December 2018 Kislev/Tevet 5779 SHALOM SPRINGFIELD ISSUE 186 Wendy Evans-Terry, Editor, Shalom Springfield

2018

Super Sunday Community Campaign Dinner Annual 10th Annual with Michael G. Masters, Secure Community Network Campaign Chai Tea

1 Annual Meeting Jewish-Italian Cooking Demonstration 2 PJ Library—216 Books Education A Short Order of Jewish Films 3 NextGen—Hit the Bar & Avrom Infeld—”A Passion for a People” with the Rabbis 5th Annual Jewish Film Series: 4 Monthly Knosh & Knowledge Culture 4 Thursdays in June with 4 Films Monthly Chaverim 5 Parties Michelle Citrin—Artist in Residence - “Eat, Pray, Sing” 6 Passover Senior Packages Rosh Hashanah Senior 7 Packages 8 Chanukah Senior Packages 9 Camperships

10 NextGen—Chanukah Life & LegacyTM Gathering 11 Governor’s Holocaust Memorial Legacy Shabbat 40 Total Commitments 12 Hope, Healing & Unity Vigil

FBI Security Workshop for 13 Jewish Organizations Let’s Get Together: An 14 Interfaith Journey JCRC TOWARDS Justice With Jewish & African–American children Social Services & 15 Financial Assistance MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF THE JEWISH FEDERATION OF SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS ISSUE #186

When we arrived in Chicago after attending the Federation’s General Assembly in Israel, we learned of the mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. We were shocked by the event, but deeply moved by the outpouring of love and support from the greater Springfield community that followed. Massive efforts in the next few days created a vigil at the Lincoln Statue on the grounds of

Pat Chesley the State Capitol. I was very moved by how our community came together to support us in Federation President our time of grief. At the vigil, I spoke, as well as Mayor Langfelder, Rabbi Marks, Rabbi Datz and members of six other faiths. (See Nancy Sage’s article for details). Approximately 150 attended the vigil in the pouring rain. At the risk of being redundant for those of you who did attend, I am going to repeat some of the things I said. We are stronger when we come together. Sometimes we come together voluntarily. Sometimes, like today, we are compelled to come together. I got an email today that quoted Elie Wiesel. It read: “Always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tor- mentor, never the tormented.” By your presence you are taking sides. By your presence you are not staying silent. The Springfield Jewish community is very grateful for your presence in these horrible conditions. We come here this afternoon hurting and grieving for the horrific losses suffered by our brothers and sisters in Pittsburgh. Eleven innocent Jewish human beings slaughtered because they were worshiping their God. Many more were injured, including law enforcement officers—the people who run toward gun shots in order to protect us. While we mourn these loses today, we should not forget that hate is not limited to the Jews. Recently, two innocent African-Americans were gunned down in Louisville by a white supremist who couldn’t get into a black church to inflict more carnage. Human life is precious and any loss of it is tragic. This afternoon we are here not just to mourn losses but to share our compassion, to join together to renew and strengthen our belief, commitment and faith that most people are good, they cherish life, their families, their friendships and want to co-exist in harmony with others. We are people who can see the beauty and enrichment to our lives that comes from our differences rather than a reason to hate us. Unfortunately, there are those who don’t share our beliefs. There are some who are seduced by the allure of fanaticism. MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF THE JEWISH FEDERATION OF SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS ISSUE #186

Fanaticism is the antithesis of freedom, equality and co-existence. It is a cancer. It is the road that leads to the dark side of humanity because it is the crucible for the birth of hate. A hate so strong, a hate so powerful, a hate so evil, that it empowers its true believers to think that it is justifiable to kill every man, woman and child (regardless of age) because they belong to the group they hate. They believe that such people don’t deserve to live and that the world would be better off without them. History is replete with examples of this hate: Jews – Nazis, we are only a few days from the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht African Americans – slavery, KKK Muslims – Islamophobia, crusades, immigration. I mention immigration because that was the killer’s main focus in Pittsburgh and how the Jews were assisting in bringing into the United States the “invaders” from Syria who were fleeing from the civil war there. Where are we today? Anti-Semitism and hate crimes are on the rise. How do we combat this hate? We don’t do it by creating more hate. We begin to end it by doing exactly what we are doing this afternoon. By coming together to stand up and speak out against hate. We cannot allow the normalization of hate in this country. We are all part of a common humanity no matter what religion you belong to or your beliefs. We need the love, compassion and unity we have at this vigil to be a light to our community, our nation and to the world. A light so bright, so intense and so powerful that it blots out the darkness of hate. . . . It is appropriate that we are here under the shadow of Abe Lincoln a man who paid the ultimate price for his belief in freedom and equality. It means a lot to the Jewish community that you are here.

