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April - 2018/ Nisan/Iyar 5778
featuring
Joel Salberg
Friday, April 20th
Potluck at 6
Kabbalat Shabbat at 7
Joel’s Story and Dessert at 8
From the Rabbi, April 2018
Hi Everyone.
Simcha.
Simcha is Hebrew for joy or happiness. It is also, an Ashkenazi Jewish boy’s name.
A story told by Rabbi Natan Slifkin at his son, Simcha’s,
bar mitzvah:
Seven years ago, I bought a bookcase from IKEA, and one component turned out to be damaged. Frustrated, I had to drive all the way back, and I decided to take little Simcha with me. It was a long drive, and I got lost on the way. Finally, we arrived, and then we had to wait in line for a long time; I got Simcha a drink while we waited. Then it was my turn, and they told me that they didn’t have that part in stock. I was fuming at the wasted afternoon. Then suddenly Simcha turned to me and beamed, “Aba [Daddy], we’re having a special day together, right?”
Anyone who has ever had children tells the same story. A child’s smile or earnest comment can melt away a parent’s anger or frustration. And not just a parent’s. On our recent community trip to Israel we were accompanied by Nitzan and Hadas—Rabbi Isaacs’ and Melanie Weiss’ adorable munchkins. Their sweet faces helped all of us cope with the long hours waiting in airline terminals. At least while they were smiling and happy.
You are likely reading this right before, right after, or perhaps during, the Passover Seder. Our tradition carefully arranged the Seder so that even the youngest children will be present and involved. The Seder begins with the youngest child asking the four questions and ends with the child-friendly Afikomen hunt. For good and for bad. The Seder is a lengthy affair. Insisting on including smaller children practically guarantees overturned wine goblets staining new books and fresh table cloths. Not to mention the kvetching. But it’s worth it. The children who are welcomed, included, and interacted with will be the children who keep our traditions alive. Just as importantly, the presence of children reminds us why we are doing all of this in the first place and even helps us cope with the long hours waiting to finally eat.
During Passover and other Holidays, we greet each other, in Hebrew, with Chag Sameach. Chag means holiday and Sameach, like Simcha, means joy and happiness. Like the Slifkins, may our holidays be filled with the sounds of Simcha.
Rabbi Sruli
P.S. Rabbi Sruli and Lisa will teach a class on Jewish music at Colby College on Tuesday, April 10th at 7 p.m. (last month’s date was snowed out); and Rabbi Sruli and Lisa will lead a Shabbat Service for Adas Yoshuron Synagogue in Rockland, Maine on Friday, April 13th at 7 p.m.
Rabbi Sruli is always happy to speak with and meet with members or our Temple. Please call or text Rabbi Sruli on his cell phone at 914-980-9509 if you would like to speak with him or to arrange a time for a meeting. You can also call or leave a message
at the Temple office and Rabbi Sruli will get back to you.
President’s Message
How lucky are we? Able to celebrate Passover in the open and free of fear and death just for being who we are. This story was written by Lady Amelie Jacobovits and I thought it was worthy of sharing. I hope you and your family had a Happy Passover.
One Passover, my three-year-old grandchild looked up at me from his chair at the Seder table. I don't even know what he said, because the rush of Passover 1941 blocked everything else. I was a young girl hidden in a dark cellar in central France. I was without other family -- alone with four other children, all of us strangers.
I was born in the years preceding World War II and lived content and well loved by my family in Nurnberg. By 1933, however, my world was getting darker till, one day, Nazi storm troopers marched into Nurnberg ordering that all major buildings must fly the swastika flag by evening. In 1936, my parents took us to Paris, as my father had been appointed rabbi of the prominent Rue Cadet synagogue. Within a few years, as the political situation deteriorated, my father was conscripted into the army and had to leave us. In 1940, when the Nazis began bombing Paris, my mother fled with us -- her four children -- on the last train before the main onslaught. It was the eve of the Jewish holiday of Shavuot.
The mass of people on that train -- a tornado of humanity -- repeatedly wrenched us from o0ne another. Months later, on another leg of our desperate journey I lost track of my family altogether and began to wander from village to village. Lone children all over were doing the same.
One night just before dawn, I could go no further. I knocked on the farmhouse door of what turned out to be a kind, courageous gentile farmer. He took me to his cellar where I found another little girl. Eventually two boys and another girl joined us. None of us admitted we were Jewish for several days.
