H eadlines
Burt Siegel and Jonathan Tobin Find Common
Ground in Political Zoom Discussion
L OCA L
JESSE BERNSTEIN | JE STAFF
A CONVERSATION between
Burt Siegel and Jonathan S.

Tobin had all the makings of
a knock-down, drag-’em-out
cage match.

Siegel is a man of the left, and
Tobin, his interlocutor on the
evening of Dec. 22, is a conser-
vative. The combatants were
told by the moderator that their
answers would be timed, but
that there’d be a few minutes
for rebuttal. The argumentative
possibilities offered by an event
titled “Jews, Civil Rights, Black
Lives Matter and Implications
of the 2020 Election for Israel,”
had the potential to go like
many a family seder.

But something
else happened.

Though the two certainly
had their disagreements, the
two men spoke with genial
civility for more than 90
minutes in a conversation
hosted by The Kehillah of Old
York Road, via Zoom. In fact,
Siegel and Tobin seemed to find
much more common ground
than contested territory. Even
the latter was disputed with
courtesy, regarding topics
ranging from President Donald
Trump to interfaith marriage
to Israel’s relationship with
Saudi Arabia.

Siegel, a former director of
the Jewish Community Relations
Council and current vice chair
of Democratic Jewish Outreach
Pennsylvania, is a frequent
commentator on hot-button
political issues, appearing in the
pages of the Jewish Exponent and
in a blog for the Times of Israel.

Tobin, former editor-in-
chief of the Exponent, once
led Commentary, a neoconser-
vative magazine with a long
Jewish history. Today, he is
editor-in-chief of the Jewish
News Syndicate, a wire service,
and frequently contrib-
utes to a raft of conservative
magazines between cable news
appearances. The two men have been on
the opposite sides of American
and Israeli political issues for
years, and neither is particu-
larly prone to backing off of
what they believe in.

And yet, the miraculous
happened. Siegel joked before
the event began that yearning
for the end of argument between
Jews was akin to prophesizing
that lion will lie down with
lamb. On that evening, in a
conversation introduced by
Rabbi Robert Leib and Rabbi
David Glanzberg-Krainin, for
just a moment, paw curled
tenderly around hoof.

It is “a wonderful Jewish
tradition to disagree with one
another,” Glanzberg-Krainin
said, but even more so to do it
with respect.

Leib, senior rabbi at Old
York Road Temple – Beth Am,
led the structured conversa-
tion, wherein questions were
posed to either Tobin or Siegel,
whose timed answers were met
with the latter’s retort, often
boomeranging back to the
original speaker for further
comment. Siegel had a background of
the Golden Gate Bridge; Tobin
sat in front of a shelf of books.

Siegel said that the true impact
of the Abraham Accords won’t
be known for some time, and
that to treat the agreement
normalizing relations between
Israel, the United Arab
Emirates and Bahrain as an
unmitigated success for Trump
was a mistake.

Tobin, often willing to cede
ground to Siegel’s attacks on the
president’s character, defended
the accords as a significant
achievement, agreeing with
Siegel that “Messianic rhetoric”
had taken its import a bit out of
proportion. Siegel and Tobin went back
and forth, answering Leib’s
pointed questions about the
responsibilities of white Jews
to their Black co-religion-
ists, what the future holds for
Rabbi Robert Leib (highlighted) poses a question to Jonathan Tobin
(center) and Burt Siegel (middle row, far left). 
Screenshot by Jesse Bernstein
Jewish people in Europe and
Israel advocacy on college
campuses. When Leib made
reference to an “epidemic of
silence” regarding the response
of major American Jewish
organizations to anti-Semitism,
Tobin redirected the conver-
sation to silence regarding
anti-Orthodox bigotry, and
Siegel redirected to European
anti-Semitism in particular.

“I don’t disagree with
anything Jonathan said,” Siegel
said after Tobin laid out his
issues with The New York
Times’ 1619 Project.

“This is not an issue which
we disagree,” Tobin said after
Siegel explained his thoughts
on a particular sense of Jewish
superiority. When it came to naming
the biggest
challenges facing American Jews going
forward, Tobin and Siegel
found so much common
ground they were practically
standing on each other’s toes.

With different wording and
different favored topics, both
of them wished for “a healthy,
proud Jewish community in
America,” as Siegel said.

The event was supported by
the Jewish Federation of Greater
Philadelphia, Beth Sholom
Congregation, Old York Road
Temple – Beth Am, Congregation
Adath Jeshurun,
Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel and
Or Hadash: A Reconstructionist
Congregation. l
jbernstein@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0740
Those We’ve Lost: Attorney Bernice Bricklin
OB ITUARY
JESSE BERNSTEIN | JE STAFF
THE LAST TIME that Lila
Bricklin communicated with
her mother, Bernice Bricklin,
she sang to her. The song was
familiar to them both.

