the Jewish Federation of Greater Wilkes-Barre

Invite you to join us as our guest for a dessert
reception at the Wyoming Valley JCC
60 S. River St., Wilkes-Barre, PA
on Sunday evening,
May 20, 2012 at 7:30 p.m.

Yuval Shaked Senior Lecturer & Assistant Professor of the Technion Faculty of Medicine.

Yuval Shaked is an assistant professor and senior lecturer in the Department of Molecular Pharmacology at the Technion Faculty of Medicine. His research focuses on tumor cell biology and cancer therapy. His approach is to examine angiogenesis (the growth of new blood vessels, which is necessary for cancerous tumors to spread), tumor invasion and metastasis, the tumor microenvironment, and cancer stem cells. Prof. Shaked and a team of researchers have been looking at how cancer cells escape conventional therapy and develop resistance to treatment. He recently co-published an article in the scientific journal Cancer Research showing that chemotherapy in mice killed tumor cells but also increased the risk of metastasis.

In addition to his academic career, Prof. Shaked is an industry consultant to several biotech companies
involved in exploring cancer treatment and angiogenesis. He is also co-founder of Sensit Science
LTD., which develops drugs that make tumor cells more responsive to radiation therapy.

“Cancer therapy: the two-sided coin”

RSVP by May 15, 2012 to: No Charge for Reception
Barbara Sugarman , Adult and Cultural Director No Solicitation of Funds
JCC 60 So. River St. Wilkes-Barre PA 18702
570-824-4646

Mark Silverberg, executive director, has announced that there will be NO COST for the bus or parade for those attending. This is a gift from the Federation because we feel so passionately about the parade and its role in promoting the State of Israel in the United States. And, of course, WE LOVE IT!

There will be pick up points in both Scranton and the Poconos (we don’t know our time of departure yet as we always wait to hear when we will be marching in the parade). After the parade, we will stop in Teaneck, N.J. to give our marchers a chance to go out for a delicious dinner at one of the many kosher restaurants available.

Please get the word out as soon as possible. Without a full bus, we CANNOT GO.

Don’t hesitate to call or email with your questions and RSVP.

Dassy Ganz
Jewish Federation of NEPA
570-961-2300 ext. 2
Dassy.ganz@jewishnepa.org

The Jewish Federation of NEPA has Yom Hashoah candles available at no cost for members of the community. The candles are lit on the evening of Yom Hashoah which will take place this year on Thursday April 19. “These yellow yahrtzeit  candles keep alive the memory of those who perished in the Shoah,” said Federation executive director Mark Silverberg.

Also on the evening of April 19, 2012  the Scranton JCC will have its annual Yom Hashoah program at 6:30 PM . This year’s program will feature the newly released film, The Rescuers, currently featured at international film festivals.

For more information on how to receive a Yom Hashoah candle, please call or email Dassy at 961-2300 x2   dassy.ganz@jewishnepa.org.

Thursday evening April 19, 2012

601 Jefferson Ave. Scranton

6:30 PM

The JCC Yom Hashoah Memorial event committee is proud to announce that this year’s program will feature the newly released film The Rescuers. This film, making the rounds at international film festivals, is being brought to us by Mr. Ben & Irma Schnessel, a member of the board of trustees of the Jewish Federation of NEPA.

“Ben is a close friend of  Dr. Sylvia Smoller who is featured in the film”, explained Esther Adelman event chairperson.” Dr. Smoller herself will be with us to introduce the film and, time permitting, will answer questions after the film”.(Please look for further information about the film elsewhere in this issue).

There is no charge for this event.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Click here to preview the invitation

Click here to preview the synopsis

Check below for the reviews…

REVIEWS

PRAISE FOR THE RESCUERS

“Hugely informative, terrifically moving.”
- Robert W. Butler, film critic, Kansas City Star

“Provocative and genuinely inspiring.”
- John Hartl, film critic, Seattle Times

“The Rescuers is an important and timely film. It has a global message that speaks to our shared humanity. These incredible stories will inspire you and your family. Take a journey into the mystery of goodness!”
- Vicangelo Bulluck, Executive Director, NAACP Hollywood Bureau & Executive Producer Image Awards

“An extraordinary film…adding an historic and important film to the lexicon of memory.”
- Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean, Simon Wiesenthal Center

“I could see The Rescuers getting a 2011 Academy Award nomination.”
- Bruce Fessier, The Desert Sun

“Fascinating. Emotional. Pace hopping. Heightens the modern relevance for young viewers.”
- Dennis Harvey, Variety

“More than just facts and figures about history, The Rescuers ponders the nature of heroism for individuals as well as for diplomacy as an institution.”
- Susan Doll, Facets Features

“Celebrating our Partner Agencies”

 Scranton Jewish Community Center
Koppelman Auditorium
Thursday, June 14^th, 2012
7:00 PM

Concluding Remarks
Jeff Rubel, Incoming President

Refreshments

-by Mark Silverberg

Although the 2012 UJA Campaign (which concludes in May) shows a card-for-card increase as of February 2^nd of $14,287 over last year’s 2011 Campaign (thanks to the continuing generosity of our Jewish communities), the nationwide economic downturn together with the deaths of several significant UJA Campaign contributors this year have combined to effectively cancel out this increase.