It was a dire winter. Each morning, a few rays of light would poke their way into the cellar through two windows high on the wall -- our only eyes to the world outside. The farmer had lowered us into the cellar through those windows and every day through one of them he lowered a net with five morsels of food and a bucket for our natural needs. Strange as it sounds, we were very lucky. In that difficult winter, five homeless children developed values so different from those today -- as well as a bond of lifelong friendship.
One day, peering from the cellar up through the windows one of us noticed a streak of sunlight in blue sky. A few days later, another saw blades of grass penetrating the frozen terrain. We had no calendar or sense of time, but we concluded that, if the weather was indeed changing with spring on its way, maybe we were nearing Passover. Each of us children came from a different range of Jewish commitment, yet we shared a strong desire to do something to celebrate what we sensed was the upcoming Passover holiday.
When the farmer appeared with our food the next morning, we asked if he would lower in tomorrow's basket a small amount of flour, a bottle of water, a newspaper and a match. Two days later we received a small bottle of water, but we had to wait several days for the flour. The entire region was drained of provisions, with everything being transported north to Germany. Our host the farmer had himself barely anything to eat.
A day later, a newspaper came through -- and then a match. We waited a few more days. We saw a full day of sunshine and blue skies, and we decided that, in order to cultivate a festive spirit, we would switch clothing with one another and wear them as if new. So we changed clothes; the two boys trading and the girls exchanging dresses. Before evening we baked our matzah, though we hadn't a clue how to do so. We poured water into the flour and held the dough in our bare hands over the burning newspaper on the floor. We produced something which resembled matzah and, whatever it was provided enough for the five of us.
That night we celebrated Passover. One of us recalled by heart the kiddush -- the blessing that sanctifies the Passover night. Another remembered the Four Questions - the part of the Seder the young children recite. We told a few stories of the Exodus that we remembered having heard from our parents. Finally, we managed to reconstruct "Chad Gadya," the song which typically ends the evening.
We had a Passover to remember. With no festive food, no silver candlesticks and no wine - with only our simple desire to connect with God -- we had a holiday more profound than any we have known since. I thank God for allowing me to live to be able to tell my children and grandchildren about it. Even more, I feel obligated to the younger generations of my family, who never experienced what I did, to pass on the clarity it gave me -- the vivid appreciation of God's presence in my life, of His constant blessings, wonders and teachings…and of His commitment to the survival of the Jewish people.
Message from the Temple Shalom Office
Well folks, this is it. As of the first week in April I will return to being just another congregant! It has been a whirlwind of the past several months here at Temple Shalom. I’ve added some changes to the way our billing is processed; I’ve made a few errors here and there, for which I sincerely apologize. I’ve gotten to know many of you better, which have made me, feel an even greater connection to our community. I want to assure everyone that any financial information I have been privy to, will be kept strictly confidential (and at my age, how could I possibly remember!).
I want you to be aware that Julie Waite is a treasure and a very hard act to follow. Julie has developed systems to keep our synagogue running on an even keel. She has cleaned up messes, spread sand, made sure supplies for each and every need are met. Julie always has the answers and knows more about our religious rites and customs than many of us know.
I also want to thank the Board of Directors for entrusting me with the operations of our Synagogue. There was a new challenge for me almost every day, I’ve butted heads with a few of you on occasion and I hope that all is forgiven. I knew I couldn’t please everyone, and most of you have shown great appreciation for my being here.
There have been days that I felt I couldn’t do anything right, when no one could see things from my perspective. I have learned some lessons that I will carry with me to whatever is in store for me next. David, Lesli, Rabbi Sruli, Elcha, Aaron, really all of the members of our Temple, thank you for your help when I’ve asked and mostly your encouragement to keep going.
So it’s on to the next challenge for me. Cleaning my refrigerator, clearing out some old “stuff” that will never be used again. Start preparing meals again and maybe even going to the gym. I’ll continue to bug you for help in the kitchen, almost always attend Thursday morning minyan and be available to house sit, walk you dog, and just be there as a friend.
With great love and appreciation.
Melissa
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!BOOK GROUP NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We were a small group in March, and since the group would probably be even smaller next month, we voted to cancel the April meeting. So 14 of us will be going to hear Dara Horn speak at the JCA in Portland on May 3. She’s one of our favorite authors. Then at our May 14 Book Group we will discuss her book Eternal Life with the benefit of all her revelations about her work. It’s not too late to get your tickets.
