Bayside’s Shoah Treasure, Not So Hidden Anymore

Queensborough Community College’s new Holocaust Resource Center. Sharon Udasin

by Sharon Udasin
Staff Writer

Huddled inside a bus station in Bayside, Queens, last December, Paul Cavalieri shuddered in the cold air and

watched the snow come down around him, hoping his bus would soon roll into sight. But then his brain reeled back 15 minutes to his interview with Queens Holocaust survivor Ethel Katz, who told him of her two-year escape from the Nazis. It was a perilous trek that at one point took her through knee-deep snow in nothing but a nightgown.
“I could sit here at this bus stop and freeze for a little while,” Cavalieri remembers deciding. “It put my problems into perspective.”

Along with other students, Cavalieri tells a similar version of the story on an LCD touch-screen panel in an exhibition at the new

Holocaust Resource Center at Queensborough Community College. The building, a starkly modern glass structure, stands out on a campus of sprawling parking lots, nondescript buildings and mobile classrooms.

Twenty-four years ago, the original center — essentially a basement library — grew out of a course taught by William Shulman, who said that his students needed a place to broaden their Holocaust research. There it languished until Queensborough Community College President Eduardo Martí took over in 2000 and decided that a cramped cellar was no place for Holocaust resources. With the help of the center’s director, Arthur Flug, he obtained funding from the state, a $1 million gift from Harriet Kupferberg and $2.8 million in private donations to open a new, 9,000-square-feet building last month.

“He saw the potential of connecting the Holocaust to young college students,” said Owen Bernstein, 87, a board member of the center who donated personal funds as well, said of Martí.  Continue reading…

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Video of my experience there:

In West Queens, New Blood Raises Hopes for Jewish Revital.

Young Jews in Long Island City celebrate Sukkot on a condo rooftop. Rabbi Zev Wineberg

by Sharon Udasin
Staff Writer

When Cara Bernstein walked down the aisle a month ago to meet her fiancé under the chupah, she knew her wedding day was a crossroads not only in her life, but in the life of her Queens synagogue, which had not hosted a bride and groom for 22 years.

Nearly the entire congregation at Astoria Center of Israel celebrated her marriage that day, whether or not they knew the couple personally.

“A fellow congregant told me that I’m part of a new wave of congregants,” said Bernstein, who is 38.

Astoria Center of Israel is just one pocket of many in northwestern Queens where residents say they are seeing a revitalization of their historic Jewish populations. For 20- and 30-somethings who crave cheaper rents in close proximity to Manhattan, Astoria has become somewhat of a mecca, with popular restaurants, shops and nightlife options.

In Long Island City, brand-new yet pricey condominiums are attracting a slightly older crowd — young families in their 30s and 40s who find the East River waterfront an attractive place to raise small children. Other young singles and families are choosing nearby Jackson Heights and Sunnyside, which offer even more affordable real estate than the riverside neighborhoods.

Yet as young people — both Jews and non-Jews alike — continue to flock to northwestern Queens, they often lack the infrastructure necessary to accommodate Jewish community, area experts agree.

“I felt very good about Jewish life beginning here, but I don’t see any push to set up synagogues there,” said Jeff Gottlieb, president of the Queens Jewish Historical Society. “I see a lot of young Jewish people there, but I don’t see any real sparkle of any organizational Jewish life.”

Spiritual leaders like the Astoria Center’s Rabbi Jonathan Pearl are trying to combat this notion and reinvigorate their aging populations by pulling in younger crowds.

“There was an amazing sense of revitalization coming back into the sanctuary when we had a marriage taking place here,” said Rabbi Pearl, who has been at the synagogue for a little over a year. “The place was full.”

Last Sunday, Astoria Center of Israel received landmark designation status from the New York State and National Registers of Historic Places, for its beautiful interior décor and history of civic leadership since the 1920s. Today, the Conservative synagogue is egalitarian with about 100 members, most of whom are the elderly remnants of a neighborhood that was once home to seven synagogues and multiple kosher butchers.  Continue reading…

Green Day For AJC

A Tesla electric sports car parked outside of San Francisco’s JCC, site of an environmental conference. Right, AJC “green” mission participants at Solazyme, a biofuel company in Silicon Valley.

by Sharon Udasin
Staff Writer

San Francisco — In its effort to elevate the issue of energy independence, the venerable American Jewish Committee has pushed for policy change in Washington, “greened” its own New York headquarters and even offered cash incentives for its employees to buy hybrid cars.

