Metro Briefs October 16
Riverview Towers will hold Quick-Step at the View, an evening with the pros from Arthur Murray Dance Studios that will include a dessert bar and Chinese auction on Sunday, Oct. 19 at 7 p.m. at 52 Garetta St. Proceeds will fund programming that enhances the mind, body and spirit for the residents of Riverview Towers.
Fern and Steve Schwartz and Irwin and Laurie Grossman are sponsoring the event; Robin and Howard Elson are underwriting the residents’ admissions; and Diane Silverman is coordinating the Chinese auction. There is an $18 charge.
Make reservations online at riverviewtowers.com.
The Pittsburgh 10, a collective of local artists, will present a one-day pop-up art exhibit on Sunday, Oct. 19 from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Center for Women at 1620 Murray Ave. in Squirrel Hill.
The event will feature new works from Zivi Aviraz, Lila Hirsch-Brody, Kathi DePasse, Joel Kranich, Helen Naimark, Lilli Nieland, Jane Ogren, Phiris (Kathy) Sickels, David Sparks and Susan Sparks. The work of jewelry designer Danielle Brannigan and ceramicist Sally Allan also will be exhibited.
Attendees will have the opportunity to purchase and take home their favorite pieces at this off-the-wall sale. A portion of proceeds from the sale will be donated to the Center for Women, which was co-founded by the National Council of Jewish Women Pittsburgh Section and the Jewish Women’s Foundation of Greater Pittsburgh. The Center for Women offers a variety of services to women in transition, including those who are seeking new employment, returning to the workforce, seeking financial literacy or starting over after a divorce or loss of a spouse.
Contact the Center for Women at 412-421-4400 or visit centerforwomenpgh.org for more information.
The National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education at Seton Hill University invites the community to three free upcoming programs.
“We Remember – A Concert to Celebrate the Inner Life of Anne Frank” will be held on Thursday, Oct. 23 from 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Reichgut Concert Hall, Seton Hill Performing Arts Center in Greensburg.
The concert will feature contralto Daphne Alderson and pianist Norma Meyer in a program that commemorates the 85th anniversary of the birth of Anne Frank. The program features “I Remember,” a contemporary cantata based on the descriptions of Anne’s inner life as described in her diary, which detailed her experiences as she and her family tried to escape capture by the Nazi regime.
A Kristallnacht Rembembrance Service will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 4 from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. at St. Joseph Chapel at Seton Hill University’s Hilltop Campus. Holocaust survivors Fritz Ottenheimer, Yolanda Avram-Willis, Shulamit Bastacky and Solange Lebovitz will be featured.
Visiting scholar Alan Rosen will lecture on “Voices of Miraculous Clouds: Literary Responses to the Holocaust” on Wednesday, Nov. 5 at 7 p.m. in the Reeves Auditorium on the Hilltop Campus.
Contact ncche@setonhill.edu or 724-830-1033 for more information.
The Greek-American and Jewish Communities of Western Pennsylvania will come together to remember and to offer a tribute to the righteous of Greece with “The Triumph of Morality: A Tribute to the Righteous of Greece” with Yolanda Avram-Willis, a survivor of the Holocaust in Greece, on Tuesday, Oct. 28 at 6:30 p.m. at McConomy Auditorium, University Center at Carnegie Mellon University, 5000 Forbes Ave. A light reception and mini-exhibit will follow the lecture.
The story of Greek Christians protecting and saving Greek Jews remains a largely unexplored aspect of the period’s history and stands in sharp contrast to the darkness of that epoch.
“The Triumph of Morality: A Tribute to the Righteous of Greece,” a photo-testimonial-video exhibit will be held from Monday, Oct. 27 to Friday, Oct. 31 at the Hillel Jewish University Center, 4607 Forbes Ave., during regular open hours.
Contact info@pahellenicfoundation.org for more information.
The Pittsburgh Conference of Jewish Women’s Organizations will hold its next meeting on Thursday, Oct. 30 from noon to 2 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill.
Sybil Leiberman, director of AgeWell’s Adult Services Department at the JCC, has announced new programs, and Darlene Cridlin and Amy Gold will provide information on program changes.
Reservations are required; walk-ins cannot be accommodated. Checks can be made out to PCJWO for $8 and mailed to Marilyn Swedarsky, 5839 Marlborough Ave., Pittsburgh 15217. Your check is your reservation.
Temple Emanuel of South Hills will hold its inaugural cabaret social/
fundraiser featuring jazz musician Benny Benack III on Saturday, Nov. 1 at 8 p.m. at 1250 Bower Hill Road, Mt. Lebanon.
Trumpeter/vocalist Benack has won major jazz trumpet competitions, most recently the Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival Vocalist Competition for 2014.
Benack’s quartet recently completed a master class with Wynton Marsalis, which was filmed for the National Young Arts Foundation. He is a member of the newly formed New Century Jazz Sextet led by Ulysses Owens Jr.
The event is open to the public and space is limited. A donation of $36 per person is requested by Oct. 24. Reservations made after that date are $46 per person. Send checks made payable to Temple Emanuel, 1250 Bower Hill Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15243, and list the names of those attending. Your check is your reservation.
Call 412-279-7600 for more information.
“Citizens of Israel – Jews and Arabs, Challenges and Opportunities, from the Government to the Grassroots,” a round-table conversation on civil society with leaders directly from Israel, will be held on Sunday, Nov. 2 from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the University of Pittsburgh Kurtzman Room at the William Pitt Student Union. The moderator will be Martin Raffel, former vice president of the Jewish Council for Public Affatirs.
