The Award Winning » SPECIAL ISSUE

the ewish jourNal jA publication of the Jewish Federation of Greater Buffalo of WNY BUFFALO, ISRAEL & THE JEWISH WORLD | WWW.JFEDBFLO.COM JULY 2016 | SIVAN-TAMMUZ 5776

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the ewish jourNal j of WNY July 2016 Published by The Jewish Federation of Greater Buffalo 2640 North Forest Road Getzville, NY 14068 716-204-2241 Editor’s Note On The Cover www.jfedbflo.com

CEO/Executive Director...... Rob Goldberg President...... Howard Rosenhoch Editor, Marketing and Community Relations Director...... Ellen S. Goldstein Advisory Board Susan Adelman Elizabeth Kahn Kenneth Rogers Jonathan Epstein Rabbi Gary Pokras Peter Simon Richard Hirsch Eric Reich Michael Weisman

The Jewish Federation of Greater Buffalo Is a proud member of the Jewish Federations of North America and the American Jewish Press Association Produced by Ellen Goldstein, Editor Photos (each row from left) of Danny Brink-Washington and Rachel Beerman by Ellen Goldstein; Moshe Shulman by Miranda Scoma; Amy Zeckhauser by Judy Zeckhauser; The Welcome to our special July issue of the Jewish Journal Roblin Sisters courtesy of Ethel Melzer; Doug Love courtesy Senior Vice President/Creative Director...... Chastity O'Shei of WNY! As we have been saying proudly, Jewish Buffalo of Explore & More Children’s Museum; Charlie Levin by his [email protected] has a lot to shout about! People all over Western New York family; Rus Devorah Wallen courtesy of Rus Devorah Wallen; Vice President/Production...... Jennifer Tudor Rachel Jackson courtesy of Rachel Jackson; Drew Kahn courtesy are making a difference, changing their world, inventing [email protected] of Bruce Fox-Buffalo State; Ed Drantch courtesy of WKBW-TV; Lead Designer...... Kimberly Miers new things, bringing Buffalo back to its former status and Sandra Block courtesy of Sandra Block; Robyn Zimmer by Ellen [email protected] grandeur. And many of them are members of our Jewish Goldstein. Photo collage and art by Kim Miers. Senior Graphic Designers...... Josh Flanigan, community. In this issue you will meet people we are calling Andrea Rowley, Jean-Pierre Thimot, Nicholas Vitello Traffic Coordinator...... Adam Van Schoonhoven Difference Makers. They range in age from 8 years old to 3 Difference-Makers by Rob Goldberg Associate Publisher/Senior Vice President/Advertising...... Barbara E. Macks mid-90s, from religious and secular to those native to Buffalo [email protected] or who have made Buffalo their new home. All have one 4 Rachel Beerman & Danny Brink- Assistant Sales & Marketing Manager...... Marianne Potratz [email protected] thing in common: they are committed to making our Buffalo Washington by Peter Simon Senior Account Executives...... Cynthia Oppenheimer, community a better place to live, work and prosper. Thanks to 5 Moshe Shulman by Sheila Shapiro [email protected] all the talented free-lance writers and community members Robin Kurss, [email protected] 6-7 Amy Zeckhauser by Maria Scrivani Bruce Halpern, [email protected] who contributed to this issue: Jana Eisenberg, Rob Goldberg, 8 Drew Kahn by Laurie Kaiser Betty Tata, [email protected] Shira Goldberg, Reine Hauser, Laurie Kaiser from Buffalo Proofreaders ...... Sharon C. Levite, Amy Goldstein State College, Maria Scrivani, Sheila Shapiro and Peter Simon. 10-11 Douglas Love by Reine Hauser Our country is still reeling from the horrible hate crime 12-13 Charlie Levin by Shira Goldberg Members of committed in an Orlando, Florida nightclub in early June 14-15 Rachel Jackson by Maria Scrivani during our Festival of Shavuot. And we have heard many Submissions: responses, many cries for peace, tolerance, justice from 16-17 Sandra Block by Jana Eisenberg Submit editorial stories, photos, and calendar items by the 1st of the preceding month of issue to [email protected]. lay and clergy people, from politicians and from political 18-19 Rus Devorah Wallen by Rob Goldberg To Advertise: candidates. We as Jews know about hate only too well. But 20 Ed Drantch by Reine Hauser To advertise, call Cynthia Oppenheimer at 716-783-9119 x2240. we also know about love. Here is a statement put out by Ad space & materials are due by the 10th of each month prior to the clergy of Congregation Emanuel in San Francisco which 21 The Roblin Sisters by Ellen Goldstein publication. For a rate card and any additional information, please resonates for me: 22 Robyn Zimmer by Ellen Goldstein email Cynthia Oppenheimer [email protected] or Barbara Macks [email protected]. Today is Shavuot, the festival during which we celebrate 24 5 Things you can do to repair To Subscribe: Matan Torah, the giving of Torah at Mt. Sinai. This was a the world in July To subscribe, visit www.jfedbflo.com and click on “JJWNY moment when truth sparked for all to see. It sparks for us Where in Jewish Bflo? subscription.” Free for Western New York area residents and donors again, here and now. Today we cling tightly to our Torah; to the UJF Campaign. Non-resident subscription is $36 for 12 issues, our Torah that paints a vibrant bright and beautiful picture 25 Essen ‘N Fressn - by Robin Kurss payable to The Jewish Journal of WNY. of what community can and should be. We cling tightly to 26-27 Special Section: The Jewish Journal of WNY (JJWNY) reserves the right to cancel any advertisement at any time. The Jewish Federation of Greater Buffalo and Buffalo Spree Publishing, Inc. our Torah that cries out to each of us now, tzedek, tzedek Garden and Farm to Table are not liable for the content or errors appearing in the advertisements beyond the tirdof, be bold and relentless in pursuit of justice! cost of the space occupied. The JJWNY does not assume responsibility for the kashrut 28-29 Agencies & Synagogues of any product or service advertised in this paper. Editorials, columns, advertisements, Please join us in pursuing justice, creating community, agency reports and other outside articles do not necessarily represent the views of 30-31 July Calendar the newspaper or the Jewish Federation of Greater Buffalo, but rather express the making our world better. view of the writer.

And please visit me for 32-39 Agencies All real estate advertising in this newspaper is subject to the Federal Fair Housing Act of 1968, which makes it “illegal to advertise “based on race, color, religion, Garden Walk this month! 40-43 Jews in the News sex, handicap, familial status, national origin, or an intention to make any such preference, limitation or discrimination.” This newspaper will not knowingly accept 44 Not The Last Word: Travel to Israel any advertising for real estate that is in violation of the law. Our readers are hereby Ellen Goldstein - Editor informed that all dwellings advertised in this newspaper are available on an equal by David Schiller opportunity basis. 2 www.jfedbflo.com | July 2016 July 2016 | www.jfedbflo.com 3 JEWISH BUFFALO’S DIFFERENCE MAKERS

and in so doing sought and throughout the world, to display the mix of as well as a rising star our Jewish community, in our local news media featuring individuals and 6 others. Together who are making an these members of our impact on those around community weave a story them. This month’s that underscores the special issue introduces diversity and strength that a couple who chose to is Jewish Buffalo. move to Buffalo to start We hope that you enjoy a new charter school each of their stories and and an 8-year-old boy are inspired by their work, whose wit, spirit and passion and contributions. courage has inspired Many thanks to Ellen young and old alike. Goldstein for inspiring By Rob Goldberg We profile a practicing this idea and editing There are 12 months in a year corresponding to a dozen cycles of the moon and 12 Tribes neurologist/mystery the profiles and to Jana of Israel named for the 12 sons of Jacob. Gematria, a Kabbalistic system for calculating writer whose first two Eisenberg, Shira Goldberg, the equivalence of letters, words and phrases in Hebrew, gives us novels have received Reine Hauser, Laurie additional insight as the number twelve is the equivalent of the critical acclaim, an Kaiser, Maria Scrivani, three Hebrew letters Tet, Aleph, Bet that form the word “tov” which inventor/attorney Sheila Shapiro and Peter means good or well. And it is in that spirit that we are pleased to whose common-sense Simon who contributed profile 12 unique individuals and families in this month’s magazine product is bringing the narratives for our who make our community good and who make us better. They are relief to new mothers difference-makers. in a word “difference-makers.” around the country, Selecting our “12” difference-makers was an impossible task, so much and we spotlight a so, that we’ve decided to continue our profiles throughout the coming year leader in the Lubavitch Rob Goldberg featuring one individual, couple or family each month. But still we chose, community both here It’s time for a change… 2017 CAMPAIGN SAVE KICK-OFF MONDAY THE SEPTEMBER 26 featuring special guest DATE MARLEE MATLIN

FOR MORE INFORMATION OR SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES: Randi Morkisz 716.204.2245 rmorkisz@jfedbflo.com

2 www.jfedbflo.com | July 2016 July 2016 | www.jfedbflo.com 3 JEWISH BUFFALO’S DIFFERENCE MAKERS Rachel Beerman & Danny Brink-Washington: Making Buffalo Education Better

By Peter Simon

After teaching at Buffalo’s Tapestry eighth-grade coordinator there. Ms. Charter School for four years, Rachel Beerman is a “learning coach” who Beerman decided it was time to leave works on academics by phone with her hometown and try something people throughout the country who are different. “I was looking for a new seeking college degrees while working adventure,” she said. “I wanted to be full-time. out there in the real world.” But they want to do more — far more That curiosity led her to the — to improve educational outcomes in Brooklyn Prospect Charter School, city schools. where she landed a teaching job in 2009. In addition to working, parenting Originally from Buffalo, Ms. Beerman and trying to take advantage of the graduated from the Olmsted Schools cultural offerings available here, Ms. and City Honors, and then earned Beerman and Brink-Washington are degrees from Geneseo State College and crafting plans to establish a Perspectives Simmons College in Boston. Academy Charter School in Buffalo. It Meanwhile, Danny Brink-Washington would emphasize participation in the earned a degree in acting from New York demanding International Baccalaureate University, and spent several years on program, promote close community ties stage before feeling something crucial and have similarities to the Brooklyn was missing, “I felt like I was not helping school where they met. people, which is what I wanted to do,” If approved by the state, the school said Brink-Washington. would open in 2018. It would begin Through a teaching fellowship with instruction in both kindergarten program, he taught special education and fifth-grade, and ultimately expand in a New York City school for five years to classes in kindergarten through 12th before taking a job at Brooklyn Prospect grade. Charter School. That’s where Ms. The enthusiasm and energy Ms. Beerman, who became a Bat Mitzvah at Educators Danny Brink-Washington, Rachel Beerman and their son Henry Morris. Beerman and Brink-Washington have Buffalo’s Temple Beth Zion, and Brink- for Buffalo is beginning to emerge on Washington, who grew up non-Jewish from their Brooklyn rental unit sold for brought with it the promise of new, good a larger scale. A New York Times story in Cambridge, MA and Minneapolis, MN $2 million. “As two teachers, that (home jobs. But it was other things -- smaller published last summer is widely seen as hit it off and came to share their dreams. ownership) was not going to happen for in scale but deeply meaningful to Ms. a major breakthrough in that regard: They married, had a son — Henry us,” Brink-Washington said. He and Ms. Beerman and Brink-Washington -- that “After decades of providing the punch Morris Beerman-Brink, now two years Beerman moved here last summer, and convinced them that the benefits of line in jokes about snowstorms, also-ran old — and refocused on their long- are hoping to establish a charter school moving here went even beyond being sport teams and urban decline, the Queen term goals. Family and reasonable living in the city by 2018. Now, Ms. Beerman in town with Ms. Beerman’s family and City of the Lakes is suddenly experiencing costs in Buffalo won over the allure can walk to her parents’ house in about closer to Brink-Washington’s family in something new: an economic turnaround, of Brooklyn. Rachel’s parents, Dr. Terry 15 minutes, and they look after Henry Pennsylvania. helped by the unlikely sector of renewable Beerman and Nina Wright, continue to Morris once a week. Brink-Washington said Buffalo’s energy,” the story said. “The change in live in the house she grew up in on At the same time they moved here, immigrant-friendly flavor, an Buffalo is so evident that parents who once Windsor Avenue in the city’s Delaware Buffalo was undergoing a long-overdue impressive group of young and creative told their children to seek their fortunes District. resurgence. The “Buffalo Billion,” a New activists, and successful attempts elsewhere are now telling them to come That was driven home when a two- York State commitment to economic at neighborhood revitalization have back.” bedroom apartment across the street growth built around renewable energy, created an alluring “melting pot” of While such newspaper stories are cultures, religions and ethnic groups, invaluable, they fail to fully convey the especially on the West Side. “There seems attachment Buffalo natives have to their “People love to be from Buffalo - to be a critical mass of people saying this city, Brink-Washington said. “People love could be the time for a turnaround,” he to be from Buffalo,” he said. “Buffalo has Buffalo has a giant heart.” said. “We really wanted to raise Henry a giant heart.” Morris in a community like Buffalo.” Pete Simon is a retired Buffalo News Danny Brink-Washington Brink-Washington currently teaches reporter and an active member of social studies at Buffalo’s Elmwood Congregation Shir Shalom. Village Charter School, and is the 4 www.jfedbflo.com | July 2016 July 2016 | www.jfedbflo.com 5 JEWISH BUFFALO’S DIFFERENCE MAKERS Moshe Shulman: Teaching Music and Making the World a Better Place

