YINZ/YIDZ

Lynn Magid Lazar of Temple Sinai was installed as president of Women of Reform Judaism last week, during the 47th assembly, held in Toronto. The WRJ represents more than 65,000 around the world.

Lazar has been on the WRJ Board of Directors since 1993, and previously served as chair of the Youth Committee and as WRJ Treasurer. She has been the vice-president for the Department on Religious Action and for Service to Sisterhoods and Districts, as well as the program chair for WRJ’s 44th assembly in Minnesota.

She has served as first vice president for the past four years.

Born and raised in Cumberland, Md, Lazar graduated from Goucher College and earned a M.Ed. from the University of Pittsburgh. She worked with blind and visually impaired children as an orientation and mobility specialist. She is currently co-owner of an aerobic exercise franchise and teaches classes as a certified instructor. Lazar and her husband, Dale, live in Fox Chapel and are the parents of four children.

In the acceptance speech Lazar gave in Toronto, she said:

"It is actually women, together, who through philanthropy are beginning to facilitate additional changes in our world. In the United States, according to the IRS, there are more women controlling wealth than ever before in our history. But unlike any previous time in our history, these women are more likely to use their wealth deliberately and systematically to aid other women. Globally there are more than 145 funds that exist to improve the lives of women and girls. Now you may not think that 145 funds globally are a lot, but guess how many of those funds existed in 1972? NONE! ZERO! That is quite a societal change in less than forty years."

The Trib writes this morning about Pittsburghers who volunteer in Israel as vacation:

"It is not your typical vacation, and it's certainly no picnic. For three weeks, volunteers work Sunday through Thursday, often in sweltering temperatures and stuffy warehouses. They wear military garb, eat with soldiers in mess halls, sleep in dorm rooms and use communal bathrooms — and they pay their own way to Israel."

Charlotte Love, who volunteers at the Jewish Community Center, was named Volunteer of the Year at the annual luncheon of the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program of Allegheny County, the Trib reports.

From the article:

"Nobody ever expects to win that award, when you hear the caliber of the (other) volunteers," Love says. "Every one of them was more qualified. I told (RSVP project director Linda Soldressen), 'I'm Jewish, and I feel very guilty.' "

Soldressen says she told Love, "I'm Catholic and (the judges could) pick only one winner; I feel guilty, too."

Local artist Ilene Winn-Lederer gets a nice write-up in the City Paper this week for her new book Between Heaven & Earth, which we wrote about a couple of weeks ago.

From the City Paper article:

With its vibrant depictions of brutal biblical passages, like Dinah kneeling in the blood of her vanquished rapists, Between Heaven & Earth is a fascinating introduction for Torah neophytes, and a welcome reminder for lapsed Jews.

"I wanted to do this book because when I went to shul, I was bored to death," Winn-Lederer says. "I didn't understand, couldn't fathom the language, I just didn't get it. And so I said, 'I want to come up with something that would help me learn.'"

Winn-Lederer had the fortune, (or maybe the misfortune, depending on how you look at it), to release her illustrated Torah commentary around the same time Robert Crumb released an illustrated version of Genesis.

Its interesting to see the similarities and differences between the two works. Crumb takes a very traditional approach to the text — his God is a white-bearded man holding creation in his hands. Winn-Lederer draws God as a divine presence: a golden mask — of no explicit gender or race — with nothing visible behind it. 

Both books, though, take the Rashi approach to Genesis 1, starting with "When God began to create the Heaven and Earth," and not "In the beginning, God created the Heaven and Earth."

 

Longtime Pittsburgh newspaperman Alvin Rosensweet died yesterday at 99. The Post-Gazette ran a long obituary this morning that goes into his life and work with the paper, which included coverage of several major events during the latter half of the 20th century and several major stories locally.

But you can hear Rosensweet in his own words in this 1986 recording at the NCJW oral history archives. It covers a lot of ground, from current events, to major stories, to personal history, to politics and religion.

Toward the end, the interview veers into Israel and the question of Jews who are critical of Israeli policy (specifically German Jews, historically seen as being anti-Zionist), and Rosensweet says, "If you're Jewish in the United States and criticize something that Israel does, people here almost think you're anti-Israeli. As a mater of fact, 50 percent of the Israeli people don't agree with the government and are free to criticize it."

He said: "The New York Times has been somewhat anti-Israel in its policy."

And: "The Post-Gazette, in the Jewish community in Pittsburgh, is considered very anti-Israel. The editorial policy of the Post-Gazette is anti-Israel in the views of most Jewish leaders and devoted Jews in Pittsburgh who are strongly pro-Israel. Any time that a situation arises for the Post-Gazette to editorialize and appear to take the Arab side is really unappreciated by the Jewish community... The Post-Gazette editorial board would not consider the Post-Gazette anti-Israel, but Jewish community leaders, I think, do."

Asked for his thoughts on the Post-Gazette's position on Israel, Rosensweet said, "I think, for the most part, the Post-Gazette has not accepted the Israeli view in many situations, and has taken what can be construed as an anti-Israel position. But this is the nature of the newspaper business. And the Post-Gazette is very objective in it's reporting of Israeli affairs in the news columns, but it's the nature of the business that a newspaper, on its editorial page, can voice the opinions it feels are correct."

That's all from 1986, but they are sentiments you still hear daily. It's both comforting and disheartening that discourse changes so little. History tends to get compressed when we look back on it, so that messy debates take the form of clear stories. One of the great things about the NCJW archive is hearing opinions in real time.

The Rosensweet interview is several hours long and includes a lot more than just Israel. It's worth listening to a few snippets to hear an articulate Pittsburgher talk about the city, the world and the local Jewish community.

• Mary Thomas at the P-G looks at a retrospective of Pittsburgh artist Henry Koerner showing at Chatham University. Our reporter Toby Tabachnick covered the exhibit this week. For Thomas, the exhibits shows how Koerner used his life and surroundings as a back-door to discussing his experiences during the Holocaust. 

In that context, the seemingly arbitrary -- at times menacing -- associations Koerner paints more realistically reflect true social structures. Idealized normalcy is the actual invention, the gloss over the turbulence that erupts in egregious purges of and by cultural groups.

• Manny Theiner writes in the Post-Gazette about the music and politics of the Klezmatics, who are coming to town this weekend. He asks whether they see themselves as being among other far-left Jewish bands:

Where do The Klezmatics fall in the mad Chomskyite rush toward the ultra-left? "The band does not and never will have a party line, which is against our nature," explains London. "Each has his or her own beliefs. [We are] about openness, inclusion, human rights, dignity and support for those who struggle. We don't give a damn who we [anger], Jewish or otherwise, as long as we stay true to our ideals.