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| May 20 - June 2, 2005 | ||||||||||||
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Local StoriesAnti-Israel
Conference Part of Gary
Band
The wind and rain whipping around outside the stone church that day mirrored the stormy internal atmosphere where calls for divestment, accusations of ongoing occupation and oppression, indiscriminate violence against innocent Palestinians, and comparisons to an apartheid state were leveled against the government of Israel by keynote speaker Nancy Murray. The Civil Liberties Task Force Director of the Massachusetts ACLU, Murray is an author, lecturer and member of the steering committee of the US Campaign to End Israel’s Occupation of Palestine. Asked if the Massachusetts ACLU endorses Murray’s sentiments, Executive Director Carol Rose said, “The ACLU does not take a position on peace in the Middle East at this time.” The other speakers, including Harvard Law Professor Duncan Kennedy, who ran an hour-long workshop called The Occupation and the Law, struck a more balanced tone, but the conference did not invite speakers who may have offered a different point of view. Arabic for ‘the way’, Sabeel bills itself as “an ecumenical grassroots movement that strives to develop a spirituality based on justice, peace, nonviolence, liberation and reconciliation.” According to Dexter Van Zile, director of the Judeo-Christian Alliance, an initiative of the Boston-based David Project, “Sabeel is not an organization interested in peace. They are trying to weaponize Christian theology against the Jewish state. I speak as a Christian who is just as shocked as anyone by the language Sabeel and its followers use to describe Israel.” He said that since its founding in 1989, the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center, founded by Naim Ateek and headquartered in Jerusalem, has been a steady source of anti-Israel propaganda in both the United States and Europe. “In the past few years, Sabeel has stepped up its efforts to delegitimize the State of Israel on two fronts,” Van Zile said. “They have orchestrated the highly visible divestment campaign in mainline Protestant Churches, and they are a major player in the ongoing effort to marginalize Christian Zionists in the U.S.” Van Zile suggests that evidence of Sabeel’s influence in the U.S. is becoming increasingly apparent as local chapters of FOSNA hold conferences in local churches in which the suffering of the Palestinians is highlighted, but the corruption of the Palestinian Authority, oppression of Christians and the incitement of violence against Israel are regarded as taboo subjects. “In those instances where these subjects are brought up, they are quickly shouted down or dismissed as neo-conservative rhetoric. By placing these subjects out of the realm of legitimate discourse, Sabeel and its supporters have been able to disarm the conscience of mainline Protestantism in the U.S., which has long been a supporter of human rights, religious freedom, religious tolerance and improvements in the status of women. The consequences for both Israel and for the public square in the U.S. are ominous.” Mark Nystedt of Haverhill, a former member of the Christian Renewal Church in Salem, took issue with much of the keynote presentation. Identifying himself as a “Hebraic Christian,” he said, “To hold this conference on Yom Hashoah is the ultimate chutzpah.” His views are in line with the Christian Zionist community whose major tenets are: God’s covenant with the Jews still stands; Christians and Jews worship the same God; and Christians and Jews are waiting for the same messiah. In her presentation, Murray rhetorically wondered how some members of the Jewish community have allied with Evangelical and Zionist Christians when there is a belief held by some in these circles that at the end of days, the Jews in Israel will not be part of the rapture. “What Sabeel has done is to take the most idiosyncratic views of Christian Zionists and smear all those who support Israel,” Van Zile said. During her hour-long address, Murray repeatedly invoked the Switzerland-based World Council of Churches (WCC) and their call for divestment from companies that “support the occupation” or do business with the Israeli Defense Forces. “The WCC does not speak for most churches in the U.S. or the world,” Van Zile said. But they are not the only ones speaking in favor of this movement. Many mainstream Protestant churches subscribe to a worldview called “liberation theology” that aims to uplift the weak and downtrodden, and the Palestinians fit that role. Last summer the Presbyter-ian Church USA passed a resolution considering a “selective, phased divestment” of companies that do business with Israel. In November, 2004, the board of the Episcopal Church voted to consider corporate actions against companies that “contribute to the infrastructure of Israel’s ongoing occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip,” along with companies that “have connections to organizations responsible for violence against Israel.” In April of this year, the board of the United Methodist Church voted to conduct a yearlong study to consider divestment. The United Church of Christ released resolutions it will consider at its annual conference in Atlanta in July; two suggest divestment and one urges Israel to dismantle its West Bank security barrier. A coalition of Jews and Protestants met May 13 in Washington, and an interfaith mission to Israel is planned for September. On the North Shore, the Journal spoke with religious leaders who would welcome the opportunity to sit down and discuss Middle East issues. With regard to the charges Murray leveled against the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), Van Zile said there are a handful of Jewish human rights organizations that say the same thing, “but unfortunately there’s not an analogous organization on the other side that condemns suicide bombings with the same force with which these groups condemn the IDF.” Van Zile says he doesn’t doubt the veracity of some claims made against the policies of the Sharon government, but takes issue with the “monomaniacal focus of the human rights groups that seem unable to raise the same level of complaint about human rights abuses throughout the Middle East and the violence perpetrated upon innocent Israeli citizens by suicide bombers. There was violence against Israel before the settlement movement. What guarantees are there that it will stop after the withdrawal from Gaza? History has not been favorable to Israel on that score.” Reverend Jeff Barz-Snell is the pastor of First Church. He organized the conference in cooperation with Harry Hoehler, minister emeritus of the First Church Parish in Weston, who held a similar conference last year, to raise local awareness of the situation in the Middle East. “I realize this is the third rail of international politics,” said Barz-Snell, “but it’s one of the great, ongoing tragedies of our time and I wanted to raise some of the issues. I did so as someone who considers himself a supporter of Israel. Some would question the content discussed here, but there are Jewish groups that are saying the same thing.” Barz-Snell, who said he was influenced by the positions of Jewish groups such as Beit Shalom and Peace Now, admitted he was surprised by the portrayal of Israel as an apartheid state by the keynote speaker and the assertion that Israel would not respond to non-violent demonstrations. “Nancy Murray is not someone I knew of,” he said. “She was not at last year’s conference and this was the first time I heard her speak. I was taken aback by some of her comments, but did not find anything in her speech that suggested the demise of Israel.” And though he said it is a major step for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to dismantle the settlements in Gaza, he noted that more settlements are being built east of Jerusalem. “Extremists on both sides are claiming the same land and the moderates are dumbfounded. I think it was an Israeli poet who once said that everyone knows what needs to be done, but it’s the radicals on both sides of the issue that prevent it from happening.” Rev. Barz-Snell, who sits on the Salem Interfaith Council with Rabbi Lee Levin of Temple Shalom and whose church has a longstanding relationship with the Salem Jewish community, resonated with a point made at the end of the conference, that