H eadlines
NEWSBRIEFS Warsaw Ghetto Bones Found in Basement
Buried in Jewish Cemetery
WARSAW JEWISH COMMUNITY members
buried the bones of a person who may have died in
the city’s ghetto during the Holocaust, JTA reported.

The person’s identity is unknown — the bones
were discovered in the basement of a residential
building by someone looking for a water leak, the
Associated Press reported.

Marek Slusarz, who found the bones, said he was
glad to help bring the remains to a proper burial. He
is not Jewish.

“After nearly 80 years this unknown person got
his dignity back,” Leslaw Piszewski, chairman of the
Jewish Community in Warsaw, said at the ceremony
at a Jewish cemetery. “This is very important. This
is the only thing that we can do for the unknown
victim.” About 450,000 Jews were locked up by the Nazis
in the Warsaw Ghetto, with at least 80,000 dying due
to horrific conditions, disease or starvation. At least
10,000 were killed during the 1943 uprising, according
to the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Israel.

communists shuttered the synagogues there, JTA
reported. The building, which has a floor space of about
25,000 square feet, was inaugurated on Sept. 12
with the help of leaders from the Chasidic Chabad-
Lubavitch movement.

The center, where 200 Jewish children will attend
various classes and workshops, features a kinder-
garten with three classes. It’s the only Western-style
institution in the city of 500,000 and includes a
robotics lab, modern furnishings, pottery workshops
and table tennis stations.

The building will also be open to non-Jews who
can enroll their children in extracurricular activities.

Tomsk is symbolic for many Russian Jews for its
Cantonist community, which became an icon of the
determination of many Jews in Russia to adhere to
their faith and culture despite oppression.

French Court Acquits Imam of Antisemitic
Hatred Incitement Charges
A senior French imam whose sermon recited a
religious text commanding Muslims to kill Jews was
acquitted of incitement to antisemitic hate charges,
Large Jewish Education Center Opens in Siberia JTA reported.

Mohamed Tatai, the rector of the Great Mosque of
The Siberian city of Tomsk opened the region’s
largest Jewish education center — a century after Toulouse, did not intend to incite hatred in his 2017
ISRAELBRIEFS Holon Apartment Building Collapses
AN APARTMENT BUILDING in Holon collapsed
on Sept. 12, destroying the homes of 36 families but
leaving no casualties, JTA reported.

Tragedy was prevented because the building was
evacuated the day before. The collapse comes just a
few months after a similar incident at the Champlain
Towers South in Surfside, Florida, which killed nearly
100. Building residents in Holon said they heard a
loud noise the day before the collapse, prompting the
authorities to evacuate its residents and those in the
buildings next to it. Images of the building before it
collapsed posted to social media showed huge cracks
in the walls with peeling paint and, in some areas,
chunks of the wall falling off.

Uman Pilgrims Suspected of Forging COVID
Tests to Return to Israel
Hundreds of Israelis who traveled to Uman, Ukraine,
for an annual Rosh Hashanah pilgrimage are believed
to have forged negative COVID tests to return to
Israel after testing positive for the virus, JTA reported.

Travelers were required to present a negative
COVID test before traveling to Ukraine and before
returning to Israel. Some of those testing positive
acquired fake test results to board their flights back
to Israel.

Those travelers are likely to be charged with fraud,
forgery and spreading an infectious disease, and were
taken to their homes to quarantine by ambulances,
Haaretz reported.

“The Israeli government takes a very serious view
of patients who fraudulently enter Israel by falsifying
documents and deliberately spread disease, which
constitutes an irresponsible act of harming public
peace,” Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said in a
statement. Tens of thousands of Israelis travel to Uman
annually in a pilgrimage to the grave of Rabbi
Nachman, the leader of the Breslov branch of
Chasidism. More than 3M Israelis Get COVID Boosters
The Health Ministry said on Sept. 17 that 3.02 million
Israelis have received a COVID-19 booster shot since
they were made available over the summer, The Times
of Israel reported.

“To the three million good and responsible Israelis
who went and got vaccinated, thank you! Thanks to
sermon, the Correctional Tribunal of Toulouse ruled on
Sept. 14. The sermon came days after the United States
said it would recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Jewish community leaders, who broke relations
with Tatai and his mosque, protested the ruling. Tatai
leads an interfaith dialogue group called the Circle
for Civil Dialogue.

Survey: 22% of Adult Jewish Gamers Face
Antisemitic Harassment While Playing
About one in five Jewish adults who play online
multiplayer games faced antisemitism while playing,
JTA reported, citing a Sept. 15 survey from the
Anti-Defamation League.

The survey found that harassment and bigotry
are common across the 97 million Americans who
play multiplayer games. About 83% of adult gamers
surveyed said they have been harassed while playing;
60% of gamers aged 13-17 said the same.

