Deni Avdija, the 22-year-old small forward selected with the 9th pick in the 2020 NBA draft, continues to improve.
Deni Avdija, an Israeli-born small forward who plays for the National Basketball Association’s Washington Wizards, was not even born the last time the Wizards defeated the San Antonio Spurs in the latter team’s home arena on Dec. 11, 1999.
The 22-year-old played a major role in the Wizards’ 127-106 victory on Monday in San Antonio. Avdija, the 9th-overall pick in the 2020 NBA draft, scored a career-high 25 points on 10-for-12 shooting. He also pulled down nine rebounds, to go with an assist, a block and a steal. Eight of his 10 field goals came in the paint, and he shot 3-for-4 from the foul line and 2-for-2 from three-point range.
Avdija combined persistence, precision and deft maneuvering over and around defenders. His complete performance employed traditional layups, finger rolls, floaters and dunks, as he aggressively pursued the basket.
Wes Unseld Jr., the Wizards’ head coach, has liked what he has seen of late from the Israeli hoopster.
“His level of aggression has paid dividends. He is getting to the rim, finishing at a much better clip and going to the free throw line,” he said. “It is allowing him to get some easy points at times. He is figuring it out.”
Monday’s contest marked Avdija’s fourth 20-plus point game in his career, and his second 20-plus point game this season. He has logged at least 10 points and five rebounds in four consecutive games—tied for the longest such streak of his career.
The Wizards, now owners of a season-best six-game winning streak (including five in a row on the road), are achieving a degree of success they have not experienced since Feb. 10 to March 9, 2018.
“The wins have been good for our psyche,” the coach said. “It has given us confidence.”
Rabbi Kalman Akiva and Michal Kovac welcomed a new baby and Chai Lifeline into their growing family at exactly the same time. Michal was 9 months pregnant when she and her husband received the shocking news that their 10-year-old son, Yehuda, had cancer. “It all happened so fast. He needed pretty aggressive treatment,” recounts Baltimore native Kovacs. “Chai Lifeline came in before we knew it was cancer and even knew we needed help. They helped us figure it out, even if I didn’t know what I needed.”
Chai Lifeline, founded in 1987 by Rabbi Simcha Scholar to serve New York-area Jewish children with cancer, soon grew to serve children in Florida and Israel. Chai Lifeline is now a leading international children’s health support network, providing social, emotional and fiscal assistance to children with life-threatening and lifelong illnesses (and their families) through a variety of year-round programs and services.
From the moment of diagnosis or trauma, Chai Lifeline’s professionals and trained, compassionate volunteers step in to help restore equilibrium and bring joy and hope back into lives devastated by illness and crises.
In addition to providing the support of professionals and trained volunteers to children and families, Chai Lifeline offers crisis intervention, trauma and bereavement services through Project Chai. These services are offered to kids, families, communities, schools, synagogues and local organizations following an illness diagnosis, sudden death, terror attack, natural disaster and all forms of trauma.
Chai Lifeline’s Mid-Atlantic region recently hired Racheli Daniel to serves as its regional director. Daniel served as chair of the Beth Tfiloh Dahan High School Science Department and has previous experience as an educator at various Baltimore-area institutions. Daniel will oversee a dedicated team of professional staff and volunteers who support more than 80 Chai Lifeline families across the Mid-Atlantic Region.
“We are excited to welcome Racheli Daniel to the Chai Lifeline family,” says Rabbi Simcha Scholar, CEO of Chai Lifeline. “As an active member of the Baltimore community, she truly understands the needs of our families, and is committed to growing and strengthening Chai Lifeline’s impact in the region.”
Rabbi Mordechai Gobioff, national director of client services, adds that she “brings vast programmatic and administrative experience, as well as fresh energy and enthusiasm, to the organization.”
As for Daniel, she is looking forward to “working with my team to realize the organization’s critical mission. I loved working with people in schools and working with children my entire career. This new position allows me to continue working with kids and families; it is very much part of my calling. It fills my need to give back to the community as well.”