there are truly anti-Semitic groups and it would be a shame if they took hold of this issue to advance their cause. “There’s got to be a way to be critical of Israel and still be a supporter,” he said, “just as we must be able to be critical of the United States and not be considered unpatriotic.” He allowed that while “No one suggests, and I don’t suggest, that Israel doesn’t have a right to defend itself, there has been a systematic deprivation of Palestinian rights. The atmosphere in the West Bank and Gaza is of legitimate concern, and there are a growing number of voices in the international community saying so. I fully concede that is the opinion of a Protestant minister in Massachusetts, but I’m not the only one. I also fully concede that it is very hard to make peace with somebody who hates your guts, but with power comes responsibility.” According to some attendees at the conference, to criticize policies and accurately condemn acts of excessive force is one thing, but Murray’s litany of alleged acts of IDF aggression were untrue and inflammatory. She said a peaceful May 4 Palestinian demonstration at a section of the wall in the West Bank was met with violence by the Israeli army. According to CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America) Associate Director Alex Safian, who knows Murray’s work well, the demonstration was not peaceful. In a report on the incident, an IDF spokesman reported that around 300 Palestinians attacked a small IDF force comprised of six soldiers in a violent riot. The Palestinians left the village of Beit Likiya, southwest of Ramallah, and approached the IDF force, which was in the parking lot designated for civilian contractors working on the security fence near the community of Mevoh Horon. The Palestinians, who were approaching in order to damage the engineering equipment parked in the lot, began hurling rocks en masse at the force. The initial inquiry states that the IDF team tried to disperse the riot using non-lethal means, but the Palestinians continued to throw rocks, wounding an IDF officer lightly. When the Palestinians continued to attack the force, the commander of the force fired in the air. When the Palestinians still continued to attack, the commander fired at the legs of one of the rioters and then at the rocks near the rioters, in order to avoid firing towards any of the other Palestinians. Three Palestinians were wounded during the riot, two of whom died of their wounds. Murray also cited the indiscriminate destruction of Palestinian homes, olive orchards, and the March 16, 2003 death of 23-year-old American Jewish activist Rachel Corey. “The facts indicate that she intentionally placed herself in a war zone where soldiers were trying to uncover tunnels used to bring in weapons,” Safian said. “Despite repeated warnings to leave the area, she was trying to protect a house which had a tunnel, got in front of a large bulldozer, the driver couldn’t see her and she was killed. That in itself is a great pity, but she intentionally placed herself in a very dangerous situation.” He further contends that homes are not indiscriminately destroyed, but those built near the Egyptian border that have tunnels used for weapons smuggling, or houses known to be used for terrorist activity, are in fact demolished. “Israel is not alone in taking these measures to protect its people,” Safian said. As for the olive orchards, Safian said that statistics from 1967-92 show that olive yields have doubled in tons. “How if Israel was cutting down all these trees could the crop have doubled?” Rabbi Myron Geller of Temple Ahavat Achim in Gloucester, who believes there should be a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, said, “It seems to me that an ahistorical approach to the situation leads to confusion, passion and hostility. A historical approach would appreciate that the Zionists were wrong: they thought there were no people there, but there were. But the Zionists were also right in that there was no country called Palestine.” With regard to Murray’s portrayal of Israel as an apartheid state, Geller says, “Accusing Israel of being an apartheid state without recognizing the failure of the Arab world to take responsibility for their own national dreams is naïve at best and vicious at worst. The real focus of Palestinian leadership is not taking care of the Palestinians, but eliminating the Jewish State, advancing their own cause, and building villas on the Mediterranean Sea while their people starve.” Rabbi
Lee Levin is concerned about the language expressed by some about the
conference. Pro-Palestinian Ads To Air Here Mark
Arnold Major Boston TV outlets will air 30 to 60-second “public service announcements” designed to build sympathy for Palestinian Arabs during the remainder of May, according to Imagine-Life, a Washington, D.C., group dedicated to calling attention to human rights violations. “We aired four spots on April 13 and plan to air them 40 to 50 more times this month on major news networks such as Fox, CNN, and MSNBC,” Nina Ghannam, president of Imagine-Life, told the Journal May 15. “A third of the ads include Palestinian and Israeli children,” she added, “but we give special emphasis to the Palestinians because we focus on underrepresented elements of society, and the Palestinians are deemed by the news media in this country to be less newsworthy than Israel.” Boston is one of 80 cities that will carry the ads, Ms. Ghannam said, but she declined to name any other cities or specify when the ads would appear. Asked why, she said that to announce the timing of the announcements in advance could prevent them from running. “We don’t want people who have never seen the ads to be putting pressure on the stations not to run them,” she said. The Imagine-Life TV campaign has been criticized by Boston’s Jewish Community Relations Council as misleading and lacking in documentation. “They’re not public service announcements but advertisements,” said Alan Ronkin, JCRC deputy director. “Announcements must be sourced and these include some sweeping and unsubstantiated statements.” The JCRC has been running its own 30-second spots this month during TV broadcasts of Red Sox games and Celtic playoff games. Its spots, Ronkin said, “show Jews and non-Jews both the steps and the risks Israel is taking to achieve peace.” Its campaign can be viewed on the web at bostonisraelaction.org. Ghannam refused to say where Imagine-Life gets its funds or who serves on its board. She said the group, a non-profit, was formed in April 2004 to educate the public about human rights abuses in hopes of creating environments where peace can prosper. Its major activity so far has been producing, with independent film producers, television spots such as those to be aired in the Boston area. In future months, she said, a variety of other spots will be aired in major TV markets. New Berlin Memorial Misses the Mark Herbert
Belkin Most Holocaust memorial buildings are constructed from stone and mortar. However, these materials are not what really hold them together. The real binding agent is the emotion visitors experience as they walk through the halls of tragedy. The true connection is the cry when a visitor sees a pile of Jewish hair, the half-choked sob when she sees a mound of children’s shoes. In this regard, the new German Holocaust memorial in Berlin makes no connection at all. Based on pictures and photographs I have seen, the 2700 unadorned concrete slabs of the German memorial are arrayed in rows contained in one city block. The design concept behind the slabs was to evoke the helplessness Jewish prisoners felt during their internment in the death camps. Unfortunately, the concept misses the mark by being too impersonal. Where are the names of the Jews who were slaughtered; or even the numbers that were tattooed on their arms that rendered them “things” rather than people? Where is evidence of the rich Jewish culture that disappeared under the Nazi boot? If the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust were faceless then, why do they have to be faceless now? The 2700 slabs in Berlin are too cold, too remote to link a visitor with the true horror and meaning of the Holocaust. When a visitor walks through the city block containing the slabs, one’s experience should not be as rigid as the concrete stones just walked through. These comments are not to disparage the motives of the Germans who built the memorial. After all, funds were raised and it was built (after 17 years of internal contention) in a prominent location in the center of Berlin. The Berlin memorial is evidence that the Germans have faced and acknowledge the inhumanity of the Third Reich. However, on this most emotional issue, shouldn’t we see some evidence of a human connection? Intolerance Charged at AF Academy Matthew
