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JRC Seeks New Alzheimer’s
Unit in Peabody for Fall 2005

Mark Arnold
Jewish Journal Staff

The Jewish Rehabilitation Center (JRC), Swampscott, is seeking permission to build a 40-bed addition to Woodbridge, its assisted living community in Peabody, to serve people with Alzheimer’s and related disorders.

The JRC on April 2 submitted an application to the Peabody City Council requesting modification of a special permit they already hold for the property on which Woodbridge was built in 1998. The council, which is also Peabody’s zoning board, is expected to rule on the application within a few weeks.

If approved, officials hope to begin construction this fall and to open the new special care unit in the fall of 2005.

“This facility will fill a gap in service that forces people to leave the community when they need a higher level of care than we presently provide,” JRC President, Howard L. Greenspan explained in a telephone interview with the Journal. “We want to keep people close to their families and in the community rather than forcing them to go outside.”

With a construction cost estimated at more than $6 million, the Alzheimer’s unit is a step toward realizing the JRC’s vision of providing a “continuum of care” for elderly residents, Jewish and non-Jewish, on the North Shore. That continuum now includes the JRC itself, with 180 beds, built in 1972; an adult daycare program for up to 50 participants a day, also held at the JRC; and the 82-bed Woodbridge, located on a wooded knoll off Lynnfield Street in Peabody.

The Alzheimer’s unit is described as Phase 2 of that vision. Greenspan said plans for Phase 3 depend on the outcome of a multi-year strategic planning study the JRC is undertaking to identify the rehabilitation center’s future direction.

The original plan approved by Peabody provided for development of health facilities on 11 acres of property. Only part of that plan was realized when Woodbridge was built. Since that time, the JRC has acquired or has the option to acquire enough land to bring the total lot size up to 18 acres, without increasing the number of units planned on the site. The added acreage allowed planners to modify the footprint of the proposed facility while decreasing its density and improving what they call its “therapeutic design.”

“People go to Woodbridge because they need assisted living,” observed Greenspan, but as time goes on they may need assistance that we can’t provide,” either there or from the skilled nursing staff at the JRC.

Officials say they get one or more inquiries a day about patients with various degrees of dementia. “We can generate 10-12 transfers a year from Woodbridge,” said Stephen R. Roizen, JRC’s CEO. He added that the Alzheimer’s unit is being specifically designed to minimize anxiety and make people with dementia feel comfortable.

“We intend to have large common areas, and small nooks and crannies,” said Roizen, “places to walk or stop at a typewriter, adding machine or rolltop desk amid familiar surroundings.”

City approval is needed because of changes in the scope and design of the facility since Peabody gave Woodbridge its original permit in the mid-1990’s.

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Gary Band
Jewish Journal Staff

GLOUCESTER — Nestled comfortably on Middle Street, it’s a little tricky to find at first, but anyone with a connection to Jewish life on Cape Ann knows about Temple Ahavat Achim. Understated and non-pretentious, warm and inviting, this white-washed house of worship has been home to Ahavat Achim congregants since 1951.

Originally home to the First Parish Church — the spiritual dwelling of the Pilgrims who arrived on Cape Ann in the mid 1700s — the building has stood on the site since 1828. And before that, the parish members filled the pews in their first house of worship, built on the same site in 1728.

The original congregation of Ahavat Achim (Brotherly Love) — approximately 20 families that met in a living room on Liberty Street at the turn of the 20th Century — was incorporated on June 7, 1904 and soon after housed in a building that is now an AmVets on Prospect Street. The bima is still in place surrounded by flags.

And now nearly 100 years later, it’s only fitting that a temple sitting on land whose spiritual roots date back 276 years is not only a bastion of Jewish life, but also welcoming to people from various faith backgrounds with ties to those of the Jewish faith.

Sarah Dunlap has lived in Gloucester for 34 years. Married to Stephen Warshall, who teaches a weekly class in Biblical Hebrew at Ahavat Achim, she converted to Judaism in 1980 and is the lead author of The Jewish Community of Cape Ann — An Oral History (1998, 286 pp). Though Dunlap didn’t start out to write a book, the richness of the community’s history demanded one.

Inspired to begin the project by Zellie Kaplan, and along with help from Jean Baer O’Gorman and Janet Schlein, Dunlap spent almost three years researching and six months writing.

“Jews were in Gloucester during the Civil War,” Dunlap writes. “The existence of these early Jewish residents would be forgotten but for their names — Emanuel, Heinaman and Hochberger — gleaned from city documents and directories.... By 1888, at least 14 adult Jewish males worked or had families on Cape Ann.... “There were many Jews who passed through the city, for we have glimpses of people like Israel Sleitzer who peddled clothing in Gloucester in 1890, and Max Simberg who lived on Pine Street in 1893.... Between 1895 and 1906, 32 Jewish men applied for United States citizenship at the Gloucester police court....

“Why and how these few Jews found their way to Gloucester,” Dunlap continues “— a Gloucester that was proud of its early roots, its seafaring tradition, its flourishing industry; a Gloucester that had many churches and fraternal organizations but no synagogue or Chevra — was one of the first questions we raised as we spoke to descendants of the city’s early Jewish citizens.”

It took approximately 40 years from the arrival of the first Jewish people to the official formation of a congregation on Cape Ann, and as Dunlap quotes a man named George Flasher as saying, ‘They had a lot of rabbis here come and go.’

Due to reasons, mostly financial, until the 1920s, Ahavat Achim had neither a full-time rabbi nor a permanent part-time rabbi, Dunlap writes. Learned community members led services, read Torah and said kaddish. And when a rabbi was needed for a marriage, he could be brought to Gloucester or the ceremony could be moved to the rabbi.
Dunlap discovered that Rabbi Sidney Gordon was in Gloucester in the 1920s and “was almost certainly the first permanent rabbi at the shul on 14 Prospect Street.” He was one of approximately 13 over 40 years. Rabbi Harry Sky, who led the congregation from 1951-53, was perhaps the spiritual leader most involved with the temple and the community. He went on to lead congregations in Atlanta and New York, eventually settling in Maine where he was still living in 1998. He is expected to partake in some of the centennial events.

Following his departure from Gloucester in 1953, a “sparse trickle of rabbis resumed” until Rabbi Myron Geller arrived in 1965. As Dunlap reports, he was “impressed with the strength of the Jewish community.”

“When I first came here, there were individuals who ran all areas of temple life,” Dunlap quotes Geller as saying. “You didn’t need committees, there were individuals who saw to it. And everyone had a sense that he was empowered to act and that he was responsible to take care of these things.”

Miriam Weinstein of Manchester, author of Yiddish: A Nation of Words, has been a temple member for 20 years and served as president from 1995-97. Of Rabbi Geller she says, “He is a wonderful combination of being very smart, funny, and very connected to the ethnic Judaism that a lot of us are comfortable with and miss.”
Mitch Cohen of Good Harbor moved to Gloucester with his family in 1948 at age four. His parents were involved with the temple in its final years on Prospect Street. His father, a dentist, helped buy the new building on Middle Street and served as one of the first presidents. His mother was a founder of the Hebrew school, head of the local Hadassah chapter, and president of the temple Sisterhood. Cohen had his bar mitzvah at the temple six years after it moved to Middle Street and remembers how it was back then.