By Sheila Shapiro About ten years ago, Moshe developed a love for What is a Russian-born, Israeli the tango…both dancing and musician and composer with a playing. He left the States in Doctorate in Music Composition 2012 to conduct independent doing in Buffalo, NY rather than a tango research in Buenos big city such as New York? Dr. Moshe Aires where he learned to play Shulman who recently won Harvard the bandoneon, an essential University’s prestigious Fromm instrument in tango music. Foundation Commission says, “I feel Upon returning to the States, comfortable in a smaller city such new instrument in hand, as Buffalo and enjoy bringing my he formed Buffalo Tango expertise to the Buffalo community.” Orkestra. He also formed Dr. Shulman, who prefers to be called Boleo, a string quartet, that simply, Moshe, was born in southern specializes in Latin American Russia, in the little town of Novorossiysk, as well as klezmer and gypsy located on the Black Sea, a couple hours music. Moshe is the only away from Sochi. He started to play the musician in Western New York violin at the age of five and soccer at the who plays the bandoneon as age of seven. When the Soviet regime well as the violin in concert. collapsed, his family moved to Israel Moshe and his wife, Miranda, where he continued to study the violin Moshe Shulman with a Kadimah student at the piano a professional violinist and and play soccer. Ultimately, it was time teacher enjoy performing for Moshe to serve in the IDF. learn songs which we present at school performed locally and internationally by various together for Buffalo audiences After his mandatory service, Moshe and community events.” In addition, ensembles in the USA, Denmark, Canada and and teaching together at enrolled in the Jerusalem Academy, Einav Symons, Kadimah’s director, England. He is composer in residence with the Kadimah Academy. They where he studied music for the next five created an afterschool program with Dr. Commonwealth Lyric Opera in Boston and Musical are committed to building a years…and continued to play soccer! He Shulman’s supervision. Here, students Feast Program in Buffalo. He also performs with unique music experience and decided to enter a doctoral program in can take private lessons on the violin, the Western New York Chamber Orchestra and music program for the Jewish the United States and the University of piano or accordion. The program is open Slee Sinfonietta. youth of Buffalo. Buffalo was the place that offered him a for both Kadimah and non-Kadimah For more information about full assistantship and teaching position. students. Every two to three months music lessons at Kadimah Moshe is busy performing, composing students perform in front of parents and “Teaching has its Academy and upcoming music and teaching at Kadimah Academy. friends in a concert. Mrs. Symons says performances visit: www. “Teaching has its incomparable joy” “In several years, I see small ensembles incomparable joy.” mosheshulman.com he says. “At Kadimah I teach music being formed to play classical and Jewish Sheila Shapiero is the Adult appreciation, theory and solfege. Every music.” Moshe Shulman Services coordinator at the time a Jewish Holiday approaches we Dr. Shulman’s music has been JCC Holland Building.

4 www.jfedbflo.com | July 2016 July 2016 | www.jfedbflo.com 5 JEWISH BUFFALO’S DIFFERENCE MAKERS Thank you for your generous support to the Amy Zeckhauser: Jewish Federation and the Life Lessons from a Poet 2016 United Jewish Fund by Maria Scrivani

Aging wouldn’t have such a bad rap if more people could manage it like Amy Campaign. Zeckhauser. It’s a matter of attitude, according to this vibrant nonagenarian who’s lived nearly seven of her nine decades in her Lafayette Avenue home. We will publish the Honor Roll thanking all donors to “Being able to look forward to something, whatever it may be, is key,” she says. the 2016 campaign again this year at our Community Kickoff Dinner and in the Jewish Journal of WNY. Your name will appear exactly as it did last year unless otherwise requested. Should you wish to make any changes, please contact our Campaign Director, Randi Morkisz at [email protected] or 716-204-2245.

Your gift helps so many here in Buffalo, in Israel and throughout the world! Thank you!

Amy Zeckhauser in her Buffalo home Photo by Judy Zeckhauser

At ninety-six, Zeckhauser is no years ago—or relying on one of her two stranger to the accouterments of daughters who live nearby (a son is in advanced age. She uses a walker and Chicago), she does make the effort to go a pair of hearing aids and is tethered shopping, visiting, and dine out. to a supply of oxygen. Other constant Zeckhauser is determined to stay companions are perhaps less ubiquitous in her own home, and thus far has in her peer group—a sense of humor and managed to do so, despite a couple an unquenchable zest for life. of hospitalizations in recent years. Even though this former world traveler Returning home after stints in rehab is sedentary these days, she works at required family support plus the staying busy and enjoys cooking and assistance of a longtime cleaning lady baking, though at a much slower pace. who comes in twice a week—as well as She continues longtime community sheer strength of will. The gracious old involvements, remains an avid Buffalo home in which she resides, shared with Bills fan, and keeps up on current events. a couple of tenants in back apartments, “I only watch TV that is intellectually is a repository of memories; a gallery stimulating, and I don’t watch it all day of art collected over the years, liberally long,” she says. sprinkled with family photos and Though getting out requires arranging memorabilia. Some of the sculpture for a driver—she ruefully admits that her and paintings are Zeckhauser’s own children “took away my wheels” a few work. A graduate of the University of 6 www.jfedbflo.com | July 2016 July 2016 | www.jfedbflo.com 7 BONNIE CLEMENT Pennsylvania, where she majored in art United Way of Buffalo and Erie County. 716.553.8384 @ history (she’s thinking of going to her Together with Ann Holland Cohn and bsclement aol.com seventy-fifth reunion this year), she has the late Miriam Tabor, she used to create been a fine artist by avocation all her life and paint scenery for shows at Temple and has also written poetry for what she Beth Zion and the Westwood Country calls “personal expression.” Club. On display in the main front hallway In fact, both she and her late is the torch carried by her late husband husband were community activists, still J. Milton “Zeke” Zeckhauser, who was a significant feature of her life. Zeke honored as an Olympic torchbearer in started Grassroots Gardens here, in the relay here in 2001, just before his which daughter Judy is still active, with Broker for HUNT Real ninety-second birthday, as part of the support and advice from her mother. Estate ERA,* which includes festivities leading up to the 2002 Salt “That was really Zeke’s project, and I 1,100 sales associates and Lake City Olympics. “It was the highlight encouraged it,” she recalls. “I worried 38 offices nationwide from of his life,” Zeckhauser recalls. “He had when he said he was going to retire. I Buffalo to Albany and the just had a hip replacement, so he carried remember thinking, Oh, you’ll be home State of Arizona a cane in one hand, and the torch in the now for lunch? This all started in 1990. # other.” He was worried that the whole project The Zeckhausers had been married would end when he was gone, but it’s almost sixty years when Zeke died. gone on full-steam, under wonderful HUNT Real Estate ERA They’d met in 1946 on a blind date in leadership.” congratulates Bonnie her hometown of Philadelphia where Until quite recently she was a on her remarkable, he was visiting his brother. A native volunteer in the Jewish Federation’s 1 of Columbus, Ohio, Zeke had been an Buffalo Jewish Coalition for Literacy—a 2013, 2014, 2015!!! Beth Joseph, Bari Spokane, Bonnie Clement, Sheryl Martin

“I feel very strongly about feeding empty * All of HUNT Real Estate ERA Gross Closed Commission and #1 total Units Buffalo / Niagara Region 2013. bellies before you can do other things.” Amy Zeckhauser

executive with Kobacker’s department program at Bennett Park Montessori store in Buffalo, a career interrupted by School, working with three- to five-year- World War II service. He was thirty-six olds—just “the greatest experience,” when he met Amy, ten years his junior. she says. These days she solicits legacy The romance was a whirlwind, like many donors for the Food Bank, a passion during those heady post-war years. fueled by a belief in pragmatic assistance: Within three months, they were married, “I feel very strongly about feeding empty and by 1947, back in Buffalo where Zeke bellies before you can do other things.” resumed work in retail. They bought Though she misses the love of her the house on Lafayette and raised a life—the man who once surprised her family. He became a stockbroker when during an anniversary trip by enlisting Kobacker’s was sold. She managed the Ray Bolger, famous as the very limber house, presided over the PTA at School Scarecrow in the classic film version of 56, started a Girl Scout Troop at Temple The Wizard of Oz, to serenade her with Beth Zion. “Once In Love With Amy” in a New She chaired the Residential Division York City nightclub—she cherishes and of the United Way in the early ‘70s, was honors his memory every day by living an early Meals on Wheels volunteer, well. and has been active in the Jewish “I’ve been very lucky,” she says. “It’s Federation’s UJF Campaign ever since very easy to stop and think, that one’s she came to Buffalo in 1947, chairing gone, or this one’s gone—you can really the UJF Women’s Division during the work yourself into a state of sorrow that 1970s. “I looked up to the late Ann is debilitating. I choose to look forward.” Riwchun and Ruth Kahn Stovroff, who Maria Scrivani is a frequent were both my mentors and guides,” she contributor to Forever Young and said She was a trustee of Temple Beth Buffalo Spree Zion, the Jewish Community Center and 6 www.jfedbflo.com | July 2016 July 2016 | www.jfedbflo.com 7 JEWISHDIFFERENCE BUFFALO’S MAKERS DIFFERENCE MAKERS Drew Kahn: The Anne Frank Project

By Laurie Kaiser

At a time when presidential debates and rallies have been riddled with incivility and the country seems more polarized than ever, a Buffalo State theater professor is introducing the next generation to a different approach to conflict resolution, one based in storytelling. Drew Kahn, who founded and directs the college’s social justice-based Anne Frank Project (AFP), has demonstrated in numerous workshops with public school students and teachers from Buffalo to Rwanda that using stories to address thorny problems can be powerful and effective. “The world is filled with people who haven’t shared their stories” he said. “The most dangerous people are the ones who choose not to share their story in the midst of conflict. They become bystanders. When people share their stories through music or science or writing, the world becomes a better place. The first thing we tell the (K-12) students we work with: ‘You matter and your story matters.’” Kahn, a Los Angeles, California, native who joined the Buffalo State faculty in 1993, said “an inflated sense of justice” and a desire to tell stories has been a core part of him from a young age. “When I started directing plays, I was always tweaking them to Drew Kahn teaching drama students at Buffalo State College address social justice concerns,” he said. His evangelism was heightened by young Holocaust victim such a troubled history. Anne Frank. In 2006, Kahn directed a campus production of The “Young people are my “If we can provide the children with Diary of Anne Frank, and double-cast it to include a Rwandan girl the tools and vocabulary for story- mirroring Anne Frank’s life. favorite demographic. They building,” Kahn said, “we can be sure “This play introduces audience to a little girl with so much they will see components of conflicts wisdom,” he said. “It made me wonder how many other children’s are like trees coming up. such as genocide before they happen.” lives have been cut short by the atrocities of adults.” As for the problems facing America? The play bloomed into a multimedia festival that attracts They can bend and change.” “It doesn’t surprise me that there thousands of visitors to campus each September and features is so much division in this country artists, musicians, activists, and genocide survivors. Drew Kahn right now — when self-interest eclipses But he wanted to take the message and the model even further. human interests. The electorate used to In 2013, he, along with AFP assistant director Eve Everette and a call themselves public servants. When group of theater students, began visiting middle schools and high the storytelling model Kahn espouses. Beginning in January the name changed to elected officials schools throughout Western New York and using storytelling for 2011, he’s led several three-week trips to Rwanda, where it, unfortunately, validated the behavior conflict resolution. students have visited genocide memorials, refugee camps, we once considered irresponsible and The Buffalo State students perform one-act plays they’ve and orphanages, as well as collaborated on theatrical beyond reproach.” collectively written dealing with topics such as bullying, suicide, productions with Rwandan college students. Kahn knows that U.S. politicians and body image. Afterward, they hold interactive workshops to That effort, coupled with AFP in the Schools, attracted could benefit from conflict-resolution, engage the audience in the play’s lessons and encourage feedback. the attention of the nonprofit Global Engagement Institute, but he suspects most wouldn’t be open They’ve now presented their plays at more than 50 schools. which handles short-term, high-impact projects in developing to it. He’s even written the White House “Teachers and counselors have told us that students want countries. Its director asked Kahn to share his knowledge of offering free reconciliation training and to talk about issues after our visits that they hadn’t before,” hands-on, experimental learning with Rwandan schools. received no response. Kahn said. “They’ve said ‘You’ve give us the tools to have In 2015, Kahn, a few Buffalo State education faculty “I don’t have access to politicians. important discussions about bullying, personal trauma, and members, and a dozen students, introduced the drama- I do have access to elementary school identity.’” based model of teaching in Rwanda’s Gasabo district, which children through college students,” Recently, new Lafayette High School Principal John Starky asked resulted in AFP being named a finalist for a 2016 international he said, adding, “Young people are my AFP to help them make the transition to an international school. innovation award. favorite demographic. They are like trees “We’ll be training everyone — janitors, teachers, administrators “Rwandan teachers who have put the story-building coming up. They can bend and change.” — on how to use drama-based education to rebuild a troubled model into practice have seen their exam scores go through Laurie Kaiser is a staff writer for school,” Kahn said. the roof,” he said. Public Relations at Buffalo State Annual Buffalo State pilgrimages to Rwanda have enhanced But it goes beyond academic grades for a country with College. 8 www.jfedbflo.com | July 2016 July 2016 | www.jfedbflo.com 9 8 www.jfedbflo.com | July 2016 July 2016 | www.jfedbflo.com 9 JEWISH BUFFALO’S DIFFERENCE MAKERS Douglas Love: Love’s Kids By Reine Hauser

In Douglas Love’s life, it’s all about children. Love, the new CEO of Explore & More Children’s Museum, is the author of more than thirty books for children, Love is the creator of countless plays for children, children’s games, and the producer of Jammin’ Animals, an animated (yes) children’s program on HBO.

