xt75dv1cnx9w https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt75dv1cnx9w/data/mets.xml Jewish Federation of the Bluegrass Kentucky Jewish Federation of the Bluegrass 2016-04 Newspaper of the Jewish Federation of the Bluegrass, previously named the Central Kentucky Jewish Association and Central Kentucky Jewish Federation. Published ten times annually. The Federation seeks to bring Jewish community members together through holiday parties, lectures, Yiddish courses, meals, and other celebrations of Jewish heritage and culture. They also host fundraisers and provide financial assistance for Jews in need, both locally and around the world. This collection is part of the Jewish Federation of the Bluegrass records, 2016ms010. newsletters 2016ms010 English Jewish Federation of the Bluegrass Inc.  Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Jewish Federation of the Bluegrass records Jews -- Kentucky -- Lexington Jews -- History Shalom, April 2016 text image Shalom, April 2016 2016 2016-04 2025 true xt75dv1cnx9w section xt75dv1cnx9w Jewish Federation of the Bluegrass
Selects New Executive Director

The Jewish Federation of the
;; Bluegrass is pleased to an-
. ”if, nounce that it has selected
m Tamara Ohayon as its next
Executive Director. Tamara
will be replacing Judy Wort-
man, who recently announced
her retirement after serving as
. JFB’s Executive Director for
. ..-. ”i the past seven years. The selec-
tion process included a national search for Judy’s replace—
ment, with interviews held locally. Tamara will assume
her new position on August 1, 2016. “We are thrilled to
have Tamara as our organization’s new Executive Direc-
tor. She has an incredible amount of passion, energy and
commitment to the Jewish community of Central Ken-
tucky,” said Michael Grossman, President of J FB.

Tamara brings many years of experience within the Fed-
eration, most recently having served as JFB’s Assistant
Director and Camp Shalom Director. She brings a wealth
of talents and skills to this position, including leadership
and team management, exceptional writing, presentation
and technical skills, and 15 years of fundraising experi-
ence. She has an active history of local Jewish commu—
nity involvement since moving to Lexington from Los
Angeles in 2002. Tamara is an alumna of the University
of Kentucky.

In 201 l Tamara received the Young Leadership Award
from the Federation for her work in establishing a new
cohort group, Young Bluegrass Jews.

“I am very happy to have the opportunity to continue to
work with this great team for an organization that does
such good things for our community,” says Tamara. “I
will meet this responsibility with all the energy and dedi-
cation at my command.”

The Jewish Federation of the Bluegrass is a community—
building organization that cares for those in need, deepens
engagement in Jewish life, and connects Jews to each
other locally, in Israel and around the world. For infor-
mation on JFB’s 2016 Annual Campaign, contact JFB at
859—268-0672.

Want to receive Shalom by First Class mail?
Call (859) 268-0672 or email

lexadmin (I?iewishlcxingtonprg.

Volume XV
Issue 3

Adar Il/Nisan
, 2 . 5776
tllll‘itlltill Apri12016

Newspaper of

.3 . Tl.
j‘i VHF-21

E
OF THE BLUEGRASS

Yom HaShoah Commemoration
Highlights Righteous Gentiles
By Judy B. Wortman

The Yom Ha Shoah Commem-
‘ oration will be held at 10:15
am. on Sunday April tenth at
Ohavay Zion Synagogue. The
centerpiece of the program
will be an interview with Jerry
-~ Snapper Faber, a Wilmore resi-
dent who lived in the Nether-
lands during the Nazi occupa-
tion during World War 11.
Following Jerry’s talk, the participants will spend time
discussing what it meant to be a Righteous Gentile and the
implication of risking one’s life to save others.

Jerry’s father, Hendrikus Snapper, was the head of the
local labor board in Naaldwyk, Holland and used his
position to help hide Jewish families. They hid a number
of Jews in their home, housing Rosette de Hartog until
the war ended. Mr. Snapper destroyed records of J ew-
ish workers to protect them from the Germans. and also
falsified the records of young Dutch men so that the Nazis
would not coerce them to fight (continued on page 2)

CANIPAIGN NEWS
Major Gifts Champagne Brunch on May 22

 

Please join us for a very spe-
'\ cial Major Gifts Champagne
Brunch on Sunday, May 22 at
1 1 am, at a private home. Our
speaker will be Jerry Silver-
man, President and Chief
Executive Officer of the Jewish
Federations of North America
(JFNA), the parent organiza-
tion of our federation. Jerry
is a highly experienced leader in the North American J ew—
ish community and longtime corporate executive, with
over 25 years of experience.