“It was a much smaller community in those days,” said the past president (1990-92). “There were maybe 50 or 60 families, lots of merchants, some professionals, lawyers, dentists, doctors. But because we didn’t have a full-time rabbi, there wasn’t a real sense of continuity of practice or the social component that there’s been since Rabbi Geller came to town.”

A psychotherapist by profession, Cohen and his wife lived in Berkeley, California, for a few years and returned to Cape Ann in 1978. “It feels like coming home,” he said. “There’s a counter current in American life that suggests it’s somehow pathetic to end up back where you grew up. But I subscribe to an older notion that it’s like coming back to and being part of an extended family.”

He too values the contributions Rabbi Geller has made to the temple. “In addition to creating a spiritual continuity over the last 35 years, Rabbi Geller has taken steps to build a temple and a community that meets our needs.”

With a membership of 200 families and 35 kids in the Hebrew school, the temple community has grown exponentially over the years to include a diverse group of professionals, artists, yoga teachers and authors. In addition to Weinstein, whose Yiddish won the National Jewish Book Award for 2002, another well-known Ahavat Achim congregant, if only during the summer, is playwright Israel Horovitz. His newest play, Compromise, will be performed at Gloucester Stage Company July 21-August 8.
Weinstein said that during a 1998 temple retreat attended by 70 temple members, participants confronted questions of how to create community. According to Ahavat Achim members, it is important for a temple to offer a variety of scholarly, spiritual and social components.

From a Hebrew school led by dynamic educators, weekly Shabbat services, text studies, b’nai mitzvot, adult education courses, lay-led “God Talks,” interfaith programs, Chanukah and Purim parties and Passover seders, the temple has served the community well.

Rabbi Geller, who was ordained in 1959 and served as a US Army Chaplain from 1960-65, will be retiring from the rabbinate in five years. He says Ahavat Achim is “a wonderful congregation” that has given him the opportunity to see the community grow. “I’ve been here long enough to officiate at the weddings of kids who I helped prepare to become a bar/bat mitzvah. That’s continuity.”

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JB&PA Visit the Red Sox, Epstein

Amy Sessler Powell

BOSTON — With Red Sox caps, sweatshirts and balls ready to be signed, 200 people filed into the Player’s Club at Fenway Park last week to enjoy dinner, a question and answer session with Red Sox General Manager Theo Epstein, and a game against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

The evening was sponsored by the Jewish Business and Professional Association of the Jewish Federation of the North Shore as a fundraiser for the 2004 Community Campaign. The tickets were donated by the Red Sox to the Jewish Federation as the first event of the new Speaker’s Series being launched by the JB&PA.
Carl Sloane, a member of the committee of business leaders charged with revitalizing the speaker’s series, worked with Red Sox officials to secure the tickets.

Though Sloane was unable to attend, JB&PA Co-charman Peter Rosenberg thanked him before introducing Epstein. “It’s great to be here with 200 people to listen to Theo Epstein and it’s great to see so many kids and families together.”

The Red Sox event was also used to recruit new members to B’nai Tzedek, a program that promotes philanthropy in young donors by matching their $200 donation from their bar or bat mitzvah gift money with $300 from the Robert I. Lappin Charitable Foundation to create a $500 fund. Each year for 20 years, the new philanthropists make a donation to a local Jewish organization. With this promotion, 10 teens signed up, making a total of 51.

Matt Cohen, 13, of Swampscott had made several donations in honor of his bar mitzvah, but he and his mom Caryn Cohen agreed that B’nai Tzedek was a way of making tzedakah part of Matt’s life on an ongoing basis. “I think it’s good to give money to Jewish causes,” said Cohen.

Cliff Watkin, JB&PA co-chairman with Rosenberg, said the success of the evening and the large turnout underscored the future for the JB&PA.
He explained that the JB&PA has launched a number of new initiatives in addition to the speaker’s series. “We have great people volunteering their time,” said Watkin. “Every member of the JB&PA steering committee is working hard to make sure local businesses know how their business and their community will benefit from their participation. Look at the tonight’s great success. People were willing to make contributions to see the Red Sox.”

By participating in the JB&PA, North Shore businesses support the Community Campaign so that more of the funds raised can go directly to local agencies, local families and overseas to families in need in Israel.

Interview with the General Manager

Here is a sampling of the questions asked by members of the Jewish Business & Professional Organization, their families and guests, of Theo Epstein, Red Sox General Manager, at a dinner in the Player’s Club preceding the game.

Q: Will Johnny Damon be cutting his facial hair?
A: He has no interest in doing so. He asked us if it was okay to grow it and we told him it was fine. The Yankees don’t allow facial hair besides a mustache so we thought it would be nice.

Q: Did you shave your head last season?
A: Yes. I said I would if we won the division championship and, as soon as we won Game 5 with Oakland, they practically pinned me down.

Q: Which player has the best team spirit?
A: The other players tell me it is Gabe Kapler; that he is an ideal teammate.

Q: Are you looking for any new players?
A: We are always looking for new players. Trot and Nomar will be back soon, but we will be looking for another position player.

Q: How come you didn’t get A-Rod?
A: He’s hitting a buck-eighty and he costs a lot.

Q: Are there any players that did not play Little League?
A: That’s a good question. Maybe Byung-Hyun Kim didn’t because he’s from Korea and their schooling is different.

Q: Does Gabe Kapler play on the Jewish holidays?
A: Yes, but I’m sure he thinks a lot about Judaism that day. He’s a very thoughtful guy.

Q: How does being Jewish influence your job?
A: I get letters all the time from young Jewish Little League players.

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Sheckman and Wilcher Receive Bloch Award

Mark Arnold
Jewish Journal Staff

Robert E. Tornberg, head of school at Cohen Hillel Academy, was scheduled to give the welcome and D’var Torah (explanation of Torah) to kick off the Friends of the Hillel Library’s 17th Annual Educational Forum at the school in Marblehead May 2. He extended the welcome to a gathering of 75 people, but for the D’Var Torah, he turned to the two people about to be honored and said quietly:

“Sandy and Abe, your lives are a D’var Torah.”

It was the first of several tributes to long-time community leaders Sandy Sheckman, executive director of the Jewish Community Center of the North Shore, and her father, Abrasha Wilcher, an advisor and board member of both Jewish Family Service and the Jewish Journal until leaving the area for a retirement community in Canton last fall. The two received the Edith Bloch Award from Anne Selby, Sandy’s closest friend and a long-time leader in the academy and the Jewish Community Center. “Every day,” said Selby, “Sandy and Abe work to repair the world in their personal and professional lives.”

The award the pair received has been given since 1989 in commemoration of a founding member of the Friends of the Hillel Library and a role model to many current women leaders. Those leaders include Sharon Rich of Marblehead, who reminisced about what she had learned about leading and working with people from Edith Bloch.

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I’s been a long haul, but Marblehead’s Arthur Zolot has finally raised the $61,700 needed to purchase a new ambulance for Israel. “I literally jumped for joy when I opened the envelopes and counted the checks that put us over the top,” Zolot told the Journal.

