and money care-fully so as to forestall premature de-mise. I will determine in advance how much happiness I should seek and how much money I should give, and from that point on I will never waiver. Ad-mittedly, the original amounts may have been arbitrary and stingy, but once decided, I am locked into my strong box.

Occasionally and for good rea-sons the urge to change comes upon me – helping the needy, inviting the homeless for Thanksgiving. But I do not seem to be able to break free of the stranglehold I have put upon myself and I do not seem to be able to break out of my own self-created deadlock. What can I do?

Dance with God!Rabbi Devora Buchen serves at Temple Beth Shalom in Cape Coral.

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24 L' CHAY IM NOVEMBER 20 1 5 Jewish Federation of Lee and Charlotte Counties FROM THE B IMAH

n Rabbi Robert Ourach

Appreciating the moment

Opinions and letters printed in L’CHAYIM do not necessarily reflect those of the Jewish Federation of Lee and Charlotte Counties, its Board of Directors or staff, or its advertisers.

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Judaism asks each of us each week to set aside time, and especially to sanctify the Shabbat. Part of Shab-

bat, and that which makes it holy, is a process of slowing down and appre-

ciating the moment. Judaism teaches us that this is the way to approach life in order that we not lose sight of that which is truly important and mean-ingful.

A poem came across my desk this week which puts

these thoughts into sharper focus. I share the poem with you with the hope that each Shabbat, and hopefully each day, will be filled with memorable mo-ments of sanctity.“Slow Dance”Have you ever watched kids on a merry-go-round Or listened to The rain slapping on the ground? Ever followed a butterfly’s erratic flight Or gazed at The sun into The fading night?You better slow down Don’t dance so fast Time is short The music won’t lastDo you run through each day on The fly

When you ask “How are you?” do you hear the reply?When The day is done, do you lie in your bed with the next hundred chores running Through you head? You’d better slow downDon’t dance so fast Time is shortThe music won’t lastEver told your child, We’ll do it tomorrow And in your haste, not see his sorrow? Ever lost touch, Let a good friendship die ‘Cause you never had time to call and say “Hi”?You’d better slow down Don’t dance so fast Time is short The music won’t lastWhen you run so fast to get somewhere you miss half the fun of getting there. When you worry and hurry Through your day, it is like an unopened gift... thrown away…Life is not a race. Do take it slower Hear the music Before The song is over.Rabbi Robert Ourach serves at Temple Beth El in Fort Myers.

TEMPLE JUDEA SCHOOLSFort Myers

Temple Judea Religious SchoolThe New Year began with much antici-pation and excitement at Temple Judea Religious School. The classrooms have received a facelift to achieve one of the school’s goals – having a physical envi-ronment that supports centers to stimu-late learning and educational innova-tion in both teachers and students. This culture of learning is demonstrated by our educators in their weekly meetings to discuss curricular goals and to help each other tackle challenges in their respective classrooms. This approach to group learning is carried over to our students. All classes assemble at the beginning of the school day and discuss a theme seen in a short video or a story. It is a fun way to transition into the school day on a sleepy Sunday morning.

Holidays have also been a sub-ject of discovery. For Rosh Hashanah, classes received a mystery box at their classroom door. This box contained birthday cards, a balloon, a calendar, a round challah, a shofar and Honey Nut Cheerios. This was intended to spark a discussion, with the goal of students connecting each of these items to the holiday. Before the beginning of Suk-kot, our youngest students inspected the construction of our synagogue suk-kah and served as project managers.

They did this by instructing adult vol-unteers on the requirements and what was needed for the sukkah to be kosher.

Hebrew school has also taken a non-traditional approach. Popular books like Goodnight Moon, The Cat in the Hat and The Hungry Caterpillar, are read in Hebrew. Students who are already familiar with the popular sto-

n Rabbi Myra Soifer

A sacred anchor in timeAbraham Joshua Heschel wrote

that “Judaism is a religion of time aiming at the sanctifica-

tion of time.” Heschel, of course, is not alone in observing that ours is a faith tradition much more about the

sanctifying of time than place. Baruch HaShem! For had it been otherwise, the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem would surely have been the end of us. Judaism survived because we were not only about a holy

place, but we were – from the very be-ginning of creation – about the sacred-ness of time. The Sabbath is a portable way to sanctify our lives... to experi-ence divine presence in the world. And not just the Sabbath, of course. Having just ended our High Holidays and fol-lowing Fall Festivals, we are all aware of the anchoring (and the joy and ex-haustion!) of the Jewish calendar.

We do, of course, build synagogue homes. But for a congregation like Bat Yam that doesn’t have its own build-ing, but meets in the space of another religious community (a wonderful and welcoming church, to be sure!), this privileging of time over space is a par-ticular blessing. And certainly, there have been many – too many – times

in Jewish history when “place” was denied us. But we always had sacred time.

For so many of us who are “snow-birds,” this Jewish valuing of time af-fords another, perhaps unexpected, blessing. Recently, in my Reno sum-mer home, I met a young man who had moved from the Tampa area to study at the University of Nevada. He noted how much he enjoyed the Nevada sea-sons and how his move had made him aware of lacking that sense of chang-ing, seasonal time in Southwest Flor-ida. I reflected upon my habit (ebbing a bit now into my third season) of of-ten mixing up my seasonal references, when I speak of the time of the year. After all, it’s almost always warm here, so I keep thinking it’s summer!

And then I had a moment of in-sight. Snowbird or permanent resident, we Jews will never be rootless in time. Whether it’s snowy winter in Nevada or sunny winter in Florida, our Jew-ish calendar is regular with its weekly Sabbath day and all of our festivals that faithfully follow the lunar cycle. In time, we are always grounded... no matter where we are.

And once again, I am ever so grate-ful to be a Jew!

A blessed 5776 to all!Rabbi Myra Soifer serves at Bat Yam Temple of the Islands on Sanibel Island.

The difference a day makes

n Rabbi Solomon Agin

Every day is a new challenge. Every day is a time to turn over a new leaf. Every day you can

start to learn, begin to live, and com-mence to love. Days are the opportunities that God gives us to reopen our lives to the possibilities of what we may become.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, the great American essayist and poet, wrote, “It is one of the illu-

sions that the present hour is not the critical, decisive hour. Write it on your heart that every day is the best day of the year. No man has learned anything rightly until he knows that every day is the most important day of his life.”

What great words of wisdom, and

how wise we would be to follow them. Do you have to wait for a Mother’s Day to send flowers? If you see a nice tie, do you have to wait until Father’s Day to present it? Do you have to wait for a holiday to invite your family to dinner? Do you need a birthday as an excuse to go out with friends? Do you have to wait for a wedding anniversary to tell your mate how happy you are?

This was all expressed in the words of Vahya Iben Pakudah, the medieval author who wrote in his book The Du-ties of the Heart: “Days are scrolls; write on them what you want to be re-membered.”

Or to say it in a contemporary way: Yesterday is a canceled check. Tomor-row is a promissory note. Today is the only cash you have – spend it wisely.Rabbi Solomon Agin serves at Temple Shalom in Port Charlotte.

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25 L' CHAY IM NOVEMBER 20 1 5 Jewish Federation of Lee and Charlotte CountiesFOCUS ON YOUTH

TEMPLE BETH EL SCHOOLSFort Myers

Religious SchoolDale M. Cohen, R.J.E., MA, Educ., Religious School Director Dear Parents of the Religious School:

As I am sitting here in my office writing this article, I am so thrilled to reflect upon Yom Kippur. It was amaz-ing to see so many of our Religious School students and families partici-

pating in our Ne’ilah Ser-vice. It brings great joy to all of us here to have such active participation

to conclude the Yom Kippur Service. (Especially on a school night!) We are so very thankful and blessed to have our students. We could not be more proud of you!

Simchat Torah was equally impres-sive, and our Religious School families really “stepped up to the plate” beau-tifully. Nothing could be nicer than

watching them participate in such a festive occasion while celebrating the birthday of the Torah.

Our next Junior Congregation will be held on Saturday, November 21 from 9:00 to 10:15 a.m. in the Sanc-tuary. This is a mandatory part of our curriculum for grades 4-7. This is a wonderful opportunity to become fa-miliarized and proficient in the Satur-day morning liturgy.

Our November B’nai Mitzvah in-clude the following students who will

be called to the Torah: November 7: Allison Traiger November 14: Tommy RubinsteinWe wish all of our students much

mazel on one of the most meaningful days of their lives!

Please note: The Religious School will not be in session on the following dates: Wednesdays, November 11 and 25, and Sunday, November 29.

I wish all of the children and their families a happy and healthy Thanks-giving holiday (Yom Ha Hoda Ah).