Before joining JFNA, Jerry served as president of the
Foundation for Jewish Camp. For a decade before that,
Jerry held a range of executive positions at the Stride Rite
Corporation of Boston, including president of its inter-
national division, president of Stride Rite’s Children’s
Group, and president of Keds Corp. ( continued on page 3)

 

  

  

From the Director
Update on the Community Study

By Judy Wortman

In early February, Dr. Jack
Ukeles, the researcher com-
missioned to conduct our
community study, was back
in Lexington to share some
preliminary results of his
research with the Presidents
Council. He also met with

a number of congregational
and Federation leaders and
the rabbis to broaden his
understanding of our com—
munity. His estimate of the size of the Jewish popula—
tion of our community is 2500, a number which we
have been estimating for some time. Dr. Ukeles said
it is possible it might be as high as 3000. We were all
delighted to hear that the response rate to the emailed
questionnaire sent out was astonishingly high. We
had been told that a good response rate would have
been 25 percent. The number of surveys sent out to
people with valid email addresses was 910, and there
were 424 responses — 46 percent. Dr. Ukeles said that
this response rate was remarkable and shows that our
community is deeply engaged and people want to have
a voice in planning our future. Another astounding fig-
ure is our educational level. 30 percent of respondents
have a Ph.D or equivalent, and 71 percent have gradu-
ate training, a master’s degree, or doctorate. This is
the highest educational level he has ever seen, and he
has conducted studies in more than 100 communities.
We also have a fairly wealthy community. 55 percent
of households earn over $100,000 and 36 percent earn
over $150,000. Sadly, our level of charitable giving
does not match our income level — particularly to J ew-
ish organizations and congregations.

 

Not surprisingly, we are an aging population. 68 per-
cent of respondents are over 50. 49 percent are over
60. 80 percent are married or living with a partner; 6
percent were never married; 8 percent are divorced or
separated, and 6 percent are widowed. This is a very
married Jewish community ~ as our single folks are
very much aware.

Only 17 percent of the community is made up of na-
tive Kentuckians, although 49 percent have lived here
for more than 20 years. 91 percent were born in the
United States.

Also surprising were the number of responses to open-
ended questions. There were 468 responses to the
question that asked what would make participating in
the Jewish community more meaningful for you and

your family. The most frequent response was the re-
quest for greater integration and collaboration among
organizations and more community-wide activities.
The Presidents Council members were very glad to
learn this since this is an area that has been critical to
the council’s work.

There is a great deal more information that will be
culled from the survey. Dr. Ukeles, who lives in
Jerusalem, will be returning to Lexington in J une. We
are scheduling a Town Meeting to go over the results
on Wednesday, June 15 at 7:30 pm. at Temple Adath
Israel. Please put the date on your calendars and plan
to join us. Special thanks to the Jewish Heritage Fund
for Excellence in Louisville for funding 80 percent of
the study and to Federation, OZS, TAI, the Lexington
Havurah, Hadassah and B’nai B’rith for funding the
rest.

 

(Yam HaShoah. continuedfrom p.l) or work in labor camps.

Jerry has discussed her experiences with school
children and others over the years. She has spoken
about how terrifying it was to live in fear year after
year. She knew it was dangerous for her parents to be
hiding Jews. There were German soldiers all over her
town. In fact, as a teenager, it was Jerry who let in the
German officers when they knocked on the door. Five
Germans moved in with the Snappers taking over her
parents’ bedroom while they were hiding Rosette de
Hartog whom they introduced as the family house-
keeper.

For their heroism during the Holocaust. the Snapper
family was awarded the prestigious honor of Righ-
teous among the Nations by the State of Israel. In
October of 2007, Jerry, her four siblings, and their
families were honored at the Yad Vashem Holocaust
Museum in Jerusalem. They shared the occasion with
descendants of Rosette and Levi de Hartog whose five
children all survived the war.

