Metro Briefs November 1
Adi Snir has joined the staff of three Jewish community agencies to support educational and programming efforts in Pittsburgh.
She will divide her time between the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, where she assists with communitywide Israel events; the Agency for Jewish Learning, where she teaches at J-Site and assists with teen programs; and the Jewish Community Center, where she will work with youth groups, synagogues and children in the after-school Clubhouse program. She also will work with the Diller Teen Fellows Program, an initiative of the Partnership2Gether project, which connects Pittsburgh Jews to Karmiel and the Misgav region in Israel.
Born and raised in Jerusalem, Snir served in the Israel Defense Forces as a noncommissioned officer before studying social work in college. She directed an educational project run by the municipality and the University of Beer Sheva, for which she managed more than 50 university students who tutored hundreds of elementary and high school pupils. She has also worked with adults suffering from mental illness and children at risk.
She also served as a guide for the Society for Nature and Protection in Israel.
Snir can be reached at adisnir7@gmail.com.
Congregation Beth Shalom hosted Central Region USY for a weekend.
More than 100 teenagers from western Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, West Virginia and Indiana attended the convention for a weekend of learning, leadership training and Shabbat celebrations.
Programming included Central Region’s annual USY board meeting, where USYers decided how to allocate their tzedaka money for this year; discussions on Israel; study sessions on Jewish life cycle events; and energetic Shabbat services at Beth Shalom. Special programming for the freshmen class, including icebreakers and Capture the Flag, took place in the synagogue and at Frick Park during the weekend.
Central Region USY’s executive board and three tri-chairs from Congregation Beth Shalom’s USY chapter, Daniel Mackler, Jonah Baron and Max Zack Yoffee, organized the event.
The third annual Grad Shabbat 200 for all area graduate students will be held Friday, Nov. 9, 6 p.m. in the University of Pittsburgh O’Hara Student Center Ballroom (formally known as the Concordia Club).
About 200 students are expected to attend.
Candle lighting will take place at 4:45 p.m. followed by Kiddush and a wine bar at 5 p.m.
Chabad House J-Grads and Chabad of CMU Grads are the sponsors. Other participating organizations are J-Burgh, Jewish Graduate Students Association at CMU, Israel on Campus at CMU, Jewish Pitt Grads, Maimonides at Pitt and Jewish Law Students Association at Pitt.
The event is designed to bring together the Jewish graduate student organizations in Pittsburgh to celebrate Shabbat. Using the model of table hosts, where a student hosts a table of six friends, reservations are coming in for many hosted tables representing the numerous graduate programs and departments in the Pittsburgh area.
More information and registration (open to university affiliates) is available at gradshabbat.org.
A retired Navy admiral, who is Jewish, will appear at West Virginia University, in Morgantown, the week of Veterans Day, to discuss the impact being Jewish can have on a military career.
Vice Adm. Douglas Katz is this year’s guest speaker of the Pi Lambda Phi Jewish Lectureship Series. He will speak Monday, Nov. 12, 8 p.m., at the Erickson Alumni Center, on WVU’s Evansdale campus.
Alumni of Pi Lambda Phi fraternity established the series to bring Jewish speakers to WVU on an annual basis.
Katz, whose Navy career spanned 30 years, is a native West Virginian.
Contact Professor Aaron Gale at 304-293-7733 or at aaron.gale@mail.wvu.edu for more information.
Temple Sinai’s 92nd Street Y Broadcast presents “Relevant Octogenarians” Thursday, Nov. 8, with a video feed from New York City’s 92nd Street Y as a group of leaders — former New York City Mayor Ed Koch, economist Paul Volcker, politician/diplomat George J. Mitchell, diplomat Pete Peterson and financier Muriel Siebert — talk about how retirement is changing in the 21st century.
The program will focus on the American population as it is aging. The screening includes lunch with advance reservations (at no extra cost) and will include a local presentation from regional experts: “Over 80 and Relevant in Pittsburgh” will include Deborah Winn-Horvitz, president & CEO, Jewish Association on Aging; and Karen Wolk Feinstein, president and CEO, Jewish Healthcare Foundation. The evening broadcast will include Winn-Horvitz.
Screenings are at 1:45 p.m. and 8 p.m.; local presentations begin 45 minutes before each broadcast.
For the lunch program, participants should arrive at noon. Call (412) 421-9715 for information about tickets and lunch arrangements.
