YIZKOR MEMORIAL SERVICE 5781 East Brunswick Jewish Center 5781 – 2020/21 Rabbi Jeff Pivo Cantor Larry Brandspiegel Synagogue Co-President Robert Salston Synagogue Co-President Steve Zeidwerg Executive Vice President Joannie Weinfeld Vice Presidents Joe Behrman Rhoda Cohen Jack Goldberg Shirley Sommers Jamie Wasserman Treasurer Neil Kosher Financial Secretary Phil Folz Corresponding Secretary Marna Erlich Recording Secretary Carol Landa Trustees Hayley Migdal Dov Pollak Philip Schiffman Members at Large Steve Bellows Ron Berger Lloyd Shepetin Dates that Yizkor will be recited in 5781: Monday Sept. 28, 2020 - Yom Kippur Saturday Oct. 10, 2020 - Shemini Atzeret Sunday April 4, 2021 - Pesach Tuesday May 18, 2021 - Shavuot From the editors… At this time of year many of us observe the custom of visiting the graves of our loved ones and recite written prayers and the prayers that are in our hearts. We open our hearts and ask their forgiveness for some small incident that may be etched in our memories. Though it may be incidental, and the person may not have even been aware of it, it gnaws at us, and we plead for forgiveness and we feel better admitting truths to ourselves and righting ourselves emotionally. We seek advice from our loved ones for difficult problems and though they physically cannot speak to us we know how they thought and what is right to do in any given situation. Yom Kippur and the Yizkor prayer is the time when we pray to God and ask forgiveness for straying from the path of Torah. It is the time when we pledge to do better both personally and spiritually. The year 5780 has not been a good one. For the better part of the year and going into the New Year we are all dealing with the effects of Covid-19. Many families in our community and in the larger Jewish community have suffered the loss of a loved one. Many families have been adversely affected emotionally, psychologically and economically. We pray that our Father in Heaven show us mercy and lift this plague from our lives as well as to quell the rising Anti- Semitism. This year marks 1950 years since the destruction of the 2nd Temple. It was the single greatest calamity that has ever befallen our people as it set in motion the wandering of the Jewish people ever since. However, the recent events of peace with two of our Arab neighbors, The UAE and Bahrain, gives us hope in a greater peace for our homeland and for us. This year also marked the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp. In this Yizkor Book we remember those who have fallen in the task of defending our brothers and sisters in Israel and around the world. They are truly among the righteous of our people. We pray that no more will fall in their duty and service to Israel and the Jewish People. We also list those civilian Jews and some non-Jews who have been murdered by terrorists in Israel and around the world. We also should not forget to remember those Jews who fought for the United States of America, our home in the diaspora, in the fight against those dictators and regimes of tyranny who would deny freedom to all citizens of the world who did not worship, or think as they demanded. Their task was no less holy or righteous. The editors would like to thank the office staff for their help as well as Larry Solomon. We wish you all a L’Shana Tova and G’mar Hatima Tov. May God answer all of our prayers and the prayers of our loved ones. May the names of those recalled here be for a blessing for us all and may God bring peace to the Land of Israel. Marty Genee Maureen Richardson Raymond Sasson z”l Jack Silverman PJ Smith Co-Editor Co-Editor Co-Editor, Emeritus Co-Editor Co-Editor Memorial Service for the Departed .. There is a time for everything; there is a time for all things under the sun: a time to be born and a time to die a time to laugh and a time to cry a time to dance and time to mourn a time to seek and a time to lose a time to forget and a time to remember. This day in sacred convocation we remember those who gave us life. This day we remember those who enriched our life with love and with beauty, with kindness and compassion, with thoughtfulness and understanding. This day we renew the bonds that bind us to those who have gone the way of all the earth. As we reflect upon those whose memory moves us this day, we seek consolation, and the strength and the insight born of faith. Tender as a father with his children, The Lord is merciful with His worshipers. He knows how we are fashioned; He remembers that we are dust. The days of man are as grass; he flourishes as a flower in the field. The wind passes over it and it is gone, and no one can recognize where it grew. But the Lord’s compassion for His worshipers, His righteousness to children’s children, remain, age after age, unchanging. Three score and ten our years may number, Four score years if granted the vigor. Laden with trouble and travail, life quickly passes, it flies away. Teach us to use all of our days, O Lord, that we may attain a heart of wisdom. Grant us of Your love in the morning, that we may joyously sing all our days. . When I stray from You, O Lord, my life is as death; but when I cleave to You, even in death I have life. You embrace the souls of the living and the dead. The earth inherits that which perishes. But only the dust returns to dust; the soul, which is God’s, is immortal. The Lord has compassion for His creatures. He has planted eternity within our soul, granting us a share in His unending life. He redeems our life from the grave. During our brief life on earth He gives us choices. We can cherish hopes, embrace values and perform deeds which death cannot destroy. May we all be charitable in deed and in thought, in memory of those we love who walk the earth no longer. May we live unselfishly in truth and love and peace, so that we will be remembered as a blessing, as we this day lovingly remember those whose lives endure as a blessing. Our generations are bound to each other as children now remember their parents. Love is strong as death as husbands and wives now remember their mates, as parents now remember their children. Memory conquers death’s dominion as we now remember our brothers and sisters, grandparents and other relatives and friends. The death of those we now remember left gaping holes in our lives. But we are grateful for the gift of their lives. And we are strengthened by the blessings which they left us, by precious memories which comfort and sustain us as we recall them this day. Each congregant reads silently the appropriate passages among those which follow. Personal meditations may also be added. We rise. In memory of a father (insert name) . ..... May God remember the soul of my father who has gone to his eternal home. In loving testimony to his life I pledge charity to help perpetuate ideals important to him. Through such deeds, and through prayer and memory, is his soul bound up in the bond of life. May I prove myself worthy of the gift of life and the many other gifts with which he blessed me. May these moments of meditation link me more strongly with his memory and with our entire family. May he rest eternally in dignity and peace. Amen. In memory of a mother (insert name). .... .. May God remember the soul of my mother who has gone to her eternal home. In loving testimony to her life I pledge charity to help perpetuate ideals important to her. Through such deeds, and through prayer and memory, is her soul bound up in the bond of life. May I prove myself worthy of the gift of life and the many other gifts with which she blessed me. May these moments of meditation link me more strongly with her memory and with our entire family. May she rest eternally in dignity and peace. Amen. In memory of a husband (insert name). ...... May God remember the soul of my husband who has gone to his eternal home. In loving testimony to his life I pledge charity to help perpetuate ideals important to him. Through such deeds, and through prayer and memory, is his soul bound up in the bond of life. Love is strong as death, deep bonds of love are indissoluble. The memory of our companionship and love leads me out of lonliness into all that we shared which still endures. May he rest eternally in dignity and peace. Amen. In memory of a wife (insert name).. ...... May God remember the soul of my wife who has gone to her eternal home. In loving testimony to her life I pledge charity to help perpetuate ideals important to her. Through such deeds, and through prayer and memory, is her soul bound up in the bond of life. Love is strong as death, deep bonds of love are indissoluble. The memory of our companionship and love leads me out of loneliness into all that we shared which still endures.