NEW YORK (JTA) – Who knew what, and when?

Those are the questions critics are asking following the disclosure that the Claims Conference received an anonymous letter in 2001 identifying several fraudulent Holocaust-era restitution claims — nearly a decade before the organization halted a massive fraud scheme.

By 2009, when the magnitude of the scheme was discovered, the fraud had been running for 15 years and managed to extract more than $57 million in illegitimate payouts.

Last Friday, World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder sent a letter to the Claims Conference’s chairman, Julius Berman, and executive vice president, Greg Schneider, demanding answers to whether the 2001 episode was ever disclosed to Claims Conference board members.

“We have received numerous inquiries of concern in the wake of news stories in the Forward, the New York Jewish Week and JTA regarding the existence of an anonymous letter dated June 6, 2001 that apparently raised questions with respect to the fraud being perpetrated against the Claims Conference,” Lauder wrote.

In a separate letter, Lauder referred to allegations of a cover-up, calling them a “long-term issue with potentially serious implications,” and announcing that the WJC, which has a seat on the Claims Conference board, was forming a task force to investigate, The Jerusalem Post reported.

On Sunday, Berman emailed the Claims Conference board to say that he had asked the chairman of the board’s executive, former Israeli diplomat Reuven Merhav, to “head a Select Leadership Committee of the board to formulate an appropriate course of action for the Conference with respect to the issues surrounding the 2001 letter.”

The brouhaha was sparked by a May 14 story in the Forward newspaper about the existence of the 2001 letter.

Though the Forward reported it first, the discovery of the letter was no journalistic scoop: The letter had been introduced as evidence in the corruption trial of the ringleader of the fraud, Semen Domnitser, and was discussed at length during the courtroom proceedings.

Domnister was queried in 2001 about the allegations in the anonymous letter, and the prosecution used the episode to show how Domnitser in his response shrewdly managed to keep his superiors from discovering that he was perpetrating an ongoing fraud.

The trial, which concluded this month, resulted in the conviction of Domnitser and two other Claims Conference employees on all counts, bringing guilty pleas or verdicts to all 31 people arrested in connection with the fraud.

The original Forward story appears to have gotten some key facts wrong: It said the current chief of the Claims Conference, Schneider, had received a copy of the anonymous letter in 2001, and the letter subsequently sent to Domnitser questioning him about the allegations. But there is no evidence that Schneider saw either of the letters. Rather, Schneider was one of several people that Domnitser CC’d on his 2001 responses, the Claims Conference says. (The Forward story was later changed online, but failed to note that corrections had been made.)

The way the anonymous letter was handled in 2001 and during the run-up to the recent trial is important to understanding whether there was an attempt to cover up the 2001 episode and who ultimately is to blame for bungling the early warning of the fraud.

Critics of the Claims Conference, such as longtime gadfly Isi Leibler, a former Jewish organizational official from Australia who now lives in Israel and writes a column for The Jerusalem Post, called the mishandling of the 2001 episode evidence of “gross negligence” at the Holocaust restitution organization. Leibler alleged that Berman and Schneider engaged in “systematic and deliberate efforts to conceal the incompetence and breakdown of their management and leadership which enabled this fraud to occur under their very noses.”

Berman could not be reached for comment, and Schneider declined to speak to JTA on the record.

The Claims Conference, which controls the distribution of hundreds of millions of dollars per year, is a frequent target of critics who disagree with the group’s allocations and see its leaders as a club of insiders that is unresponsive to outsiders. The critics say the fact that the fraud was able to run undetected from 1993 to 2009 and run up a bill – ultimately paid by Germany – of more than $57 million in false claims is evidence that Claims Conference leaders are not doing an adequate job.

“It was outrageous that the management responsible for overseeing these funds failed to accept any responsibility or accountability,” Leibler wrote in his column.

The fraud involved falsifying applications to the Hardship Fund, an account established by the German government to provide one-time payments of approximately $3,360 to those who fled the Nazis as they moved east through Germany, and the Article 2 Fund, through which the German government gives pension payments of approximately $411 per month to needy Nazi victims who spent significant time in a concentration camp, in a Jewish ghetto in hiding or living under a false identity to avoid the Nazis. Domnitser oversaw the two funds.

Though $57 million was stolen in the scheme, no genuine Holocaust survivors were deprived of any money. Germany has borne the cost of the fraudulent payouts, and several million dollars of the stolen money has been recouped.

On the question of who ultimately is responsible for bungling the 2001 episode, Claims Conference spokeswoman Hillary Kessler-Godin pointed to Karl Brozik, the head of the Claims Conference office in Frankfurt, Germany, which received the anonymous letter. Brozik, who died in 2004, handled the review of the letter’s allegations.

When the letter was brought to his attention in 2001, Brozik had a Claims Conference caseworker, Julia Gafsi, assess whether there was any merit to the allegations, according to Claims Conference documentation. Gafsi found numerous questionable elements.