But that’s not all. As the executive project; the producing consultant and director of producer/creator of the Out of the Box Learning Through the Arts - Rock Odyssey at the TV Series for the Disney ABC Television Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts Group’s daily, live-action television in Miami, (the largest art center in Florida.) This series, Love was the person with overall unique live rock-and-roll musical is based on creative authority and management Homer’s Odyssey –and brings 25,000 fifth graders to responsibility—the “showrunner” for the Center annually - all free of charge to students Out of the Box, making him a veritable and schools. Shondra Rhimes for children’s programs. A true educational innovator, in Los Angeles, Then there’s World Book Kids, for which Love created and led a new development division of he serves as executive consultant, Anschutz Film Group called Walden Media. Walden reinventing the way young people use is the movie studio that produced the Narnia movies reference and/or encyclopedias, as well and other family blockbusters, and they partnered as an award-winning online animated with Love to develop new entertainment content tutorial for the product. Dramatic to be piloted before live audiences. He managed Douglas Love Learning, another World Book project, this multi-million dollar division with as many was created by Love as a digital, online as 75 employees, conceived seven new titles for subscription-based curriculum product. development and packaged a television series based Douglas Love has influenced Dramatic Learning provides teachers with on the company’s successful movie, Holes. plays and lessons to teach standards- That led to a stint in Denver, CO, with the Walden world-wide popular culture based core curriculum (science, history, Family Playhouse, also a division of the Anschutz math, reading, and language arts). It Film Group. There he produced seven large-scale by engaging imaginations, hearts now has more than 11 million paid original musicals and one play, commissioning subscribers annually in more than 23 award-winning writers, directors and designers and minds of children. countries, making it the most popular from the worlds of Broadway, film and television, arts education product/program in the and launched an arts school for children and adults, all operations of this 2,203 seat theatre, and orchestrated and managed world. as well as a regional theatre festival for schools. the first ever joint venture between the city, its school districts, the library Resourceful, imaginative and best There’s more to his fascinating career to date. system and the theatre, while also implementing a county-wide literacy of all, child-centered, Love was the Lured north to the Shorenstein Hays Nederlander program that culminated in a professional, large scale stage production of executive director/CEO of History In in San Francisco, Love was the producing executive Holes, based once again on the award winning book, film, and television Motion - a non-profit “living museum” director of FamilyStage. There he produced and ran series Holes.

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In the spirit of Tikkun Olam, Love’s story waterfall, with water entering a life-long endeavor is to repair the world system of locks and a power wheel to through children. He continues this generate electricity; a sports area where mission with his recent appointment kids can compare their race times with as CEO of Explore & More Children’s that of a sports star…with results on an Museum, currently located in East actual scoreboard; and a Fork to Farm Aurora, but slated to move to Buffalo’s area, so that kids can grow vegetables, get Canalside in 2018. them to market in an open sided huckster Born and raised Jewish in Milwaukee, truck, and end at a replica kitchen to Love was, at the tender age of 16, the make food for their family. Each play assistant family program director of the area will be replete with lesson plans Jewish Community Center. Thus began for teachers…ten to twelve per exhibit, his prolific, multi-platform mission to which will be aligned with New York’s educate and entertain children, expanding Common Core requirements and can far outward to an international audience. easily be incorporated into school based At Explore & More, Love will learning. Love expects it to make a major eventually oversee a four-story, 43,000 difference in Buffalo and Western New square foot museum that incorporates York area schools. seven distinctive play spaces, each Douglas Love has influenced world- centered on the subject of place… that wide popular culture by engaging place being Western New York. Exploring imaginations, hearts and minds of the region through such themes as a children. With his latest venture with Buffalo streetscape, with the interiors Explore & More, Love will make a of houses (that children can actually substantial impact on what a children’s enter) representing various communities museums is in the 21st century, and the ranging from Burmese to Jewish, with lives of children in our community. furnishings, clothes, food, and holiday Reine Hauser is a professional cultural decorations. There will be a real, two administrator in Western New York.

10 www.jfedbflo.com | July 2016 July 2016 | www.jfedbflo.com 11 JEWISH BUFFALO’S DIFFERENCE MAKERS Charlie Levin: Dreams from the Heart

By Shira Goldberg

What an honor and joy to interview Charlie Levin, one of the most extraordinary “alums” of the Play and Learn School at Temple Beth Zion. And to think, Charlie is only 8 years old.

I met with Charlie at his home in management and monitoring, his family Williamsville last month and we had is hopeful that he can avoid a heart a great conversation; we spoke about transplant for many years. sports, school, family, food and his Though quiet and shy, Charlie has “heart stuff.” As many in the community been a beacon of hope for so many may know, Charlie, AKA “Super Charlie,” through his strength and ability to beat is the son of Merredith and Ken Levin. the odds. But at his core, Charlie is just When he was 3 months old Charlie a regular kid. When I asked Charlie was diagnosed with a congenital heart what makes him really happy, he said, defect known as Hypoplastic Left Heart “Anderson’s (frozen custard) twist with Syndrome; essentially the left side of rainbow sprinkles.” And when we talked Charlie’s heart was much smaller and about school, he told me that his favorite weaker than the right side. Charlie subject is math, because, in his words, is followed very closely by his cardiac “I’m really good at it.” When I asked teams in Buffalo and Boston. Although Charlie what he is good at besides math, his condition will require lifelong he said: “Baseball and being a brother,

Charlie Levin

95% of the time.” Charlie’s wit defines Though quiet and shy, him as well as I learned quickly that he is quite Charlie has been a beacon the comedian with a repertoire of jokes that he of hope for so many memorized when he was in the hospital, many of through his strength and which are originals. For example, he asked me: ability to beat the odds. “What did the hat say to the mitten?” The answer of course: “You look did all of them and then showed me his 5 extra “belly glovely.” And this one: buttons” one for each of his surgeries. He then rattled “Where do golfers go to off the 5 different medications he takes each day and dance?” I was stumped. what each of them is for. I asked him if all of this With an ear to ear grin, made him feel different. His answer was perfect: “I’m Charlie said: “Ms. Shira, special,” he told me, “cuz I get to go to heart camp they go to the ‘golf clubs,’ this summer.” The camp, staffed by Charlie’s doctors, of course.” is called “Dreams from the Heart” and is held at Lake When we talked about Chautauqua. “And the best part,” Charlie said, that at his “heart stuff” I asked the end of camp there is “…a talent show and I’m a him if he could run, really good magician.” jump, whistle, and cross And then came the best part of our interview: Charlie his eyes. In response, he put me in a box and sawed me in half – just kidding! But 12 www.jfedbflo.com | July 2016 July 2016 | www.jfedbflo.com 13 ADVERTISE in the Jewish Journal’s he did perform some amazing sleight-of- Special Section in August: hand tricks, making both a quarter and a toothpick disappear then reappear. I knew then that Charlie will steal the Money show at camp. My time with Charlie flew by as we had so much fun together. I always knew Matters Charlie was sweet and even at 2 he was special. But what I love about Charlie is that he is both boy – doing everything an 8-year-old should – and he has a unique wisdom for one so young. Charlie is a jokester, a magician, a brother, son and a regular second grader excited about the summer, baseball, and figuring out how to make his siblings, Parker and Archie, disappear. Shira Goldberg is a teacher and the curriculum coordinator at the Play and Learn School at Temple Beth Zion. Charlie Levin was a student at PALS from 2010-2013.

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12 www.jfedbflo.com | July 2016 July 2016 | www.jfedbflo.com 13 JEWISH BUFFALO’S DIFFERENCE MAKERS Rachel Jackson: A Mother’s Wisdom

By Maria Scrivani

How many times have you thought, in times of stress, “There must be a better way!” How many times have you actually done something about it, and, oh, say, created a successful business around a simple solution? Never, if you are like most people.

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Rachel Jackson: mother, lawyer, entrepeneur.

Meet Rachel Jackson, who is decidedly common ailments in breastfeeding not like most people. The Buffalo native, mothers. Moist heat has been shown to a graduate of Buffalo Seminary, UB, help increase milk flow. These issues and University of Toledo Law School, often curtail the time women spend found an answer to a common problem breastfeeding, and prevent some women endured by new mothers, and launched from doing it at all, despite the fact Rachel’s Remedies, LLC. Rachel’s that both the American Academy of Sheryl Remedy Breastfeeding Relief Packs are Pediatrics and the World Health Kardaman Silverberg now sold at Babies R Us, buy buy BABY, Organization recommend breast milk as Wegmans, and through various online the best nourishment for infants. Your Neighbor, Your Realtor outlets, including Amazon. Next year As a corporate lawyer, Jackson, who they will be on the shelves at Target is now the mother of two young boys, is stores. well aware of the need to amass data in The product—organic cotton support of an argument. She figured out moistening cloth (for moist heat or early on that the tried-and-true method cooling relief) over a flaxseed-filled recommended by physicians—applying REALTY USA pillow that is tucked into a waterproof moist heat to engorged breasts—was 6000 Sheridan Drive | Williamsville, NY pouch, all designed to fit inside a not the most efficacious way to treat 716.634.4200 cell: 716.480.2196 woman’s bra—relieves clogged ducts, a vexing problem. “There was a point [email protected] engorgement, and mastitis, extremely when I was in bed, nursing a newborn, 14 www.jfedbflo.com | July 2016 while trying to participate in a pre- clients. I had a lot of anxiety around trial phone conference with a judge that, ending up with mastitis (a breast and opposing counsel. I hadn’t even infection)…It was a crazy, crazy, busy told anyone I was having a baby, and time.” had made up some excuse about why I She channeled an abundance of energy couldn’t be there in person. I’m trying to and creativity—Jackson had also been a nurse, with a crying baby, while holding caterer and jewelry-maker in the past— a warm wet cloth on my chest…It was a into enabling this new phase of her life, defining moment, when I thought there and also helping other new mothers. She has to be a better way.” credits an “incredible support network” Jackson is the daughter of Susan for her success, including the UB Halpern and Bruce Jackson. She is also Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership the stepdaughter of Harold Halpern and and z80 Labs in Buffalo’s Innovation Diane Christian. Rachel, who is married Center on Ellicott Street, where she to Angelo Caico, a supervisor for the maintains work space. They helped her county Public Works Department (he figure out how to turn an idea into a came up with the catchy business name business, from sourcing materials and ‘Rachel’s Remedy’!), enlisted the help manufacturing to attracting investors. of her mother-in-law, a seamstress, Launch NY provided the assistance of an

“What matters in life is what you do now.” Rachel Jackson to create some prototype breast pads entrepreneur-in-residence to advise her. that could hold moist heat against the “I am so pro-family now,” says Jackson, breast in a waterproof cover, fitting whose boys are Samuel, 5, and Michael, inside clothes and keeping them dry. 3. She is proud of her work writing For a year she tried out variations, using New York State legislation for “lactation different materials from JoAnn Fabrics rooms” at airports, private spaces for and whole grains purchased in bulk from nursing moms that are separate from the Lexington Co-op. “We wanted all- public bathrooms. The legal work she natural components, so we used organic does these days revolves around the cotton and flax, which holds heat the new business. She filed the LLC in 2014. longest…All my friends had to test the She put to work all her skills in research pads, wearing them in their bras.” and writing risk factors and disclaimers, A less driven person might have quit at obtaining FDA clearance (the product that point, having worked out a personal is considered a Class I medical device) solution. But Rachel Jackson describes in May 2015, allowing them to sell and herself as someone who “goes all in” market Rachel’s Remedies. Packaging when she starts something. In 2005, was created by Buffalo’s Mod-Pac. she’d left a large firm to join her brother Jackson introduced her line at trade Michael Jackson, an entertainment shows devoted to products for mothers lawyer, in Jackson & Jackson LLP, one of and babies, and now major retailers have the best moves she says she ever made. picked it up. Next on her plate is the “It was so liberating to be able to control issue of insurance reimbursement. “The all the things I didn’t like about a bigger Affordable Care Act should cover it,” law firm—the billing, the hours, the she says, noting that breast pumps are clients. The ethics.” When her brother covered. Need Cleanin Help? moved to the West Coast, she “manned” Jackson credits her Jewish heritage their East Coast office here. with a guiding principle in her life, one Then she found herself unexpectedly that has sustained and energized all Call Yvonne and very happily pregnant, and the these efforts. She puts it simply, “What (716) 886-6254 corporate/legal world she was used to matters in life is what you do now.” Experienced • References became less appealing. “I was on this Maria Scrivani is a frequent $20 per hour horrible trail of hiding, of not talking contributor to Forever Young and about maternity issues, because I never Buffalo Spree. wanted to look compromised to my July 2016 | www.jfedbflo.com 15 JEWISH BUFFALO’S DIFFERENCE MAKERS Sandra Block: Writing Her Dreams

By Jana Eisenberg

Dr. Sandra Block, a native Buffalonian, is a neurologist at Buffalo Medical Group’s Sleep Center. She’s also a mystery novelist with two books under her belt and a third in the works. Little Black Lies and The Girl Without A Name were both released by Hachette in 2015. In April, Little Black Lies was nominated by the International Thriller Writers (ITW) for “best first novel.” Block’s Buffalo-based series received positive attention from media and the industry, including a New York Times review, and a “fan-blurb” from best- selling author Lisa Scottoline. The books feature main character Dr. Zoe Goldman, a young, Jewish resident at Buffalo Children’s Hospital. Block, who is herself Jewish, spoke with the Jewish Journal about finding the discipline within, why Buffalo is the perfect setting for her murder mysteries, and principles she’s most embraced from learning about her religion.

