Published Articles

Original Article Published On The JNS

As the E Street Band opens a U.S. and European tour following a long absence, Jewish “Spring-Nuts” share what it’s like to be faithful to God and the Boss.

Maureen Ash, 61, arrived in Tampa from her Chicago home in time for last Wednesday night’s Bruce Springsteen show. The longtime fan—called a Spring-Nut, as a nearly 50,000-strong Facebook, Twitter and Instagram fan community puts it—who saw her first show in 1980, did not have to worry about accommodations for Shabbat nor holidays this time, given the middle-of-the-week show.

She stayed in Boynton Beach, a three-and-a-half hour drive away, for Shabbat, and plans to catch the Boss again in concert on Tuesday, at the Hard Rock Cafe in Hollywood, Fla.

Ash was one of many Jewish Spring-Nuts who descended on Tampa for the E Street Band’s tour, which opened Feb. 1. There are no official numbers on how many Jewish fans of the Boss are out there, but there are obviously a lot of them.

For previous Springsteen tours, Ash hosted Shabbat dinners for Jewish and non-Jewish fans, whom she introduced to her home-baked challah. Her one house rule must have surprised many of these guests.

“I tell them to please leave the bathroom light on,” Ash told JNS.

At one Shabbat meal, she asked an observant Jewish male friend to recite the kiddush and hamotzei blessing on the wine and challah respectively. He brought the lyrics to “Thunder Road,” which the group sang in unison. (The lines “Make crosses from your lovers” and “Waste your summer praying in vain/ For a savior to rise from these streets” must have presented quite the contrast to the Hebrew prayers.)

There has been plenty of normal superfan engagement too. Ash’s daughter–then 11–was the lucky one invited on stage to sing “Waiting’ on a Sunny Day” with the Boss, and Ash twice got his autograph, on a copy of his biography and on her denim jacket. She told him her first show of his was Oct. 9, 1980 at Cobo Hall (now Huntington Place) in Detroit. He wrote “80” alongside his name.

“I know he was really listening,” she said.

Without knowing it, Springsteen has introduced many Jews to one another. A congregant approached Ash at the kiddush after services at a N.J. synagogue. “I hear you are a Bruce fan,” he told her. “I should know you.”

At a show, she struck up a conversation with a woman wearing a skirt. The two realized they were both skipping the Friday show because they are Sabbath-observant. (Ash also will not attend Springsteen shows during the Omer period between Passover and Shavuot, which is a time of mourning.)

To other fans, hearing the Boss live is a religious experience. There is a lot of talk in the Jewish Springsteen fan community about the Passover seder of 2012.

Warren Rosen, from Massapequa Park on Long Island, worried he would never make it to a show at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan if he left after his seder at home. So Rosen, who has been to more than 200 Springsteen shows, booked a private room at Ainsworth Prime, a restaurant in the arena, and invited friends (of all faiths) via Facebook. He also invited the band.

The saxophonist Jake Clemons, nephew of the late Clarence Clemons—the E Street Band’s original sax player—read from the Haggadah, which featured Springsteen’s face on the cover. There was also a rendition of the new composition “Matzah Ball,” sung to the tune of “Wrecking Ball.”

Bruce Springsteen performs in Tampa, Fla., Feb. 1, 2023. Photo by Howard Blas.

Some Orthodox Spring-Nuts bolt out of the house the moment Shabbat or a holiday ends, bound for a show. And some, if they are Howie Chazanoff—who runs the Spring-Nuts Facebook group, where he is known as Howie Chaz, with his wife, Julie—can almost pull off the music fan equivalent of Joshua holding up the sun and moon during the bombardment of Jericho.

In September 2017, Chazanoff, 54, contacted E Street Band guitarist and “Sopranos” actor Stevie Van Zandt on Twitter, asking when exactly the show would start.

“I ask, because I have tickets for the 23rd and have to wait for [the) Jewish Holiday to end,” he wrote. The exchange has since been deleted, but according to a screenshot that Chazanoff provided, Van Zandt wrote back, “Oy vey! When does it end? Thanks for the heads up. We’ll wait for you.”

Evidently, the band did wait for Chazanoff to arrive after Rosh Hashanah ended, because the latter tweeted on Sept. 24, 2017, “I can’t thank you enough for waiting! Thanks for acknowledging me and my sign and being a ‘mench!’ Happy New Year brother!” The sign Chazanoff held in the picture thanks the band for waiting for the “Tribe.”

Chazanoff told JNS that when he and friends held up the sign, Van Zandt said, “Happy New Year” to them. (For the record, though, and Twitter being what it is, someone responded to the tweet, “Yeah, but he is playing in Boston on Yom Kippur. So much for thinking about his Jewish fans.”)

“My impetus in starting Spring-Nuts was to create a distraction not only for Springsteen fans but for myself as well from all the trials and tribulations in this crazy world,” Chazanoff said.