UPCOMING EVENTS

12/2/18—First Night of Chanukah 12/4/18—Chaverim, 10 a.m. 12/4/18—NextGen Chanukah Gathering, 7 p.m. 12/19/18—Knosh & Knowledge 12/25/18—Office Closed MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF JEWISH FEDERATION OF SPRINGFIELD, IL ISSUE #186 Chaverim Knosh & Knowledge Tuesday, December 4, 10:00 a.m. Wednesday, December 19, 9:30 a.m. Chanukah Caribou Coffee

TUESDAY, December 4, 2018, 10:00-11:00 am. Just a Knosh with Friends… Join your Chaverim friends to celebrate Chanukah! We We will end our year with a good cup of coffee will harken back 2500 years ago to remember the and discuss plans for next year. Please join us! internal and external pressures threatening Judaism Wednesday, December 19, 9:30 a.m. (Please $3.00 per person donation. note: This is the Third Wednesday) at Caribou Parking is available on the east side of the building Coffee, 1025 Outer Park Dr., Springfield. where there is a ramp. If you need assistance when you arrive, call 787-7223 ext. 10. Please let us know if you need a ride. RSVP by Friday, November 30, to Betsy Salus RSVP by Friday, December 14, to 787-7223 ext. 787-7223 ext. 18 or [email protected]. 18 or [email protected].

NEXTGEN

NEXTGEN invites you to ANNUAL CHANUKAH GATHERING Tuesday, December 4, 2018 7-9 p.m. Obed & Isaacs 500 S. Sixth Street Come celebrate Chanukah with your NextGen friends! RSVP by Monday, December 3, to 787-7223 ext. 18 or [email protected]

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF THE JEWISH FEDERATION OF SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS ISSUE #186 DECEMBER 2018

SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT

9 am TI Service

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 5:30 pm TBS Family

9 am Hebrew 10 am Chaverim Shabbat & Chanukah 12 pm TI Talmud 5:30 pm CBD Public 10:15 am Religious 7 pm NextGen Dinner 6:15 pm Hadassah Menorah Lighting School Chanukah Gathering 7:30 pm Fed. Bd Mtg 5:30 pm TI Shabbat & Book Club 7pm TI Bd. Mtg. 1st Night of Chanukah @ Obed & Isaacs Chanukah Dinner 9 am TI Service

9 No Hebrew 10 11 12 13 14 15 10 am-12 pm Religious

School @ TBS 10:15 am Chanukah

Play in TBS Santuary 8th Night of 5:30 pm Joint 1 pm TI S’Hd Book 7 pm Hadassah Bd 7 pm Joint Adult Ed Chanukah 12 pm TI Talmud Shabbat @ TBS 9 am TI Service Club Mtg @ TI 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 9 am Hebrew

10:15 am Religious

School 9:30 am Knosh &

4 pm TBS Exec. Bd Knowledge 5:30 pm TBS Shabbat 12 pm TI Talmud 6:30 pm SBJE Bd Mtg 9 am TI Service Mtg 6 pm Hadassah Gen 6 pm TI Shabbat

Mtg 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

Interfaith Holiday

No Hebrew or Breakfast @ TBS 12:30 pm Fed. Exec. 5:30 pm TBS Shabbat Religious School Christmas Bd. Mtg. 6 pm TI Shabbat 9 am TI Service Office Closed 30 31

No Hebrew or New Year’s Eve Religious School MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF JEWISH FEDERATION OF SPRINGFIELD, IL ISSUE #186 COMMUNITY SHABBAT SERVICE

Please join us on Friday, December 14, 5:30 pm Temple B’rith Sholom for a Community Shabbat Service

