ON THE
SIDE MAY FLOWERS
Side dishes become the main attraction.

PAGE 16
APRIL 29, 2021 / 17 IYAR 5781
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM — WHAT IT MEANS TO BE JEWISH IN PHILADELPHIA —
$1.00 OF NOTE
LOCAL College Decision
Season Creates
Sense of
Optimism Fall semester likely
to hew more closely
to normal.

Page 4
OBITUARY Former National
JWV Leader Dies
Louis Abramson
was active for years
in the organization.

Page 8
OPINION House Bill on
Israel is Flawed
But Jewish civil
war is worse.

Page 14
Volume 134
Number 3
Published Weekly Since 1887
Panel on IHRA
Anti-Semitism Defi nition
Rankles JESSE BERNSTEIN | JE STAFF
AN APRIL 20 ONLINE event hosted by
Congregation Rodeph Shalom was meant
to educate congregants about the poten-
tial for free speech issues surrounding the
International Holocaust Remembrance
Alliance Working
Definition of
Antisemitism. In the days before it began, the event
drew criticism from some letter-writers and
Jewish organizations who characterized it
as “strongly biased against Israel and Jews,”
as one statement put it, taking issue with
both the subject matter and the panelists
themselves. Th e panelists and organizers vehemently
dispute that notion.

Th e controversy surrounding the event
is a miniaturized version of fi ghts that have
roiled British and American politics in recent
years about how to understand the connec-
tion between Israel and anti-Semitism, fi ghts
that have oft en asked thorny questions
about free speech, academic freedom and
campus politics. In Philadelphia, this most
recent controversy has a local fl avor, as
See Panel, Page 12
Morris Gandel (far left), Chaim Gandel (seated, center) La zar Gandel (seated, right) and family
Photos courtesy of Laurie Gandel Samuels
DNA Testing Reunites Long-
Lost Family After 60 Years
SOPHIE PANZER | JE STAFF
WHEN LAURIE GANDEL Samuels
became a grandmother in 2020, she
wanted to put together a family history
for the two grandchildren.

“It was supposed to be almost a little
craft project, with pictures of their parents
or grandparents or great-grandparents
and like a page of information on each
person for a child to look at, up until
maybe they’re 12 or something,” the Bucks
County resident said.

She did not expect her grandchil-
dren’s fi rst birthday present to turn into
an in-depth research project that led to
many late nights and reunions with family
members she had no idea existed.

See Reunite, Page 13