O pinion
Rabbi Dr. Abraham Twerski Made Jewish Addiction Work
Possible Twerski deserves to be who was known simply in our the matter with anyone who
saw the issue differently.

remembered as a tzaddik (a family as “Reb Shia.”
In addition to being avail-
I will never forget the time
righteous person), a title that
he rightfully earned in his I reached out to him to discuss able to offer guidance on
lifetime. But Twerski was so the suitability of 12-step specific cases or emergencies
much more than a psychia- meetings, trying to ascertain as they arose, Twerski was
trist, author of dozens of books how I could send religious helpful to me in many other
and brilliant Torah scholar. He Jewish clients to a meeting ways. Nearly 15 years ago, I
was also a man who positively that more often than not was found myself dealing with a
impacted countless families being held in a church (many crisis involving a family that
and individuals in so many Orthodox Jews believe Jewish had multiple children living in
ways, ranging from pulling law forbids one to enter any an abusive environment. With
numerous rabbis weighing in
out the rug from within the Christian houses of worship).

BY RABBI ZVI GLUCK
Explaining to me that cases with different views, I reached
community of addiction to
ON JAN. 31, the Jewish being outspoken about abuse that had reached that level out to Twerski for an outside
community lost one of the
biggest forces fighting for those
who are suffering the most.

Rabbi Twerski also taught me the perplexing nature of recovery. He
At Amudim, a crisis inter-
vention organization serving explained that while some go through recovery and fare well in the long
the Orthodox Jewish commu- run, others keep repeating the same destructive patterns again and again.

nity, we have been humbled
by the increasing number of
were clearly life threatening, opinion. He introduced me to
community members who issues, and so much more.

he told me straight out, “When someone that he felt could get
My father,
Rabbi Edgar
have come to accept the reali-
a patient has cancer, do you to the heart of the matter — Dr.

Gluck, and
Twerski shared
a ties of mental health challenges
look for the best doctor or a David Pelcovitz. Not only was
close relationship
that spanned
in recent years. None of what
Jewish doctor?” He discussed Pelcovitz perfectly suited to
60 years.

When I
became we do today would be possible
this issue in one of his many help me navigate the complex-
involved with
those in
danger without the groundbreaking
books, and he made it clear ities of this particular case, but
of slipping
through our
societal work of Rabbi Dr. Abraham J.

to me that he was more than he became a tremendous inspi-
cracks, it
was a
privilege to
be Twerski, of blessed memory,
able to
reach out
to the
man happy to have a discussion on ration to me and an invaluable
who died at 90 years old.

asset to Amudim since the day
we opened in 2014.

Over the years, Twerski
became a guiding light for
Amudim. He wasn’t able to
join us for our 2015 mental
health conference, a ground-
breaking two days that gave
mental health professionals
the opportunity to share their
feedback from the trenches,
helping us focus our efforts to
help as many people as possible
in their personal struggles.

But he worked with us every
step of the way to create the
program, spending hours on
the phone with Amudim’s
founder, Mendy Klein, and
me in order to maximize the
event’s potential.

Rabbi Twerski also taught
me the perplexing nature
of recovery. He explained
that while some go through
recovery and fare well in
the long run, others keep
repeating the same destruc-
tive patterns again and again.

In order to end the vicious
See Gluck, Page 26
Finding God in Nature After My Dog’s Death
BY DIONNA DASH
MY DOG’S NAME was
Solomon Samson Dash. He had
a nose longer than his face and
could be calmed by listening to
my family sing Ma’oz Tzur on
Chanukah. We once pinned a
kippah on his head and brought
16 FEBRUARY 11, 2021
him to our synagogue for a pet
parade. He loved sweets, even
the kosher-for-Passover ones,
and his German Shepherd
stature echoed his kingly
namesake. He was Jewish
through and through.

My dog died at the begin-
ning of July 2020. His neck
gave a funny little twist and his
throat made a rattling groan,
and even now, I still believe I
witnessed the moment his soul
left his body. My family and I
wore kippot and recited Psalm
23 over his still frame and I
freaked out when I found out
he had to be cremated because
Jews don’t do that!
The very next day, we drove
up to the Pennsylvania Grand
Canyon, to a farmhouse that
was clean and fur-free and
didn’t smell so eerily of the
past 12 years.