Present on March 12 were Helene Perry, Margaret Meyer, Lindsey Walker, Sarah Aronson, Jeanne Kassel and me, Lesli Weiner. Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly was the book under discussion. Yes, this is a Holocaust novel, but interestingly, none of the characters were Jewish. The story was told from three alternating points of view: Caroline Ferriday, a former Broadway actress and liaison to the French consulate in NYC; Kasia Kuzmerick, a Polish teenager sent to Ravensbruck as a political prisoner; and Herta Oberheuser, a young ambitious German doctor “just doing her job.” For a while, the reader wonders how these lives could intersect, but collide, they do. As with most Holocaust stories, some themes explored are human rights, political resistance and survival. But Lilac Girls also touches on a number of interpersonal themes including female friendship, mother-daughter relationships, love, infidelity and mental health. There was a lot for us to talk about, and while some of us found this to be a difficult book; we agree it was worth reading, especially the second time through.
As mentioned before, our next book is Eternal Life by Dara Horn. We don’t usually read a book that is hot off the press, but since she is coming to speak we broke our rules. So, if you’re getting this from the library, put your name on the waiting list now even though we have 2 months to read it! Here is the book description:
“What would it really mean to live forever?
Rachel is a woman with a problem: she can’t die. Her recent troubles―widowhood, a failing business, an unemployed middle-aged son―are only the latest in a litany spanning dozens of countries, scores of marriages, and hundreds of children. In the 2,000 years since she made a spiritual bargain to save the life of her first son back in Roman-occupied Jerusalem, she’s tried everything to free herself, and only one other person in the world understands: a man she once loved passionately, who has been stalking her through the centuries, convinced they belong together forever.
But as the twenty-first century begins and her children and grandchildren―consumed with immortality in their own ways, from the frontiers of digital currency to genetic engineering―develop new technologies that could change her fate and theirs, Rachel knows she must find a way out.
Gripping, hilarious, and profoundly moving, Eternal Life celebrates the bonds between generations, the power of faith, the purpose of death, and the reasons for being alive.”
We will meet again on MONDAY, MAY 14 at 4 PM. At this meeting we will also choose our next group of books. So, come prepared! Have a wonderful Passover. I will be enjoying a seder with my family in Qatar. Of course, I will be bringing the matzo! ………………..lesli
BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING
Our next meeting will be on
Monday, April 9th, at 7:00 p.m.
Abe Peck
Historian discusses the future of Holocaust memory
Please join us at 11 a.m. on Sunday, April 8, for a brunch followed by a commemorative Yom Hashoah talk titled “The Days of Our Years Are Three Score and Ten: The Future of Holocaust Memory” presented by Abraham Peck, research professor of history at the University of Southern Maine. If you plan to attend the brunch, please R.S.V.P. by emailing the synagogue at [email protected] or calling 207-786-4201. Admission to the brunch and lecture is $10 and can be paid at the door.
The son of two Holocaust survivors who survived the Lodz Poland ghetto and the concentration camps of Auschwitz, Stutthof, Buchenwald, and Theresienstadt, Peck was born in a displaced persons’ camp in Landsberg, Germany, the city where Adolf Hitler wrote Mein Kampf.
For more than two decades, Peck has been actively involved in numerous programs devoted to meaningful dialogue and creative social action programs between members of the American and international Jewish communities and members of the Christian, African American, Muslim, German, and Polish communities. His career has included directorial positions with the American Jewish Archives in Cincinnati and the American Jewish Historical Society in New York, the two leading institutions on American Jewish life and history. He was the director of Holocaust Museum Houston.
In 1981, he organized a scholarly program entitled “Jews and Christians after the Holocaust,” hosted by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, Ohio. The program featured a first-ever dialogue between seminarians from Protestant, Catholic and Jewish institutions was highlighted in a CBS special narrated by Douglas Edwards. The program inspired a volume of essays, edited by Peck with a foreword by Elie Wiesel. In 1991, he created the Post-Holocaust Generations Dialogue Group with Gottfried Wagner, the grandson of the German composer Richard Wagner. The organization seeks to convert the inherited legacies of sons and daughters of Holocaust survivors and sons and daughters of German perpetrators into a forum for intra-generational dialogue and social action. The dialogue between Peck and Wagner was highlighted in Second Generation Voices: Reflections by Children of Holocaust Survivors and Perpetrators. (Syracuse University Press, 2001).
