Ingeborg Syllm-Rapoport, a German neonatologist who passed her doctoral defense exam nearly eight decades after she was denied the opportunity by the Nazis, has died at 104.

She reportedly died Thursday, March 23 in Berlin. A funeral will be held in the German capital in May.

Syllm-Rapoport, a former professor of pediatrics and head of the neonatology department at Berlin’s prominent Charite Hospital who retired in 1973, passed the exam on May 13, 2015, at the University of Hamburg.

She completed her thesis on diphtheria in 1938, but was refused entrance to the oral exam by the Nazi authorities because her mother was Jewish.

Syllm-Rapoport immigrated to the United States in 1938 and was required to study for two additional years to be certified as a doctor, despite graduating from a German medical school. She married in 1946 and the couple returned to Germany in 1952 after her husband was persecuted by anti-communist efforts during the McCarthy era.

She is survived by four children, nine grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren. (JTA)

Elliott Horowitz, the author of Reckless Rites: Purim and the Legacy of Jewish Violence—considered the most wide-ranging book on Jewish violence—has died.

Horowitz, who taught early modern Jewish history at two Israeli universities, died suddenly on Saturday, March 18 of a heart attack. He was 64.

Reckless Rites is the first book to fully acknowledge and address the actual anti-Christian practices that became part of the playful, theatrical violence of the Jewish festival of Purim, according to the Princeton University Press.

Horowitz, a cultural-social historian of early modern Europe, served as co-editor of the Jewish Quarterly Review, a peer-reviewed journal of the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, which he and co-editor David Myers are credited with revitalizing in the past decade.

Horowitz was educated at Princeton and Yale universities before moving to Israel in 1982, where he taught early modern Jewish history at Ben-Gurion and Bar-Ilan universities.

He also is known for his article on Coffee, Coffee Houses, and the Nocturnal Rituals of Early Modern Jewry. (JTA)

WASHINGTON ( JTA)—Israel’s government and pundits are unabashedly pleased by the missile strike ordered by President Donald Trump early Friday, April 7 on the Syrian airfield from where a deadly chemical attack is believed to have been launched.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu put out a statement out at 6 am local time—unusually early—just to make clear he “fully supports” the strike.

“In both word and action, President Trump sent a strong and clear message today that the use and spread of chemical weapons will not be tolerated,” he said.

Trump ordered the launch of 59 Tomahawk missiles on the airfield in northern Syria believed to be where a sarin attack that killed at least 72 civilians, including many children was launched. The missile attack, Syria said in reports that could not be confirmed, killed nine civilians—including four children—and six troops, and caused extensive damage. Here are some reasons why Israelis are backing the strike—and some reasons why it might not be so simple.

The moral imperative
Images of children gassed a few hundred miles north of Israel hits close to home for a country where the helplessness that Jews faced against the Nazi genocide remains a defining national characteristic.

“There was a genuinely strongly felt moral issue, and that was something that Israelis felt across the political spectrum when the pictures emerged of people killed in the chemical attack, given the Jewish people’s history of being gassed in the Holocaust,” says Daniel Shapiro, who until January was the U.S. ambassador to Israel and still lives there.

Israelis in just days have raised hundreds of thousands of shekels for the victims; fundraisers have explicitly invoked Holocaust imagery.

“No Jew can stay silent as children are being gassed in the streets of Syria,” IsraelGives says on its web page.

The sheriff is back in town.
Israelis were frustrated by the Obama administration’s hesitancy in confronting Assad.

In 2013, President Barack Obama said the use of chemical weapons would trigger an attack. But when Syria crossed the line, instead of launching an attack, Obama coordinated a deal with Russia under which Syria would divest itself of its chemical weaponry. It now appears clear to the United States and its allies that Syria’s divestment was more fraud than fact.

Trump while campaigning for the presidency appeared to want an even further retreat. His sole conceptualization of Syrian President Bashar Assad until the chemical attack was as an ally in combating Islamic State terrorists, an embrace that Obama, however feckless his chemical weapons retreat was, forcefully rejected. Trump officials said prior to the attack that they were ready to reverse stated Obama administration policy that any resolution to the Syria conflict must include the removal of Assad.

That concerned Israelis—most prominently Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman—who were concerned that a resurgent Assad would allow Israel’s deadliest enemies, Iran and its Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah, a foothold on Israel’s border with Syria.

Trump in three days did a 180 on Assad—“My attitude toward Syria and Assad has changed very much,” the president said the day after the chemical attack—and so, commensurately, have Israelis warmed to Trump.

“American leadership is once again credible,” Maj. Gen. Amos Gilad, until last year the director of policy at the Israeli Defense Ministry, told Israel Radio. “When you use nerve gas against a civilian population, the message is clear.”

Netanyahu in his praise for Trump said the message should resonate as far as Iran and North Korea. The prime minister and his government continue to see the 2015 nuclear deal Obama negotiated with Iran, trading sanctions relief for a rollback of Iran’s nuclear program, as a license for Iran and its proxies to continue its regional interventionism.

