We hope everyone has had a relaxing and joyous summer with friends and family.  Soon many of us will be preparing to return to school and prepare for the upcoming High Holy Days in September.  We hope you have enjoyed our Federation website as a source of community happenings and as a portal to events and commentary about Israel and the Jewish experience around the country and around the world.  It continues to be our goal to find articles, videos, movies, books, and stories of interest for us to share.  Please continue to send us information.  In the coming weeks we will be posting information of our fall calendar.  We have many new and old favorite activities and programs upcoming.  In the meantime, please check out the new fascination of NBA basketball players with Hebrew and Jewish thought at Jewish News Online.  Shaq, LeBron and Amare are going to Hebrew school.  If we could only get our kids to be so enthusiastic!

Click on the link below to read about NBA players and Hebrew School

http://www.greateraltoonajewishfederation.org/links.html

Smiles, families, spirituality, pride, fellowship and community, and of course, food, were everywhere at Temple Beth Israel last week.  The occasion was the Altoona Jewish Community Sunday School confirmation.  Our seven confirmands from TBI and AAC stood together in front of their families, friends, the entire Sunday School and the Jewish community to celebrate the confirmation of their Jewish faith and Jewish studies. Our second consecutive combined confirmation for TBI and AAC was spiritual and meaningful from our Rabbi and Hazzan as well as our confirmands.  I congratulate Rabbi Luna, Hazzan Horwitz and the Sunday School leadership for their foresight and hard work in planning this program. The program also featured, our Principal, Illisa Zimmerman, who gave an inspiring keynote address.  Click below to go to the Sunday School web page to find links to her comments and Confirmation pictures in our photo gallery.

http://www.greateraltoonajewishfederation.org/sunday_school/news_updates.html

I hope we will continue to find ways to celebrate as a community and I hope we can continue to find the wisdom to see the spirituality and strength that collaboration and commonality can provide.

Most years our Jewish community comes together to remember and commemorate the great tragedy our people and the world suffered at the hands of Nazi murderers.  This year there was no Holocaust program in our community but I hope that we have all individually taken some time to remember these atrocities of man versus his fellow man.  Please check the Jewish News Online area for some links to articles from newspapers around the world relevant to Yom Hashoah.  Also check out our link on the home page to additional news of relevance to observance of this day.  Also, let us not forget that hatred, bigotry and genocide is unacceptable and cannot be tolerated.  Hatred and genocide are not just Jewish problems, they are worldwide problems.  Whether it is bullying on the playground or genocide in Darfur, we cannot allow or tolerate hatred.  To allow is to enable.

Tonight the motion picture industry gave it’s annual awards for greatness on the big screen, the Oscars.  For two out of the last three (snow!) Thursdays and for the next two Thursdays the greater Altoona area has been able to see greatness on the semi-big screen at the Penn State Altoona Devorris Downtown Center.  While missing red carpets and glam, we are still treated to the best meal deal in town catered by Paula and Dave Binus, and we are sure to have four thought provoking films.  O Jerusalem and Making Trouble were excellent.  Len Zimmerman and his committee deserve high praise for eleven years of outstanding films and making this annual event one of the social and educational highlights of our local Jewish calendar.  I especially enjoyed Making Trouble, which documented the struggle of Jewish woman to earn respect and greatness in different eras and in different aspects of show business.  It was a pleasure to have Jerry Zolten introduce the film and lead a discussion afterwards.  One point of discussion after the film was about which actors were of Jewish ancestry.  The next day I received two emails on similar points.  One claimed Abraham Lincoln had Jewish ancestry and the second was from my sister in law who recently reviewed a show called Nice Jewish Girls Gone Bad.  For your benefit I have added a new RSS feed on our home page called Jew Or Not Jew, that provides a tongue in cheek commentary on Jewish ancestry of celebrities, and check out this link for Nice Jewish Girls Gone Bad, a new generation of Jewish women “making trouble.”

http://blogs.denverpost.com/reverb/2010/03/01/scene-nice-jewish-girls-gone-bad-good-for-the-jews-lannies-clocktower-cabaret/#more-12451

http://www.nicejewishgirlsgonebad.com/newsite/

Through my years of volunteer and organizational work I have come to believe in “the principle of thirds.”  Whether it be a congregation, a parents support group, a committee, or a board of directors, one third of the group does not participate, one third will get involved on a periodic basis, especially when asked, and one third is committed and enthusiastic to getting things done.  On a percent basis, in whole numbers, each third would be 33% and add up to 99%, slightly less than 100% because not everybody was involved.  Lately I have come to wonder if there is a fourth group, a 1% which could also be called special “one percenters.”

We all know these people who are self-less, and tireless in pursuit of the greater good.  They are able to rise above self-interest, they lead by example and raise the level of all.  We admire their devotion and effort and we aspire be like them.  They are mentors and they leave a mark on our lives.  They motivate us to do more and be better when they are present.   They also inspire and motivate even when they are no longer around.  They can also be called pillars or cornerstones, as they carry the weight and shoulder the responsibilities of many.

When you lose a pillar, an organization or group is forced to deal with this new weight no longer carried by these “one percenters.”  Hopefully, others will rush in to carry the load.  Hopefully, your top third will generate new “one percenters,” people ready to serve at the next level.

Our community has been blessed have had many “one percenters” over the years.  Yale and Ida Schulman are “one percenters” and while we are very happy for them to be moving to be closer to family, we are also very sad to be losing them from our lives and our community.  On behalf of the Greater Altoona Jewish Federation, we wish them the best.

