AUGUST 26, 2021 – 18 ELUL 5781 JEWISHVOL 45, NO 28 JOURNALJEWISHJOURNAL.ORG Life lessons of the Holocaust passed on to Duxbury teens By Ethan M. Forman What also opened their eyes were sto- JOURNAL STAFF ries of victims, like Blimcia, whose iden- tification cards the students were given DUXBURY – Senior Molly Taberner at the start of their tour. was among a group of 18 Duxbury High The emotional ceremony in the students who completed the Salem- Duxbury Performing Arts Center took based Lappin Foundation’s first ever place more than five months after the Holocaust Symposium for Teens over high school’s football team made nation- the summer, which included a trip to al and international news after it was the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in learned an offensive lineman called out Washington, D.C. “Auschwitz” for a play during a March 12 During a ceremony at the comple- game against Plymouth North, according tion of the symposium at Duxbury High to a summary of an investigation report. on Aug. 16, Taberner read her letter to The report found that “Jewish-related Blimcia Lische of Kolbuszowa, Poland, words” like “Rabbi” and “Dreidel” had who along with her family was gassed at crept into word-association play calls at the Belzec killing center on July 7, 1942. practice as far back as the 2010 to 2012 Blimcia was just 3½. football seasons. “Reading your story, Blimcia, and The report found the actions of the reading other people’s stories who suf- coaching staff in condoning the use of fered with you has made it so you’re not these offensive terms were inconsistent just one of the 6 million Jews who were with the school district’s policies. The murdered in the Holocaust. You are a real school’s winning head football coach, person who lived during the Holocaust, Dave Maimaron, was fired from his and you matter and your story needs to coaching job on March 24. be shared,” Taberner said. The report also found the school dis- Piles of shoes, a rail car in which trict took prompt action, including the hundreds of Jews were crammed, and football team taking part in a mandatory desecrated Torah scrolls on display at Holocaust presentation during which the Holocaust museum opened the eyes they met a third-generation survivor. of these 18 Duxbury students, none of The district also planned a full external whom are Jewish, to the Nazi atrocities Photo: Karen Wong review of the athletic program and the and the dangers of unchecked antisemi- Duxbury’s Eva McDermott looks at a poster of Adolf Hitler and his senior military staff. establishment of an Athletic Advisory tism. continued on page 20 SHARON RABBI: ‘HUNDREDS’ MAY HAVE BEEN ABUSED BY USY ADVISER By Steven A. Rosenberg an overnight Jewish camp in New York City, decided not to JOURNAL STAFF Cold Spring, New York. The file a lawsuit and wanted to plaintiffs allege that Ward promote reform and transpar- (Editor’s note: This article repeatedly sexually abused ency within the organization. con­­tains explicit sexual content.) them while on the job for USY “I was hoping to get USY to and USCJ in the 1990s and from figure out how this could hap- Amid a flurry of lawsuits 2016-18. One lawsuit against pen,” said Soffer, who went to a and allegations that as many as Surprise Lake alleges sexual Conservative Jewish Day school hundreds of former members assault going back to 1989 and as a child, and during his seven of United Synagogue Youth may 1990. Another lawsuit includes years in USY rose to become have been abused by a longtime an affidavit from the mother of president of the Metropolitan adviser, a prominent Sharon a former Surprise Lake camper New York Region of United rabbi has become the first to who said that she had notified Synagogue Youth chapter. publicly detail the alleged the USCJ in 2002, and alleged According to Soffer, he was abuse. that her son had been sexually 15 when he was approached Rabbi Jordan Soffer, the abused by Ward in 1989. by Ward during services at a head of school at Striar Hebrew In 2002, the camp fired Ward. USY convention in Long Island. Academy in Sharon, has But he continued to work with Soffer alleges that Ward asked alleged that Ed Ward – who Jewish children for the next 18 him to take a break from prayer, worked with Jewish children years, rising up through the and accompany him to the for decades as an educator, Courtesy of Jordan Soffer Conservative movement’s USCJ bathroom. There, said Soffer, adviser and camp counselor for Rabbi Jordan Soffer to serve in senior USY positions Ward began to masturbate in USY and its umbrella organiza- Ward, who most recently were first published in an arti- in Long Island and Manhattan front of him and