In addition to Jerry’s talk and the table discussions
following, the commemoration will feature musical
selections from the joint chorus of TA] and 025 under
the direction of Lorne Dechtenberg. Elementary and
middle school winners of the Emilie Szekely Essay
contest will be reading their compositions. A candle—
lighting ceremony will feature liberators, survivors
and their children.

For further information, call the Jewish Federation at
268-0672.

Want to receive Shalom by First Class mail?
Call (859) 268-0672 or email

tamara @ jew ishlexing ton,org .

 

 

 University of
Kentucky
Jewish Studies
April Events

 

Thursday, April 14

“Woman as Evil: Explorations in a Biblical Theme,”
by Gale Yee, from 4:00-6:00 p.m. in Briggs Theater.

Monday, April 18, 1:00 p.m. Niles Gallery

Sacred Music Hits the Israeli Pop Charts: Money, Mu-
sic and Mizrahiyut (Ethnic Identity)

Over the past several years, some of Israel’s most not-
ed secular rock singers have begun performing their
own renditions of traditional Middle Eastern religious
songs for large crowds of adoring fans, and recordings
of these songs have soared to the top of Israeli pop
charts. Thislecture/musical talk draws on several years
of Dardashti’s fieldwork in Israel to explore the com-
plexities of cultural and artistic production today, as
ethnic identity politics and religion converge with the
agendas of global philanthropic organizations.

Tuesday, April 19, 5:00 p.m. location TBD

Year of Europe Event, Dr. Cristophe Oliver Mayer:
The Eurovision Song Contest — the European Festival
of Camp Culture.

We are hosting filmmaker Robin Hessman for a
screening and discussion of her award-winning docu-
mentary film MyflgcszmLkaQle. The film traces
the lives of five Muscovites from their childhoods in
the Soviet Union, through the transformations of per-
estroika and their post—Soviet lives in Putin’s Russia.
The screening and post—film discussion with the direc-
tor will take place on Tuesday, April 19 from 7:00pm-
9:30pm in the UKAA Auditorium in WT. Young
Library. The program is free and open to the public
and would be of great interest to anyone drawn to the
history of the Soviet Union and subsequent develop—
ments in post-Soviet society, as seen through the per-
sonal narratives of five individuals who lived through
these tumultuous times. We think the film may be of
particular interest to the Jewish Studies community, as
well, in that one aspect of the work treats the implicit
and explicit anti—Semitism encountered by the Meyer-
son family, whose story is at the center of much of the
film.

 

Matzah Mania

By Talia Smolkin

Next time you are in the store, or your pantry, take a
look at the Passover goods. Notice the 2016 boxes of
Yehuda Matzos? Do you see it? There’s a celebration
of P] Library on each box of this season’s Yehuda
Matzo. Now, take a selfie with it, and post the photo
on your Facebook timeline with the hashtag
figuiiavtzm, and tag it @PJLibraryintheBluegrass.

PJ Library and Yehuda Matzo got together this year
and we’re celebrating with our community on April
18, from 4 - 6 pm at Whole Foods for Matzah Mania.
There will be a special PJ Library Passover storytime
and other fun activities to help families get ready for
the holiday. Everyone is welcome to stop by to come
together and of course to pick up their PJ Library mat-
zah boxes and other Passover goods.

  

And of course, this month you might spot a box of
matzah at your local congregation, or at a meal with
your grandkids. As they eat their matzah with cream
cheese, or matzah with chocolate, or matzah pizza,

smile and say “matzah!”

 

(Campaign News, continued from p. I ) Between 1974 and
1994, Jerry held several senior executive positions at
Levi Strauss & Co. in San Francisco including nation—
al sales manager of Levi Dockers. Jerry and his wife
Erica are the parents of five children.

Individuals contributing a minimum of $500 and
couples contributing a minimum of $1000 to the 2016
campaign are invited to participate. For information or
registration, please call Judy Wortman at 268—0672.

  
  
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

Join the Summer 2016
Camp Shalom Staff!

Seeking creative, responsible
teens and young adults for
2—week local day camp.
Click here to learn more.

