The Jewish National Edition Post &Opinion Presenting a broad spectrum of Jewish News and Opinions since 1935. Volume 86, Number 1 • November 27, 2019 • 29 Cheshvan 5780 www.jewishpostopinion.com • https://go.usa.gov/xn7ay Cover Art by Dena Levie Psalm 118:24: “This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice (see About the Cover on p. 4) and be glad in it.”Read during Hallel on Jewish festival days. 2 The Jewish Post & Opinion – NAT November 27, 2019 ominous years before the start of war. vibrant and colorful folk-art works The Jewish Calendar The above-mentioned illustration is illustrate the union of the spiritual and found in the 2020 Jewish Wall Calendar domestic that characterizes Judaism. Each – Connect, Reconnect whose illustrations come from the collec- of the bright monthly illustrations comes tion of the Jewish Historical Museum in with notes on the traditions which they or Stay Connected Amsterdam. In the same calendar there is portray. Zeldis’work is in the collections of BY ROSE KLEINER a joyous illustration of a page from the the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Esther scroll created in the Netherlands in and the Jewish Museum. Little do we realize that as we enter the the 1700s. A lovely desk calendar (p. 2, bottom), New Year, and start a new Jewish calendar, decorated with an abundance of Judaica we are doing much more than marking treasures, comes from Universe Publishing. time and following a schedule. Unlike The items on display are from the holdings the secular calendar, the Jewish calendar of New York’s Jewish Museum collection. facilitates our entry, on a daily basis, into The images in this fine desk calendar the world of our 6,000 year heritage, range from items that are contemporary history, culture and civilization. (Marsha Penzer’s Mezuzah Carried Into What the Jewish calendar does is to Space in 1985) to those that are centuries connect us, or reconnect us, each year with old, yet sparkle with their original beauty, our roots, where we came from. Whatever such as the magnificent Marriage Contract the level of our observance, however busy from Trieste, Italy (1774) which is painted we may be, the calendar makes available on cut-out parchment. to us the rich aspects of our heritage, our Other countries represented by Judaica environment, and, most important, our treasures in this desk calendar include current Jewish world community. the Russian Empire (1900), Persia (19th With its Hebrew months and their special century), Galicia (Poland/Ukraine 19th dates, its Shabbat and holiday candle lighting century), Istanbul,Turkey (1735), Germany times, and its listed readings of the Torah (1550), Morocco (19th century), and Haftarah, the calendar creates an The two wall calendars from Pomegranate Uzbekistan (18th century), India (20th environment that can keep us connected, both take us on a journey of discovery into century), Lithuania (1800), Ireland (1863) meaningfully, all year, and can help us our past, and into contemporary celebra- and many more. integrate into a community of our choice, tions of Jewish life. Pomegranate’s Jewish This desk calendar’s most unusual something that is not always easy in the Museum Calendar (ab0ve) with illustra- feature is its comprehensive guide in age of the internet. tions of works from New York’s Jewish concise form to all the Jewish holidays, Since Jewish calendars contain many Museum, features Solomon Alexander feasts and fast days. Among the many more details than was mentioned above, and Hart’s stunning oil painting (1850), The categories covered in this guide to each of often also have an aesthetic dimension, Feast of the Rejoicing of the Law at the those dates there are columns for the they can serve as a means of enriching our Synagogue in Leghorn, Italy. theme, significance, mood and customs daily life in numerous ways. Another one of its illustrations presents of each of the listed holidays, feasts and Beautifully decorated calendars engage a page from the famous Russian Jewish fast days. us with the aesthetic side of our culture. artist, El Lissitzky’s, Had Gadya Suite Last but not least is My Very Own The illustrations of precious, centuries old (1919). The illustration comes with both Jewish Calendar for youngsters, from objects, or contemporary items, can Yiddish and Hebrew calligraphy. Kar-Ben Publishing. Full of fun, facts, enhance our home and bring to life many Pomegranate’s second wall calendar, trivia and the joy of being Jewish, this aspects of our culture. Jewish Celebrations, has paintings by delightful calendar is a great way for contemporary artist Malcah Zeldis. Her the young, and young at heart, to connect with their heritage. This calendar, too, spans the centuries while connecting us to what it means to live Jewishly. On the same page that we learn of Rosh Hashanah wishes that go back to the 14th century, we also learn that September is National Honey Month. We learn that Syrian, Moroccan and Iraqi Jews recycle their lulav’s