TEMPLE JUDEA SCHOOLSFort Myers

Temple Judea Religious SchoolThe New Year began with much antici-pation and excitement at Temple Judea Religious School. The classrooms have received a facelift to achieve one of the school’s goals – having a physical envi-ronment that supports centers to stimu-late learning and educational innova-tion in both teachers and students. This culture of learning is demonstrated by our educators in their weekly meetings to discuss curricular goals and to help each other tackle challenges in their respective classrooms. This approach to group learning is carried over to our students. All classes assemble at the beginning of the school day and discuss a theme seen in a short video or a story. It is a fun way to transition into the school day on a sleepy Sunday morning.

Holidays have also been a sub-ject of discovery. For Rosh Hashanah, classes received a mystery box at their classroom door. This box contained birthday cards, a balloon, a calendar, a round challah, a shofar and Honey Nut Cheerios. This was intended to spark a discussion, with the goal of students connecting each of these items to the holiday. Before the beginning of Suk-kot, our youngest students inspected the construction of our synagogue suk-kah and served as project managers.

They did this by instructing adult vol-unteers on the requirements and what was needed for the sukkah to be kosher.

Hebrew school has also taken a non-traditional approach. Popular books like Goodnight Moon, The Cat in the Hat and The Hungry Caterpillar, are read in Hebrew. Students who are already familiar with the popular sto-

ries, build their vocabu-lary by figuring out what the Hebrew words trans-late to in English.

Another goal for the New Year is finding ways to weave what is happen-ing at Religious School into what is happening in the rest of the Temple Ju-dea community. High Holy Day family services for preschoolers and another targeted to elementary school children was the first step in achieving this goal. Monthly community breakfasts center-ing on holiday themes is another great way to integrate learners of all ages.

Temple Judea strongly believes in the concept that the synagogue is a place for every learner. We are begin-ning an Introduction to Judaism class, with the goal of bringing adults to the synagogue at the same time the chil-dren are in religious school. We are also starting a middot (values) program involving the entire congregation. Throughout the year, every student has the chance to be recognized by anyone who sees them demonstrating a Jewish value. They will then be recognized in a special ceremony at the end of the year. Parents, grandparents, family friends and members of the synagogue can participate in this program.

There is a lot happening at Tem-ple Judea, and this is just the begin-ning. The public is always invited to come and see it firsthand. If you have any questions or are interested in any of our initiatives, please contact Liz Singer, Director of Congregational Learning at [email protected] or 239.433.0201.

Temple Judea PreschoolJoann Goldman, DirectorThe Annual Pre-K Children that Care Giving BoxWe look forward to this time of the year when the children of the Temple Judea Preschool Pre-K class, also known as the “Children that Care,” can make a difference in the community. The Pre-K class takes on a special project to teach the children about giving. Each year, we pick a worthwhile organiza-tion to collect the items that would benefit that organization the most. Each child is asked to bring in items

to place in the Children that Care Giv-ing Box in the classroom. This year we will be collecting food for the Jewish Federation Food Pantry, which gives to the entire community.

Our students really enjoy these projects as it teaches them firsthand about giving. The children will be re-sponsible for sorting the cans in cat-egories and placing them in the appro-priate box.

If you would like to contribute to our Children that Care Project please stop by the preschool Monday to Fri-day from 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Please drop your items in the Children that Care Giving Box from November 2-25. We welcome the community in helping us donate many items to this wonderful organization.

It’s the month of giving thanks! We bring the season of fall into our class-rooms. Last month we roasted pump-

kin seeds, created painted pumpkins and dyed leaves. The kids had a blast. This month we will be concentrat-ing on food, nutrition and Thanksgiv-ing. The children will be involved in learning about healthy foods and will have fun doing projects that increase their awareness of good food. We will discuss the “First Thanksgiving” and the many ways the Native Americans helped the Pilgrims survive. Our stu-dents will pop and string popcorn, and make stone soup.

For most of our children, the story of the Pilgrims may be difficult to com-prehend, so we focus on the feelings of ‘thankful” and “grateful,” making newcomers feel included. We focus on family and the traditions around all of us.

We end the month with our Pre-k Thanksgiving play and our Thanksgiv-ing school celebration.

Earn CAS CreditsThe Jewish Federation of Lee and Charlotte Counties is interested in hearing from teenagers in high school who might like to earn CAS credits though various work in the Jewish community.

If you are interested, please send the following information to [email protected]:NameAddressPhone #AgeGradeSchoolPreferred volunteer hours (e.g. 2 - 5P.M. Sundays)

A sacred anchor in time

The difference a day makeshow wise we would be to follow them. Do you have to wait for a Mother’s Day to send flowers? If you see a nice tie, do you have to wait until Father’s Day to present it? Do you have to wait for a holiday to invite your family to dinner? Do you need a birthday as an excuse to go out with friends? Do you have to wait for a wedding anniversary to tell your mate how happy you are?

This was all expressed in the words of Vahya Iben Pakudah, the medieval author who wrote in his book The Du-ties of the Heart: “Days are scrolls; write on them what you want to be re-membered.”

Or to say it in a contemporary way: Yesterday is a canceled check. Tomor-row is a promissory note. Today is the only cash you have – spend it wisely.Rabbi Solomon Agin serves at Temple Shalom in Port Charlotte.


Famous Jews of Collier CountyMarina BerkovichPreserving the emerging Jewish His-tory is our mission at the Jewish His-torical Society of Southwest Florida. Newcomers and old-timers may want to know some of the information we come across on our journey.

Fleischmann Park, named after Julius Fleischmann, spans over fifteen lush green acres and is located just South of Coastland Center Mall on Fleischmann Blvd. at Goodlette-Frank Road. The City of Naples is happy for its present-day facilities and amenities: racquetball courts, lighted baseball/softball courts, sand volleyball courts, two lighted basketball courts, light-ed football and practice fields, play-grounds, picnic pavilions, and a com-munity center with dance and meeting rooms.

Julius, an American merchant, was

ORGANIZATIONS

HAZAK 55+ CHAPTER at Temple Judea

(239) 433-0201Sunday, November 8 at 3:00 p.m.: Join us at Temple Judea for “Coney Island Day.” Adults will have a good laugh when we see On Location, star-ring the famous Jewish comedian, My-ron Cohen. Children will be able to separately watch the movie The Water Horse. The meal will be a typical Co-ney Island hot dog dinner with all the trimmings. Cost: $10 for adults, $5 for children under 12, free for children un-der 3. Your check is your reservation and must be sent to Shirley Schiffman no later than Monday, November 2. For more information, please call Shir-ley at 239.395.0135.

Save the dates for the following exciting programs:

Sunday, December 13: Special live performance at Temple Judea fea-turing local comedian Neil Kagan.

Saturday, January 9: HAZAK Shabbat – a special Shabbat service

set aside each year by the Union of Conservative Judaism when HAZAK members help lead and participate in the service.

HAZAK will sponsor a delicious Kid-dush. Alan Isaacs, Executive Direc-tor of the Jewish Federation of Lee & Charlotte Counties, will be our guest speaker.

Temple Judea’s HAZAK 55+ Chapter is for singles or couples. The group is an organization that enables its members to meet and socialize with each other. HAZAK 55+ chapters are affiliated with the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, and Temple Judea’s HAZAK is a Chartered mem-ber. The dues are a modest $5 per year. Our programs are always open to the community.

If you are interested in joining our HAZAK 55+ group and would like more information, please contact Joyce or George Rosinger at 239.437.1566, Harvey Cohen at 239.768.3677, or Roberta (Bunny) or Matt Lawrence at 239.245.7708.

JEWISH WAR VETERANSVictor Paul Tuchman Post 400

(239) 590-6774

Gazo NemethJoel HerschIt took some 70 years following WWII, but U.S. Army Private Gazo Nemeth is living his “15 minutes of fame” at age 92.

He calls himself a “minor celebri-ty,” but to every veteran he meets Gazo Nemeth is worth the standing ovations he receives as one of the 1,100 hand-picked soldiers officially known as the Top Secret, 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, today known as “The Ghost Army”.

Whether speaking at the Fort Myers Jewish War Veterans monthly meeting or before nearly 1,000 vets that packed an IMAX auditorium in Branson, Missouri, or soon to be intro-duced to a crowd at the Veterans Week observance at Wausau Wisconsin (No-vember 4 -11), Gazo Nemeth is met with autograph seekers and apprecia-tive audiences.

A Radio Operator with the Ghost Army, he and his fellow soldiers helped trick the German Army into futile troop movements that helped reduce U.S. casualties and end the Second World War. It was an unlikely service that be-fell Gazo. Born in 1922 to a working class family in East Youngstown, Ohio, Gazo began his working life in the city’s Carnegie Steel plant as a Brick Layer Helper and in a plant Mainte-nance Gang before being drafted on November 11, 1942. November 11 is an auspicious date now observed as Veterans Day. Then, it celebrated the anniversary of the end of World War I, Armistice Day. It was once customary

for public school students to stand for one minute of silence at the 11th minute of the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.

Following Gazo’s Army Discharge in 1945, he returned home to marry Carmella, literally “the girl next door,” in 1948. They had two daughters and two grandchildren. The couple cel-ebrated 62 years of marriage before Carmella passed away in 2010.