Two themes seem to continue to repeat in my life. Looking a second time always seems to provide new insight and Judaism can be found in unexpected places. Upon a visit with my parents this holiday season in San Antonio, Texas, these themes were again revealed during a visit to a traveling exhibit of reclaimed art from the Holocaust. The story of plundering art during World War II by the Nazis has been a recent subject of interest for me through books such as The Forgers Spell and movies at our Altoona Jewish Film Festival such as the Rape of Europa and Making A Killing. I became aware that there was an exhibit while speaking with Rebecca Cohen at the SAMA Shirley Goldfarb reception. Rebecca, the daughter of Yale and Ida Schulman, lives in Austin, Texas, recommended I check out an exhibit of reclaimed art from the Holocaust when I was to visit my parents in San Antonio. Fortunately, I was able to make time to visit the McNay Museum of Art.

“The exhibit, Reclaimed, reveals the extraordinary legacy of Jacques Goudstikker, a preeminent art dealer in Amsterdam, whose vast collection of masterpieces fell victim, and was almost lost forever, to the Nazi practice of looting cultural properties. In 2006, after years of working with a team of art historians and legal experts, Goudstikker’s family successfully reclaimed 200 of his paintings from the Dutch government – one of the largest claims to Nazi-looted art ever resolved. Featuring nearly 50 of the finest examples of the recovered art, along with original documents and photographs, the exhibition reveals Goudstikker’s influence as a collector, art dealer, tastemaker and impresario; and celebrates the historic restitution of the artworks to the rightful heir. Ten of the paintings on view have never been exhibited in North America before. Also included are 20 original documents and photographs relating to Goudstikker’s life – most significantly, Goudstikker’s own notebook inventorying the bulk of his gallery’s holdings at the time he fled the Netherlands.” Click below to read more about the Goudstikker family story.

http://www.thejewishmuseum.org/GoudstikkerRelease

While one would not expect such an exhibit to be in San Antonio, I was also surprised upon arrival at the museum to find that I had already seen the exhibit at the Jewish Museum in New York City in May. Regardless, a story this compelling was worth a second look.

Sunny sixty degree fall days, especially in November, are meant to be spent outside raking leaves, bicycle riding, walking my dog and watching football.  Even more difficult was to be so close to Heinz field yet so fall away while the Steelers were doing battle with the Bengals.  But at the end of the day, despite temptation, I was very happy with my choice to attend the ballet yesterday.  Certainly I was out of my element.  While I have no problem breaking down the action on the field, like the millions of other Steeler head coaches in Western Pa, summing up my experience at the ballet may be a little more amateur but here we go.

For me, there were two aspects of the ballet.  Firstly, one cannot help but be in awe of the incredible strength, flexibility, coordination and conditioning of the performers.  Additionally impressive is the mental focus and teamwork of the troupe.  It is clear that these performers are also actors through their expressions and movements.  They tell a story with their bodies and movements in a very profound way.  Unlike other ballets I have attended, this performance was very physical and athletic with elements of dance and drama.

Secondly and more importantly, “Light: The Holocaust & Humanity Project,” is more than a ballet.  Creator, Stephen Mills, who is not Jewish, has taken a catastrophic human tragedy and used this art form not only to remind us of the horror but to help us feel the emotions and help us attempt to experience this terrible genocide in a different way versus reading a book or watching a movie about the Holocaust.  The ballet follows the life of one survivor from birth, to family, and to confusion, fear, despair and hopelessness.  The portrayal of transport was especially profound as the dancers worked in “boxcar” space and projected the “intimate, stifling conditions in which many died before reaching their ominous destinations.”  Despite the devastation of such conditions and depictions of death and suffering, the ballet ends with the possibility of hope and also inspires us to take our responsibilities as world citizens very seriously.

As Mr. Mills explains in the playbill, “Art alone does not change the world, people do.  We all have to be diligent to individual and governmental protection of human rights whether or not we agree with other’s religious and political choices.  Acts of moral blindness did not go out in the 1940’s with the liberation of Auschwitz.

Before coming to see “Light: The Holocaust & Humanity Project,” try to reflect on an instance when you were a bystander, a victim, or a perpetrator of intolerance.  Use this work to reflect upon your own responsibilities when confronted with acts of bigotry and hate.  My hope is that this work sparks your interest, which in turn starts a conversation.  People engaging in dialogue begin the process of positive change.”

For Jews, the High Holidays are a time to reflect on the past year as well as an opportunity to look forward.  We look forward to a healthy and prosperous year for our families, our community and all humanity, and hope that this will be the year that peace will embrace all mankind.  Unfortunately, this view is not shared by all peoples and all nations.

While religion should be about putting people in touch with each other as well as putting people in touch with God, many use religion as a pretext for hatred and genocide.  No greater example of such hatred was recently on display at the United Nations.  Giving an audience to those who deny the Holocaust and champion the elimination of nations is difficult to fathom.  History has shown that repeated lies eventually blur the line between fact and fiction.  Please view the response of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu at the following link:

http://www.breitbart.tv/netanyahu-slams-u-n-for-giving-ahmadinejad-forum-have-you-no-shame/

Please check out our Jewish News Online section for additional perspectives on the emerging Iranian crisis as well as other topics of interest to Jews throughout the world.