Among adults, nearly half of women said they were
harassed, as did 42% of Black gamers and more than
one-in-three Asian and LGBTQ+ gamers. A quarter
of Muslim gamers also said they were harassed. More
than 70% of 10 adults reported what the ADL calls
“severe abuse, including physical threats, stalking and
sustained harassment.” l
— Compiled by Andy Gotlieb
you, we are all safer and healthier, and thanks to you,
our country remains open during the holidays and in
general,” Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said. “Our
next goal: four million vaccinated.”
The Health Ministry said there were 81,072 active
cases, with 661 of them considered serious. The death
toll stood at 7,494, and 6.33% of the tests came back
positive on Sept. 16.

Carcinogenic Emissions Climb 14% in 2020
Emissions of materials known or suspected to be
carcinogenic increased 14% in Israel in 2020, Globes
reported, citing data published by the Ministry of
Environmental Protection.

Much of the increase was attributed to new sources
of benzene emissions discovered at the ICL Rotem
(Rotem Amfert Negev) fertilizer plant and at Yehuda
Steel, and also to production increases at asphalt
plants. The report said that emissions by factories into
the air, the sea, rivers and the land because of break-
downs increased by 330% since 2012.

Waste burning was the source of 62% of the
carcinogens released into the air. l
— Compiled by Andy Gotlieb
www. jewishexponent.com
8 SEPTEMBER 23, 2021
JEWISH EXPONENT
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



H eadlines
‘Sounds of Jerusalem’ Shaped WKDU’s History
L OCA L
SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
AS A DREXEL University
freshman in December 1977,
Mark Grossmann traveled to
Israel on a Hillel-sponsored
trip. He had just begun
working at WKDU, the univer-
sity’s student-run radio station.

On that trip, Grossmann
caught the ear bug of Israeli
pop music, buying three
Israeli records to take back
to Philadelphia, including
“Sipurei Pugi,” rock band
Kaveret’s debut album.

On Jan. 13, 1978, Grossmann
would spin that album on his
inaugural episode of “Sounds
of Jerusalem,” his WKDU
show about Israeli culture
that aired weekly through the
station for almost 15 years
until 1992, when Grossmann
left Philadelphia for Boston,
where he now lives.

On July 17, Grossmann and
his small production team
reprised the show for two hours
at WKDU’s 50th anniversary
event, celebrating the show’s
lasting impact, along with the
talent of several other WKDU
alumni. Thousands in the Drexel and
Philadelphia Jewish commu-
nity tuned into “Sounds of
Jerusalem” in its late ’80s heyday,
making it one of WKDU’s most
popular programs. The show
was syndicated to two U.S.

radio stations and, at one point,
broadcast in Israel.

But Grossmann’s show had
humble beginnings. The only
Jewish person at the station,
Grossmann was asked by his
program director to create a
show on Jewish culture.

As a freshman having to
climb the ranks to establish his
reputation, Grossmann played
30 minutes of Israeli music for
his first episode of “Sounds
of Jerusalem,” which was
embedded in another student’s
6-10 a.m. radio show.

JEWISHEXPONENT.COM After 10 weeks of that
abbreviated format, the station
managers gave Grossmann
the OK for his own four-hour
time slot.

Grossmann immediately
took advantage. Using grant
money from the Hillels of
Greater Philadelphia, he
bought more music and devel-
oped a show.

He frequently had Steve
Feldman, now the executive
director of Zionists of America
Philadelphia, as a corre-
spondent, and created other
segments, such as “A Moment
of Hebrew,” “Torah Thoughts of
the Day” and “The Nutritioner
Rebbe,” an unnamed Jewish
Drexel student studying nutri-
tion (revealed at the 50th
anniversary show to be Dr.

Stephan Lansey, a physician
practicing in New York).

Grossmann developed a
See Sounds, Page 20
WKDU station staff in 1979: Mark Grossmann is below the exit sign;
Sherri Pennington is in front in a leather jacket. Courtesy of WKDU archives
In Memoriam
The Philadelphia Israel Bonds Council and Staff
Mourn the loss of our long time Campaign Vice Chair, Robert (Bob) Rovner,
A dedicated Zionist and staunch supporter of Israel Bonds.

May his memory always be for a blessing.

Photo provided by family of Robert (Bob) Rovner
Glenn Segal, Campaign Chair
Harold F. Marcus, Executive Director Israel Bonds Pennsylvania Region
Ari Sirner, Incoming Executive Director
Sharon Richman, Registered Representative
Karen McGuire, Administrative Assistant
Development Corporation for Israel
1511 Walnut St Suite 301 • Philadelphia, PA 19102
philadelphia@israelbonds.com • 215.545.8380
800.752.5671 JEWISH EXPONENT
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.

PERPETUATING A 70-YEAR
LEGACY OF ACHIEVEMENT
israelbonds.com SEPTEMBER 23, 2021
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