She also points out being impressed with the “diversity and unity” of the Baltimore Jewish community.
Yehuda Kovac “rings the bell,” marking completion of his medical treatment. (Courtesy)
‘They do it so lovingly’
Daniel shares the fourfold mission of Chai Lifeline: crisis management, family stability, advocacy and emotional support.
While Chai Lifeline is perhaps best known for its support for children with cancer and their families — and for a summer Bike4Chai charity bike ride — Daniel notes the range of services “big and small” they offer to individuals, families and the community.
“Sometimes, a person just needs something to drink or some kosher gum,” attests Daniel, who recently recounted a request by a mother who “badly needed” a soda but didn’t want to miss meeting with the doctor who was scheduled to visit her child’s room at some point in the day.
Various times of the year can be particularly difficult for Jewish families dealing with medical crises. Daniel describes how the fall months require attention to High Holiday preparation details, which can be overlooked when a family has to deal with treatments.
“We sometimes provide gift cards for clothes, paper goods and cleaning help for the holidays, and assistance with getting siblings to participate in trips over Chol Hamoed,” the intermediate days of longer Jewish holidays such as Passover and Sukkot.
Kovacs is indebted to Daniel and her team for all of the support Chai Lifeline provided. She highlights the important role they played in reaching out to her other children. “When all else was chaos, they took the other kids out. They took one of the worst times in our lives and made fond memories,” says this appreciative mother.
She highlights Chai Lifeline’s unique ability to “meet me where I was” and “ask what they thought I need to be asking when I didn’t even know what I needed.” She adds that “they never make you feel guilty about taking and asking and taking help. They do it so lovingly.”
Kovacs shares her own “soda story,” noting that a Chai Lifeline volunteers’ willingness to bring her son a Diet Coke “saved my son from getting a feeding tube since he was losing weight very quickly.” Volunteers understood that Yehuda desperately needed to drink and eat. “What he craved, they got — volunteers brought steak, Dunkin Donuts and pizza at various times.”
Kovacs notes somewhat ironically that, prior to Yehuda’s cancer diagnosis, her husband “did the Bike4 Chai” to help raise money for Chai Lifeline. “We never thought it would circle back for us,” she acknowledges.
The family is delighted to report that Yehuda recently “rang the bell,” the ritual that marks completion of medical treatment. He is now back to learning with friends in fifth grade at Talmudical Academy. “Chai Lifeline is still with use every step of the way still,” she says, “even after he rang the bell!”
Nearly 30 participants in a recent Taglit-Birthright Israel trip for people with Autism Spectrum Disorder received insight into what Israel can offer to employees on the autism spectrum.
One of their stops was at Mobileye, the Jerusalem-based company that develops autonomous driving technologies and advanced driver-assistance systems.
Thanks to a meaningful partnership between the Jerusalem-based Shekel: Inclusion for People with Disabilities, Mobileye and the hard work and support of Shekel-turned-Mobileye employee and team lead, Mollie Goldstein, 13 people on the autism spectrum work in data annotation at the hi-tech company. The autistic employees review, tag and label video clips of traffic signs, animals and other things on the road which drivers might encounter.
“I was impressed with Mobileye for a variety of reasons,” said Jared Ramis, a 30-year-old Taglit participant from Chicago notes. “For starters, I’m fascinated with companies that develop technologies and systems that help keep drivers safe. We can never have enough of those. But, I also respect their hiring process. I am a firm believer in equal opportunities for employment and it filled me with joy to see them hire people on the (autism) spectrum. I firmly believe that people on the spectrum are as capable of being great employees as anyone else and I feel that the people they hired are a great asset to their company.”
The 20 Birthright participants from across North America enjoyed their small group meetings with workers who, like themselves, are on the autism spectrum. They also had a great time touring the garage filled with cars and learning about how Mobileye’s technology works.