E. Berger WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is investigating allegations that staff and cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy are creating a climate that is unwelcoming to Jews and other religious minorities. A report late last month by Americans United for Separation of Church and State — which detailed reported evangelical comments from academy leaders and incidents in which cadets claimed they were pressured to attend church services — prompted the Defense Department to create a task force to assess the school’s climate and offer ideas for changes within the next few weeks. The new accusations come just months after the Colorado Springs academy instituted a program aimed at teaching tolerance to cadets and staff. The report said Jews and others who celebrate the Sabbath on Saturdays were not granted special passes to leave academy grounds, while those who sought passes for Sunday services got them. Some other charges involve slurs against Jewish cadets, including one in which a Jewish cadet reportedly was told the Holocaust was revenge for the death of Jesus. “Religious tolerance issues have been around for a long time in some form or another,” Bruce DeBoskey, the Anti-Defamation League’s Mountain States regional director, said of the academy. “There’s always been a sense by some people that the atmosphere there is not particularly inclusive.” Military academies are government operations and must follow the government’s strict separation of church and state, said Barry Lynn, Americans United’s executive director. “They have a responsibility to make sure there is nothing that constitutes a pattern of harassment against people of minority religious faiths or no religious faith,” Lynn said. But Lynn and DeBoskey said the concern goes beyond that. “The Air Force Academy trains the officers of tomorrow,” DeBoskey said. “If they are being taught it’s OK to use their power to proselytize, the military will not be a welcoming place and possibly will pose constitutional problems.” In a separate interview, Lynn said it’s especially important for the military to be a religiously tolerant place as it fights a war against militant Islam. “You don’t want the Islamic world to think it’s a mission of the Air Force to convert religious minorities,” he said. “It’s a very dangerous time for this attitude to become part of the story.” A spokesman for the academy, Meade Warthen, said the Defense Department task force was scheduled to come to view the campus on Tuesday, and likely would issue a report to the acting secretary of the Air Force by month’s end. Warthen said the school had no comment beyond supporting the task force’s work. “We’re going to allow them to conduct it before we provide any specific information,” he said. The Air Force Academy has been under fire in recent years, with nearly 150 female cadets claiming they suffered sexual assaults. DeBoskey said he has heard complaints of evangelical commentary by Air Force leaders and taunts from cadets. In addition, DeBoskey said some school events have been planned with no regard to Jewish holidays. The Air Force Academy has approximately 57 Jews out of 4,200 cadets, according to October 2004 figures from Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, which does not have a branch at the academy.
People in the News
Arts & EntertainmentCynthia Ozick Pens a Strange Refugee Tale Lee
Rosenthal Heir to the Glimmering World, by Cynthia Ozick, Houghton Mifflin, 2004, 310 pages, $24.00. We have an abundance of fiction, non-fiction, film, and drama about the horrors and suffering of the victims caught in Hitler’s killing machine. But what about those who got away before the roundings up, the mass transportations to the death camps, and the futile attempts to escape? How did they fare? Cynthia Ozick, in Heir to the Glimmering World, provides us with an absorbing novel about a family of German Jews who had enjoyed affluence and prestige in the old country and found here a struggle to maintain a measure of that good life. We encounter them through the eyes of Rose Meadows, an 18-year-old on her own in Albany, who answers an ad in the Albany Star for an assistant to Pro-fessor Rudolf Mitwisser, a well-known German specialist in the history of religion and a scholar of Karaism, an ancient Hebrew sect. She is accepted, but does not know what her role is to be — nanny to his five children, tutor, secretary, or nursemaid to Mrs. Mitwesser, who seems to have suffered a breakdown. No
salary is mentioned in her interview, but Rose does not ask. She is an
orphan who needs a refuge herself. After her father died, leaving her
little but a worn children’s picture book, their cousin Bertram
took her in and paid for her education, but he is now moving in with his
lover, Ninel, and Rose is homeless. The Quakers brought the refugee family to this country, provided a house, and secured the professor a post at the Hudson Valley Friends College to teach about the Charismites, a sixteenth-century mystical Christian sect, mistakenly confusing the Charismites with the Karaites. But the professor must be close to the New York Public Library to continue his research on the Karaites, so he leaves his post at the Quaker College, and they move to New York, not the New York that Rose had imagined, of Manhattan skyscrapers, crowds of people, and jazz. Their new home is in a small community on the edge of the Southeast Bronx in a row of similar stucco-covered houses. Rose’s duties at times include caring for Mrs. Mitwisser (inducing her to put on her shoes, to eat, and getting dressed), watching the youngest child, Waltraut, a three-year old whom her mother ignores, and eventually transcribing on the typewriter for Professor Mitwisser. She wonders where the money comes from on which they exist. It is never in evidence, and she still is not paid. The Mitwissers refer frequently to a benefactor, James, formerly tutor to the three Mitwisser boys. He will solve all their problems when he returns, they know not when. As a child, James had been the model for his father, who wrote and illustrated a world-wide popular children’s book, which came to be known as The Bear Book. James resented the strictures and old-fashioned clothes he was made to wear as he stood for hours as his father’s model. When his parents died, he was immensely rich, and the royalties kept rolling in. James finally arrives, along with boxes of toys for the younger children, and Rose receives two weeks’ pay, $36. She has little in the way of duties in this household and begins to take the train into the city to observe — literally spy on — the professor, who follows a strict regimen of rising early and taking the train to the New York Public Library. She sees that he is doing nothing, sitting day after day, hour after hour, hardly writing a word from the tomes that he occasionally secures from the stacks. This is hardly the end of the fortunes of the Mitwissers, James, Rose, and Bertram, but we leave it up to the reader to encounter, with pleasant surprises, the twisting plot and the resolution of their intertwining relationships. The reader will enjoy, too, the most enjoyable style of the author and a story full of vivid detail, with both irony and sympathy. Editorial Anti-Israel Conference in Salem The enemies of Israel achieved a foothold on the North Shore when a Salem church known for its interfaith activities hosted an Israel-bashing conference on Saturday, May 7, a date that coincided, insensitively, with the area’s observance of Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Memorial Day. The half-day conference — at the historic First Church in Salem, Unitarian — was titled “Peacemaking in Israel/Palestine: Is It Possible?” The church’s newsletter described it as a day to learn “the history of the conflict and get a better understanding of what is at stake” in current peace talks. The tone was set in the lead article in the same newsletter by the church’s spiritual leader, the Rev. Jeff Barz-Snell, which pleaded the Palestinian case against Israel. The article