What began as a 500-member Facebook group grew to become acknowledged by Springsteen and the band eight years later, in large part for its charity work. The group has supported WhyHunger, Fulfill, Kristen Ann Carr Fund, Pink Fund, Light of Day, NJ Pandemic Relief Fund and Boys and Girls Clubs of Monmouth County.

“We have helped out numerous individuals, who either lost jobs, or needed help paying for hospital costs and even, unfortunately, funeral expenses,” Chazanoff said. “What was originally created as a distraction has now become a haven for Springsteen fans around the world.” (In his professional life, Chazanoff also helps people. He is director of home- and community-based services at Yedei Chesed, which supports persons with developmental disabilities and their families.)

Springsteen too is philanthropically minded.

At the Tampa show, as at each stop of the tour, he asks fans on their way out, to donate food or money to a local food bank. Last May, Springsteen surprised the Spring-Nuts with a recorded message at the Stone Pony club in Asbury Park, N.J., site of the annual Spring-Nut Seaside Serenade. That year, it raised $50,000 for WhyHunger. The rest of the band has sent video messages of support too.

David Kalb, rabbi of the Jewish Learning Center of New York, takes religious fanhood to another level. He is proud to have experienced some of Springsteen’s longest-ever shows, more than four hours, on the last tour.

Kalb references Springsteen’s lyrics often in his sermons and writing. “It was not just the length of the New Jersey concerts that made those nights utterly magical to me,” he told JNS. “It was the fantastic music and the passion of this amazing man.”

The rabbi appreciates particularly what he calls themes of redemption, introspection and transformation in Springsteen’s music. “These themes thoroughly resonate with me, as they are reminiscent of the Prophets of the Bible, who also critiqued their world for its moral ills,” Kalb said.

In 2017, Kalb penned the Huffington Post article “Getting Ready for the High Holidays with Bruce Springsteen,” as he observed those themes in shows during the Hebrew month of Elul, which leads up to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. He even called his attendance of Springsteen concerts his own preparation for the High Holidays, which is what the month of Elul is supposed to be about.

“These concerts have given me a tremendous start to my High Holiday prep,” he said. “I am now much more focused on how I can better myself and the world, and I believe that anyone who chooses to reflect on these issues could find similar messages in Bruce’s music.”

In 2016, Kalb got to spend 20 seconds with Springsteen, when the musician signed his book and a photograph at the Barnes & Noble on Manhattan’s Union Square. Other fans trekked internationally for that privilege.

Amy Kalman, who made aliyah from Toronto in 1981, has flown from Ben-Gurion Airport to Paris, Montpellier, Zurich and other European cities to hear the Boss.

“The first time you see him live, it grabs your kishkes!” she said, using the Yiddish for “guts.”

Kalman reports a “strong” group of Israeli fans, many of whom have gone to shows in Europe and will go to this tour as well. She and her husband were “on such a high” from a 2016 Paris show that, upon returning home, they planned a 36-hour trip to Zurich, so they and their children could hear Springsteen.

If the rest of the tour goes how Chazanoff figures it did in Tampa, there will be many other converts to the Gospel of Springsteen, Jewish and non-Jewish.

“After six long years, and being in their 70s, Bruce and the band showed that age means nothing when you’re the legendary E Street Band,” he said. “They absolutely rocked Tampa as if they were in their 20s, and as if they never had a hiatus.”

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Original Article Published On The JPost

TAMPA – When the house lights went down at exactly 8 p.m. Wednesday night at the Amelie Arena in Tampa, Florida, and Bruce Springsteen and the E. Street Band took the stage for the first time together in some six years, I knew I had made the right decision.

After deliberating for weeks, I bought a ticket and flew from New York to join thousands of other Springsteen fans to celebrate his return to stage at age 73 for the opening night of a six-month tour that will see him traverse the United States and Europe, but not Israel.

I have seen Springsteen over the years in arenas and stadiums from St. Louis to Philadelphia to Bridgeport, Connecticut and in such famed venues as Madison Square Garden and the old Meadowland “somewhere in the swamps of Jersey.” I have enjoyed shows with my kids, my wife and my father-in-law.

I was eager to get tickets to a show somewhere in the northeast on this tour. While I knew competition for tickets would be fierce, I was hopeful. When tickets were announced, I followed proper procedures and submitted names of three or four arenas within a couple of hours of my home that I would consider attending. I received the presale code for the venue closest to my home and I was pleased.

When the sale went live at 10 a.m. on the given day, I eagerly watched my I got closer in the queue. I waited and waited. Prices reached $600 (NIS 2,055) before running out entirely. I, like other fans, felt betrayed and disappointed. Loyal fans who view Bruce as the champion of the working person had their first introduction to Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing model. The real cost of the ticket was nowhere to be found as prices were automatically adjusted. The cost of the tickets was adjusted based on supply and demand in real-time. And some tickets quickly reached $5,000 (NIS 17,144).

