Daily Archives: July 25, 2005

Sealed with a bris

Former Soviet Jews affirm their faith with late-life ritual

Valeriy Kozlov did the unthinkable: He went under the knife for religious reasons.

Kozlov, a Belarus native, followed the example of his friend Leonid Marder, a Russian emigre who was circumcised at age 66. Both resettled in Reisterstown, Md., a city near Baltimore that is home to many Jews from the former Soviet Union.

“As with any operation, a person is afraid of blood — of being cut,” Kozlov said. “But when a person becomes more spiritual, he understands that physical pain is less significant.”

Paul Steinberg, Longtime Dean and Rabbi, Is Dead at 79

Rabbi Paul M. Steinberg, a dean at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York for 50 years, died on July 8 at a hospice in Riverdale, the Bronx. He was 79.

Dr. Steinberg, whose home was in Scarsdale, N.Y., had been ill for some time but remained a presence on the campus in Greenwich Village until last month, the College-Institute said. In addition to his administrative duties, he was the Sinsheimer distinguished service professor of Jewish religious education and human relations at the institution.

Israel protests pope Papal silence on terror

Trying to change the Vatican’s habit of excluding Israel when condemning terrorist attacks, the Foreign Ministry summoned the Vatican envoy Monday to protest Pope Benedict XVI’s failure to mention recent attacks in Israel during a condemnation of world terrorism.

In his noontime sermon on Sunday, the pope prayed for God to stop the “murderous hand” of terrorists, and referred to the recent “abhorrent terrorist attacks” in Egypt, Britain, Turkey and Iraq. He did not mention the July 12 suicide bombing that killed five people in Netanya.