Zolot initiated the drive last October in a bid that appeared in area newspapers and on radio. He appealed for 617 people to donate $100 each to provide Magen David Adom, Israel’s equivalent of the International Red Cross, with a fully equipped ambulance to aid victims of terrorism. He pledged the money would all be refunded if he didn’t reach the goal; if he did, he said, “every penny will go toward the ambulance,” with no administrative funds withheld. The money has now been sent to Magen David Adom USA in Skokie, IL, which has placed an order for the vehicle with General Motors, who will build it to Israeli specifications on a basic truck body.

Donations began to come in — quickly at first, then they trailed off. The Journal’s continuing reports on the progress of the campaign helped. “I counted on you (the Journal), you stayed on it, and you came through for me,” he said. In all, there have been 475 donations, ranging in size from a $5 bill with no name or return address to a $6,000 check from a donor who wants to remain anonymous.

Zolot is planning to dedicate the vehicle at the Jewish Community Center in Marblehead, possibly as early as Sunday May 23, if it can be ready by then. “I want to thank the community publicly,” he said, “and I want to do it before kids go off to camp and people begin to take vacations.” Any donations in the meantime will help outfit the ambulance with a defibrillator.

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‘Which Temple’ Postponed
Swampscott Temples Grinding Toward June Merger Vote

Mark Arnold
Jewish Journal Staff

Temples Beth El and Israel in Swampscott have 13 committees meeting regularly in an attempt to forge a joint future. Leaders of the two Conservative synagogues, situated directly across Atlantic Avenue from one another, are seeking approval from their members to forge a new congregation and end the competition that has benefited neither in the years since Israel split off from Beth El, then located off Lewis Street in Lynn, in 1948. Beth El abandoned Lynn and build its present structure in 1969.
With both synagogues facing declining membership and revenues, a short-lived merger movement nine years ago was revived in 2003. Now with the help of volunteer consultants from both congregations, the two groups are moving toward a possible unification in September 2005, or as they prefer to call it, B’resheit, Hebrew for creation.
A series of events will lead up to a climactic vote due to take place toward the end of June. Here is the schedule:

On May 2, members of Beth El were presented with the case for joining forces. Leading the presentation were merger consultant-members Richard L. Wise and Scott Simon, along with Temple President Helaine R. Hazlett. A similar presentation was held a year ago for Temple Israel members.

On May 16, members of both congregations are invited to Temple Israel to review a preliminary vision statement developed by B’resheit leaders. “Every hour on the half hour, we’ll make a presentation and invite questions and comments,” says Marla Gaye, one of the two B’resheit leaders, along with consultant Mark Friedman, of Temple Israel.
On May 18, members of Temple Israel have their annual meeting where they will discuss, among other things, the question of combining the two congregations. No formal vote is scheduled to taken on the issue.

June 14 is the annual meeting of Temple Beth El. No formal vote is scheduled on the issue either.

On June 27, there will be an joint meeting of the two congregations at Temple Beth El. A vote will be taken, following the bylaws of both congregations, on whether to sign a letter of intent to join forces. If the vote is positive, then — subject to due diligence over the next year — detailed plans

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AIPAC Event Draws More than 400

MarkArnold
Jewish Journal Staff

BOSTON — Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a member of the powerful Senate Armed Serv ices Committee, told a gathering of pro-Israel activists here that the controversial fence Israel is building, along with the Sharon government’s targeted killing of terrorist leaders, is “saving lives.”

The barrier being erected between the Gaza Strip and Israel is “saving lives on both sides,” she said, noting that there have been fewer terrorist incidents in areas where the fence is in place. In some instances, she added, the Israeli military has been able to thwart would-be suicide bombers by having extra time to track them as they seek to make their way around the barrier.

As for targeted killings, she said, “Just as the United States has targeted al-Qaeda’s leaders, eliminating terrorism’s leaders is a necessary step” in Israel’s search for peace and security.

Collins, a second-term Republican who visited Israel for the first time in December, was the keynote speaker at the annual AIPAC New Engtland Leadership Dinner, which drew 400 people from throughout New England to the Westin Hotel on the evening of Sunday, May 2. Also in attendance were U.S. Reps. John Tierney and Michael Capuano, of Massachusetts, James Langevin of Rhode Island, and Michael Michaud of Maine, all Democrats.

The event, which included more than two dozen people from the North Shore, was co-chaired by Eunice and Arthur Epstein of Marblehead; Lauren and Mark Rubin, the Epsteins’ daughter and son-in-law; and Arlene and David Rubin, parents of Mark Rubin.

AIPAC — the American Israel Public Affairs Committee — describes itself as “America’s pro-Israel lobby.” It is a bipartisan organization of 85,000 members from all 50 states that works to build support for Israel in Congress and in the country. Holding more than 2,000 meetings a year with members of Congress, it has been called one of the two most effective lobbies in Washington, along with the National Rifle Association.

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Susan Jacobs
Jewish Journal Staff

MARBLEHEAD — North Shore residents can have fun shopping while supporting Israel’s economy at a ‘Shop Israel’ event at the JCCNS on May 12 from 2-8 p.m. Thirty to forty artisans, representing hundreds of Israeli artists who are part of a collective, will display their handmade wares. According to show organizers, there will be something for everyone. Shoppers will find a wide assortment of fine art, crafts, Judaica, jewelry, aromatherapy, books, CDs, clothing, children’s toys and backpacks.
“This is shopping as a mitzvah,” says Susan Steigman of the JCC, who has been instrumental in organizing the event. “It’s a wonderful way to help Israelis, who have been hit hard by the downturn in tourism. Small businesses have been devastated by the decline in tourists, which they were dependent upon. One hundred percent of the sales from this event will go back to the artists in Israel. It’s also a great opportunity to personally meet Israeli merchants in a relaxed, social setting,” she adds.
The community-wide event is co-sponsored by the JRC, Congregation Ahabat Sholom, Temple Beth Shalom in Peabody, Temple B’nai Abraham in Beverly, Cohen Hillel Academy, Lynn-Swampscott-Marblehead Hadassah, and the Jewish Journal.

Jewish Federation of the North Shore generously allocated funds to underwrite ads and create fliers. “Federation wanted to get involved because we always want to promote Israel, and this is a great project. Although tourism is picking up in Israel, it’s not at the levels it was in 2000. Everyone likes to shop, and everyone likes Judaica. What better place to get it than direct from Israeli artists?” asks Lisa Janiak of the Fed.

Steigman points out that volunteers are still needed to help onsite and offer home hospitality. She would also like to find members of the community to sit with vendors at the event. “It’s a great chance to enjoy a cross-cultural experience and create a continued kinship between America and Israel,” she says. Volunteers can contact her at 781-631-8330 x 114, or email ssteigman@jccns.com.

In addition to the show in Marblehead, the vendors will be at the New Jewish High School in Waltham on May 9, and at the JCC in Manchester, NH, on May 11.

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National News

Kerry Vies for Jewish Vote at ADL Event in Washington

Ron Kampeas and Matthew E. Berger
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

WASHINGTON — A Kerry administration would avoid the pressure other presidents have used to nudge Israel in peace negotiations, and would consult closely with the Jewish state before launching any new Mideast peace initiative.

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, outlined his approach to Middle East peacemaking in an interview with JTA on Monday, the same day he launched his campaign to win Jewish votes with a major policy speech to the Anti-Defamation League.

Kerry has been working hard to mitigate the effect in the Jewish community of President Bush’s extraordinary concessions to Israel last month, when the president recognized some Israeli claims to the West Bank and rejected any right of Palestinian refugees to return to Israel.