Jewish Journal: You’re a neurologist and a writer—how did you Sara Block: doctor and writer. decide which to be early on? Sandra Block: I always wrote. And when I was at Harvard, I double- majored in English and pre-med. [Ed. note: while she was in medical “A factor in my decision to become a doctor was school at UB, she worked for a summer at the Buffalo News]. A year before I applied to med school, I was working at a bookstore. It was kind that I thought it was a better way to serve the world. of boring—and low-paid. The experience helped me gain insight to the fact that, if I was going to sell my life in hours, it would have to pay more I agree with that less now; if you provide sustenance than $8 an hour. JJ: How did you come to write these books? or entertainment you are still serving the world.” SB: When I was 40, I dug up some things I’d written. I found a novel, Scalpel, which I wrote during my residency. It wasn’t that good. I also Sandra Block had begun a lot of other books, a memoir, some women’s fiction. Back then, I’d write a few chapters, and then “life” would take over. I was inspired a few years ago by a yoga studio sign: “You are never for both of them. JJ: Zoe has ADHD—she talks a lot too old, broke or sick to start from scratch.” So I began again, more JJ: Are you and Dr. Zoe Goldman alike? about it. methodically. I studied the craft. I also examined my barriers: I’m a night SB: There are some parallels. Zoe went to Yale, I went to SB: It’s ever-present in her mind and owl, but after I put the kids to bed, I was tired. So I became a “morning Harvard. Our humor is similar—sometimes she finds humor psyche. You can tell in her narrative when writer.” When you commit to that, all of a sudden you’ve got 500 words in things that maybe you shouldn’t. I did my residency in she is on or off her meds. She’ll be more a day. I had no agent or deadline, so I had no pressure while writing the psychiatry, and I did make her the same age that I was then. observant, or tenacious and impulsive; first two books. The second agent I contacted ended up getting me a deal I wanted her to be a psychiatrist. She’s a lot taller than I am! she needs to know what’s going on—

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Dry eye celebrate Shabbat, or do anything on a receptions make you feel? burning, itching, foreign-body sensation, tends to affect women more than men, as daily basis. We learned about the religion, SB: When I got The New York Times and light sensitivity. Aside from affecting the hormonal changes that take place as a result of pregnancy and menopause affect attended Sunday school, celebrated review, it was definitely validating. I met ocular health, dry eyes often produce the tear film. To learn more, Chanukah, and had bar mitzvahs. I also Lisa Scottoline on a panel; she really liked irritation and discomfort that please call the Legarreta Eye went to Camp Lakeland, where I formed the book. Being nominated for this ITW can seriously unsettle work, Center at 716-633-2203, my strongest Jewish identity. award is giving me a needed confidence social, and emotional lives. In this latter respect, there is a or come see us at 1301 N. JJ: What were the values instilled boost as I finish up the third book. You great deal of evidence that dry- Forest Road in Williamsville. in you, and how do you practice them struggle when you are writing. There’s a eye symptoms often lead to Excellence in eye care. now? monkey on your shoulder, saying, “This is anxiety and depression. With SB: The two major ways are, first, no good, go back to medicine.” P.S. In cases where dry eye this in mind, dry-eye patients is caused by inadequate oil “tzedakah”; it can mean giving, or charity, JJ: How is writing the third installment are strongly urged to enlist the being secreted from meibo- and also just giving of yourself. One of different? help of the ophthalmologist mian glands in the eyelid its tenets is that anonymous giving is SB: I had a long discussion with the in managing this chronic margins, the ophthalmolo- the best kind. I do give to organizations editor, to agree on plot line. The story is a and typically progressive gist can perform an in-office and charities. I also aim to tie things in, little scary. I’ve really embraced the thriller condition. There are a procedure called “meibo- like when I did a reading for Girl Without genre. The “elevator pitch” is: “Sophia is number of medicines and mian gland expression” to a Name, it was a benefit for The Summit back. Zoe is doing her forensic psychiatry treatments that the eye squeeze the oil out. Center’s afterschool program for autism, fellowship in Buffalo. And somehow all of doctor can use to control where my son goes. I try to practice what her patients keep dying.” I preach—show someone that they are JJ: Why was it important to you to buying a book and reading, and it also make your main character Jewish? helps the community. SB: One reason is I don’t see a lot The other way is through “tikkun olam,” of Jewish protagonists in psychological the notion that we should all serve the thriller literature. Of course there are www.LegarretaEyeCenter.com world somehow. A factor in my decision to Jonathan Kellerman’s books, which are become a doctor was that I thought it was a wonderful—that’s the whole shtick. I better way to serve the world. I agree with wanted it to be part of Zoe’s identity, but that less now; if you provide sustenance not everything. In the first book, and in the or entertainment you are still serving the third one I’m working on, it’s more subtle. world. I see the different layers and things In the middle one, it’s more obvious; we that can be “fixed.” In Girl Without a Name see Zoe coming into her Judaism, partly Zoe is a healer of the mind, trying to fix because her mother dies. She talks about cracks in her own and others’ minds. Yom Kippur—the books ends with Zoe JJ: Buffalo is almost like a character in in Temple Beth Zion at a service for her the books. mother. SB: Yes—I considered setting the series Jana Eisenberg, a writer and editor, elsewhere, but then I realized it was has lived in Buffalo since 2002. Formerly natural to keep it here. I love Buffalo. The a die-hard New York City resident, she’s books are glorified ghost stories, so, where a Western New York convert, and enjoys better? Zoe has success, yet she’s always telling its tales.

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July 2016 | www.jfedbflo.com 17 JEWISH BUFFALO’S DIFFERENCE MAKERS Rus Devorah Wallen: A Three-Stranded Cord

By Rob Goldberg

Spending the afternoon with long-time friend Rus Devorah Wallen while she busily prepares for Shabbat in her kitchen in Williamsville, I’m reminded of the words from Ecclesiastes (4:12) that a “three-stranded cord never unravels.”

“RD,” as I call her, tells me that as million questions,” she laughs. So it wasn’t a surprise early as elementary school there have that when introduced to Chabad on the campus of been three main passions in her life: University of Cincinnati, her journey took a significant music, Judaism and teaching. I find it turn. “The Chabad rabbi was the first person to answer remarkable and inspiring that my friend my questions. But more than that, he invited me for has never wavered from these three Shabbos and I grew very close to his family. Soon I elements; rather, she has embraced started keeping kosher and became more observant. them while she has grown and changed Once I saw how deep, profound and true Torah was, I over the years. was hooked.” I met RD in high school when she was I asked RD to explain the Lubavitch or Chabad Darcy and I was Robbie, and it didn’t perspective. “You know that the town Lubavitch, take long for us to become fast friends. where Hasidic philosophy was born, means love,” We were both passionate about our she begins, “literally, the town of love. That’s a major Jewishness and shared a love of music and part of Lubavitch – to accept and love all people.” I theater. RD told me that she was always asked her if she hadn’t been born a Jew would she Rus Devorah Wallen seeking a deeper understanding and have found faith in another tradition. “I don’t think appreciation of these passions; growing so,” she answers. “I believe that even if I hadn’t met One musical aspect within Chabad, niggunim, or songs without up as a TBZ member she enthusiastically the Chabad Rabbi on campus so many years ago, I still words, has been a power source for RD’s work. She explained to me sang in the choir; in high school she would have become a Lubavitcher. It appeals to so that it is the melodies that are important: “In and of themselves, they chose to go to Hebrew High; in college many aspects of my personality: outreach, intellect, are uplifting and spiritually moving as each niggun evokes a feeling– she considered Rabbinical school at the emotion, love, spirituality, music; it fits all of my like pensiveness or jubilation.” RD has taken this passion to a new Hebrew Union College. “I always had a nooks and crannies,” she laughs. level, using songs that she composes and records in her home studio for therapy or in “sound healing.” “Music can help you relax, fall asleep, or be more alert,” she explains, “it all depends on the parameters such as “My connection to people is at the center vibrations, pitch, timbre, tempo, etc.” Several years ago, RD returned to Buffalo from Brooklyn with her of who I am and what I do; technology brings husband, Lou, to help care for her parents, Dr. Samuel Shatkin and Joan Ellis Shatkin. After their deaths, she created The TELLL Fund (Torah them to me and me to them.” Experience for Life-Long Learning) to honor their memory, leveraging the fund to provide unique Torah learning opportunities in the Buffalo Rus Devorah Wallen area. “While returning to Buffalo was very difficult, it was the right thing for Lou and me to do. I sometimes think that if I hadn’t moved

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18 www.jfedbflo.com | July 2016 July 2016 | www.jfedbflo.com 19 here, I don’t think I would have been able to accomplish all the things I’ve done. I have more space – literally and figuratively – and the pace is actually liberating for me.” For instance, RD is coming out with a meditation and relaxation smartphone app, and has produced two CDs since her return to Buffalo. Today, RD is busy with her career as a motivational entertainer, psychotherapist and clinical social worker. The thread throughout each element of her work is Torah as she distills Torah concepts and intertwines them into her counseling, music and talks. And she explains that technology has changed her world, as most of her counseling work is done virtually using telephone and web-based programs. “My connection to people is at the center Landscape Hardscape Irrigation of who I am and what I do; technology brings them to me and me to them.” Custom Design & Installation As we finish our conversation and RD puts the final touches on the Shabbos meal she is preparing, she tells me that FREE ESTIMATES she feels very blessed. “I had a great, 741-8468 healthy, open Jewish upbringing in 8600 Roll Road • Clarence Center, New York 14032 • greenviewteam.com Buffalo. Hashem has given me lots of gifts to share with others. One statement I say every Friday night and Yomtov when I’m praying at the candles propels me: Hashem, please let me utilize all my talents and gifts for Your sake and let me be Your power tool in Your hands.” Rus Devorah Wallen – Hashem’s power tool building a world cascading with niggunim, Yiddishkeit and Torah for the benefit of so many in Buffalo and around the world; indeed, a three- stranded cord of music, Judaism and teaching that will never unravel. Robert Goldberg is CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Buffalo.

18 www.jfedbflo.com | July 2016 July 2016 | www.jfedbflo.com 19 DIFFERENCE MAKERS

to Ed Drantch, revealing that she, like Ed Drantch: Sager, had served in the military, and was sympathetic to Sager’s plight and that of his friend, Michael Baird, who Beyond the Headlines had attempted to assist Sager during By Reine Hauser the attack. The juror told Drantch that “You never leave a man behind, and that He has a nose for the news. Growing up on Long Island, Ed Drantch says that he was always sticking his nose where other was heartfelt to me.” Unfortunately, the people felt you just shouldn’t. As it turns out, that’s the perfect background for a reporter, one you can see each weekday juror has failed to mention her previous morning as News Anchor on WKBW Channel 7. military experience during pre-trial jury questioning. As a result of Drantch’s Ed Drantch knew from an early age exclusive interview with the juror, the he wanted to pursue broadcast news. An conviction was set aside and a new trial early hero was Chuck Scarborough, the ordered. Drantch says that “The jury had legendary news anchor at WNBC, the convicted him. Our job as journalists is flagship station in New York City. This led to look for the reason why. It was a major Drantch to study mass communications career defining moment for me.” http:// with a focus on production at the State www.wkbw.com/news/exclusive-basil- University of New York College at juror-says-his-actions-led-to-murder- Oneonta. conviction From Oneonta, he took his first news job in Virginia, where he started as a Nik Wallenda morning news reporter, and then was The Flying Walenda family began its quickly promoted to morning and noon high wire act more than one hundred news anchor, with additional reporting years ago, and Nik Wallenda is the fourth and producing duties. generation of his family to perform as As Drantch points out, although an aerialist. When Nik Wallenda crossed Virginia is a great place, and the the Niagara Gorge on a tight rope in June Shenandoah Valley is very beautiful, he 2012, it proved to be an international was excited to come to Buffalo in 2011 as spectacle. Who went to the source for a general assignment reporter for WIVB the story? Two weeks before the death TV (Channel 4.) In 2014, he moved to defying feat, Drantch traveled solo, with WKBW, as both a reporter and anchor. neither a cameraman nor producer, Drantch enjoys the city, and loves every to Wallenda’s home and training aspect of it. He has reveled in seeing first- facility near Sarasota, Florida to find hand the tail end of the era of decline in Ed Drantch out how Wallenda was training for the Buffalo and has lived through its amazing event. Quite well, apparently. Drantch renaissance over the last five years. fire in the First Ward received an EMMY month apart. An investigation of covered Nik Wallenda and his family in Drantch’s penchant for getting to nomination, and a special mention from arson-for-hire due to racism ultimately training, and revealed Wallenda to be a the bottom of things has led to three the Associated Press. The coverage involved the FBI, US Attorney, and the humble guy who believes in his family especially acclaimed stories…so far: concerned the home, in Buffalo’s First Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and and legacy. The result was two stories Ward, of a family originally from the Explosives. The result was a guilty plea that earned the “Backpack Journalist The Fire Sparked by Hate Congo that was burned to the ground for arson conspiracy. In covering the of the Year” Award from the Buffalo A series of stories by Drantch on a in two related instances of arson three story, an on-air interview by Drantch Broadcasters Association, and a national elicited openly racist comments by a interview for Ed on National Public First Ward resident that provoked wide Radio (NPR). https://www.youtube.com/ spread discussion throughout the digital watch?v=GLrMD2HafU0 realm. You can see his story here, but Ed Drantch takes his responsibilities be prepared for the shockingly matter- as a journalist very seriously. He strives of-fact racist viewpoint that Drantch’s to provide a deeper look beyond the questions elicited: https://www.youtube. headline. He believes that journalists are com/watch?v=VdwSJIbomAw. bound by this standard; are duty-bound to find more information. Drantch says WE SELL QUALITY PRE-OWNED Interview with a Juror the key to excellent journalism is to be CARS • TRUCKS • SUV’s Felice Triglio In this infamous story, Molly’s personally invested in the story: “We WE HAVE MANY TYPES Pub manager Jeffrey Basil hurled bar put our hearts and souls into a story on OF FINANCING AVAILABLE 716.651.1720 patron William Sager down a flight of a daily basis.” He is proud to be a Jewish WE OFFER WARRANTIES FAX: 716.651.1722 stairs. Sager died of his injuries, and WNYer who is making a difference in the Basil was convicted of murder in the area. 5379 GENESEE STREET • LANCASTER, NY 14026 highly publicized case. The day after Reine Hauser is a professional cultural WWW.FANDTMOTORS.COM Basil’s conviction, a juror reached out administrator in Western New York. 20 www.jfedbflo.com | July 2016 July 2016 | www.jfedbflo.com 21 JEWISH BUFFALO’S DIFFERENCE MAKERS

