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GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM 1 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM News Israel’s baseball team heads to Olympics with made-in-America talent By Louis Keene In 2017, a ragtag bunch of Jewish minor leaguers, retired pros by MLB — among whose goals was to build a baseball audience and semi-pros competing as Team Israel made a miracle run at in new markets like the Netherlands, Australia, and Italy. (In the World Baseball Classic, winning its first six games and other words, it would have been difficult to field a competitive ultimately finishing in sixth place. They’ll be in Tokyo next baseball team from Italy without extending eligibility to non- month to prove it wasn’t a fluke — with a former all-star citizens.) supplying reinforcement. But the Olympics have rigid eligibility requirements: passport- The team competing for the Blue and White in this summer’s holders only. Thus, every player on the team who was not Olympic Games won’t have any household names, and because already an Israeli citizen — that is, most of them — had to of the Major League Baseball rule barring active players from become one. Many of them, like former Cincinnati Reds competing, the first-ever Israeli draft pick won’t play, either. left-handed pitcher Jon Moscot, stayed on their aliyah trip to tour the land, too. They enter as a steep underdog playing against the best non- MLB players in the world. Asked why people should take Team In the case of the team’s most decorated player, securing Israel seriously, head coach Eric Holtz said with a laugh: Olympic eligibility almost didn’t happen. “They shouldn’t.” Ian Kinsler, a 14-year pro who retired in 2019 with four all-star “I’d rather they don’t,” said Holtz. “The same way they didn’t appearances, two Gold Gloves and 1,999 career hits to his name, two years ago. I’d rather no one take us seriously and I’d rather was on one of the last flights out of Israel just before the no one give us a shot, and we’ll see where the chips fall.” pandemic hit. Still, Team Israel’s chances of medaling in the tournament “We had to pull some strings, and it came down to the last are pretty good for one big reason: only six teams are minute,” said Frankie Sachs, Team Israel’s director of PR and competing for three medals. And getting this far already social media. indicates some prowess. Kinsler and the former MLB journeyman who recruited him, Israel’s roster features a handful of Israeli natives but is mostly Danny Valencia, will form the heart of the Team Israel lineup. made up of American-born Jews who gained Israeli citizenship in the last two years while the team barnstormed through the It was Team Israel’s run at the 2017 World Baseball Classic, Olympic qualifying rounds. which included wins over South Korea, Cuba and the Netherlands, that got the group to buy in for the Olympics, Zack Raab, a Team Israel superfan who has attended all of the Holtz said. team’s games since its inauguration in 2012 — including exhibitions — says there’s another reason to like their odds. A bid was far from guaranteed, but they made it look easy. “What’s special about this team is they have built-up team Israel clinched a spot in the Games all the way back in chemistry that I don’t know if any other team will be able to September of 2019 — it became the first non-host team to match,” said Raab, who also runs the team store. “As soon as qualify when it tore up its 12-team group in the Europe and they get in the dugout, there’s already that innate chemistry Africa preliminaries in Germany. And by the time Team Israel that doesn’t click with the other countries.” suits up for the first of eight exhibition games next month, it will have been nearly two years since its last game. That is partly due to roster continuity, Raab says, but also because of a Jewish connection that transcends national In the meantime, the team has been meeting regularly on Zoom boundaries. Because of Olympic eligibility rules, the connection throughout the pandemic to talk baseball or just catch up, now extends to national identity as well. Sachs said. Players have deepened their connections to each other and to their own Jewish identity by learning each other’s To play for Team Israel in the World Baseball Classic, a player family histories. only had to be eligible to become a citizen in that country. This was a recruiting strategy for the tournament — which is co-run Even in a small pool, competition at the Games figures to be Israel’s baseball team heads to Olympics with made-in-America talent 2 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM fierce. The teams ranked first, second and third in the world — News that’s Japan, the United States and South Korea, respectively — are in, as is fifth-ranked Mexico. Israel is 18th. How are Jewish summer Because MLB is prohibiting players on teams’ 40-man camps talking about Israel? rosters from competing, ballyhooed Baltimore Orioles pitching prospect Dean Kremer won’t be making the trip to Tokyo. The It’s complicated. rule will substantially weaken the American team, which Israel By Rachel Hale will face first in the tournament’s group stage. On the other The Chalutzim program at Wisconsin’s Olin-Sang-Ruby Union hand, the Korean Baseball Organization and Japan’s Nippon Institute, the Reform summer camp known as OSRUI, is Professional League — the top leagues in those countries — famous for its Israeli counselors, two hours of daily Hebrew are both suspending their seasons during the Olympics to let class, and a “British Haganah” reenactment of emigrating to stars suit up. the land of Israel. This summer, Chalutzim will do Israeli dancing on Friday nights as always, but other aspects of the “Some people don’t believe that chemistry matters in program, for 10th and 11th graders, will be adjusted to include baseball,” Sachs said. “But there really is a spirit with these more room for Arab-Israeli and Palestinian narratives. guys that you don’t see with every team. I do believe that makes them better.” Counselors will use a variety of maps and resources from Americans for Peace Now, which tracks Israeli settlements in Baseball in Israel is still in relative infancy, and training and the West Bank. A new program called “Hearing Palestinian playing facilities are far from ubiquitous — though they’ve Voices” will feature texts and music from the rapper Tamer certainly increased in number since the team’s Cinderella Nafar. Other sessions will shift outward from the Ashkenazi run — or do we call it an Esther run? — in 2017. experience to hear more from Jews around the world, such as the Beta Israel community of Ethiopian Jews. But the team has never lacked belief, which can perhaps be described as borderline religious. (They donned yarmulkes for “My goal is for the conversation around Israel and Zionism to Hatikvah at the World Baseball Classic.) And while its mascot, have more nuance,” explained Alli Torf, a recent graduate of the Mensch on the Bench, will not be making the trip to Tokyo the University of Illinois who has headed the program’s — the player who brought the costume to the World Baseball makeover. “I think it’s super important to talk about Israel in a Classic is not on the Olympic roster — representing the Jewish really wonderful light but in a really realistic light. If camp people on an international stage by qualifying for the doesn’t mean you must be pro-Israel at all times, then it’s a tournament is a victory in itself, Sachs said. safer space for everyone there.” “There are guys who feel that they’re fighting a Jewish This month, the Reform movement’s Eisner Camp alumni stereotype of the weak Jew, of the unathletic Jew,” said Sachs. caused a stir by sharing a petition signed by more than 300 “They want to show that Jews can be athletes and stars. And people urging for “more realistic” conversation. It called on they’re fighting each one of them by being decent human staff to include “a full spectrum of voices that accurately beings.” represent and delve into the diversity of the region” and to “avoid glorification of the Israeli Defense Force and state- Perhaps down the road, more of the players will be Israeli sanctioned violence in Israel-centered programming and natives. For now, Team Israel will have to settle for just a conversation.” couple of sabras garnishing a roster of yankees, and a head coach, Eric Holtz, who had his Bar Mitzvah at the Western Wall. “I think these people feel that they weren’t presented with both sides of what’s happening in Israel, and that as a Reform Before Team Israel heads to Tokyo, it will be playing a round of Jew you don’t have to be 100% pro-Israel in order to be a exhibition games along the Eastern Seaboard, starting with good Jew,” said Marlene Lewis, an Eisner alum and parent. “I a July 11 matchup with the FDNY team in Coney Island. think they feel that a place like Eisner, which is typically a very open and liberal place, on this subject is teaching things from Team Israel opens Olympic play on July 29. one side.” – Camp is one of the main places that American Jews develop Louis Keene is a staff reporter at the Forward. He can be reached at ideas about and relationships to Israel. A 2011 study [email protected] or on Twitter @thislouis. found that Jews who went to camp were 55% more likely to Israel’s baseball team heads to Olympics with made-in-America talent 3 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM “feel very emotionally attached to Israel” than