The Jewish vote could play a crucial role in 10 swing states in what is likely to be a close election this fall, and Kerry is on a fund-raising drive that needs a strong turnout among the Democrats’ broad base of Jewish donors. His ADL speech sounded a range of notes aimed at pleasing Jewish ears — on civil rights, anti-Semitism and Israel.
“For the entire 20 years that I have been in the United States Senate, I’m proud that my commitment to a secure Jewish state has been unwavering; not even by one vote or one letter or one resolution has it wavered,” Kerry said to the applause of the ADL audience. “As president, I can guarantee you that that support and that effort for our ally, a vibrant democracy, will continue.” That’s a guarantee that Bush — or for that matter, almost any of his predecessors — easily could make. In his subsequent interview with JTA, Kerry sought to elaborate on what would distinguish his presidency vis-a-vis Israel.

“I’m very sensitive to the pushback that came from overly aggressive presidents who tried to just advance the title” of a peace process, “without the substance,” Kerry told JTA. “There’s always been a feeling of concessions driven without a return on it. I will never voice a concession that somehow puts Israel’s judgment of its security at risk.”

The only president Kerry cited specifically was President Clinton. He praised Clinton for his efforts as an “honest broker” between Israelis and Palestinians, but acknowledged, “Some people, obviously there are a few people, who felt he pushed too hard.”

Clinton pressed Israel into offering unexpectedly large concessions at the Camp David summit in 2000. Kerry also said his belief in a multilateral approach to foreign affairs did not apply to Israel.

“The multilateral community has always been very difficult with respect to Israel, and we have always stood up against their efforts to isolate Israel,” he said.
Kerry said his criticism of what he calls the Bush administration’s unilateralism has to do with the administration of Iraq, environmental issues and containment of North Korea.
“None of that changes my record being wary” of “the way the U.N. has been used as a sort of battering ram with respect to Israel,” Kerry said. Kerry reiterated his endorsement of Bush’s recent concessions to Israel in exchange for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s commitment to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and a portion of the West Bank.

“‘Right of return’ is a non-starter. We need to get a note of reality into these discussions,” he said.

Likewise, refusing to recognize the permanence of some settlements is “disingenuous,” Kerry said.

Sharon’s Likud party rejected the settlements-for-withdrawal deal in a referendum Sunday, a blow to the Bush administration’s hopes of claiming at least one victory for its otherwise battered Middle East posture.

Kerry suggested that if Bush made mistakes it had to do with how he framed the deal, which caught U.S. allies in Europe and the Middle East off guard.
“There might have been ways in which the administration might have done diplomacy around this in a more effective way,” he said.

Kerry said he would encourage America’s Arab allies to get more involved in developing alternatives to Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat. He faulted the Bush administration for not seizing the moment immediately after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, when Arab nations might have been more susceptible to persuasion.
“There was an opportunity to perhaps take advantage of their sensitivity to being hauled over the front pages of every newspaper of the world when it happened,” he said. “There were some opportunities there to advance the accountability factor, the transparency factor, perhaps to get them to do a more overt effort to helping some kind of legitimate entity to emerge with which Israel could, in fact, negotiate.”

Kerry said he pressed those issues with Arab leaders when he toured the region in January 2002. If elected, Kerry said, his first step with regard to the Middle East would be to consult with Israeli and U.S. Jewish leaders.

“I’m not about to go off on some grand design. We’ve got to see where we are in terms of security, in terms of where is the government of Israel at that point in time,” Kerry said. He also backed off an earlier commitment to send a presidential envoy to the region. The people he proposed — Clinton, President Carter or former Secretary of State James Baker — angered some supporters of Israel.

Kerry also agreed with the policy of isolating Arafat, whom Israel and the Bush administration accuse of ties to terrorism.

“He’s where he appropriately belongs now, which is on the sidelines,” Kerry said.

Kerry demonstrated a fluency with the issues, citing 1st-century Jewish historian Josephus Flavius and tossing in an allusion to the efforts of Menachem Begin, the late Israeli prime minister, to return the Gaza Strip to Egypt during peace negotiations in the 1970s.

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Jewish Women Join Rally for Choice in Washington

Matthew E. Berger
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

WASHINGTON — Barbara Goldman came halfway across the country for last week’s reproductive rights rally — and she says it was worth it.
“You have to stand up and be counted,” said Goldman, who came to Washington for the March for Women’s Lives from Chicago with her congregation.
Goldman spoke at a Saturday night Havdalah service that the Women of Reform Judaism held on the eve of the abortion-rights rally, with the Jefferson Memorial bathed in candlelight.

Thousands of Jewish women joined hundreds of thousands of American women — and a smattering of men — rallying for abortion rights at the National Mall.
“As Jews, we know what it means to have fundamental rights and liberties stripped away,” Marsha Atkind, president of the National Council of Jewish Women, told the overflow crowd. “And today, one of our most basic rights, our right to reproductive freedom, is under attack in courtrooms and legislatures across the country.”
Much has been made of Jewish support for the Bush administration’s stance on Israel, the fight against terrorism and, in many cases, the war in Iraq. But for many American Jews, those positions do not counterbalance what they see as the administration’s chipping away at civil liberties.

The political message from those Jews was clear. Some sported signs demonizing President Bush; others wore stickers for Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. And all seemed to share a dislike for the policies of the Bush administration, which they see as having taken away some women’s rights and other civil liberties.

“We’ve seen an erosion of civil rights and human rights in this country by an administration that is secretive and is afraid to hear dissent,” said Sharlene Dane, who flew to Washington from Los Angeles for the rally.

Her sister, Sharon Hollander of St. Louis, said she remembered a time before abortion was legal, and she was determined to protect the right to abortion for her daughters.
“We don’t want the rights to disappear and they’re in danger,” she said. “The government is now in the hands of people that would abolish rights we fought to maintain.”
Hadassah and the National Council of Jewish Women bused in delegations from around the Northeast and Midwest. Hadassah’s representatives wore matching red T-shirts; the National Council of Jewish Women’s delegation wore blue.

The Conservative and Reconstructionist movements were represented as well.

“It’s so important that we do this under Jewish auspices,” said Roni Berkowitz, president of the Chesapeake Jewish Reconstructionist Federation, which represents the Washington area. “It’s not just a matter of choice. The Talmud teaches us there are times that it is incumbent on women to have an abortion,” she said, referring to instances where abortion is allowed if the mother’s life is in jeopardy.

Many of the groups assembled spoke out against last year’s passage of the Partial Birth Abortion Ban, which outlawed a specific abortion procedure technically known as intact dilation and evacuation, which generally is carried out late in a pregnancy.

Some Jewish groups also criticized Bush’s signing of the Unborn Victims of Violence Act last month. That legislation made attacks against pregnant women that harm embryos a separate crime. They said granting a fetus legal status contradicted the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court upholding legal abortions.
Orthodox Jews generally differ from the other streams when it comes to abortion, and Orthodox Jewish representatives in Washington have expressed support for both acts.
But polls have shown that more Jews support abortion rights and Roe v. Wade than any other religious or ethnic community in the United States, according to the Union for Reform Judaism.

“We’re being shouted out by the religious right,” said Sandi Costello, who joined a Hadassah delegation from Albany, N.Y. “It’s important for people to know that people who have a firm foundation in religion and ethics value choice.”