began: “Imagine, if you will, living in a house that your family has owned for two centuries….Now imagine one day you receive a knock at the door and….you are asked to vacate the premises....” He goes on to ask: “Would you argue or fight for what has been yours?” With no acknowledgement of the fact that Israel is making plans shortly to uproot thousands of Israeli — not Arab — residents of Gaza and parts of the West Bank, those gullible people who attended the conference were subjected to a virtual orgy of Palestinian propaganda from the keynoter, Nancy Murray, and other speakers (see story page one). No attempt was made to present Israel’s case or that of the Bush Administration on the issues dividing parties to the conflict or to put it in historical perspective. So outrageously one-sided was the keynote presentation that even Reverend Barz-Snell was embarrassed — or so he told our reporter Gary Band. But the pastor did nothing to make his misgivings known to either attendees or speakers. The fact is that since last summer, several Protestant denominations have been using well-meaning liberal congregations, like the one in Salem, to further an agenda aimed at building pressure for divestment of companies doing business with Israel. They are silent on the truly evil human-rights violators in the Middle East such as Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Libya, however. When our Christian friends hold Israel to a standard above those of any other sovereign state, we Jews have to cry foul. We do so now. Swampscott Temples Need to Widen Decision Circle Letters on the opposite page illustrate an important point about efforts to form a new Conservative congregation, Shirat HaYam, in Swampscott: While most members of the two temples involved — Beth El and Israel — realize the need to join forces, many feel left out of decision making, their concerns ignored. We urge leaders to widen the circle of involvement and bring members together to plan their common future — before cracks now surfacing shatter the strong foundation needed for the new congregation to succeed. — Mark R. Arnold All the News Not Fit to Print
Twenty skinheads from Arkansas, all self-proclaimed American Nazis, whose major claim to fame is that their cohorts around the country are in jail for murder and robbery, came to Boston last week. Their goal was to garner publicity by protesting Boston’s community-wide Commemoration of the Holocaust. They succeeded. The skinheads’ early announcement of their intentions prompted a counter announcement by a bizarre group of Communists and Anarchists. Their claims to fame are that no one had ever heard of them and that they apparently don’t know that communism is dead. They got lots of news space as well. What happened on Sunday, May 8: 900 attendees packed Faneuil Hall. Among them were Holocaust survivors, soldier-liberators, community leaders, Governor Romney, Mayor Menino, the Consuls General of Israel and Germany, and everyday citizens. The lead sponsoring organization, the Jewish Community Relations Council, had requested in its advance publicity that attendees “not engage or acknowledge the demonstrators in any way. Any engagement will help give the protestors the very publicity that they want, and help them circulate their message of hate.” And that’s how it turned out. The ceremonies began at noon and finished by 2:30. The attendees never saw the protestors, who were outside. The skinheads marched; counter-protestors held signs or yelled. When things got heated, the skinheads were whisked away for their safety. The police did a great job, and it all took less than an hour. Inside, the program included statements by elderly survivors, remarks by political and social leaders and others, plus musical selections. The newspapers, rather than running a brief piece plus a few pictures describing the tone of the day, instead gave the Nazis more than equal play in the same stories. Perhaps we have been hardened by so much atrocity in the world that we miss the point. Think about reporters asking survivors what they think about Nazis. If you think about it, how much more ugly and disgusting could it be? The Boston Globe headlined: “Day of Commem-oration, Disruption.” Fifteen of the 20 paragraphs in the story mentioned the protest. Two of the three photographs were of protestors, though the largest picture sensitively showed people moving through the Holocaust Memorial located nearby. The
Boston Herald gave the event two stories. The larger story headlined,
“Activists, Neo-Nazis Spar” with all 10 paragraphs about the
protestors. The other story, “Holocaust Observers Keep Their Cool,”
had seven of the 11 paragraphs mentioning the protests even though the
Holocaust observers never saw the protest. Three of the four Herald pictures
featured the protestors, with one showing the skinheads carrying a vicious
anti-Israel sign. Here’s an illuminating postscript: The day before the Faneuil Hall commemoration, Salem’s First Church (Unitarian) hosted a seminar castigating Israel and advocating divestment (ending American business with Israel). On May 9, after reading the Boston morning papers’ treatment of the Holocaust Conference, I read the afternoon Salem News headline, “Protestors Fail to Show up at Forum on Palestinians.” I had a good laugh; protestors get the ink whether they come or not. I didn’t wish this anti-Semitic and misguided anti-Israel conference well, but I can picture the organizers scratching their heads, asking: “What kind of a crazy newspaper headline is this?” The point is, free speech does not require free publicity for everyone calling himself a protestor. Context and legitimacy counts. Nazis don’t count at a Holocaust ceremony; what they think doesn’t matter, they shouldn’t even be close enough to be seen. On the other hand, had Jewish organizations protested the anti-Israel seminar, their views would have been newsworthy. Legitimacy and context matters. Still, Jews not appearing for a Saturday (Sabbath) protest was not news at all. These are nuances that our newspaper editors and reporters should consider. The Sale on Zionism
For me, there is no concept more beautiful than Zionism, the ingathering of the Jewish people into the Land of Israel. Ben Tzion was the name of my first car; Tziona, the name I gave my youngest child. Is there anything more appealing, more compelling, or more worthy than the fulfillment of the Zionist dream? Only for Israel would I be willing to endanger my children, sacrifice my life, or empty my pocket. This being said, I must confess to another piece of identity. I have a shopping problem. I am not, as some might claim to be, a shopaholic. Unlike true victims of this disease, I do not find the locus of my being in stores. Still I am, more than most, vulnerable to what I call “shopping accidents.” That is, I am frequently in the line of fire when startlingly low prices are attached to common objects. I am no ingénue. I don’t bite on those department store sales claiming the “lowest price of the season.” Nor do I jump when “clearance” or “new reductions taken” appear on signage in store windows. But I am a hunter-gatherer at my core. I leave the cave only to forage for basics, so to speak. And with my skills and cunning at this avocation, I have more than adequately provided for my large and rapacious family. Were I to teach seminars in the field, I would tell my students, there is indeed an instinctive quality to the highest levels of shopping, exemplified by the times I intuitively know that it is time to purchase large appliances, or other special moments when I am driven to buy real estate or other commodities in large quantity. As you might imagine, my Zionism and my consumerism rarely come into contact. I’ll occasionally try to buy a condo in Israel or OD on something I find at the Jerusalem shuk (or that crazy bus station/ Russian market in Tel Aviv). But when would you ever find a sale on Zionism? One shops and buys consciously, aggressively, in real time; one practices Zionism like breathing, hardly noticing the ebb and flow that embodies essence. Perhaps it was inevitable, though, that the immovable object should one day meet the irresistible force: Hadassah, the Jewish women’s Zionist organization, is running a sale on its life memberships. Until June 1, the price of membership is $250. After that date, from then until the distant future, the cost will be $360. It’s a cosmic conundrum. Why should I close in on a deal when I’m giving tzedakah? Why should I buy a membership now so I can save $110, when the point of the membership itself is to give generously? Doesn’t Hadassah — the largest Jewish women’s organization in the world whose hospital in Jerusalem was recently nominated for a Nobel Prize — need the money? And yet, the enticement of this sale licks at my cheeks like my babies’ first kisses. I am already a life member, but I am signing up both my daughters during the waning days of this bargain. Call it a shopping accident, or the convergence of my twin passions, but if I forget thee, O Jerusalem, may my shopping cart get gum stuck to the wheel, may my Visa card crumble to dust — all this if I do not keep Jerusalem above my greatest joy! Should This Jewish Husband Be Let Out of the Dog House?