Israel “hopes that this message of resolve in the face of the Assad regime’s horrific actions will resonate not only in Damascus but in Tehran, Pyongyang and elsewhere,” Netanyahu said.

Andrew Tabler, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy who spent years in Syria, says that the chief concern for Israel and America’s Sunni Arab allies was what was “baked into” the nuclear deal: “That Iran could use rump governments in Iraq and Syria to shoot people into the region into submission” while the principal U.S. concern was sustaining the Iran deal.

What’s not predictable
1. Do Israeli jets still get to take out potential threats without triggering a Russian response?
An ally of the Assad regime, Russia was furious at the missile attack and suspended its “deconfliction” agreement with the United States—one under which the two nations give each other prior notice of any military action, particularly from the air, so there’s no risk of an inadvertent clash.

Russia has a similar arrangement with Israel; does that go by the wayside? Israel as recently as last month sent jets into Syria to stop the smuggling of Syrian arms to Hezbollah.

Gilad, speaking on Israel Radio, said he was confident that Russia would continue to allow Israel to act.

“I don’t think there’s any threat on Israeli action as long as it in the defense of Israel’s interests,” he said.

2. Is Israel more of a target than before?
Israel’s most potent threat is Hezbollah, which has positioned tens of thousands of missiles throughout Lebanon since the last Hezbollah-Israel war in 2006. Israeli brass believes Hezbollah could be positioning itself for another Israel war, if only as a pretext to draw attention away from Syria, where its alliance with Iran and the Assad regime has taken hits.

Hezbollah called the missile strike an “idiotic” action that was “in service” to Israel and predicted that it would increase tension.

3. Russia’s mad? But wait, we like Russia.
Netanyahu has gone to great lengths to cultivate Russia, in part because Israel sees Russia as the likeliest agent to broker a final status deal that would keep Iran and Hezbollah as far as possible from Syria’s southwest, where Israel’s border is.

He endured a tongue lashing from Russian President Vladimir Putin just for intimating that Syria is responsible for the chemical attack. (Russia insists there is no proof yet.)

The closeness of Trump and his team to Russia—in Washington, increasingly seen as a burden, as it engenders a string of scandals—is seen as a plus in Israel, where it was hoped Trump would leverage his friendship with Putin as a means of containing Assad, Hezbollah and Iran.

“Israel still sees Trump as a dealmaker with Russia, and they want to know if Trump drives a wedge between Russia and Iran-Hezbollah-Syria,” David Makovsky, the Ziegler distinguished fellow at the Washington Institute, says.

4. That Sunni alliance thing…it’s complicated.
The conventional wisdom in Washington after the attack is that Trump has revivified the U.S. profile in Israel among the United States’ Sunni Arab allies.

Except as much as Assad is despised among Sunni Arabs, both for his belonging to the secretive Alawite sect and his alliance with Shiite actors like Iran and Hezbollah, direct U.S. intervention is not necessarily popular.

Critically, Egypt—whose leader, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, recently lavished praise on Trump—was less than enthusiastic about the strike.

“Egypt affirms the importance of sparing Syria and the Middle East the dangers of crisis escalation in order to preserve the safety of the nations that comprise it,” its Foreign Ministry said, according to Al-Ahram. “We see the necessity for swift action to end the armed conflict in Syria to preserve the lives of the Syrian people through a commitment by all Syrian parties for an immediate cease-fire and a return to negotiations under the aegis of the United Nations.”

Egyptian unhappiness could hamper Netanyahu’s bid to use Egypt as a conduit to new peace deals with other moderate Arab states.

“Sisi sees Assad rightly or wrongly as part of the battle against Islamic extremism,” says Shapiro, who is now a senior visiting fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Israel.

“There’s also the more traditional Egyptian value of not wanting to see any foreign interventionf in an Arab state lest it be directed at Egypt,” he says. “And Egypt has in recent months gone a bit closer to the Russians, and Russians have participated in counter ISIS operations in western Egypt. That creates some potential tensions between Egypt and its strategic partner Israel and Sisi and his new friend Donald Trump.”

5. It’s open-ended—which means, duh, we don’t know how it will end.
Tabler cautions against seeing longterm consequences because of a single strike; no one knows yet where Trump will take U.S. involvement.

“This strike is not the same as the invasion of Iraq in 2003,” he says.

Israel initially was supportive of the U.S. action in Iraq, but soon grew apprehensive as the Bush administration neglected increasing threats from Iran and its war radicalized Sunni Arabs in the region.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson suggested that the strike was a one-off.

“I would not in any way attempt to extrapolate that to a change in our policy or our posture relative to our military activities in Syria today,” he said in a media availability.

That did not assuage concerns among Democrats and even some Republicans in Congress, who called for consultations with Congress ahead of any further action.

“Our prior interventions in this region have done nothing to make us safer, and Syria will be no different,” said Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said on Twitter: “I’m deeply concerned the strike in Syria could lead the U.S. back into the quagmire of long-term military engagement in the Middle East.”