those who did not. And the Foundation for Jewish Camp says enrollment in overnight camp has risen in recent years: 80,718 kids attended in 2019, up more than 20% from 66,847 campers in 2009. But there is also a growing generational divide over how American Jews think about Israel. The 2021 Pew Research survey of American Jews found younger adults were less attached to Israel, with 71% of Jews ages 18-29 saying that caring about Israel is important to their Judaism on some level, compared to the 89% of Jews over 65 who felt it important. Yonah Lieberman, co-founder of the group IfNotNow, which was started out of a backlash against what members see as Jewish institutions’ one-sided education about Israel, said that Courtesy of Eliana Fishman camps are a key part of the problem. “It’s everything from getting familiar with Israeli culture to some “Camps are really failing another generation of American Jews Israeli history to using Hebrew in our program — we really want by not telling them the truth about what Israel is doing to the to build a sense of ahavat yisrael,” said Ben Einsidler, the Palestinian people,” said Lieberman, who attended a Zionist camp’s Judaica director, using the Hebrew term for love of camp, Habonin Dror, growing up. Israel. “There are kids at CYJ that run the gamut in terms of their religious observance, so we want to engender a love of Israel “The people who are running the camps, the directors and the that is personal to everyone on that spectrum.” staff and the boards, are of one generation, and the people who are the counselors and the campers are of another generation,” Chabad-Lubavitch’s network of 500 Camp Gan Israel programs he added. “The folks who are making final decisions have a in North America, meanwhile, works to foster a connection to pretty outdated view about what is legitimate education and Israel based in the Torah. Gan Israel is mainly a day-camp information to include in Israel education.” program, but last year started a short sleep-away session in Florida, and aims to have 10 overnight camps by 2030; like Israel education remains unchanged at some camps other Chabad initiatives, the camps are run by Orthodox Jews but serve mostly unaffiliated ones. Camp Young Judaea in Amherst, N.H., is the oldest Zionist camp in the country. Founded in 1939 to encourage aliyah, the camp Along with typical activities like archery and painting, campers raised money for what was then known as Palestine, and gun make “salt paintings” of historical sites like the Kotel, learn parts were even buried on camp grounds to be shipped to about the seven species of the land of Israel mentioned in the Israel. Hundreds of Israeli scouts have spent summers at Young Torah via a “Master Chef”-style competition and write letters of Judaea, including Yonatan Netanyahu, the war-hero older support to Israeli soldiers. brother of former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “We believe in teaching the children about the historical and “The original logo at the camp said ‘Americanism, Zionism, traditional connection the Jewish people have to the land of Judaism,’’ Marcy Kornreich, the camp director, said in an Israel,” Rabbi Mendy Kotlarsky of Chabad said in an interview. interview. “You can’t unintertwine our relationship in terms of “It’s about teaching them that this is the land of our ancestors, the Zionist movement with the history of the camp. Our a holy land that is tied to the spirit of the Jewish people.” commitment to Israel is really central and core to everything we believe in.” Kotlarsky said many of the Chabad campers are “kids who feel alone in public schools” as Jews, and that “camp experiences Unlike OSRUI, Camp Young Judaea is not aligned with a really empower them” to push back when they are picked on. denomination of Judaism, making Israel the camp’s core “The more unpopular it becomes to stand up for Israel,” he unifying factor among Jews of different backgrounds. (It is also added, “the more we dig our heels in and back it up.” not connected to the national youth movement and other camps with the same name.) There’s a generational divide over how to talk about Israel Israel programming includes dancing, cooking, history lessons and entertainment. And they don’t plan on changing anything The discussions about Israel occurring within cabins and camp- this summer. directors’ How are Jewish summer camps talking about Israel? It’s complicated. 4 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM offices mirror those happening in Jewish spaces across the “Ramah will not partner with any organization that is not country: during the May flareup between Israel and Hamas, unequivocally pro-Israel,” Rabbi Cohen said in an email to supporters and Jewish communal leaders. “Zionism is one of our discourse in synagogues, Jewish organizations, the halls of core educational pillars, and always will be.” Congress and, most profoundly, on social-media showed a significant shift since the summer-long Israel-Gaza war in 2014. Three years later, as he prepares for this summer’s campers, Cohen said Ramah’s stance remained unchanged. With 10,000 Rabbi Josh Weinberg of the Union for Reform Judaism said he young people enrolled at 15 Ramah camps across the United has noticed, in recent years, an increase in younger campers States, Canada and Israel, he said one of the organization’s asking thoughtful questions about Israel. goals is to help campers understand and actively fight against a surge of anti-Israel and antisemitic threats. “I think that we have to be able to engineer a conversation that has varying levels of sophistication, based on who the audience “When it comes to governmental policy toward Arab neighbors, is,” Weinberg said. “We want to instill a love and a connection to or toward Palestinian rights and coexistence, or religious Israel and to Jewish peoplehood. And that means that it’s OK to pluralism, or many other potentially divisive topics, our have a disco party and rock out to Israeli techno music and do community is learning about history and current events from a Israeli dancing without also mentioning the occupation in one variety of perspectives,” Cohen said in an email interview. breath. “One of the wonderful aspects of a Ramah summer is that teen “What I want,” he added, “is for kids to be inspired and then to, campers and young adult staff members can disagree whenever it comes up in their summer or in their life, go to respectfully and learn from others, keeping an open mind on Israel and spend significant time there.” controversial issues,” he added. “One method of Israel education employed by most of our camps is simulation Kornreich and Einsidler, of the staunchly Zionist Camp Young activities, where campers are assigned roles and are taught Judaea, also acknowledged that older campers and staff have different perspectives. Another method is active debate, where asked harder questions about Israel and the occupation in all questions are valued and encouraged.” recent years, and emphasized the importance of allowing for complex conversations. They hope to use the summer to But Eliana Fishman, one of the alumni at the 2018 meeting with discuss this spring’s tension in Gaza and to break down the Cohen, said that her 10 summers at Ramah camps in Nyack, recent election to explain the Israeli Knesset and ins and outs of N.Y., and the Berkshires did not provide room for such active the nation’s political system. debate, instead describing the experience as indoctrination to Zionism. “Obviously, when it’s the elephant in the room, we should talk about it,” Einsidler said. “But the important part when talking “There was no discussion about the occupation; it was very about it is presenting truthful unbiased information as best we heavy handed hasbara,” she said, using a Hebrew word for can. And if that includes naming some uncomfortable things propaganda. “There were certainly no Palestinian voices around what Israel does as far as it treats Palestinians, or some included, and really minimal left-leaning voices at all.” of the realities of the conflict over the last several months, I think there’s no reason to shy away from that if we’re doing it in Fishman, who now works in progressive data and lobbies for an age-appropriate manner as best we can.” change with IfNotNow, said “there’s real harm that camps like Ramah do,” by encouraging campers to make aliyah, and join Camp alumni have shaken up the conversation the Israel Defense Forces, without really understanding “who they were fighting against or about some of the values that The March 2018 meeting of Ramah alumni and directors offers a Zionism upholds that are actually problematic.” window into the complexity. Some alumni left the meeting, which followed protests outside Ramah offices by IfNotNow, At OSRUI, millennial alumni affiliated with IfNotNow were also under the impression that the camps would talk about the involved in pushing for change. Rachel Brustein, a camper and occupation that summer. counselor at OSRUI from 2008 to 2014, is part of the alumni group calling for more nuanced programming. The demands But afterward, individual camps like Ramah Wisconsin posted outlined by the OSRUI anti-occupation alumni group include to messages on their Facebook pages declaring that they had “teach about the occupation, eliminate programming that “made no changes in our approaches to Israel education” and glorifies military violence and celebrate the complexity of Ramah’s national director, Rabbi Mitchell Cohen, released a Jewish identity and heritage, beyond just the U.S. and Israel.” statement rejecting any suggestion that IfNotNow and Ramah were working together. Brustein said she is under no illusion that “teaching about the How are Jewish summer camps talking about Israel? It’s complicated. 