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Take it Slow
Steven “Kip” Kolow, founder of the orig-
inal Boston Chicken chain, has opened a
new establishment in Burlington called
SlowBones Modern BBQ. Established 1902
See Page 3
Vol. 204 No. 52 ■ 24 Tevet 5774 — December 27, 2013 ■ www.TheJewishAdvocate.com ■ $1.50

A big crush
Columnist Ben Cohen writes that the
only way to defeat the Boycott, Divest- ADL, CJP Newton reaction
ment and Sanctions (BDS) movement is
for Jews to rise up and crush it. raises questions of integrity
See Page 6
Conflicting statements and lack of
Hot stuff transparency undermine public trust
Tired of the New England winter? Ben G.
Frank says that there are locations in the By Alexandra Lapkin
Advocate Staff the details
Caribbean that are of particular interest of their re-
to Jews.

See Page 12
Rockin’ Eve
“Jewmongous,” a Christmas Eve event
for Jews created by Sean Altman, will
be held again this year at Club Passim in
Cambridge.
See Page 15
Major players
Jewish composers such as Irving Berlin,
George Gershwin, Jerome Kern and
Benny Goodman had a major impact on
20th-century American music.
See Page 15
So batty
Israeli researchers believe bats use vision
to keep track of where they’re going and
echolocation to hunt insects that most
nocturnal predators can’t see.
See Page 16
Jeremy Goldberg is the owner and Amit Ram is a brewer at
Cape Ann Brewing Co. in Gloucester.
Jewish-owned brewery is JCCNS gets a facelift
passionate about its craft
Gloucester’s Cape Ann Brewing Co.
has been going strong since 2004
By Nicole Levy
Special to The Advocate
PHOTO/NICOLE LEVY
(primarily) barley into malt.
The malt is added to water and
C
ontroversy continues to swirl
over a statement released by
the Anti-Defamation League
(ADL), Combined Jewish Philanthro-
pies (CJP) and Jewish Community Rela-
tions Council of Greater Boston (JCRC)
claiming that charges by Americans for
Peace and Tolerance (APT) President
Charles Jacobs of anti-Israel material in the
Newton Public Schools were groundless.
Following that statement and
ambiguity over whether a referenced
ADL report even existed, the JCRC
stated that it has also conducted an in-
quiry into alleged anti-Israel materials
taught in 9th- and 10th-grade history
classes in the Newton Public Schools
that is separate from that of the Anti-
Defamation League (ADL).
However, the JCRC – like the
ADL before it – declined to share
for $50,000 price tag
Membership spike prompted renovations
By Nicole Levy
Special to The Advocate
view with
the public,
prompting
some in the
community
– including
an instructor
at Brandeis
University in Waltham – to raise
the question of transparency in lo-
cal Jewish organizations.
Neither ADL nor JCRC has agreed
to release its findings in order to support
their joint statement in a Letter to the
Editor in the Nov. 15 issue of The Ad-
vocate, where the organizations’ leaders
wrote that they have done a “careful re-
view of the materials at issue,” conclud-
ing, “We trust that this is reassuring to
members of our community.”
Continued on Page 5
structural changes totaled around
$50,000; all funds were taken from

A T
ccording to Jeremy hops, which gives beer its bit- he Jewish Community operational revenue, which includ-
SHABBAT CANDLE Goldberg, owner of ter flavor and stabilizes it. Af- Center of the North Shore ed an influx of funds from new
LIGHTING TIMES Cape Ann Brewing ter the mixture is heated, yeast ( JCCNS) in Marblehead membership, as well as the JCCNS
PARSHAT VA’EIRAH Co. in Gloucester, there’s more is introduced to ferment the has undergone an expensive face- camp programs and preschool.
to craft brewing than meets product using the sugars of the lift made necessary by a growing “We have gained credibility as a
BOSTON 4:00
FALL RIVER 4:02 the eye. malt. Beer color depends on the membership base. result of the renovations and the fact
LOWELL 4:00 “Making beer is like cook- length and temperature of the The introduction of the DancEn- that the books are balanced for the
SPRINGFIELD 4:07 ing. It incorporates hands-on cooking process. Yeast activity is ergy exercise program six months first time in years,” Schneer said.
WORCESTER 4:03 work. It’s artisanal … and in- monitored by brewers to regu- ago brought in 174 new members. The arrival of DancEnergy put
PORTLAND, MAINE 3:52 volves science,” Goldberg said. late the sweetness of the liquid. That recent surge in membership the renovations into motion.