At this sacred season of re-consecration to recollection, we are poised between Yom Hashoah’s monumental burden of sorrow and Yom Ha’ Atzmaout’s transforming joy. We pause at this great twilight oscillating between the helplessness of Yeoush’s despair and Hatikvah’s hopefulness of Yeshua’s salvation. We turn to the Torah’s Book of Life that we may face the Shoah’s Book of Death. These, too, are our Days of Awe, no less awesome than those in the fall, sanctified through our people’s blood and resolve, so curiously close to Pesach’s twin themes of bitter enslavement and ever promising redemption.

Celebrating Israel’s 69th anniversary, we look forward to the 50th jubilee of the 1967 Six-Day-War’s miraculous victory, and the reunification of Jerusalem, the Jewish people’s eternal capital. We recall the preceding gripping fear of another Holocaust, this time by the surrounding and menacing Arab states begrudging the triumphant survival of European Jewry’s remnant which includes my own family. At last, all of Jerusalem’s holy sites are safeguarded and respected as we pray for Shalom’s blessing of elusive peace to embrace Israelis and Palestinians—with the latter finally accepting the exceptional return of an ancient people uprooted from its native land by the Roman sword’s power for two trying millennia, yet never abandoning its divine bond with Zion and Jerusalem, thus proving the superiority of the soul’s power.

We marvel at Israel’s world-class astonishing accomplishments and innovations in its brief and challenging years of renewed sovereignty, even as it faces Iran along with its proxies’ undiminished existential threats and the close presence of ISIS and Jihadist groups with the tragic Syrian scenario entering its sixth year of massive human destruction and the greatest refugee crisis since WWII . New opportunities have emerged for rapprochement between Israel and the Sunni Arab states. We bemoan the precipitous and alarming global rise of anti-Semitism, the world’s oldest hatred that made the Holocaust possible. The threats within the United States against Jewish institutions, the desecration of Jewish cemeteries and anti-Israel/Jewish activities in American schools make mockery of sacred memory, justice and truth, while enabling aggressors to persist and delay peace.

Parashat Shemini alerts us to the unexpected both in the human condition and the divine response. In the midst of the Tabernacle’s zenith of joyful dedication, two of the four sons of Aaron the High Priest who just a short while ago were all consecrated as Kohanim, are tragically consumed by fire. We are told and taught, though ponder we must, that the victims’ attendance to holy duties went awry.

The text reads, “Va’idom Aaron,” “And Aaron turned silent.” He had no words. Perhaps he could find no words given the shock’s magnitude of a double loss of his dearest of the dear, while ironically performing their sacred service. “Va’idom Aaron,” yet conceivably Aaron chose not to speak that he may not utter, out of the depths of pain, blasphemous words offensive to God and mocking his own calling.

Thus, choosing to remain silent, but not necessarily speechless, was Aaron’s best possible option under terrifying circumstances that challenged him personally as well as professionally, threatening to undo his very being. Insightfully, if not convincingly, a rabbinic commentary blames the disaster on the poor communication between the victims, Nadav and Avihu, along with their familial failure to respect father Aaron and consult with Uncle Moses. Namely, it is ultimately our own conduct or lack of it, which determines the outcome and not necessarily the Divine’s actions.

At the risk of lifting a verse out of context of a sensitive text of theological quagmire, the following resonates with overwhelming relevance to Yom Ha’Shoah, which is observed, no accident, on the week of Shemini. “And your brethren the entire household of Israel will bemoan the srefa, the burning fire.” The following double parasha of Tazria- Metzora touches upon defiling body conditions to which the rabbis attached an ethical dimension. Leprosy becomes more than a skin ailment. With linguistic aid it is the chosen metaphor for violation, not by God, but by one human being against another. To diminish one’s reputation, Motzi Shem Ra, was tantamount to no less than shedding one’s blood. A good name, Shem Tov, was to be a person’s crowning glory. No surprise, the sinfully genocidal Nazi ideology insisted on dehumanizing as a means for a person’s and our people’s total destruction in spirit and body.

Shall we all, the Shoah’s wounded survivors, choose Aaron’s approach of silence as a path—though like him we profusely bleed, or use words, which our enemy manipulated with ease, to contend with a reality we are commanded to change? The covenantal call and cry is clearly our own, “You shall be holy for I am holy.” Ken Yehi Ratzon. Amen.

—Rabbi Dr. Israel Zoberman

Sunday, April 30
11 am–4 pm
Simon Family JCC

The Simon Family Jewish Community Center’s largest celebration, Israel Fest, honors Israel’s 69th Independence Day. This annual festival offers the chance to experience some of the diverse culinary, cultural, and artistic gifts of Israel without leaving Tidewater.

A day dedicated to Israel and fun, there’s bound to be at least something to eat, something to do, something to purchase, something to watch that will captivate every age and every interest.

A giant tent will house a selection of freshly prepared Israeli food by gourmet chefs of Puzzle Israel, Guy Marom and Nir Margalith, as well as other food and beverage contributions offered by local synagogues and temples. Israeli beers will also be available to quench thirsts.