5 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM occupation in Jewish summer camp is directly going to end the Culture occupation,” but thinks that it can “create a culture of humanizing Palestinians in the Jewish community, which is We’re here, we’re queer, extremely critical.” we’re Yiddish: LGBTQ stories, “I think a lot of Jewish kids who grow up in summer camps and Zionist Jewish institutions get to college and don’t have the and silences, in the Forward language to talk about it,” Brustein said.“Not giving the whole story is a major disservice and contributes to this framing that archives anti- or non-Zionism equals antisemitism, which just isn’t true.” By Chana Pollack Pearl Steinhouse, who is 16 and will be in OSRUI’s Chalutzim It’s traditional for the gay community to gather for program this summer, said she is looking forward to open brunch before a Pride march during Pride month, or nachas discussion about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at camp after khoydesh in Yiddish. weeks of toxic, one-sided posts on Instagram and TikTok. Today, we propose instead a forshpayz, an appetizer-sized “On social media I feel like I’ve kind of stayed out of the portion of queer archival Forverts history — rare treasures conversation because I feel like I don’t really know enough of celebrating LGBTQ dignity, visibility and equality: our first both sides to know where I stand, and it’s been a bit archival Pride march back in time. overwhelming,” Steinhouse said. “I think being honest and being transparent about what you know and what you maybe For me, it’s a march that’s deeply meaningful — and also don’t know is important in a place like camp where people can fraught. fill in those gaps for you and help you help you learn without As a young Jewish lesbian, I came out in the 1980s to the beat there being that judgment.” of the second National March on DC for LGBTQ rights, and the – massive NAMES project quilt celebrating the lives of those lost Rachel Hale is a news intern at the Forward. Email her to the AIDS pandemic. I lived on San Francisco’s gayest Castro at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter @Rachelhale32 . Street, in a communal apartment above the Castro Street Station, one of many popular gay bars that were community gathering spots, especially on Friday nights. I fell asleep to the bar’s throbbing disco beat below my futon, Create a Future for my head beneath a Jewish poster about AIDS that spoke of Courageous Jewish vast complicit silences and histories lost to shame. “Who will say kaddish for me?” it asked, referring to those dying of AIDS Journalism who were refused Jewish pastoral care on even the most basic level. The Forward is the most significant Jewish voice in American journalism. Our outstanding It also spoke to those of us who couldn’t hope to ever bring reporting on cultural, social, and political issues our whole gay selves, let alone our partners, home to inspires readers of all ages and animates the mishpokhe. conversation across generations. Your support enables our critical work and contributes to a As a Jewish feminist lesbian from a Modern Orthodox vibrant, connected global Jewish community. background, I completely identified. The Forward is a nonprofit association and is In my two decades as the Forward’s archivist, I’ve gone supported by the contributions of its readers. searching for historical coverage of the LGBTQ community. Despite the paper’s reputation as the “address of the Jewish To donate online visit people,” and rumors that one of the Sunday illustrated issue’s Forward.com/donate editors himself was gay, queer Jewish lives were only infrequently featured on our pages. They’re not likely to be To donate by phone, call found chronicled in any of our sepia-toned images or our Call 212-453-9454 captions about shtetl life, and they’re officially missing from photos and stories of family circle get-togethers and obituaries. How are Jewish summer camps talking about Israel? It’s complicated. 6 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM Forward archivist Chana Pollack. Courtesy of Forward Association Mark Weston, a transgender athlete, and his new wife Alberta Brey appeared on the Forward’s front page in 1936. Courtesy of Forward Association. If they’re mentioned at all in the Forward’s century of serialized sounds and silences. Our archives echo with vanished histories. fiction, news reporting, beloved Bintel Brief advice column and The presence of a story like Weston’s highlights the absence of proud social justice and labor updates, it’s likely deeply coded so many others. to the heteronormative public eye. One hopes that for every archival silence, there are images like But while the Forward wasn’t in the habit of hyping queer those of popular Yiddish entertainer Pepi Littmann to make up Yiddish nachas on our pages, there were moments when it for the silences. broke through. Perusing the Forward’s front page over half a century ago, for instance, you’d have met the Westons, a trans Back in 2003, I discovered her charming, ballsy, gender non- man and his new cisgender wife featured on our front page on conforming drag king outfits. It was a find that helped grease their happy wedding day back in 1936. the wheels of queer Yiddish discoveries to come in the creaky archival Forward photo file drawers. Littmann’s butch glamour The rest of the Forward’s front page that day detailed a summer is a critical chapter in the story of queer liberation in the of hate, dominated by the fascists of Berlin’s Olympics and archives — and on the streets. Archival images of her dandified Spain’s civil war. A unique, upbeat article about British “lady early 20th-century archival outfits show her adopting athlete” Mark Weston’s gender confirmation surgery was characters like “the innocent bachelor,” in a three-piece suit, or counterintuitive. But right in the center of that front page, we “the yeshiva boy,” in which she appears bashful in a traditional reported that Weston’s surgeon certified his male gender so he Hasidic long silk frock and black velvet cap. could legally wed Alberta Brey, his longtime cis-gender female companion. Mazels! Now, she’s catalogued in our archive using inclusive search terms, so future researchers of queer Yiddish culture can The Forward’s archive reminds me, a queer Yiddish archivist, of uncover her — and her impeccably tailored suits. And her poet Marge Piercy’s description of poems as being made of modern revival in the public eye has proved popular enough We’re here, we’re queer, we’re Yiddish: LGBTQ stories, and silences, in the Forward archives 7 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM Yiddish entertainer and drag king Pepi Littman (left). A Forward front page recounts Jerome Robbins’ testimony in from of HUAC (center). Morris Winograd, a onetime editor of the Forward (right). Courtesy of Forward Association. that her story will soon be featured in a motion picture — who sight, all the while surrounded by the historic happiness, could resist the too-long untold story of a bawdy Yiddish relationships, joys, nachas and the fully disclosed lives of entertainer and drag king? others. Those untold stories remind us that poet Emma Lazarus’s words on liberty, heard at many Pride rallies, still ring Yet the living of a closeted queer life is a solitary act. That holds true: “Until we are all free, we are none of us free.” true even for those queer Jews who, like Jerome Robbins, were fully in the public eye. Freedom was clearly on founding editor Abe Cahan’s mind one June morning in 1882, when he made notes about his chosen Robbins was hauled before the 1953 House Un-American Affairs city New York. Several years before the Statue of Liberty even Committee years before queer folks protested for our rights at entered our harbor, and a mere few years after he escaped the Cooper Do-Nut Cafe uprising in Los Angeles, and a decade political arrest in Europe, he wrote in his memoirs of his joy at prior to the famous Stonewall riot, both of which cracked the observing the town’s diversity. He noted the Irish, Italian, public door open to the range of queer identities. German, French and Jewish workers jostling for work, and the cafes open for business at various street corners on the Lower While the HUAC hearings with Robbins at the center made our East Side. front page, it was years before we presented Jerome Robbins to the public as Jewish and queer — let alone began to tell the “New York,” he concluded, “was always changing.