 Ask A Rabbi: Rabbi David Wirtschafter

Firsts, Fourths, and Fathers:
A Preface for Passover

5 In a year of wonderful firsts
Passover brings the added
dimension of powerful fourths.
All year I’ve been talking
about firsts: My first High Holy
Days, first Sukkot, first Chanu—
kah, first Purim, and soon first
Pesach here in Lexington
since 1978. Passover is about the beginning of a

long journey home, a construct I can readily relate to
right now. While this year has been a series of firsts,
Passover is a series of fourths: Four Questions, Four
Children, Four Responses and Four Cups of Wine.
Passover is also very much about fathers and father
figures: God, Moses, The Father of Haggadah, The
Father we have or had and remember.

 

Pesach has never been the same since my dad died.

He loved Passover. (Although I sometimes wonder
how many times it overlapped with his April birthday
and the impact this might have had on birthday par-
ties.) He loved having children and grandchildren
around the dinner table. He loved breaking and hiding
the matza. He loved the opening reading in the Reform
Haggadah from the Song of Songs. He loved the sing-
ing and the stories. He relished the role of being The
Father of the Seder. It suited him well.

Being the fourth of four sons, (my sister Brooke joined
the family just two years after I did), the four person-
alities of the Seder’s Four Sons (now we say “Four
Children”) have always appealed to me. All four sons
have character traits that almost any family can relate
to. But this year’s seder will be different than all other
seders. It won’t be my first Pesach in Kentucky. It
won’t be my first as a father. It will, however, be my
first seder as a husband, father and rabbi in Lexington.
A powerful reminder of Shakespeare’s observation
that in the course of a lifetime the same person plays

THIS PASSOVER
INVEST IN

ISRAEL BONDS

many different roles.

Our place and sense of place at the Seder is subject
to change. Over the course of a lifetime we can be a
host, a guest, a cook, a diner, a leader, a participant,

a child, a parent, a grandparent, and so on. No matter
what that place may be, or part you are asked to play,
may this year’s seders be meaningful and memorable
ones. May these nights full of fours bring fulfillment
and fun. May this year’s seders be blessed with many
significant firsts. And may the memory of our mothers
and fathers, those we have loved and lost, be present
among us like Elijah The Prophet, for whom we open
the door every year even though we cannot see him.

Zessen Pesach—Wishing You a Passover of Sweet-
ness,

David

 

Have a question? Ask a rabbi.

The rabbis write columns in response to questions sub-
mitted by the readers. We encourage you to submit your
queries on theology, morality, ethics, religious obser-
vances, etc. for response by one of our rabbis. If you have
anisoteyouwouldliketoseeaddressedpleaseemail itto
rshalom @jewishlexington.org and put “Ask a Rabbi" in the
subject line of your email. (It may take quite a while until
your question is answered or it may never be answered, if
no rabbi selects it.) You will not be identified as the writer
of the question to either rabbis or readers, nor will you be
asked to specify which rabbi should answer.

 

 

SAVE THE DATE
Jewish Federation

Annual Meeting

Wednesday, May 25
7:00 pm.

Contact jfb @jewishlexington.org
for more information.

 

 

 

Development Corporation for Israeli! Israel Bond 3
2700 East Main Street, Suite 103
Columbus. OH 43209
columbued‘ieraelbonde.com - 614.453.0699

Member FINRA

 

 ASK JF S: Internet Safety with Children
By Mimi Kaufman

On March 10, Jewish Family
Services and the congrega-
tional sisterhoods co—hosted

a program to explore intemet
safety issues as it relates to
our young teens. Officer Ty-
son Carroll of the Lexington
Police Department spoke with
us about his work with inter-
; net crimes against children.

  

It was an eye-opening discussion. We discussed the
most used intemet sites and apps that teens are using
today. Officer Carroll presented to us the potential
dangers as he sees investigating child predators.

Parents need to be aware that prevention is key. Talk
to your children about intemet safety. Set guidelines.
Guidelines should be clear as to what you will and will
not allow on line. It is important that your children
know your expectations. As a side note, it has been
my experience that our public school systems are also
talking to children about these issues, and that could
be an opportunity to open discussion with your kids.
Hopefully, if you have a good ongoing dialogue with
your children, they will feel comfortable coming to
you if they ever have a problem.

Pay attention to what your kids are doing on the in-
temet, and don’t be afraid to ask them directly about

it. It is no different than wanting to know where your
children are going when they leave the house. You are

 

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the parent; you make the rules. So yes, you are al-
lowed to ask questions. It is important to stick to the
rules. Kids need boundaries, and as much as they
fight you on them, they count on you to set them.