There is a game you play at bar mitzvahs in which two people hold a bar and the player bends over backwards and shimmies underneath. The object of the game is to see just how low you can go without touching the bar. The game came to mind as I was thinking about writing an article on a little spat my husband Mitch and I had about his recent weeklong golf junket to Hilton Head, South Carolina. Could I actually go so low as to write an article asking my readers whether to let him out of the doghouse for not expressing his gratitude to me for being such a good sport by letting him chase around a ball with a stick for a week? I mused about how immature and inappropriate it would be to draw public attention to my personal matters. I considered that overall Mitch is a great guy and this may blemish his pristine reputation in the Jewish and banking community. (Then again it could have quite the opposite effect and it may inflate his status and he could be revered as a hero, especially among men who fear their wives.) I reflected about how upset this would make my mother to reveal this battle in front of her mah jong group. Then I thought about how scores of women may applaud my moxie for bringing the issue up for debate. I imagined fan mail pouring in from wives who’ve played second fiddle to golf wanting to settle the score. Perhaps we could start some sort of a club and my picture could be featured on a button wielding a golf club. Maybe I could be feted at a luncheon where I could sign autographed visors. Now I’m not one of those stereotypical Jewish wives that are featured in jokes who enjoy making her husband’s life miserable. In reality, I don’t think those women even exist. They are just figments of some man’s imagination who is probably drowning in guilt for going on a golf trip. I’m
not actually fuming about being left at home because I got to do a lot
of great things with my daughters. I would much prefer going to a play
and watching my daughter’s softball game than playing a round or
12 of golf. What do you think? E-mail me at grapecom@aol.com and vote whether Mitch should be let out of the dog house and back onto the fairway. Reflections on March of the Living
Gingerly, even diffidently; in the form of a question, to lessen the sting: Is the March of the Living, now in its 17th year, which this month brought more than 20,000 young people from all over the world to Poland — yes, to the camps — is the March of the Living good for the Jews, or ought it be discarded? This is not a politic question to raise. Like almost everything connected to the Holocaust, the MOTL enjoys semi-sacred status. To subject it to scrutiny can easily result in accusations of Holocaust denial and of gross insensitivity to the dwindling number of survivors. In the specific instance of the MOTL, so very many young people — 350,000 over the years from Israel alone — have evidently been shaken by the experience that it may border on the churlish to suggest a less worshipful approach to the matter. But I am not alone in feeling something’s amiss; my view is shared by numbers of Jewish activists, who tend to whisper their critiques in private. Perhaps it’s my own experience as a pilgrim whose life was profoundly affected by what I saw and felt in Poland 32 years ago that leads me to write as I do. The tradition has it that no one should study Kaballah before reaching the age of 40. That same kind of caution should inhere to the Holocaust as well. With rare exception, people in their teens cannot absorb the meanings of a day at Auschwitz. True, few of us can absorb those meanings, no matter our age, but at least older cohorts are generally better able to resist the pedagogic manipulation that is part and parcel of the MOTL, manipulation that is built into the program in the most fundamental way: From Poland, the teens go to Israel. “Tears flowed as they saw the gas chambers, mounds of human hair and other gruesome exhibits of mass slaughter. The students flew to Israel where pain turned to relief and joy.” (From a CBC broadcast in 1994.) If you schedule Israel on the heels of Poland, it becomes impossible to avoid the “from ashes to rebirth” metaphor. And so you learn that while the Holocaust was surely a problem, Israel was and is the solution. No need to confront, to wrestle with, the tragedy; the story turns out to have a happy ending, like Schindler’s List. And lest the inherent lesson be too subtle, it is rendered painfully explicit year after year — this year, by none other than Prime Minister Ariel Sharon himself: “The State of Israel,” Sharon told the crowd at Birkenau (the death camp of Auschwitz), “[is] the only place in the world where Jews have the right and capability to defend themselves by themselves.” He charged the youngsters with the duty “to bequeath the lesson, memories and stories to underscore the importance of the Jewish state.” To Ariel Sharon and many others like him, of all political hues, the overriding lesson is, as Sharon said upon his arrival in Poland, that we must “always remain vigilant and trust no one but ourselves. Jews can only rely on themselves.” That is a lesson that is readily derived from the dreadful experience. But it is a wretched lesson nonetheless. There is a space between caution, learned the hard way, and paranoia, and it cheapens the gravity of what happened in Auschwitz and elsewhere during those dark days to suggest that the central lesson to be kept alive through the generations is suspicion. To trust no one means to suspect everyone. To suspect everyone is to ensure that no one will offer a hand; it is to engage in self-fulfilling prophecy. What a shabby self-portrait we paint when we present ourselves as the eternal victim, utterly alone in a hostile world. Nothing has changed, according to that depiction, except that instead of cowering we now strut. But we are always, always alone. A report in Ha’aretz the other day asserts: “Most studies agree that the principal lesson learned on the trip is that without a strong Israel and a strong army, there can be no guarantee for a future Jewish existence.” That view accords with the Ministry of Education’s own declared objectives for the program, which holds that the values participants are expected to learn are “the need for a strong sovereign Jewish state and the universal lesson of the duty to protect and defend democracy and combat all forms of racism.” Not surprisingly, however, the emotional engagement that is encouraged focuses on only the first of these goals. And the first without the second dishonors the dead, dishonors the Righteous Gentiles, dishonors history, trivializes both the Holocaust and the State. Of course Israel needs to be strong, but strong is not the only thing it needs to be, nor is the Holocaust the antecedent reason it needs to be strong. All this is hard to wrestle with, harder still if you’re 16 or 17 years old and have yet to learn both the meaning of tragedy and the limits to sovereign power. The mysteries of the Holocaust remain essentially impenetrable. They do not lend themselves to formulaic interpretations, yet even the most sophisticated Ministry of Education, faced with the challenge of “explaining” the tragedy to 20,000 youngsters, is bound to come up with easy formulas. Alas, at a time when we find it increasingly difficult to explain just who we are and what we believe, the temptation to take cover under the smothering blanket of the Holocaust is almost irresistible. Once, we were impotent and they butchered us; now we have tanks and missiles, all’s well so long as we remain vigilant and trust no one but ourselves. Is there really no better way?