Throughout those years, Gazo kept his Ghost Army service to himself. The strategy was hushed up for 50 years. Even his family did not know of his remarkable military career. The Ghost Army staged deceptive activities that tricked the German military into be-lieving they were facing vastly larger U.S. combat troops from June 1944 (D-Day) until the war’s end in 1945. They faked radio communications, re-corded sounds of armored and infantry units moving around, planted make-believe rumors of strength, and photos of rubber tanks, planes and artillery to

fool enemy spies and observers.Gazo Nemeth received the French

Legion of Liberation Medal in ceremo-nies at the Barbara B. Mann Perform-ing Arts Hall. Former Congressman Porter Goss presented the award.

Gazo Nemeth today A young Gazo Nemeth

GENERATIONS OF THE SHOAH SOUTHWEST FLORIDA

(239) 963-9347Absorbing film about Eichmann trial follows next GenShoah meetingIda MargolisAt 5:00 p.m., immediately following the 4:30 p.m. meeting of GenShoah of SWFL on Sunday, November 15, there will be a screening of the new docu-mentary The Trial of Adolf Eichmann. This film presents footage of the trial that was held in an Israeli courtroom in 1961 and broadcast around the world. The trial was an historic event for sur-vivors and the new State of Israel. In-cluded in the film are accounts of Eich-mann’s capture, eyewitness testimonies, and behind-the-scenes drama. Both the meeting and film will be held at Beth Tikvah, 1459 Pine Ridge Road, Naples.

GenShoah meetings are gener-ally held from October to April on the third Sunday of the month from 4:30 to 5:00 p.m. Meetings are usually held at the Holocaust Museum & Educa-tion Center of Southwest Florida, but are occasionally held at other venues. GenShoah is open not only to children of Holocaust survivors (the Second Generation), but to all those who are interested in the mission of GenShoah which is: preservation of the history and memories of the Holocaust, pro-motion of Holocaust education and hu-man rights, connection of members of the Second Generation with one anoth-er, and support of the Holocaust Muse-um & Education Center of Southwest Florida. Programs, which are open to the public, are presented following the brief meetings. Films, speakers and special events presented by GenShoah

throughout the season are listed below.

The Trial of Adolf Eichmann was selected by GenShoah program

director Steve Brazina because of its re-lation to this season’s One Book South-west Florida selection, The Sunflower by Simon Wiesenthal. The Sunflower, which deals with the possibilities and limits of forgiveness, is also related to a future program about the ordeal of the refugee ship The SS St. Louis that has become a symbol of the world’s indifference to the plight of European Jewry on the eve of the Holocaust.Wednesday, February 10 film presentationRobert Krakow, the producer of the film Complicit: The Untold Story of Why the Roosevelt Administration De-nied Safe Haven to Jewish Refugees, will be presenting his film at Temple Shalom on Wednesday, February 10 at 7:00 p.m. This film, which contains archival footage of the St. Louis, ex-plores the controversial topic of FDR and the U.S. State Department’s re-sponse to the Holocaust. A display about the St. Louis will be available for viewing at 6:30 p.m. A discussion with the producer and a St. Louis survivor will take place after the film.

Space is limited and reservations are required for all events. So that Gen-Shoah can continue to present excep-tional programming, donations will be requested and are greatly appreciated.

For more information about Gen-Shoah or making a tax-deductible gift to the organization, to be placed on the email list, or to RSVP for meetings and events, please email [email protected] or call 239.963.9347.

GenShoah of SWFL: Upcoming Meetings & Public Programs

Sunday, November 154:30 p.m.: Meeting5:00 p.m.: Film - The Trial of Adolf Eichmann - Actual trial footage and emotional recollection provide insight and contrasting perspectives of the Eichmann legacyBeth Tikvah, 1459 Pine Ridge Rd., Naples

Sunday, December 204:30 p.m.: Potluck dinner at member’s home Sunday, January 17, 2016 4:30 p.m.: Meeting 5:00 p.m.: Film - Facing Fear - Haunting account of an attack on a young gay boy by a neo-Nazi skinhead and their chance meeting twenty-five years later, and their journey of forgiveness and reconciliationHolocaust Museum, 4760 Tamiami Tr. N., Naples

Special Community Event:Thursday, January 21, 2016 at 7:00 p.m.Mark Weitzman, Director of Government Affairs and the Task Force Against Hate and Terrorism for the Simon Wiesenthal Center is the keynote speaker on The Sunflower, the “One Book SWFL” selectionTemple Shalom, 4630 Pine Ridge Rd., Naples

Special Community Event:Wednesday, February 10, 20166:30 p.m.: Display about the S.S. St. Louis7:00 p.m.: Film - Complicit: The Untold Story of Why the Roosevelt Administration Denied Safe Haven to Jewish Refugees; followed by a discussion with the producer and an S.S. St. Louis survivor - Explores the controversial topic of FDR’s and the U.S. State Department’s response to the HolocaustTemple Shalom, 4630 Pine Ridge Rd., Naples

Sunday, February 21, 20164:30 p.m.: Meeting 5:00 p.m.: Presentation by Maud Dahme, Holocaust educator, subject of the film The Hidden Child, and inductee in the New Jersey Hall of FameHolocaust Museum, 4760 Tamiami Tr. N., Naples

Sunday, March 20, 20164:30 p.m.: Meeting 5:00 p.m.: Film - Hitler’s Courts: Betrayal of the Rule of Law in Nazi GermanyExamination, using interviews and archival footage, of how those charged with defending the rule of law betrayed that trust during the Nazi eraHolocaust Museum, 4760 Tamiami Tr. N., Naples

Sunday, April 17, 20164:30 p.m.: Meeting5:00 p.m.: Program TBA

RSVP required for all events.Contact Ida Margolis at [email protected]

or 239.963.9347.

L’CHAYIM is a monthly nonprofit newspaper supported by generous readers, committed advertisers and the Jewish Federation of Lee and Charlotte Counties.


HUMANISTIC JEWISH HAVURAHof Southwest Florida

(239) 398-3935

JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF SOUTHWEST FLORIDA

(239) 566-1771

Join our Humanistic Jewish communityPaula CreedNovember is membership renewal time for the Humanistic Jewish Havurah of Southwest Florida. Dues of $85 per person include membership in our na-tional organization, the Society for Hu-manistic Judaism. Visit www.hjhswfl.org for a membership form and mail-ing instructions, or call Dena Sklaroff at 239.591.0101 for more information.

While a growing number of Jews no longer feel the necessity to join a temple or synagogue, most of our membership, coming from dispersed families, have found that the family feeling and family support they could no longer find in their personal settings or in a large and formal congregation, is now provided by membership in the Havurah.

In these times, the old extended family has become a mere memory, so folks are searching for substitutes. Our monthly Shabbat gatherings be-come the family dinners, our Human-istic Jewish Seder becomes the family Seder. Our monthly Sunday afternoon

meetings offer high qual-ity opportunities for adult education and discourse on Jewish topics as well as topics of interest to

secular Jewish humanists.Until and when we attract young

families with children, our activities concentrate on adult programing, lec-tures, dialogue, holiday celebrations, and even theater and other cultural activities. Humanistic Judaism also provides lifecycle events including marriage ceremonies and funerals/memorial services. Everyone enjoys a setting for these shared experiences with like-minded people, a benefit that comes with membership and participa-tion in the Humanistic Jewish Havurah.

Involvement can make a signifi-cant difference in the life of a Hu-manistic Jewish Havurah member. We attempt to sustain our members in a supportive, caring environment. We enable our members to affirm their Jewish identity – their connection to the Jewish people, past, present and fu-ture. Most importantly, membership in our Havurah affords the opportunity to cultivate warm, personal relationships with compatible folks.

Finally, the growth and develop-ment of the Humanistic Jewish Ha-vurah of Southwest Florida enriches

the life of the wider Jewish commu-nity. We have reached out and attracted many unaffiliated, uncommitted and unconnected Jews, promoting plural-ism and Jewish survival.

So, if you believe in the power of human effort and in taking personal re-sponsibility for actions as an individual and a members of society; believe that Jewish culture and history are the cre-ations of the Jewish people, rather than of divine origin; believe in the natural origin of events and experiences, rather than the supernatural; believe in bio-logical evolution; believe that the Bi-ble and other ancient Jewish books are worth reading and studying because they give us insight into our history and the way our ancestors thought; believe in scientific inquiry and a commitment to reason; believe each person should follow paths of dignity, self-esteem, and responsibility to the present, to en-hance life on earth rather than prepare for an afterlife; believe in respecting the beliefs and opinions of all though we may disagree; believe in forg-ing meaningful community traditions

based on current conditions and needs rather than simply adopting wholesale those rituals and traditions forged in the past; and believe it is important for Humanistic Jews to participate in the activities of the Jewish community, and that acceptance of the right of all peoples to believe as they wish is both Jewish and empowering, then you need to join the Humanistic Jewish Havurah and add fulfillment and happiness to your life.