Red Cross during World War II, and was The Roblin Girls: a Life Member of Hadassah and Temple Beth Zion Sisterhood. During the War (WWII), she collected paper in their A Tale of Three Sisters’ Memories basement, recycled stockings as well as By Ellen Goldstein paper. All the children went to TBZ Sunday Ethel Roblin Melzer has always been a role model of mine, and I have long admired her female leadership in what school and were confirmed there. The was mostly a man’s world. So before I share a little Roblin Family history, here—in brief—are just some of her lay and Roblin Girls explained that they went to professional leadership roles in our Jewish community. Ethel Melzer has been active in many different capacities for more Friday Night services with their parents. than 50 years. She began as a volunteer with National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW), Buffalo Chapter through the At the time, the Rabbi just wore a suit— early 1960s. Around the same time, she became involved with Camp Centerland and the JCC. She moved onto the Camp not a robe, tallit or yarmulke, and the Lakeland Association, becoming its president and serving on the national Camping Committee of the Jewish Welfare Classical Reform services featured an Board, the predecessor of the Jewish Community Centers of North America. Then in 1978, Ethel Melzer was elected the organ and a choir, but no Hebrew. first woman president of the Jewish Community Center. Currently, Ethel is the Adult Education Director for the Bureau of Daniel Roblin, Sr. was active in Jewish Education, where she previously directed the Florence Melton Adult Mini-School. Republican politics, which also was carried down to his son, Dan, Jr., who I have known Ethel Melzer for many was chairman of and a fundraiser for years, and I was attending my 40th Buffalo Jack Kemp’s Congressional campaigns. Seminary reunion in June 2015 and saw He was also treasurer of the Republican Ethel and her two sisters at the same Party in Erie County. When Jack Kemp alumnae dinner in Buffalo. Sisters Mina came to Dan Jr’s funeral, the Girls related Roblin Neidrauer of Portland, Oregon, that Kemp noted he would not have Ruth Roblin Winnick of Westport, gotten anywhere without Dan Roblin, Jr. Connecticut and Ethel Roblin Melzer When Dan Roblin, Sr. was first of Williamsville, NY were all in Buffalo married, he went into the Buffalo house last summer for their Buffalo Seminary wrecking and salvage company with high school. Mina’s 75 (she graduated his brother. When then Niagara Falls in 1940), Ruth’s 70th (she graduated in Honeymoon Bridge was destroyed in 1945) and Ethel’s 65th (she graduated 1946, the family company, which later in 1950). In addition to celebrating became Roblin Steel, took it down and their collective reunions, it was Ethel salvaged it, among many other things. Melzer and Alan Winnick’s birthdays, “Sometimes when we were young, our and nephew and niece Dan III and Gina father would take us to the office, or Roblin hosted a celebration dinner for come home early and play gin with all their family that weekend. I was The Roblin sisters – Mina, Ruth, and Ethel us, Ethel reminisced. “He took us on invited to sit down that weekend with Saturdays to the old Lafayette Hotel for The Roblin Girls, as I called them, to talk the sisters and their adventures. 22 in Buffalo, and then the girls went lunch. Mina had sliced hard-boiled egg about their lives together in Buffalo as The Roblin Girls are part of an old to Buffalo Seminary and Dan, Jr. went sandwiches,” she said with a laugh. children. They are such vibrant women, Buffalo Jewish family. Their father, to Nichols School. During summers, Ethel explained that the sisters and and I learned some fascinating Buffalo Daniel Arthur Roblin, Sr. was born in they all attended Camp Arowhon in their families are very good friends. Every history. What follows is just a glimpse. 1875—10 years after the Civil War on Huntsville, Ontario. five years starting at age 70 after their The middle sister, Ruth Winnick, Sherman Street in Buffalo. Their mother, The Roblins were Reform Jews in late mother died, they would get together for married “that guy from Harvard” – Alan Emma Goldstein was born in Rochester 19th and early 20th century Buffalo. a trip. “We have celebrated 70th, 75th, Winnick – and never came back home. in 1885. And they were married 101 Their father wasn’t raised in a kosher 80th, 85th, and 90th birthdays.” And Alan’s family owned a kosher camp in years ago in 1915. “Our parents were home, but their mother’s mother was, so the family, which really enjoys traveling Pittsfield, MA. Mina Neidrauer is the older when they married. Dad was an the family used separate dishes for milk together, have named their vacations oldest sister and was a charter member of “old bachelor”, and wouldn’t get married and meat when the children were growing “The Emma Roblin Memorial cruises or NCJW. She has a strong connection with until his older brother got married,” Ethel up. Dan Sr. was active at the Pine Street trips,” after their mother, who died just the Jewish world and she talked about said, and then explaining that when Shul, and also Temple Beth Zion on before they were about to embark on her love of Israel and the Jewish world. Ethel was 5 years old, her father was 65. Delaware Avenue as vice president when another adventure together. “The reason “Ruth and I went to Israel in 1980s, and When Ethel was born, her mother was Herman Wile was president. He served we were very close was that our father had a wonderful time,” she said. On that 48 and her father was 58. “Our parents on the board of the old TBZ for many told us “if you are not good to each trip, Ruth Winnick’s eyes were opened were really like our grandparents,” she years. In the larger Jewish community, other, I will come back and haunt you,” when she was in the Golan and riding up shared. Their older brother, Dan Roblin, he chaired a Jewish Federation Ball in Mina said. And although the Roblin on a tank. It was then that she realized” Jr. was born in 1918. When Ethel was the 1940s, and was a contributor to the Girls loved their father, they don’t worry we can’t give the Golan back to Syria! little, she explained, she was hardly Jewish Fresh Air camp, the forerunner of about him visiting them on scary nights, Its strategic position is too important aware of her brother, Dan Jr., because Camp Lakeland. During the Depression, because they love each other and each and ensures Israel’s safety in the North.” he was 14 years older, and in college. he often would help people find jobs, other’s families, as well. They are truly According to Ethel, Mina’s late husband, Years later, they would become close. give them food as well as money. Their family. Richard Niderauer, would “kvell” over All the Roblin children went to school mother was a Gray Lady during at The 20 www.jfedbflo.com | July 2016 July 2016 | www.jfedbflo.com 21 JEWISH BUFFALO’S DIFFERENCE MAKERS Robyn Zimmer: Embrace the Difference

By Ellen Goldstein

Robyn Zimmer believes that everyone able to spend more time with him. Daughter Rachel should be accepted for who he or she is, was born in 1993. and that everyone has a place in the Because of Sam, Robyn got involved in Yad B’ world. Yad- the Jewish agency in Buffalo that advocates and Robyn grew up in Roslyn, NY. Because works with Jews with disabilities, now housed in the her father had a factory and showroom Bureau of Jewish Education. Laura Wexler was the where he manufactured gorgeous one-of- Director at the time. The agency had an awareness a-kind custom furniture for architects, as pin in the shape of a wheelchair. Laura then asked a child she was surrounded by great design Robyn to come up with a piece of jewelry—a pin—the and creativity. And some of it rubbed off agency could sell as a fund-raiser. She designed it, on her. She decided on Buffalo State for named it “Embrace the Difference®” and Yad B’Yad college because of its much-touted Design sold it. Its design featured interconnected circles with department, and transferred from UB, a square. graduating in 1982. Laura Wexler soon left the agency, but the pin Engaging and creative, Robyn worked stayed, and soon, everyone wanted the pin that Robyn Zimmer in the family business in Long Island City showed “the square is the difference, but an integral for a few years following college, then part of the circle.” into the amazing young man he for the charities. In the past six years, went into real estate in New York, working Robyn explained the design. “As a mother of is today,” Robyn said. Jeff takes more than $250,000 has gone to a variety for Feathered Nest, a realtor with famous a child with developmental differences I am well Sam everywhere with him now- of charities through the sale of this jewelry. clients. “It was a fun job for a young aware of the many challenges faced each day by meetings, as well as events in the She designs the jewelry and does the person,” she said. Her college roommate people with chronic illness, physical, emotional and evenings. Sam attends a program marketing out of her house. Of course, stayed in Buffalo, and they kept in touch. developmental disabilities. I designed the Embrace during the day through People, she is grateful have the support of Reeds/ Lucky, because that roommate’s upstairs The Difference symbol to show support, acceptance Inc. Jenss behind her, which creates and sells neighbor was Jeffrey Zimmer, a Nice Jewish and kindness no matter what differences we may “As Sam was growing up the products. and struggling every day, it Robyn also explained the generosity was the people who embraced of the Reeds/Jenss Corporation and its “I am an inventor. I love Embrace the him for who he was that made owners Jeff (Zimmer) and Larry & Marcia the difference for him and for Dautch towards the general community. Difference. I spend time and energy on it; our family,” Robyn continued. The company has held three “Give Back “That’s what the symbol means. Days” at Reeds/Jenss so far. It’s a day where it’s become my ‘baby’... ” Everyone needs to be accepted. the owners give back-10% to a charity of Everyone needs kindness. the customer’s choice. “It’s great if you Robyn Zimmer Every piece sold helps some are getting engaged, and the day features organization. My goal is to take a catered lunch and sports celebs at the this product national. It is still Reeds/Jenss stores,” Robyn said. “This year, Boy from Niagara Falls. And yes, Jeff and have,” she explained. is a Buffalo-born brand, but the for instance, we were able to include 65 Robyn met and fell in love. “Then, I came “My son Sam, the inspiration behind Embrace company is growing every year,” charities,” she added. back to Buffalo and worked in real estate The Difference, is now 26 years old. When Sam was she added. Robyn summed up why she loves this for the late Carole Holcberg, from whom I two years old he was not speaking and I knew there Since its inception, she has project. “I am an inventor. I love Embrace learned a lot,” she said. was something wrong,” she said. “We addressed his created an entire line of Jewelry Wishingthe Difference. Our I spend Community time and energy Robyn and Jeff got married in 1988, and hearing issues with tubes and speech therapy which through Reeds/ Jenss. Bracelets, on ait; it’sHappy become myPassover ‘baby, and has been Robyn worked at Reeds Jewelers full time allowed him to catch up. But in kindergarten, we necklaces, and more. The fromreceived The Board very well of Directors by various & The communities. Staff of for a few years, the business her husband’s knew there were other issues. He was diagnosed with bracelets cost $30, and $10 of I loveThe seeingBureau ofother Jewish people Education wearing our grandfather began in Niagara Falls in 1912. ADHD. As the years went on, learning disabilities the gross goes to the charity of jewelry. It’s a conversation piece—one that Reeds later merged with Jenss Décor to started to surface and finally he was diagnosed at age your choice. There are now over can make a difference!” Robyn lives her become Reeds/Jenss, and is now located on 14 with Asperger’s Syndrome,” she explained. 100 charities to choose from. life believing that it doesn’t matter what Maple Road in Amherst, as well as several “Raising Sam was quite an adventure. Each new When you order, you receive the “difference” someone has. “Everyone is other locations. After the Zimmers had school year brought new challenges that had to be jewelry with a donation card. struggling with something.” To learn more their son, Sam, in 1990, Robyn left Reeds faced. But Sam has an amazing gift. He astounds You redeem the donation card about Embrace the Difference, go to www. realizing that Sam had special needs, which people by his ability to read other people’s emotions. on line to the charity you choose, embracethedifference.org. Tell them The emerged slowly. But she worked selling Many people have taken Sam under their wing and a check goes to the charities 2640Jewish North Journal Forest sent Rd you! | Getzville, NY 14068 houses when Sam was a baby, and took him through the years, embracing and accepting his on a quarterly basis. Robyn also Ellen Goldstein(716) 204-5380is Managing editor of The with her in the car to see clients and to be differences. Because of this, Sam was able to grow provides promotional materials Jewish Journalwww.bjebuffalo.org of WNY. 22 www.jfedbflo.com | July 2016 July 2016 | www.jfedbflo.com 23 22 www.jfedbflo.com | July 2016 July 2016 | www.jfedbflo.com 23 COMMUNITY TIKKUN OLAM