The recipient of two Fulbright Awards, Peck received his Doctor of Letters degree from the University of East Anglia, Norwich, England. His research interests include the history of the Holocaust, comparative genocide, German and European history, the history of interreligious dialogue and conflict between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and the history of anti-Semitism. He has taught at universities and colleges worldwide, including Bates College. Peck was a visiting professor and founding director of the Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Studies program at the University of Maine at Augusta. He led the Academic Council for Jewish, Christian and Islamic Studies at the University of Southern Maine, and served as a scholar-in-residence of the Judaic collection of the Sampson Center for Diversity.
As the founding president of Interfaith Maine, Peck received the 2002 Collaborative Promise Award presented by Institute for Civic Leadership as well as the Jefferson Award for Cultural Diversity in 2003
Lunch and Learn
Tuesday, April 24th
Lunch at 12:00—Learn from 12:30 to 1:30
We will study the fascinating biblical story of
Samson and Delilah
Anne Allen has once again graciously offered her home so we will meet at
1 Locksley Road, Auburn
Please RSVP to the Temple Office
LA Arts invites members of Temple Shalom Synagogue-Center
to attend two Holocaust remembrance programs in April.
Friday April 27 at 7 p.m.
The Gallery at LA Arts: Etty’s Song. Performed by Off the Page—A Musician & 2 Poets (Rudy Gabrielson, Judy Tierney, and Martin Steingesser. 221 Lisbon St. Lewiston. Refreshments. All are Welcome. $10 suggested ticket price.
From the performance program: “Etty’s Song is an original arrangement of Etty
Hillesum’s writings by the Ensemble, based on the Letters and Diaries of Etty
Hillesum 1941-1943, which comprise what we have from this extraordinary Dutch woman before she was killed in Auschwitz-Birkenau. ‘I cannot find the right words…for that radiant feeling inside me,’ Hillesum says, ‘which encompasses but is untouched by all the suffering and all the violence.’ Somewhere in her long journey into the Holocaust night, she discovers light in herself that grew visible to others, an incandescence, still glowing. To open her journal, or hear her words, is to experience this light, feel its heat.”
Sunday April 29 at 2 p.m.
The Gallery at LA Arts: Poetry and Conversation: The Drowned & the Saved. Historian and poet Anna Wrobel and poets Jay Franzel, and Martin Steingesser read and reflect on the Shoah, those who perished, those who survived. 221 Lisbon St., Lewiston. Refreshments. All are welcome. $4 suggested donation.
Amy and Robert Jensen
invite the Temple Shalom Community
to share our special day
as our sons
דניאל & יוסף
Danali and Joseph
are called to the Torah as B’nai Mitzvah
Saturday, April 28th at 10 a.m.
Luncheon and music to follow service
RSVPs greatly appreciated.
SPEEDY RECOVERY
We pray for refuah sh’leimah – the full and speedy recovery of Gary Buckman, John Calloway, Lloyd W. Cohen
June Wilner Chason, Carson Hudson, Enid Ehrlich, Isaak Gekhtin, Anne Geller, Ariella Green,
Elizabeth Johnson, George Laskoff, Susan Lifter, Sandy Miller , Joel Salberg, Sandy Traister
Toby Wallach, Neal Weiner, Janet Zidle, David Izenstatt, Phil Bray, Michael Jesser,
Georgette Belanger, Jim LaPerriere, Judy Bizk and all others who are not well at this time.
We like to hear good news! Whenever you request that a name be put on this list, please let Temple Shalom
know when it can be removed.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO
Finley Barter-LevineApril 1Janet Zidle 16
Robert Laskoff 2Joan Levenson 17
Elliot Katz 5Lesli Weiner 17
Harold Shapiro 5Andrea Levinsky 19
Stanley Tetenman 6Keith Seltzer 20
Sharon Day 7Riley Barter-Levine 22
Zachary Olstein 8Steven Cohen 24
Judith Ross 12Susan Brown 25
Julie Cohen 13Michael Meyer 29
Teagan Barter-Levine 15 Lila Wollman 30
Daniel Penan 15
Allyson Casares 16HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO Paul & Marian Rausch April 14
Ma Chadash/What’s New is published monthly by Temple Shalom, Synagogue-Center. Temple Shalom is an independent congregation and a member of the Lewiston-Auburn Jewish Federation.