Anti-Semitism at Salem Church? On Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Memorial weekend, Saturday, May 7, 2005, the Unitarian First Church of Salem hosted a Sabeel (sabeel.org) anti-Israel, anti-Jewish, anti-Semitic mini-conference: “Peacemaking in Israel/Palestine. Is It Possible?” Rev. Karl Gustafson, pastor of Somerville’s Clarendon Hill Presbyterian Church (CHPC) and president of the Sabeel American division, was the moderator. Nancy Murray opened the mini-seminar with one of the most venomous tirades about the Arab-Israel situation that I have ever heard. She characterized Israel as a racist nation, equating the Israeli so-called occupation of Judea and Samaria, (aka Palestine and the West Bank) with South African apartheid. She never once mentioned the several Arab wars of attempted Israeli extermination — let alone the Holocaust or the ongoing Palestinian guerrilla terrorism. After this opening presentation, I confronted Ms. Murray regarding this serious omission. Her response was that these Arab attempts to exterminate Israel were irrelevant to the subject at hand, the so-called “Israeli occupation of the West Bank.” On the contrary, the past 50 years of Arab and Palestinian hostilities whose goal has been to exterminate Israel — to push Israel into the Mediterranean Sea — is the central issue with regard to the so-called Israeli occupation of the West Bank. This 50-year legacy of war and terrorism renders Judea and Samaria forfeited territory, occupied by Palestinians. Dismissing this goal of Arab hostilities toward Israel as irrelevant, as Nancy Murray did, is tantamount to condoning its objective: the obliteration of Israel. Nothing could be more racist and anti-Semitic than this passive-aggressive advocacy of the Palestinian and Arab struggle to annihilate Israel. If it waddles like a duck, quacks like a duck, and swims like a duck, it’s probably a duck. And if it talks like an anti-Semitic racist and acts likes an anti-Semitic racist, it’s probably an anti-Semitic racist. Now I understand how “the church” in Germany in the 1930s allowed Nazism to dominate its nation’s government and society. It is imperative that the CHPC’s Presbyterian denomination and the Unitarian-Universalist denomination take effective steps to correct these two churches. Failing to do so would be tantamount to condoning their anti-Semitic racism. I sincerely hope that these two denominations will not condone the extermination of Israel with their silence. Mark
Nystedt
Pope Cartoon ‘Too Goyish’ Pope John Paul seems to have been a nice human being who (for a pope) was remarkably friendly to the Jews. Still, the Jewish Journal Editorial Page cartoon (April 8-21) following Pope John Paul’s death dances too close for my comfort in its adoration of the pope. The cartoon pope is at the heavenly gates and the caption on the portal reads, “E-Z entry.” Judaism acknowledges righteous gentiles. I can abide the cartoon pope in his flowing Roman Catholic ministerial garb holding his priestly staff of religious leadership, and, presumably, (although it doesn’t show due to the angle of the figure) wearing that definitive Christian accessory, the crucifix. The Journal should leave the cartoon intact. Just kasher it (make it kosher) by rerunning it with a caption underneath the cartoon frame reading: “Welcome to Heaven. Please leave your cross outside. “ Otherwise the cartoon looks like it is saying that Heaven favors Christianity, especially Roman Catholicism. Hersh
N. Goldman Take Part in Memorial Day Each year, on Memorial Day Weekend, we honor Jewish War Veterans. This year, we will also be honoring those Jewish men and women serving now in the armed services around the world. The service will be held on Sunday, May 29 at 11:15 a.m., at the JCC at Four Community Road in Marblehead. We invite everyone in the Jewish community to attend this short but meaningful ceremony to gratefully acknowledge those who served and those currently serving our country. I am also asking the Jewish community for names to recite at the service. Please call me at 781-631-8330 x114 or e-mail me at SSteigman@JCCNS.COM if you know of any Jewish men or women serving in the Armed Forces. Susan
Steigman, A Tribute to Temple Sinai As always, the enormity of Jewish suffering during the Holocaust is reinforced during a commemoration of Yom Hashoah. This was especially true this Yom Hashoah when the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the death camps was celebrated [May 8] at Faneuil Hall in Boston. The survivors who attended, the very embodiment of the Holocaust, have reached an age when they will not be able to bear witness much longer. The memory of the greatest Jewish tragedy since the fall of the Second Temple must be maintained not only for our children but also for the world to remember what happens when any group is denigrated as sub-human. It is the duty of the Jewish community to develop an organized program to make sure that the evil of the Holocaust is remembered and any future eruption of evil confronted. To do less is a betrayal of the Six Million. Herbert
Belkin Congregants Weigh In On Temples’ Rabbi Decision Editor’s Note: After two years of negotiation, Swampscott’s two Conservative synagogues, Beth El and Israel, are joining forces to form a new congregation, Shirat HaYam, beginning in September. The committee planning the change, the B’reisheit Committee, composed of leaders of the two congregations, plans to retain Rabbi Edgar Weinsberg of Temple Beth El next year, and conduct a search for a new rabbi to assume the pulpit the following year. Tempe Israel’s Rabbi Neal Loevinger did not ask to remain. The Journal received the following letters regarding the committee’s decision on the rabbi Members Bypassed in Rabbi Decision It is quite obvious that the impending merger is welcomed and endorsed by both synagogues. Being a fairly new congregant at Temple Beth El, since my wife and I were married there, I can hardly speak at great length of the many memories some individual congregants and their families experienced. The B’resheit Committee has worked tirelessly and with great commitment and dedication to bring this to fruition. I know for a fact that the individuals who have sat on the Implementation Board have had numerous contacts with varying members, ranging from words of praise to harsh words of criticism. Yet, what I find interesting is that very few have taken the time to publicly express their sentiments as I am doing here. I