MANCHESTER, N.H. 3:59 Cape Ann Brewing produces At Cape Ann Brewery, the en- brings the total up to 1,800 units, or Developed by Joyce Colahan,
30 to 40 styles of beer a year tire process can take from two 3,500 or 4,000 people, an increase of DancEnergy provides a dynamic
in a facility adjacent to its pub. to six weeks. 50 percent from 2009-10, according workout to highly choreographed
ERUV STATUS: The business has its own label, Goldberg said there’s a lot of to JCCNS Public Relations Director dance routines. Lisa Gillis, a Dan-
BOSTON 781-446-9797
“Fisherman’s Brew,” with the debate over what constitutes a Leigh Blander. At that time, JCCNS cEnergy instructor, said the class
MALDEN 781-322-5686
SHARON 781-695-0505 image of the iconic Gloucester craft beer. For him, craft brew- membership had decreased 20 percent required high mirrors installed
Fisherman’s Memorial on it. ing results in “non-compromis- due to the lackluster economy and the along the perimeter of the Group
Already available in the United ing flavor.” He said many mass- 2009 opening of the state-of-the-art Exercise Studio for the 35 to 40
States, Cape Ann Brewing will distributed commercial beers Lynch/van Otterloo YMCA just a participants each time to check
begin distributing the beer in include rice and corn – making mile down the road. their form. The JCCNS also put in
Sweden this summer. it lighter and sweeter – plus a There have also been extensive new lighting and improved shades
Goldberg explained that number of preservatives and ad- renovations. JCCNS Executive in the room.
brewing starts with converting Continued on Page 4 Director Martin Schneer said the Continued on Page 20
THE JEWISH ADVOCATE DECEMBER 27, 2013
ADL, CJP response to Newton Schools situation raises integrity questions
Continued from Page 1
In a subsequent interview reported
in this newspaper, ADL New England
Regional Director Robert Trestan only
reiterated that “the [APT] ad is mis-
leading. It is taken out of context.”While
Trestan said a report of their investiga-
tion does not exist,ADL’s New England
Regional Board Chair, Jeffrey Robbins,
said there is indeed such a written analy-
sis but it is not available to the media.“It’s
an internal report,” he said. “People do
this stuff internally all the time. ... It in-
volves all kinds of proprietary research.”
JCRC Executive Director Jeremy
Burton said the point of the joint state-
ment was only to respond to APTs ad-
vertisement. “The letter is very specific.”
Joshua Katzen, an adjunct pro-
fessor of real estate development at
Brandeis and a Newton resident, has
been working with the Committee for
Accuracy in Middle East Reporting
in America (CAMERA), a media-
monitoring organization, with regard
to the issues raised in the Newton
public school curriculum. He has also
reached out to Robbins and asked for
the organization to disclose its find-
ings, which were not provided to him.
In response to the Jewish leader-
ship’s unwillingness to provide the
Jewish community with detailed in-
“The failure of both
organizations to re-
lease the reports that
they claim to have un-
dertaken, by nameless
non-experts, indicates
that no such reports
were ever prepared.”
Joshua Katzen
formation from their reviews, Katzen
said in an e-mail, “The failure of both
organizations to release the reports
that they claim to have undertaken, by
nameless non-experts, indicates that
no such reports were ever prepared.”
“While CAMERA has an ex-
pert on the subject, [Senior Research
Analyst] Steve Stotsky, who made se-
rious and professional findings, there
doesn’t appear to be anyone at either
ADL or JCRC with the credentials
to analyze the curricula,” he contin-
ued. “Why on earth would they be
refusing to release the reports?” Kat-
zen asked. “Only two explanations:
Either the reports are slipshod and
amateur, or [they] don’t exist.”
For the past 18 months, when
the concerns about the curriculum
first surfaced, Burton said, “We
have been working directly with
the [Newton] School Committee
members,” which included conver-
sations and a review of materials
that were listed in an advertisement
taken out by Americans for Peace
and Tolerance (APT) in Boston-
area newspapers in October.
Burton added that the only “joint
element” with the ADL’s review in-
volved both organizations (JCRC
“The Arab World Studies Notebook” and “A Muslim Primer” are two controversial texts that have been
used in the Newton Public Schools. The former, which claims that Israeli soldiers “killed hundreds of
Palestinian nurses,” was rejected by numerous school systems nationwide but Newton included it in its
high school curriculum until parent anger forced its removal.
and ADL) reaching out to Jacobs to
ask him for the materials that formed
the basis of his investigation. In a
prior interview, which was included
in the Nov. 29 issue of The Advo-
cate, Jacobs said, “I wish we could
share our data with them. But sadly
our prior experiences show that we
cannot trust them with information
before we take it public.”
Burton said that despite conduct-
ing a thorough review of the Newton
curriculum, JCRC has not completed
a “written report or briefing memo” of
its analysis. He said that “we verbally
walked our leadership” over the ma-
terials that were taught at the schools.
