the Jewish bserver Yom Hashoah: Lest We Forget inside: Local survivor to speak at play marking NowGen Purim Ball was a 75th anniversary of Kindertransport smash 5 By CHARLES BERNSEN Social Action Seder one of special guest will be many communal Passover in attendance this events 8 month when the Nashville Jewish “Jewish Jordan” will be in community com- Nashville for the Women’s memorates the AHolocaust with a performance of NCCA Final Four 16 “My Heart in a Suitcase,” a play about the Kindertransport mission Election as AZA grand aleph that rescued thousands of Jewish godol means “new normal” children from Nazi-occupied terri- tories just before the outbreak of for Nashville’s Sam Perlen 18 World War II. Herbert Kornguth was one of Regular features those children. Now 82 and living in Crossville TN, Kornguth will discuss The Rabbis’ Corner 20 his Kindertransport experience fol- In this emotional scene from “My Heart in a Suitcase,” two parents wave good-bye to Opinion 20 lowing the performance of “Heart,” their daughter as a Kindertransport train pulls out of Berlin.” COURTESY OF ARTSPOWER. Lifecycles 21 which is scheduled for 10 a.m. staged in cooperation with the city’s Federation of Nashville and Middle Sunday, April 27 at the Gordon five synagogues, which will send their Tennessee, the Yom Hashoah com- Around the town 22 Jewish Community Center. religious schools to see the perform- memoration will also include a serv- “Heart” is part of the Nashville ance. The entire community is invit- ice conducted by the community’s community’s official observance of ed, including children in the sixth rabbis and the traditional candle- Yom Hashoah, the day on which Jews grade or older. Childcare will be pro- lighting by Holocaust survivors. around the world remember the vided for younger children. Among them will be Kornguth, HOME & GARDEN PAGE 11 Holocaust and its victims. It is being Underwritten by the Jewish Continued on page 6 Auschwitz photos will be subject of music, dance performance at Akiva By CHARLES BERNSEN Paul Polycarpou, CEO and editor of A collection of Henriksson’s Nashville Arts Magazine. Auschwitz photos is on display this hen John Stunned by the Swedish photog- month in the Sig Held Gallery at the Guider’s friend rapher’s “fantastic pictures,” Gordon Jewish Community Center and fellow pho- Polycarpou began thinking about how as part of an exhibit that includes two tographer, and where they might be appropriate- other Holocaust-themed works, one Örjan ly exhibited in Nashville. The result by students at the Akiva School and Henriksson, vis- is a collaboration that will not only another by Nashville artist Leslie Wited Nashville last fall, he brought bring Henriksson’s photographs to Klein called “The Sacrifice.” The some of the stark, black-and-white Nashville this month but also make exhibition will culminate on Monday, photographs he had taken at the them the centerpiece of an unusual April 28 with an event at Akiva Auschwitz concentration camp. performance on Yom Hashoah in which Henriksson’s photographs Guider introduced Henriksson to involving three artistic genres. Continued on page 6 Nashville contingent inspired by Cuba’s www.jewishobservernashville.org small but vibrant Jewish community A Publication of By FELICIA ANCHOR Adela is dedicated to identifying its delegation from Nashville that trav- needs and doing whatever it takes to eled to Cuba last month, the second HAVANA, Cuba – Adela fill them. such mission in two years sponsored by Dworin proudly refers to herself as Cuba’s once dwindling Jewish Jewish Federation of Nashville and the “master schnorrer” of the Jewish population is being revitalized Middle Tennessee. To say that the trip community here. But in this case the through the efforts of people like was an eye opening experience would www.jewishnashville.org Yiddish term, which means Adela and the aid of Jewish communi- challenge every definition of the con- “moocher,” carries no negative con- ties in North America and elsewhere. cept. To say that it was gratifying VOL.79 NO. 4 notation. As president of Cuba’s I was privileged to be a part of that would be an understatement. April 2014 1,500-member Jewish community, effort as a member of the 22-person Continued on page 3 1 - 30 Nisan 5774 Join us for this free event An Israeli Soldier in a War Against The Delegitimization of Israel Hen Mazzig Israeli Representative Monday and Campus Coordinator May 5, Stand With Us 2014 Northwest at 7:00 PM Gordon JCC 801 Percy Warner Blvd Seating Is Limited. Please register at: henmazzig.event brite.com We would like to thank The Gordon Jewish Community Center for providing us the use of its facilities on a rental basis for this program. The views and opinions expressed by the program’s sponsors and the program’s content do not necessarily represent the views of the Gordon Jewish Community Center nor is it responsible for the content of this program. 