feel that those individuals who “suffer in silence” are making matters worse. By openly communicating what people have on their mind, one is being a part of a solution and not part of a problem. I feel that the process utilized in the selection of the religious leader is substantially in need of review. Rabbi Weinsberg has been the spiritual leader at Temple Beth El for 20 years, and for the representatives of the B’resheit Committee to have made a decision about his future, absent the input or participation of the members, is tantamount to neglect. Numerous congregants have either come to or stayed with Temple Beth El because of Rabbi Weinsberg, and to not have been given the chance to even state by vote or proxy whether or not his service to the new congregation should be continued fails to openly reflect the sentiments of the membership at large. Much attention has been given to the severance package as well as the respect for Rabbi Weinsberg’s feelings, should a vote not be cast in his favor. I have also listened to the notion that when a congregation starts anew, getting a new spiritual leader will bring about a fresh start and perspective. Perhaps both arguments have merit, but by no means does either represent the sentiment of the membership at large. The fact that Rabbi Weinsberg has been at Temple Beth El for 20 years, in and of itself, speaks eloquently. Regardless of the severance package he is offered, given the closeness to the normal age of retirement, to not allow him the opportunity to serve out the remainder of his career is shameful and disrespectful, both as a person and as an observant and compassionate Jew. If others feel as I do, they should speak now or forever hold their peace. Russell
S. Grand Rabbi Weinsberg Should Finish Career Here Our family moved to the Swampscott/Marblehead area almost six years ago and have enjoyed every aspect of this wonderful community. We had the good fortune of meeting Rabbi Weinsberg early on and, although we chose to join Temple Sinai and Chabad of the North Shore, we have always felt a special connection to him. He welcomed our children to a service at Temple Beth El the night of my father in law’s funeral and always acknowledges us by name at simchas at the temple. It is with great sadness that we heard the result of the merging of Temple Israel and Beth El did not include the opportunity for Rabbi Weinsberg to conclude his career in this community. The situation reminded me of a Talmud story I learned as a student in Montreal. Essentially, the story taught that if there is a man in the village who could do a certain job, you are forbidden to bring someone in from another village to take his job away. The example the Talmud gives is of the mohel in the village preparing to perform his Mitzvah of circumcision. Perhaps this community can learn from this wise yet simple story by allowing Rabbi Weinsberg to finish his distinguished rabbinic career in our community. I am an unaffiliated and concerned member of the community. Wendy
Polins Rabbi Should Be Retained Rabbi Weinsberg has been our rabbi who has given many years of service to our community and has had a congregation that has loved and supported him and we want what is right for him. How many of us would want to be let go short of retirement and have to worry about finding another job to support our family? It has been stated that the rabbi has been more than “taken care of” and we ask, by whose definition? If it is not good for the rabbi then we have not done a good job. This is not the way Rabbi Weinsberg should be treated and certainly not the way that he should have to finish his long and meaningful career. Jewish Law is a blueprint for a just and ethical society, where no one takes from another or harms another but everyone gives to one another and helps protect one another. These ideals are spelled out in the Torah, including the commandments requiring us to honor the old and the wise, and not to put any Jew to shame. Laws are at the heart of Judaism and a large part is about love and brotherhood the relationship between man and his neighbors. We must step back and do what is right for Rabbi Weinsberg. If the merger needs to be delayed, then so be it. We are fighting for what is just and this process has left many congregants and those who are not affiliated with either temple bitter. This is not how you start a new congregation and definitely not a positive way to go forward. The temple should be a place of harmony and right now there are plenty of people who feel anything but harmonious. We urge the B’resheit Committee to do the right thing and look into your Jewish hearts and permit Rabbi Weinsberg gracefully to retire and stay within the community that he has served and loved. David
and Amy Pliner B’resheit Leaders Defend Actions First, we would like to thank the Journal for the opportunity to present a balanced view of the decisions taken in the creation of our new congregation, Congregation Shirat HaYam of the North Shore. Change is by definition difficult. Each of the two congregations has an individual relationship with its respective congregants, staff, clergy, and physical location. This is why the congregations elected an Implementation Board not to oversee the integration of the two congregations but to lead the creation of a new congregation on their behalf. This is an important distinction. The thought of creating a new congregation was developed specifically to ensure we focus on reversing the declining populations and adverse demographics. The congregations understood when launching the effort that a simple combination would only prolong the inevitable demise of the largest Conservative congregations on the North Shore. There were two emotionally charged issues in this process: choosing a location and defining our spiritual leadership. For the building, we reviewed keeping one of the properties or finding a new location. The building decision was focused on what property provided the best platform for the new congregation, not whether the Temple Israel or Temple Beth El building was a better building. The clergy decision was similar. We recognize that Rabbi Weinsberg has served Temple Beth El and the Jewish community for 20 years. The decision focused on the hard issues the new congregation faces — a different set of needs and priorities than in the past. In looking at the core needs going forward, we determined that for Congregation Shirat HaYam to flourish, changes needed to be made. It