Visitors will be able to explore a class of Israeli karate (Krav Maga), run an obstacle course designed by Friends of the Israeli Defense Force, or captain an Elite Fleet remote controlled model ship. Camel rides, inflatables, a petting zoo, Israeli music, as well as crafts and jewelry by local artisans will add to the festivities of this family-friendly event.

Marty Einhorn of Wall, Einhorn & Chernitzer, P.C., who generously supports Israel Fest, says, “Alvin, Jeff, and I have had the pleasure of going to Israel and are excited to celebrate with the entire community. This event offers visitors an opportunity to explore Israeli culture with great food and family activities. It is an honor to sponsor the Simon Family JCC’s Israel Fest.”

All ages and religious affiliations are invited to attend this uplifting family-fun day to celebrate #withIsrael, Israel’s birthday.

This event is presented by Charles Barker Automotive, Wall, Einhorn & Chernitzer, P.C. and WealthQuest Financial Services. The festival is free and open to the public, but food and some activities require tickets that can be purchased at the event. For more information, visit www.simonfamilyjcc.org/israelfest.

Sunday, May 7
24th Street Park
at the Virginia Beach Boardwalk

With options of the 8K run, 5K run or walk, and 1-mile run/walk, Jewish Family Service’s 13th Annual Run, Roll or Stroll is open to both serious and not-so-serious athletes. This also includes those of all ages who just want to take a nice Sunday morning stroll on the boardwalk.

One of the highlights of Run, Roll or Stroll is the competition to see who will have the largest team of racers. For example, JFS encourages all local synagogues to bring a team.*

In addition to heart-pumping exercise, this year’s event will feature plenty of fun activities. Prior to each race, runners and walkers can warm up their muscles with a trainer from the Simon Family JCC. A photo booth, face painting for kids, corn hole, music by Don London from the New 101.3 2WD, and an awards presentation once the last runner crosses the finish line, are among the planned events. Bins to drop off gently used athletic shoes to be donated to MORE Foundation Group will also be available.

Introducing…Mitzvah Miles!
This year, JFS also introduces Mitzvah Miles, a new, fun way to teach kids and young adults how to do a mitzvah and benefit the community at the same time. As a runner/walker in the Run, Roll or Stroll, Mitzvah Miles participants simply ask family and friends for monetary donations of any amount to help JFS provide many vital services for the community. To learn more, contact a synagogue office or visit www.jfsrunrollorstroll.org.

Participants in the Run, Roll or Stroll or Mitzvah Miles help people right here in Tidewater—allowing JFS to serve one more meal, counsel one more child who has lost a parent, or help one more individual get back on his or her feet after surgery.

*Just enter your synagogue as your race team name when registering online.

Register for the Run, Roll or Stroll at www.jfsrunrollorstroll.org.

Thursday, April 20, 6–7 pm
Sandler Family Campus

So you’re planning to run the JFS Run, Roll or Stroll 8K, 5K, or 1 Miler. Now what? Maybe this is your first race or your 10th. Either way, it helps to get tips from experienced runners.

Hear some great running tips from Tom Purcell, J-Fit fitness and JCC membership director, and from a representative from Running etc. Learn how to select the proper shoes and athletic
compression wear. Want to run faster? You’ll learn that, too. And by the end, you’ll understand about the importance of stretching and how to prevent injury—who wouldn’t want that? Plus, you’ll walk (or run) away with a great running plan to ensure you’re in top form on race day.

The training seminar is free and open to the public.

*Just enter your synagogue as your race team name when registering online.

Virginia Beach —Augusta Straus Goodman, born in Richmond, Virginia on May 10, 1917, passed away peacefully early Friday, March 31 with loved ones on either side, just six weeks before her 100th birthday.

She is the daughter of the late Aubrey and Wilma Straus of Richmond. She is predeceased by her loving husband of 67 years, Robert Campe Goodman, her brother Clifford, and her sisters Adah and Audrey.

Augusta is survived by her children, Robert Goodman, Jr. (Martha) of Virginia Beach; David Goodman (Marian) of Winchester, Massachusetts; Beverly Goodman of Encinitas, California; and Lynn Zoll of Virginia Beach; her seven grandchildren, Allison (Brandon), Campe (Amanda), Jake, Marcus, Emanuel, Maria (Doug), and Nathan; and four great-grandchildren, Beya, Julian, Madeline, Natalie.

Augusta attended the University of Richmond and graduated from Connecticut College with a major in Botany in 1938. She lived in Northern Virginia until 1941 and then moved to Norfolk. She later moved to Virginia Beach (Princess Anne County) in 1947. With Bob, she joined the Cavalier Golf & Yacht Club where they remained active golf playing members. She was an active member of the Tidewater Woman’s Golf Association, an avid golfer who competed in amateur tournaments and was nicknamed “Trophy Kid” by her son.