“ story of how the threat of being publicly outed led him to name names, an act that overshadowed the rest of his career. It was A little over a decade later, in 1897, his Forward was first in his most public moment that he was, perhaps, most alone. published — coming out, you could say, into that continually transitioning metropolis. Decades later, as he returned from LGBTQ archival research can mirror that solitariness. It’s a Mandatory Palestine in 1925, he appointed his secretary, lonely task, searching out those who were made to be invisible. confirmed bachelor and Yiddish poet Morris “Winnie” Winograd, But while I’m considered a “lone arranger” in the Forward’s as editor of the paper’s illustrated Sunday edition, the historic archives, a solitary comrade, I’ve been greatly helped over the source of our archival images. years by several volunteers committed to inclusionary archival practices. Just as historically queer folks drew hope from the Winograd, an elder colleague once told me, lived alone in a musical theatre anthem popularized by our queen Barbra midtown hotel and frequently accompanied Anna Cahan, the Streisand, “You’ll never walk alone,” It’s been a mazel in my boss’s wife, to the theatre. He was, that colleague believed, work to have had Arlene Bronstein and Rivke Lela Reid, two most likely gay. When Winograd died in 1973, I.B. Singer, the longtime archive volunteers, join me. Forward’s Nobel Prize winning writer, eulogized him, noting, among other things, his psychic abilities; Singer later dedicated Together we uncovered many of those who were hidden in plain his collection of short stories “Crown of Feathers” to Winograd, We’re here, we’re queer, we’re Yiddish: LGBTQ stories, and silences, in the Forward archives 8 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM himself the author of one published book of Yiddish poetry, “Dance, Song and Pain.” He left his gold watch to Cahan’s last secretary, Winograd’s best friend,Vera Hannenberg. The idea of the stories he was never able to tell — especially not in the pages of the Forverts — is haunting. The freylekhe folk, Jewish queers, in our archival files predate the existence of Pride. They brim with secretive knowledge about feygelekh and butchniks. They sometimes occupied transparent closets that those around them saw into — just as my colleague suspected Winograd’s carefully hidden life — but nobody celebrated those closet doors opening. And despite the rights gained since Winograd’s days, these types of stories still circulate in Yiddishland today, speaking to ongoing secrets and hidden lives. Helen Hull Jacobs, a 10-time grand slan title-winning tennis player. Courtesy of Forward Association. There’s the one about the beloved Yiddish teacher whose lover remained invisible, their relationship unacknowledged, and who one of only five female Navy commanders at the time. Retired died an assumed bachelor in part because he could not bring and relatively uncloseted for her time, Helen retired to East himself to come out to his Yiddish community. Hampton, where she authored several novels and tennis books. Or the one about the beloved Yiddish lesbian activist publisher The beautiful, fearless life of Jewish butch lesbian Helen Hull whose death some queer Yiddishists grieved in whispers, never Jacobs, has the capacity to make you feel, in the words of gay publicly mourning, nor comforting her life-long partner. icon Sylvester, “mighty real.” Shehecheyanu! And there’s the one about the first out queer leader of a Yiddish And thank goodness for the stories we have from the stunning youth organization, who suggested the group’s pamphlet Yiddish theatre star David Carey, son of Leyke Post, a famous should include outreach to LGBTQ folks for the group’s annual Courtesy of Forward Association Yiddish actress who had the nachas of mothering not one, but summer retreat, a suggestion that was quickly put down. Or the two queer Yiddishists. Thanks to Carey’s sibling Henry “Henech” warm Yiddish editor who thought it was clever to analogize the Carrey’s big heart and his family archive, we’ve learned of first Pride march in Jerusalem to celebrating garbage spilling Carey’s struggles with his queer Jewish identity, his lovers, the out onto the city’s streets. various synagogues he joined and then unjoined, his side gigs It’s in returning to moments like those I recall that 12-step at the Workers Circle’s summer retreats, his time running his recovery phrase: “We shall not regret the past, but neither shall partner Tsiyon’s kosher Morrocan restaurant on Bleecker Street, we shut the door on it.” and even his unbearably tight jeans — in short, his gorgeous, full life. Until, that is, his tragic death in 1985 at the age of 43 from Without ongoing real commitments to inclusion, without a AIDS. queer eye on our Yiddish archives, those stories and those lives are likely to remain unseen or, worse, be yanked back into Only a few years after Carey’s loss, in 1989, Yiddishist queers everpresent closets. Whatever has been achieved can be began marching to the beat of the openly queer Yiddishist clawed back. musicians The Klezmatics, who translated the activist group Act Up’s logo “Silence=Death” into the So: join me in reclaiming the archival nachas that is Jewish Yiddish “Shvaygn=Toyt.” Powered by so much loss and so few lesbian and athletic treasure Helen Hull Jacobs, world champion rights, Yiddishist queers sought each other out and marched tennis star and 10-time grand slam title winner. Jacobs defined under our own banner at Pride. pride decades ago by defying Wimbeldon’s sexist clothing rules requiring women athletes to appear only in their approved We began to bring our stories proudly into the open. But there tennis skirts. As early as 1933, when being openly queer was are still silences to be filled in, stories to complete and justice to life-threatening, Jacobs filled in the silence merely by be achieved in the Yiddish archives. Reader,we’re here, we’re expressing her true butch Jewish lesbian self on the courts of queer, and we’ve always been Yiddish. Wimbledon. Reader: she wore short pants, tailored for men! – She went on to become a Navy commander during World War II, Chana Pollack is the Forward's archivist. We’re here, we’re queer, we’re Yiddish: LGBTQ stories, and silences, in the Forward archives 9 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM Culture A requiem for the backyard minyan By Louis Keene On the other side of the old wood fence in the rear of my parents’ Los Angeles backyard I could hear a young man reading from the Torah, and people reciting kaddish, and everything else that distinguished an authentic prayer service from the solitary ritual I’d grown accustomed to since the stores ran out of paper towels. I had never met the neighbors, I realized, as my father and I ducked under an apple tree to get within earshot with our prayer books. But for a Shabbat afternoon service on that waning summer day, we were congregants of their pandemic synagogue — a minyan in their backyard. Shortly after the novel coronavirus made landfall in American By Eyal Leghaie Jewish communities in March 2020, synagogues across the country closed, first as a precaution and then under state and tarp overhead for shade. Other hosts went to greater lengths. federal mandates. This posed a nigh-existential crisis for Joe Stoltz, a member of Fairfax-area congregation Kehilas Orthodox Jews: without a quorum of 10 men, many of the Yaakov, rented tents for his shul-affiliated backyard High prayer services’ defining features, the Torah reading and Holiday services, which he said cost about $1,000. Michael kaddish among them, cannot be performed. The desperate Borkow, who hosted a minyan in Beverlywood for members of scramble for a 10th Jewish male — a common sight outside shuls Knesset Israel, built a short wall to function as a mechitza. in early evening, but also on flights to Israel or during Jewish Then there was the matter of how to seat as many people as community night at the ballpark — had become a community- possible with sufficient space between them. A backyard Rosh wide state of mind. Hashana service I attended at the home of Rich and Wendy “Have you ever gone for a sleepover at a friend’s house, and Kellner was situated around a swimming pool. (No one fell in.)“It forgotten your toothbrush?” asked the neighbor, Nir Yacoby, was a math problem trying to set it up,” said Borkow, whose who invited me into his home Sunday, a year or so later. yard was able to accommodate up to 25, though he didn’t (Neither of us were wearing masks.) “For us to not have a always get that many. “It made me feel as if my backyard was minyan is to have to go to sleep without brushing our teeth. bigger than I thought it was.” It feels yucky.” Even with a minyan, services were but a quirky, abridged So with houses of worship closed indefinitely, people took to approximation of the old ritual. There was no singing, no the outdoors, first forming impromptu sidewalk prayer groups sermon, and no kiddush. No women (or almost none). No that were organized via word of mouth, in defiance of county chatter. The Torah reading was a one-man marathon: instead of health regulations and rabbinic instruction. (At first, most rabbis eight men called one at a time to bless the Torah, at most were forbidding even outdoor prayer gatherings, so as not to backyard services the ba’al korei (the person reading) would create an appearance of skirting the law.) But when the limits recite each blessing — and do the ceremonial lifting and on group gatherings were loosened to 10 or more, synagogues wrapping of the scroll afterward. Still, the important things were began organizing services in their members’ backyards. There, there: not just Torah reading and kaddish, but common purpose for about nine months spanning from last summer until this and a sense of community. spring, were countless sanctuaries under the sun. For the lay congregants who found themselves thrust into the Emerging in the face of a pandemic that has claimed the lives of role of the shamash — the trusty caretaker who turns on the at least 1,800 Jewish people around the world, the outdoor lights in the mornings and locks up in the evening — there were minyan became a symbol of Jewish