2 April 2014 The Observer Nashville contingent inspired by Cuba’s small but vibrant Jewish community Continued from page 1 ly lost two generations, but we witnessed Our group, which included eight a vibrancy that bodes well its future. Out Vanderbilt University students on alter- humanitarian mission will help make life native spring break, brought more than a bit safer and healthier as they cope 400 pounds of medical and dental sup- with formidable obstacles. Cuban earns plies, including 30,000 syringes for those about $20 U.S. dollars a month and live with diabetes. (While medical care is with food ration cards that have a available to all Cubans, chronic short- monthly meat allotment of one-quarter ages of all types of medications are a way of a chicken per person. of life.) In return, we were inspired by Despite this, Cuban Jews are com- the warmth and vibrancy of a tenacious mitted to building a warm, strong, inclu- Jewish community that is finding a way sive community. It was a truly a privilege not just to survive but to thrive despite to be part of the Nashville community’s third-world conditions. effort to secure a better future for our When it came to power in the 1960s, Cuban brethren. c Fidel Castro's government outlawed reli- gion. But those restrictions were lifted 20 years ago, and the Jewish community here began a revival. Jews started visiting their cemeteries and holding Jewish weddings under the chuppah. The ocean served as Some of the 400 pounds of medical supplies the Nashville delegation delivered to Cuba’s their mikvah. Jewish community. From left are Matt Leff, Rabbi Joshua Kullock, Mark Freedman, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Nashville and Middle Tennessee, and David Tacher, leader Today Cuba’s Jewish community is of the Jewish community in Santa Clara, Cuba. growing. A rabbi visits six times a year, instructing young people on how to con- memorial, which incorporated rail tracks talization that began in the 1990s and duct regular services, which they do with and stepping stones brought from that has been sustained with the philan- ability and dedication. On one the Poland. He has a beautiful tree on the thropy of the Canadian and American Shabbat, we worshiped with the site that was planted with soil and water Jewish communities. Each year the Conservative congregation in Havana from various places in Israel. Our group Toronto Jewish community sends provi- and were honored to witness a bat mitz- held an emotional and meaningful com- sions for Passover. Through the generosi- vah conduct the service with confi- memoration there, and the Vanderbilt ty of donors, Cuban children have been dence, poise and skill. Our own Rabbi students remained to work on the able to attend the Maccabi Games, visit Joshua Kullock of West End Synagogue restoration of the cemetery walls. Israel on the Taglit-Birthright program delivered the sermon in Spanish, and we But perhaps no one personifies the and go on the March of the Living, a Sara Lichtenberg (from left), Joe Gelman danced together in the main aisle as we vibrancy of the Cuban Jewish communi- Holocaust education program. and Maddie Brown were among eight Vanderbilt students in the Nashville delega- sang Lecha Dodi. ty more than Adela, who has been its We were told that Cuba has little tion to Cuba. Behind them is the magnifi- Our group visited four Jewish syna- president since 2006. She proudly wears a anti-semitism. Cuban leaders have par- cent tile mural of Jerusalem at the tiny syn- gogues. In Havana we met with the lead- Lion of Judah pin provided by her ticipated in Hanukkah events at the syn- agogue in Santa Clara. ers of the small Orthodox Jewish com- American sisters to indicate the strength agogue. Fidel Castro himself once munity who provide kosher food and of the Jewish relationship. Jewish com- attended and gave a two hour speech on See more photos of the Nashville meals in conjunction with the daily munity groups visit Cuba each week, but the Jewish Bible. mission to Cuba at our website prayer services. We visited the Sephardic she greeted us with genuine sincerity and Cuba’s Jewish community essential- www.jewishobservernashville.org synagogue, where we met Dr. Mayra appreciation for the supplies we provided. Levy, the congregation’s president. The The Jewish community's main building hosts a senior citizens center address is El Patronato, a building in and a small Holocaust museum. Havana that houses the Conservative In Santa Clara, a three hour bus trip synagogue, Beth Shalom, along with the from Havana, we met David Tacher, who community’s pharmacy, which received has created a “little house of miracles” in our medical shipment.