Augusta was an avid gardener, curious reader, and involved in W.T. Cooke School PTA. She led a citizen group in Princess Anne County to lower the speed limit on Atlantic Ave. at the North End to 35 mph. She was active in the United Way, a founding member of the Voluntary Service Bureau (now Volunteer Hampton Roads), co-founded the used book exchange at Linkhorn Park Elementary as member and leader in PTA, served as a member of Virginia Beach Beautification Commission, and was an active supporter of the Optimist Club. Augusta served as a passionate volunteer to many organizations, giving time and donations to enhance the lives of many. She was known to many as a gracious hostess, an excellent cook, sports enthusiast who adored fishing, swimming, tennis, golf, and baseball, one who loved to dance, a whiz at *5-star Sudoku, and a passionate bridge and poker player.

Burial took place at Forest Lawn Cemetery with a memorial service at Ohef Sholom Temple.

Donations requested to the ACLU, Augusta’s favorite charity. ACLU, c/o the Gift Processing Department, 125 Broad Street, 18th Floor, New York, NY 10004.

Norfolk —Larry (nee Lawrence) Bennett Kurzer passed away in Chiang Mai, Thailand, on March 10, 2017.

The 63-year-old Norfolk native was the devoted son of Lillian Traub Kozak, the late Phillip Kurzer and step-son of the late Norman Kozak.

Larry attended the Hebrew Academy of Tidewater, the Talmudical Academy of Baltimore and Wilson High School before graduating summa cum laude with a political science degree from Old Dominion University and a master’s in public administration from George Washington University.

After a brief teaching career in Portsmouth Public Schools, Larry embarked on a varied civil service career that took him from coast to coast and eventually to Southeast Asia. He was a well-respected Navy contract specialist who worked in Norfolk, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Colorado, San Diego, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Larry then moved into the rewarding family services branch, where he helped transitioning personnel adjust to life abroad and find post-military employment.

Following his civil service retirement, Larry moved overseas where he taught English to adult South Koreans in academies and companies. While there, this “wandering Jew” backpacked extensively in Cambodia, India, Japan, Thailand; to South American countries Panama, Bolivia, Uruguay and Peru; and to various parts of Africa.

Larry, a guitar player, was a huge lover of all music, from rock to jazz to the blues. While living in Philadelphia, he worked security on concerts ranging from ex-Beatle Ringo Starr to guitar legend Stevie Ray Vaughn. In his younger days, he also loved to tinker with his MGB, TR6 and motorcycle.

Though far away, family was never far from his thoughts—with a helpful idea, a generous check or bouquet of flowers on Mother’s Day. Larry was indeed a good son, brother and uncle.

Survivors include his mother Lillian Kozak; brothers Alan Kurzer, Ben Kozak, Mark (Brenda) Kozak, George (Angela) Kozak; niece Rachel (Daniel) Rabin and nephew Sam Kozak.

A graveside service was held at Mikro Kodesh Cemetery in the Berkley section of Chesapeake. Rabbi Jeffrey Arnowitz of Congregation Beth El Norfolk officiated. Altmeyer Funeral Home. Donations are suggested to HAT or Beth Sholom Home.

Virg inia Beach —Morris Silverstein 94, passed away on March 31, 2017. His funeral took place at Woodlawn Funeral Home, with Cantor Elihu Flax officiating.

Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko, best known for his poem commemorating the slaughter of Jews by the Nazis at the Ukrainian ravine known as Babi Yar, has died at 84.

Yevtushenko died Saturday, April 1 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he had been a faculty member at the University of Tulsa since the mid-1990s.

Babi Yar, written in 1961 about the September 1941 massacre near the Ukrainian capital of Kiev that killed some 34,000 Jews, exposed the anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union by authorities who refused to recognize the Jewish victims of the Nazis. The poem was set to music by Dmitri Shostakovich in his Symphony No. 13.

Yevtushenko told The Associated Press in 2007 that he wrote Babi Yar after visiting the site of the mass killings and not finding anything to memorialize the tragedy that occurred there. An official memorial to Soviet citizens shot at Babi Yar was erected in 1976, and in 1991 the Ukrainian government allowed the establishment of a separate memorial specifically identifying the Jewish victims.

The poem begins:
“No monument stands over Babi Yar.
A steep cliff only, like the rudest headstone.
I am afraid.
Today, I am as old
As the entire Jewish race itself.”

The poem was a sensation in the Soviet Union, where Yevtushenko’s readings drew the kind of frenzied audiences reserved for rock stars in the West. “The strongest proof of the poem’s power,” Gal Beckerman wrote in his history of the Soviet Jewry movement, “was the ferocity with which the government tried to squelch it.”

Yevtushenko grew up in Moscow and was invited to study at the Gorky Institute of World Literature there.

He wrote poetry critical of Joseph Stalin, the Soviet dictator who ruled the country for more than two decades, and gained popularity and official recognition after Stalin’s death in 1953.

He published more than 150 collections of poems.

Yevtushenko also was a proponent of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s glasnost, or “openness” campaign. He was a member of the first freely elected Supreme Soviet, the Soviet Union’s parliament.

A spokesman for President Vladimir Putin said the poet’s legacy would remain “part of Russian culture.” (JTA)

NEW YORK (JTA)—Don Rickles, the bullet-headed comedian and actor whose pioneering brand of insult comedy earned him the nickname “Mr. Warmth,” has died at 90.