Brozik then queried Domnitser, who was responsible for approving the claims in New York. In his response to Brozik, Domnitser acknowledged some inadvertent errors but lied about other facts in a bid to deflect attention from his fraud scheme.

Among those who were CC’d on Domnitser’s responses to Brozik were former Claims Conference head Saul Kagan; its chief at the time, Gideon Taylor; and Schneider, who in 2001 was assistant executive vice president and director of allocations.

Domnitser’s feint apparently was successful. Brozik forwarded Domnitser’s responses to the caseworker who had conducted the review, and though the caseworker said there still were elements of the story that seemed strange, Brozik appears to have let the matter end there. That’s where the paper trail ends, the Claims Conference says.

As the only senior official of all those involved in the episode who still works at the Claims Conference, Schneider’s role in the episode has come under great scrutiny.

The Claims Conference spokeswoman, Kessler-Godin, says Schneider is not to blame because he never saw the original letter, the other people CC’d on the correspondence were senior to Schneider and Brozik ultimately was responsible.

She also noted that it was Schneider and colleague Karen Heilig who discovered the fraud in November 2009 and subsequently alerted the FBI to the scheme. After he found the documentation from 2001, Schneider was the one who brought it to the attention of the FBI, Kessler-Godin said.

But Claims Conference officials have yet to answer Lauder’s question about whether the 2001 episode was shared with the organization’s board and, if not, why.

“The family dynamics are very dysfunctional,” explains Jewish Family & Children’s Services of Southern Arizona counselor Janice Friedman, LCSW. “There’s a lot of fighting among them that contributes to Eileen’s depression and anxiety.” Friedman intervenes with family therapy when the adult children are willing to participate. Since that’s not always possible, she’s helped Eileen recognize the triggers that set her off. She also helps her understand that her unchecked “parental controlling instincts” provoke negative reactions from her children. “By teaching Eileen communication and coping skills,” says Friedman, “we’ve given her the tools she needs to ‘self care.’”

JFCS has been providing behavioral health and counseling services to the local Jewish and greater community since 1941. As a beneficiary agency of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, JFCS receives an annual allocation from the Federation to help cover its operating costs. In addition, some of its programs have received additional support through the Federation’s Compelling Needs Grants.

Shira Ledman, president and CEO of Jewish Family & Children’s Services

In recent years, JFCS has expanded its capacity to serve in the community by partnering with other social service and behavioral health organizations. Shira Ledman, JFCS president and CEO, explains that by working with other agencies, JFCS “maximizes impact in the community, without significantly raising our costs.” In effect, it finds ways to do more with less — the conundrum all human service agencies face due to reduced government grants and the corresponding need to identify new sources of funding.

Using partnerships to maximize resources is especially vital in difficult economic times. More people are finding themselves in crisis and they are often without health insurance to cover the costs of counseling. Additionally, Tucson’s aging demographic means there are more vulnerable, older adults in need of support services.

JFCS helps people like Eileen through its partnership in the Community Counseling Coalition for the Elderly. Together with Our Family Services and Catholic Community Services, with funding from the Community Partnership of Southern Arizona, JFCS counselors and therapists provide support for the over-60 population that doesn’t have insurance or resources to cover the cost. But older adults comprise only a segment of the community JFCS serves. Sadly, it’s the very young who are often in situations of grave risk.

Five-year-old “K.D.” lived with her mother and her mother’s boyfriend. When she came to visit her father in Tucson, he was alarmed by her extreme behaviors. He realized K.D. had been severely abused in her mother’s home and insisted she come to live with him. After K.D. moved in with her father, he recognized that the effects of years of abuse called for intensive treatment. K.D. was placed in a therapeutic residential environment with Intermountain Centers for Human Development for stabilization. JFCS partners with Intermountain and Pantano Behavioral Health Services to provide a comprehensive array of behavioral health services to children and their families, who, like K.D.’s, are on AHCCCS (pronounced “access”), Arizona’s Medicaid program.

JFCS’ expertise in trauma services for children — developed over many years through its Project Safe Place program — prompted Intermountain to ask for a JFCS child trauma therapist to work with K.D. while she was at the residential facility. Working together, the two agencies helped K.D. make the journey back to emotional stability. K.D. is now a happy six-year-old, reunited with her father and living a healthy lifestyle.

Most of us acknowledge that at some point in our lives, a challenging issue could trigger emotional or behavioral fallout that can destabilize our families. But we may not think it can happen to those who have the courage and strength to be first responders to disaster in our community.

“Joe” is a Tucson firefighter who is married with children and working toward expanding his skills by becoming a paramedic. In addition to his already difficult work schedule, he’s committed to extra hours of intensive classes and training. The additional time away from his family makes Joe feel guilty. He’s stressed about his inability to balance his relationship with his spouse, his parenting responsibilities and his own emotional needs. JFCS counselor Shoshana Elkins, LCSW, notes that “a few beers with his friends would be Joe’s typical remedy for handling his job and family conflicts, which of course take him away from his family even more. But through counseling Joe’s realized that there may be another way to find balance and bring him closer to his family.”