The first day we were there,
it rained, heavily, as if the world
was moaning. I laughed and
ran and let the violent shivers
cleanse my empty hands. The
mornings brought crisp air and
fog rolling off the mountain-
tops. Someone said Solly
would’ve loved the open land
and the new smells and I hoped
suddenly and desperately that
his soul wouldn’t turn into
a dybbuk because we hadn’t
covered up the mirrors in our
house before we left. In the
nights, we roasted marshmal-
lows around a fire and gazed
JEWISH EXPONENT
into the midnight expanse.

My brother explained how the
stars we see are already dead
by the time our eyes capture
them, and I thought about how
something departed could still
seem to light our whole world.

When we finally made it
up to the peaks surrounding
the canyon, my mind pictured
Solly in the shadow of the
valley of death below. My
labored breathing had almost
nothing to do with the climb
up, and the edge of the trail
I was balancing on seemed
increasingly unstable. Yet the
air smelled of wildflowers and
slight condensation, and only
the rustle of the tree leaves and
the calls of low-flying hawks
dipped into the circling silence.

I stepped back a bit onto firmer
ground. Standing atop that
mountain, surrounded by
towering trees that had been
there for decades before me
and would continue to be
there for decades after me, I
felt grounded. I stood in that
dichotomy of life so fleeting
and life endlessly evergreen
and I accepted it all. Later that
day, my mom told me she had
seen Solly in the woods on
the way back down. He had
told her that he was OK, and
that it was time to let him go,
and when I closed my eyes
See Dash, Page 34
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



O pinion
Time Running Out to Preserve
Endangered Jewish Languages
BY SARAH BUNIN BENOR
I CAN’T STOP THINKING
about Flory Jagoda, Joseph
Sassoon and Kitty Sassoon —
three American Jews in their
90s who died last week. As an
Ashkenazi Jew, I do not share
their family backgrounds. But
their deaths hit home for me,
as they were among the last
native speakers of endangered
Jewish languages — languages
I’m helping to document before
it’s too late.

Flory Jagoda devoted much
of her life to preserving one of
those languages. She grew up
in Bosnia speaking Ladino, also
known as Judeo-Spanish, which
her ancestors had maintained
since their expulsion from
Spain in 1492. She survived
the Holocaust in part through
her musical skills, playing
accordion and singing in Serbo-
Croatian. For decades, she wrote
and performed Ladino songs,
maintaining the Sephardic
folk traditions of her nona
(grandmother), innovating on
them and bringing them to a
wider audience.

Jagoda’s music introduced
me to Ladino and ignited my
interest in Jewish languages. In
my fifth-grade class at Jewish
day school, my classmates and I
learned her catchy tune “Ocho
Kandelikas” (Eight Little
Candles) along with Hebrew
and English Chanukah songs.

As a teenager, I heard Jagoda
perform at a Jewish Folk Life
Festival — of which she was
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM a founder — and purchased
a cassette of hers, “La Nona
Kanta” (The Grandmother
Sings). I still listen to those
songs and now share them —
especially my favorite, “Laz
Tiyas” (The Aunties) — with
my students when I teach about
Jewish languages. My students
read an article about Jagoda’s
work to promote Sephardic
language and culture just a
week before she died.

While Jagoda is among
the last generation of native
Ladino speakers, young people
have continued her language
preservation work, as we see in
Devin Naar’s archive of Ladino
letters, books and other histor-
ical treasures; Bryan Kirschen’s
Ladino research and classes; and
Sarah Aroeste’s contemporary
Ladino music and children’s
books. Due to these efforts,
American Jews tend to know
about the language. When I
ask audiences which Jewish
languages they have heard of,
they generally mention Hebrew,
Yiddish and Ladino.

People are less familiar
with other Jewish languages,
including Judeo-Shirazi (from
Iran), Judeo-Malayalam
(from India) and Jewish
Neo-Aramaic (from the
Kurdish region) — all critically
endangered. The many endan-
gered dialects of Judeo-Arabic
have been documented to
varying extents, from Egypt to
Morocco, from Syria to Yemen.

And some young people are
keeping the music alive, such as
Neta Elkayam, A-WA and Asher
Shasho Levy for Moroccan,
Yemenite and Syrian traditions.

Even so, most American Jews
have never heard of Judeo-
Arabic. Whenever a speaker
dies, we lose an opportunity to
learn and teach more about the
nuances of this rich language
and culture.

Joseph and Kitty Sassoon died
of COVID-19 within 12 hours of
each other, months after their
76th anniversary. Both were
children of Baghdadi parents
who spoke Judeo-Arabic natively.

