CELEBRATING OUR 143RD YEAR OF SERVICE KEHILATH JESHURUN BULLETIN Volume LXXXIV, Number 4 June 30, 2014 2 Tammuz 5774 REFLECTIONS ON THE 142ND ANNUAL SYNAGOGUE MEETING: SPECIAL GUEST FANYA GOTTESFELD HELLER SHARES HER STORY he highlight of the April 9th meeting was the appearance of Annual Meeting the strength and determination that has made her our cherished member, Dr. Fanya Gottesfeld Heller, who such a remarkable Jew. It was a privilege for us to witness this Tspoke to the assemblage in the year which represents the first-hand. 70th anniversary of her liberation from hiding in Poland. Dr. Dr. Heller was followed by William Bryk, the son of Laurie and Heller spent more than two years in hiding, as a Dr. Eli Bryk who, as a Ramaz senior, had returned young teenager. The audience sat in rapt attention late that very afternoon from the Ramaz seniors’ as she described the conditions under which she mission to Berlin, Poland and Israel. In a had to live for so long and the heroism of the remarkable speech which he had written on the righteous gentiles who saved her life. return flight, William described meaningfully and Rabbi Lookstein spoke about how remarkable it powerfully what this mission meant to him is that a woman who went through so many trials intellectually, Jewishly and inspirationally. It was and ordeals has devoted the better part of her life to a very special moment for the attendees at our educating Jews and non-Jews - especially children Annual Meeting to hear the words of an almost in public schools - about the Holocaust in general 90-year-old survivor followed by the report of an and her own experience personally. With modesty 18-year-old Ramaz senior. and self-effacement, Dr. Heller demonstrated to our Teenage Witness Fanya Gottesfeld Heller (continued on pages 6 -8, 13) 110 SENIORS ARE GRADUATED FROM THE JOSEPH H. LOOKSTEIN UPPER SCHOOL OF RAMAZ 64 TO SPEND NEXT YEAR IN ISRAEL Once again it has been an amazing year for the students in Ramaz! Here are some of the impressive results: Many seniors will be spending next year in Israel at the The seniors also earned a wonderful record of college acceptances. Our following Torah institutions and programs: students had impressive admissions numbers in: Aardvark Nishmat Babson College Harvard College Swarthmore College Ashreinu Sha’alvim for Women Barnard College Hunter College University of Chicago Baruch College John Jay College of University of Maryland Beit Chana Sherut Leumi Binghamton University Criminal Justice University of Israel Experience at BIU Reishit Boston University Macaulay Honors, Massachusetts Israel Defense Forces Tafnit Lehava Brandeis University Baruch University of Michigan Kivunim Technion Brown University Macaulay Honors, University of Mechinat Bet Yisrael Torat Shraga Columbia University Hunter Pennsylvania Cornell University Muhlenberg College University of Rochester Midreshet Amit Yeshivat Eretz HaTzvi Dartmouth College New York University Washington University, Midreshet Ein Hanatziv Yeshivat HaKotel Duke University Northeastern University St. Louis Midreshet HaRova Yeshivat Har Etzion (Gush) Emory University Northwestern Yale University Midreshet Lindenbaum Yeshivat Maale Gilboa Eugene Lang College, University Yeshiva University The New School Princeton University Midreshet Torah v’Avodah Yeshivat Netiv Aryeh for Liberal Arts Queens College Midreshet Yeud Yeshivat Orayta George Washington Stern College for Migdal Oz Yeshivat Torah v’Avodah University Women (continued on pages 10-12) Page 2 KEHILATH JESHURUN BULLETIN NEW MEMBERS Fifty-two new households joined the Congregation this past year and were officially inducted and welcomed at the 142nd Annual Meeting by Morris Massel, Secretary of the Congregation: Mara and Elliot Attie Elizabeth Heyman Winter Elizabeth and Ira Savetsky Ada and Mitchell Benerofe Elise and Daniel Kasell Benjamin Sberro Mark Benun Jamie and Philip Katz Michele and Mitchell Schwartz Susan and Michael Castle Talya and David Kaye Elisa and Andrew Septimus Brittany and Jonathan Cogan Joia and Joshua Kazam Evelyn and Avi Spodek Alison and Leo Esses Amy and Benjamin Kellogg Tzivy and Seth Steinmetz Lee and Andrew Fine Kathryn and Eric Kluger Shaun Steigman Jill and Andrew Frey Laura and Daniel Levin Joyce and Daniel Straus Natali and Jason Ganfer Ariel and Matthew Levitan Adam Benjamin Struck Stacie Glick Robert Mancus Jayde Tillis Lorraine and David Gold Margot and Joshua Marans Susan and Simeon Wallis Bernard Goldberg Colby and Justin Podolsky Leora and Emmanuel Gabrielle and Raanan Gononsky Miri Rosen and Andrew Radin Werthenschlag Natanya and Benjamin Gordon Gail and Robert Richardson David Winter Andrea and Adam Gorlyn Daniel Rosen Artmis Youssefnia David Greenbaum Lauren and Michael Rosman Matanya and Pinhas Zekry Val and Asaf Greene Esther and Daniel Samadi Nina and Doni Zupnick Judith and Robert Hara Nicole and Marco Sardar Design/Photo: Howard Katz ISRAEL ACTION KJ FOOD PANTRY The KJ Food Pantry provides kosher food weekly to New Check out “Artzeinu” York’s hungry. Clients are referred to us through the synagogue and local service agencies. Each week clients The Weekly Israel News Update come to KJ to receive food staples tailored to their diets, as well as a selection of fresh fruits and vegetables. Ramaz http://artzeinu.org students pack the bags and staff the booth in the lobby of KJ, and Ramaz/KJ members also deliver packages to those who edited by fellow KJ members are homebound. Aliza Hornblass Jonathan Hornblass, For further information or to volunteer, please contact Stacy Erica Schwartz Scheinberg at [email protected]. Founder: Deena Shiff This site provides easy access KJ Service Directory to numerous news sources and Foremost Caterers............................................... 