was in this spirit that we “sat down” with both the Rabbi and the Rabbinical Assembly of the United Synagogue to understand our options and determine how to move forward. The result was an agreement on how to make this transition in a way that served both the rabbi and the congregation. These decisions were designed specifically not to be votes among congregants because of the strong emotional component in each; indeed, our research showed that bylaw “best practices” do not have the rabbi renewal decision determined by a congregational vote. As difficult as these decisions are, the decision process needs to be a rational one. Each decision factors the needs of both congregations’ members and the goals of the new congregation. It is out of respect for the individuals involved that these types of staffing issues are not brought to a congregational vote. How would one serve the new congregation if 30, 40, 50 percent or more of the population were not supportive of a particular staffing decision? This very point was made by both Rabbi Weinsberg and Rabbi [Neal] Loevinger [of Temple Israel] when the congregation’s new bylaws were drafted. It would immediately create a schism in the membership. The B’resheit process was designed to build a new community and not create deeper divisions between the two communities. We do regret that much of the public is misinformed on the details of our agreement with Rabbi Weinsberg, but we will comment that recent representations of the details are off by a wide margin. Additionally, members of the congregation’s leadership are personally working with the rabbi to try to find alternative opportunities in the community. These decisions are difficult. It would be impossible to make every congregant happy and still hold true to the effort to build the new congregation. We hope the current membership and the community at large see what we are trying to build and take part. Bob
Biletch, VP Implementation Board
BAREN, Carol (Astroff) — late of Salem, formerly of Swampscott and Marblehead. Died May 8. Wife of the late David Baren. Mother of Richard and Lisa Baren of East Longmeadow, and the late Cathy L. Baren. Sister of Lila Astroff of Naples, FL. Grandmother of India Rose, Lucas D. Baren and Zachary B. Korff. (S) BEDEN, Thelma (Grohman) — late of Swampscott. Died May 5. Wife of 70 years to Charlbes Beden. Mother of Ann Lee Weiner of Swampscott, and Ellen and Sanford Kessler of Upper Saddle River, NJ. Grandmother of Jonathan Weiner, Jill Weiner and her husband Bruce Todtfeld, Scott Kessler and his wife Michele Reis, and Matthew Kessler and his fianceé Erica. Great-grandmother of Chelsea and Gabriel Todtfeld. (S) BENDELL, Jack — late of Malden. Died May 5. Husband of Lorraine (Del Conte) Bendell. Father of Miriam and Edward Cohen, Aaron Bendell, and Robert and Catherine Bendell. Brother of Helen Falkoff, Murray Bendell, the late Celia Finn and Samuel Bendell. Grandfather of Gary and Carolyn Cohen, Caryn and Howard Eichenbaum, David Cohen and Sarah Bendell. Great-grandfather of Rachel, Michaela, Charlotte and Samara Cohen. (G) BLACK, Nettie R. (Saievitz) — late of Chelsea. Died May 11. Wife of the late Melvin Black. Mother of Joyce Black and Arlene Black of Chelsea. Sister of Sarah Barden of Revere, Helen Groner of CA, and the late Herbert Savit. Aunt of many nieces and nephews. (T) DIAMOND, Dr. George — late of Lynn. Died May 3. Husband of the late Mildred (Slipsky) Diamond. Father of Deborah Diamond of Newport, RI, Dennis and Vivian Diamond of Lynn, and Roberta Diamond of Boston. Companion of Muriel O’Brien. Grandfather of Jason and Justin. (S) FENNELL, Susan (Kessel) — late of Marblehead. Died by accident on May 2. Wife of Robert J. Fennell. Mother of Jodi Montecalvo of Marblehead and Mark Fennell of Chicago, IL. Grandmother of Alyssa Montecalvo. (S) GOLDSTEIN, Tauba “Tilly” (Ellenbogen) — late of Swampscott. Died April 30. Wife of the late Dr. Josef Goldstein. Mother of Alegria and Dr. George Freedman of Marblehead, and Dr. Carlos and Luz Goldstein of Caracas, Venezuela. Grandmother of Dr. Daniel Goldstein, Michele Eidelstein, Ivonne Goldstein, Michael Freedman, Tamara Freedman and Dr. Rachel Freedman. Great-grandmother of seven. (S) HOROVITZ, Hazel (Solberg) — late of Wakefield. Died May 6. Wife of the late Julius Horovitz. Mother of Shirley and Arnold Levine, and Israel and Gillian Horovitz. Sister of Joseph Solberg, Fred Solberg, the late Jennie Sapolsky, Mildred Pearlswig and Merrill Solberg. Grandmother of Nancy McGurk, Linda Zaleski, Rachael Horovitz and her friend Michael, Matthew and Kelly Horovitz, Adam Horovitz and his friend Kathleen, Hannah Horovitz and Oliver Horovitz. Great-grandmother of Mae-Lou Zaleski and Brian and K. Zaleski. (G) KEENHOLTZ, Adele (Karp) — late of Peabody, formerly of Port Washington, NY. Died April 30. Wife of Samuel Keenholtz. Mother of Karen Newton and Dr. Steven and Roberta Keenholtz. Grandmother of Hilary and Dr. Harrison Linsky, Douglas Newton, and Erica, Diana and Ross Keenholtz. (G) MYEROW, Scott — late of Saugus. Died April 30. Son of Mildred (Glazer) Myerow and the late Irving “Honey” Myerow. Brother of Sheryl Wylder and the late Steven Myerow. (G) SELBY, Murray — late of Salem, formerly of Marblehead. Died May 3. Husband of Dorothy (Malenbaum) Selby. Father of Robert and Anne Selby of Swampscott, and Ila Charnas of Swampscott. Grandfather of Joseph and Ariana Selby, Steven and Rachel Selby, Kate Selby, Jocelyn Charnas and Spencer Charnas. Great-grandfather of Jackson Selby. Brother of the late Meyer Selby. (S) SHAPIRO, Irwin — late of Port St. Lucie, FL, formerly of Haverhill and Malden. Died May 3. Husband of Beverly (Prost) Shapiro. Father of Jason and Rose Shapiro, Stevan and Kim Shapiro, Robyn and Raymond Scott, Brian and Cyndi Shapiro, and Glen and Jessica Shapiro. Grandfather of Sydney, Jordan and Charlotte Scott, and Richard, Lauren, Emily, Owen, Devan and Tyler Shapiro. (G) STEINBERG, Gwendolyn (Shappy) — late of Everett. Died May 1. Wife of Mark Steinberg. Mother of Dale Steinberg. (G) WEINSTEIN, Samuel — late of Saugus, formerly of Peabody and Chelsea. Died May 6. Husband of Eva (Brown) Weinstein. Father of Roberta and William Tarlow of Peabody, Beverly and Leonard Shuman of Beverly, and Marcia and Paul O’Shea of Peabody. Brother of Leo Azarva of Saugus and Marian Shelley of WA. Grandfather of Jennifer and Mark Messinger, Jeremy Tarlow, Lauren and Alex Kallianidis, and Justin O’Shea. (T) |
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