Now, the group is trying to tap the power of a new generation of young leaders, for whom green issues are central to the expression of their Jewish identity. Earlier this month in this hub of West Coast environmentalism, the AJC’s young leadership umbrella (ACCESS) held its first conference on environmental issues, dubbed “J-REC, the Jewish Response to the Energy Challenge.” The daylong event at the Jewish Community Center here drew more than 200 people, many of them environmental experts from the Jewish community.

As the conference was taking place, simultaneous live Web casts took place in Jerusalem, Kibbutz Ketura in Israel’s Arava Desert, Chicago, Denver and New York drawing another 200 people. Conference organizers set for themselves a lofty — and likely difficult — goal: to unify the Jewish community in combating the global energy crisis.

“This is the first time I’ve ever seen in one room a Jewish farmer, Jewish venture capitalists, and everyone coalescing around this one major issue,” said political analyst Ari Wallach, a speaker on one of the conference panels. He organized the “Great Schlep” campaign for Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential election.

When budding clean-tech lawyer Jonathan Axelrad moved from New York to San Francisco last year, he immediately began work on the AJC conference and mission, believing that clean energy and U.S. energy independence were issues young people would be charged up about. But he knew he couldn’t do it alone.

In a stroke of luck, recent Stanford University graduate Lyuba Wolf happened to walk into Axelrad’s office in search of a pro-bono attorney for her student greening organization, Energy Crossroads. Instantly, Axelrad realized he had met his environmental other-half.

“That’s when the mission became a movement,” Axelrad told The Jewish Week. “We went back to AJC ACCESS and said that we want to organize a unified movement in the Jewish community to respond to what we’re calling the ‘energy challenge,’ which is transforming an oil- and fossil fuel-based economy to clean and secure energy sources.” In the end, the mission attracted 20 AJC young leaders to San Francisco for the conference, post-conference round tables and site visits to clean-tech business in the Bay Area.  Continue reading…

Evangelist Postpones Birthright Appearance

by Sharon Udasin

Evangelical leader Gordon Robertson has postponed a speaking engagement that was scheduled for this Thursday at an event for Birthright Israel alumni, sponsored by Birthright NEXT and the Jewish Enrichment Center (JEC).

Robertson, who is the CEO of the Christian Broadcasting Network and son of the Rev. Pat Robertson, was supposed to discuss Christian Zionism and the strength of evangelical support for the Jewish State. Though Robertson has openly declared that Jews can accept Jesus and still be Jewish, Birthright NEXT staff say that he had no intention of touting these beliefs at the event.

The cancellation occurred only because Birthright NEXT lost their original venue, according to Rebecca Sugar, the organization’s director. Meanwhile, CBN is looking to reschedule the Robertson speaking event to mid-December, when Robertson next travels to New York, confirmed network spokesperson Chris Roslan. Click here to read original JW version of this brief.

I introduce to you my first attempt as a video producer/editor and Adam Dickter’s first foray as a television reporter. As part of The Jewish Week’s effort to inaugurate its new Video Blog, hosted by Adam Dickter and produced by yours truly. The first attempt is not without glitches, as I shook the camera quite a bit (using a tripod next time) and I accidentally cut off both Adam and Mayor Koch a bit when splicing different pieces together. But for teaching myself entirely, I think I did a decent job. Comments appreciated as always…

In Northeast Queens, ‘Tradition And Change’ at Conserv Syn

Rabbi Robyn Fryer Bodzin is trying to revive Israel Center’s youth while tending to her aging flock. Michael Datikash

by Sharon Udasin
Staff Writer

Claire Heymann, an Auschwitz survivor who grew up in a strictly Orthodox home in Germany, had a bit of trouble adjusting to the idea of an egalitarian synagogue.
But a female rabbi? Don’t ask.