* * *Chanukah will be celebrated on

Wednesday, December 9 with a tradi-tional holiday meal at Vasari Country Club in Bonita Springs, along with other fun activities. Reservations may be secured upon receipt of your pay-ment in the amount of $40 per person, made payable to “HJH,” and mailed to Joan Weinstein, P.O. Box 110285, Naples, FL 34108, prior to December 1. Consider bringing a gift of comfort-able clothing, or a monetary contribu-tion, to be donated to JFCS of South-west Florida for distribution to seniors in need of our assistance.

Famous Jews of Collier CountyMarina BerkovichPreserving the emerging Jewish His-tory is our mission at the Jewish His-torical Society of Southwest Florida. Newcomers and old-timers may want to know some of the information we come across on our journey.

Fleischmann Park, named after Julius Fleischmann, spans over fifteen lush green acres and is located just South of Coastland Center Mall on Fleischmann Blvd. at Goodlette-Frank Road. The City of Naples is happy for its present-day facilities and amenities: racquetball courts, lighted baseball/softball courts, sand volleyball courts, two lighted basketball courts, light-ed football and practice fields, play-grounds, picnic pavilions, and a com-munity center with dance and meeting rooms.

Julius, an American merchant, was

born in 1872 and was a member of the staff of Governor McKinley be-fore the latter was elected president. Fleischmann, a

Republican, was elected mayor of Cin-cinnati in 1900, and reelected in 1903.

Naples was very different then, but it is very safe to suppose that Julius would have liked to be at the Swamp Buggy Parade assembly point across from “his” park, and may have even ridden in one or another of the ma-chines.

When the Lipman family moved to Collier County and started what is now known as Six L’s operations, there was no serious agriculture effort in this county. Now, only one lifespan later, a major Florida tomato and veg-etable operation, Six L’s has growing and packing operations throughout the East Coast of the U.S., California and Mexico, as well as a repacking opera-tion with facilities in California, Ten-nessee, North Carolina and Maryland. The Lipman Family started a business that put the City of Immokalee on the

map, and has provided employment to many of its residents for decades at its tomato and vegetable packing plant. A short film featuring interviews with the Bill and Gloria Lipman will be pre-miered at the Second Annual Jewish Historical Society Event in January.

There are no viable statistics on the number of Jewish families currently living in Immokalee, but we know of one – a husband and wife, who dedi-cated their lives to teaching.

The Fleischmann and Lipman fam-ilies are still contributing to the prog-ress, education, industry, arts and cul-ture of Collier County and further up the coast in Southwest Florida.

They were not alone, but they were among the first Jews to settle this far south on the West Coast of Florida at a time when not identifying themselves openly to the outside world was a prev-alent practice.

Much has happened since, and on Wednesday, January 6, 2016, the Col-lier County Museum (3331 Tamiami Trail East in Naples, 239.252.8476) will host its first ever Florida Jewish

History Month event for the Jewish Historical Society of Southwest Flor-ida. An afternoon program is planned at 2:00 p.m. with fascinating speakers, films and discussion. Please save the date.

If you have not joined our mailing list, now is the right time to do so. We also need volunteers to help with inter-views, films, photo and document ar-chives. Become a member, a sponsor or a donor. We need you. Step up to share information, stories or photos. Please call us and make the Jewish Historical Society of Southwest Florida your fa-vorite local non-profit this season. For more information, please visit www.jhsswf.org, call 239.566.1771, or email [email protected]. Reach us by mail at Jewish Historical Society of South-west Florida, 899 Vanderbilt Beach Road, Suite 116, Naples, FL 34108.

The Jewish Historical Society of Southwest Florida is a section 501(c)(3) charitable organization. Contribu-tions are deductible to the extent al-lowed by law.

ORGANIZATIONS

Check out our redesigned website at www.hjhswfl.org

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The Jewish Federation thanks all our advertisers for their continued support! Without them we would be unable to provide our readers with L’CHAYIM. We invite other businesses in our community to explore this valuable advertising opportunity.

For ad rates and deadlines, contact Jim Lewin at 239.634.6923 or [email protected].

JEWISH RUSSIAN CULTURAL ALLIANCE

(239) 566-1771Marina BerkovichOn Sunday, September 20, many Rus-sian Jewish residents of Collier and Lee counties gathered at the Jewish Federation of Collier County office to celebrate Rosh Hashanah with a pot-luck dinner and a movie. Peace to You, Sholom is a film about the once flour-ishing, but now nearly extinct, Pale of Settlement Jewish life. We were so pleased to share homemade Russian Jewish food, and offer and receive the Rosh Hashanah blessings from our peers, and people we just met. It was wonderful to spend the entire after-noon conversing in Russian. We shared the stories of our journeys, enjoyed the humor of our former compatriots, sang in Yiddish, and choked up and cried

when we watched the film. In short, we became a modern shtetl. What a great beginning for this new organization.

Attendees came from Naples, Bo-nita, Estero, Fort Myers and even Palm Beach. Some have been residing in Southwest Florida for as long as 20 years and some as recently as 15 days.

The un-awarded prize for the lon-gest residence in the U.S. went to Leo F., originally from Leningrad, who immigrated in 1974, and just last year relocated to Southwest Florida from New York. The youngest member was Leah D., a true Neapolitan, only one year and one month old.

Honorable mention to the event organizing committee: Lyuba Gulaby-an, Darina Lumar, Sofia Perlstein and Marsha Wolfson, each residing in the U.S. for over 30 years.

We look forward to many such

meetings and community activities with our old and new friends. Together, we are the foundation for our emerging Jewish Russian community.

Please join us and let your Rus-sian Jewish Southwest Florida friends know about Jewish Russian Cultural Alliance. Contact us with suggestions and ideas at [email protected] or 239.566.1771.

Attendees at the first Jewish Russian Cultural Alliance event

28 L' CHAY IM NOVEMBER 20 1 5 Jewish Federation of Lee and Charlotte Counties ORGANIZATIONS

HADASSAHCollier/Lee Chapter

(239) 598-1009

L’CHAYIM Guidelines

for PublicationDEADLINES: 5 p.m. on the 5th of each month for all articles and photos. If the 5th falls on a weekend or holiday, the deadline is the following business day.

WORD LIMITS:600 words for temples and organiza-tions providing materials for their respective sections. Those exceeding these limits will be edited to fit.

SUBMISSIONS: Email: [email protected] should be sent as text files, Word files, or Rich Text Format files. Receipt will be acknowledged if requested. Photos may be submitted electronically; high-resolution JPG or TIF formats preferred.

Lynn WeinerDid you know that within the Hadas-sah Medical Organization in Jerusa-lem, the Braun School of Public Health and Community Medicine in Jerusa-lem trains medical professionals from all over the world? Speaking at the graduation ceremony, which marked 40 years of the International Masters of Public Health program, Prof. Alex Brown, a past graduate of the program who heads up research on Aborigi-nal Health in Australia, noted that the school “sets us out on a path to pur-sue knowledge without fear. We need to stop and appreciate the incalculable number of lives we’ve saved – tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, maybe millions.”

Speaking, also, to this year’s grad-uating class, Prof. Yehuda Neumark, Director of the Braun School, noted that, “We have done our best to prepare you to actively engage in a complex and changing world, to improve the health and well-being of the world’s population.”

Among the countries represented in this year’s class are Cameroon, Gua-temala, India, Israel, Ivory Coast, Ke-nya, Kosovo, Malawi, Nepal, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, the U.S. and Vietnam. This is just anoth-er example of how Hadassah impacts people around the globe. Thanks to your support, Hadassah can continue its won-derful work in programs like this!

Season has arrived and have we got a season for you! November starts off with our Evening Activity Group on Thursday, November 5 at 7:00 p.m., an evening of discussion with Rabbi Ammos Chorny of Beth Tikvah, at a private home. Contact Lauren Becker at 239.592.5304 for details. Our Day-time Study Group will discuss the book Jews, God and History by Max Dimont on Monday, November 16 at 1:00 p.m. at Temple Shalom, Naples. (Optional

lunch at 11:30 a.m. at the First Watch at the corner of Pine Ridge and Liv-ingston.) RSVP to Arlene Yedid at 239.455.1912 or

[email protected]. The first Knowledge & Nosh @ Noon lunch will be held at Brio Tuscan Grille, Na-ples, on Wednesday, November 18 at 11:30 a.m. David Silverberg, author, journalist and editor, will speak about his experiences as editor during the 9-11 attack, as well as the role of the Jewish community in the 2016 elec-tion. To RSVP, contact Elyse Morande at 239.498.0623.

We are participating in One Book Southwest Florida and will have sev-eral discussion groups about the book, The Sunflower by Simon Wiesenthal. Email [email protected] for details. Also, our “Hadassah Reads” book this year is Raquela, a Woman of Israel by Ruth Gruber. It is the true story of a woman who lived during the beginning of the State of Israel. Learn the history of Hadassah and Israel in a book you won’t be able to put down!