Elkins, who is JFCS vice president for programs and services, says the solution for Joe was to provide him with healthier tools to smooth out the rocky places on his career path and alleviate the problems in his family life. Joe and his family, says Elkins, have taken up a new hobby that offers them the quality time together they’ve needed. They make fishing flys and go on occasional fishing trips together.

JFCS helps Joe through its newly formed partnership with the Greater Tucson Fire Foundation. Mike McKendrick, a retired 31-year veteran of the Tucson Fire Department and the Fire Foundation’s chairman of the board of trustees, says that partnership “couldn’t have been more timely.” Citing a shockingly high number of recent suicides among firefighters in Phoenix, McKendrick says that he feels very fortunate for the partnership with JFCS that makes mental health and wellness counseling easily accessible for firefighters: “Our people know where to go and who to call. They are confident that the counselors are competent and that their confidentiality is respected.” He points to the fact that JFCS promises support to Tucson first responders and their families on a “rapid response” basis.

Among its new community partnerships, JFCS sends a therapist twice weekly to Emerge! Center Against Domestic Violence shelters, using trauma counseling experience acquired through programs like LEAH (Let’s End Abusive Households). Since 2000, the JFCS LEAH program has provided counseling, information and community outreach to Jewish families affected by domestic violence. A JFCS therapist also works with Tucson Hebrew Academy, providing support for students, families and staff.

Another new partnership is with New Pueblo Medicine, a primary care practice affiliated with Tucson Medical Center’s Arizona Connected Care. “A doctor at New Pueblo may recognize that a patient’s adverse health condition is being exacerbated by a behavioral or mental health issue. JFCS provides a therapist at New Pueblo Medicine who is available to assist in the integrated care of patients,” explains Ledman.

“This is the future,” says Ledman, “where behavioral health and physical health care providers, collaborating together, will improve overall patient care.”

Renee Claire is a freelance writer in Tucson.

Renee Gutman, Ph.D.

Renee Gutman, Ph.D., has a thriving practice as a pediatric and adolescent neuropsychologist in Tucson, but her family’s relocation from Mamaroneck, N.Y., wasn’t for professional reasons. Their 2004 move depended on finding the right Orthodox shul for her grieving father. When Gutman’s mother lay dying in her arms, her final words to her daughter were to move somewhere that her father could walk to shul. At the time, Gutman was firmly established in her practice in New York, as was her husband, Jonathan, an endodontist, in his.

But Gutman’s father, Dr. Paul Hoffert, was inconsolable for nearly five years after his wife’s death in 2000. Gutman initiated an extensive Internet search and found Congregation Chofetz Chayim, which fulfilled her mother’s request — an Orthodox shul in walking distance from an attractive neighborhood. Her father’s criterion was that it had to be somewhere “where he had never been with my mom,” says Gutman.

As Tucson beckoned, “he lit up for the first time in five years [saying], ‘Let’s go, let’s go,’” she says. Hoffert lived in a Rosemont Regency condo until he died last year. “We set it up as our Shabbos home. And it still is. My father went to shul three times a day. He went to all of Rabbi [Israel] Becker’s classes,” says Gutman. “He had seven and a half magnificent years.”

Gutman expected some lag time in her career upon arriving in Tucson, but after sending announcements to local schools and getting medical referrals, her practice took off.

A 1972 graduate of Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, N.Y., Gutman started out professionally as a second grade teacher at Maimonides Hebrew Day School in Brookline, Mass., while her husband attended Boston University Dental School. “I was fascinated with all the different learning styles the children had,” says Gutman. “Some were puzzles. When a second grade child wasn’t reading I called in her Ph.D. parents and told them, ‘I think there’s a biological piece.’”

Gutman suggested the parents take the girl, who had a lazy eye, to see a pediatrician. Although worried about their daughter, the parents thought her difficulty in school was because she didn’t want to compete with her brilliant older sister, says Gutman. “They thought it was purely psychological. I felt in my gut that there was a medical basis.”

When the younger sister learned to cover her good eye so she was able to focus and learn to read, “she was thrilled with herself,” explains Gutman. Plus, this was before learning disabilities were in the forefront. “We didn’t have that perspective that we have now.”

Starting a family gave the young teacher an opportunity to rethink her work life. “I wanted to give my children exclusive attention, full-time, for three years each,” she says, which she did with Ben, now 37, and Rachel, 34.

Gutman spoke with a career counselor at Sarah Lawrence in 1981. “I love animals so I thought about going to veterinary school but the closest one was at Cornell,” says Gutman. She found out about the new field of neuropsychology and that City University of New York had a doctoral program, and she began taking courses part-time.