We’ll bring the GA to you! Pat Chesley, Nancy Chesley Rabbi Datz, Rabbi Marks, and Nancy Sage MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF JEWISH FEDERATION OF SPRINGFIELD, IL ISSUE #186 ANNUAL CAMPAIGN 2019

2019 FEDERATION ANNUAL CAMPAIGN Your support for the Annual Campaign makes everything our Federation accomplishes possible. Your financial commitment makes a difference in peoples’ lives, locally and around the world. You make it possible to bring world class speakers such as Avraham Infeld and cultural programs exemplified by Michele Citrin to Springfield; to HELP US sponsor the Annual Jewish Film Series; and to host monthly Chaverim gatherings and Knosh & Knowledge. In our community, you bring REACH OUR Federation into homes over the Jewish holidays with visits and gift bags for those who aren’t out as often; and you give PJ Library books GOAL BY at no cost to children between the ages of 6 months and 8 years. You MAKING help those in Springfield who suffer from food insecurity through the JCRC Mitzvah Mobile Food Pantry. You work with organizations of YOUR different faiths and backgrounds through the efforts of JCRC. You offer immediate assistance wherever disasters hit here whether close PLEDGE to home or in other countries. You give shelter, meals, and medicine to impoverished Jews and you help save and revitalize communities TODAY! around the world through the work of our partners. It is the Annual Campaign that has kept our Federation community together for over 75 years, allowing us to serve you, to respond to what is important to you and to meet needs at a moment’s notice. Please pledge now to the 2019 Annual campaign. Your payment is not due until the end of 2019. Thank you. MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF JEWISH FEDERATION OF SPRINGFIELD, IL ISSUE #186

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State Journal Register, October 30, 2018

The SJ-R editorial board has a simple message for the Jewish community of the Springfield region and beyond: We’re on your side. You are cherished friends, neighbors and colleagues, and we join with the countless number of people who have embraced you and who have kept you in their prayers since Saturday’s massacre at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. Better than any of us, you know that these are perilous times for Jewish Americans. The Anti-Defamation League reported a 57 percent increase in anti-Semitic incidents in the United States in 2017 compared with the previous year. Better than any of us, you recognize the anti-Semitic tropes in the dog-whistle references to “globalism” and “America First.” (Some bigots, of course, have thrown off any pretense to subtlety. We’re thinking specifically about the neo-Nazis who marched in Charlottesville, Virginia, last year chanting “Jews will not replace us.”) As the editorial board at a midsize newspaper in a midsize American city, we’re not going to pretend to be able to change the tone of our national political conversation. Besides, there’s plenty to keep us busy here in Illinois’s capital city. Yet at this challenging time, it’s important to us to reaffirm a part of the journalist’s creed that we’re sometimes reluctant to talk about explicitly. We stand with people who are in danger because of their religion or color or ethnicity. We are prepared to be your voice, your advocate and your friend. After Pittsburgh, it’s no consolation to blame ignorance for the rise in anti-Semitism. Were that the case, the disease could be cured with book learning. (We recommend Thomas Cahill’s “The Gifts of the Jews,” which starts like this: “The Jews started it all. And by ‘it’ I mean so many of the things we care about, the underlying values that make all of us, Jew and gentile, believer and atheist, tick.”) No, Pittsburgh was sheer hate. The treatment isn’t knowledge. Nor is it retaliation. It’s something less tangible but more powerful. Here’s what Martin Luther King, himself the target of so much hatred, had to say: “Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can to that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” In that vein, we encourage all area residents who are able to attend an interfaith community gathering at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the statue of Abraham Lincoln on the Illinois State Capitol grounds, to remember and honor the victims. We’re grateful that Springfield is home to a robust Jewish community that lives out the values — a thirst for justice and a commitment to kindness, to name just two — that have animated Jewish life across the millennia.