Lindy Says: Walk Off Hunger July Do you need time off to care for a sick or injured loved one? Your employer may be required to accommodate you. 30th: Halfway to Chai Sponsored by Law Office of Lindy Korn, PLLC - www.lkorn-law.com 5 THINGS YOU CAN DO in July to repair the world Know a student who can change the world? Please be sure 1» to tell them about the Summer Institute for Human Rights and Genocide Studies of Buffalo. It provides its participants with the opportunity to hear human rights experts, historians, and advocates, as well as take part in hands-on activities, discussions, and field trips--all to inspire its students to have a positive impact on the world. Open to any incoming 9th Grader through graduating senior, this year’s Institute will run from Monday through Friday, July 25-29th, 9AM-3PM, at the Erie 1 BOCES Educational Campus, This year will mark the 9th annual but the need often increases. That’s 355 Harlem Road in West Seneca, New York. Visit summerinstituteofbuffalo.org Walk Off Hunger for the Food Bank because children who would normally or call Executive Director Drew Beiter at 525-6058. of WNY. Once again, Congregation receive meals through school programs Shir Shalom is co-hosting the event. are on vacation. Every month, the Food Walk off Hunger and help the Food Bank of WNY. July 30th at Island Last year’s walk was the biggest ever, Bank of WNY helps as many as 129,000 2» Park in Williamsville marks the event’s 9th year, co-chaired by Congregation Shir raising enough money to provide people in Erie, Niagara, Cattaraugus and Shalom. If you’d like to register for the walk, make a donation to someone who’s nearly a half million meals for Chautauqua Counties. Many of those walking, or just learn more about the event and all the ways the Food Bank Western New Yorkers. That brought recipients work more than one job, but assists Western New Yorkers, please go to www.foodbankwny.org. the eight-year total to nearly two still need assistance. and a half million meals. Once again, This year’s walk will be held Saturday Attend Temple Beth Zion Sisterhood’s annual Haven House Congregation Shir Shalom had the July 30th at Island Park in Williamsville. 3» Luncheon. Tuesday, July 19th. 12 NOON. Broder Center, 700 Sweet Home. largest contingent of walkers. And at Registration begins at 10:00 and the walk Help support educational scholarship for victims of domestic violence. RSVP to age 95, CSS congregant Jennie Pohl is at 11:00. It’s only two miles, making it 633-9190 by July 11. once again received more donations a very family-friendly event. And it’s than any other walker. followed by Summerfest, featuring food, Gorgeous Gardens. Grab a glimpse of paradise in Western New York “We couldn’t be more grateful children’s games, and entertainment, all 4» through the 15 regional garden walks and tours offered through the summer. for the support we’ve gotten from included in the cost of registering for Nearly 1,000 private residential gardens are available to tour through these Congregation Shir Shalom and the the walk. garden events, including Garden Walk Buffalo July 30 and 31. Go to www. WNY Jewish community,” says Marylou If you’d like to register for the walk, gardenwalkbuffalo.com to see the various tours and dates. Borowiak, Food Bank President and CEO. make a donation to someone who’s “Walk Off Hunger is one of our most walking, or just learn more about the Enjoy a FREE Family-Friendly Concert with Mama Doni at the JCC’s important fundraisers.” One reason for event and all the ways the Food Bank 5» Rein Family Amphitheatre Sunday, July 17. BBQ Dinner 5:00 PM. Concert at 6:00 the importance is that Walk Off Hunger assists Western New Yorkers, please go to PM. Tickets are needed for the FREE dinner. Register at www.jccbuffalo.org or the is held in the summer, when donations www.foodbankwny.org. Member Services Desk at the JCC Benderson Building to receive our ticket. to the Food Bank traditionally drop

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E-mail your answers to [email protected] Our reputation for excellence is the foundation of our business. Last month’s photo of the Town Square Food Pantry Sign at 403 Main St. Buffalo, NY 14203 Weinberg Campus was correctly identified by Tom Putnam. www.piepertravel.com 716-856-3525 24 www.jfedbflo.com | July 2016 July 2016 | www.jfedbflo.com 25 ESSEN ‘N FRESSEN COMMUNITY Memories of Summer Camp with S’mores Pie By Robin Kurss

Our daughter lives in Northern California and whenever we visit, we go to our favorite restaurant there, Mustard’s Grill. This recipe is adapted from one of our favorite desserts there and is perfect for your next barbecue. It might just bring back memories of nighttime campfires at summer camp or the beach. Enjoy!

S’mores Pie

Crust: 1 1/4 c graham cracker crumbs 1/4 c sugar 1/3 c melted butter

Filling: 1 c milk chocolate chips 1 c white chocolate chips 1 c dark chocolate chips 1 1/2 c sweetened condensed milk 1 1/2 tsp vanilla 2 1/2 c mini marshmallows

Preheat oven to 375. Grease 9” pie plate. Mix crust ingredients until combined and press into pan covering bottom and sides. Bake until golden, 8 minutes. Cool. In a microwave safe bowl, combine milk chocolate chips, 1/2 c condensed milk and 1/2 tsp vanilla. Microwave for 30 second intervals until chocolate is melted. Pour over cooled crust. Put in fridge to set. For second layer, repeat using white chocolate chips, 1/2 c condensed milk and 1/2 tsp vanilla. Pour over milk chocolate layer. For last layer repeat using dark chocolate chips and rest of milk and vanilla. Preheat broiler. Cover pie with marshmallows and place under broiler until marshmallows are lightly browned. Be careful to watch the whole time...I’ve burned my share of marshmallows! Put in fridge for 1 hour.

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Presenting sponsor East Aurora Farmers Market WINTER FARMS at the Aurora Village Shopping Center • Large Selection of Fresh Produce • 123 Grey Street • East Aurora May 7th - Nov. 23rd Look for us at Wednesdays & Saturdays • 7am-1pm these Farmers’ Markets RAIN OR SHINE WiLLiamSviLLe SUMMER HOURS MAY 1 - OCTOBER 31 eaSt aurora Wholesale: Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday 3:30 am - 7 am Retail: Sunday thru Friday 7 am - 6 pm Hamburg Saturday 6 am - 6 pm WINTER HOURS Our Farm Stand 7 days a week Retail: Saturdays 6 am - Noon FLEA MARKET HOURS MAY - OCTOBER Farm fresh every Saturday Local Producers Providing at 5701 burton road orchard Park 7 am - 5 pm Saturday and Sunday

May 21st - October 29th, 8am to 1:00pm vegetables • fruits • jams • herbs 1443-1517 CLINTON ST., BUFFALO, NY 14206 Come by and meet the farmer • • SHARON BALDI, MANAGER eggs sausage maple syrup (716) 822-2466 | [email protected] who grows your food! honey • plants • and more! Williamsvillefarmersmarket.com July 2016 | www.jfedbflo.com 27 SYNAGOGUES AGENCIES Jewish Community Agencies in Western New York Bureau of Jewish Education Susan Freed-Oestreicher - President 2640 North Forest Road Getzville, NY 14068 Holland Family Building TEL 716-204-5380 | FAX 716-688-3572 787 Delaware Avenue www.bjebuffalo.org Buffalo, NY 14209 Jill Komm - Executive Director TEL 716-886-3145 | FAX 716-886-1367 Michael Berger - President www.jccbuffalo.org

Chabad House of Buffalo Jewish Discovery Center 2450 North Forest Road 757 Hopkins Road Getzville, NY 14068 Williamsville, NY 14221 TEL 716-688-1642 | FAX 716-688-1643 212 Exeter Rd. www.chabadbuffalo.com Williamsville, NY 14221 (office) Rabbi Moshe Gurary - Director TEL: 716-639-7600 TEL: 716-632-0467 Chai Early Childhood Center Rabbi Heschel Greenberg 757 Hopkins Road Rabbi Laizer Labkovski Williamsville, NY 14221 www.jewishdiscovery.org TEL 716 580-4600 www.chainursery.com Jewish Family Service Of Buffalo And Chani Labkovski -Director Erie County 70 Barker Street Department of Jewish Thought and Heritage Buffalo, NY 14209 712 Clemens Hall TEL 716-883-1914 | FAX 716-883-7637 University at Buffalo www.jfsbuffalo.org Buffalo, NY 14260 Marlene Schillinger - Executive Director TEL 716-645-3695 FAX 716-645-3473 Blaine Schwartz- Chair Email: [email protected] http://www.jewishstudies.buffalo.edu/ Jewish Federation Apartments Dr. Sergey Dolgopolski, Director 275 Essjay Road Williamsville, NY 14221 Foundation for Jewish Philanthropies TEL 716-631-8471 | FAX 716-631-8768 2640 North Forest Road www.jewishfederationapartments.org Getzville, NY 14068 Karen Greenspan - President TEL 716-204-1133 | FAX 716-204-1129 Kathleen Haggerty - Property Manager www.jewishphilanthropies.org Peter Fleischmann- Director & CEO Jewish Federation of Greater Buffalo Ray Fink- President 2640 North Forest Road Getzville, NY 14068 Hadassah TEL 716-204-2241 | FAX 716-929-0482 2640 North Forest Road www.jfedbflo.com Getzville, NY 14068 Rob Goldberg - CEO & Executive Director TEL 716-688-5260 Howard Rosenhoch- President [email protected] Marlene Katzel - Co-President Jewish Federation Cemetery Maxine Seller - Co-President Corporation, Inc. 2640 North Forest Road Hebrew Benevolent Loan Association Getzville, NY 14068 2640 North Forest Road in FJP offices TEL 716-204-2246 | FAX 716-929-0482 Getzville, NY 14068 www.jfedbflo.com TEL 716-204-0542 Deborah Pivarsi - Director Sam Golden- Loan Officer Jerome D. Carrel - President Linda S. Boxer- President Kadimah Academy Hillel of Buffalo Campus Foundation 1085 Eggert Road for Jewish Life Amherst, NY 14226 520 Lee Entrance/UB Commons TEL 716-836-6903 | FAX 716-837-7322 Suite # 210 W. Amherst, NY 14228 www.kadimah.org TEL 716-645-8787 | FAX 716-639-7817 Einav Symons - Head of School www.hillelofbuffalo.org Jonathan Epstein - President Dan Metchnik - Director Ohr Temimim School Holocaust Resource Center 411 John James Audubon Parkway 336 Harris Hill Road, Suite 302 W. Amherst, NY 14228 Williamsville, NY 14221 TEL 716-568-0226 | FAX 716-636-1899 TEL: 716-634-9535 www.ohrtemimimschool.com www.holocaustcenterbuff.com Rabbi Shmuel Shanowitz - Principal Pieter Weinrieb- President Jonathan Gellman - President Mara Koven Gelman- Executive Director Weinberg Campus Jewish Community Center of Greater 2700 North Forest Road Buffalo, Inc. Getzville, NY 14068 Benderson Family Building TEL 716-639-3311 | FAX 716-639-3309 2640 North Forest Road www.weinbergcampus.org Getzville, NY 14068 Robert Mayer- President & CEO TEL 716-688-4033 | FAX 716-688-3572 Kenneth Rogers- Chairman of the Board Richard Zakalik- Executive Director of Directors 28 www.jfedbflo.com | July 2016 SYNAGOGUES Rent assisted apartments for seniors & mobility-impaired adults