Growing up in Rangoon, Burma
and Calcutta, India, Joseph and
Kitty spoke multiple languages,
but their parents spoke Judeo-
Arabic when they didn’t want
the children to understand. As
many American-born children
of immigrants know, this means
they picked up snippets of
the language.

As adults, living most
recently in Los Angeles, Joseph
and Kitty spoke Hindi and
English together and did not
have much opportunity to use
Judeo-Arabic, but their grand-
daughters remember them using
some words and phrases. Kitty
used pet names for grandchil-
dren, like “abdalnuana” for boys
and “abdalki” for girls (both
literally meaning “penance”
like the Hebrew “kapara”) and
frequently said “mashallah”
(what God has willed) when
expressing pride and joy.

Joseph called his mother
Umm Shalom (mother of
Shalom, her first son), in line
with Judeo-Arabic convention,
and hurled joking insults at
grandchildren, such as “harami”
(thief) and
“mamzerim” (bastards — a Hebrew word used
in several Jewish languages).

The Sassoons are character-
istic of speakers of endangered
languages. Unlike Jagoda, they
did not devote their lives to
cultural preservation. And
they had varying degrees of
knowledge of the language —
Joseph grew up speaking more
Judeo-Arabic than Kitty. While
language documenters would
prefer fluent speakers, even
semi-speakers can provide
important information, partic-
ularly when the language is
severely endangered.

Every day, especially during
See Benor, Page 34
JEWISH EXPONENT
KVETCH ’N’ KVELL
Lifelong Democrat Shares Concern
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, SOPHIA RODNEY (“I’m a
Student and I’m Afraid of Where My Party Is Headed,” Jan. 28)
and the Jewish Exponent for printing this opinion.

I could have written that letter myself, and I wholly agree with
everything you said.

As a lifelong Democrat, I have been in increasingly serious
disagreement with their platform. Democrats are no supporters
of Israel, and I am an ardent Zionist. I have wanted to change my
registration to independent, but I can’t do that until Pennsylvania
allows independents to vote in primary elections. (Republicans
are responsible for this blatant voter suppression.)
“The Squad,” a foursome of blatantly anti-Israel and
anti-Jewish members of Congress, is an example of the direction
that the Democrats have been going. And don’t anyone tell me
that anti-Israel is not anti-Jewish.

The atmosphere on college campuses is atrocious —
anti-Jewish and anti-Israel — and dangerous to Jews to be able
to freely speak their opinions. The sad irony that a student should
accuse Rodney of being “Trumpian” is that Trump supporters
will not accept facts and blindly accept everything Trump says,
and [the same goes for] anti-Israel and anti-Semites, who only
believe what they have been brainwashed with and don’t ever
want to hear the whole complicated history. Zionists on campus
get shouted down and are not protected.

Lisa Sandler | Pipersville
Voices of Reason Will Win Out
I am a lifelong liberal Democrat and I am worried about the shift
of the Democratic Party toward the leftist/progressive voice (“I’m
a Student and I’m Afraid of Where My Party Is Headed,” Jan. 28).

“The Squad” of Omar, Pressley, AOC and Tlaib in the House and
Bernie Sanders in the Senate are making the Democratic Party
feel unsafe for Jews who support Jewish right of self-determina-
tion (support of Israel).

These people are anti-Zionists and, unfortunately, anti-
Semitic. An alternative is to support the repugnant party of
Trumpism but that is not a real alternative. Still, the Democratic
Party is the big tent and we, as liberal Democrats, must call
out the Jew hatred in the progressive wing. As we know, leftists
and the extreme right can agree on one thing — their hatred of
the Jews.

My suspicion is that as President Biden shores up the liberal
elements in the Democratic Party, the voices of reason and
enlightenment principles will win out. There ought to be little
support for the anti-democratic, anti-free speech of the leftists
except those universities that have adopted loss of intellectual
and honest debate. l
Neil Sussman | Philadelphia
STATEMENT FROM THE PUBLISHER
We are a diverse community. The views expressed in the signed opinion columns and let-
ters to the editor published in the Jewish Exponent are those of the authors. They do
not necessarily reflect the views of the officers and boards of the Jewish Publishing
Group, the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia or the Jewish Exponent. Send
letters to letters@jewishexponent.com or fax to 215-569-3389. Letters should be a
maximum of 200 words and may be edited for clarity and brevity. Unsigned letters will not be
published. FEBRUARY 11, 2021
17