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF JEWISH FEDERATION OF SPRINGFIELD, IL ISSUE #186

Many times over the past weeks, I’ve been reminded of the words, there’s no place like home, and for different reasons. Those words describe how I feel when I set foot in Israel. Each time I am a bit surprised by my own emotions as, to me, Israel does feel like home, it is my homeland. I am reminded why I care so much about Israel and what happens there, whether I agree or not with the politics. I was privileged to be in Tel Aviv for the annual “GA,” the Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly gathering of Federation’s volunteers and professionals. This year’s GA, “Let’s Talk,” was attended by 2,000 Israelis and 1,200 North Nancy Sage Americans, including our Federation President Pat Chesley, Nancy Chesley, Rabbi Datz, Rabbi Federation Executive Marks and myself. The GA lived up to its underlying purpose best described by the co-chairs, Director Danna Azrieli and Marcus Nacht:

“The GA comes at a critical time. We are one people and one family who are committed to a thriving Jewish State and to prospering Jewish communities across the world. Families come in many colors, and do not always share the same policies and ideologies. This is true for Jews within the State of Israel, as well as our sisters and brothers around the globe. Over the next three days, we invite you to reaffirm the commitment to preserving our cherished common bond - a focus on practical joint ventures, without compromising our own values.”

We arrived back in Chicago late on Saturday night, the evening of the horrific murders at the Tree of Life Synagogue. For me, it will be one of those times when I will remember exactly where I was, in a hotel lobby, when I heard about the mass shootings, then learned that it happened in a Synagogue, and, finally knew, it was all about hate and anti-Semitism. I felt devastated, angry, immensely sad, threatened, discouraged, and every other emotion which I am sure we all shared. I couldn’t help but think back to the three days at the GA, and how it succeeded to build a sense of unity from our commonalities and our differences. Neither experience seemed real.

As we drove home to Springfield, we received calls and emails expressing shared horror and outpourings of support from within our Jewish community, and the greater Springfield community, We decided, then, that whatever we did in memory of those who perished in Pittsburgh would be for all. It would capture the words of comfort so often expressed “healing, hope and unity.” And, again, I felt there is no place like home. ______

With special thanks to Pat Chesley, Cary Israel, and Dr. Steve Stone for immediately setting the course; to Rabbi Marks for pulling together the speakers, to Rabbi Datz working with us while still in Israel and on his way home, to the speakers: Mayor Jim Langfelder, City of Springfield; Daniel Frachey, Chiara Center; Wes McNeese, True Love Church; Delores Martin, Bahai Community; Siavash Mostoufi, Islamic Society; Blythe Kieffer, Westminster Presbyterian Church; Pat Chesley, Jewish Federation of Springfield; Rabbi Datz; Temple B’rith Sholom; Rabbi Marks, Temple Israel; and Martin Woulfe, Abraham Lincoln Unitarian Universalist Congregation. To Bob Roth for his help setting up and all the logistics; to Phil Marks and Regan Mansfield for running the sound system; to Steve Rambach for his photography; to JCRC and Federation Board members for serving as ambassadors; and, as always to Federation staff Betsy Salus and Wendy Evans-Terry.

The mission of the Jewish Federation of Springfield, Illinois, is to serve the Jewish people locally, in Israel and throughout the world through coordinated fund raising, community-wide programming, social services and educational activities. MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF JEWISH FEDERATION OF SPRINGFIELD, IL ISSUE #186 IN THE COMMUNITY

MAZEL TOV

TO: Harry & Deborah Berman, on their 50th wedding anniversary. Zale Glauberman, on the Bar Mitzvah of his grandson, Will Glauberman. Barry & Sandy Weiss, on the Bar Mitzvah of their grandson, Cooper Wick. Dr. Jerold Gruebel, on his retirement from WSEC Network Knowledge. Grady & Kathi Holley, on the birth of their grandson, Oz Archibald Hartzfeld; proud parents are Deborah & Vort Hartzfeld.

CHAVERIM VOLUNTEERS: Rabbi Datz, Rabbi Marks, Anne Morgan, Linda Morrison, Barb Rabin, and Mark Wancket

CHABAD

MENORAH LIGHTING THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6th 5:30 p.m. WHITE OAKS MALL Lower level of the mall, in the DICK's Sporting Goods wing

Join this exciting event, along with a Chanukah buffet of fresh jelly doughnuts, hot latkes and a fun program for all ages. Non-Profit

U.S. Postage

1045 Outer Park Drive, Suite 320 Springfield

Springfield, IL 62704 Permit No. 800

Phone: 217-787-7223

Fax: 217-787-7470

Email: [email protected]

ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED

LEGACY FUND GIFTS

Chaverim Fund A contribution was received from Rita Salemme.

Condolences to the families and friends of:

Rita Lerman & Zena Shae