palm branches by using them before Passover as fuel to burn the chametz. With Thanksgiving almost here, the question is raised, what blessing can we offer during this most meaningful universal celebration, to give it a Jewish character? The most fitting blessing, according to the calendar’s survey, is “Shehecheyanu.” In the Universe (Publishing) wall calendar Kar-Ben Publishing produces several (above), an illustration of a New Year other calendars, among them a very Greeting from 1930s Netherlands, written handy small one for the purse. in Hebrew and in Dutch, gives us a sense of kinship to the person living across the ocean who sent this card in those November 27, 2019 The Jewish Post & Opinion – NAT 3 Editorial Inside this Issue The Jewish Calendar ..............................2 Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Jennie Cohen: (Editorial).........................3 Paternity and Love. By Dani Shapiro. New Rabbi Benzion Cohen: (Chassidic Rabbi) York: Alfred A. Knopf, January 2019. 250 Good News ...........................................4 pages. $24.95. About the Cover ......................................4 Dani Shapiro grew up Amy Lederman: (Jewish Educator) an only child in a subur- To Everything There is a Season .......5 ban Jewish neighborhood The Night Before Hanukkah.................5 in New Jersey. Her father’s Melinda Ribner: Happy Hanukkah! .....6 family was Orthodox and Hanukkah Recipes...................................6 her mother was Jewish but Ted Roberts: (Spoonful of Humor) secular. Before marriage Dani Shapiro The Seeker.............................................7 her mother agreed to follow Orthodoxy. Rabbi Irwin Wiener: (Wiener’s Wisdom) Shapiro says her mother was a pathological Reform vs. Conform............................8 “Paperback cover reveal for Inheritance narcissist who had a borderline personality Rabbi Elliot B. Gertel: (Media Watch) (below)! That loving father and his adoring disorder, which made it difficult for people Jojo Rabbit and Law and Order S.V.U........9 daughter (above) couldn’t have imagined (including Shapiro) to get along with her, Miriam Zimmerman: (Holocaust Educator) this future. Yet here we are. Life is infinitely and her father was depressed but Dani California is Burning.........................10 beautiful and strange. I’m grateful for the adored him. Arnold Ages: (Play Review) twists and turns that brought me here. When Shapiro was 23, and attempting Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish..............11 Oh, and dad? Thank you for your huge heart. to make sense of her life, her parents were Sybil Kaplan: (Seen on the Israel Scene) I have missed you every day for the last in a car accident. Mediscope 2019, Mossad, Aboriginals ......12 33 years. The paperback of Inheritance Her father died ben Asher/bat Sarah: (Gather the People) launches Jan. 28, 2020.” ~ Dani from the injuries Don’t Put Out the Light....................14 shortly afterward. This revelation is shocking to her, and Jim Shipley: (Shipley Speaks) Her mother was the few remaining mostly elderly relatives What’s a Jew to Do?...........................14 critically injured and family friends that she asks about it The Eight Nights of Hanukkah...........15 and Shapiro helped have no answers for her. Although, she Light One Candle...................................15 take care of her for receives uncondi- Rabbi Israel Zoberman: (Book Review) the next two years. tional love from her Zionism Vs. Judaism:............................16 Several times 93 year old aunt Sybil Kaplan: (My Kosher Kitchen – throughout her life who on p. 136 tells Cookbook Review) Sababa ....................17 Shapiro is told that her,“I’m not giving Rabbi Israel Zoberman: After Virginia she does not look Jewish. Frequently she you up.”When Dani Beach shooting May 31, 2019 ...........18 felt out of place, as if she did not belong, starts weeping her Soccer Player Turned Rabbi:...............20 did not fit in. Her pale blond hair and blue aunt continues, Hanukkah Candle Blessings ...............20 eyes amid many with dark hair and dark “And you’d better eyes probably did not help. not be giving me The Jewish At age 25, Shapiro finds out the method up.” Now Dani is of her conception was artificial insemina- sobbing and her Post &Opinion Jewish News and Opinion since 1935. tion. Her mother said she and her father aunt finishes,“And had trouble conceiving. They had gone to you are my brother’s daughter.” 1389 W 86th St., #160 a world-famous institute in Philadelphia. On p. 176 she writes,“The clues screamed Indianapolis, IN 46260 Dani had not pursued the issue further. in neon. But I had not seen them. After all email: [email protected] Fast forward to when she is 54. Her plenty of people look or feel “other”than phone and fax: (317) 405-8084 husband Michael wants to find out more their parents or siblings. Biology doesn’t website: www.jewishpostopinion.com about his genealogy while his father is still promise similarity.