MEMBERS OF the Taglit-Birthright group visit the Mobileye offices, earlier this month. (credit: HOWARD BLAS)
Success through Mobileye Eli Schreiber, 29, has been working at Mobileye for six years. “I live in an apartment run by Shekel and heard about the program at Mobileye through my roommate, who worked at Mobileye. When I heard they had this program, I literally begged for a job,” reports the Jerusalem resident who made aliyah from Teaneck, New Jersey, in 2002. “I wanted a job where I could be on a computer all day. I applied and got the job.” At the time, the program was housed in Shekel’s building in Jerusalem.
Shekel offers a wide range of services for people with disabilities, including vocational rehabilitation, therapeutic services, community living, enrichment and leisure. Shekel participants are trained and employed in various jobs around Jerusalem, the Knesset, candle making, toy assembly, graphic design and retail at Ha Metzion vintage and secondhand stores.
Mollie Goldstein recounted that Shekel’s partnership with Mobileye started small and gradual when Mobileye was a startup. “It began with an initial conversation and a connection and resulted in a small-scale project with four or five Shekel participants with computer skills working at Shekel’s campus on a computer project set up by Mobileye. Over time, as Mobileye grew, six to eight Shekel participants were on board, working at Shekel.” In 2018, as Mobileye grew and acquired new office space, the Shekel workers relocated to the Mobileye campus.
Schreiber enthusiastically described his work and experience at Mobileye. “I have always worked in data annotation – I look at images and videos and look for images like a speed limit sign and tag it. We input the info into an algorithm and it does its machine learning.” Schreiber’s work has evolved over time. “Now, it is a little different. We tag animals and do something for facial recognition. We look at the faces of people driving cars and make sure they are paying attention to the road.”
SCHREIBER ENJOYS his work and his role on the Mobileye team. “I love the fact I am helping to build a machine that will be able to drive us without us having to touch the wheel. I’d love to stay forever,” though he expresses some concerns about his future. “My job will probably become obsolete. As machine learning gets better, they will have to cut down on the number of teams.” Schreiber currently works five days a week for six and a half hours a day.
Schreiber likes coming to work each day and appreciates the work culture and attitudes he has experienced at Mobileye. “I love the fact that I can go in to work with a shirt that says Marvel (Comics) or (the heavy metal band) Slipnot. It is a very live-and-let-live culture. Everyone just does their job.” He acknowledges that he and his fellow workers on the autism spectrum are not a homogenous group. “Some people are friendly with everybody. Some don’t make eye contact, though this doesn’t mean they are not listening. I can talk to those around me but I am not so comfortable talking to those outside of the group. I have social anxiety to the extreme.”
In addition to learning job skills, employees develop social and interpersonal skills needed to succeed in the workplace. For example, they learn to arrive on time and to notify their managers of any absences in advance. They also have many opportunities to socialize in a welcoming, supportive environment.
Goldstein, 31, the Mobileye team leader, made aliyah 10 years ago, served in the army, worked in event planning and has experience working in the mental health field. She started working at Shekel in November 2020 and admits, “I hit the ground running.”
Goldstein does a lot behind the scenes to support her workers and to assure that the workplace is functioning smoothly. She writes articles about her program on the company’s internal website, runs events like panel discussions within the department so people see who they are and she makes sure her employees are held accountable for their work. “I pushed for the team to be considered like everyone else and helped managers do annual evaluations, which were both sensitive and effective.”
Goldstein’s love and care for her employees and for creating an inclusive workplace are evident. There are also challengers. She adds, “I believe in inclusion in the workplace. I want people to know who we are but I don’t want this to be a big PR stunt.”
For the visiting Birthright group, Goldstein’s autistic employees are a true success story and a source of inspiration and hope. In their lives at home, they face a daunting employment market for people with autism and other disabilities. In 2021, the unemployment rate for people with autism, even those with a college education, was approximately 85%. The current unemployment rate in the United States is 3.5%.
Lihi Lapid, the president of Shekel, praised the partnership with Mobileye.
