Shabbat shalom, New York! Today we remember a pillar of Brooklyn’s Modern Orthodox community, consider the charges against a local Jewish environmental activist and recommend an in-person klezmer concert.
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REMEMBERING: Rabbi David Eliach, the longtime and pioneering leader of Brooklyn’s Yeshivah of Flatbush, died Thursday at age 99. (JTA)
- As principal and then dean of the Modern Orthodox high school between 1967 and 1997, Eliach added a community service requirement, introduced Israel study that became de rigueur for Orthodox high school graduates and pushed students to engage in political issues of Jewish significance.
- Read a Jewish Week profile of Eliach.
- Mourners can watch his funeral here, starting at 10:00 a.m.
OUT OF ORDER: A Jewish human rights lawyer is due to be sentenced in New York today for criminal contempt charges stemming from his decades-long legal battle with Chevron Corp. (Times of Israel)
- Steven Donziger has been under house arrest in his Upper West Side apartment since 2019, after a judge ruled that he used fraudulent tactics in obtaining a multibillion-dollar verdict against the oil giant for polluting the Amazon rainforest.
- Donziger denies wrongdoing. He is asking a Manhattan federal judge to consider a new finding by independent United Nations experts that “charges against and detention of Mr. Donziger appear to be retaliation for his work as a legal representative of indigenous communities.”
RESTITUTION: The U.S. Supreme Court will hear an appeal dealing with the restitution of a valuable painting by Camille Pissarro that was looted by the Nazis and acquired from a New York gallery owner in 1976. (Times of Israel)
ON THE TRAIL: GOP mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa campaigned in Brooklyn as its Orthodox communities celebrated at the end of Simchat Torah. (YouTube)
- Watch the Guardian Angels founder defend his unusual method for shaking a lulav and etrog, and demonstrate his perhaps surprising fluency with Jewish ritual. (YouTube)
APOSTATE NEWS: Read the bizarre, nearly forgotten story of a Bronx rabbi who confessed to having served as a Greek Orthodox priest. (Tablet)
AROUND THE JEWISH WORLD, WITH JTA
- Foreign aid foe Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, is the latest lawmaker to get in the way of $1 billion in new assistance to Israel to replenish its Iron Dome anti-missile system.
- The mayor of Anchorage, Alaska at first defended anti-mask protesters who wore yellow Stars of David in reference to the Holocaust. Now he’s apologized.
- Meet the latest Jewish cast member of “Saturday Night Live.” The show’s 47th season begins tomorrow night.
THE NOSHER
(The Nosher)
Read the very Jewish history of kasha varnishkes, the buckwheat and pasta staple of Ashkenazi cuisine, and, while you’re at it, discover how the Finger Lakes region became the kasha capital of the United States.
PEOPLE & PLACES
The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research named Warren Stern and Deborah Veach to its board of directors. Stern is a retired attorney who has taught law at Harvard and New York Universities. Veach is a former Manhattan assistant district attorney and deputy bureau chief and a former deputy mayor of Teaneck, New Jersey.
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The Jewish Education Project has launched a new digital “marketplace” for children who are not currently engaged in any form of Jewish education. Truvie (truvie.org) features short courses for use by individual educators and organizations. An initial three-month beta period for synchronous programs for grades 3-8 launches on Oct. 18.
SHABBAT SHALOM
The story of the Jewish people doesn’t begin until the third weekly portion of Genesis. “Addressing us as human beings, the Torah commands reverence for human life based on our universal status: because every human bears the divine image,” writes Rabbi Jeremy Kalmanofsky about this week’s portion, Bereshit.
- More wisdom: Rabbi David Wolpe remembers a chess champion who used his gift to raise consciousness about Jews lost and missing in the Holocaust.
WHAT’S ON
Brooklyn’s BagelFest features 20-plus vendors, as well as bagel games, a photo booth, a “bagel experts” panel, bagel-centric art and a live musical performance from rapper Kosha Dillz. BKLYN STUDIOS City Point in Downtown Brooklyn. Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Nikki Haley, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, and Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-Bronx, are among the speakers at the annual General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America, being held virtually starting Sunday at 2:00 p.m. Register here.
Celebrate Jewish women’s music at an Isle of Klezbos concert, held live in the Museum of Jewish Heritage’s Edmond J. Safra Hall. Opening for Isle of Klezbos will be Broadway actress and singer Stephanie Lynne Mason, accompanied by Bob Marks on piano. Attend this program in person or watch the livestream. In-person attendance: $10 members, $20 non-members. Virtual attendance: Free for members, $10 non-members. Sunday, 3:00 p.m.
Join Andrew Silow-Carroll, editor-in-chief of The New York Jewish Week, as he leads a discussion about antisemitic incidents in New York City, featuring Deborah Lauter, executive director of the Mayor’s Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes; Scott Richman, regional director, ADL NY/NJ; and Leo Ferguson, of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice. Presented by Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan and hosted in partnership with the New York Jewish Agenda and The Center for Jewish Living. Register here for this virtual program. Monday, 7:00 p.m.
Photo, top: Rabbi David Eliach served as principal and then dean of Yeshivah of Flatbush for 30 years. (Courtesy Yeshivah of Flatbush)