I tried to put the shows out of my mind until the tour start date neared. I secretly checked Ticketmaster and Stub Hub every day, multiple times a day. Prices varied so widely. From $600 (NIS 2,055) in Connecticut to an almost affordable $250 (NIS 857) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Columbus, Ohio. Admittedly, those seats were very high up in the $300 (NIS 1,028) or $400 (NIS 1,371) section. Nonetheless, I started working on my wife to agree that both or one of us would catch the March 5 and 7th shows.

Then, I got an even crazier idea: go to Opening Night. The know it all on the plane told me he hadn’t missed an opening night since 1990. I came to learn that he is not unique.

While continuing to monitor Tampa Bruce ticket prices, I also checked airfare, hotel prices and affordable options for airport parking at LaGuardia Airport. Airfare was not bad and to my surprise, ticket prices seemed to keep coming down. Slowly, slowly. I watched. I dreamed. When I travel, I am a very efficient planner. I plan routes for road trips, hotels and attractions, and I pack way ahead of time.

Waiting until the last minute would not usually be an option. In this case, it might work in my favor.

My children and wife would mostly be out of the country, I could theoretically go to the show. More importantly, my family gave the green light and I was off and running.

Delta Airlines flies from NYC to Tampa and the price for parking at the airport was reasonable. Now to figure out lodging, given those hotels close to the venue were outrageously expensive: not worth $400 (NIS 1,371) or $500 (NIS 1,714) a night for 2 or 3 nights.

THEN A lightbulb went off: Chabad is everywhere. They have helped me in Saint Thomas and Copenhagen and Beijing so why not Tampa? The website for Chadad in the lovely Hyde Park neighborhood listed three hotels nearby. Then, in small letters, it mentioned a room in the Chabad House for rent over Shabbat and holidays. I called Rabbi Rifkin, explained my predicament and asked if the Shabbat rooms might be available on weekdays as well. I am writing my review from the 2nd floor of the Chabad House in the residential Hyde Park neighborhood of Tampa – a 40-minute walk from the Amelie Arena and around the corner from a large Winn Dixie supermarket which has a very nice kosher selection.

All I needed was a ticket to the show. Could I actually bring myself to come to town empty-handed and gamble that prices would continue to plummet? Maybe Five days before the show, I was connected to some nice people from Spring Nuts, a Springsteen superfan group that meets in person at shows and on social media. Members of the 10,000-plus member group discuss possible show openers and share wisdom on what shoes or sandals and shirts (short or long sleeve) to wear given the anticipated amount of standing and the 80-degree temperatures. They also share wisdom about tickets.

With three days to go, a fan texted me that more tickets had dropped and were available for $199 (NIS 682). They were in the $100s, right behind the stage. I was nervous about sitting behind the band but the group was encouraging: the sound quality is excellent, you are very close and Bruce faces you a few times during the show. With that, I took the plunge and got a single ticket. Some fans posted on Facebook that they had paid $550 (NIS 1,885) for those same seats when they first went on sale.

The Opening Night concert

Despite morning snow in New York resulting in a two-hour departure delay once we had already boarded the plane (so the plane could be de-iced twice), we made it to Tampa with plenty of time to spare. I even got to meet up and tailgate with fellow fans at Sparkman Wharf.

There was a large crowd waiting to enter the arena at 7 p.m. for a 7:30 p.m. show but everyone – mostly in their late 50s to 70s – was patient and in good spirits.

When I found my way to section 124, Row R, I smiled. I was in the third row behind the stage and the sight lines were amazing.

Bruce and his animated sergeants at arms – Steve Van Zandt on guitar and Jake Clemons (the nephew of the late E Street sax legend Clarence Clemons) – did indeed turn to our section many times and we had amazing views of the 18 backup singers and brass and percussion players who joined the ban for this tour.

Bruce looked relaxed, fit and handsome in his new short haircut. He was all smiles and high energy as he directed the band through 28 songs in 2 hours and 43 minutes, introduced seven new songs and didn’t disappointed with such fan favorites as “Born to Run,” “Rosalita,” “Glory Days” and “the Rising.”

My personal favorites were real seminal tunes “E Street Shuffle” and “Katie’s Back,” which were both long and full-spirited.

The highlight for me was sitting close enough to watch Bruce direct each band member and change guitars after every single song. I felt a strong connection to Mighty Max Weinberg, the drummer. In addition to being a proud member of the tribe, he is such a talented drummer. From up close, you can see just how integral he is to the band and how Bruce relies on him to keep pace. I left Tampa with a smile on my face and a desire to grab affordable tickets for me and my family members for later in the tour. I now know that sometimes, good things do come for those who wait.

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Original Article Published On The JNS

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.”

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Original Article Published On The Jewish Times

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!”

Yehuda Kovac (Courtesy)
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