C ommunity
COMMUNITYBRIEFS Holocaust Survivor Dr. John J. Spitzer Dies at 94
DR. JOHN J. SPITZER of Haverford, a Holocaust
survivor who spoke often later in life about his experi-
ences, died on Jan. 20. He was 94.

A native of Baja, Hungary, he became an orphan at 17
in 1944 when the Nazis invaded, and he was selected to
work for a traveling SS group performing manual labor.

He was liberated the following year.

He met his late wife, Judy, a year later while enrolled
in medical school in Budapest, Hungary. She also was
a doctor.

Although they were engaged in 1949, she was able to
leave and go to the United States because she had family
in Philadelphia, but he could not get out of Hungary.

Spitzer paid off authorities to illegally take him and
other Jews to Vienna, Austria; in transit, he realized
the truck was heading back to Budapest, so he and two
others crawled to safety, eventually making it to Vienna
and, after graduating medical school in Germany, to
Canada, where they were reunited in 1951.

After landing a job in Nova Scotia, Spitzer later
worked in Tallahassee, Florida.

From 1956 until 1973 the Spitzers worked in
Philadelphia, including as professors of physiology at
Hahnemann Medical College. Briefs in Jewish Exponent
archives mention a $307,448 National Institutes of
Health grant in 1967 to study fat metabolism. Two years
earlier, he received an unspecified $79,000 grant and
was elected president of the Philadelphia Physiological
Association. After leaving Philadelphia, the couple moved to New
Orleans, where John Spitzer became the head of the
Department of Physiology at LSU Medical Center. While
there, he established a drug and alcohol abuse center.

The Spitzers returned to Philadelphia after Hurricane
Katrina destroyed their house in 2005. They told
acquaintances that the only item they salvaged from
their home was an oil-lit menorah they brought with
them from Europe.

Over the past 15 years, Spitzer regularly lectured
at local high schools about the Holocaust and, more
recently, he mentored college students as well.

Spitzer is survived by his son Peter (Wendy),
daughter Juliet (Phil Wachs), six grandchildren and
seven great-grandchildren.

being retained by the new synagogue to continue as
their spiritual leaders.

Rabbi Jennifer L. Frenkel will be the senior rabbi,
Rabbi Jerome P. David will be the rabbi emeritus,
Cantor Rhoda J. Harrison will be the senior cantor,
Cantor Neil Schnitzer will be the cantor sheini and
Cantor Anita Hochman will be the cantor emerita.

Synagogue Supports Israeli Restaurant After
Targeted Negative Reviews
Congregations of Shaare Shamayim members bought
more than $1,000 worth of food on Jan. 23 from Israeli
restaurant Yalla in Teaneck, New Jersey, synagogue
Executive Director Jacques Lurie said.

The effort was made in support of the restaurant,
which received several 1-star ratings on its Yelp and
Google pages from pro-Palestinian reviewers accusing
Yalla of being “appropriative” of Palestinian culture,
according to Yalla owner Jacob Goldberg. “Yalla” is
the Arabic word for “let’s go,” but is commonly used
by many non-Arabic speakers, Goldberg said.

Negative reviews of the restaurant increased after
a TikTok user posted a video on the app encouraging
people to leave negative reviews. United for Israel
posted about the incident on Jan. 20, which prompted
Lurie to support the restaurant.

Goldberg said that after the United for Israel article,
Yalla’s business increased due to community support. The
restaurant has a 4.6 rating on Google with 437 reviews.

Two Cherry Hill Synagogues to Merge
Two Reform Jewish synagogues in Cherry Hill, New
Jersey — Temple Emanuel and Congregation M’kor
Shalom — will unify as one new congregation on July 1.

The unification decision was approved by both
congregations during meetings on Jan. 24 and comes
after nearly 16 months of discussions and planning
on both sides.

In early discussions, the synagogues said they
discovered many similarities, shared values and comple-
menting strengths and challenges. Both synagogues
said they were strong but faced declining membership,
creating a need for long-term strategic planning.

The new congregation, which hasn’t been named,
will meet in the current Temple Emanuel building at
the corner of Springdale and Kresson roads in Cherry
Hill, across the street from the Katz JCC.

Institute for Jewish-Catholic Relations hosts
All clergy from both individual synagogues are “Nazis of Copley Square” Webinar
The Institute for Jewish-Catholic Relations will host
a webinar at 7 p.m. on Feb. 7 detailing “the forgotten
history of American terrorists who, in the name of
God, conspired to overthrow the government and
formed an alliance with Hitler.”
“Nazis of Copley Square: The Forgotten Story of
the Christian Front, 1939-1945” will be led by Jesuit
scholar Charles Gallagher, an associate professor of
history at Boston College.

On July 14, 1939, 200 Philadelphia police and a
crowd of 6,000 filled Philadelphia’s Metropolitan
Opera House to hear the famed “radio priest” Father
Charles E. Coughlin commission John F. Cassidy to
lead his new Christian Front organization.

Six months later, FBI agents burst into Cassidy’s
home, arrested him and seized military-grade rifles,
ammunition and homemade bombs. FBI Director
J. Edgar Hoover alleged the group was planning to
incite a revolution and install a “temporary dictator-
ship” to stamp out Jewish and communist influence
in the United States.

Gallagher’s discussion will include insight into
how the Christian Front’s antisemitism was inspired
by Sunday sermons and lay leaders openly espousing
fascist and Nazi beliefs.

Contact the institute at ijcr@sju.edu for webinar
registration, which is required. l
Drs. John and Judy Spitzer in 1972. They had returned from a lecture tour of Japan; the poster announces one of their
— Compiled by Andy Gotlieb and Sasha Rogelberg
lectures. Jewish Exponent file photo
18 FEBRUARY 3, 2022
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