The Bulletin Affiliated with the Union for Reform Judaism DECEMBER 2015 KISLEV - TEVET 5776 Vol. 167, No. 4 SHABBAT SERVICES FOR DECEMBER Israel: Land and People Join Rabbis Linda and Stephen Goodman SHABBAT VAYEISHEV for a profoundly memorable experience 4 Friday Evening July 16-29, 2016 4:00 PM - Fridays @ 4 First Friday Family Shabbat Highlights: 6:00 PM - Snacks • Jerusalem - eternal capital 6:30 PM - Kabbalat Shabbat • Tel Aviv/Yafo - yesterday, today, 7:15 PM - Potluck Dinner tomorrow • Makhtesh Ramon - geological 5 Saturday Morning wonder 9:00 AM - Shabbat Hevre • Sdeh Boker - making the desert 9:30 AM - Out of the Shabbox bloom 10:30 AM - Shabbat Morning Service • Masada - desert fortress, heroic 11:30 AM - PJ Library: It's Time for Shabbat last stand Torah: Genesis 37:1-40:23 Haftarah: Amos 2:6-3:8 • Sea of Galilee - in the footsteps SHABBAT ROSH CHODESH CHANUKAH - MIKEITZ of Jesus 11 Friday Evening Giv'at Haviva - building 4:00 PM - Fridays @ 4 Arab-Jewish partnerships 6:30 PM - Kabbalat Shabbat - Presentation by Akira Kitade on • Wadi Ara - conflicts of interests Japanese Rescuer Chiune Sugihara • The Jordan River - waters of Dinner and Oneg to follow peace • Tzefat - inspiration of the mystics 12 Saturday Morning • The Golan Heights - mountains, water, history, 9:00 AM - Shabbat Hevre neighbors 9:30 AM - Out of the Shabbox The Burma Road - saluting our congregant, 10:30 AM - Shabbat Morning Service Col. David (Mickey) Marcus 11:30 AM - PJ Library: It's Time for Shabbat • Yad Vashem - Israel's Memorial to the Shoah Torah: Genesis 41:1-44:17 Haftarah: Zechariah 4:1-7 • Rosh Hanikra - grottoes and bluffs SHABBAT VAYIGASH • The Shalom Hartman Institute - center of 18 Friday Evening transformative thinking and study 4:00 PM - Fridays @ 4 Personal conversations with: Palestinians, 6:30 PM - Kabbalat Shabbat - Movie to follow: Cast a Giant Shadow - Israelis; Muslims, Christians, Jews; The story of Col. David ("Mickey") Marcus scholars, students 19 Saturday Morning 9:00 AM - Shabbat Hevre $5,200 per person 9:30 AM - Out of the Shabbox $500 Deposits due December 1 10:30 AM - Shabbat Morning Service • Round-trip airfare, nonstop from JFK 11:30 AM - PJ Library: It's Time for Shabbat (includes airline taxes and fuel surcharge) Torah: Genesis 44:18-47:27 Haftarah: Ezekiel 37:15-28 • 12 days, 11 nights SHABBAT VAY’CHI 4-star deluxe hotels in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, 25 Friday Evening Mitzpeh Ramon, and The Galilee 6:30 PM - Kabbalat Shabbat All breakfasts, 5 lunches, 5 dinners 26 Saturday Morning An outstanding licensed tour guide 10:30 AM - Shabbat Morning Service Gratuities Torah: Genesis 47:28-50:26 Haftarah: I Kings 2:1-2:12 Land package without airfare is available Prices based on double accommodations; single supplement is additional Join us at the Union Temple For further information, please contact Rabbi Chanukah Party! Goodman: [email protected] 718-638-7600 x1 December 13 at 4:00 PM Details on page 7 Rabbi’s Message Akira Kitade and the Sugihara Jews Survivors and their stories. To the best of my knowledge, no one from either side of my family was lost in the Shoah. There aren’t even any survivors among us. My ancestors came from Germany, Poland and Russia with the different waves of immigration of those particular communities, and everyone I know about was here in New York by the beginning of World War I. I have heard and read personal accounts of survivors and their children mostly through my work and studies as a rabbi. There is one phenomenon that has become clearer to me with each passing year. That is the phenomenon of credibility. I have often been struck by the convoluted and unbelievable qualities of many of the stories I have heard. And yet, with each one, the truth has become increasingly and more excruciatingly clear. Unbelievable and convoluted as they may sound, every one of these stories is the truth, and the people telling them are alive today because of a momentary quirk of fate that turned potential disaster into a reprieve. And, indeed, the memories they hold inside, and the effects of their experiences upon their children and grandchildren, and beyond, still cannot be fully measured. A boy with blonde hair and blue eyes. I remember a short recollection by a second-generation survivor - a friend of mine. She said I could tell the story but asked that I not print her name. Her parents were survivors of the Lodz Ghetto, and she herself was born in a DP camp in Germany. She speaks fluent Yiddish, because that is the language her parents spoke at home. At the Bar Mitzvah