Finding the perfect profession turned out to be as serendipitous as discovering Chofetz Chayim. “I went slowly until Rachel was in school,” says Gutman, who did her clinical training at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in Manhattan, while simultaneously completing her Ph.D. in 1990. “When I first started out I did a lot of testing for a diagnosis. Now we know there’s a lot of overlapping of diagnoses. I do a lot of work with a child to not only find out about any disabilities, I want to know their abilities, their passions, their talents, their strengths.”

With autistic children, for example, she says, “there’s a way to get a hook into these kids. They all love something. It’s so individual. That’s the beauty of having a home office. I get a feel for what kids like,” whether that means stocking up on a child’s favorite healthy snacks, working together in her art room or playing her guitar. “I make my office user- friendly. We go on nature walks. We’ve even done relay races in front of the house. I have a big mushy dog the kids love. Whatever it takes,” says Gutman, including perusing the Internet for small presents to give children after every session.

Her expertise, she says, is working with “conundrum kids.” They may have problems at home or in school. “They may be unhappy, mopey or up all night. Something is out of whack.” Her child clients may have seizure disorders, traumatic brain injuries, or a combination of neuropsychological issues.

“We know there’s neuropathology but we don’t know how that’s impacting kids in the real world,” explains Gutman. The first step is “setting up a happy, comfortable environment, which starts with a phone call. I answer the phone and talk with the parent” about the child’s developmental history, she says. “The first session is to engage the child. We just chat” with the parents present. “My preference is to not test anyone under 5, although there may sometimes be a good reason if the child isn’t talking.

“Testing is a big part of what I do. Another big part of what I do is to listen to the child,” says Gutman, recalling one child she worked with in New York. “He was socially very immature, but one of the most brilliant children I’ve worked with. He read Kafka’s ‘Metamorphosis’ and understood it, and was doing calculus” at age 6.

“If I listened to his teacher or his mother he wouldn’t have been as successful,” she notes. When Gutman asked the boy what school was like, he responded, “They give me these stupid worksheets. I don’t do them. The teacher thinks I’m a dimwit.” The child was sent to a different school, where he thrived.

Getting the big picture is all-

important to Gutman. “Nowadays ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) is an acceptable diagnosis to parents. The stigma has been reduced,” Gutman told the AJP. “As a neuropsychologist with my understanding of ADHD, [I want to know], is it primary ADHD or part of something else? It may be sleep deprivation or a learning disability. It may or may not require meds. It’s all about doing a comprehensive diagnosis. Nothing is that simple.

“I worry about diagnoses that have too much charge to them. You can’t pigeonhole any individual,” she says. “A diagnosis is to help get services, [remembering] that a child still has a host of strengths. The earlier we get the big picture we’re at a good starting point.”

“My mom always said to me, ‘You would do this even if you didn’t get paid.’ Of course I would,” affirms Gutman. “Each child is so special. Each child is like a breath of fresh air.”

Gwen Harvey, author of ‘Esperanza Means Hope,’ with Tucson Hebrew Academy fourth graders Breanna Yalen and Jonah Parnaby, holding their painting inspired by characters in the book.

What could be more exciting for fourth graders than to read a book and have the author visit their classroom? On April 26, Gwen Harvey, former director of education at the Arizona Historical Society and the author of “Esperanza Means Hope,” visited Tucson Hebrew Academy.

“They’re so excited,” said their general studies teacher, Chris Graves. “You’d think Justin Bieber was coming. They’ve been jumping up and down since this morning.” Graves was gratified by the insight her students discovered in reading, discussing and thinking about the book. “Esperanza” depicts a Mexican-American girl’s life in the Old Pueblo in the late 19th century.

“It’s really special for fourth graders to have an author visit and especially when it’s historical fiction taking place in your own community,” she says, “a mix of story and history, including Jewish history.” Students had participated in activities relating to the book, including painting a scene and describing it in their own words. They jumped at the opportunity to discuss “Esperanza” with Harvey, who sparked their participation by asking questions: Does Esperanza have a good imagination? What sort of girl is she?

“Esperanza is a kid who likes a little bit of action,” replied Sam Goldfinger. Another student, Eliana Tolby, said, “She doesn’t mean to get into a lot of trouble but she loves her dog so much that sometimes she does.” What about Esperanza’s inner thoughts? “She’s like a poet,” said Tolby.

Harvey put a new THA SmartBoard to good use with her PowerPoint presentation, showing the class original photos of people, places and documents from the historical society, where for more than 20 years she created exhibits and got her idea for “Esperanza.”

To set the scene for “Esperanza” Harvey gave a brief overview of local history. The United States, she noted, gained about a third of its land as a result of the Mexican-American War (1846-1848) and the Gadsden Purchase, or treaty, which was finalized in 1854. Harvey carefully wove different perspectives of 19th century history into her talk, telling the class that she tried to be faithful to the facts, while writing an exciting story.