It is critical that our UJA Campaign closes at $885,388 – the amount raised as a result of last year’s 2011 UJA Campaign. As of February 2^nd, our Annual Campaign stood at $764,696 and our records indicate that $124,412 in gifts received last year currently remain outstanding for a projected final Campaign of $889,108. This projection, however, assumes that each and every outstanding UJA gift made last year will close at the identical level this year – something that is highly unlikely to occur.

Closing these gifts and adding new contributors to our 2012 UJA Campaign while there is still time is critical if we are to avoid the trauma (and consequences) of reducing allocations to our many educational, cultural, social and recreational agencies and institutions in Northeast PA that provide our communities with so many important services.

Such a serious budgetary shortfall would result in the elimination of many programs, as well as staff reductions and a scaling-down of allocations to our agencies’, Hebrew schools’, and social welfare institutions across the board. No one institution, no one agency, no one Hebrew school would be exempt from this trauma.

Nor will we be in a position to fulfill our commitments to Israel and world Jewry as we have always done, and the consequences arising from the so-called “Arab Spring” make our commitment to and fear for Israel’s security at this moment in history even more acute.

Our communities were founded by those who believed in the continuity of Jewish life here, in Israel and around the world. It was their generation that contributed to the birth of the modern Jewish state, and supported Israel in its many wars against those who continue to seek its destruction.

It was their generation that built our educational and social welfare institutions and synagogues, established Hebrew Free Loan Societies to assist newly-arrived European Jewish immigrants in establishing their lives here, sent their children to our Hebrew schools, and understood very well that the seeds they were planting were for generations of Jews they would never live to see.

They are no longer with us. Now, it’s our turn to carry the torch of Jewish survival into the future.

As Jews, we are required both by history and tradition to secure our Jewish future in Northeastern Pennsylvania as much as we are required to preserve a strong, dynamic Israel. If there is to be a “next generation” here, it will be because we have willed it to be so – just as our parents and grandparents did for us so long ago.

So, if you have not yet made a gift to our Jewish communities’ 2012 UJA Campaign, but are considering doing so, I hope you will do so now. Learn more about donations here.

Please direct it to the Jewish Federation of Northeastern Pennsylvania, 601 Jefferson Avenue, Scranton, PA 18510 – MEMO: 2012 UJA Campaign gift.

Thanks,
Mark Silverberg, Executive Director

Jewish Federation of Northeastern Pennsylvania

By: ISRAEL21c

NeuroAD offers drug-free help for Alzheimer’s.

What a year for science in Israel. It was a year for notable breakthroughs in diabetes, cancer research, Alzheimer’s, and robotic technologies.

It was a year when Israeli scientists developed countless imaginative ways to try to reduce our carbon footprint, making giant strides in environmental innovations, from solar energy, to desalination, and alternative fuels, and even the world’s first tugboat for airplanes.

It was also the year when a computer beat human contestants at a game show, and Israeli scientist, Danny Shechtman won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry – the fourth Israeli to win the chemistry prize, and the 10th to win a Nobel.

With so much happening during 2011, it’s hard to keep track of all the advances. To refresh your memories, we’ve put together a list of the 10 most popular science stories of the year.

1. A vaccine that can kill cancer

Vaxil BioTherapeutics’ ImMucin, a therapeutic vaccine in advanced clinical trials at Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem, can be tailored to treat not only 90 percent of cancers, but also mega-diseases such as tuberculosis. ImMucin is not a preventative; it activates and enhances the body’s natural immune system to seek and destroy cancer cells already present, such as those lingering after cancer surgery. The treatment causes no side effects, and can be taken indefinitely, like vitamins. CEO Julian Levy tells ISRAEL21c that ImMucin could be ready and marketable within six years.

2. The latest in high-tech security — a mouse

Israeli startup Bioexplorers has a non-invasive and easy method to detect contraband in purses, luggage and cargo: trained rodents. “Mice have an excellent sense of smell, and they’re relatively easy to train,” explains CEO Eran Lumbroso. When a person goes through a Bioexplorers system passageway, a fan blows air into a sensor receptor and delivers it into a chamber containing several trained mice. If they sniff drugs or bombs, they move into another chamber and set off an alarm. “The mice rarely make an error, and the entire procedure is far less invasive or intimidating than the alternatives, like using dogs or X-ray machines,” says Lumbroso.

