TEMPLE SHOLOM NEWSLETTER
DECEMBER 2024
CHESHVAN / KISLEV 5785
SPRINGFIELD, OH

CONDOLENCES TO...
The family of Jay Greenland who passed away on November 2 in Phoenix, Arizona
May his memory be always for a blessing

The family of Dee Kossoff who passed away on November 5 in Columbus Ohio
May her memory be always for a blessing

Rabbi Cary & Sheryl Kozberg on the passing of her father Ted Siegel on November 14.
May his memory be always for a blessing.

~ LONG-TERM PLANNING ~
This committee held its first meeting on Sunday, November 10. Thank you to all those who attended and offered to participate with various inventories. We would welcome anyone else who would like to be a part of this building-wide task. The minutes from the meeting are available in the foyer, and we would be happy to mail you a copy upon request. Please contact the Temple office or Kelley Beloff for more information.

~ SPORTS NIGHT RECAP ~
On November 12, Temple Sholom hosted its annual Fred Leventhal Sports Night fundraising event. After taking a pause for a couple of years, we were very glad to be able to once again host a community-wide event that has taken place for well over 30 years. It originally started when Fred Leventhal partnered with former Temple member and Dayton philanthropist Milt Kantor. Over the years, we had a wide variety of very well-known athletes and sports figures as our main speakers and usually had well over 130 people attend. This was always the Temple's main fundraiser and something that many in our community always looked forward to and supported with their presence and dollars.
This year, we had 80 people attend and were able to raise a little over $10,000 for the Temple's general operating budget. This year's speaker was Nate Ebner, whose grandfather, Dick Ebner, is a long-time Temple member as was his father Jeff until his tragic death. Nate has a wonderful impactful life story which he shared with the attendees.
Nate brought 12 of his recently published books of his life story, which were auctioned off. We also sold another 8 books that Nate graciously donated as well. We are very grateful for Nate's time and generosity. Nate said he still considers Temple Sholom as his Temple where he spent many hours as a young boy.
Special thanks to Eric Samuelson, who donated and auctioned off several sports memorabilia that helped raise some additional significant dollars for the Temple. Thanks to Roger Krohn, who generously donated his share of the 50/50 drawing back to the Temple. I also want to thank Adam Leventhal, who co-chaired this year's event; Laurie Leventhal, Mary Jo Leventhal, Diane Smith, Kathleen Leonard, and Ann Chitkara for all of their work and efforts in making this Sports Night such a successful event in a number of ways. Without their help, this event would not have been possible. A last thank you to Rick Nedelman and Alan Gabbard for their support in selling or purchasing a number of tickets for the Sports Night.
Hopefully, we will once again be able to make The Fred Leventhal Temple Sholom Sports Night an annual community fund and friend raising event for years to come.
-Eddie Leventhal, Co-Chair

~ RABBI'S CORNER ~

A Rabbi's Christmas Wishes
(Friends, what follows is an updated version of an op-ed I wrote several years ago. It will be published by Jewish News Syndicate right before Christmas. Here is a preview - RCK)

To date, I have experienced more than 70 Christmas seasons in my lifetime. Having spent all the previous ones as an ''outsider,'' although I do not affirm what Christianity teaches about the most famous man from Nazareth, I admit to a lifelong appreciation of the Yule season's message and traditions. I am happy and proud that this season - if observed with appropriate reverence - remembers not just the birth of one of my distant kinsmen, but more importantly the message of peace, mutual understanding and good will to all humanity that he, good Jewish teacher that he was, imparted to so many.
It is for this reason that as another Christmas season begins, I express (albeit with an outsider's chutzpah) both puzzlement and annoyance that this important message continues to be drowned out by other factors antithetical to its spirit. I refer specifically to the over-commercialization and rampant consumerism that seem to eclipse the true message of the season - even as so many individuals must deal with a palpable scarcity of resources.
Like most Jews who are ''outsiders'' at this season, I have not been directly touched by what many Christians feel to be serious challenges to the holiday and its true meaning. However, as these challenges take an ever-increasing role in the season's ambience, it is difficult not to hear and resonate with the pain of these who feel that the sanctity of this important holiday continues to be profaned.
By the same token, it is also puzzling to me as a Jew that billions of people can celebrate the birthday of a Jew born in Bethlehem (''the city of David'') over 2000 years ago, and yet also feel either antipathy (at worst) or apathy (at best) toward his contemporary kinsmen - perhaps even denying that they have any authentic and continuing connection to Bethlehem and its environs. How does one explain the apparent cognitive dissonance among so many who believe that the baby said to be the son of G-d but forget or deny that: 1) as a descendant of David, he was also a faithful son of his people, and 2) had he been walking the earth today, he too would be included in Hamas' plan to make the world judenrein. Indeed, had he been around today, his life may have already ended as the result of a rocket attack instead of being nailed to a cross.
With all this in mind and as the Yuletide season begins, this rabbi humbly shares these two wishes:

1) To those for whom Christmas is religious holiday: please help your fellow observers focus less on the trappings and more on the message - less on the gifts and more on the spirit of giving, particularly as we may expect another season's batch of news reports about identity theft and credit card fraud, the theft of packages off porches, and shoppers committing violent acts upon one another (how must the ''Guest of Honor'' feel about that?). I would ask that you faithful help keep folks properly focused by exemplifying the values of the man whom you believe is the incarnation of goodness. In other words, ''keep Christ in Christmas.'' Help those who have forgotten the teachings of peace, justice and compassion offered by the person whose birthday is celebrated; remind them to keep these in mind not just through January 1, but throughout the entire year. By all means ''keep Christ in Christmas'' by bearing witness to the importance of the day, perhaps less by preaching what to believe about Jesus, and more about how to live the kind of life a true follower of his should live.

