Metro Briefs September 3

Congregation Poale Zedeck will welcome Rabbi Dovid Goldwasser as scholar-in-residence Friday, Sept. 4 to Sunday, Sept. 6.  Goldwasser is a weekly columnist in The Jewish Press, a regular contributor to the Hamodia and has been featured in radio and television media. He has authored more than 10 books.

Goldwasser has been recognized for his work and community service by organizations including Agudath Israel of America, the Board of Jewish Education, the Beth Torah Organization of the Deaf, the Jerusalem Reclamation Project, HEED of the New York University Medical Center and the Maimonides Medical Center of Brooklyn.

Contact 412-421-9786 or info@pzonline.org for more information.

Get The Jewish Chronicle Weekly Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up

Shuk Machane Pittsburgh, with a boutique and raffle, will be held on Sunday, Sept. 6 from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Shaare Torah Congregration at 2319 Murray Ave. Proceeds will go to support the small business participants and Jerusalem’s poor.

Chabad of the South Hills and the Jewish Community Center of the South Hills will hold a High Holy Days seniors lunch on Tuesday, Sept. 8 at 12:30 p.m. at the South Hills JCC, 345 Kane Blvd. A guest speaker from the Jewish Association on Aging will discuss relaxing, refocusing and revitalizing. 

Lunch will include honey cake, holiday music and holiday spirit. There is a $5 suggested donation. The building is wheelchair accessible. Contact Barb at 412-278-2658 for more information and to RSVP.

Squirrel Hill AARP Chapter 3354 will hold its next meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 9 at 1 p.m. at New Light Congregation, 1700 Beechwood Blvd. at Forbes Avenue.

Following the business meeting, Earl Markowitz will discuss Medicare supplemental insurance. Light refreshments will be served. The community is invited. Contact Frieda D. Safyan at 412-521-2804 for more information.

The Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh will hold its 120th annual meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 9 at 7 p.m. in Levinson Hall in the Irene Kaufmann Building, 5738 Forbes Ave., in Squirrel Hill.

The meeting will launch its 120th year celebration, featuring the premiere of a new video, “JCC Presents 120 Years: Celebrating Yesterday, Imagining Tomorrow.” The short film highlights its members and the JCC community.

The meeting also will include the presentation of the JCC’s volunteer awards to Hilary S. Tyson, Dan and Shelly Snyder, Frank Lowenstein and Zina Blyakhor and the installation of officers.

The community is welcome and encouraged to attend. RSVP on EventBrite.com for JCC’s 120th annual meeting.

Contact Andrea Matz at 412-697-3510 or amatz@jccpgh.org for more information.

Jewish National Fund will hold a Tree of Life Award dinner honoring American pop artist Burton Morris on Thursday, Sept. 10 at 6 p.m. at the Omni William Penn Hotel, 530 William Penn Place. Dietary laws will be observed.

Contact Amy Jonas, director, Western Pennsylvania, at ajonas@jnf.org for more information.

Eileen Halpern Lane and Rabbi Yossi Rosenblum will be among the community leaders honored at the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh annual meeting on Thursday, Sept. 24. Lane will receive the Emanuel Spector Memorial Award, and Rosenblum will receive the Doris and Leonard H. Rudolph Jewish Communal Professional Award. The meeting, which begins at 7 p.m., will be held at the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill.

In addition to celebrating individuals who have made outstanding contributions to Pittsburgh’s Jewish community — including the Volunteers of the Year from Jewish agencies, organizations and synagogues — the meeting will be a forum for reporting community accomplishments. Presenters will provide a look at the strategic next steps that will help the community maintain and increase its vibrancy.

The concept of working together to connect a thriving present with a vibrant tomorrow provides the theme for the meeting, Bridge to the Future.

Lane, a native Pittsburgher, has served the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh in many capacities as a lay leader. In addition to being a member of the Federation’s board of trustees, she has served on the Executive Committee and chaired the Allocations, Foundation Distribution and Community Service committees. She is a board member of JFilm: The Pittsburgh Jewish Film Forum and a member of the Community Scorecard Committee.