Fourth grader Carmel Gelbart understood the nature of historical fiction: It’s about something “that could have happened in the past but we don’t know if it did or not.”

Jewish pioneers played a part in Tucson history during the 19th century, which Harvey portrayed in “Esperanza,” showing photographs of some of those pioneers. Brothers Lionel and Barron Jacobs came here from San Francisco to open a store in 1867. Jacob S. Mansfeld arrived from northern Germany to sell newspapers, then books, and was one of the founders of the University of Arizona. Alexander Levin, also from Germany, established Levin’s Garden, which was a park and brewery.

Not only did THA fourth graders hear about the dedication it takes to write a book, they got to understand what ordinary lives of diverse ethnic heritage — Europeans, Native Americans and Mexican Americans — were like more than 100 years ago.

How do you break into the circle? A concierge service to help people navigate the Jewish community is one of several new initiatives to come out of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona’s strategic planning process. (Photo: Allegro Photography – http://allegrophotography.com)

Looking for a way to jump into a Jewish community “can be a very lonely place,” says Liz Kanter Groskind, a member of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona strategic planning steering committee.

That’s why a “concierge” service to help people at various stages of life find Jewish community programs, events and services to suit their needs — whether they want to take a class, volunteer or just meet new people — will be one of the first three initiatives identified through the strategic planning process to be implemented.

The process, a collaborative effort among the Federation, Jewish Community Foundation, Jewish History Museum and Southern Arizona Jewish agencies and synagogues, was launched last May with Think Tank 2020, which brought together more than 100 community members to begin discussing a vision for the community’s future. At that meeting, the concept of engagement was identified as the central focus for the first phase of planning, says Terry Perl, chair of the planning process.

Over the last year, task forces representing various age groups —children, youth and teens; college students; young adults and families; baby boomers and older adults — have been meeting to gather more information, discuss goals and brainstorm initiatives for a strategic engagement plan. Ideas range from a community-wide teen alliance to baby swim classes to “senior university” programs.

“We were very flexible in how we gathered our input,” says Perl. JFSA released a community survey that had more than 500 respondents. Focus groups were held for young adults and families, while one- on-one and group interviews were conducted with seniors. A teen engagement initiative was already underway in collaboration with JESNA, a national Jewish education organization, and the University of Arizona Hillel was in the midst of its own strategic planning process, so JFSA was able to piggyback onto those endeavors.

“The pleasant surprise was that there was a great deal of consensus” about issues that cut across all age groups, says Perl. Communication was recognized as critical to the issue of engagement, although he notes that different age groups seek that communication in different forms, whether it’s e-mails, texts, a print newspaper or a website.

In January, another task force was added: a Tucson Jewish leadership workgroup made up of rabbis, synagogue and agency executives, lay leaders and key Federation staff, which gave rise to another initiative slated for rapid implementation: an ongoing Jewish Community Roundtable.

“What surprised me,” says Rabbi Jason Holtz, who co-chaired the leadership workgroup with Perl, “was really how easy it was to get all the institutions around town together. I think some people have this opinion that the Jewish organizations around town don’t work together all that much … but really when invited to come sit around the table and talk about Jewish life in Arizona, everyone was really eager to do that.”

Throughout the first phase of the planning process, members have been “mindful of the transitions in people’s lives,” with the goal of creating smooth passages in Jewish community experiences, such as from high school to college, or from college to life after graduation, says Holtz.

The concierge approach is designed to help address those transitions, say Brenda Landau, JFSA vice president for community planning and women’s philanthropy. A few other Jewish communities, such as Los Angeles, have created versions of the concierge service, she says.

“Most of these things that we’ll be doing won’t be reinventing the wheel, but it’ll be refitting it to our community,” Landau explains.

Among other goals, the strategic engagement plan also aims to expand programming for teens and young adults and to lower financial and geographic barriers for all ages.

While there’s now a range of events and classes taking place at the Jewish Federation-Northwest, says Groskind, people would be interested “if we did something every so often on the far east side.”

To enhance communication, the third initiative that will be implemented in the coming year is a comprehensive website or technology hub.

The aim is to create a portal that is really user-friendly for each age group, says Groskind, where, for example, “young adults can go and find stuff that would be good for them — for singles, for young families.” Each age group may have a specific web address, though the details haven’t been worked out yet, she says.

Conversations held over the past year point to the fact that many people want to make social connections with other Jews, says Groskind. Some would love a Shabbat dinner, others would like to hear a great speaker and still others might prefer something “truly plain and social.”

One concept to facilitate connections is “Tables of Eight.” When tables at a dinner event have more than eight people, Groskind explains, “You can’t really have a conversation. You are really only talking to the people to your immediate right or left.”

The Tables of Eight approach “has been proven to work to work in other communities,” she says, adding that an event might have several tables of eight, with an opportunity after dinner to mingle with some of the other people in the room.