“For Shekel, integrating people on the autism spectrum into employment that is both meaningful and appropriate to their ability and skills has always been a priority. Partnering with Mobileye, Shekel developed a unique training and support model that has been groundbreaking, allowing a group of 13 people with ASD to successfully integrate into Israel’s private sector hi-tech community for the first time. This is unprecedented in Israel, as is Mobileye’s wonderful partnership and enthusiasm for including people with ASD in the company,” she said.
LAPID AND her husband, former prime minister and current Opposition leader Yair Lapid, have an adult daughter with autism.
“As a mother of a young woman with autism, I know just how important work and other forms of being occupied daily are for young people with special needs. Like every adult, they also have a need and desire to do things that fulfill and interest them,” said Lapid.
Samuel J. Levine, professor of Law and director of the Jewish Law Institute at Touro Law Center in New York has also been similarly impressed with the project. He first made contact with Goldstein through a webinar he organized at Touro on the topic of autism and employment, before meeting her in person on a trip to Israel.
“I was particularly impressed with their approach toward autism employment, which is premised on finding a match between the skills of employees and the needs of the employer,” he said.
“It was clear to me that Mollie and the autistic employees have a mutual respect for each other and that others at Mobileye value the contributions of the participants in the program and view them as an integral part of the company. I was so impressed with this model and the attitude it represents that I organized another Touro webinar exploring the autism employment program at Mobileye, featuring presentations by Mollie and one of the participants in the program. The webinar attracted audiences around the world and drew very positive feedback, expressing the hope that the model implemented at Mobileye can be replicated in other autism employment programs.”
Inclusion, when done right, is financially beneficial for the company by identifying and matching company needs to employee abilities, explained Goldstein.
“A much wider range of tasks can be accomplished when employees bring different strengths and abilities. Examples of successful people with disabilities just go to show the brilliant minds we may miss if we overlook this segment of the population,” she said.
Goldstein added that there’s an additional benefit for Mobileye’s neurotypical employees. “They see the hurdles people have overcome to be given equal opportunities and see how important their job is to them.”
She pointed out that the participation of employees with disabilities in the workplace can raise morale and motivation for everyone.
The Baltimore Jewish community and people across the world are seeing the work of Judaic artist Jeanette Kuvin Oren everywhere they look. Her artistic creations appear in many different media — from Torah and ark covers to paintings and wall art, and now, even postage stamps. In fact, the “Hanukkah Forever 2022” stamp, based on a piece of Kuvin Oren’s art discovered by the United States Postal Service (USPS), became available at local post offices this past fall and adorned Chanukah-card envelopes throughout the “Festival of Lights.” In fact, many people are still using them and plan to do so all year long.
(Photo by Amy Gibbs)
The Connecticut- and Jerusalem-based artist designs unique Torah mantles, ark curtains, chuppahs (wedding canopies), ketubahs (marriage contracts), paper cuts, stained glass and nearly any ritual object or decoration a synagogue, Jewish home or family would ever need. Several of her original works are prominently featured in Baltimore-area synagogues.
Beth Israel Congregation in Owings Mills dedicated 14 Torah covers in 2006 and one in 2010. Congregation Chizuk Amuno in Pikesville dedicated an ark curtain in 2013. Beth El Congregation’s own Torah cover, commissioned in 2021 by congregant Corinne Janet in memory of her late husband, Adam Janet, is a piece of art with a truly unique story.
When Corinne’s husband died in 2019 at the age of 30, she wanted to donate a Torah in his memory to Beth El, which has been important to the family for generations. The synagogue was seeking a lighter-weight Torah to be used for b’nai mitzvah and weekday services.
Janet was connected to architect Jay Brown, who designed the special Torah display case currently exhibited in the synagogue lobby. The family had previously dedicated a display in memory of Janet’s late mother-in-law.
Brown connected Corinne to Kuvin Oren, who was both honored and excited to collaborate with her on the Torah-cover project. Kuvin Oren learned of Janet’s needlepointing skills and painted pomegranates on needlepoint mesh. Janet stitched the pomegranates, and they were ultimately incorporated into the final cover, which also featured such Hebrew phrases as “Dor L’Dor” (“From Generation to Generation”) and her late husband’s Hebrew name.