resourcefulness and perks to the gig. A few said hosting the Sefer Torah around the resilience, a holdover from easier times adapted to our tenuous clock was a high honor. For the Yacoby family, it felt like divine new reality. protection, too. All Yacoby had to do to make his yard minyan-ready was drill a When riots briefly swept Los Angeles last summer in the wake small hole in the roof of his garage so that he could hang a blue of Black Lives Matter protests, Adrian Yacoby, Nir’s wife, found A requiem for the backyard minyan 10 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM herself ducking into their garage to draw spiritual comfort from Beth Jacob Shabbat experience in his yard. He put out salami the Torah scroll. “That was the biggest reassurance of my life,” and herring for kiddush and took sponsorships of the weekly she said. l’chaim bottle. “It was fantastic,” he said, “but not enough.” On the matter of spiritual connection, the backyard could be a Noting that his minyan largely comprised friends he had made double-edged sword. Some liked being in nature (in Los in shul, Rose said the social benefit of gathering was as Angeles, nature is a 10-foot hedge). But it could be hard to hear, important to community health as the prayer that produced it — especially over the occasional leaf blower next door. And even even if schmoozing isn’t mandated by Jewish law. in a typically dry, sunny year, the elements posed a challenge on one or two occasions. Everyone I spoke to recalled the “one “Let’s be honest: We go to shul not only to pray,” Rose said. week it was really windy,” sometime in February. “That organization, the culture that comes with it, you can’t replace.” Jeff Marcus, a member of Young Israel of Century City — “I couldn’t say no to my rabbi,” he said with a laugh — had about In any other time, the well-spaced folding chairs and services 15 popup tents in his backyard. (His biggest crowd was 54.) that might be described as “checks the box” would be “One of the tents flipped over in the middle of davening,” undeniably bizarre. Even in COVID times, they seemed Marcus said. “You look around and everyone is hugging a pole carnivalesque. But in any other time, you wouldn’t have had the and davening. I’m like, this is what you do. So we literally stood impetus — indeed, the mitzvah — to make the outdoor minyans there holding the tents and we got through davening.” work. People also noticed a heightened resolve, an urgency to keep Borkow said that when the rabbi came to collect the Torah from alive a tradition they had long taken for granted. Synagogues his house after their final Shabbat service, it felt like parting with membership in the hundreds were scraping to make 10 on with a dear friend or close teacher. But three days later, he got some nights. But they almost always managed. Said Hugo a sign that the time was right: his neighbor gently asked how Rose, who hosted a minyan partly so he could say kaddish for a much longer the backdoor minyan would last. late parent, “People felt more ownership. Everyone showed up “We would all choose to open back up,” Borkow said. “But it on time.” Added Stoltz: “When you lose someone from a knee doesn’t mean the other wasn’t beautiful in its own way, too.” replacement, you feel it more.” – Three hosts I spoke to reported a COVID case among their Louis Keene is a staff reporter at the Forward. He can be reached at minyan’s attendants — two shut down temporarily; Yacoby’s [email protected] or on Twitter @thislouis. powered ahead. None experienced further spread. Most Orthodox synagogues in Los Angeles were hosting indoor services by Shavuot — though some opened months earlier. There is joy in these openings, but losses too. For many, the walk to shul had become shorter. And the services were faster. Create a Future for That convenience can be hard to part with. Yet conveniences Courageous Jewish Journalism we deeply missed (air conditioning!) and others we took for granted (bookshelves!) eased the transition. The Forward is the most significant Jewish voice in American journalism. Our outstanding reporting on As settled as they’d been in their backyard routine, I was cultural, social, and political issues inspires readers of all ages and animates conversation across generations. Your support surprised that the six hosts I spoke to shared an eagerness to enables our critical work and contributes to a vibrant, leave it in the past. None wanted to go back to hosting — not for connected global Jewish community. an occasional Kabbalat Shabbat, or a special Shabbaton, or The Forward is a nonprofit association and is supported anything of the sort. by the contributions of its readers. “It was not like camp,” neighbor Nir said. “It was something that we did because we had to. It was hot, there’s mosquitos. Who wants that? It’s not fun. I didn’t take my guitar outside to sing To donate online visit Forward.com/donate along.” That is the essence of it: people just missed shul. Rose, a former To donate by phone, call 212-453-9454 synagogue president of Beth Jacob Congregation, a Modern Orthodox synagogue in Beverly Hills, had tried to mimic the old A requiem for the backyard minyan 11 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM News A Nazi concentration camp on British soil? A fuller history of Alderney comes to light By Matthew Diebel It was the barbed wire that made me sense that something evil slave laborers were imported from Europe. Russians, Poles, had happened. Thick, coiled and with fierce barbs every inch or Ukrainians, Spaniards on the wrong side of their civil war and so, I found it in some undergrowth on Alderney, a British island others, all housed in wooden huts in three camps. that lies just seven miles from the coast of France. You won’t find examples of it anymore, for in the 60 years or so since I And then there were the Jews. Mainly from France, they made found it, other remnants have rusted. I gave it to my father, who up about a fifth of the labor force. But unlike the other workers, placed it on our window sill, where it still sits.I was about six or they were kept separately in a fourth enclosure. seven, and our family had been going to the three-by-one mile A concentration camp. Yes, on British soil was built Lager Sylt, island for three or four years. which was taken over by the SS. A branch of the Neuengamme Eventually, they bought a house there, which my brother, sister complex near Hamburg, its Auschwitz-like huts lay on the edge and I now own. My American family, like me, love Alderney and of the island’s airport. Hurriedly leveled to the ground by the we visit every year. It is an idyllic place. Beautiful white-sand Germans before their departure, its gateposts, however, still beaches. Dramatic cliffs. About a dozen Victorian-era forts, stand. beautifully built with the local stone to guard against attacks As a small child, I didn’t grasp their significance, but in time, from the French. A cute, French-looking town with cobbled prompted by my parents, I came to understand. streets and colorful houses. On one of the posts is affixed a small granite plaque. It And then there was the concrete. I didn’t realize its significance reads:THESE GATE POSTS MARK THE ENTRANCE TO THE then, but our favorite beach was backed by a huge anti-tank FORMER GERMAN CONCENTRATION CAMP “S.S. LAGER SYLT” wall, which was ugly but at least blocked the western breezes. A SOME 400 PRISONERS DIED HERE BETWEEN MARCH 1943 AND tall and hulking lookout tower that resembled a British cinema JUNE 1944 THIS PLAQUE WAS PLACED BY EX-PRISONERS AND from the 1930s – hence its nickname, The Odeon – loomed over THEIR FAMILIES 2008 a quarry. And, along with hundreds of bunkers, anti-aircraft gun positions and tunnels, four huge gun emplacements sat near On top of the plaque are placed, in Jewish tradition, stones. the highest cliffs. Yes, Alderney, along with the other Channel Islands – Jersey and Guernsey are the main ones – had been occupied by the Germans from 1940 to 1945. But unlike the rest of the archipelago, Alderney’s residents had chosen to evacuate, leaving Hitler and his henchmen to do what they wanted without British witnesses. What they did was enormous in scope. In the course of just over two years – from late 1941 to early 1944 – the Nazis turned the island into a stationary battleship, part of Hitler’s Atlantic Wall. Indeed, records show the Fuehrer personally ordered the Alderney fortifications. Look at a map and it’s easy to see why. Close to Normandy and a major French port, Cherbourg, it sits just a few miles from the shipping lanes of the English Channel. In fact, when the Allies launched the June 6, 1944, invasion of Courtesy of Matthew Diebel the Normandy beaches, the island’s guns pounded the armada, leading to battleships being sent to silence the Alderney guns. Now when I visit Alderney and approach the gate posts, or even think about them, my spine and scalp tighten. Their work completed on Alderney in such a small amount of time was astounding. But it came at a cruel cost. Thousands of It is hard for me to put out of my mind one survivor’s A Nazi concentration camp on British soil? A fuller history of Alderney comes to light 12 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM description of a fellow prisoner being tied to the gates and than the marked cemetery. having cold water poured on him until he died, having been lashed by the island’s sometimes fierce winds. Or how dead and The reasons for the earlier undercount were several. In his live inmates