Here are a few of the insightful tips that Officer Car—
roll specified:

1. You should not have Facebook friends that are not
face to face friends.

When posting anything whether it is on Face-
book, Instagram, Snapchat or other, if you would
not post it on a billboard on New Circle Road,
you probably should not post it.

Charge the phones overnight in the parents’
bedroom rather than in a common space or the
children’s bedrooms.

Do a little sleuthing, but don’t be a spy. Google
your kids names or nick- names from time to
time.

It was a great evening and quite informative. It was
also comforting to know that the Lexington police
department has someone specifically dedicated to
investigating intemet crimes against children. Officer
Carroll is the person to call if you suspect cyber bully—
ing, or if your child is sent any inappropriate material.

JFS: At Your Service is a monthly column covering a Wide
range of issues. If you have a problem or a concern that
you would like addressed in this Shalom column, please
send them either by mail to Jewish Family Services at 1050
Chinoe Road Suite 112, or by email to 1/5 gong/1m fl:
but-OLS- You can also always call with your confidential
questions at (859) 269—8244.

 

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 Tom Eblen: How bowling alleys influenced
19605 Lexington desegregation
By Tom Eblen

February 28, 2016
Reprinted with permission. Herald—Leader

    

This building at 913 Georgetown Road was built in the early

I 960s to be Holiday Lanes, the first integrated bowling alley in
Lexington. It has been owned by the city since 1980 and now used
by the Community Action Council. Tom Eblen table/161‘ Item/ll»
leurlem'om

Desegregating Lexington in the early 1960s involved
more than public schools and lunch counters. One
forgotten civil rights battleground: bowling alleys.

Steve Gall had almost forgotten, too, until he listened
to a long interview his father gave years ago for a Jew-
ish community oral history project.

Sidney Gall, who died in 2008 at age 90, was the
“son” in Phillip Gall & Son, a Lexington retail in-
stitution. For many years, the family-owned store
fronted on Main Street, where the Lexington Financial
Center’s garage is now. It was a pawn shop that sold
jewelry, guns, outdoor equipment, police supplies and
“ethnic” clothing.

“We had a tremendous black clientele,” said Steve
Gall, 71, who grew up working in the business his
great-grandfather started in 1902. “We had black em-
ployees who were well-known in the community.”

Gall said IBM, Square D and other large manufactur-
ers new to Lexington approached his father in about
1961 to help them solve a problem. They had large,
integrated work forces and bowling was a popular
pastime. But Lexington’s two new bowling alleys,
Eastland Lanes and Southland Lanes, admitted only
whites.

“They came to him and said, look, we can’t have
leagues because Eastland and Southland are segregat-
ed,” Gall recalled. “We need a bowling alley.”

With the promise of business, Gall and a partner, Law-
rence Willis, built Holiday Lanes, Lexington’s first

integrated bowling alley, at 913 Georgetown Road.
The city directory shows it operated from about 1962
to 1965.

To manage Holiday Lanes, Gall hired Harry Sykes,
who had played basketball at Kentucky State Univer—
sity and, for two seasons, with the Harlem Globetrot—
ters. He had moved to Lexington to teach math at the
old, all—black Dunbar High School.

Sykes was a popular figure, and Gall said his father
helped with his successful 1963 campaign to become
Lexington’s first black city commissioner. Sykes
would go on to serve as mayor pro-tem from 1967-
1969, but lose a 1971 bid for mayor.

Gall said he became a good bowler as a teenager
working at Holiday Lanes, whose clientele was mostly
black aside from the integrated company leagues.
Business was good, in part because of a big room
beside the bowling alley where well-known black en—
tertainers were booked to play during the week as they
passed through between weekend gigs in larger cities.

Ike and Tina Turner played Holiday Lanes, as well as
Mary Wells. “I drove them around when they came to
town,” Gall said.

Steve Gall, who owned the
Phillip Gall & Sons outdoor
store, said IBM, Square D
and other big companies in
Lexington in the early I960s
asked his father, Sidney Gall,
to open Holiday Lanes as an
integrated bowling alley so
integrated employee leagues
could have a place to play.
Gall said he worked there
as a teenager. Tom Eblen
telt/ett@Item/divider.mm

  

About a year after Holiday Lanes opened, a second
predominantly black bowling alley, Newtown Lanes,
opened at 755 Newtown Pike. The city directory
shows it was open through about 1970, under the
management of Samuel Riddle, Tommie Taylor and
Horace Bartlett.