The Torah cover designed by Corinne Janet for her late husband, Adam Janet
“I was looking for something that would enhance the meaning of the Torah, and it would be beautiful for people walking by,” says Janet.
“The piece of art is stunning,” she reports proudly.
Janet says she is moved each time she sees the Torah cover: “It is very meaningful. I was there [recently] with my daughter and mom. It is meaningful to a lot of people in our family, and to extended family and the community in Pikesville. It is nice to see that it is meaningful and in use.”
Kuvin Oren and Janet ultimately designed two covers so that there is always something in the display case, even when the Torah is being used.
Kuvin Oren relished the collaboration and the experience of getting to know Janet, saying, “I was incredibly moved by Corinne and her father-in-law, Howard, both of whom had suffered unbelievable loss. Weaving elements of Adam’s life — and incorporating Corinne’s needlepoint — into the Torah cover was so very meaningful.”
Kuvin Oren, a graduate of Princeton and Yale universities, is widely known for her talents and areas of expertise. She completed a master’s degree in public health and most of her Ph.D. in epidemiology. Since deciding to work on commissioned art and graphic design full-time in 1984, she has created installation pieces for more than 400 houses of worship, schools, summer camps and community centers worldwide. She specializes in large installations of glass, mosaic, metal, fiber art, calligraphy, paper-cutting and painting.
Her Torah covers, ark covers and curtains, wall-hangings and more may be seen in homes and Jewish institutions, including three Baltimore Conservative synagogues.
She has enjoyed getting to know the Baltimore Jewish community, noting that its members are “incredibly active and involved. I’ve loved working with several shuls in the area.”
‘Culmination of lifelong dream’
Now, Kuvin Oren’s work is further being seen internationally through its inclusion on a U.S. postage stamp.
Ethel Kessler, art director for stamps for the U.S. Postal Service, reports: “Jeanette’s art came to my attention several years ago, and I am very happy to be able to bring her work to a wide audience. Her work has a glowing and joyful spirit, and that’s what I wanted to add to our U.S. Chanukah series.”
“Hanukkah Forever 2022” U.S. postage stamp, designed by Jeanette Kuvin Oren
An official announcement by the USPS — titled “USPS Celebrates Hanukkah With a New Stamp” — invited collectors to a first-day-of-issue dedication ceremony at Temple Emanu-El in Orange Village in Ohio on Oct. 20. Later, a Dec. 14 meet-and-greet with coffee, doughnuts and speeches by several postal officials took place at the Amity Post Office in Kuvin Oren’s home town of Woodbridge, Conn.
There, postal officials presented the artist with a framed picture of the postage stamp.
The October press release described how Kuvin Oren’s artwork turned into a stamp: “The stamp art features an original wall-hanging. The fiber art was hand-dyed, appliqued and quilted to form an abstract image of a chanukiah, the nine-branch candelabra used only at Chanukah.”
The stamp, issued in panes of 20, is one of the Forever types that will always be equal in value to the current first-class-mail one-ounce price.
Kessler acknowledges that such mail “may have dropped off in the past decade, but we still print over 10 million Chanukah celebration stamps.”
At the Woodbridge ceremony, Kuvin Oren told the moving story of her grandfather’s love of America and freedom. His parents arrived in the United States from Germany in 1939. She also mentioned his very impressive collection of U.S. postage stamps, lamenting that “I was supposed to get them, but they were stolen during his move to Florida.”
Still, she is more than pleased to have her work featured on a special stamp, an appropriate happenstance after such a loss.
In another coincidence relating the process of being discovered by the USPS, she reports: “I sent a piece 30 years ago to the USPS and always had a dream of being on a stamp; this is the culmination of a lifelong dream. I am very honored, and it is very emotional to see my artwork there. It is something so historical.”
Kuvin Oren added that a small wall-hanging of her postage stamp will also be displayed in the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum adjacent to Union Station in Washington, D.C. In light of that, she adds playfully: “It will be Chanukah forever!”