Other initiatives outlined in the strategic engagement plan, to be implemented over a three-year period, include a comprehensive volunteer strategy and a “Passport to Jewish Life” that would institute scholarships for various Jewish educational experiences, including preschool, childcare, day school, supplemental school and camp. The plan calls for a range of formal and informal opportunities to connect with the Jewish community, with easier access to multiple synagogues and agencies.

The strategic engagement draft plan was presented and approved at the May 1 Federation board meeting. The plan notes that the Federation may need to “modify the allocation of human and financial resources” to support the initiatives outlined.

“The most important thing we can ask ourselves is what kind of community does each of us want,” says Stuart Mellan, president and CEO of the Federation. “We’ve received those answers from hundreds of people and we’re very excited about the vision that emerged. We know that our congregations and agencies are offering a broad array of dynamic programs. Now our challenge is to help people make more connections — to each other, and to all our community has to offer.”

Marian Salzman

May is Brain Tumor Awareness Month. After having two brain tumors removed in the last four years, Tucsonan Marian Salzman, 53, is celebrating being alive. And she’s not just alive, she’s vibrant, creative and has a prominent role in the world of public relations and newscrafting.

Salzman, the CEO of Havas PR North America, has been credited with popularizing the word “metrosexual.” Frequently crisscrossing the continent from Havas’ main office in New York City and media strategizing with clients, Salzman pinpoints “what kind of cultural trends are going to break through the news clutter.”

“I look for culture trends for our clients to identify early. As I’ve gotten older I’ve gotten way more interested in working for the good guys,” she says, “although I still go to work every day to help brand soft drinks.”

Last month, after her second brain surgery — the first was in 2007 — Salzman took off for Boston, where she consulted with the Cambridge Public Schools a week after the Boston Marathon bombing. “My role,” she says, “was to be of counsel, to help them weed through media requests, and to help them compile statements that they provided to media and the community.”

Since her first brain surgery, Salzman has become an advocate for veterans who return home from Iraq or Afghanistan with traumatic brain injuries, post-traumatic stress disorder and other serious head injuries. Seeing the full recovery of her friend Bob Wood­ruff — the ABC news anchor who in 2006 sustained a traumatic brain injury when a bomb struck his vehicle in Iraq — has helped her, she says. And she has taken heart from Wood­ruff’s comment about wounded warriors, “It’s not about the war. It’s about the warriors.” Looking at fighting in conflict zones that way helped influence Salzman to work with veterans. “We got all our anti-war friends involved,” she says.

Recently, Robbie and Alissa Parker, the parents of Emilie Parker, one of the 6-year-old shooting victims at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., became clients. Havas created the website for the Emilie Parker Arts Connection (www.emilieparker.com) working with the Parkers, “implementing their vision, editing the videotapes they had,” says Salzman. “They are incredibly great clients because they have a clear

vision of how they wanted to express their message and they are involved with every word.” She also helped the Parkers set up a foundation and “deal with the media bombardment. They needed to grieve in private.”

Four days after her most recent surgery, she was on CBS News as a spokesperson for Newtown families 100 days after the shootings, which helped to shield families devastated by the tragedy. “In some ways, I credit the Parkers with my quick recovery,” Salzman told the AJP. “They have been through so much, and have done so much good. I feel like a brain tumor is such a small thing relative to what they live with every day since the tragedy at Sandy Hook.”

Many people would say that having a brain tumor is its own personal tragedy. “All brain tumors are brain cancer,” says Salzman, adding that hers have been “atypical [meningiomas], not benign or malignant, very fast growing but they haven’t gotten into the actual brain tissue. Everything is about location in the brain.”

Since having her first brain tumor removed in 2007, Salzman has to get periodic brain scans. Usually recurring tumors are found in the same place, she says, but her second tumor wasn’t. “I was misscanned three times” before the almond-sized tumor was found and removed at Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital.

“My neurosurgeon says, ‘This is probably not going to kill you. When you get to your sixth tumor we’ll talk about it,’” says Salzman. Her retort? “In 24 years I expect you people at the Harvard Medical School to find a cure.”

A graduate of Brown University, Salzman is the author or coauthor of 15 books, including “The Next Now” and “The Future of Man.” She blogs at Forbes.com’s CMO Network, the Huffington Post, CNBC.com, More Magazine’s website and other online and print publications.

Salzman and her husband, Jim Diamond, who have a house in Stamford, Conn., last year bought a house in Tucson. She was working on a project in Chicago and flew to Arizona to meet Diamond for a weekend. “We fell in love with Tucson and bought a house completely on a lark,” she says.

Salzman grew up New Jersey, where she attended two years of Hebrew school. When her father, a Conservative Jew, told her she couldn’t have a Bat Mitzvah, she lost interest and stopped attending. But she began to reconnect to Judaism while living in Amsterdam, after rereading “The Diary of Anne Frank.”