2) This year, in the wake of
-the worst slaughter of Jews in one day since the Holocaust,
-world opinion that places most of the blame for the current war on Israel but little on Hamas and Hezbollah, and
-increasing violence against Jews not only in Israel but also in other countries (most notably the recent murder of Rabbi Zvi Kagan, z'l in the United Arab Emirates),
this rabbi hopes that in the spirit of ''peace on earth, good will toward men,'' faithful Christians will express and show more support for the living kinsmen of the ''birthday boy,'' as they respond to those who are demonstrably more comfortable with current efforts to annihilate both them and what they stand for.
This year, this rabbi hopes that more faithful Christians will follow the example of folks like Governor Mike Huckabee, the actress Patricia Heaton, the actor Jon Voight, Pastor John Hagee and so many others who have been vocal in their support of us; that more faithful Christians will remember that denying the connection of Jesus' kinsmen to the Land, also denies him.
NB: In the Gospel of Luke, chapter 2, Bethlehem is noted as ''the city of David'' because of Jewish tradition, David is regarded as the greatest Jewish king, and the ancestor of the Messiah, who Scripture predicts will one day redeem the Jewish people. Moreover, if there really was no Jewish Temple on the site where the Al Aqsa mosque currently sits (as many claim), from where did Jesus drive out the moneychangers?
Lastly, this rabbi hopes that Christians around the world who have benefited from the supportive efforts of both the Jewish state and world Jewry in responding to all kinds of human suffering, will reciprocate by supporting us in this, our time of need - if only as a gift in honor of the ''birthday boy.'' To be sure, I am not so naive as to expect my wishes to come true or even to be acknowledged. Some may applaud and some may shake their heads in disgust. Yes, they are controversial for many reasons, and thus are presented with the utmost humility. But my prayer is that by this time next year the world will reflect a stronger spirit of wisdom and charity. And, if my wishes are granted, perhaps the message of ''good will to all,'' which we still need to hear, will finally be a reality.
-Rabbi Cary Kozberg

~ CONTRIBUTIONS ~
A very generous contribution has been received from Sandra Overstreet
A very generous contribution in memory of Jay Greenland has been received from Dierdre and Ronald Baker

SPECIAL
-In memory of Stan Nedelman from Tom and Mary Lou Loftis
-In memory of Jay Greenland from Eddie and Laurie Leventhal
-In memory of my husband Jeff from Inas Sisler

DIAMOND
-In memory of Stan Nedelman from Clara Perks
-In memory of Max Beloff and Hilbert Beloff from Larry and Frayda Beloff
-In memory of Ted Siegel, Rabbi Kozberg's father-in-law, from Eddie and Laurie Leventhal
-In memory of Dee Kossoff, Andy Kossoff's wife, from Eddie and Laurie Leventhal
-In appreciation for the monthly newsletter from Anita Kohler

GOLD
-In memory of Stanley Nedelman from Debbie and Ton Wein
-In honor of the birth of Sidney Jiro Hetherington from Debbie and Tom Wein
-In memory of Rabbi Janice Garfunkel from Itzca Zohar
-In memory of Jay Greenland from Sanford and Faye Flack
-In memory of Dee Kossoff from Sanford and Faye Flack
-In memory of David Draisen and Henrietta Marks Goldman from Bernice Goldman
-In memory of Rabbi Kozberg's father-in-law Ted Siegel from Mary Powell

SILVER
-In memory of Rabbi Kozberg's father-in-law Ted Siegel from Stuart and Marilyn Cooper

JEFFREY EBNER YOUTH FUND
-In loving memory of my son, Jeff Ebner, from Lyla Bailin

~ YAHRZEIT LIST ~
DEC 6: Max Beloff (father of Larry Beloff), Harry Berman, Jean Block, Bertha Frand Ebner, Pearl E. Friedman, Emil Gross, Raymond Schneider (father of Bruce & Larry Schneider), Dorothy Bandman, Rose Broidy (mother of Steve Broidy), Ben Farber, Paulette Grodner (wife of Jack Grodner), Leonard Kurland, Rosalyn Horwitz Leventhal (mother of Aaron Leventhal), Abe Margolis

DEC 13: Ben Endelman, Rabbi Marianne Gevirtz, James Herron, Anna Farber, Benjamin Grodner (father of Jack Grodner), Sam Kossoff, Barbara Miller, Sidney Russack, Pearl Stein (mother of Leslie Buerki), Ben Zoldan

DEC 20: Martin Ebner (father of Dick Ebner), Hyman D. Kaminsky, Harold S. Pollens, Jack M. Rubin, Corinne Pommer Schiff, Izidore Weiser, Sarah Fish (mother of Larry Fish), George Leventhal, Harold Pesselman (father of Laurie Leventhal), Albert Viton

DEC 27: Lena Gross, Ellen I. Helfgott, Rose H. Holzberg, Augusta Kaufman, Simon Sanders, Isidor Schiff, Mo Weixelbaum, Craig Chapman, Jr (brother of Joe Chapman), Minnie Ebner, Nathan Leventhal, Ruth Mazur, Frank Mugford (husband of Bobbi Mugford), Freda Silverstein (mother of Marvin Silverstein), Eugene Unger