were hurled from the nearby cliffs. report, despite it being obvious the death toll was much higher, Captain Pantcheff was working to produce evidence that could There was another place about which, as a young child, I did not be used to prosecute the Germans who had been in charge of grasp the significance. It was a windswept patch of ground the island. That meant names of victims. Where they were behind a beach called Longis Common. Once enclosed in a buried. How they had died. After confirming a few hundred, he fence – and its rectangular shape is still easy to see — it had considered his work to have been done. been a cemetery for the victims the Nazis had not thrown off the cliffs. In the early 1960s, the bodies interred there, some of Then there was international politics. Relations with the them French Jews, were exhumed by the British authorities and Russians quickly soured, leading soon to the Cold War. At the sent to their homelands. same time, the Allies were grappling with the split-up of Germany and wanted to ingratiate themselves with the There were up to 400 buried and marked by the Germans, a population of what would become West Germany. Hence, figure that was reflected in a report made by the British military reports such as those of Captain Pantcheff were left to gather after the war that was ordered locked up in the central dust. And not a single person was prosecuted for what occurred government archives for a century. on Alderney. But, said historians and others who had read the survivor News of Roberts’ discovery soon exploded in U.K. media. There accounts, that number could not possibly be true. How could was a front-page story, continued onto two broadsheet pages so much have been built in such a short time by workers who inside, in the respected Sunday Times newspaper. This was were systematically starved and ill-treated? Surely more must followed by lengthy pieces in the Times of Israel, on British and have died? Australian TV, as well as being featured in the more sensationalist Daily Mail. Without the government report with its interviews with hundreds of Germans and prisoners, an accurate answer was The story also was highlighted on Twitter by Lord Pickles, a impossible, leading some to wildly speculate that as many as former British Member of Parliament who is now the U.K. 40,000 had died on Alderney. Special Envoy for Post-Holocaust Issues and who has taken a keen interest in Alderney. But in April this year, a copy of the document – called the Pantcheff Report after the British intelligence officer, Theodore As I read and watched the accounts, I found myself thinking “Bunny” Pantcheff, who led the investigation – was uncovered once again about my discoveries as a young boy. There was the in the Russian State Archives in Moscow. Why did the Russians barbed wire, of course, as well as the memories of the have it? Because most of the victims were from the then-Soviet cemetery. Another thing that came to mind was my youthful Union and at the time the U.K. and the Soviets were still allies. discovery of narrow railroad tracks in a tunnel leading a small gun emplacement – and on them a still-intact carriage for The sleuthing was done by Holocaust researcher Marcus transporting ammunition. Roberts, director of the Nation Anglo-Jewish Heritage Trail, who had taken a huge interest in Alderney and its wartime past. But most of all, I thought of the despicably-treated men who had dug the tunnels, poured the concrete and pounded in the His findings were astounding and chilling. First, it established ironwork. Those who died and those who survived. that there had been a systematic policy of working the prisoners to death as well as encouragement of shootings, How, I asked myself, could such evil have occurred in such a floggings and starvation. Second, it could not be possible that beautiful place, a place I love more than any other? the 400 or so deaths counted by the British authorities were anything other than a gross undercount. Indeed, based on the That, of course, is something we will never have an answer for. evidence in the file, Roberts estimated that at least 4,000 had – perished, confirming wartime reconnaissance photos that Author Matthew Diebel showed burials across a much wider area of Longis Common SUP P ORT INDE P E NDE NT , JE WISH JOURNALISM . VISIT FORWARD. COM / DONAT E A Nazi concentration camp on British soil? A fuller history of Alderney comes to light 13 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM Bintel Brief My sons never call — should I give up on the relationship? By Shira Telushkin Dear Bintel, a loving husband=”and”, so it is likely your sons feel that you don’t need them, because they don’t have to be worried about I’m an 81 year old mother who wishes to speak on the phone you. This makes it hard for phone calls to mom to take priority more than once a month with my two long distance children over a work meltdown or a last-minute request from their ages 51 and 53. They appear to believe that unless I’m sick or daughter’s school. (And they might still have a kid’s mentality if their stepdad is ill, there is no need to call. where they don’t think of their mom as someone who needs them.) I don’t feel that a one line text or email is enough — and I often do not get even that. I recognize that they lead busy lives but That doesn’t mean you are expecting too much! Not at all. But it … am I expecting too much? When I call my son I usually get does mean getting to a place where you communicate more his voicemail and if I text to ask how things are, he’ll reply, frequently will require a little more planning on your part. “Fine” or “Super busy!” Could you establish a weekly phone call time? Some people feel He finally called when I emailed to say that I felt he didn’t like Friday afternoon, just before Shabbat, is a good time to want to communicate and asked why. I’ve also been a check in with family. Maybe they have a weekly grocery trip generous gift giver. where they have 10 minutes in the car, or a few minutes every week while waiting for a bus to work. Perhaps they could call Is it too late to turn things around? Are things beyond while they walk the dog on Thursdays. improving? Right now, your sons have fallen into a bad rhythm of having If there appears to be no genuine interest in my well- being — calls to you be another chore they are failing to complete. But shall I just live my life with my sweet husband (he was a good even if they start calling once a week out of guilt, the calls will stepdad) and accept their indifference? I don’t want obligatory eventually be out of genuine enthusiasm — once people start homage. talking regularly, there is more to talk about. Signed, Frustrated “and” Sad The occasional text and monthly call means your communication is just infrequent enough that it stays at the Dear Frustrated and=”and” Sad, level of generalities. Your son is not going to update you on a small work thing if you have no context for it, but more I think if you can see the lack of communication as a scheduling frequent, casual calls will mean he doesn’t need to give you issue rather than lack of feeling, it might be easier to find every small detail in order to share small ups and downs. When solutions. he texts that he is “’super busy”’ it is because he feels bad he doesn’t have the bandwidth to take your call. But he’s engaging! From what I can gather, it seems that your sons do care about He’s doing his best! you, and=”and” there is genuine interest in your well-being. They call when you or your husband=”and” are sick, and=”and” For many people, it can be hard to just pick up the phone at any when you explicitly tell them you are hurt by the lack of old time, but easier to build it into their weekly schedule. Tell communication. them you love them, miss them, and ask explicitly if the two of you could think through their schedule and find a weekly time to Rather than demonstrating indifference, to me this shows a lack connect. of worry. You don’t mention if your sons are married or have children, but for most people, their 50s are often the time of life If you can get these weekly calls going, they should be brief, or when work, family, and=”and” household/social obligation under 10 minutes. You want to establish your phone calls as logistics hit their peak. routine and easy, not a production or something for which they have to schedule and plan. The more we can remove barriers of Your sons are likely operating in emergency management mode entry, the easier it will be for everyone to pick up the phone all the time, with a rotating list of priorities ranked by which fires more regularly. need to be put out most urgently. Obligatory homage is not ideal, but I also don’t think it is a You, meanwhile, are usually in good health and=”and” live with terrible place to start. The Talmud, in Pesachim 50b, encourages My sons never call — should I give up on the relationship? 