201-664-2465 videos, and is well organized McCabe’s Wine & Liquors...................................212-737-0790 by general topic. Park East Kosher Butcher................................... 212-737-9800 Plaza Jewish Community Chapel....................... 212-769-4400 Seasons Kosher Supermarket ............................ 212-222-6332 Tauber Fish Market............................................ 718-338-5380 For information Sofer, Rabbi Yoseph Lasdun about the weekly status Tefillin and Mezuzah Checking............................212-927-1655 of the Manhattan Eruv For Shaatnez checking (the Biblical prohibition against mixed Call the Eruv Hotline fabrics typically found in the collars of expensive men’s suits), 212-874-6100 ext. 3 leave suits at Kent ‘s Fashion House, 1596 Third Avenue (between 89th & 90th Streets), and they will be inspected by (Recorded Message) the Shaatnez specialist. Phone: 212-876-0088. KEHILATH JESHURUN BULLETIN Page 3 SHIVAH ASSAR B’TAMMUZ, TISHA B’AV AND THE THREE WEEKS JULY 15 – AUGUST 5 uring the summer months, we (meraglim) returned to the Jews in the to eat meat and drink wine (except on mourn the destruction of both desert with a negative report about the Land Shabbat), to go swimming, to bathe for DTemples in Jerusalem, which took of Israel. In addition, it was on this day that pleasure, or to do any laundry or dry place on the ninth of Av, and the events that the city of Betar was destroyed and tens of cleaning that is not absolutely necessary. led to their destruction. We fast on the thousands of Jews were killed, and the The Talmud writes that when the month of seventeenth day of the month of Tammuz, wicked Turnus Rufus plowed the site of the Av begins, our mood should reflect our Shivah Assar B’Tammuz, because, Temple and its surroundings. Tradition mourning for the destruction of the according to tradition, it was on that day asserts that the expulsion of the Jews from Temples. On Tisha B’Av itself, aside from that the enemy penetrated the walls of England in 1290 and the expulsion from fasting, we are prohibited from washing our Jerusalem prior to the destruction of the Spain in 1492 also took place on Tisha bodies, wearing leather shoes, anointing Second Temple. The Talmud, however, B’Av. ourselves and having marital relations. It is writes that these were not the only tragedies Our mourning for the destroyed forbidden, as well, to study Torah on this that befell the Jewish people on this day. Temples and for the other calamities which day with the exception of the sections of the On the seventeenth of Tammuz four more occurred on these days extends beyond the prophets and the Talmud that discuss the tragedies occurred: the first tablets fasts themselves. The period between these destruction. We do not wear tefillin until containing the Ten Commandments were two fasts, traditionally called The Three Mincha, and the custom is to sit on low broken by Moses after the sin of the Golden Weeks, includes several practices of chairs as mourners do until midday. Our Calf; the daily sacrifice was suspended mourning. During these three weeks we do observance of mourning also forbids us during the time of the First Temple; the not get our hair cut, attend weddings or from greeting friends on Tisha B’Av. wicked Apostumos burned the Torah; and involve ourselves in large joyous We mourn the Temples that were an idol was erected in the Temple. gatherings. During the nine days which destroyed over nineteen hundred years ago, Additional tragedies also befell the begin on the first of Av, July 28, and and we pray that we will be worthy to see Jewish people on the ninth day of the month continue until midday on the tenth day of God rebuild the Temple in of Av – Tisha B’Av. On this day, the spies Av, August 6, we are additionally forbidden our lifetime. KJ BEGINNERS TISHA B’AV 2014 SHABBAT SERVICE Every Saturday 9:30 AM Monday Night, August 4th, Erev Tisha B’Av ~ Fast Begins at 8:09 p.m. Add some soul to your Shabbat. Plenty of learning ~ Mincha, Maariv & Eicha at 8:05 p.m. and explanation! Lots of singing and questions and answers about the prayers and the parsha packed (Kaufman Auditorium of the Ramaz Upper School into what could have been an “ordinary” Shabbat Newman Education Center, 60 East 78th Street) morning.