That contingent seemed very skeptical of Bush’s overtures to Jews.

“The president is making decisions that are overtly political, motivated to go for the Jewish vote,” said Jane Marcus, who came from Los Altos Hills, Calif., with members of her synagogue’s sisterhood. “I hope Jews look at all of the president’s policies before they vote.”

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Tough Choices Face Sharon

Leslie Susser
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

JERUSALEM — Bruised after a humiliating defeat in his own party, Ariel Sharon is considering dramatic moves to regain the political upper hand.
But pundits are divided over whether the Israeli prime minister has the strength to extricate himself from the political quicksand in which he seems to be sinking.

On the one hand, the Bush administration insists that Sharon ignore the clear Likud Party message and deliver on his promise to pull Israeli troops out of the Gaza Strip, evacuating Jewish settlements in Gaza and the northern West Bank.

Sharon, too, still believes his unilateral disengagement plan from the Palestinians is the best strategy for Israel right now. But his opponents within Likud say Sharon should abide by the party’s rejection of the plan by a 3-2 margin in a referendum May 12.

Sharon has two major choices: to change the plan, or change the forum. Initially, he seemed to be gravitating toward the first option, but his confidants were not ruling out other possibilities.

Whatever he decides, Sharon will face major political difficulties.

In a carefully worded statement, Sharon said he deeply regretted the outcome of the Likud vote but hinted that he intended to press ahead.
“The Israeli people did not elect me to sit with my arms folded for four years,” he declared.

Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Sharon’s main political backer on disengagement, was more explicit, saying flatly that the plan would not be dropped because of the Likud vote.

Disengagement from the Palestinians is the only way to solve Israel’s security, economic and demographic problems, Olmert said. The challenge is to find a way to proceed with the plan without causing a split in the party, he said.

Sharon has a number of options, all of them difficult. He could drop or alter the plan, in line with the Likud vote, or he could try to circumvent his party by getting the plan approved as is in the Cabinet and Knesset.

If he fails to muster a majority in the present government, Sharon could try to form a new coalition with the opposition Labor Party — which supports disengagement — ejecting the right-wing National Religious Party and National Union bloc that oppose it.

Sharon also could call a nationwide referendum, in which current polls show he would win a comfortable majority. But none of these alternatives would be easy to pull off.
If Sharon drops the plan, he will run into trouble with the Bush administration, which took a political risk to bolster Sharon by recognizing some Israeli claims in the West Bank and rejecting a “right of return” to Israel for Palestinian refugees.

In an initial bid to satisfy the Americans and win Knesset and Cabinet support, Sharon assigned Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz to work on an abridged version in which Israel would evacuate only part of Gaza and possibly no settlements in the West Bank.

Whether such a limited withdrawal would win American and international approval is an open question — and it could even fail to win the support of dissident Likud ministers.
Sharon is in a serious bind: If he dilutes the plan he faces possible international opposition, and if he doesn’t dilute it he won’t be able to get it through the Cabinet.
Labor Knesset member Eitan Cabel has proposed a bill to dissolve the current Knesset. If it passes, it could lead to early elections within 60 days.

Leslie Susser is diplomatic correspondent for the Jerusalem Report.

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Ruth Ellen Gruber
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

PRAGUE — Fewer than 150,000 Jews live in the 10 new member states set to enter the European Union on May 1. The Jewish population in these countries ranges from 100 or less in Cyprus and Malta to as many as 100,000 or more in Hungary.

Following are brief profiles of the communities in each country, with comments from local Jewish personalities on E.U. enlargement.

• HUNGARY:
Estimates of Hungary’s Jewish population range from 54,000 to more than 130,000. About 90 percent live in Budapest, where there is a full range of Jewish cultural, religious, educational and social welfare services.

The vast majority of Hungarian Jews are nonobservant, secular or totally unaffiliated. Only 6,000 or so are formally registered with the Jewish community and about 20,000 have some sort of affiliation with Jewish organizations or institutions.

The dominant religious affiliation is Neolog — similar to America’s Conservative movement. There is a very small Orthodox community made up of both modern-Orthodox and fervently Orthodox Jews.

Chabad maintains a synagogue and yeshiva. A small Reform congregation established in 1992 functions outside official Jewish umbrella structures.
“Federation-style organized Jewish life is dying around the world,” said Agnes Peresztegi, who helped found a grass-roots, modern-Orthodox congregation in Budapest several years ago. ``People give their support in a very different and much more personalized way then was the norm even 15 years ago.”

However, she said, “there’s a need, of course, for federation-style organizations; certain community functions may not be run by a small organization. But the federations need to change, and I’m sure that they will learn to work with grass-roots Jewish organizations in the long run.”

• CZECH REPUBLIC:
Some 3,000-4,000 Jews are known to live in the Czech Republic, but estimates of unaffiliated Jews run much higher. Hundreds of foreign Jews, including Israelis, also live in the country.

Ten officially mandated Jewish communities and a number of secular Jewish institutions come under the aegis of the country’s Federation of Jewish Communities.
About half of Czech Jewry lives in Prague, which boasts a full and lively range of Jewish religious, social, cultural and educational options. Though Orthodox Judaism is the main religious orientation, Conservative Jewry also is officially recognized and Reform services are present, too. Most Czech Jews are non-Orthodox or secular.
Tomas Kraus, the federation’s executive secretary, says joining the European Union could have both positive and negative effects on the community.
“The free movement of people could mean enlargement of Jewish communities, not only from the East” — with new immigrants looking for better economic and political conditions — “but also from the West, as it is now in many cases of American ex-pats who have found new jobs and positions in Prague and other Czech cities,” he said.
But anti-Semitism also could rise in the new countries, Kraus said.

“Western European moods can influence the moods in Eastern and Central Europe,” he said. “With the Czech Republic being maybe exceptionally pro-Jewish and pro-Israel” — though not without anti-Semitism or anti-Israel sentiment — “this could be a new phenomenon.”

• SLOVAKIA:
Fewer than 4,000 Jews are believed to live in Slovakia. The main communities — each with about 500 Jews — are in the capital of Bratislava and in Kosice, in the eastern part of the country.

Most Slovak Jews are non-observant or secular, but there is a range of cultural, religious and educational activity.

Maros Borsky, a curator at the Jewish museum in Bratislava, also runs a general-service travel agency. He says E.U. enlargement could have a range of effects on Jewish communal life — including the potential for an exodus of young urban professionals.

“If so, it means the Slovak Jewish community would be demographically decimated,” said Borsky, who is in his early 30s. “Some young people will stay, however, because new investment will generate an economic boom in the Bratislava region in some professional sectors.”

In the long term, Borsky predicted a merging of Bratislava and Vienna into one urban zone, with the development of high-speed transportation that might aid cooperation between the two cities’ Jewish communities.

“However this would only be possible once the Viennese stop seeing Bratislavans as poor relatives, but rather as a community with similar demographic problems,” Borsky said.

In general, he said, “I would imagine a depopulation of some smaller Jewish communities and a growing trend to large urban Jewish centers — Berlin, Budapest, perhaps Vienna-Bratislava, etc.”

• POLAND:
Poland had Europe’s largest Jewish population before World War II, at some 3.5 million Jews.

