Dear Friends,
It’s my solemn obligation to remind you of our Old York Road Kehillah’s annual Yom HaShoah observance which, this year, takes place at Gratz College this coming Monday, April 17, beginning promptly at 6:15pm. The rabbis and cantors from our area’s synagogues will participate in an abbreviated service to be followed immediately by a special, dramatic presentation by Theater Ariel. Click here to register.
I sincerely hope that you’ll try to join with us in person as we recommit ourselves to perpetuating the memory of the six million righteous brethren of our people whose lives were so mercilessly and savagely taken from them during the Shoah, the Nazi Holocaust.
This is an opportune time to remind you, my fellow Beth Amniks, of a relatively hidden treasure in our midst: the presence of no less than three Czech Holocaust Memorial Scrolls, each part of the fabled collection of more than 1,564 Sifrei Torah, administered by the Memorial Scrolls Trust in London.
We are indeed privileged to be the custodian of such priceless treasures, the smallest of which, the beloved “Svetla Torah,” is now encased as the centerpiece of our stunning 3-D mural in the main lobby. I urge you to visit, if you haven’t yet, this impressive addition to our lobby area when next at Beth Am. In addition, a comprehensive website complete with videos and photos (linked to the Beth Am website) dedicated to the history of each of our three scrolls was recently produced by an outside professional agency.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t thank Carol and Barry Stein, Jane Hurwitz and Bill Patent for their hard work and tireless efforts in making sure that our esteemed collection of scrolls is prominently displayed for all - both in person and online. We are grateful to Mark Braverman for his generous support of this long-awaited project.
The Czech Holocaust Memorial Scrolls website can be accessed here.
Today, we are witnessing an alarming increase in antisemitic rhetoric and behavior in this country. The ADL found that in 2022, antisemitic incidents in America reached their highest levels on record since it started tracking incidents more than 40 years ago: terrorist attacks on synagogues, bricks thrown through windows of Jewish businesses, antisemitic flyers left on the front lawns of Jewish homes, swastikas on cars and cemeteries, antisemitic graffiti and acts in elementary, middle and high schools, Jewish students harassed on college campuses, Jews wearing religious attire beaten and shot on streets, antisemitic theories rampant online, antisemitic tropes treated as honest public debate, celebrities spouting antisemitic hate. The list goes on and on. President Biden stated recently: “These acts are unconscionable and despicable. They carry in them terrifying echoes of the worst chapters in human history. They are a stain on the soul of our nation.”
You can take a stand - and support our efforts - by joining with us this coming Monday night. In addition, we urge you to light your yellow candle (Monday night, Erev Yom HaShoah) which was hand-delivered to you by a wonderful team of dedicated volunteers under the leadership of Rich Wright.
Let us proclaim loudly and resolutely that we will never forget the gross indignities that previous generations of Jews were subjected to. Let a million candles glow against the darkness of their unfinished lives.
Shabbat Shalom,
Robert