Rickles died Thursday, April 6 at his home in Los Angeles from kidney failure, according to his publicist. He would have turned 91 on May 8.

Bald and squat, Rickles would pace the stages of nightclubs and late night talk shows seeking out “victims” in the audience, riffing on their weight, ethnicity and dress, calling them “hockey puck,” but usually pulling back from the edge of causing any real offense by offering a wide smile and an intentionally unctuous declaration of universal fraternity. His targets included fellow comedian Jerry Lewis (“You annoy me”), Frank Sinatra (“Make yourself comfortable, Frank—hit somebody”) and an Asian man sitting in the front row of one of his shows (“There are 40 million Jews here in Los Angeles; how did you get such a good seat?” ).

But Rickles also was a serious actor who trained at the famed American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and he had supporting roles in a number of memorable films including Kelly’s Heroes with Clint Eastwood; Run Silent, Run Deep, with Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster, and Casino, directed by Martin Scorsese.

Younger audiences would recognize his voice as that of Mr. Potato Head in the Pixar film Toy Story and its sequels. He appeared in countless television shows.

An auxiliary member of the “Rat Pack,” a loose fraternity of entertainers led by Sinatra, Rickles kept on performing nearly to the end of his life and outlived most of the entertainers of his era.

Rickles was born and raised in Queens, New York. His father, Max, immigrated to the United States as a child from Kaunas, Lithuania. His mother, born in New York, also was the daughter of Jewish immigrants.

Rickles served in the U.S. Navy during World War II , and after his service honed his act at small and often seedy nightclubs.

“I had a tough time—I had no other jobs—so I reached out to comedy,” he said in an interview with the Jewish Standard of New Jersey in 2013. Sinatra spotted Rickles at a Miami club, and the famed singer helped make him a headliner in Las Vegas. Rickles first appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1965, and would return as a guest at least 100 times.

In 2012, Jon Stewart presented Rickles with the “Johnny Carson Award For Comedic Excellence” at the Comedy Awards run by the Comedy Central cable network.

In his 2007 memoir, Rickles’ Book, he recalled a visit to his father’s grave on Long Island along with the cantor who would perform his wedding to Barbara Sklar.

“The cantor put on his white robe and prayer shawl,” Rickles recalled. “In the still of the morning, standing over my dear father’s grave, he sang the Hebrew prayer for the dead. He wailed; he sang with such tender feeling and heartfelt anguish that I felt the presence of God Almighty in every fiber of my being. Afterward, we recited the Kaddish, the Jewish mourners’ prayer, our words melting the morning fog to tears.

“Before we left, the cantor sang a prayer in Hebrew, inviting Dad to my wedding. Then he finished by saying, ‘May your soul be with us forever.’”

Barbara Rickles survives her husband, as does their daughter, Mindy. Their son, Larry, an Emmy Award-winning producer, died at 41 in 2011 of respiratory failure.

Rickles often tried to distinguish between the “character” he played on stage and his real-life persona.

“I don’t care if the average guy on the street really knows what I’m like, as long as he knows I’m not really a mean, vicious guy,” he said. “My friends and family know what I’m really like. That’s what’s important.”

- JTA Staff

Saturday, May 20, 9:30 am

Temple Israel’s Annual Disability Awareness Shabbat will feature Lynne Seagle, executive director of the Hope House Foundation, as the guest speaker.

Seagle began her career at Hope House Foundation in 1978 as director of residential services. She has served as executive director for more than three decades. Under her leadership, Hope House has become internationally known for its innovative, person-centered approach. She says that one of her proudest accomplishments was guiding the agency through the transition from group homes to supporting people in their own apartments in the early 1990′s.

In 1986, Seagle was honored as the Virginia Administrator of the year by the Virginia Community Living Association (CLAMR) and also received an innovation Award from the same organization.

Passionate about social justice and equality for all people, particularly those with intellectual or developmental disabilities, in 1990, she received the Leadership Award from the American Association on Intellectual Disabilities, and in 1998, she received the Joseph P. Kennedy Foundation’s International Future Leader Award. In 2011, she was appointed to the Arc of Virginia’s board of directors. She has also served on the President’s Commission on Intellectual Disabilities and is on the Advisory board of the Joseph P. Kennedy Foundation.

The Hope House Foundation supports adults with a primary diagnosis of a developmental or intellectual disability such as Down Syndrome, autism spectrum disorders, traumatic brain injury, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, and more. Many of the people they serve also have physical disabilities and emotional issues.

Hope House continues to serve their clients as they grow older or are faced with difficult medical challenges. It currently serves 123 people.

Temple Israel is located at 7255 Granby Street in Norfolk. For more information, call 489-4550.

Saturday, May 6, 1 pm

A conversation and luncheon with the New Israel Fund will take place at the home of Susan Feit and Eitan Stern.

The New Israel Fund, Israel’s leading progressive organization, has been working to advance equality, pluralism, and democracy for almost 40 years.

The event will take place at 413 Raleigh Ave., Norfolk. Open to the community. RSVP to eitanstern8@gmail.com or 757-559-2499.

