C ommunity / mazel tovs
COMMUNITYBRIEFS Local Cemetery Company Quoted Heinrich
Himmler in Calendar
NATIONAL CEMETERY OPERATOR StoneMor,
Inc., which is located in Trevose, issued — and
then recalled — a 2020 calendar that included a
quote from Nazi commander Heinrich Himmler, The
Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

StoneMor spokesman Keith Trost said the calendar
was produced by a vendor and that the mistake was
made out of ignorance instead of hate; the theme of
the calendar was “honor.” The quote for November
was Himmler’s “My honor is my loyalty” — which
referenced loyalty to Adolf Hitler.

The company said it printed 38,000 copies of the
calendar, which it sent to funeral homes in late 2019
as part of its annual reporting campaign.

In a statement to the Inquirer, StoneMor CEO
Joe Redling said the company’s marketing team was
able to recall and destroy most of the calendars. He
said the vendor was fired, as were the employees who
didn’t notice the phrase. He said policies were put in
place to prevent it from happening again.

Redling said the company has no tolerance for
anti-Semitism and informed the Anti-Defamation
League Philadelphia office about what happened.

StoneMor operates 321 cemeteries and 90 funeral
homes, most of them east of the Mississippi River,
according to its website. That includes the Jewish Beth
Israel Cemetery in Woodbridge, New Jersey, and 13
sites for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

Zagafen Regains Cholov Yisroel Designation
Zagafen restaurant in Merion Station once again is
serving food under a cholov Yisroel designation.

When the dairy restaurant first opened last fall,
it touted that it had both the cholov stam designa-
tion, as well as the more stringent cholov Yisroel
designation. The latter requires a separate kitchen, a
second mashgiach, time-consuming extra silverware
cleaning and additional training for servers.

But in a January Exponent article, owner David
Magerman said the community that the cholov
Yisroel designation was created to serve did not seem
to be interested in Zagafen.

“It was an experiment, and it didn’t work out,”
Zagafen exterior
Photo by Joanna Rottini
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM Magerman said then.

He has since reconsidered.

“The bottom line is we made a mistake,” he wrote
in an email. “We thought restricting ourselves to
Cholov Yisroel ingredients would hold us back from a
culinary perspective, but we were wrong. We thought
the market wouldn’t be impacted significantly by not
being Cholov Yisroel, but we were wrong.”
Zagafen’s website is touting a new menu.

“We now know that we can create a great product at
a reasonable price point using exclusively Cholov Yisroel
ingredients, and that will allow us to serve a larger part
of the local and transient kosher market, and so that’s
what we are going to do,” Magerman wrote.

Longtime Philadelphia, Cheltenham Educator
Leonard B. Finkelstein Dies at 91
Leonard B. Finkelstein, 91, a former School District
of Philadelphia district superintendent and former
Cheltenham School District superintendent, died
Sept. 21, according to his family. He was 91.

Finkelstein worked for Philadelphia schools for
more than 27 years as a teacher, principal, program
director and district superintendent. He was the
first director of the district’s Parkway Program and
created and directed the Alternative Programs Office
before serving as the District Six Area Superintendent
(West Oak Lane, Mt. Airy and Germantown).

Leonard B.

Finkelstein Courtesy of the
Finkelstein family
He then served as superintendent of the
Cheltenham district, holding the position for more
than 10 years.

He later worked with Aramark at the Pan
American Games, and set up new school systems and
trained teachers in the United States, Europe, and
Asia, including multiple trips to China and Thailand.

Locally, he helped create the Science Leadership
Academy and was involved in the experiential design
of The National Constitution Center. He was on the
advisory board and a U.S. delegate of the World
Council for Gifted and Talented Children.

In his 80s, Finkelstein and his wife, Leila,
founded Global Youth United, a youth led nonprofit
organization. JEWISH EXPONENT
Finkelstein is survived by his wife, Leila; four
children Larry (Donna), Lisa, Lee (Rita) and Lon
(Holly); and nine grandchildren.

Synagogue to Sell Pandemic-Inspired Cookbook
Congregation M’kor Shalom of Cherry Hill,
New Jersey, announced it will soon be selling a
cookbook entitled “Pots and Pandemic – Cooking in
Quarantine.” The book will contain more than 200 recipes
submitted by congregants and community members
from across the country. The book is divided into
sections for appetizers; soups, salads, sides and sauces;
main dishes; baked goods; and desserts.

Many contributors share anecdotes about the
motivations and experience that brought them into
the kitchen during the pandemic.

The $20 book will be available for distribution after
Thanksgiving, with a portion of the profits donated to
the Betsy and Peter Fischer Food Pantry of Jewish
Family & Children’s Service of Southern New Jersey. l
— Compiled by Andy Gotlieb
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