Estimates of the number of Jews in Poland today range from the 7,000-8,000 who are officially registered with the community, belong to Jewish organizations or receive aid from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, to the 10,000-15,000 people of Jewish ancestry who have shown interest in rediscovering their heritage, to as many as 30,000-40,000 people with some Jewish ancestry.

The Ronald S. Lauder Foundation, a prime mover in fostering post-Communist Jewish revival in Poland, runs the country’s most extensive Jewish educational programs, including a day school in Warsaw with more than 160 pupils.

Writer Konstanty Gebert, founding editor of the Jewish monthly Midrasz, says E.U. enlargement won’t directly affect Jews in the new member states, aside from the mainly positive way it will change the lives of the general population.

“In the long run, however, it will be instrumental in bringing all the continent’s Jews together and helping them avail themselves of new opportunities, both through E.U. sponsorship of some community programs and through the implementation of E.U. laws,” he said. “The main issue, however, is whether there exists a ‘European Jewry’ able to profit from the opportunity.”

• LITHUANIA:
About 4,000 Jews live in Lithuania, most of them in the capital, Vilnius, where there is a Jewish school, a Jewish museum and a range of Jewish cultural activity.
Synagogues operate in Vilnius and Kaunas, but attendance is low. Chabad is active.

• LATVIA:
About 10,000 Jews live in Latvia, most of them in the capital, Riga, where there is a synagogue, an active Jewish community center and other infrastructure for Jewish life.
Latvia is believed to have had the highest rate of Nazi collaboration in Europe and has struggled to confront its Holocaust history since gaining independence from Soviet rule in 1991.

“On the one hand, E.U. enlargement will be good for us Jews here, as it means we won’t be alone in Europe,” said Meijer Melers, of Riga’s Jewish museum.

On the other hand, he feared the economic consequences, at least in the short run.
“We think entry into the E.U. is positive, but we worry a lot, too, that prices will shoot up and approach European levels,” he said.

• ESTONIA:
About 3,500 Jews live in Estonia, the majority of them in Tallinn, the capital. There are three small communities in other regions of Estonia.
About 60 percent of the community arrived in Estonia after World War II and are not considered Estonian citizens. The majority of them today are elderly and many need social assistance.

Under communism, most of Estonia’s Jews became highly assimilated and often estranged from Jewish religious and cultural traditions. Community leaders regard their main goal as fostering a restoration of Jewish identity through cultural, educational, religious and social programs.

• SLOVENIA:
About 200 Jews live in Slovenia. In early 2003, the community opened a synagogue in a converted suite of office rooms, received a Torah as a gift and officially installed a rabbi, who divides his time between the Slovenian capital, Ljubljana, and the nearby Italian city of Trieste.

The synagogue is the first to function in Ljubljana since Jews were expelled from the city in 1515.

In a statement issued by the European Council of Jewish Communities, Slovene Jewish community president Andrei Kozar Beck complained that Slovene Jews were “treated as a small irrelevant community. We practically have no contact with the state departments and they rarely even answer our mail.”

“Our government and press associate Israeli politics with Jews all around the world,” he said. “The general political atmosphere is pro-Arab and not very fond of us.”

• CYPRUS:
Only two or three dozen Jewish families live in Cyprus, all of them in the Greek sector. Community officials say Cypriot Jews, like their non-Jewish compatriots, generally are happy about E.U. accession. One officials said, “it is always positive to be a member of a bigger, more organized group like the E.U.”

• MALTA:
About 100 Jews of all denominations live on Malta. Ashknenazi and Sephardi Jews pray together in an apartment owned by the community. About half of Malta’s Jews are Orthodox.

Community president Shelley Deutch Tayar told the European Council of Jewish Communities that Maltese Jews generally are well integrated into mainstream society.
“The Jews on the island are very respected and very accepted by the many interest circles. Nobody cares what religion one is, just what one does,” Tayar said. “When Malta joins the European Union, it will be a lot easier for Jewish retirees to come to the island.’’

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JTA News

Clinton to Introduce anti-Semitism Bill
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) reiterated a pledge to introduce a congressional resolution condemning anti-Semitism. Speaking to the Anti-Defamation League in Washington on May 4, Clinton said she believes such a resolution would be a symbolic gesture highlighting anti-Semitic acts in the United States and abroad. “We need to shine a very bright light on it,” she said. “We need to pull it into the daylight out of the darkness so that everyone can see it for what it is.” Clinton also expressed her support for a re-evaluation of the Patriot Act after the 2004 elections.

Lowey Wants Saudi Apology
WASHINGTON (JTA) — A congresswoman wants Saudi Arabia’s crown prince to correct his statement that “Zionists” are responsible for terrorism in the kingdom. “It became clear for us and I say it, not 100 percent but 95 percent, that Zionists’ hands are behind what is going now,” Crown Prince Abdullah said May 1 about recent terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia. Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) is sending a letter to President Bush asking that he express dismay at Abdullah’s remarks and ask Abdullah to blame the terrorism on Al-Qaida, which is believed to be behind the attacks. “Blaming Zionists — a code word for Israel and the Jewish people — for this heinous attack is merely an effort on the part of the Saudi royal family to deflect attention from their support for terrorism in general, and anti-Israel terrorism specifically,” Lowey writes.

French Concerned by anti-Semitism
PARIS (JTA) — France’s prime minister said he is concerned by racism and anti-Semitism among young people. Jean-Pierre Raffarin announced Monday that Education Minister Francois Fillon would represent the government at a joint religious commemoration to take place in eastern France later this week to protest a number of cemetery desecrations across the country in recent days. The heads of France’s Jewish, Catholic, Protestant and Muslim communities are to address the commemoration. The attacks have targeted five Christian cemeteries in the last four days, while more than 100 Jewish tombstones were defaced with swastikas and Nazi insignia at a Jewish cemetery near Colmar last week.

U.S. to Arabs: Speak Out
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The United States wants Arab governments to respond to anti-Semitism in Arab media. When incitement appears in the Arab world, often “there is a total absence of some kind of response from the government,” William Burns, assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, said Monday at an Anti-Defamation League conference in Washington.

Charges Remain Against Pie-Thrower
NEW YORK (JTA) — A U.S. judge declined to drop disorderly conduct charges against a Rutgers student who threw a pie in Natan Sharansky’s face. Abe Greenhouse appealed to have the charges dropped, but Judge Mark Epstein said April 30 that Greenhouse was not engaging in peaceful protest when he threw the pie in the Israeli Cabinet minister’s face last September. Sharansky was delivering a lecture as part of the Israel Inspires campaign, organized by Rutgers’ Hillel, and Greenhouse attacked him to demonstrate displeasure with Israeli policies toward the Palestinians. Epstein told Greenhouse that if he “wants to be a political activist, perhaps he might study the life of Natan Anatoly Sharansky, a man who was involved in the human rights movement in the former Soviet Union.”

Reform Movement Backs Wage Hike
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Reform movement is backing a new bill that would increase the U.S. minimum wage. The Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism has thrown its support behind the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2004, which would raise the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7 an hour over the next two years.