About five years ago, when northeastern Queens shul memberships began to dwindle and local purse strings tightened, Heymann’s traditional “Conservadox” synagogue, the Israel Center of Hillcrest Manor, made the decision to merge with two other local congregations — the Electchester Jewish Center and the Conservative Synagogue of Jamaica Estates. Together, they formed the fully egalitarian Israel Center of Conservative Judaism in Flushing Meadows, which now has a total of approximately 265 families.

In making the decision to merge, “We had to make a choice, [so] that we shouldn’t sell the synagogue to a Korean church,” said Heymann, 85.

After the merger came the big change. Last summer, the Israel Center hired a female rabbi — the first female rabbi at any Conservative synagogue in Queens.

Rabbi Robyn Fryer Bodzin, who will be officially installed by the temple board on Sunday, has changed the minds and won the hearts of many aging synagogue members who, like Heymann, say they were skeptical of having a woman as their leader.

“When [the synagogue] went egalitarian, I had a tough time. When I heard that we were going to get a woman rabbi, that bothered me,” Heymann said, noting that 27 members were vehemently against hiring Rabbi Bodzin because of her relatively young age, 35, and gender. “All I can tell you [is that] I love her now,” Heymann said. “I have a very good connection with her.”  Continue reading…

BREAKING NEWS

by Sharon Udasin And Stewart Ain
Staff Writers

POSTED WEDNESDAY, NOV. 4,  6:00 p.m.

An Evangelical leader who believes Jews can accept Jesus without giving up their Jewish identity will be the keynote speaker in two weeks at an event for Birthright Israel alumni, sponsored by Birthright NEXT and the Jewish Enrichment Center.

“You can still be Jewish and believe in Jesus as the messiah,” the invited speaker, Gordon Robertson, said on a July 2008 program of the Christian Broadcasting Network, of which he is the CEO.

The network was founded by his father, the Rev. Pat Robertson, a former presidential candidate, who once blamed Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s severe stroke on his willingness to “divide the land” of Israel.

A Birthright NEXT official said the group is aware of Gordon Robertson’s beliefs that a Jew can believe in Jesus, but maintains that his theological views have no impact on his suitability has a speaker.

“We’re not asking him to come and talk about Christianity or Jews trying to get Jews to believe in Christianity. It’s not the topic,” said Rebecca Sugar, the New York director of Birthright Israel NEXT NY alumni programming.  Continue reading…

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Update on 11/12/09: Also appears in this week’s paper, here.

Stream Of Criticism For Jewish Comic Larry David

David in mid-stream during last week’s episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”

by Sharon Udasin
Staff Writer

Lenny Bruce cursed a blue streak. Don Rickles insulted anyone within hearing distance. Sacha Baron Cohen has raised embarrassment of the unsuspected — Jews and non-Jews alike — into an art form. And for Sarah Silverman, not even the memory of the Holocaust is sacred.

But urinating on a portrait of Jesus?

Larry David last week may have gone farther than any Jewish comic in pushing the comedic envelope — and perhaps flushing it down the toilet.

In an episode of the popular HBO series “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” which caricatures David’s true-life social faux-pas and uncouth mannerisms, the wise guy accidentally splashes the framed picture hanging in his devout secretary’s bathroom, just next to her toilet. Because of a medical condition, he is taking a drug that makes him urinate like a racehorse (his sidekick Jerry Seinfeld, who appears in the episode, compares his stream to that of the great Seabiscuit).

When a drop splashes right under Jesus’ eye, David tries but fails to clean up the spray, which has now taken the shape of a tear crawling down Jesus’ cheek. Hours later, David’s secretary Maureen springs into his office in excitement, announcing that she and her mother had witnessed a miracle in their bathroom and would be touring the country in an RV with the crying portrait. (The allusion, presumably, is to believers who claim to see depictions of Jesus or the Virgin Mary in such unlikely places as grilled cheese sandwiches.)

Catholics — and even some Jewish comics and organizations — are crying foul.

“I think it’s important that people understand that Catholics have had it,” Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, told The Jewish Week. “Larry David wouldn’t piss on the face of Barack Obama and then tell blacks who are upset to get over it. They just simply wouldn’t do it.”  Continue reading…