14 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM somebody motivated to do a mitzvah for the wrong reason — Culture ie, getting praise or prestige — to keep going, because eventually they will do it for the right reason. It’s more What will #hotvaxxedsummer important to get into the habit than to start with the perfect look like? Israel beat us there motivation. By Mira Fox Of course, it’s possible the subjects or nature of your calls have been stressful or unpleasant, and that is contributing to The U.S. is finally reopening. Nightclubs will soon be back in full swing, and people are predicting another Roaring ’20s era the issue. Are you close with your sons? Have there been any of debauchery and indulgence — dubbed, at least online, major issues in the relationship? Is it possible that on your calls you frequently ask about issues at work which they might #hotvaxxedsummer. not want to discuss, or are often keen to provide input on But not everyone is so excited. Some are anxious about how it areas where you both differ? will feel to be in a crowd after over a year of avoiding them like If you think this is the case, then shift subjects. Withhold the literal plague, others worried their social skills have judgement or negative remarks for a while. The conversations atrophied. How do you flirt again? Have the rules changed? Do don’t always have to be light, but as you try to establish a I still know how to dance? Did I ever? new rhythm, it will be nice if the conversations can be more Israel, on the other hand, is already in the full swing of fun than fraught. Tell them about a friend you saw, a book you #hotvaxxedsummer. About 60% of the country is fully read, or some development in your community — plus, vaccinated, according to Reuters, and it’s well into summer; sharing about yourself will have the bonus effect of giving Israel even lifted its indoor mask mandate last week. The them something about your life to be interested in beyond pandemic has begun to feel like a thing of the past. your health. It’s kind you’ve been generous with gifts, and reasonable to “Now it’s super weird because you don’t feel it at all,” said Adi want more communication. But you’re on the To-Do List. From Hay, a 31-year-old woman living in Jerusalem. “You feel it a little bit on a bus because you see the driver is still wearing a what I’ve read here, your sons only feel the need to reach out mask, but that’s about it. No one is still distancing.” when they sense there is a problem. I think we could start to shift that mindset, and build you into each other’s daily lives, if As summer arrives in the U.S. and people get ready to let we can get some brief, weekly calls on the schedule. loose their pent-up pandemic energy, Israelis know what But let’s start with the assumption that they DO want to talk to we’re in for. you more, they just need a little help making it happen. ‘Vaxxed, waxed and ready to go’ – Shira Telushkin lives in Brooklyn, where she writes on religion, fashion, First, we need to understand the roots of #hotvaxxedsummer. and culture for a variety of publications. She is currently finishing a book on monastic intrigue in modern America. Got a question? Send it The term is a play on “hot girl summer,” a line from a Megan to [email protected]. Thee Stallion song that became the catchphrase of the summer in 2019. According to Megan herself, Hot Girl Summer (which she trademarked) is about unapologetically having fun, “doing you, not giving a damn what nobody got to say about it.” Create a Future for Alternative takes from her fans included, “Girl, it’s hoe szn. Courageous Jewish Period.” Journalism Post-pandemic, #hotvaxxedsummer is all of the above, with an added urgency lent by 16 months without parties or sex or clothing other than sweatpants. It’s about making up for lost To donate online visit Forward.com/donate time. As they’re saying on TikTok, people are “vaxxed and waxed and ready to go.” To donate by phone, call 212-453-9454 First, we need to understand the roots of #hotvaxxedsummer. The term is a play on “hot girl summer,” a line from a Megan My sons never call — should I give up on the relationship? 15 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM Thee Stallion song that became the catchphrase of the summer for a drink, meet my friends for dinner.” in 2019. According to Megan herself, Hot Girl Summer (which she trademarked) is about unapologetically having fun, “doing Single and ready to mingle you, not giving a damn what nobody got to say about it.” During the most intense early lockdowns, Facebook groups Alternative takes from her fans included, “Girl, it’s hoe szn. used for organizing polyamorous meetups tried to adapt, even Period.” organizing Zoom sex, or orgies with fewer than 10 attendees — the number of people allowed to gather under the restrictions. Post-pandemic, #hotvaxxedsummer is all of the above, with an added urgency lent by 16 months without parties or sex or Many people also took the lockdowns as a time to settle down. clothing other than sweatpants. It’s about making up for lost Zwick, who performs on aerial silks, said there were a lot of new time. As they’re saying on TikTok, people are “vaxxed and babies among her circus friends who weren’t able to perform in waxed and ready to go.” lockdown and didn’t need to worry about working their pregnancy around their trapeze routine. All party, all the time But now, she said the couples who came together during Everyone I spoke to in both Jerusalem and Tel Aviv reported lockdown are breaking up to participate in the burgeoning packed bars, restaurants that require reservations at least a bacchanal — even those who thought they wanted something week out and sold-out parties. serious all year. “I was biking home one night — on like, a Tuesday — and the It’s also just a relief to be able to meet people at work or streets were packed in a way I’ve never seen before,” said Ruti through hobbies. Zwick, a 26-year-old programmer and circus performer in Tel Aviv. She was biking down Nachalat Binyamin, a street near the “All year you really had to be on the apps to meet other people, city’s famous Carmel Market, known for bars and shops, when there was no other way,” said Zwick. “Now, there’s a lot more she was stymied by the crowd. natural meet-cutes.” “Everyone was dancing all on the street, even through the bike But not everyone is so pleased to be done with limited options. lane, and I had to tap on people to get them to move,” she said. One man in Jerusalem who asked to remain anonymous “And they don’t even move! I’m literally like bopping them on speaking about his sex life said he missed the simplicity of the shoulder — not gently, you know?” having no options. In fact, despite all the worries about lost social skills, those I “Tinder dates are annoying now, you have to take them out,” he spoke to said people are more outgoing than they were before. said. “That’s a bummer, they used to just come here.” “Usually you go out to a party, you stick to your people mostly, He said the dates he invited out — whether to a park or illegally you talk to maybe a few new people,” said Hay. “Now you feel open bar during lockdowns or a more legal establishment now you want to talk to everyone.” She said the effect was intense — always went worse. in Jerusalem, where the secular community that populates the “Corona times, especially the beginning when people thought bars and parties is relatively small. they were going to die or something, was paradoxically the There are other new, positive changes as well — FOMO, or fear most fruitful time I had on the app,” he said. “Girls would come of missing out, might be a thing of the past. Even though over and sit on the roof and have wine, and it was way more partying and socializing feels imperative as people make up for relaxed than any outside date I ever had — less awkward. And I lost time, counterintuitively they also feel less pressure to show noticed that there was a higher probability of anything up to the hottest parties or to see and be seen. Instead, people happening.” are only going to events they really want to be at — and their Still, a fruitful sex life during lockdown was a minority joy in doing so approaches the spiritual. experience. Now, in the poetic words of Hay, “Everyone is very Arlene Freedberg, an American in her 40s living in Tel Aviv, was hormonal and looking to bang.” always a social butterfly, but she’s going out even more now ‘How should I human now’ than she did before the pandemic. “It’s not FOMO, because I’m not missing out on other people’s lives, but I just want to make Nitzan Amitay, 28, is having a particularly abrupt transition — the most of mine,” she said. “I’m living life to the absolute she just returned to Israel a few weeks ago from studying in the fullest, I appreciate so much more now being able to go out, go UK, where she was getting her master’s; London was only just What will #hotvaxxedsummer look like? Israel beat us there 16 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM allowing restaurant seating the week she left, and she’s found it jarring to see bustling stores and cafes in Haifa, where she lives. “It just made me feel really anxious,” she said, but that the stress is “just an automated feeling.” Freedberg was in Tel Aviv for the whole time, but she had been following the rules closely throughout the pandemic because her small friend-group bubble was strict and she didn’t want to lose them. Such limited socializing for so long meant that, no matter how extroverted and desperate she was for gatherings to return, crowds felt a little weird. Though Freedberg called the return of live music “the most amazing thing in the whole world,” she said that going to an Noga Erez performs to a packed amphitheater in Caesaria. unmasked, 2,600-person concert indoors felt a bit unnerving. “I tried not to think about it,” she told me. summer goes on, people are getting in shape.” Even Hay, who went to some underground parties during the We may be a few weeks behind Israel, but judging by the newly lockdowns, still finds it slightly jarring to be in crowds. “All of a