In Tucson, she and her husband have been looking for “the right synagogue fit for us. This is home now,” says Salzman, although she intends to travel at least five days a month. “This was my life before brain cancer so it’s time to dive back in.”

Rachel Baumann

Rachel Baumann, a University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson student, has won the Shandel Medical Endowment Scholarship from the University of Arizona Hillel Foundation.

The merit-based, $20,000 biennial scholarship is awarded to Jewish second-year medical students attending the UA College of Medicine in either Tucson or Phoenix. An anonymous donor provided the funds.

“While the donor wishes to remain anonymous, we want them to know that the impact of their investment on our students is really quite immeasurable,” says Lori Alvord, associate dean for student affairs and admissions at the UA College of Medicine — Tucson.

Qualified applicants must exhibit social or civic responsibility and involvement. The scholarship will apply to the scholar’s third and fourth years of medical school.

Baumann, the outgoing president of the Jewish Medical Student Association, hopes to practice medicine with underserved populations within a community health center and has spent hundreds of hours volunteering with such populations. She sees physicians as both community care-givers and teachers. “As a physician, your responsibility is to take care of a community of people. You are in the business of service with the privilege of teaching patients how to take care of themselves,” she says.

Baumann was drawn to a career in medicine by the combination of the complexity of the human body and her love of science, along with the service aspect of being a doctor. Her mother, Susan Baumann, M.D., a UA College of Medicine – Tucson alumna in psychiatry, also served as a role model, she said.

She credits her family’s Judaism and its tradition of philanthropy for her commitment to underserved populations.

“I am flattered to be selected for the Shandel Medical Scholarship. It is flattering because they saw in me someone who is sincerely committed to working to help underserved populations. The scholarship is special for me also, in that the Jewish community specifically wants to support that effort and it reinforces the Jewish tradition, taught from the time we are little, to give back,” Baumann said.

Baumann volunteers with the UA’s student-led and direct CUP (Commitment to Underserved People) program, which teams students with UA physicians to treat medically underserved populations in a clinical and educational setting. Her fluency in Spanish led to a greater awareness of the challenges underserved people with language barriers have in accessing quality health care.

She also gained experience working with the UA College of Medicine’s Rural Health Professions Program. The program matches medical students with physicians working in rural areas within Arizona. Baumann worked in Douglas, serving populations from Arizona and Mexico.

“The Hillel Foundation is very pleased to be able to offer financial assistance to medical students — in particular, funding those students choosing to practice general medicine, an area of medicine that competes to lure medical students to their ranks from the high salaries offered in medical specialties such as cardiology and plastic surgery. The scholarship is offered to ease the financial burden of medical school tuition and draw qualified future doctors to the field,” says Michelle Blumenberg, executive director of the UA Hillel Foundation.

Palestinian Authority Minister of Health Dr. Hani Abdeen visits 8-year-old Sarah Ghanem, from the village of Durah near Hebron, while she is treated at Hadassah Hospital’s pediatric oncology-hematology department in Jerusalem on Sunday, May 5. (Courtesy Hadassah)

Palestinian Authority Minister of Health Dr. Hani Abdeen visited Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem on May 5. The hospital said Abdeen was the first P.A. health minister to visit the facility.

Abdeen, accompanied by other senior officials from the Palestinian Authority, met some of the dozens of Palestinian physicians who are doing their residency training there.

Abdeen met with the hospital’s acting director-general and director of Hadassah-Ein Kerem, Dr. Yuval Weiss, in the pediatric hematology-oncology department, where 30 percent of the patients are Palestinian.

“Hadassah considers cooperation with our Palestinian neighbors a top priority,” Weiss said. “Medicine is a bridge to peace. There are no borders when it comes to treating patients.”

Abdeen said the delegation was there to get feedback from patients and “to find ways to further collaborate.”

Ilan Fluss from Mashav, the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s aid agency, helps to implement an advanced irrigation system in Senegal in 2011. (Israel21c)

Struggling to be heard over a flock of bleating sheep, Israel’s ambassador to Senegal invites a crowd of impoverished Muslims to help themselves to about 100 sacrificial animals that the embassy corralled at a dusty community center here.

The October distribution, held as French troops battled Islamists in neighboring Mali and one month after Muslim radicals killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya, is held annually in honor of Tabaski, the local name of the Muslim Eid al-Adha feast. The distribution is broadcast on national television in a land that is 95 percent Muslim, providing Israel with a powerful platform to burnish its image among Senegalese.

“It registers very strongly with locals that Israelis give them sheep for a Muslim holiday while most Arab embassies do nothing,” said Eli Ben-Tura, the Israeli ambassador.

The animals are just part of the millions that Israel has spent over the years in Senegal, a French-speaking Western African nation of 12 million where the average monthly salary is $158. In return, Senegal has supported Israel’s erection of a barrier to protect itself from Palestinian terrorism and, in December, signed over oil prospecting rights in its territorial waters to an Israeli-owned mining company.

