H eadlines
Deb Ryan Running for Chester County DA Job
L O CAL
JESSE BERNSTEIN | JE STAFF
IT TOOK JUST ONE CASE
for Deb Ryan, now running for
District Attorney in Chester
County, to know she wanted to
be a prosecutor.

After graduating from
Boston University, she had a
sense of wanting to “help” in
some way; she just didn’t have a
“how” yet. She landed an intern-
ship at the office of then-Phila-
delphia District Attorney Lynne
Abraham, where she “fell in
love with the work.”
Early on, she sat in on a trial
where she watched a prosecu-
tor make a closing argument in
a murder case.

“It was riveting,” she said.

“Watching him advocate for
justice on behalf of the victim
and the survivors, his family,
was so awe inspiring I was
hooked instantaneously.”
As she spent more time in the
internship, she found that sort
of sense of justice to be exactly
what she had been seeking.

“There was this incredible
sense of unity and support for
victims, and the idea of advo-
cating for justice for someone
who has been harmed in some
fashion by a team of people who
really cared about doing the
right thing was inspiring,” she
said. “The people I had worked
with or for were amazingly
kind, generous, smart people
who really just wanted to help
the community in some way.”
NAME: HCR MANOR CARE/ARDEN COURT; WIDTH: 5.5 IN; DEPTH: 7.38
Tuesday IN; COLOR: BLACK PLUS ONE; AD NUMBER: 00083407
March 5th
March 19th
Memory Café
Hosted by Arden Courts
10:00 am to 11:00 am
Barnes and Noble
(in the Starbucks)
210 Commerce Boulevard
Fairless Hills, PA 19030
RSVP for this event by calling
(215) 321-6166 or e-mailing
Yardley@arden-courts.com Wednesday
March 6th
10:00 am to 11:00 am
Join us each month for coffee and
conversation specifically for people
with dementia and their caregivers.

What is Memory Café?
Originally started in England, this informal setting
provides the caregiver a forum for discussion, reducing
the isolation often felt by people with dementia, their
caregivers and families. Discussions can range from
practical tips for coping with dementia, avoiding
caregiver burnout or information about community
resources. There is no cost or obligation, and many
attendees develop friendships that result in support
even outside the Memory Café setting.

TM York Diner
41 York Road
Warminster, PA 18974
RSVP for this event by calling
(215) 957-5182 or e-mailing
Warminster@arden-courts.com Wednesday
March 13th
10:00 am to 11:00 am
Lancer’s Diner
858 Easton Road
Horsham, PA 19044
RSVP for this event by calling
(215) 957-5182 or e-mailing
Warminster@arden-courts.com arden-courts.com
Memory Care Community
12717_Warminster_Mar_5.5x7.375.indd 1
6 FEBRUARY 28, 2019
Now, Ryan, a graduate
of University of Pittsburgh
School of Law, is running as a
victim’s rights advocate in her
race against incumbent district
attorney (and former boss) Tom
Hogan in Chester County, posi-
tioning herself as the candidate
most interested in protecting
victims and working with police.

“They’re looking for some-
one who will be a supportive
leader,” she said, something
that her friends in law enforce-
ment have told her has been
lacking in recent years.

Ryan, the granddaughter
of Holocaust survivors, moved
around a lot when she was
young, as her family followed her
father’s job with General Electric
from Massachusetts to Syracuse
to Villanova, where they finally
settled. Ryan attended Harriton
High School and Har Zion
Temple before leaving for Boston
University. After she graduated
law school in 1998, she joined
the DA’s office in Philadelphia.

Those were trying but exhil-
arating days.

“We dealt with so many dif-
ferent kinds of crimes, we had
an enormous caseload, and we
tried a ton of cases every day
there,” she said.

Still, she found the expe-
rience rewarding, especially
when it came to the difficult
work of combating childhood
sexual abuse, an area that has
come to be her calling card.

In 2002, she had her second
child and decided that she would
stay at home for a few years.

The family moved to Chester
County and, for the next four
years, Ryan worked part time as
the chief operating officer at her
mother’s nonprofit, Champions
of Caring. The programs she ran
encouraged children to become
“social entrepreneurs,” creating
action plans for bettering their
communities and training them
in skills like resume writing and
public speaking.

Still, the old life called.

“I’m a prosecutor through
and through,” she said.

Deb Ryan
Photo provided
In 2006, she began working
at the Chester County DA’s office
as an assistant district attorney
and spent the next decade rising
up the ranks, earning promotions
and awards from Hogan himself.

In 2016, she started working at the
Crime Victim Center of Chester
County as the county coordi-
nator for the Safe and Healthy
Communities Initiative, working
on a program to eradicate child
sexual abuse through education.

About a year ago, her friends
in law enforcement began to
tell her that she should con-
sider running, a request she
first rejected out of hand. They
felt disrespected by the current
administration, without sup-
port, and looked to Ryan as the
solution. “I’m not a politician,”
she reasoned. But she’d think
about it, she told them.

Around then, she visited her
brother in Israel, a reporter for
The Jerusalem Post.