The 16th Annual Hadassah Do-nor Recognition Event will be held on Sunday, December 20 from 10:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at Quail West Golf and Country Club, Naples. Our spe-cial guest speaker is world-renowned Professor Eyal Banin, Director of Ha-dassah’s Retina Center and a pioneer in stem-cell treatment for Macular Degeneration. This event honors Ma-jor Donors and Keepers of the Gate (an annual level of giving), as well as anyone who has pledged or donated a minimum single gift of $1,000 or more since March 2012. You need not be a member of Hadassah to attend. New pledges are encouraged. For more in-formation, please contact Nancy Wi-adro at [email protected] or Lisa Moore at 877.949.1818.

Ship Ahoy! Mark your calendars for Tuesday, March 1 at 6:00 p.m. and get ready to “Sail Away” at Hadassah’s Annual Fundraiser. This event is open to the whole community. We have a fab-ulous evening planned at Heritage Bay

Golf and Country Club, Naples, with a sumptuous dinner, honorees, first-class entertainment and fun! We will honor Ida and Jeff Margolis for their commit-ment to Hadassah and overall leader-ship in our community. Set your sails and climb aboard for a stellar event. You won’t want to miss this highlight of the season. If you would like to be a Table Captain and put together your own table, contact me at 239.598.1009 or [email protected]. Proceeds to benefit Hadassah Medical Organiza-tion. For additional information, con-

tact Lauren Becker 239.592.5304.Remember, until December 31,

Life Members and Associates can give a free “gift” of Annual Member-ship to a woman age 17 or over who is not a member of Hadassah or hasn’t been a member since 2013. Contact Donna Goldblatt at 239.597.3441 or [email protected] for details or to become a Hadassah Annual or Life Member.

Looking forward to a great Hadas-sah season!

TEMPLE BETH ELFort Myers

(239) 433-0018www.templebethel.com

Men’s ClubRichard ChaetThe final livestream figures for the High Holy days are in, and they are truly astounding. Believe it or not, we had 1,830 viewers tuned in on our livestream broadcast for the holiday period. That’s assuming there is only one person per computer watching around the world in every time zone and country you can think of.

No one could envision that even without any advertising outside of the temple that it would bring our services to so many people who could not get

SAVE THE DATE: ¡ Sunday, November 1: Evening Activity Group Welcome Back Dinner,

5:30 p.m. ¡ Thursday, November 5: Evening Activity Group, 7:00 p.m.,

Rabbi Ammos Chorny ¡ Monday, November 16: Daytime Study Group, 1:00 p.m., Temple Shalom ¡ Wednesday, November 18: Knowledge & Nosh @ Noon, 11:30 a.m.,

BRIO, Speaker: Journalist David Silverberg ¡ Wednesday, December 9: Women’s Chanukah Celebration, 1:00 p.m.,

Temple Shalom ¡ Thursday, December 10: Evening Activity Group Chanukah Pot Luck

Dinner, 6:30 p.m. ¡ Saturday-Sunday, December 12-13: Installation of Chapter Officers and

Region Board Meeting, Tampa ¡ Sunday, December 20: Major Donors/Keepers of the Gate Recognition

Event, 10:30 a.m., Quail West Country Club, Speaker: Prof. Eyal Banin from Hadassah Hospital

¡ Monday, December 21: Daytime Study Group, 1:00 p.m., Temple Shalom ¡ Thursday, January 14: Evening Activity Group, 7:00 p.m.,

Speaker Madeline Sugerman ¡ Tuesday, January 19: Daytime Study Group, 1:00 p.m., Temple Shalom ¡ Thursday, Jan 21: One Book Southwest Florida Speaker, 7:00 p.m.,

Temple Shalom ¡ Tuesday, January 26: Chapter Installation Luncheon, Blue Zones Speaker,

10:45 a.m., Bonita Bay Country Club ¡ Monday, February 1: Annual Mahj and Card Party, 11:30 a.m.,

Cypress Woods Country Club ¡ Thursday, February 25: Spring Meeting and Luncheon,

Speaker Dr. Cederquist, 10:30 a.m., Tiburon Golf and Country Club ¡ Tuesday, March 1: Hadassah Annual Fundraiser “Sail Away!,” 6:00 p.m.,

Heritage Bay Golf and Country Club ¡ Wednesday, March 9: Hadassah-sponsored Jewish Book Festival event,

6:30 p.m., Beth Tikvah ¡ Wednesday, March 23: Knowledge & Nosh @ Noon, Speaker Shelley

Goodman, 11:30 a.m., McCormick and Schmick’s ¡ Wednesday, April 13: Knowledge & Nosh @ Noon, Speaker Deena

Baxter, 11:30 a.m., Cypress Woods Golf and Country Club

ORT AMERICAGulf Beaches Chapter

(239) 649-4000

ORT America (Organization for Rehabilitation through Training)Did you know:

� ORT supports 325,000 students annually in 59 countries by providing technical education that emphasizes employable skills?

� ORT’s most famous (and least publicized) mission was to educate Holo-caust victims in DP camps so they were able to move on with their lives?

� ORT America has four college campuses in the U.S., including two in New York and one each in Chicago and Los Angeles, that serve the most vulner-able communities?

� ORT America is active in Southwest Florida? Please attend Gulf Beaches Chapter events and support ORT’s educational mission.Help ORT raise funds to save lives through education. To join/renew/trans-

fer, contact ORT America Gulf Beaches Chapter President Marina Berkov-ich at 239.566.1771, or Membership Chair Marebe Crouse at 239.263.4959. Please visit www.ortamerica.org for a virtual ORT experience.

ORT to eternityMarina BerkovichEven those who have followed ORT’s progress for years may be interested in knowing more about its founders and how ORT has influenced Jews and the world since 1880. (continued from the October 2015 issue)Part II. The Founders: Nikolai Bakst and Samuel Polyakov The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe names Nikolai Bakst as the initiator of ORT. He was born

Noah, son of Isaac, in 1842 in Mir, near Grod-no, Russian Empire (now Belarus). Under his Rus-sian name, Nikolai Igna-

tievich Bakst, he graduated from Saint Petersburg University and was sent abroad, where he earned his master’s degree, enabling him to become a do-cent at Saint Petersburg University, where he also lectured at Women’s Medical Courses.

Nikolai’s field of study was physi-ology. He attained prominence, and is considered a leading authority of his time. Pogroms in Russia in 1881 peaked Bakst’s concern for the Jews of the Pale. Already a published author of social interest articles, he turned his at-tention toward improving the status of the Jews through equalizing their rights in the Russian Empire. He was, indeed, the initiator of the idea of ORT, starting the “Temporary Committee of Artisan and Agricultural Fund,” the formation of which opened the way for his ORT co-founders, Horace de Günzburg and Samuel Polyakov, to launch the appeal to the wealthy layer of Russia’s Jewish community.

Samuel Polyakov was born on De-cember 24, 1837, in Dubroŭna, present day Belarus, to a small-time tradesman. He worked at his father’s alcohol tax farming business until 1861. He then started a construction company, but wanted to work for the government, and soon acquired a private postal sta-tion in Kharkov vicinity. There, in the course of business, he performed some important duties for the Minister of Posts and Telegraph, Ivan Tolstoy, who then launched Samuel’s career. That was a frequent post-1861 emancipation relationship.

Polyakov prospered, first building the vodka distillery on the wastelands of Tolstoy’s estate, then moving on to building local railroad lines. Through pioneering railroad construction sched-ules in the 1870s Samuel became one of Russia’s seven top railroad barons, of whom three, including Polyakov, were Jewish converts to Christianity. Polyakov acquired the nobility rank of privy councilor, but failed to reach the coveted rank of baron. He donated mil-lions to charity, established College of Railroad Trades in 1867 and co-spon-sored the Katkov College in Moscow in 1868. Katkov College has evolved over the years to become the present-day Diplomatic Academy of the Min-istry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.

Polyakov financed the Grand Cho-ral Synagogue of Saint Petersburg and, together with Bakst and de Günzburg, created ORT, which he viewed as his answer to delivering the rapidly evolv-ing capitalism into the Pale of Settle-ment.

Polyakov suddenly died of a stroke at the age of 50. The tomb of Samuel Polyakov by famous Jewish sculptor Mark Antokolski is now part of The Russian Museum in Saint Petersburg. Another statue of Polyakov, also by Antokolski, is on display in the Muse-um of Arts in Saratov, one of the many institutions he sponsored. Daniel, Sam-uel’s only son, assumed his father’s chair in the ORT board, but was not in-terested in continuing his father’s busi-ness and lived most of his life in Paris. Samuel’s three daughters married Rus-sian, English and French bankers. (to be continued in December issue)

* * *ORT provides scholarships to

300,000 students annually in over 60 countries. GulfBeaches ORT Chapter 2015 fundraising efforts benefit ORT in Israel. Please help us with our financial challenge by mailing your renewal or donation check, payable to ORT Amer-ica, to Hella Amelkin, 3200 Gulf Shore Blvd. N., #307, Naples, FL 34103.