Sunday, May 7, 2-4 pm

The keynote speaker for this annual event to benefit the Beach Health Clinic to support under-served women with free cancer screenings and mammograms is Marni Siegel.

For information, call Paula Krukin Levy, event chair at 757-467-6677; Devorah Elstein, co-chair, at 757-619-6236, or the temple office, 757-428-2591.

Minimum donation is $10.

Temple Emanuel is located at 424 25th St. in Virginia Beach.

Film marks 50th Anniversary of Israel’s Six-Day War
CBN and Fathom Events present theatrical screening, Tuesday, May 23

On the 50th Anniversary of the Arab-Israeli Six-Day War comes the gripping new docudrama In Our Hands: The  Battle for Jerusalem. This CBN Documentaries film brings to life the battle of paratroopers’ hard-won victory at Ammunition Hill that reclaimed Jerusalem’s Old City and the Western Wall.

Packed with interviews, archival footage and historic reenactments, In Our Hands will screen in movie theaters nationwide for a one-night Fathom Events presentation.

“To know this story is to have to tell it, particularly on the 50th anniversary of the event,” says CBN CEO Gordon Robertson. “From the very Israeli paratroopers who fought it, In Our Hands unveils the surprise victory that returned to the Jews the Old City of Jerusalem and the Western Wall of the old Temple. One soldier called it ‘the returning to the nation its heart.’”

In Our Hands tells the story of Israel’s 55th Paratrooper Brigade and how Israel Defense Forces risked everything for the sake of their homeland. With firsthand interviews and historical reenactments, this docudrama focuses on the commitment and sacrifice of the soldiers who reunited Jerusalem, and announced to the world, “The Temple Mount is in our hands.”

Shot in Jerusalem on the actual battle sites, more than 100 actors (extras are real Israeli paratroopers) reenact the deadly fighting at Ammunition Hill and the Old City. “Most accounts of the Six-Day War are pretty straight documentaries, and The Battle of Ammunition Hill is a sentence or two,” Robertson says. “No film we know of actually recreates these pivotal scenes and events with such intense accuracy. For new generations of Jews and Christians, In Our Hands is a must-see.”

For tickets, visit InOurHands1967.com.

Judas
Amos Oz
Translated by Nicholas de Lange
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016
305 pages, $25

Amos Oz, Israel’s premier author, is the very embodiment of Eretz Yisrael Hayafa, that beautifully inspiring Israel—particularly in its early pioneering phase—a reborn nation increasingly tested in a challenging and chilling environment from without and within, while accomplishing so much in all fields of human endeavor.

Oz, whose books have been translated into 37 languages, is a member of the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism. The group’s center/ left views are reminiscent of a less polarized Israeli society before the ascension into power of the political right; when the labor block dominated life in Israel and the Kibbutz, to whom Oz was exposed to as a teenager, was a leading social force.

His latest book, Judas, winner of the prestigious International Literature Prize, returns to that foundational socialist phase in Israel’s young history. Many look back at that time with nostalgia, often overlooking the inner tensions that have continued to impact the Israeli scene with unresolved issues of war and peace, acerbated by the acquisition of territories following the 1967 War.

The soaring book’s saga focuses on divided Jerusalem, of which Oz is a native, at the end of the 1950s and the beginning of the 1960s. The book’s protagonist, 25-year-old Shmuel Ash, who is originally from Haifa, studies for his master’s degree in history and the science of religions at Hebrew University. He struggles with his thesis on “Jewish views of Jesus.” Suddenly his girlfriend leaves him, his Socialist Renewal Group disbands due to an ideological rift, and his father unexpectedly can no longer support him.

Forced to abandon his education and get a job, Ash helps elderly Gershom Wald who resides in a house with heart-breaker 45-year-old Atalia, whose husband for a brief year and a half, Micha, Wald’s only child, was brutally murdered in the 1948 War of Independence. Thirty-seven-year old Micha, a math whiz, volunteered to fight despite his age, health issues, and the opposition to the war of both his wife and her father, Shealtiel Abravanel. Wald, though mourning his beloved son’s death, praises him and all who were willing to sacrifice their lives for the nascent Jewish state, while admiring David Ben- Gurion for his foresight and unwavering leadership.

The late Abravanel, a renowned lawyer, orientalist, and top Jewish leader, broke away from Ben-Gurion and the majority who sided with creating a Jewish state, arguing that it would only lead to endless wars with the Arabs and being far more numerous, they would win in time. He opposed both a Jewish or Arab state since Jews and Arabs, both victims of Christian Europe, should first learn to live together so that the Arabs would eventually cease fearing that the Jews plot to control the Arab world through their qualitative superiority. Ideally, Abravanel envisioned a world without borders, along with separate and separating national symbols contributing to incessant conflict and bloodshed.

Surely Oz, a great Israeli patriot and world class author, is aiming at those in the current religious and nationalistic camps in Israel who call him a traitor for his liberal perspective, just as Shealtiel was called one and was thought to have lost his mind, without bothering to discuss the issue with him.

Ash’s grandfather who worked for the British mandatory police, was murdered by Jewish extremists for being a traitor; though he was a double agent.