“The competition caused Eastland and Southland to
integrate,” Gall said. And then, in 1966, Kentucky be-
came the first Southern state to outlaw racial discrimi—
nation in public accommodations.

Holiday Lanes closed about 1965 and became an
Army recruiting center. “I got into the Army Reserves
in 1966, and we went to reserve meetings in that build-
ing,” Gall said. PVA records show the city bought

the building in 1980, and it now houses a Community
Action Council facility.

Gall said he has no photos or records of Holiday

  

Lanes. His Internet searches have turned up nothing.
He asks anyone with information about or old photos
of Holiday Lanes to email him at: QQOlle’IQlOLLCOIII.

“I can’t believe how Holiday Lanes has evaporated,”
Gall said. “I thought, well, that’s kind of sad, because
it was ground-breaking. At that time, Lexington was
pretty segregated, and pretty anti-Semitic. I lived on
Holiday Road across the street from a country club I
couldn’t be a member of.”

I couldn’t find much information about Holiday Lanes,
either. The Lexington Public Library’s Local His-

tory Index of old Herald and Leader articles has no
mention of either Holiday Lanes or Newtown Lanes,
which isn’t surprising. Newspaper management then
basically ignored the black community and civil rights
issues.

Joyce Johnson, who started U I D yoU IDentify local
African American Friends and Family, a popular Lex-
ington black history Facebook page, put me in touch
with Teresa Garner, who shared her fond memories of
spending time at Holiday Lanes as a teenager.

“That was the place to be on Sunday afternoon after
church,” she said. “We did a little bowling, but it was
mostly a place to see and be seen. I fell in love at least
twice a month!”

“We had a lot of good times there,” Garner added.
“We didn’t realize how segregated we were. It was a
different time and a different mindset.”

Tom Eblen: 859-231—1415,lublchherald—lezidci‘.c(iiii,

@tomeblen

Summer
20“:

memorable I?
f r a as 'i‘-
azwgproprlate pros"

' nd

In Shalom offers a unique 3
C3 P JeWisli day (3:35
59350 e
WWI mining Including:

 

   

Chabad of the Bluegrass

Rabbi Litvin is working with Kroger’s to build
Kosher options in our Community. If there is any
Kosher Item you would like to see, locally suggest
it to the rabbi at Cliubadofihcbluegrass ((17 gmailcom

,1 In the meanwhile, if
$5 1; anyone needs handbaked
, - ‘fi Shmura Matza for Pesach,
. ‘ ' Chabad has boxes avail—
able for community
members.

  
 

Happy and Kosher Pesach

A$H°r

 

 

 

 

HOME 5:. CONTENTS
806-1932

JIM MISCHNER

experience
staff and

Camp'
Shalom

w 25 , i
J '90 ”arm” .iiusuie activities Establehedhncs
August 5 Iii":ire'rsniai '“Mi'm R it. ati i
-Aris & Cram e"PE” h egs r on 9

now Open!

 

For more information centact Director Tamara Ohayon
at. (853) 268-0972 or campgewishlexingtonorg

or visit. wwaewisiilexingtomg
Spa-ad is

 

w

The jewish Federation
OF THE BLUEGRASS

  

7

 

   

  

The Eternal Flame of Education
By Zachariah S ippy

Every year Jews around the world read the Torah
week after week, the same passages, with the same
cantilations, and almost always with same people. To
compliment this repetition we reward ourselves every
time we finish a book of Torah (five times a year) by
singing hazak hazak v’nithazek which means, “be
strong, be strong and may we be strengthened.” Rabbi
Nechama D. Goldberg teaches that this phrase “is one
of congratulations, a girding of strength and a wish for
continued study.” Here we encounter one of many ex—
amples of the stress and emphasis our tradition places
on the value of a lifelong, continual education.