The Bricklin sisters, Lila,
Shoshana and Aliza, were
4 DECEMBER 31, 2020
put to sleep as children with
Hebrew lullabies chosen for
the match between name and
lyric. Lila was sent to slumber
with “Laila laila, haru’ach
goveret”; Shoshana, with “Shnei
shoshanim, shnei shoshanim”;
and Aliza, with “Hanan v’Aliza
utzu basadeh.”
On the night before
her mother died at 93 from
complications of COVID-19,
Lila sang all that she could
remember of “Laila, laila.”
The aide who held a phone to
her mother’s ear told Lila that
Bernice Bricklin moved her
foot a bit in response. She died
the next day, Dec. 19.

Bricklin (née Krauss), was
born in Feltonville in 1927.

After raising three daughters,
JEWISH EXPONENT
Bricklin, a woman of firmly
held beliefs with no compunc-
tion about voicing them,
earned a bachelor’s degree from
Beaver College (now Arcadia
University) and a law degree
from Temple University.

She spent the decade prior to
her college education fighting
in the trenches of the great
social debates, organizing for
the National Women’s Political
Caucus, lobbying for nuclear
disarmament and working
for draft counseling groups
during the Vietnam War. She
marched for the Equal Rights
Amendment as well.

Her political vitality was
rivaled by her passion for
mothering. Bernice Bricklin
was an enthusiastic singer and
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



H EADLINES
had a knack for cooking fl eishig
dishes with seemingly milchig
ingredients, but that were, in
fact, pareve. She taught her
daughters how to cook, how
to sing and how to do both
as Jewish women. More than
that, she taught them how
their Jewish femininity was
connected to their responsibili-
ties to the people around them.

“She had boundless energy,”
Lila Bricklin said. “Even well
into her 70s, she could outpace
you or me.”
Aft er becoming a lawyer,
Bricklin brought a new
dimension toward her work
of creating a more just world.

Virtual Dementia
Support Groups
Specially Designed for Families and
Caregivers on Zoom
The 1st and 3rd Tuesday of the Month
January 5 and January 19, 2021
10:00 am - 11:00 am
Bernice Bricklin died from
complications of COVID-19 at the
age of 93.

Courtesy of Lila Bricklin
“I’ve tried to hold on to what she passed on
to us. In the fight for justice, particularly.”
Joining is easy!
Call 215.321.6166 or e-mail Yardley@arden-courts.com
to register and receive the link to join the support
group. You do not need to download the Zoom application
to join the event.

SHOSHANA BRICKLIN
Memory Care Community
She gave countless hours to
organizations like the Freedom
Valley Girl Scout Council,
the Jewish
Community Relations Council, the Center
for Empowerment of Women
and the Green Tree Run
Condominium Association.

She was a founding member
of the Whitemarsh Valley
Fair Housing Council, a
Democratic committeeperson
and an advocate for victims
of domestic abuse. Bricklin
worked on Sam Katz’s 2003
mayoral campaign and C.

Dolores Tucker’s congressional
campaign. She loved Judaism and was
a fi erce feminist, Shoshana
Bricklin said, recalling her
mother as a “force of nature.”
Her mother was a key player
in the earlier days of organized
Reconstructionist Judaism,
serving on the Federation
of Reconst r uc t ionist
Congregations. It was with
Bernice Bricklin’s contribution
that the fi rst iteration of the
Reconstructionist Rabbinical
College was brought to Broad
Street. A lifelong learner,
Bricklin had learned with RRC
cofounders Mordecai Kaplan
and Ira Eiesenstein, and found
their vision of the world worth
pursuing. “I’ve tried to hold on to
what she passed on to us,” said
Shoshana Bricklin, who is an
ordained kohelet. “In the fi ght
for justice, particularly.”
Bricklin, suffering from
dementia in her later years,
lived in Cathedral Village from
2007 until her death.

Bricklin is survived by her
daughters, Shoshana (Bert),
Lila and Aliza (Andy), and four
grandchildren. She was prede-
ceased by longtime companion
Cy Keller. ●
If you are caring for someone with dementia,
who is caring for you?
You are not alone. This virtual informational, supportive
group will help you to learn more about the disease as well
as understand their feelings about the changes dementia has
made on their daily lives. Support groups can also help you:
• •
• •
Learn practical caregiving information
Get mutual support
Learn about your local community resources
Find solutions to challenging behaviors
arden-courts.org jbernstein@jewishexponent.com;
215-832-0740 13899_Yardley_Jan_5.5x11.indd 1
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM JEWISH EXPONENT
12/18/20 12:03 PM
DECEMBER 31, 2020
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