The keynote speech will be “Economic Development of Arab Society in Israel,
a Government Priority,” with Aiman Saif, Arab director general of the Authority for Economic Development. The program will also include Ron Gerlitz, co-executive director of Sikkuy; Fathi Marshood, director of Shatil, Haifa office; and Khawla Rihani, director of Economic Empowerment for Women.
Contact Eric Probola at 412-992-5247 or eprobola@jfedpgh.org for more information and to register.
Parkway Jewish Center will host a klezmer concert featuring violinist Steven Greenman and Walt Mahovlich on accordion on Saturday, Nov. 8 at 300 Princeton Drive, Wilkins/Penn Hills.
Greenman’s long international career includes performing and teaching klezmer and other Eastern European music. Mahovlich is founder and leader of the European folk music band Harmonia. Greenman grew up in Monroeville and had his bar mitzvah at Parkway Jewish Center. His parents still live in Monroeville.
Contact Gail Levine at the PJC office at 412-823-4338 or parkwayjc@verizon.net or visit parkwayjewishcenter.org for more information.
The Aleph Institute North East Region will hold its annual meeting, symposium and training conference on Sunday, Nov. 9 at 7 p.m. at Beth Shalom Congregation, 5915 Beacon St. with guess speaker Chief Judge Joy Flowers Conti of the U.S. District Court of Western Pennsylvania. Conti will speak on “Repairing our Community – One Person at a Time.”
Contact the Aleph Institute at 412-421-0111 or info@alephne.org or visit alephne.org for more information.
GUCI, the Myron S. Goldman Union Camp Institute in Zionsville, Ind., has announced that Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, has appointed Jeremy Klotz as camp director.
Klotz spent his first summer at GUCI in 1975 and has been connected to the camp ever since. He went through the camper ranks, was in the Avodah program, served as a counselor and was a unit head for several summers. Klotz has been a lay leader on the camp committee for 13 years and became the chair of the committee in 2013.
Klotz attended day school at the Hebrew Academy of Indianapolis, studied abroad at Tel Aviv University during college and is a member of the Wexner Foundation’s Wexner Heritage Program. Prior to his appointment as camp director, he had a legal career advising clients on risk management, dispute resolution, employment issues and compliance. He has also worked with several nonprofit boards, managing large projects and fundraising efforts. Klotz and his wife, Melissa, are GUCI lifers, having met at camp as kids nearly 25 years ago. They have two daughters, Zoe and Maya. Jeremy graduated from Indiana University with a degree in psychology and has a Juris Doctor from the DePaul University College of Law.
Rabbi Mark Covitz will conclude his time as camp director at GUCI on Nov. 30.
PJ Library, a Jewish family engagement program, has received a grant from the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh to hire four PJ Library ambassadors to reach mostly unaffiliated Jewish families in the East End, Fox Chapel, the North Hills and the South Hills.
PJ Library, a Jewish family engagement program of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation in partnership with the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh, the Agency for Jewish Learning and Community Day School, provides more than 700 children in the Pittsburgh area with the opportunity to explore the timeless core values of Judaism through free books and music sent to their homes each month.
PJ Library also holds three to four large community events every year, such as PJ Adventureland and Pancakes Before Passover, and smaller book-based programs including the monthly PJ Library Story and Schmooze at the JCC.
PJ Library programming, offered mainly at the JCC in Squirrel Hill and the South Hills, will be expanded through the ambassadors, who will reach out to Jewish families to develop appropriate programs in other parts of the Pittsburgh area.
Families raising Jewish children from age 6 months to 5 1⁄2 years can sign up for PJ Library mailings every month at pjlibrary.org.
Contact Lauren Bartholomae at 412-412-339-5417 or lbartholomae@jccpgh.org for more information.
The Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh has received a competitive Pennsylvania Senior Community Center Grant to implement the second phase of a program that promotes medication safety for the elderly.
The JCC was awarded $54,050 as part of the Senior Community Center grant opportunity through the Pennsylvania Department of Aging. The grant awards are intended to advance senior community center projects that will help modernize facilities, encourage technology improvements and expand innovative programming.
The award was part of more than $2 million in grants that were presented to 67 senior community centers throughout the commonwealth as part of Gov. Tom Corbett’s ongoing commitment to providing programs and services that help older Pennsylvanians.
When completed, the grant-funded projects will help ensure the center remains a vital resource for the community, empowering older Pennsylvanians to remain in their communities, where they can age and live well.
The JCC, one of only three awardees in Allegheny County, will use the grant to implement Phase II of HomeMeds: Medication Management Improvement System, which is recognized by the U.S. Administration on Aging as an evidence-based healthy aging prevention program designed to enable community agencies to keep people living at home and out of the hospital or nursing home by addressing medication safety. Its focus is to look for potential adverse effects such as falls, vitals or confusion and then determine if medications may be part of the cause.
The JCC along with its AgeWell Pittsburgh partners – Jewish Association on Aging and Jewish Family & Children’s Service of Pittsburgh — plan to engage in a formalized relationship with Duquesne University’s nonprofit pharmacy, which would serve as the pharmaceutical partner for the next phase. The partners aim to create a replicable model that can ultimately be implemented across the commonwealth.
Phase I of the program has been operating for about a year as part of the program that targets several East End senior dwellings. Out of approximately 200 senior adults who have participated in a HomeMeds screening, approximately 75 percent were triggered with a medication alert that was resolved through this program intervention.
Contact Alexis Winsten Mancuso, JCC assistant executive director, at
412-697-3512 or amancuso@jccpgh.org for more information.
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