Our Parasha ha ’Shavua (the portion of the week) is
Tzav, the second portion of Vayikra (Leviticus). Like
much of Leviticus, this reading it is filled with rules
and the procedural laws of the priesthood. However,
what makes Tzav a unique parasha is that it contains
a commandment about an eternal fire: “A constant fire
shall burn upon the altar; it shall never go out (6:6).”
The Rabbis place emphasis on the word “never” and
explain that despite being in the wilderness the Co-
hanim (priests) always ensured that the flame burned
continuously.

The medieval commentator Rav Moshe Alshich wrote.
“There is a fire of love for God that burns within every
soul. It is the task of the Cohanim—the spiritual lead-
ers of the generation—to feed and preserve this fire.”
This concept is applicable not just with respect to our
individual and communal spiritual journey, but, I
would argue, it refers to our educational journeys as
well (and the two—spiritual and educational—are,

by no means, mutually exclusive). William Butler
Yeats, the famous 20th century Irish poet, once said,
“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting
of a fire.” This imagery, in this week’s parasha, of a
fire that must never be extinguished. a Ner Tamid, is
echoed in Yeats’ words. Jews are obligated to lifelong
learning; there is no point at which education is com-
plete and the Rabbi’s even go so far as to imagine the
world-to-come as Yeshivah Shel Malah, an academy
of learning on high. The pursuit of education must be
viewed as an eternal flame, a thirst that should never
be quenched.

Yet, Kentucky (and 42 other states) are not keeping
their promises to low—income students. The motto of
the Kentucky state lottery is “Fueling Imagination,
Funding Education”, which is misleading, at best. The
government of Kentucky pledged to spend all of the
state lottery’s revenue on education, and 55% of it was
to be designated for need-based college aid (CAP and
KTG). Many low-income students are completely

dependant upon grants to be able to attend college or
technical school. Yet, Kentucky has redirected much
of these designated funds elsewhere. Quietly legisla-
tors have moved funds away from need-based aid to
pay for other government expenditures.

Tragically, this reallocation is a common occurrence
in many states and little attention is paid to this re-
direction of funds, which happens under the radar of
average citizens. The Kentucky Higher Education
Assistance Authority has found that if KY legislators
were to restore these funds anywhere from 15,000 to
20,000 additional students would receive aid. In 2015,
70 million dollars was diverted from CAP and KTG
and put into the general fund.

These actions on the part of legislators have dangerous
consequences; not only are they ignoring the promises
that were put in place with the establishment of the
lottery, but they are willfully choosing to not break
cycles of systemic poverty. Since 2010 over 100,000
CAP and KTG eligible students were turned down as

a result of this reallocation of funds. Despite lottery
revenue growing across the country, money spent on
education has largely been on the decline. The Council
on Postsecondary Education found that only 36.6% of
low-income students in Kentucky graduate. If Ken-
tucky were to reach the national average for attain-
ment of bachelor’s and associate’s degrees there would
be over 900 million dollars in new revenue annually
for the state, an investment in the future if nothing
else.

Please make clear to your elected representatives that
you support the restoration of CAP and KTG funding.
This is not a partisan issue. The Kentucky House of
Representatives has already passed a bipartisan budget
that will restore almost all of the funds, please make
sure that the conference committee (between the state
House and Senate) does the same. Your legislators
need to hear that you stand with students.

Let us heed the words of Parashat Tzav, “the fire on
the altar shall be kept burning, not to go out.” The edu-
cation of our students, no matter their class should be
kept burning. It is from this Torah portion that syna-
gogues have Ner Tamids, eternal lights. The students
of this country are its eternal light, a beacon of hope
for what the future can and will contain.

If you live in Kentucky please g1 ick here to contact
your state representative and senator. And join the con-
versation on social media with #PowerballPromise
and #StandWithStudents.

 

 

 

 JFB Women’s Philanthropy Event: FOR WOMEN ONLY
with guest speaker, Jane Gershon Weitzman
Tuesday, March 22 at Ohavay Zion Synagogue

Evalyn Block spoke about the Lovely catered meal by
work of JFB. the Bourne Family.

Community Purim Carnival
Sunday, March 20 at Temple Adath Israel

For many, the
highlight of the day
was a debate,
, ~ ‘ ;. ,_ _ . ,. Left: Shana Sippy,
Hamantaschen vs. , , , , " , ‘ , . - Rabbi Moshe
Latke. “‘75:“ ~ ” r V ., J Smolkin, Talia
" Smol