29 L' CHAY IM NOVEMBER 20 1 5 Jewish Federation of Lee and Charlotte CountiesTEMPLE NEWS

tact Lauren Becker 239.592.5304.Remember, until December 31,

Life Members and Associates can give a free “gift” of Annual Member-ship to a woman age 17 or over who is not a member of Hadassah or hasn’t been a member since 2013. Contact Donna Goldblatt at 239.597.3441 or [email protected] for details or to become a Hadassah Annual or Life Member.

Looking forward to a great Hadas-sah season!

TEMPLE BETH ELFort Myers

(239) 433-0018www.templebethel.com

Men’s ClubRichard ChaetThe final livestream figures for the High Holy days are in, and they are truly astounding. Believe it or not, we had 1,830 viewers tuned in on our livestream broadcast for the holiday period. That’s assuming there is only one person per computer watching around the world in every time zone and country you can think of.

No one could envision that even without any advertising outside of the temple that it would bring our services to so many people who could not get

to a temple for whatever reason. This is the joy of watching our service live online. All of this is strictly by word of mouth from family and friends to family and friends.

Our services are being watched in hos-pitals, colleges, schools and anywhere that Jews want to pray with us.

Temple Beth El should be proud of our Men’s Club for making this pos-sible. In going over the numbers for the last two years, we have brought our services to 19,000 livestream viewers.

For those of you who do not know how to watch Live@TBE, simply visit www.templebethel.com, click on Live@TBE, and you will be in the tem-ple watching the service as it happens.

Our Broadcasting Crew: Richard Chaet, Larry Rosenberg and Ina Vasser.

SisterhoodBernice Turner Welcome back to our snowbirds. I want to thank all of you who have sent in your dues and remind those who have not that there is still time to be-come a member and enjoy all the excit-ing programs and activities planned for the year.

Our paid-up dinner was a huge suc-cess. The food was great, the fashion show wonderful, and the opportunity to be together fantastic. Our next meet-ing in November offers you the op-portunity to be part of the “in crowd.” Many of you have attended the Jewish Film Festival sponsored by Federa-tion. Well, don’t miss out on knowing what’s in store for you at the next fes-tival. Be the first to have a glimpse of this year’s films.

Do you like tapping your feet to

music? Come to the December Chanu-kah celebration and get your toes ready to move. The Naples Klezmer Revival Band will have you dancing, clapping and feeling good. Along with the great entertainment we will have desserts just right for the holiday.

Get out the poodle skirt, the Keds sneakers and your bobby socks. You are going to need them for New Year’s Eve. Sisterhood and Men’s Club are having a Sock Hop. Dance, eat and be with friends to bring in the secular New Year.

You, our members, are the back-bone of Sisterhood. You keep us strong. Your support and hard work is appreci-ated. Thank you.

“What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” – Jane Goodall

COMMUNITY FREE SYNAGOGUEFort Myers

(239) 274-7485www.fortmyerssynagogue.com

Heartfelt thanks to C.F.S.’s master suk-kah builders and to all the participants in its topping off. Clearly next near it will need to be enlarged! The congre-gation is also grateful to Terri Goldberg and Tom Miess for conducting the con-gregation’s Shemeenee Atseret Yizkor Service, and to our Shirat Hayam Mu-sical Ensemble for enhancing the joy of Simhat Torah.

The congregation is also indebted to our local Jewish Federation for shar-ing its meeting space with us for two of our Sabbath morning breakfasts and Torah Study meetings in October.

We are pleased to welcome Ariel and Orli Gottesman to our He-brew and Religious edu-cation program.

Mazel Tov to Jessica and Chad Evers and to

Samantha and Daniel Keller who cel-ebrated their marriages in October.

Deepest condolences to the family of Frank G. Berglas at his passing in his 96th year.

This month’s “Brown Bag Movie Night” is on Thanksgiving night, No-vember 26, starting at 6:30 p.m. with the screening of the documentary Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg, the true story of television pioneer Gertrude Berg, the creator, principal writer and star of The Goldbergs, a popular radio show that debuted in 1929 and later became a popular television sitcom. Pack your

dinner and bring your Thanksgiving company. It’s free, as are the snacks and soft drinks.

There is a limited number of res-ervations still available for the syna-gogue’s 10th anniversary banquet on the first night of Hanukah, Sunday, December 6, at which time the congre-gation will welcome its newest Torah scroll, celebrate the beginning of Ha-nukah and rejoice in its first decade of history. There is no charge for this ca-tered dinner. Reservations can be made by emailing [email protected] or calling C.F.S.’s 24-hour message service at 239.274.7485.

Each Friday evening at 6:30 p.m., The Community Free Synagogue serves a traditional Sabbath dinner. It is free and reservations are never re-quired. At 7:30 p.m., the Sabbath is welcomed with prayer and music of-

fered by the synagogue’s Shirat Hayam Musical Ensemble. A coffee hour fol-lows worship.

Every Saturday morning at 9:30 a.m., C.F.S. offers a light breakfast followed by a lively discussion of the week’s Torah portion until 11:30 a.m.

The purpose of The Community Free Synagogue, led by Rabbi Bruce Diamond, is “Study, Worship and Be-nevolent Acts” practiced tradition-ally but with progressive values. The synagogue does not sell memberships or solicit funds. All of its events and programs, including youth and adult Jewish education, are open to all and always free. The synagogue meets at the Southwest Florida Masonic Cen-ter, 10868 Metro Parkway in South Fort Myers. For more information on events and activities, please visit www.fortmyerssynagogue.com.

TEMPLE BETH EL REFORM 16225 Winkler Road, Fort Myers, FL 33908 Rabbi Robert Ourach E-mail: [email protected] educator: Dale Cohen, Ma.Ed., R.J.E Preschool director: Jesyca VirnigCantor: Victor GeignerPresident: Russ BogenPhone: 433-0018 • Fax: 433-3235Web site: www.templebethel.comShabbat services: 7:30 p.m. Friday; Torah study9:00 a.m. Saturday; B’nai Mitzah 10:30 a.m. Saturday Religious School: 9:30 a.m.-noon Sunday Confirmation class: 6 p.m. WednesdayHebrew School: Wednesday 5:30 p.m.Judaica Gift GalleryAffiliated: Union for Reform Judaism

TEMPLE BETH SHALOM REFORM 702 S.E. 24th Ave., Cape Coral, FL 33990 Rabbi Devora Buchen President: Arnie Schwartz Phone: 772-4555 • Fax: 772-4625 E-mail: [email protected] site: www.templebethshalomcc.orgServices: 7:30 p.m. FridayReligious School: Thursday 4:00 - 6:30 p.m.Torah study with Rabbi Buchen: Shabbat 10:30 a.m. Organizations: Brotherhood, Sisterhood,Family Service (1st Friday of the month at 7:30 p.m.)

BAT YAM TEMPLE OF THE ISLANDS REFORM Meets at Sanibel Congregational Church 2050 Periwinkle Way, Sanibel Island Rabbi Myra Soifer President: Martin Pokedoff Music Director: Douglas Renfroe Phone: 395-2544 Web site: www.batyam.org Services: 7:30 p.m. Friday Adult Education: Saturday, 9:00 - 11:15 a.m. (Nov. - Apr.) Jewish Current Events: Saturday, 11:30 a.m.to 12:15 p.m. Write: P.O. Box 84, Sanibel, FL 33957 Affiliated: Union for Reform Judaism(formerly UAHC)

TEMPLE SHALOM CHARLOTTE HARBOR AND THE GULF ISLANDS REFORM 23190 Utica Ave., P.O. Box 494675 Port Charlotte, FL 33949-4675 Rabbi Solomon Agin President: Carol Roark Phone: (941) 625-2116 E-mail: [email protected] site: templeshalomfl.comServices: 7:30 p.m. FridayReligious school: Sunday 10 a.m.Beginning Hebrew: Tuesday 4:15 - 5:15 p.m. Advanced Hebrew: Thursday 4:15 - 5:15 p.m. Organizations: SisterhoodAffiliated: Union for Reform Judaism

CHABAD OF CHARLOTTE COUNTY ORTHODOX 204 E Mckenzie St Unit B, Punta Gorda, FL 33950 Rabbi Simon Jacobson Phone: (941) 833-3381 E-mail: [email protected] site: www.chabadofcharlottecounty.comServices: Saturday at 10 a.m. followed bya kiddushTorah study: Wednesday at 8 p.m.