“He looked at me and said,
‘You know you can do so much
good for so many people if you
do this,’ and I took that to heart.”
A week later, he died
unexpectedly. Ryan believes that the sense
of justice instilled in her by her
grandparents, teaching her and
her brother to advocate for the
marginalized in whatever way
they could, still powers her.

“I want to be the voice
on behalf of victims and
survivors,” she said. l
jbernstein@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0740
1/21/19 2:26 PM
JEWISH EXPONENT
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



H eadlines
Orthodox Parents of LGBTQ Kids Seek Inclusion
NATION A L
VICTORIA BROWN | JE FEATURE
MINDY SAGER DICKLER’S
guiding philosophy is ahavas
Yisrael — love for fellow Jews.

“There’s no exceptions. We
have a responsibility to love one
another and not to judge one
another. Those should be over-
riding principles,” said Dickler,
president and co-founder
of JPride Baltimore and an
Orthodox mother of a gay child.

“There certainly should be no
room for homophobia any place
in our society, including in our
Orthodox communities.”
Eshel, an organization
devoted to promoting the
acceptance of LGBTQ youth
in the Orthodox community,
recently published results
from a survey conducted at its
annual retreat in November.

The report details the desires
of parents of LGBTQ children.

“We want you to know how
we feel,” the report’s opening said,
“and what you can do to change
the often negative and sometimes
bigoted viewpoints you express.”
The survey, titled “Moving
Forward: A Request from
Orthodox Parents with LGBTQ
Children,” found that 62 per-
cent of LGBTQ children had left
Orthodoxy (compared to the
findings of a Pew study that 83
percent of Jewish adults raised
Orthodox remain Orthodox).

The survey found that par-
ents felt that privately discuss-
ing LGBTQ experiences with
rabbis has not changed overall
community mentalities toward
LGBTQ individuals. The sur-
vey cites the need for Orthodox
institutions to reassess their
stances on LGBTQ individuals
in the community and “reach
out to the broader community
to begin a positive dialogue,”
the survey said. More parents
felt the messaging of national
Orthodox organizations should
change (37 percent) as opposed
to the messaging of their pulpit
rabbis (27.5 percent).

The survey also found
that every parent felt that day
schools needed to be doing
something different to address
bullying and discrimination
against LGBTQ children. More
than 63 percent suggested
mandated training for faculty
and staff while just under 32
percent wanted schools to pub-
lish an inclusion policy.

“One of the biggest sur-
prises for us is that the majority
of parents want their children
to be in a happy relationship,
whether it’s a same-sex part-
ner, or a partner of their choice,
and not be celibate,” Eshel
Executive Director Miryam
Kabakov said.

Dickler said that LGBTQ chil-
dren of Orthodox families “have
to make a choice between being
a part of the LGBT community
… and being affiliated with the
Jewish community,” and that it
shouldn’t be that way. The next
steps toward greater equality and
acceptance in Jewish Orthodox
communities, Dickler said, are
“in the hands of the rabbi and the
Jewish leaders.”
Kabakov hopes that rabbis
take notice of the survey and rec-
ognize that families of LGBTQ
congregants want acceptance
and inclusion from them.

Other steps Kabakov hopes
come out of the survey’s pub-
lication include education for
staff and faculty at Jewish day
schools and a greater discus-
sion among rabbis about the
issues facing their LGBTQ
congregants. Kabakov also
hopes that rabbinic associa-
tions will behave differerently
with rabbis who are friendly to
the LGBTQ community. She
cited examples of the threats
to remove a mashgiach’s cer-
tification abilities and another
rabbi’s ability to build an eruv.

“They hold a lot of power
and they use it to shut down
discussions,” she said.

Dickler is ready for the con-
versation to change.

“Time is up,” she said. “It’s
time to create an understand-
ing that [LGBTQ people] are
in our communities, are in our
families, they’re in our homes
and they’re welcome just as
much as any other Jew.” l
Victoria Brown is a staff writer for
the Baltimore Jewish Times, an
affiliated publication of the Jewish
Exponent. NAME: DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION FOR ISR; WIDTH: 9.25 IN; DEPTH: 5.5 IN; COLOR: BLACK PLUS ONE; AD NUMBER:
00083404 ISRAEL BONDS PHILADELPHIA
Congratulates NAOMI ADLER
CEO, Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia
Philadelphia Honoree at the
2019 International Prime Minister’s
Club Dinner
The Diplomat Beach Resort · Sunday, March 3, 2019
To RSVP or for more information contact:
212.446.5839 · pmcdinner@israelbonds.com
Development Corporation for Israel
Harold F. Marcus, Executive Director
Sharon Richman & Ari Sirner, Registered Representatives
1511 Walnut St., Suite 301
Philadelphia, PA 19102 • 215.545.8380 800.752.5671
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM This is not an offering, which can be made only by prospectus.

Read the prospectus carefully before investing to fully evaluate the
risks associated with investing in Israel bonds. Issues subject to
availability. Member FINRA.

JEWISH EXPONENT
BOND WITH A NATION
OF LIMITLESS POTENTIAL
israelbonds.com FEBRUARY 28, 2019
7