Lane is a lifetime board member of the National Council of Jewish Women, Pittsburgh Chapter and a life trustee of the Pittsburgh Chapter of the American Jewish Committee. She has served as president of Rodef Shalom Congregation and was a board member of the Jewish Healthcare Foundation. Lane was one of the founders of the Pittsburgh Race for the Cure.

Rosenblum is the principal of the Boys Division at Yeshiva Schools of Pittsburgh, Yeshiva Achei Tmimim. He has held this position since 1994. During Rosenblum’s service as principal, the U.S. Department of Education recognized the Yeshiva as a Blue Ribbon School of Excellence.

In 1994, Rosenblum, known as an innovative educator and administrator, founded the International Sefer HaMitzvos Competition, which allows students to display and be recognized for knowledge of the mitzvos, Jewish commandments. To help students learn the commandments, Rosenblum authored “Sefer HaMitsvos” booklets that 40 schools now use as part of their curricula.

In cooperation with educators worldwide, Rosenblum directs a project to bring standards-based education to Jewish learning. The standards, known as the Zekelman Standards for Judaic Studies, apply to eight grade levels. The project has included development of support materials and incorporates Understanding by Design methodology, which helps each student learn in his or her own way.

Rosenblum lectures nationwide about educational methods, and he teaches adult education classes about Talmud, Jewish mysticism, parenting and other topics.

The meeting sign-in will begin at 6:15 p.m. Sign language interpretation of the proceedings and large-print agendas will be available. A dessert reception will follow the meeting. There is a $5 per person charge for those who register at jfedpgh.org and $7 per person by mail or at the door.

A Community Rosh Hashanah Festival will be held on Sunday, Sept. 13 from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh on 5738 Forbes Ave.

Participants will welcome the New Year while packing 15,776 meals for the hungry in developing countries.

The rice, dried vegetables and nutrient-rich meals are easily packed by people of all ages, from toddlers to seniors.

Activities will also include Rosh Hashanah music; Rosh Hashanah activity tables; “Rabbi Slam,” the best local rabbis have to offer in five minutes: 10:15 a.m., 10:45 a.m., 11:15 a.m., 11:45 a.m. and 12:15 p.m.

There is a $10 recommended donation to cover the cost of the food being packed. Supporting organizations include the Squirrel Hill Community Food Pantry, Stop Hunger Now and Jewish Family & Children’s Service.

Contact Rabbi Ron Symons at 412-339-5395 or rsymons@jccpgh.org for more information. RSVP on EventBrite.com for Stop Hunger Now.

The Union for Reform Judaism Pittsburgh-Area Congregations will offer an Introduction to Judaism Course that will run from September to March 2016. Classes will be held on Thursdays from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Temple Sinai. Contact intro2judaismpgh@gmail.com for more information.

A memorial service, billed as “the one-year anniversary of the last day of the 2014 Israeli assault on Gaza,” was held Tuesday evening, Aug. 25 on the grounds of the Carnegie Library in Oakland. The event was co-sponsored by Pitt Students for Justice in Palestine, Conflict Kitchen, the Thomas Merton Center Anti-War Committee, the Jewish Voice for Peace, Friends of Sabeel-North America, and the American Friends Service Committee, PA Program.

About 50 people gathered to mark the loss of 2,100 Gazan and 73 Israeli lives, as the names of some of those killed during Operation Protective Edge were read and white flags were planted on the grounds in memory of the victims.

Speakers included emcee Moriah Ella Mason, of Jewish Voice for Peace. Mason began the tribute with a recitation of the Mourner’s Kaddish, and Bob Ross, a member of East Liberty Presbyterian Church and an advocate for divestment from Israel.

A group of about 10 pro-Israel university students, organized by the newly formed Israel Campus Ambassador Program, attended the service. They distributed flyers stating “Free Gaza from Hamas,” and condemning the “indiscriminate rocket fire aimed at civilian populations” and the use of “innocent civilians as human shields.”