3. Breakthrough device helps Alzheimer’s patients regain cognitive skills

NeuroAD, a new electromagnetic stimulation system developed by Yokneam-based Neuronix, appears to change the course of the degenerative Alzheimer’s disease and allow patients to regain faded cognitive skills. It is the first medical device in the world to receive approval for treating mild to moderate Alzheimer’s. Clinical trials, which are continuing in 2012 in Europe and the United States, show that a few weeks of this non-invasive treatment measurable results in cognitive improvement superior to improvements achieved with Alzheimer’s medications.

4. A game-changer in breast-cancer detection

After Israeli electro-optical engineer Boaz Arnon lost his mother, Ruth, to breast cancer in 2004, he set his sights on inventing a more accurate, cost-effective and hands-off screening alternative to mammography. RUTH, the device he innovated and named after his mom, uses a new trademarked platform based on quantitative computer analysis of 3D and infrared signals emitted from cancerous and benign breast tissue. The brief screening procedure involves no physical contact or radiation, and could be available in doctors’ offices — initially as an adjunct to mammography — in 2012.

5. An Alzheimer’s vaccine in a nasal spray?

Could Alzheimer’s disease be prevented, not just treated? That’s the thinking behind a Tel Aviv University-developed nasal two-in-one vaccine that could protect against both Alzheimer’s and stroke. The spray appears to repair vascular damage in the brain by rounding up “troops” from the body’s own immune system. This breakthrough is of extraordinary interest to American pharmaceutical makers, given that one in eight Americans will develop Alzheimer’s at some point, and because Alzheimer’s is often associated with increased risk of a potentially fatal stroke due to vascular damage in the brain.

To read the full story click here www.israel21c.org

A Matter of Size- Winner of numerous international awards, this Israeli comedy  is a hilarious and heart-warming tale about four overweight guys who learn to love themselves through the Japanese sport of sumo wrestling. (not rated)

Komediant-(non-feature) The glory days of the Yiddish stage are brought to life in this funny saga of a legendary theatrical family, the
Bursteins. Smoothly incorporating rare archival footage and interviews with Yiddish stage veterans, this tightly edited and briskly paced documentary is as richly bittersweet and the Yiddish theater itself.

Nora’s Will- When his ex-wife Nora dies right before Passover, Jose is forced to stay with her body until she can be properly put to rest. He soon realizes that he is part of Nora’s plan to bring her family back together for one last Passover feast, leading Jose to reexamine their relationship. (not rated)

Rashevski’s Tango- Just about every dilemma of modern Jewish identity gets an airing in this packed tale of a clan of more or less secularized Belgian Jews thrown into spiritual crisis by the death of the matriarch who has held all doubts and family warfare in check. (not rated)

To Take a Wife- A powerful drama about a woman’s struggle for independence and emotional freedom in the face of family tradition. (not rated)

The following are also now available for private and synagogue viewing:

Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story. This excellent documentary, narrated by Dustin Hoffman, portrays the contributions of Jewish major leaguers and the special meaning that baseball has had in the lives of American Jews. Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story was shown at the 2012 UJA Kick-Off in Scranton this past September.

The Debt- Academy Award® winner Helen Mirren and two-time Academy Award® nominee Tom Wilkinson star in The Debt.  In 1966, three Mossad agents were assigned to track down a feared Nazi war criminal hiding in East Berlin, a mission accomplished at great risk and personal cost – or was it

Sarah’s Key- Julia Jarmond (Kristin Scott Thomas), an American journalist married to a Frenchman, is commissioned to write an article about the notorious Vel d’Hiv round up, which took place in Paris, in 1942. She stumbles upon a family secret which will link her forever to the destiny of a young Jewish girl, Sarah. Julia learns that the apartment she and her husband Bertrand plan to move into was acquired by Bertrand’s family when its Jewish occupants were dispossessed and deported 60 years before. She resolves to find out what happened to the former occupants: Wladyslaw and Rywka Starzynski, parents of 10-year-old Sarah and four-year-old Michel.

Please contact Dassy Ganz at the Federation to borrow these or other films in our library.

This year’s 2011 Israel Mission (December 3^rd to 15^th, 2011) was directed primarily, though not exclusively to participants who had never before journeyed to our ancestral homeland.

Our 2011 participants included Marna Berman, Joyce Chizever, Robin Gittleman, Michael Krakow and Fran Olick, Charlene and Joel Ostro, Lorraine and Stephen Schur, Paul Solomon, Karen and Joel Vener, Phyllis and Michael Weinberg, Mark Silverberg and Barry and Jay Weiss.