Jewish Residential Services and Jewish Family & Children’s Service will host a workshop on “Building Supports: What to Do While You Wait,” Wednesday, Nov. 7, at 6:30 p.m. at JF&CS, 5743 Bartlett St. in Squirrel Hill.
Many families of individuals with disabilities are dealing with long waiting lists for paid services but need help now. This training will help participants learn about strategies they can use in building and/or maintaining natural supports in the community when individuals with disabilities are not receiving paid support. The free training is provided by The Partnership, a network of organizations that serve people with disabilities and their families and is co-sponsored by ABOARD.
Contact Shani Lasin at 412-325-0039 or slasin@jrspgh.org for more information.
JFilm: The Pittsburgh Jewish Film Forum will present two movies this month.
It will present “Let My People Go!” Sunday, Nov. 4, at 2 p.m. and Tuesday, Nov. 6, at 9 p.m.
And it will show “Nicky’s Family,” Thursday, Nov. 15, at 7 p.m.
Both films will be screened at the Regent Square Theater.
“Let My People Go!” is a gay romantic comedy, Jewish family drama. A French bedroom farce, it follows the travails and daydreams of the lovelorn Reuben, a French-Jewish gay mail carrier living in fairytale Finland (where he got his master’s in “comparative sauna cultures”) with his gorgeous Nordic boyfriend. But just before Passover, a series of mishaps and quarrels exile him back to Paris and his zany family in an 86-minute picture that strives to celebrate and upend Jewish and gay stereotypes.
JFilm is presenting the picture in conjunction with the Three Rivers Film Festival, and the Pittsburgh Lesbian & Gay Film Society.
“Family” is the story of Nicholas Winton, an Englishman who organized the rescue of 669 Czech and Slovak children before the outbreak of World War II. Now 102 years old, he did not speak about these events for more than half a century. His exploits would have been forgotten if his wife hadn’t found a suitcase in the attic, full of documents and transport plans.
Jfilm and the Three Rivers Film Festival are jointly presenting the film.
Visit jfilmpgh.org for tickets.
The Holocaust Center of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh invites the community to “Lessons from Kristallnacht: The Entangled History of Race, Sports & Inhumanity in Nazi Europe,” Tuesday, Nov. 13, at 7 p.m. at the August Wilson Center for African American Culture, 980 Liberty Ave., Downtown. Visitors can visit “The Nazi Olympics, Berlin 1936” exhibition from 6 to 7 p.m.
Speakers include Ruth Drescher, a survivor from Stuttgart, Germany, on “Memories of Kristallnacht,” and keynote speaker Seymour “Sy” Drescher, University of Pittsburgh history professor.
Holocaust survivors can call to arrange free transportation from the Jewish Community Center at 5:30 p.m.
Contact Matthew Sohner at the Holocaust Center at 412-421-1500, ext. 104 or msohner@jfedpgh.org for reservations and to make transportation arrangements.
Beth Israel Center will hold the second lecture in its series Sunday, Nov. 11, at 7:30 p.m. Speaker Pamela R. Winnick, a freelance journalist and author will speak on “Jews in the American Revolution.”
There is no fee for this lecture; the community is invited to attend.
Call the office at 412-655-2144 for more information.
More Than Just Learning hosts Shirley and Morris Shratter will interview Dr. Abraham Twerski about the people who influenced him and his educational background. The program airs every Tuesday in November at 8 p.m. on cable TV channel 21 and Verizon 47 in Pittsburgh only, or view it at pctv21.org.
Squirrel Hill Historical Society will hold its next meeting with David Albert, retired Air Force officer and historian, and currently an Osher instructor at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, on “Civil War and Pittsburgh,” Tuesday, Nov. 13, 7:30 p.m. at the Church of the Redeemer, 5700 Forbes Ave.
Contact Mike at 412- 417-3707 or visit squirrelhillhistory.org for more information.
Community Day School is hosting a Cub Club play date for children ages 18 months to 5 years old and their parents at My Little Outback in Squirrel Hill Friday, Nov. 9, from 10 a.m. until noon. While the children are playing, parents can get to know each other, and learn about the new CDS Cub Club. This event is free and kosher snacks will be provided.
Contact jgolomb@comday.org or 412-521-1100, ext. 2114 to make required reservations.
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