CHABAD LUBAVITCH OF SOUTHWEST FLORIDA ORTHODOX 5620 Winkler Road Fort Myers, FL 33919 Rabbi Yitzchok Minkowicz Phone: 433-7708 • Fax: 481-9109 E-mail: [email protected] site: www.chabadswf.orgServices: Friday 5:15 p.m.; Saturday Kabbalahclass 9 a.m.; Shacharit 10 a.m.; Kiddush at noonMinyan: Monday & Thursday 7:00 a.m.

CHABAD OF CAPE CORAL ORTHODOX 1716 Cape Coral Pkwy. W., Cape Coral, FL 33914 Rabbi Yossi Labkowski Phone: 541-1777 • Fax: 465-4942 E-mail: [email protected] site: www.chabadcape.comServices: Friday at 6:30 p.m.; Saturday at 9:30 amfollowed by Kiddush luncheon; Sunday at 8 a.m.;Monday - Friday at 7:00 a.m.Weekly Torah study: Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.Chassidic Farbrengen: Thursday at 7:30 p.m.Hebrew school: Sunday 10:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.Mini Chefs: Wednesday 4:30 - 5:30 p.m.CTeens: Wednesday 6:00 - 7:00 p.m.

COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS • AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee):Jacki Waksman — (954) 653-9053• AJC (American Jewish Committee):Brian Lipton — (941) 365-4955• Anti-Defamation League: (561) 988-2900• B’Nai B’rith International: (941) 302-4500• Chevra Kadisha:Rabbi Yitzchok Minkowicz — 433-7708• Generations of the Shoah SWFL: 963-9347• Hadassah - Collier/Lee Chapter:Lynn Weiner — 598-1009• Hadassah - Sharon Chapter (Charlotte County):Odette Port — (941) 505-1409• Hazak 55+ Chapter:Joyce Rosinger — 437-1566• Humanistic Jewish Havurah:Paula Creed — 495-8484• Israel Bonds: Regional Headquarters: (800)622-8017• Jewish Community Services: 481-4449• Jewish National FundMemorial Tree Planting in Israel — (727) 536-5263• Jewish War Veterans:Post 400: Commander Harvey Charter — 561-6535• Mikvah Bashka of Southwest Florida:Nechamie Minkowicz — 822-2784• ORT - Gulf Beaches ChapterMarina Berkovich — 566-1771

IN LEE & CHARLOTTE COUNTIES

COMMUNITY FREE SYNAGOGUE REFORM 10868 Metro Parkway, South Fort Myers (The Southwest Florida Masonic Center) P.O. Box 07144, Fort Myers, FL 33919 Rabbi Bruce Diamond ([email protected]) Coordinator: Natalie Fulton ([email protected]) Music director: Diane Coffman Phone: (239) 274-7485 E-mail: [email protected] site: www.fortmyerssynagogue.comCommunity Sabbath eve dinner each Fridayat 6:30 p.m.Sabbath eve worship every Friday at 7:30 p.m.Light breakfast and Torah study with the rabbievery Saturday morning from 9:30 - 11:30 a.m.

TEMPLE JUDEA CONSERVATIVE 14486 A&W Bulb Road, Fort Myers, FL 33908 Rabbi Marc Sack E-mail: [email protected]: Brian Simon & Robert Thomas Director of Congregational Learning: Elizabeth SingerPreschool Director: Joann [email protected]: 433-0201 • Fax: 433-3371E-mail: [email protected] site: www.tjswfl.orgServices: 6:15 p.m. Friday and 9:30 a.m.Saturday Minyan: 9:00 a.m. MondayReligious School: Sun. 9:30 a.m.-noon;Wed. 4:30-6 p.m.Early childhood education:Preschool, M-F, ages 18 months-5 years;“Mommy & Me,” 12 months-2 yearsAffiliated: United Synagogue of ConservativeJudaism

CHABAD OF BONITA SPRINGS/ESTERO ORTHODOX 24850 Old 41 Road, Suite 20 (in the Bernwood Centre) Bonita Springs, FL 34135-7024 Rabbi Mendy Greenberg Phone: 949-6900 Web site: www.JewishBonita.com Services: Saturday at 10 a.m., followed by a kiddush

30 L' CHAY IM NOVEMBER 20 1 5 Jewish Federation of Lee and Charlotte Counties TEMPLE NEWS

TEMPLE SHALOMCharlotte Harbor & the Gulf Islands

(941) 625-2116www.templeshalomfl.com

Read the current and recent issues of L’CHAYIM online at

www.JewishFederationLCC.org.

TEMPLE BETH SHALOMCape Coral

(239) 772-4555www.templebethshalomcc.org

Temple Beth Shalom is pleased to an-nounce “How to Taste Wine Like a Pro.” The community is invited to join the Wine Whisperer Jerry Greenfield as he teaches us everything we want

to know about pairing foods with the appropri-ate wine. We will taste six different wines and learn which fruits and cheese complement each other. This event takes

place Wednesday, November 18 at 7:00 p.m. at Temple Beth Shalom, 702 SE 24th Ave., Cape Coral. Cost: $20; $15 per designated driver. This event is open to everyone, but pre-registra-

tion is required. Jerry’s book, Secrets of the Wine Whisperer, will be avail-able for purchase. Door prizes and raffle. Make checks payable to TBS Sisterhood. For more information, call Suzie at 239.770.5896 or Georgette at 239.543.3922.

Temple Beth Shalom also acts as a polling station for elections. The Cape Coral City Council Elections will take place on Tuesday, November 3. Con-gregants work at two precincts set

up in the social hall, and donate their earnings to the temple. This is a long, long day, from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., but everyone enjoys working together as good citizens and good fundraisers.

Also coming up are a progressive dinner on Saturday, November 14, and the Brotherhood annual Latke party on Sunday, December 6.

Simchat Torah was a wonderful cele-bration at temple. Rabbi Agin, together with Jane Galler, led the congregation in a Yizkor Memorial Service. Then there was a specially prepared Simchat Torah Service. Rabbi Agin and Temple Vice President Mike Post (who carried the Torah) led the congregation around the sanctuary. Rabbi Agin called every-one to the Torah to recite the blessings for the end reading of the Torah. The Torah was then unrolled around the sanctuary and rolled to the beginning. Returning to the pulpit, people from the other side of the sanctuary came to the pulpit to recite the blessings. There was singing, and Rabbi Agin did his Tevye dance. Following services ev-eryone stayed for a great chicken din-ner under the direction of Odette Port.

November at Temple Shalom is another month of activity to enhance temple Life.

The Adult Education Class which meets on Tuesday, will review the book Jewish Spirituality by Lawrence Kushner. Call the temple office to register. The text is $18

and the class meets from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m.

On Tuesday, Novem-ber 24 from 12:30 to 2:00 p.m., join us for Lunch & Learn with the Forward. Limited to 15 participants. Call the temple office to register. This is a funded program, therefore there is no charge.

On Friday evening, November 20, during Shabbat services, the new Ark Doors will be dedi-cated in memory of Marc Friedman, beloved son of Shelly and Marlene Fried-man. Services start at 7:30 p.m.

On Friday evening, November 27, Shabbat services will be led by Jef-

frey Marks during Rabbi Agin’s time away. Shabbat services start at 7:30 p.m.

On Tuesday, December 1 at 7:00 p.m. the 92nd Street Y Alive Series from New York continues with “50 Years After Nostra Aetate: Catholic, Jew-

ish & Latino Relations in the Age of a Latino Pope.” Members from St. Vin-cent de Paul Sacred Heart Church will be attending. Open to the community. Sponsored by the Sylvia Hershkowitz Memorial Fund. Free to the commu-nity; refreshments served.

TEMPLE JUDEAFort Myers

(239) 433-0201www.tjswfl.org

Temple Judea’s calendar for the month of November is full.

Chaverot, Temple Judea’s Sister-hood, begins the month with a challah-baking class on Sunday, November 1, taught by Betty Rubenstein at her home, followed by “You Asked For It: Brunch at the Wisteria Tea Room and Café” on Tuesday, November 3 at 11:00 a.m. On Sunday, November 15, Chaverot will host an intergenerational

picnic lunch at the Octa-gon Wildlife Refuge. As the circus ringmasters say: “This is an event for children of all ages.” At-tendees will bring their own picnic lunch and eat

among the wild beasts!On Friday evening, November 20,

TJ’s PJ’s, aka Jammies and Jeans Shab-bat, is a young-family- friendly Shab-bat service that begins at 5:30 p.m. fol-lowed by dinner.

Sundays at 11:00 a.m., Rabbi Marc Sack continues his “Introduction to Ju-daism” class open to anyone interested in learning more about Judaism. And he leads his lunchtime Torah study at

the offices of Myers, Brettholtz at noon on Thursdays, November 5 and De-cember 3.

The congregation will welcome Amy Bennett Williams, longtime writer for the News-Press and an es-sayist for WGCU, as its guest speaker at Shabbat dinner on Friday evening, November 13 following services. Ms. Williams’ special weekly essays for WGCU take us around our community and often into our past. Her storytell-ing and commentaries extol the beauty found in commonplace objects and places. The cost is $18/adult and $8/child. Children 3 and under are free.