of her son, some 23 years ago now, she took a few minutes to speak to her family. In fluent Yiddish, she said: “What I’m about to tell you is not a fantasy or a figment of my imagination. When our son was born and I looked at him for the first time, I knew I had seen him before.” She went on to explain that she had seen a family photo of her uncle’s family (her father’s brother) taken in Poland – his wife and his five children, all of whom were killed in the Shoah. Only her uncle survived and moved to Israel. But sure enough, there in one of the family pictures, was a young boy who looked exactly like her new little baby boy. I was so profoundly moved by this recollection that even after all these years, I still remember her words that day of her son’s Bar Mitzvah. The postscript is that when I spoke with her recently she told me that that Bar Mitzvah boy, who is now 35, has a young son of his own. And indeed, that son, her grandson, with striking blue eyes and blonde hair, is also a virtual reflection of that same young boy in the photograph – the cousin that none of them would never know. Sugihara’s Jews and another personal story . Chiune Sugihara was a Japanese diplomat who issued “Visas for Life” to some 6,000 Jews, saving them from certain death. He was one of those we call chasidei umot ha’olam, often translated as “Righteous Gentiles,” or, simply, “Rescuers.” We paid tribute to Chiune Sugihara several years ago at Union Temple on the anniversary of Kristallnacht. Akira Kitade is a freelance writer, born in Japan in 1944. He has written a book called “Visas of Life and the Epic Journey: How the Sugihara Survivors Reached Japan.” In his research, Mr. Kitade found a small group of photos of these survivors in an album, and found one of the people in these pictures living here in New York, on Long Island. Her name was Sonia Reed, and she was the mother of our friend and congregant David Reed. When David looked at this picture, indeed, that young girl in the photo was, most assuredly, his mother. Our opportunity to hear. Through David’s efforts, we will have the opportunity to hear from Akira Kitade himself, as he comes to speak with us on Shabbat Evening, December 11th. Our Kabbalat Shabbat service begins at 6:30 PM in the sanctuary, and Mr. Kitade will make his presentation during the service. We will share some dinner together following the service and presentation. I hope you will join us and the Reeds for services and this opportunity to hear this presentation and look at this book. This is part of the story of our people: the story of Am Yisrael. -Rabbi Linda Henry Goodman 2 Officer’s Column As the Days Get Colder As I write this article it is early November and the temperature outside is going up to 70 degrees. It is hard to imagine that winter is just around the corner. But the truth is winter is almost here. The big holiday celebration for December is of course Chanukah. Our annual Family Chanukah Party is on Sunday, December 13 from 4:00 – 7:00 PM. Kids will have fun activities and the adults will have vodka and latkes to enjoy in their own part of our Social Hall. It is a wonderful family event that is not to be missed. Union Temple is a great place to come in out of the cold. We think of ourselves as a warm and welcoming congregation. I strongly believe that our Temple community lives up to that. Please tell your friends about Union Temple and bring them to services or events. I encourage you, as the days get colder, to find warmth and friendship at our Shabbat services, as we light candles and wish each other a warm Shabbat Shalom. -Abe Barnett, Vice-President 3 Sisterhood A Discovery Most Chilling What would you do if you suddenly discovered that your grandfather was a notorious Nazi concentration camp commandant who had sent an incalculable number of Jews to their deaths— and would have included you among them? Join us on Sunday, December 20, at 10:00 AM, as we discuss Jennifer Teege’s riveting memoir, My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me. The daughter of a German mother, Monika Goeth, and a Nigerian student, Jennifer spent her early life in an orphanage until she was adopted at the age of seven. During her years in the orphanage, she had contact with her mother and grandmother, but she was never told anything about her family roots. It was not until she was thirty-eight years old that she accidentally came upon a library book that revealed her grandfather was the sadistic Amon Goeth, “The Butcher of Plaszów,” who was chillingly portrayed by Ralph Fiennes in the film Schindler’s List.