Kerry Stresses Middle East Credentials
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Sen. John Kerry pledged to support Israel if elected president and said he’d get involved personally to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Speaking Monday at the Anti-Defamation League’s national leadership conference in Washington, Kerry (D-Mass.) stressed his credentials on the Middle East, noting a strong pro-Israel voting record and his personal experiences traveling in the region. “I’m proud that my commitment to a secure Jewish state has been unwavering. Not even by one vote or one letter or one resolution has it wavered,” Kerry said. He criticized the Bush administration for not enlisting the Arab world in an effort to empower new Palestinian leaders. Kerry also pledged to fight the rise of international anti-Semitism and other types of prejudice.

JCCs Eye New Image
NEW YORK (JTA) — The central organization for JCCs will launch a marketing blitz hoping to rebuild the public image of JCCs. The Jewish Community Centers Association of America is unveiling “Hagshama: Realizing Our Future — JCCs in the 21st Century” at the group’s 2004 biennial in Montreal, which ran from Sunday to Wednesday. The JCCA, which represents 350 JCCs, YMHAs and camps in North America, hopes to re-brand its image to tell people “what we stand for Jewishly,” the group’s president, Allan Finkelstein, told JTA. The message is that JCCs “are serious players impacting people’s Jewish experiences,’’ he said.

Sharon Considers Limited Withdrawal
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Ariel Sharon reportedly is considering a revised plan to evacuate only three Jewish settlements in Gaza. Kfar Darom, Netzarim and Morag would be evacuated in the Gaza Strip, and Ganim and Kadim would be dismantled in the West Bank under a new plan Sharon is considering, Ha’aretz reported. The plan is one of the options Sharon is considering after his plan for a larger withdrawal was rejected Sunday by his Likud Party.

Peres Calls for New Elections
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Ariel Sharon said he would not resign after his Likud Party rejected his plan for unilateral Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. But Labor Party head Shimon Peres, leader of the opposition, called for new elections after Likud members decisively rejected the prime minister’s plan in a referendum Sunday.

Oil Found in Central Israel?
NEAR KFAR SABA (JTA) — Reservoirs of oil potentially worth some $6 billion reportedly were discovered in central Israel. The reservoirs might contain 980 million barrels worth of oil at a site east of Kfar Saba, according to findings of a geological survey released Tuesday by the exploration company Givot Olam. It was not yet clear how much, if any, of the oil would be extricable from the deep underground deposits. The company also has claimed in the past to have made major oil finds but has not succeeded in extracting the oil.

Annan to Arafat: Shape Up
NEW YORK (JTA) — The Palestinians have failed to meet their obligations to curb terrorism, Kofi Annan said. The U.N. secretary-general used unusually blunt language in a private reply to Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, who had written Annan to complain about Israel’s plan to unilaterally withdraw from the Gaza Strip. Arafat believes the withdrawal is a pretext for Israel to keep West Bank land. In a letter quoted last Friday by Reuters, Annan said he believed Israel should maintain its obligations under the “road map” peace plan, but that the Palestinians must step up to the plate as well. “The Palestinian side too has obligations it has not fulfilled,” Annan said. “The Palestinian Authority should immediately start taking effective measures to curb terrorism and violence.” Arafat’s compliance with his obligations would make it easier to ensure further Israeli withdrawals, Annan said.

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People in the News

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Young Jewish Entrepreneurs

Susan Jacobs
Jewish Journal Staff

Editor’s Note: This is a part of an ongoing series of profiles about young Jewish entrepreneurs on the North Shore.

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It’s a Family Affair For Mothers and Daughters in Business Together

Susan Jacobs
Jewish Journal Staff

Most mothers share a special and sacred bond with their daughters. For some, the relationship goes beyond the familial and extends into the workplace. The Journal recently spoke with two mother/daughter teams who maintain that working together strengthens their love for each other.

“If you can raise a daughter through adolescence, you can be in business together,” asserts Sylvia Belkin, who runs The Stamp Lady in Danvers with her 36-year-old daughter Elizabeth Zamansky. The pair, who each live in Swampscott with their respective husbands, started out in 1993 with a modest pushcart at Liberty Tree Mall. They have since expanded several times, and currently work out of a 2,000 square-foot facility in Danvers selling artistic rubber stamps, art supplies and invitations. They also offer an extensive variety of classes, from Scrapbooking to Stencilling, out of a studio in the store.

Belkin and Zamansky consider themselves equal partners in the business. Both work full time and draw a salary. Elizabeth, who has a two-year-old son, works nights and weekends, while Sylvia handles the day shift. “When you own your business, the hours are flexible. You can work any 80 hours per week that you want,” jokes Elizabeth.

They each bring different skills and strengths to the business, and they acknowledge that they learn a lot from each other. “We’re very different in our approach to business, but we work well together,” says Sylvia. The more conservative Elizabeth helps temper Sylvia, who admits that she is constantly ordering new merchandise for the store. “I tend to say, ‘Don’t get six, order 18.’ Elizabeth is always saying, ‘Let’s be careful.’ It’s good how she reigns me in,” explains Sylvia.

Sylvia also says that they each resonate with different types of customers. “Elizabeth interacts so well with the young brides-to-be who come into the store looking for invitations. She understands all the excitement of an impending wedding. I, on the other hand, seem to relate better to the grandmothers.”

Elizabeth never planned on entering the family business. “I never actually thought of going into the family business, which is ironic since I come from a family of family businesses,” says Elizabeth, who father was a stationer, and whose grandfather started Belkin Stationers in Lynn. Prior to joining her mother, Elizabeth worked as a press secretary and communications director for various political figures including former President Bill Clinton. She doesn’t regret giving up her career in politics, which she says was very competitive, exhausting and intense.

“It’s a young person’s business, and it takes its toll,” she says.

Elizabeth became a full-time stamp lady in 1999. “My mother really needed help. The business was growing so explosively — we were the only one of our kind in New England. Although she had other staff members, I just stepped in. It was a very natural process,” she says.

She has grown to really enjoy the job. “Working here is a girl’s dream come true — we have a store filled with glitter, stickers and stamps!” she exclaims. She also appreciates working with someone who understands the challenges faced by mothers who are also raising young children.

“If I’m really tired from having a hard night, she’s sympathetic because she knows it’s her grandson that I’ve been up with. It’s not like having an employer that you have to make excuses to. Likewise, if she has to leave work early in order to attend a Historical Commission meeting, I understand and arrange to cover for her,” says Elizabeth.

When they have disagreements, they communicate openly and honestly with each other. “Every business relationship has its ups and downs, including ours,” says Elizabeth. “Sure we disagree, and it’s great because we can feel comfortable expressing our concerns and working them out,” she says.

A Window on Their World

Anita Berman and daughter Lisa Berman, 40, are a Danvers-based mother/ daughter team that live, work, and even work out together. Both divorced, they spend a great deal of time together.

They are equal business partners at Bay State Window Fashions, Inc., a Peabody store that offers window treatments, draperies, blinds and valances. Anita opened the store with her ex-husband in 1980. As a teenager, Lisa would come in and help out whenever she could. Yet she never expected to enter the family business on a full-time basis.

“Being the only daughter, I’d come in here after school and work. I got to know the business. But I was going to Salem State for pre-med, and had been accepted to Harvard,” says Lisa, who took some time off for personal reasons and never returned to school.

“I hoped she would be a doctor, which she wanted. But it didn’t work out, which is just as well,” says Anita. “Instead of starting a business from scratch, she was lucky she could get a job here.