encouraged the tion, the United Synagogue of served as the executive direc- cle this month by the Times of and as a camp counselor at a teen to do the same. “He asked Conservative Judaism – sexually tor of a Jewish center in Long Israel. USY overnight camp in New me why I’m not doing it with assaulted him during morning Island, could not be reached for In recent months, lawsuits York. him; I gave him several excuses. prayer services at a USY con- comment. have been filed against USY, Soffer, 32, who grew up in I said ‘I’m scared, I don’t want vention when Soffer was 15. The allegations against Ward USCJ and Surprise Lake Camp, New City, New York, north of continued on page 15 APPLY FOR A GREAT MORTGAGE IN LESS TIME THAN IT TAKES TO READ THE PAPER. Use your smart phone to apply for a great mortgage in just 15 minutes. Apply now at MetroCU.org. Chelsea | Boston | Burlington | Framingham | Lawrence | Lynn | Melrose Newton | Peabody | Salem | Tewksbury | MetroCU.org | 877.MY.METRO NMLS# 198524 The Jewish Journal is a nonprofit newspaper supported by generous readers, committed advertisers and charitable organizations. Email [email protected]. 2 THE JEWISH JOURNAL – JEWISHJOURNAL.ORG – AUGUST 26, 2021 Wishing an Aliyah Tovah to the thousands of Olim who made Israel their home this year. We look forward to helping thousands more in the year ahead. Shana Tovah! www.nbn.org.il/shanatovah 1-866-4-ALIYAH • [email protected] THE JEWISH JOURNAL – JEWISHJOURNAL.ORG – AUGUST 26, 2021 3 Auchincloss: ‘There was never going to be a ticker-tape parade out of Afghanistan’ Saigon in 1975 that ended the not outfight Americans but they access to electricity tripled, the Vietnam War. In a response to knew, also, they could outlast rate of education increased by a reporter’s question on July us, and they could outlast us an order of magnitude for boys 8, President Biden said he saw because to counter an insurgen- and girls. The Taliban are taking zero similarities between the cy, you don’t just need military over a country that is different situations in Afghanistan and superiority, you need to offer from two decades ago.” Vietnam. better governance – and the “The important thing, as an Auchincloss said, “The right Afghan leaders in Kabul offered, Afghan War veteran, I don’t feel contrast, to me, is not between instead, corruption and incom- my service was in vain,” Blonder today and 50 years ago, but petence.” said. “I don’t believe my friends between today and 50 years from He noted that there had been who lost their lives in service now. Without this president’s tangible improvements over the were in vain. Remember, one clear-eyed assessment of the past two decades – “the literacy of the reasons we went into national interest, we would be rate in Afghanistan was doubled, Afghanistan was to find Osama risking a scenario in which the infant mortality was halved, bin Laden, and we did.” U.S. had forces in Afghanistan indefinitely, and another 20 years of fruitless conflict.” U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss, right, in Afghanistan. However, Blonder said that many Vietnam veterans attend- By Rich Tenorio in a country whose moniker is ing the JWV convention had JOURNAL CORRESPONDENT ‘a graveyard of empires,’” he expressed concern about said. “There was never going to Afghanistan. After a young Harvard gradu- be a ticker-tape parade out of “I think a lot of bad memo- ate named Jake Auchincloss Afghanistan. It was going to be ries are coming up for Vietnam deployed to Afghanistan with rocky. What’s critical is how he veterans, as they are coming the U.S. Marine Corps in 2012, adapts to a highly fluid situation up [for] Afghanistan veterans,” he commanded patrols in the and the U.S. military has adapt- Blonder said. southern province of Helmand, ed well and was gaining control He served in Afghanistan as guiding infantry through villages over the airport.” a combat advisor to its military that the Taliban were seeking Auchincloss and fellow from 2008 to 2009, in its fourth- to control. Now a Democratic Jewish veterans are concerned largest city of Mazar-e-Sharif Congressman representing the about Americans and allies who and the nearby Camp Mike 4th District of Massachusetts, remain in Afghanistan – includ- Spann, named after CIA opera- Auchincloss was one of sever- ing an estimated 11,000 U.S. citi- tive Johnny Micheal Spann, the al Jewish Afghan War veterans zens. The congressman said that first American to die in combat reflecting on a dramatic turn- the military has resumed daily in Afghanistan. around since their days overseas. evacuations from Kabul’s inter- Blonder characterized the In a weeklong offensive earlier national airport.