Yad B’Yad Jewish Federation Apartments A program of the Bureau of Jewish Himmel Family Chapel Education (Unaffiliated) Jewish TEL 716-204-5380 / FAX 716-688-3572 275 Essjay Road www.yadbyad.org Williamsville, NY 14221 Laurie Criden- Chair Pinkhos Blitshteyn- President Federation Rabbi Daniel Shuman Western New York Saranac Synagogue Apartments Synagogues and Temples (Orthodox) Chabad House of Buffalo (unaffiliated) Rabbi Nesanel Cadle President - Shmuel Rashkin 2450 North. Forest Rd, Watch your favorite shows with your Getzville, NY 14068 Vice President - Reuven Alt TEL 716-688-1642 Gabbai David Kunkel new friends on our big screen TV! www.chabadbuffalo.com 85 Saranac Avenue Buffalo New York 14216 Congregation Beth Abraham TEL 716 876 1284 (Conservative) www.SaranacSynagogue.org Great room • Media room • Wifi • Fitness center 1073 Elmwood Avenue data center • Beauty salon • Laundry facilities Buffalo, NY 14222 Temple Beth Tzedek www.congregationbethabraham.net (Conservative) Full time social worker • Activities • Transportation 621 Getzville Road Amherst, NY 14226 24 hour emergency maintenance • Two elevators • Library Congregation B’nai Shalom Computer room • Pool table • Emergency medical call (Conservative) Rabbi Perry Netter 1641 North Forest Rd. Cantor Mark Spindler system • Chapel • Card room • Large screen tv Williamsville, NY 14221 Harvey Brenner - Executive Director TEL 716-689-8203 Lisa Wallenfels - President Open to all religious denominations [email protected] TEL 716- 838-3232 www.bnaishalombuffalo.org www.btzbuffalo.org Jewish Federation Apartments Congregation Hesed Abraham Temple Beth Zion 275 Essjay Road 215 Hall Ave (Reform) Jamestown, NY 14701 Sanctuary: 805 Delaware Avenue Williamsville, NY 14221 Rabbi Allen Podet Buffalo, NY 14209 TEL 716-484-1800 Religious School and Offices: 700 Sweet Home Road For application information please call 716-631-8471 Congregation Shir Shalom Amherst, NY 14226 www.JewishFederationApartments.org (Reform/ Reconstructionist) Rabbi Jonathan Freirich Rabbi Adam Scheldt *Jewish Federation Apartments does not discriminate on the basis of handicapped status in the 4660 Sheridan Drive admission or access to, or treatment or employment in, its federally assisted program and activities. Williamsville, NY 14221 Cantor Penny Myers TEL 716-633-8877 Amy Schaeffer - Temple Administrator Rabbi Alexander Lazarus-Klein miriam treger honig - President Cantor Arlene Frank TEL 716-836-6565 Joanne Marquisee - Executive Director www.tbz.org Todd Sugarman - President www.shirshalombuffalo.org Temple Beth El (Reform) Congregation Havurah 720 Ashland Avenue 6320 Main St., Williamsville, NY 14221 Niagara Falls, NY 14301 Bernard Schenkler, President Cantorial Soloist Barry Rose Annette Pinder, Membership Chair Robert Duell- President TEL 716-689-2256 TEL 716-282-2717 www.congregationhavurah.org www.niagarafallstemple.com [email protected] The Family Shul Kehillat Ohr Tzion (Modern Orthodox) (Unaffiliated) 879 Hopkins Rd 757 Hopkins Road Williamsville, NY 14221 Williamsville, NY 14221 Email: [email protected] Rabbi Heschel Greenberg Rabbi Joshua Strosberg Rabbi Laizer Labkovski Cheryl Stein- President 716-639-7600 http://ohrtzion.org/kot Young Israel of Greater Buffalo Knesset Center (Orthodox) (Orthodox) 500 Starin Avenue 105 Maple Road Buffalo, NY 14214 Williamsville, NY 14221 TEL 716-832-5063 Richard G. Berger- President Rabbi Shmaryahu Charitonow TEL 716-634-0212 www.chabad.org www.yibuffalo.org

Attention Snowbirds! Due to postal regulations, the Jewish Journal of Western New York will no longer be forwarded to “temporary change” addresses. If you plan to be away from your permanent address and will have your first class mail forwarded to your temporary address and would like to continue to receive the Jewish Journal over the winter or the summer, please call Nadine Ryback at 716-204-2248 to give us your “temporary” address. Thank you!

July 2016 | www.jfedbflo.com 29 CALENDAR July Events

Through July 16 July 7 Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals Refa’enu healing Service At Temple Beth Tzedek, 7:30 PM. 1933-1945 Travelling Exhibition from U.S. Holocaust July 11 Memorial Museum at Buffalo & Erie Federation’s Heart to Heart Mission to County Public Library, 1 Lafayette Square. Israel - Informational Meeting Call Mary Jo Fragale at Federation to make a reservation and receive the address: Through July 24 716-204-2250. Ghosts: French Holocaust Children. Photo Exhibition @ CEPA Gallery. July 13 Big Orbit Project Space. 30D Essex Buffalo Hadassah Downton Abbey Street, Buffalo, NY 14213. FREE. Luncheon and Tea Party 1PM- 3PM. Cost $18. Checks to Buffalo Hadassah. RSVP to Sue Bergman: 36 July 4 Rolling Meadow Lane, Happy Birthday, America! East Amherst 14051.

30 www.jfedbflo.com | July 2016 Preventative July 17 Dental Exams Dental Services: Jewish Bluegrass Concert & Brunch for Nickel City Jews • Exams Tifft Farm, 11:00 AM – 2:30 PM. & Teeth • Routine Teeth Cleaning (21+ event). $15 before July 11, $25 after. Contact [email protected] • Digital X-Rays Kehillat Ohr Tzion Open House Cleaning • Porcelain Veneers 879 Hopkins in Williamsville, 12 NOON. There will be a burger bar with gourmet • Teeth Whitening toppings and games for kids! Bring your • Composite Bonding family and meet our friendly community in action. Adults $5, Family $15.

ARATING 2nd Annual Rein Summer Concert Series for families- Mama Doni Restorative FREE. JCC Rein Amhitheatre @ Camp Centerland. 6:00 PM- 8:00 PM. Dental Services: Betsy Abramson: 716.204.2079, • Fillings [email protected]. • Partial Denture July 19 • Bridges TBZ Sisterhood Haven House Luncheon Broder Center. 12 NOON. 31 MAPLE ROAD, WILLIAMSVILLE • Dental Crowns Call 716-633-9190 to make reservations by July 11. 716.635.9657 • Dental Implants July 22 Friday Family Fun with PJ Library www.amherst-dentist.com @ Canalside FREE. Picnic at 12:NOON. Bring a blanket to sit on and your own lunch. Call Mandy Weiss: [email protected] or 716-241-4221.

Welcome Service for Rabbi Freirich and BBQ dinner Temple Beth Zion. Broder Building. 6:00 PM.

July 25-29 From our Summer Institute for Human Rights large selection of Estate and Genocide Studies. Available to any Jewelry: incoming 9th Grader through graduating 36 inch senior. 9 AM-3 PM, at the Erie 1 BOCES 18k Gold & Malachite Educational Campus, 355 Harlem Road Necklace by in West Seneca, New York. Our theme TIFFANY & Co. this year is “What you do Matters: Be a Changemaker”, and will focus on empowering our participants with the inspiration, historical knowledge, and 21st century skills necessary to lead a contributory life. While tuition is $175, scholarships are available, with no student turned away. Learn more with information and registration at www.summerinstituteofbuffalo.org

PAUL J. MICHAELS July 29-30 Camp Lakeland Reunion @ Camp Centerland Call the JCC- 716-688-4033. July 2016 | www.jfedbflo.com 31 AGENCIES ELLEN REIS IS NATIONAL KIPNIS WILSON/ FRIEDLAND AWARD WINNER

The Jewish Federation of Greater Buffalo nominated and will honor Ellen Reis as a 2016 Kipnis-Wilson/ Friedland Award of National Women’s Philanthropy of the Jewish Federations of North America. This distinction, named for Lion of Judah founders Norma Kipnis-Wilson and Toby Friedland z”l, honors the most inspiring women in our North American communities, and will be awarded at the International Lion of Judah Conference in New York City in September. Ellen Reis believes you don’t have to always be the “head honcho” to make a difference in Ellen Reis the world, especially when it comes to endowment. “You don’t always membership on the Jewish Federation of have to be a chief,” she says. By Greater Buffalo’s Board of Governors and its that she means that you don’t have Executive Committee as Vice President of to think you need huge sums of the Federation; service on its Endowment money to endow your gift. You committee, Federation- Hillel Jewish just start somewhere, encourage Student Task Force, Planning & Allocations others to do the same, and pretty Committee and Finance Committee, as well soon, it all adds up to a lovely as being a weekly volunteer for Federation’s endowment. That is what she has Buffalo Jewish Coalition for Literacy for done for Women’s Philanthropy in several years. Buffalo. Ellen was both a member of the boards An endowed Lion of Judah (LOJE) and an officer of the Foundation for Jewish since the turn of the Millennium, Philanthropies in Buffalo, and of Hillel of Mrs. Reis co-chaired the LOJ Buffalo, where she served as Vice President. Division for Women’s Campaign for Mrs. Reis notes that through her work with Buffalo’s Women’s Philanthropy. Hillel, she hoped to increase the University/ She served on Federation’s and local Jewish community connection at the Women’s Philanthropy Campaign time. She also was an active member and Cabinet for more than a decade. She officer of the JCC of Greater Buffalo Board and her husband, retired University and chaired numerous fundraising projects of Buffalo Law Professor Robert at the JCC. Reis, began spending winters in She was active as member of Temple Beth Florida recently, and she continues Am Board and Sisterhood Board in Buffalo, to chair the Snowbirds Division of served as President of the University of Women’s Philanthropy. The Reis’ Buffalo Women’s Club, and as a member of traveled to Israel on Federation Hadassah and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery Missions including 1982, 1996 Member’s Council. An interior designer by and 1998. They were part of the profession, she has created magical spaces in Mission to Cuba in 2013, and as transforming home and office interiors, and Campaign Chair, she took part has always been willing to provide support to in JFNA’s Campaign Chairs & Jewish agencies for office re-dos. Directors Mission to Israel, Minsk Ellen and Bob Reis are parents of three and & Vilnius in 2000. grandparents of nine beautiful grandchildren. Her leadership portfolio includes chairing the 1999 and 2000 UJF Women’s Philanthropy Campaign, 32 www.jfedbflo.com | July 2016 AGENCIES

Philanthropy cabinet, past Chair and Vice Leslie Shuman Kramer, Chair of Super Sunday, was a member of its Young Women’s team, a Community Julie Dressler Weinberg to Lead 2017 Kick-Off Dinner table captain, as well as a Chair and Vice Chair of the Women’s Philanthropy Pacesetter’s Team. She has Federation Campaign been a participant in the Federation’s Leslie Shuman Kramer will serve as chair Community Leaders program, was a of the 2017 Federation Campaign and member of the highly successful New Julie Dressler Weinberg as chair of the Leadership Mission to Israel in 2012, and 2017 Federation’s Women’s Philanthropy has served on the Federation’s Planning Campaign. “I’m continually inspired by the and Allocations committee. passion and commitment of our community. Also a Ruth and Milton Kahn Young It has been a wonderful experience for Leadership Award winner, she is a Vice me to share with our donors all about President at Temple Beth Zion, a member our innovative programs and community of the Board of Trustees of Jewish development. After all, we are all about Family Service, committee member of people and engaging their passions. I look Y’ad B’Y’ad, a co-chair of the Temple forward to another fulfilling year, learning Beth Zion Kol Nidre Campaign with her from each of you and am honored to take husband, Dr. Michael Weinberg for several this role for the 2017 campaign,” Mrs. years, co-chaired the TBZ membership Kramer said. committee for five years. She has also Leslie Shuman Kramer has most served on the boards of the Jewish recently served as Chair of the 2016 Community Center and the Bureau of Campaign, Vice President of the Julie Dressler and Leslie Shuman Kramer Jewish Education, where she was secretary Jewish Federation of Greater Buffalo of its board for several years. In addition, and is a member of Jewish Federation served as President of the Buffalo Bureau winner. Mrs. Kramer and her husband, Jim, she has served on the Nichols School of North America’s National Women’s of Jewish Education, was a board member have three children and live in Amherst. Parent association. Philanthropy Board and Co-Chair of of the former Temple Beth Tzedek and “How wonderful it is to be a part of A graduate of Cleveland Hill High the 2017 National Women’s Philanthropy was the temple’s education co-chair. volunteer leadership at Federation at School, Mrs. Weinberg is a cum laude Heart To Heart Mission. An attorney, Mrs. Mrs. Kramer graduated from Cornell such an exciting time in our community,” graduate of SUNY/Albany and holds an Kramer practiced law in Chicago and University and the University of Buffalo said Julie Weinberg. Professionally, she MSW from Smith College. She and her Buffalo. She first began traveling to Israel Law School. She was the 2000 Ruth and is a clinical social worker with a private husband, Mike, are parents of two children when she was 13 years old, and spent Milton Kahn Young Leadership Award practice. She was Vice Chair of Women’s and are residents of Williamsville. 2 ½ years living there as a young adult. At Federation, in addition to serving as Vice President, she has been a member of the Board of Governors since 2006, LADIES, LEAVE YOUR HIGH HEELS AT HOME is a longtime member of Federation’s And join our intrepid group of smart, motivated women from Buffalo and across North Planning and Allocations Committee, America and Israel on a unique journey that will feed your soul and engage your mind. Monday, chaired the Federation’s Education Task Spend 5 brilliant days traveling in Israel and meeting with women who are making Force and was a member of the Federation their world a better July 11, 2016, Community Strategic Planning Task place. Participate in Force. hands-on programs 7:30 PM She chaired the 2009 and 2010 UJF that are changing the Women’s Philanthropy Campaign. Mrs. face of Israeli society Heart to Heart 8 Kramer co-chaired Buffalo’s 2012 New and helping those Nation Co-Chair: Leadership Mission, was a participant in most at risk. the Federation’s 2008 Menorah Mission, Return home Leslie Shuman Kramer and was a participant in several national invigorated and missions including the Campaign Chair empowered, ready to Heart to Heart 8 and Directors Mission, NWP’s Machar put it all into action in Buffalo Chair: Mission and several Young Leadership Buffalo. Missions. While in Chicago she was a JOIN US to hear Ellen Romer Weiss member of the Chicago Federation Young about this wonderful Leadership Board. opportunity to travel RSVP by July 5 A past volunteer for the Buffalo Jewish with other women to to Mary Jo at Coalition for Literacy and Buffalo’s Israel. Vive La Casa, she was also a member of [email protected] Amherst Central School District’s Board or call 716-204-2250. of Education from 2010-2013, previously July 2016 | www.jfedbflo.com 33 AGENCIES STEVEN J. WEISS NAMED TO JFNA NATIONAL BOARD

In English, the Hebrew phrase “kol yisrael arevim zeh l’zeh” means “All Jewish people are responsible for one anoth- er.” Longtime local Jewish vol- unteer Steven Weiss takes that commitment very seriously, viewing his recent appoint- ment to the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) board of trustees as a continuation of his efforts to benefit those in our western New York commu- nity. “As a Jew, I feel strongly about helping others and I have a particular responsibility to help access national resources to make our part of the world a better place,” he said.