Over the past decade, Israel’s trade with Senegal has more than tripled.

“Like Israel, Senegal is an island of stability in an unstable region,” Ben-Tura told JTA in an interview earlier this month at the Israeli Embassy overlooking Independence Plaza in Dakar, the capital city.

The importance Israel places on its partnership with Senegal was evident in Ben-Tura’s speech on April 30 at Israel’s 65th Independence Day celebration at the Grand Theatre National, a magnificent structure built with Chinese funding in 2011 near Dakar’s main port.

Speaking to an audience of 1,000, Ben-Tura listed Israel’s latest gifts to the country: training for hundreds of farmers; preparations to train thousands more by Israeli experts stationed in the country; and the establishment of a permanent depot for agricultural equipment and disease control.

Even intercultural activities have not been overlooked. After speeches by Ben-Tura and Mamadou Talla, Senegal’s minister of professional training, Israel Ballet artistic director Ido Tadmor and 40 local artists performed a modern dance routine featuring tea cups. Dozens of onlookers avidly recorded their every move on smartphones.

“Cultural exchange with Africa has been neglected for too long,” Ben-Tura said.

Yet beneath this seemingly symbiotic partnership may be a deeper concern.

Mali, which used to be part of a federal entity with Senegal, last year witnessed an Islamic insurgency so powerful that French troops were called in to quell it. Some 475,000 people became refugees, many of them in Senegal. Some observers believe Senegal is wooing Israel and the West mainly for protection from the Islamic upheaval.

“The effects of the insurgency are not felt here for the time being,” said Oleg Sergeev, minister-counselor of the Russian Embassy in Dakar. “But the Senegalese authorities are turning westward out of concern over the possibility that the Mali insurgency may be trickling over.”

As an impoverished Muslim nation heavily dependent on foreign aid, Senegal must toe a careful line in its embrace of the Jewish state. Anti-Semitic books with titles such as “Hitler the Zionist Puppet” are sold here at bookstands and in 2009 several hundred people burned an Israeli flag at a rally to protest Israel’s Operation Cast Lead in Gaza.

The Senegalese government, then chair of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, condemned the attack as “unjustified and unacceptable.” Still, the government’s condemnations never went beyond words.

“It was a very strong reaction, but it didn’t have an impact on diplomatic relations,” said Christian Clages, the German ambassador to Senegal.

Senegalese officials declined to address the reasons for their country’s closeness with Israel. But observers attribute it variously to the country’s moderate brand of Islam, its relative openness to the West and its past disillusionment with Arab regimes. In 1973, under pressure from Arab countries, Senegal severed its ties with Israel.

“The Arabs threatened sanctions and promised free oil but never delivered, to the bitter disappointment of the Senegalese,” said Zvi Mazel, a former Israeli Foreign Ministry official who negotiated the restoration of diplomatic relations in 1994.

Senegalese moderation was on display in 2012 when Jamra, one of the country’s leading Islamic associations, protested the release of an anti-Muslim film, “The Innocence of Muslims.” The online video triggered violent protests around the world, but in Senegal, it led to the first meeting between Jamra and the Israeli Embassy.

Jamra’s executive president, Imam Massamba Diop, told JTA he learned in his November meeting with Ben-Tura that Israel had nothing to do with the film. And despite his organization’s generally pro-Palestinian posture — it considers Israel’s blockade on Gaza illegal and organizes pro-Palestinian activities in Dakar — Diop supports his government’s friendly relations with Israel.

“The Senegalese people deeply appreciate the event,” Diop said of the embassy’s sheep distribution.

Another Senegalese Muslim leader, Sheikh Paye, arrived at the Israel Independence Day celebration in a shiny, traditional white-and-gold imam robe. A spiritual leader in one of Dakar’s 19 neighborhoods, Paye told JTA that his attachment to Israel stems neither from gratitude for its largesse nor considerations of realpolitik.

“My late father used to be a good friend of several Israeli ambassadors here,” Paye said. “He died three months ago, shortly before the Israeli Embassy’s invitation arrived. It’s an honor to represent him here to people from a country he loved but never visited.”

(L-R) Guy, Carmel, Arbel, Clil, Hadar and Inbal Gelbart

The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona and Tucson Jewish Community Center will host a farewell party for community shaliach (Israeli emissary) and Israel Center Director Guy Gelbart and family on Wednesday, May 22, from 5 to 7 p.m. at the JCC.

The family friendly event will include a light Israeli dinner, music, a jumping castle and a chance to meet the Gelbarts’ new baby boy, Hadar.

“After three years in Tucson, filled with many events, talks, meetings, etc., it will be our opportunity to thank the community, hug and kiss and say goodbye,” says Gelbart.

There is no charge to attend. RSVP to Jennifer Ferrell at 577-9393, ext. 133, or israelcenter@jfsa.org.