By Marshall Weiss, The Dayton Jewish Observer Aleksandar Svager, who along with his wife, the late Thyrsa Svager, funded numerous college scholarships for African American women to complete their degrees in mathematics, died Oct. 3 at Brookdale Oakwood. He was 93. “He always thought about helping people in my sister’s

Though he insists he was taken out of context, interview was ‘politicized.’ By Marshall Weiss, The Dayton Jewish Observer A day after JTA distributed the news story, The only rabbi in Springfield, Ohio, says local Haitian migrants lack ‘Western civilized values,’ the rabbi, Cary Kozberg, issued a statement that he

The rabbi’s comments come as Jewish groups decry Donald Trump’s claims about migrants eating pets. By Andrew Lapin, JTA Since Donald Trump amplified baseless rumors about Haitian migrants eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, last week, the community has been beset with bomb threats and white nationalist activity. A leading Jewish

In person Oct. 7 & via Zoom with Western Galilee, Israel, Oct. 27 By Marshall Weiss, The Dayton Jewish Observer The Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton will present two memorial programs to mark one year since the Hamas massacre of Oct. 7: one in person on Oct. 7, the other

By Marshall Weiss, The Dayton Jewish Observer When Dan Sweeny was elected president of the Jewish Federation at its annual meeting Aug. 25, four generations of his family were in the room, from his grandmother Elaine Bettman to his children. And Joe Bettman, his late grandfather, was in his heart.

By Marshall Weiss, The Dayton Jewish Observer In 2006, Yad Vashem published a diary in which 14-year-old Rutka Laskier, a Polish Jew, wrote about her life for four months in 1943, until her deportation and murder in Auschwitz. A non-Jewish friend of Rutka had safeguarded the diary for six decades.

The public is invited to attend three readings of a new play, Anschel, by Michael London, based on the book Anschel’s Story by Renate Frydman. The Dayton Holocaust Resource Center’s founder and director, Frydman published the book in 2017. It’s her late husband’s story of survival in Nazi-occupied Poland. Told

By Rabbi Aubrey L. Glazer, Beth Abraham Synagogue Why do we gather? As a tribal and global community, Jews know that gatherings play a huge role in our lives. In this process of our comings together of friends, family, and co-workers, Priya Parker teaches that we all have the potential

Opinion By Avi Gilbert This summer, I had a life-changing experience: the chance to travel to Israel for a month. Because of the ongoing war, none of my camp friends from Goldman Union Camp Institute traveled with me, so I didn’t know anyone else on the trip. However, that was

Wittenberg University has hired Darren Hertz as its new men’s basketball head coach. The Miami, Fla. native served as an assistant coach at the University of Dayton since 2017 and brings with him 25-plus years of experience as a college men’s basketball coach, including 19 seasons at his alma mater,