All programs are open to the en-tire community. For more information

about Temple Judea or upcoming pro-grams, or to make reservations, call or email the synagogue office at [email protected]. Regular scheduled events:• Friday evening Shabbat services at

6:30 p.m.• Saturday morning Shabbat servic-

es at 9:30 a.m.• Lunchtime Torah study with Rabbi

Sack the first Thursday of each month at noon

• TJ’s PJ’s on one Shabbat each month at 5:30 p.m. followed by dinner

• Morning minyan every Monday at 9:00 a.m.

BAT YAM TEMPLE OF THE ISLANDSSanibel

(239) 395-2544www.batyam.org

Bat Yam members and guests can now look forward to our “in season,” when our snowbirds rejoin with the congre-gation and welcome back Rabbi Myra Soifer, Music Director Doug Renfroe, and piano accompanist Abigail Allison for Friday night services beginning November 6 at 7:30 p.m.

We thank all those volunteers who served as lay leaders for Shabbat Ser-vices over the summer. They made it possible for services to be available during the quiet summer months for members, for those observing yahrzeit, and for visitors wishing to join our welcoming “family” for worship.

Shabbat services and programs, which are open to the community, are held at the Sanibel Congregational UCC on Periwinkle Way unless other-wise noted.

This year, the Adult Education Saturday mor-ning programs begin on November 7 at 9:00 a.m. with Hebrew read-ings from the Linear Chumash/Devorim with

Rabbi Soifer; at 9:30 a.m. with Rabbi Soifer presenting “What Does Juda-ism Say About…Sex, Gender and Be-ginning of Life Issues;” at 10:30 a.m. with congregants speaking on assorted aspects of “Jews and the Biblical Dias-pora;” and at 11:30 a.m. with Current Events. The Yiddish class will resume later in the year.

Please note that there will be no Adult Ed classes on Saturday, Novem-ber 28 due to the Thanksgiving holiday.

Rabbi Soifer will resume “Talmud for Lunch Bunch” on Thursday, No-vember 12. The “Schmooze with the Rabbi,” an opportunity for informal conversation, will commence on Fri-day, November 13 promptly at 10:30 a.m. at the Sanibel Deli and Coffee Fac-tory located at 2330 Palm Ridge Road. Please let Rabbi Soifer know you are

coming by calling her at 775.721.5508.A Chanukah party including latkes

is planned for Friday, December 11 prior to the regular 7:30 p.m. services.

The Interfaith Shared Scholar Committee has set Sunday, January 17 as the date for the 2016 program with featured speaker Dr. Zeki Saritopak, founder and former president of the Rumi Forum for Interfaith Dialogue in Washington, D.C. The event is free and open to the public thanks to co-spon-sors Bat Yam Temple of the Islands, the Sanibel Congregational United Church of Christ, St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church, First Church Christ Scientist and Captiva Chapel by the Sea. The Leo Rosner Foundation in honor of June Rosner graciously funds Bat Yam’s sponsorship.

Also in January 2016, on Wednes-days, January 13, 20 and 27, Rabbi Soifer and Reverend John Danner, Senior Pastor, will be joined by Imam Muhamed al-Darsani of the Islamic Center for Peace in Fort Myers, to speak about “After Abraham: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.” Classes will

be given at 10:00 a.m. and repeated at 7:30 p.m. Rabbi Soifer urges everyone to come and learn “the basics” – God, text, sin and forgiveness – of the three faith traditions.

On Thursday, January 28, the 25th anniversary of Bat Yam will be cel-ebrated at the Sanctuary on Sanibel. Alan Lessack is chair of the planning committee.

It is with regret that we report the death of Dr. Alex Stone, who, with his wife, Martha, were longtime members and contributed greatly to the Saturday morning Adult Education discussions. Dr. Stone attended even while wheel-chair bound.

Bat Yam sends wishes for the heal-ing of body and spirit to Shirley Blei-berg, Joy Bowe, David Crown, Marty Friedman, Marge Kallman, Hartley Kleinberg, Norma Kohn, Judith Mayer, June and Hal Patinkin, Esther Pokedoff, Mike Raab, William Schlackman, Bar-bara Schwartz and Orlene Shimberg. All those who are ailing but not men-tioned here should know that they are also in our thoughts and prayers.

CHARLOTTE COUNTY BRUNCH AND MOVIE SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 1 11:00 a.m

Enjoy a delicious breakfast and watch The Sturgeon Queens a delightful documentary about four generations of a Jewish immigrant family that create a Lower East Side fish emporium. Lox, bagels and whitefish… need we say more?

Held at: Temple Shalom 23190 Utica Avenue Port Charlotte 33949 Covert: $10/person

STILL TIME TO RSVP to Leni Sack at [email protected] or 239.481.4449 x3 or Odette Port at [email protected] or 941.286.1409

EVERYONE IS INVITED TO ATTEND. Co-sponsored by Jewish Federation of Lee & Charlotte Counties and Temple Shalom of Charlotte Harbor and the Gulf Islands.


For more information about events featured on the community calendar, please contact the sponsoring organization (see the Directory on page 29) or the Jewish Federation.

COMMUNITY CALENDAR

December 2015 / 5776

1110986 12

181716151413 19

20

SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY

12:30 p.m. Mah Jongg


11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. Pick up to deliver Hanukkah Senior Gift Bags3:30 p.m. Israeli Dancing

Candle lighting: 5:21 p.m.

2221

8:15 a.m. Temple Beth El Mah Jongg Tournament

10:00 a.m. Community Breakfast - Gulf Harbour4:00 p.m. Israeli Dancing

252423 26

Chanukah

4:00 p.m. Israeli Dancing

7

Christmas


5


6:00 p.m. Jfed Social Club Hanukkah Party

For a continuously updated community calendar of events,

visit www.JewishFederationLCC.org.

To submit your organization’s or temple’s event, send an email to [email protected].

27 289:30 a.m. L’CHAYIM mailing

43Candle lighting: 5:17 p.m.

9:30 a.m. JWV Meeting4:00 p.m. Israeli Dancing

6:00 p.m. Book Club


2111:00 a.m. Pack Hanukkah Senior Gift Bags


be given at 10:00 a.m. and repeated at 7:30 p.m. Rabbi Soifer urges everyone to come and learn “the basics” – God, text, sin and forgiveness – of the three faith traditions.

On Thursday, January 28, the 25th anniversary of Bat Yam will be cel-ebrated at the Sanctuary on Sanibel. Alan Lessack is chair of the planning committee.

It is with regret that we report the death of Dr. Alex Stone, who, with his wife, Martha, were longtime members and contributed greatly to the Saturday morning Adult Education discussions. Dr. Stone attended even while wheel-chair bound.

Bat Yam sends wishes for the heal-ing of body and spirit to Shirley Blei-berg, Joy Bowe, David Crown, Marty Friedman, Marge Kallman, Hartley Kleinberg, Norma Kohn, Judith Mayer, June and Hal Patinkin, Esther Pokedoff, Mike Raab, William Schlackman, Bar-bara Schwartz and Orlene Shimberg. All those who are ailing but not men-tioned here should know that they are also in our thoughts and prayers.

November 2015 / 5776

131211108 14

201918171615 21

22

SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY





2423

8:15 a.m. Temple Beth El Mah Jongg Tournament


27Thanksgiving

26Thanksgiving

25 289:30 a.m. JWV Meeting4:00 p.m. Israeli Dancing

9


7


6:00 p.m. Pacesetters

9:30 a.m. L’CHAYIM mailing

6:00 p.m. Book Club - Community Read7:00 p.m. “How to Taste Wine Like a Pro” - Temple Beth Shalom

29 30

65Candle lighting: 5:24 p.m.

6:30 p.m. SAT Class


43111:00 a.m. Charlotte County Brunch & Movie3:30 p.m. Israeli Dancing

6:30 p.m. SAT Class2


12:30 p.m. Mah Jongg29 3130


SAVE THE DATES 2015 ~ 2016 Programs & Events

www.JewishFederationLCC.org

2015

November

1 - Charlotte County Brunch & Movie

18 - Community Read ~ The Sunflower

19 - Pacesetters Reception

December

6 - Chanukah Senior Visits

13 - Community Breakfast

2016

January 12 - Author Event with Alliance for the Arts

14-28 - Jewish Film Festival (Tues. & Thurs.)

20 - Jewish Film Festival matinee

31 - Jewish Film Festival matinee

31 - PJ Library Program

February 2-9 - Jewish Film Festival (Tues. & Thurs.)

16 - Author Event

20 - Major Gifts Reception

March 10 - Lion of Judah

20 - Purim Carnival / Jewish Fest

April 10 - PJ Library Program

17 - Passover Senior Visits

May 1 - Holocaust Memorial Service

15 - Yom Ha’atzmaut Celebration

17 - Annual Meeting

PURIM FESTIVAL

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