packed bars spilling out onto New York streets, people are sudden you’re around strangers and you’re like, ‘How should I committed to overcoming their social anxieties through be? How should I human now?’” she said. The first time she sat exposure therapy. I was at a house party until 4 a.m. just last in a restaurant, she felt flummoxed, wondering if the rules had weekend, as though I was in college again instead of pushing somehow changed. Should she order at the counter, or would 30. A drunk girl I didn’t know hugged me, just like the Before there actually be table service? Times. #hotvaxxedsummer, here we come. But Americans can take heart in hearing that the adjustment – period passes quickly. “At the beginning, big parties were Mira Fox is a reporter at the Forward. Get in touch at [email protected] or on Twitter @miraefox. intense. It’s a lot of people,” said Hay. “But the more the Create a Future for Courageous Jewish Journalism The Forward is the most significant Jewish voice in American journalism. Our outstanding reporting on cultural, social, and political issues inspires readers of all ages and animates conversation across generations. Your support enables our critical work and contributes to a vibrant, connected global Jewish community. The Forward is a nonprofit association and is supported by the contributions of its readers. To donate online visit To donate by phone Forward.com/donate Call 212-453-9454 What will #hotvaxxedsummer look like? Israel beat us there 17 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM News A Jewish deli in a Cuban neighborhood? Miami’s Stephen’s Deli is a crazy cultural sandwich By Jordan Levin If you want to eat at Miami’s oldest and most authentic Jewish deli, you’ll have to drive to Hialeah, Miami’s most Cuban neighborhood. You drive down a gritty industrial street, once home to a thriving district of Jewish-owned garment factories. One side is lined with sprawling warehouses, auto body and tire shops, the other with rows of small sun-faded homes where Jewish workers lived before they were replaced by the generations of Cuban immigrants that have made Hialeah an emblem of Miami Cubanidad. Finally you get to Stephen’s Deli, serving classic Jewish style deli food since 1954, even as Hialeah went from Jewish to Cuban and iconic Miami Beach Jewish restaurants like Wolfie’s and the Rascal House closed. Stephen’s Deli’s new owner is Matt Kuscher, a successful Miami chef and restaurant entrepreneur whose father is Jewish and Courtesy of Stephen's Deli mother is Puerto Rican. Kuscher grew up in his father’s and grandparents’ Jewish restaurants in New York and Washington Jewish garment industry. Workers and owners flocked to D.C., but also with Noche Buena, a Hispanic Christmas Eve, and Stephen’s Deli for Reuben sandwiches and matzoh ball soup. other Puerto Rican celebrations. Somehow, as far more famous Jewish eateries closed, Stephen’s survived. “Different festivities, different cultures, different musics, and different food,” he said. At Stephen’s Deli, he brings them A self-proclaimed Jewish deli fanatic, Kuscher haunted together in a uniquely Miami style. Stephen’s for years before becoming its eighth owner in 2018. Officially called Kush by Stephen’s/Kush Hialeah, it’s the sixth of “I love my Jewish side, I love my Spanish side,” said Kuscher, the successful Kush Hospitality restaurants he’s opened since who uses the old-fashioned “Spanish” for “Hispanic.” We were moving here in 2005. talking from a booth at Stephen’s, as people filled tables and barstools on a recent Friday beneath a red neon sign Kuscher’s places traffic in craft beer and gourmet burgers, with proclaiming “Hand-slicing pastrami since 1954.” a smart, affectionately ironic sense of Miami culture. Stephen’s offers a particularly rich feast of hilariously knowing Jewish and “In Miami you have both of those worlds,” said Kuscher, who Cuban/Hialeah details. It’s also the most personal and history- also married a Puerto Rican woman. “I didn’t grow up here, but I filled of Kuscher’s joints. love this city so much I feel like that’s my identity.” There’s a gallery of family photos towards the back: his father’s Hialeah, one of sprawling Miami-Dade county’s many bar mitzvah portrait, his grandparents’ wedding, Kuscher’s own municipalities, is synonymous with Cuban exile here. bar mitzvah baseball cards. A framed copy of the menu for his Pronounced Hi-ah-lee-ah, it’s a place where Spanish has a grandparents’ Jewish deli in Broward, the model for the Cuban accent and coffee is syrupy shots of jet fuel. The Stephen’s menus, hangs by the cash register, which also has a population is 96% Hispanic, 73% Cuban/Cuban-American, and worn copy of Save the Deli, David Sax’s book on the decline of 74% foreign-born. Generations of mostly working-class Cuban Jewish delis. immigrants elected Miami-Dade’s first Cuban politician here — and produced a host of major league baseball players. Seinfeld plays on a loop on a TV over the bar, while a made-in- Hialeah Caja China, the box used to roast suckling pigs at Cuban But before the Cubans came, Hialeah was home to a busy celebrations, sits atop a cooler. The imitation Tiffany lamps and A Jewish deli in a Cuban neighborhood? Miami’s Stephen’s Deli is a crazy cultural sandwich 18 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM brick-thick white plates and coffee mugs are vintage New York The hall is lined with Lotto tickets, the women’s bathroom deli; as are the original L-shaped chrome bar, vinyl-topped papered with images of Walter Mercado, the legendary Puerto stools, and pale green Formica tables. Rican television astrologer and personality. The men’s room features Hialeah Spiderman, a local character who cavorted at a Manager Alexis Osorio, a veteran of other Kush restaurants nearby intersection dressed as Spiderman; and a picture of whose husband is the chef at Stephen’s, grew up in Hialeah. Fidel in the urinal. “People are proud to be from Hialeah,” she said. “People don’t give it enough credit. My mother came here from Cuba with two La Cocina has glasses from Hialeah Racetrack, the once elite girls and made a place for herself here. I understand the casino and horse racing destination, and a Ñooo, Que nostalgia. I know all the things we lost.” Barato! sign – an only-in-Hialeah discount store. There are multiple other tributes to Hialeah idiosyncrasies and The menu features Bubbe’s Matzoh Ball soup, potato latkes, personalities that produce an instant cackle if you know the pastrami on rye, and other classic deli items, which are the city, but take forever to explain to outsiders. It’s all, as they say most popular. But there’s also pan con bistec (with potato here, so Miami. stix, claro); “goy-ish” croquetas, a Jewish take on a beloved Cuban fritter; and the Newman’s Jewban – a combination “It’s a huge mix,” said Kuscher. “The beautiful part of this place Reuben/Cuban sandwich named for the word for a Cuban Jew. is, when the bar is open, you can see an old Jewish couple “It’s a blending of both worlds, which is a blending of both sides having matzoh ball soup and a bunch of 20-year-olds dancing of me,” Kuscher said. to reggaeton next door. This world and that world are totally different. But everybody comes.” The living link to Hialeah’s Jewish history is Henderson “Junior” Biggers, 84, a large, soft-spoken man who’s worked there since – 1957. Biggers is one of the few remaining practitioners of the Jordan Levin has been writing about Miami since the early 90’s, including 18 years at the Miami Herald. disappearing art of hand-carving slabs of pastrami and corned beef. His story is featured in the restaurant group’s website, on the restaurant wall and news features on Stephen’s Deli. “Every owner said I want you to stay,” explained Biggers, taking a break.“All these businesses here were owned by Jews. All of them.” Biggers remembered people lining up out the door for lunch in Create a Future for the 60’s and 70’s. “They would stand out there and wait to get in,” he said. Courageous Jewish As Biggers reminisced, Kuscher stared at him reverently. Journalism “I tell him when he’s ready to retire I’ll pay him to sit on a bar The Forward is the most significant Jewish voice in American journalism. Our outstanding stool and tell stories,” he said. reporting on cultural, social, and political issues “I’m gonna call his bluff,” Biggers shot back. inspires readers of all ages and animates conversation across generations. Your support Older customers also connect Stephen’s to Hialeah’s pre-Cuban enables our critical work and contributes to a history. “I get a lot of 50, 60, 70 year-old Cuban, Colombian vibrant, connected global Jewish community. business owners who had a Jewish boss or Jewish co-worker who introduced them to this place and they fell in love with it,” The Forward is a nonprofit association and is Kuscher said. “They keep coming back.” supported by the contributions of its readers. If the Jewish deli is the more sincere, family and history- To donate online visit oriented side of the restaurant, the Cuban/Hialeah side begins Forward.com/donate in the hallway leading to the bathrooms and a bar, La Cocina. La Cocina open on weekend nights, features cocktails with To donate by phone, call names like Sex on the Sofa and Pata Sucia, or “dirty foot” — Call 212-453-9454 Miami slang for a girl who parties hard, then sheds her high heels to walk barefoot in the street as she leaves the club. A Jewish deli in a Cuban neighborhood? Miami’s Stephen’s Deli is a crazy cultural sandwich 19