Each Berman takes on a different role in the business. Lisa, who is a member of the American Society of Interior Designers, spends most days seeing customers, giving estimates, and installing window treatments. Anita “mans” the office; doing paperwork, billing and answering the phone. They jointly make decisions regarding advertising and marketing.

Spats, they say, are inevitable. “We spend a lot of time together, and we have our days,” says Lisa. “It’s not easy,” admits Anita, who adds, “We sometimes get aggravated with each other, but 10 minutes later, it’s all done.” When they have disagreements, Anita generally defers to her daughter. “We talk, but I usually let her make the decisions,” says Anita.

The store is open six days per week, but the female partners are not concerned about their safety. Their dog Sissy comes with them to work, and Lisa is well-versed in martial arts. “When we are alone together in the store, I’m not worried because Lisa holds a second degree black belt in karate,” says Anita.

The future appears secure for both mother/daughter teams. Anita Berman has no plans to retire at this point in time. “I won’t have anything to do if I retire,” says Anita. Sylvia Belkin feels similarly. “I’m not even thinking about retirement. I love what I do,” says Sylvia.

They all agree that working together is terrific. “It’s really wonderful to have a relationship with someone I respect as a business person and love as my mom. It’s very rare and cool,” says Elizabeth. “Working with my daughter is one of the greatest gifts of my life,” agrees Sylvia. “It gives me the opportunity to appreciate how she thinks.”

Bay State Window Fashions, Inc. is located on 93 Main St., Peabody. 978-531-9144. The Stamp Lady is located on 136 Andover St., Danvers. 978-750-6655.

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Arts & Entertainment

Zamir Chorale Performs Jewish Music Through the Ages

Gary Band
Jewish Journal Staff

Joshua Jacobson, 56, founded the Zamir Chorale Boston in 1969 and has been its artistic director ever since. A professor of music and Director of Choral Activities at Northeastern University, he is also an adjunct professor at Hebrew College where the Chorale is in residence. A graduate of Harvard College, he earned a Masters at the New England Conservatory and a Ph.D. from the University of Cincinnati. He will lead the Chorale at Temple Tifereth Israel in Malden on May 16. The Journal spoke with him by phone from his home in Newton.

Q: What inspired you to create Zamir Chorale?
A: I come from a singing family. I also attended Camp Yavneh, where I met a music counselor named Stanley Sperber. He started a Jewish choir in New York and later invited me to create a model in Boston based on what he did in New York.

Q: How often do you preform?
A: It depends on whether there’s a tour, but usually between 10 and 20 concerts a season.

Q: How many performances since you began?
A: This is our 35th season. At last count, 500.

Q: Za-mir means “for peace” in Russian, but Ha Zamir means “the nightingale” in Hebrew. From which language does your group take its name?
A: The Hebrew. Zamir appears in the Biblical Song of Songs and has two meanings in the verse. First, the nightingale or songbird; and “mir” refers to song or singing. The first Jewish community choir was created in Poland in 1899 and named itself Ha Zamir. Within a few years Ha Zamir choruses sprung up throughout Europe.

Q: Are they still around today?
A: Many are. We found branches in Finland, Mexico, France, Argentina and Jerusalem.

Q: How was the 1998 trip to Eastern Europe? What do you think it did for the communities you visited?
A: It was an extraordinary experience for us and the people we visited. For us, it was like going back to our roots. It was not a trip to focus on the Holocaust, but on the rich, vibrant culture before the Holocaust in Warsaw, the Czech Republic and Austria. For the communities, we felt it was valuable in terms of the confirmation of Jewish culture and religion that existed. We found lots of young people in Poland who only recently found out they were Jewish. Some wanted to investigate what it means. A few hung out with us, had Shabbat dinners and talked. We felt like we made an important contribution there.

Q: Like Klezmer, what about the the role of choral music in preserving and educating people about a particular culture?
A: There is a craze for Jewish music in Poland, especially Klezmer. There’s a Jewish music festival in Krakow every summer and 99 percent of the audience is Catholic. We benefited from this enthusiasm during our visit, and celebrated the 100th anniversary of the original Zamir chorus in Lodz, Poland, and the 30th anniversary of the Boston Zamir.

Q: You recorded a CD there. Have you done others?
A: Yes, The Songs Live On CD was released in November 1999. We’ve recorded 11 CDs and three cassettes. The latest is from our summer tour in Italy, which is the oldest, largest and richest cultural Jewish diaspora community in the world, and where Jewish choral music began.

Q: Can you describe your music?
A: No (laughing). There’s so much variety. We try to present a variety of music that reflects the regions in which Jews live. At Tifereth Israel, we’ll do about 20 pieces. Some music from Italy, North Africa, America, popular songs from Israel, love songs of the Sephardic Jews, and some music from the Yiddish theatre in America.

Q: There are 50 members in Zamir? Any accompaniments?
A: Yes, piano, percussion and clarinet.

Q: What is your role?
A: I have to listen. That’s the biggest job of the conductor. As the singers begin to recreate sound, I have to shape and mold until it sounds like it does in my mind.

Q: What nachas do you get from leading the choir?
A: The extraordinary feeling when you create a work of art. When you’re bringing 50 people together, that not only creates a blend of music, but blends souls. That’s a peak experience. Also the reaction from the audience that’s excited not only about the music, but the culture and heritage underneath it.
When we performed some music of the Holocaust on the European tour, it felt like we were bringing back to life the people whose voices were silenced by the Nazis. But until they were, they kept singing and maintained their humanity.

For tickets to the May 16 concert at Temple Tifereth Israel in Malden, call 781-322-2794.

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Politically Incorrect ‘Kiss Me Kate’ Still Wows Audiences

Mark Arnold
Jewish Journal Staff

Kiss Me Kate, at the North Shore Music Theater through May 16, performances Tues.-Sat. 8 p.m.; Wed., Sat., Sun 2 p.m. Tickets $30-$63. available at www.nsmt.org, 9678-232-7200, or at the box office, 62 Dunham Rd., Beverly, MA 01915. Cole Porter’s Kiss Me Kate is an action-packed musical that has lost little of its edginess in the 50 years since it won multiple Tony awards on Broadway. Based on Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew, it pits a fortune-seeking young lady’s man against a beautiful but obstreperous young damsel, who refuses to knuckle under in a male-dominated world. By the end of the evening — three hours later — Lili has been thoroughly subjugated to the husband who has won her while wearing her down.

This is a story for the 21st century?

Yes, actually. For despite the outrageously politically incorrect nature of the plot, the show continues to delight audiences, both for the cleverness of its book, by Samuel & Bella Spewack, and the genius of its music and lyrics, both by Porter. That music includes such crowd pleasers as “Another Op’nin’ Another Show,” “Why Can’t You Behave,” “Wunderbar,” “So in Love,” “We Open in Venice,” “Tom, Dick, and Harry,” “I’ve Come to Wive It Wealthily in Padua,” “ I Hate Men,” “Too Darn Hot,” “Always True to You,” and the immortal “From This Moment On.”

The show kicks off the North Shore Music Theater’s 2004 season and it does so with grace and gusto, featuring George Dvorsky and Broadway’s Rachel deBenedet as the feuding couple. They headline a cast of 25 performers who sing and dance their way through the complicated play within a play that is Kiss Me Kate. It’s a show of light-hearted, eminently enjoyable entertainment.

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