He said JCRC has “no pretention of
a report” which he could present for
publication, but added that there are
no other documents that he could
share with the Jewish community that
reveal the details of the review.
Burton added that he has not in-
quired into the allegations of a more
recent ad taken out by APT in No-
vember, which compared a handout
of maps given to Newton students,
similar to those that were featured in a
recent MBTA ad that depict a shrink-
ing Palestine and growing Israel in the
years since 1948.
Burton said that he has no specific
response to APT’s second ad because
he has not seen any “backup” of Jacobs’
claims. “I think this back-and-forth of
Jacobs attacking and us responding is
a waste of energy.” He added that he
would prefer to “respond to actual at-
tacks on the Jewish community.”
Combined Jewish Philanthropies
(CJP) President Barry Shrage, who
was one of the signatories to the Nov.
15 statement, said he does not believe
the Jewish community would ben-
efit from the release of the findings
by ADL and JCRC. He added that
the issue is not whether Jewish lead-
ers share their reviews, but “what’s
happened in the classrooms. Very
little materialized, and the system re-
sponded right away.” (Matt Hill, Vice
Chair of the Newton School Com-
mittee, is married to Shrage’s cousin.)
He added that instead of focusing on
the report of the review conducted by
the organizations, the “real issue” that
deserves attention is “what APT is
trying to say.”
Implicitly acknowledging that
there were in fact such materials in the
Newton schools, Shrage said, “In my
view the question of existence [of ma-
terials listed on APT’s advertisement]
is not the issue, but rather how these
materials were used.”
But others in the community
question why impressionable high
school students should be exposed to
such anti-Israel materials at all, par-
ticularly if they are biased and factually
incorrect.
Regarding the ADL’s responsibil-
ity to the Jewish community to share
their findings, Shrage said, “It’s up to
them to share their documents. It’s not
my job to pass judgment on other or-
ganizations. … Some of the informa-
tion is pertinent and some stuff is not
shareable; that is a question for them.
… There’s no need to share anything.”
He added that he stands by JCRC.
“The answer – what I see is totally
transparent. Whether there is a docu-
ment [ADL report] or not, and there
is no evidence that there is, [is not the
issue],” he added.
THE SNOWBIRD’S FAVORITE SINCE 1980!
While in a previous interview with
the Jewish News Service (JNS), Shrage
was quoted as saying that he had in fact
seen reports by ADL and JCRC on the
Newton curriculum, he said in the inter-
view withThe Advocate for this story,“All
the information that I got was verbal.”
When asked about how the situa-
tion reflects on transparency of the Jew-
ish community organizations, Shrage
turned the attention on Jacobs’ group,
saying, “What about APT? Where is
their transparency?” He went on to say
that APT still has not answered ques-
tions to ADL and JCRC’s inquiries.
In response to the question about
his organization’s transparency, Jacobs
said in an e-mail, “Our ads and our
many op-eds have disclosed the basis
of our concerns.”
“I really doubted any report exist-
ed,” said Russel Pergament, long active
in local media and publisher of JNS.
Pergament, who has known Shrage
for “almost 30 years”called Shrage after
hearing he had seen a so-called report.
“I pushed hard on the phone. I wanted
facts. When I asked how many pages
NEWS 5
the report was he said ‘about eight,’ so
of course I am saddened by this whole
sordid pack of lies.
“What is really alarming here is to
see Boston’s most powerful and well-
funded Jewish communal organizations
train their firepower on one courageous
man, Charles Jacobs, who has time and
again come to the aid of Jewish high
school and college students facing ha-
rassment, while these groups often did
nothing and, worse yet, even tried to
undercut him. That they jointly, almost
conspiratorially, joined forces to try and
take him down is worse than disgrace-
ful. You have to question their fitness to
retain these positions of trust.”
Another prominent community fig-
ure, who spoke on the condition of ano-
nymity, expressed what he said was on
the minds of many in the community:
“Instead of releasing any report or de-
tailed findings on which their statement
is based, these organizations are asking
us to blindly trust them and their gen-
eral conclusion on faith. And yet, how
can we do that when they are saying two
inconsistent and contradictory things, at
least one of which is therefore a lie? This
is no longer just a story about the New-
ton schools,but about accountability and
how our communal organizations and
leadership operates.”
Jacobs observed,“It seems to me that
ADL has done a disservice to the Jew-
ish community and Jewish leadership
in Boston, by claiming to have done a
thorough, quality investigation – which
they refuse to disclose, but which CJP,
JCRC, AJC and leading Rabbis in the
Boston area have relied on.
“We do not believe ADL has any
credible basis for its continuing claim
that there is nothing for Boston’s Jew-
ish community to worry about. This is
very unfortunate for a community that
desperately needs strong leadership at
a time when Israel and its support-
ers are under attack in universities, in
K-12, and in the media.”
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