JFNA represents 151 Jew- ish Federations and 300 inde- pendent Jewish communities throughout North Ameri- ca. Weiss began his term in January and will serve on the Financial Resource Develop- Steven J. Weiss ment cabinet. JFNA describes its board members as people boutique law firm dedicated to affordable hous- committed to addressing press- ing and community development law. He cur- ing issues in the Jewish world rently serves the Jewish community as Jewish today, and who are dedicated Federation’s First Vice President, and he and to cultivating and sustaining a his wife, Ellen, have participated in a variety of strong global Jewish commu- capacities and with and for several agencies- nity—now and for generations most recently as General Campaign Chair and to come. Women’s Philanthropy Chair, respectively. In Steve is an attorney and addition, he is the recipient of the Federation’s a founding partner of Can- 2002 Dr. Meyer and Ann S. Riwchun Leadership non Heyman & Weiss, LLP, a Award.

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34 www.jfedbflo.com | July 2016 AGENCIES CEPA Gallery’s Ghosts: French Holocaust Children on view now CEPA Gallery’s Big Orbit Project Space is pleased to announce the upcoming exhibition Ghosts: French Holocaust Children, an installation of sculptural and photographic work by Hirsch Projects. The exhibition will run through July 24. Ghosts: French Holocaust Children is a three-dimensional installation that acts as an ethereal commemoration to these children’s abbreviated lives. This project is based on documents and photographs collected by author, lawyer, and Nazi- hunter Serge Klarsfeld that have been reinterpreted and presented in the form of three 1/5-scale boxcars containing over 600 expressionistic portraits of these deported children plus a series of mural sized individual portraits. During World War II, over 11,000 Jewish children were deported from France to Nazi death camps. These children were Two photos from Ghosts: French Holocaust Children. among more than 75,000 French Jews deported under the Nazi plan for the that all accounts of historic events are “Final Solution to the Jewish question.” Of personal constructions. It makes a case those French Jews transported, only 2,564 that contemplative picture-making survived the Shoah. At most 300 of these can imagine the unimaginable. This Jewish children survived. encourages viewers to foster different Ghosts’ post-documentary approach ways of understanding the Holocaust transforms archival material by blending (genocide) that cannot be achieved outer and inner realities to construct a through traditional documentary historic media narrative that examines the photography, encouraging both critical extreme boundaries of human behavior thinking and empathy. regarding anti-Semitism, identity, loss, This Hirsch Projects exhibition and memory, and racism, conveying a is the result of collaboration among haunting sense of lost human possibilities. Robert Hirsch, Bob Collignon, Richard The project further explores the space Schulenberg, Anne Muntges, and Serge between art and history from the position Klarsfeld.

July 2016 | www.jfedbflo.com 35 NICKEL CITY JEWS BUFFALO MOURNS ORLANDO PULSE CLUB VICTIMS Carol Speser delivers the invocation at the June 13 evening Vigil for those killed in Orlando. County Executive Mark Poloncarz, District Attorney Michael Flaherty, Mayor Byron Brown and Lt. Governor Kathy Hochul spoke, along with others.

#JEWISHBUFFALO @ PRIDE

Jewish Pride of WNY and partners: Jewish Federation, Nickel City Jews, the JCC, JFS and Temple Beth Zion, along with others, marched in the Pride Parade in early June.

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July 2016 | www.jfedbflo.com 37 AGENCIES JEWISH FEDERATION APARTMENTS RIBBON CUTTING CEREMONY MAY 19

Jewish Federation Apartments capped the renovation of the public spaces in the building on Essjay Road with a festive ribbon cutting event May 19.

Karen Greenspan, Federation CEO Rob Rabbi Daniel Shuman with Goldberg, Federation President Howard resident Pat Heiney Rosenhoch cut the ribbon on the newly refurbished JFA spaces.

Jewish Federation President Mitchell Steinhorn, JFA Board Member Randy Spivack, JFA Howard Rosenhoch and his wife, Board Chair Karen Greenspan Valerie Rosenhoch

Joan Factor, Brian Maciolek, Phyllis Bucello

Marsha Craib, Lucretia Hill, Freed Maxick president Howard Rein, Freed Maxick Senior Client Weinberg Campus COO Randi Dressel and CEO Services Representative Sharon Fehr, Alek Thon Robert Mayer

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38 www.jfedbflo.com | July 2016 AGENCIES Honor your Parents and Grandparents this month with a gift to the Federation Cemetery Corporation…

After the meal and prayers Savta Maddie bright as the family caravan pulls takes on the role her mother Bubbe Ora once into the cemetery to honor their held. With great flair she begins the story elders. At the stone monument of her own grandparents Golda and Aviel, etched with Golda and Aviel’s remembering every detail of their difficult names – and at the smaller journey from the Old World to America – of one inscribed with the names their strength and courage and great fortune of Bubbe Ora and her husband of survival. Mordechai – the twins are busy Dorah and Kara’s eyes still shine at the helping the girls pull away dried image of their great great grandparents leaves. clasping hands as they descend the ship, safe Joel places the newest in New York, carrying all that they own in one generation again into his little carpetbag. mother’s arms. Looking down The next morning the sky is blue and into the tiny face, wide eyes now looking back as her little hand grips her new grandmother’s “Remember, my little love,” finger, Dalia marvels that she herself is now “Bubbe”: One day Dalia whispers softly she will tell the story of the elders to her new granddaughter. at the family gathering. . . By Jessica Thorpe Now Joel, with his wife Vida, is together again “Remember, my little love,” with his sisters Dorah and Kara under one roof, “What is ours in memory Dalia whispers softly to her new Cradling the sleeping peace of in Dalia’s childhood home for the annual family we keep forever!” granddaughter. “What is ours in her newborn granddaughter, Dalia gathering. Dalia’s heart swells as she watches memory we keep forever!” remembers looking down on her her son discuss politics with his father Seth and own son Joel – now the doting Uncle Gabe. The girls are helping her mother, new father – when he arrived in now Savta Maddie the great grandmother, fill the the world. The memory seems like table with wonderful foods. Thaddeus and Tomas, only yesterday, not the 30 years her oldest brother Daniel’s two-year-old twin that have passed. grandsons, play hide and seek around their legs.

Jewish Federation Cemetery Corporation: REMEMBER YOUR PARENTS Honor the memory of your parents by making a gift in their memory to the Jewish Federation Cemetery Corporation. A gift this season to the Jewish Federation Cemetery Corporation is a meaningful way to remember a loved one. With 7 cemeteries in Western New York Jay L. Mesnekoff to care for, the Cemetery Corporation gratefully accepts all gifts. Endowment gifts Director of as little as $100 and up will be matched by the Benderson Family Foundation. Your gift is 100% deductible.

Enclosed is my check payable to the: Jewish Federation Cemetery Corporation 2640 North Forest Road, Getzville, NY 14068

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July 2016 | www.jfedbflo.com 39 JEWS IN THE NEWS HRC’s “Nazi Discrimination of Homosexuals” Exhibit

Lag B’Omer Celebrations: Ohr Temim, Nickel City Jews

Buffalo Seminary Celebrates

40 www.jfedbflo.com | July 2016 JEWS IN THE NEWS Buffalo @ AJC Global Forum By Polina Dolgopolskaia, Jewish Federation Summer Intern

On June 5-7, more than 2,700 activists gathered at the Hilton Hotel in Washington D.C. to discuss the issues facing today’s Jewry. For the first time ever, about 5% of the attendees of the American Jewish Committee’s Global Forum were university students from all over the world. This reflects an increasingly strong appreciation for the role of young leaders in Judaism and the Jewish community’s future. Thanks to a generous donation made by a community member, Buffalo had the largest student delegation, made up of twelve student activists. Over the three busy days, the attendees heard fascinating speakers, had animated discussions, and participated in ad hoc meetings among community leaders. The main topics discussed were most pertinent to the students: the influx of BDS (Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions Movement) on campuses and beyond, anti-Semitism in Europe, and where the future of Judaism lies. Despite the general pessimism of the topics, some of the speakers and panelists shone an optimistic light on the future and the fact that there is such a brilliant and passionate community of people who want to change the world, and this gives me hope for a brighter future.

Shir Shalom Concert

Boy Scout Troop 156

July 2016 | www.jfedbflo.com 41 JEWS IN THE NEWS Hadassah Fashion Show Jewish Cultural Festival Meeting

Secrets of Love & Marriage

42 www.jfedbflo.com | July 2016 JEWS IN THE NEWS JCC Book & Arts Fair: Rabbi Greenberg, Lauren Belfer, and David Zakalik

July 2016 | www.jfedbflo.com 43 (NOT) THE LAST WORD

TRAVEL TO ISRAEL FOR FUN, FOR FOOD, FOR THE SAKE OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE By David Schiller

A photo of a gift store in Jerusalem appeared above a Dennis Prager article entitled “It is a sin not to travel to Israel now” which was published in November, 2015. The caption of the photo mirrored the sign in the window: “big discount for brave tourist.” The store is owned by Jean, a friend of our daughter’s who is a tour guide in Israel. The sign is sarcastic about the bravery, but the discounts are real. Brave tourists? Really? Why do so many people hesitate to visit Israel but do visit countries with high murder statistics like Jamaica, and cities with high rates of violence like Chicago and Baltimore?

My college roommate and his wife, bottle of Israeli Cabernet Sauvignon who have thoroughly toured the globe, upon arriving at Mt. Scopus for a called us a few months ago to say peaceful and inspiring panoramic they wanted to visit Israel now, and view of Jerusalem, then said a blessing wanted to do so with Beverly and me. together as the sun dropped below the Because they are not Jewish, this would horizon. be an opportunity for us to visit Jewish Allow me to share some of our and Christian sites. We planned the experiences: trip to commence the day after our Of course, we had to eat! An Israeli community’s Israel Independence Day publication favorably reviewed a celebrations in mid-May. We arrived restaurant adjacent to the walls of the Julie joins her diners, David and Bev Schiller, at Julie’s Egyptian Restaurant in Israel, then promptly headed to Old City. We knew the restaurant was in Tel Aviv’s Carmel Market Jerusalem. We pulled the cork from a good when we - quite literally - bumped into Member of Knesset Michael Oren, party eating and dancing. The Mount of the former Israeli Ambassador to the Beatitudes and Capernum were filled United States, and author of several with tourists from around the world. Celebrating Lives and books including the recently published My roommate asked the question Preserving Memories Since 1901 Ally. while we walked the streets of Tel We toured the Christian quarter, Aviv: “Where are all the soldiers? Our Jewish quarter, City of David, and friends told us they are everywhere.” the Western Wall. Arabs, Jews, and He laughed. tourists from around the world were Several years ago in Buffalo, we everywhere. There was a quiet and attended a Sukkot party in a sukkah at peaceful commingling of all people. which time we heard a couple declare Peace with Egypt gave Israel a long to those present who were discussing and quiet southern border, except for Israel: “we promised our children that Gaza which remains an issue for both we would never visit Israel.” I think that Egypt and Israel. Driving north along kind of thinking is a sin! Israel is the the Jordanian border from the Dead largest Jewish community in the world, Sea to the Golan Heights gave us a and is - after only two generations - good view of another peaceful border. the astounding revitalization of Jewry We passed two border crossing points after WWII. Visit Israel for inspiration. between Jordan and Israel, drove by the Also go to vacation in Israel for fun and developing Palestinian city of Jericho, food. Travel there with your friends and and drove through a Palestinian family. You will be revitalized - and you Authority municipality. will be safe! Golan Heights? We toured off-road David Schiller is an Associate Real 3 Mausoleums • 6 Historic Veteran Sections up to about 150 yards from the Syrian Estate Broker at Pyramid Brokerage Serving all Faiths • Historic Chapel armistice line. We saw puffs of smoke Company. He lived in Israel with his 100 Landscaped Acres • Traditional Graves at different places in Syria where there wife Beverly and their children for New Montefi ore II section now open was fighting, but on our side of the fifteen years during the 1970s and line we saw truffle farming, cherry 1980s. Elmlawn Memorial Park picking, and apple growing as the most 3939 Delaware, Ave. Kenmore, NY 14217 important activities of the day. 716-876-8131 www.elmlawncemetery.com Our boat ride on the Sea of Galilee was behind a boat carrying a large Arab 44 www.jfedbflo.com | July 2016 SHIDDUCH COLUMN MARKET PLACE To advertise call an Account Executive today! 972-2250

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