As has always been the case, tears of joy and pride over the achievements made by the Jewish state in improving the lot of humanity in virtually every field of human endeavor were mixed with tears of sorrow when matched against the terrible price Jews have paid throughout the eons of time, and the price Israelis continue to pay to insure the survival of the Jewish state today – surrounded as it is by those who are ideologically committed to its destruction.

On Masada, the Herodian fortress that fell to the Roman Empire two millennia ago ending the Second Jewish Commonwealth, Mission participants vowed to their People and to the Third Jewish Commonwealth (the modern State of Israel), that they would do all in their power upon their return to America to insure that “Masada shall never fall again.” All bowed their heads as a sign of respect to those who died there.

This year’s participants ventured to …..

• the Herodian port city of Caesaria and the Roman amphitheater that is still used for Israeli festivals
• walked through the caves of Rosh Hanikra on the Lebanon border
• journeyed through the city of Tiberias on Lake Kinneret and shared its history
• prayed in a medieval synagogue in Safed
• walked through the ancient Bet She’an excavations dating back to ancient times
• descended into the former Syrian bunkers on the Golan Heights and overlooked a major battlefield where hundreds of Israeli soldiers died defending the Jewish state during the Yom Kippur War
• walked through the Old City in Jerusalem
• journeyed along the Western and Southern Walls of the ancient Temple in Jerusalem
• descended into the Kotel tunnel recently excavated along the base of the Western Wall and touched the foundation stones laid during the time of King Solomon
• visited Yad Vashem (Israel’s Holocaust Memorial) and the Hall of Mirrors representing the faces of 1.5 million children who were slaughtered by the Nazis during World War II
• participated in an archeological dig for Western Wall artifacts near Jerusalem (finding several significant ancient artifacts in the process)
• overlooked the Mount of Olives cemetery that has been used as a Jewish cemetery for more than 3,000 years and holds over 150,000 graves including those of prophets, Zionist leaders, rabbis, writers, and an Israeli prime minister
• drove to the Machal memorial (dedicated to Diaspora Jews who died fighting for Israel’s Independence in 1948 – whose names and countries of origin have been memorialized in stone),
• planted trees in a JNF forest in memory of loved ones
• traveled to the Tank Museum at Latrun near Jerusalem where the names of hundreds of young Israelis who died in tank battles are forever memorialized
• prayed on Masada in its ancient synagogue (in Southern Israel); and
• traveled to Independence Hall (where the State of Israel was declared by David Ben Gurion), the Palmach Museum in Tel Aviv, and a secret Haganah bullet factory built during the War of Independence under a laundromat across for as British guard post in the town of Rehovot.

More than anything the Federation has done over the past decade, it has been Israel Missions such as these that have bound together the diverse Jewish communities of Pike, Wayne, Monroe and Lackawanna counties that comprise the Jewish Federation of Northeastern Pennsylvania.

Am Yisroel Chai.

Once again the Jewish Federation of Northeastern Pennsylvania sponsored a successful charity event for Chanukah. This year’s theme was a maniCURE for Breast Cancer support. Hosted at Elan Gardens Assisted Living facility in Clarks Summit, the event brought in women of all generations looking to have fun while supporting Sharsheret (The Chain) a national Jewish not-for-profit organization which helps women facing the emotional and psychological challenges of breast and other women’s cancers.
Both the Scranton Times-Tribune and WBRE-TV came to report and photograph the afternoon to the surprise and pleasure of the close to 50 participants. Outright donations and manicures raised over $500.

Many thanks to Jill Linder and Laney Ufberg for chairing the event as well as to Ilise Rubinow, executive director of Elan Gardens and Eta Richman for their roles in making this event a success. Our appreciation to the fine students of Jolie Beauty Academy of Wilkes-Barre and OPI polishes for their contributions to our charitable cause.

Sheryl Gross, Ulla Nelson, Laney Denis and Dr. Geordee Pollack at the registration table

The wonderful manicurists of Jolie Beauty Academy flanked by the maniCURE committee (l-r) Ilise Rubinow, Laney Ufberg, Jill Linder, Dassy Ganz

Three generations of beautiful nails (l-r) grandmother Phyllis Fayocavitz, granddaughter Chelsea Youtz, daughter Sue Youtz

Dale Miller, Malky Saks and Rhonda Fallk chat while waiting their turn

Millie Weinberg and Sara Morris meet their former neighbor Sid Ezrin at Elan Gardens

Laney Ufberg, Nancy and Rozzie Ben-Dov getting the first manicures

Emily Trunzo and Jill Linder

Ilise Rubinow, executive director and Elan Gardens hosted our event including delicious refreshments