Ash is convinced that ironically and tragically, Judas, whose name is synonymous with betrayal in the Christian-Western mindset promoting Jew-hatred, was the one most faithful to Jesus from all of his disciples; and being a man of stature, was sent by Jerusalem’s priesthood establishment to spy on Jesus, yet became captivated by his unique personality. Thus, Ash regards Judas as the true founder of Christianity.

Though Ash appreciates Israel’s essential need and obligation to be militarily strong, he points out the limits of military power to bring peace with the Arabs, so ironically following centuries of physical powerlessness of a people so tragically discovering the limits of its coveted spiritual power which purported to substitute for the loss of its sovereignty—to protect Jewish life. He is also concerned of triumphant military hubris by a people finally gaining military prowess after a long hiatus.

I well remember the understandable allure and needed reassurance of the Yom Ha’atzmaut military parades in Israel of the 1950s, with my father, Yechiel, a Polish Holocaust survivor, rejoicing in “Jewish tanks” and “Jewish airplanes. “

Oz remains the ardent peace activist who advocates for a two state solution to the far too long and tragic Israeli- Palestinian conflict. A great humanist, he bares his tormented soul in the prophetic tradition of a lover’s quarrel who chastises, warns, and hopes against hope with an emerging pessimistic note that should concern us all.

—Dr. Israel Zoberman is the founding rabbi of Congregation Beth Chaverim.

Norfolk —A guardian angel must have accompanied Joe Collector during his numerous bombing missions over Nazi Germany, while stationed in England during World War ll. A belly gunner, his B-17 Fly Fortress was shot down twice over the English Channel requiring him to parachute to safety. During his active duty in the Army Air Force, Joe received the Distinguished Flying Cross and a Purple Heart for injury in battle.

Joseph M. Collector passed away peacefully at DePaul Hospital on Sunday, April 23, 2017 following an illness.

After WW II, Collector married Evelyn Axelrod and left his father’s business to start his own as a general contractor. He spent several years teaching construction techniques at Old Dominion College later in his career, and also, for a time volunteered at the Hermitage Museum. Voted Man of the Year at Beth El Temple, he was preceded in death by his wife, Harriet.

Joe is survived by his three sons, Robert (of Montecito, Calif.), Stephen and his wife, Leigh, (of Boulder, Col.) and Joseph Jr. (Skip of Redondo Beach, Calif.) along with his eight grandchildren, and one great-grandson.

A graveside funeral service was held in Forest Lawn Cemetery with Rabbi Jeffrey Arnowitz officiating. H. D. Oliver Funeral Apts., Norfolk Chapel. Online condolences may be offered to the family through www.hdoliver.com.

Norfolk —Nancy Leitman Forman, 83 of Norfolk, died peacefully April 19, 2017 in Virginia Beach.

Mrs. Forman was born in Norfolk and graduated from Maury High School. She was the daughter of the late Jacob Leitman and Florence Sachs Leitman.

Mrs. Forman retired from the City of Norfolk with 30 plus years of service. She dedicated many years as a volunteer at Norfolk General Hospital. Mrs. Forman loved to play Canasta and Rummikub. She was a loving and devoted mother, grandmother, sister, and daughter. She will be sorely missed.

Survivors include her son Rick Forman and wife Janet of Virginia Beach, two grandchildren Dani Michelle Forman and Jake Baydush Forman. She is also survived by her brother, Joel Leitman and his wife Anne of Virginia Beach, and a nephew James Leitman and his wife Linda.

A graveside service was conducted at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Norfolk by Rabbi Jeffrey Arnowitz of Congregation Beth El. Memorial donations may be made to the Children’s Hospital of The Kings Daughters. Online condolences may be shared with the family at www.hdoliver.com.

VIRGINIA BEACH—Martin E. Silfen, an entertainment lawyer and Professor of Law, died unexpectedly on April 21, 2017 at the age of 81.

Martin is survived by his loving wife, Dory S. Silfen; his children, Jane, Lisa and Larry; six grandchildren, Jennifer, Bradley, Danielle, Jeremy, Andrew, and Benjamin; stepchildren, Erik and Heidi; step-grandchildren; Sam, Jack and Sofia; his siblings, Stuart and Judy.

Martin was born in Brooklyn, New York on November 11, 1935 to Samuel and Henrietta Silfen. He graduated from Hobart College in 1957 with a bachelor of arts degree, and in 1960 from Brooklyn Law School. His offices were located in Manhattan, where he was an entertainment and sports lawyer. He held counsel for musicians like Blondie, LL Cool J, Aerosmith, REM, and Dave Mathews.

On May 16, 1993, he married his beloved Dory and then moved to Virginia Beach, where he worked with Mays Valentine, Troutman Sanders as well as taught law at William & Mary, and University of Virginia. As a Fulbright Scholar, he lectured in South America.

He will be deeply missed by his friends, family, and all who know him.

A funeral service took place at the Beth David Cemetery in Elmont, New York. Donations in his memory are requested to Temple Emanuel in Virginia Beach. Express condolences to the family at www.altmeyerfh.com.