The mission of Temple Shalom, Synagogue-Center is to foster a strong Jewish identity and an active Jewish Community.
RabbiSruli Dresdner Personnel
Programming/Social Action Phyllis Graber Jensen
Paula Marcus-Platz
Office ManagerMelissa Johnson Preschool Allyson Casares
Fund Raising
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
PresidentDavid AllenTemple Shalom office hours are
Vice PresidentLesli Weiner 9 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Monday - Friday
SecretaryLewis Zidle
TreasurerAaron Burke Telephone: 207-786-4201 www.templeshalomauburn.org
Board MembersJudy Abromson E-mail address:[email protected]
Bertha Bodenheimer
Elcha Buckman Rabbi Sruli: [email protected]
Allyson Casares Telephone: 914-980-9509
Elliott Epstein
Laurence Faiman
Joel Goodman
Joel Olstein
COMMITTEE CHAIRS
Ritual Larry Faiman
Membership/Outreach Bertha Bodenheimer
Budget/Finance/Endowment Stan Tetenman
Cemetery Henry Meyer
Hebrew School/Education Allyson Casares
Hold the Dates!
Friday Evening, MAY 4th
Dinner from 5:30
Program from 6:15 to 7:30
BONFIRE!
HOT DOGS-VEGGIE BURGERS-MARSHMALLOW ROAST
Saturday Evening, May 12th
Reception at 6:00 p.m.
Program begins at 7:00 p.m.
YAHRZEITEN
If you are observing a yahrzeit and are planning to come to Thursday morning minyan to say Kaddish, we urge you to contact Bob Laskoff ([email protected]) and let him know so that he can include that information in his weekly reminder email. It is your responsibility to call friends and neighbors to make sure there are enough people for the minyan. We all enjoy our Thursday morning Minyans and breakfast schmoozes. HELP! We need volunteers to shop and setup. A sign-upsheet is in the kitchen.
April 2018 Yahrzeiten
Lydia Izenstatt April 2
Abraham Perry2
Lillian Shapiro2
Joseph Margolin3
Sally Faiman4
June Margolin5
Murray Nussinow5
Peter Salberg7
Lillian Schneidman8
Betty Cohen 10
Burton Miller 15
Louis Silverman 19
Herman Kleeger 23
Wilfred Goodman 24
Stephen Steinman 26
Richard Wilner 26
Murray Rubinstein 27
Morris Amsel 28
CONTRIBUTIONS
GENERAL FUND
Aaron & Ellen Burke
Wishing a speedy recovery to
Bertha Bodenheimer and to
David Allen
Marianne Miller
Get well wishes for Sandra Miller
Steven & Harriet Passerman
In memory of Hillel Passerman
Mike Gagne
In memory of Julius Wise
Thomas Reeves in memory of
Dr. Helene Reeves and Betty
and Julius Wise
Philip Laine in memory
of Edward Laine and
Betty and Julius Wise
The Applebaum & Mandel Families
In memory of Betty & Julius Wise
Harriet & Behzad Fakhery
Wishing a complete and
speedy recovery to David Allen
Joel & Sheri Olstein
In memory of Annette Brodsky
Christine Viillata
In memory of Morey Plavin
Stephen & Gerda Sokol
In memory of Betty Wise
ABROMSON MEMORIAL FUND
BELL MEMORIAL CHAPEL FUND
BODENHEIMER PASSOVER FUND
Joel & Sheri Olstein
Wishing a speedy recover for
Bertha Bodenheimer and
David Allen
Behzad & Harriet Fakhery
In appreciation
CEMETERY FUND
(Grounds Improvements Project)
David & Susan Teich
Michelle Tillen Frank
In memory of Morey Plavin
Hank & Margaret Meyer
In memory of Robert Meyer
Manuel & Marcia Plavin
In memory of Morey Plavin
COHEN/LEVOY GARDEN FUND
Dr. Stuart Cohen
In memory of Betty Cohen
ENDOWMENTFUND
EVE & GEORGE SHAPIRO MEMORIAL FUND
The Passerman Family
In memory of Stephen Shapiro, Betty
and Julius Wise, Dorothy Fishman and
Ruth Schloss
FAMILY HEBREW SCHOOL FUND
Sherie Blumenthal
In appreciation
SHIRLEY GOODMAN MEMORIAL FUND
Joel Goodman
In memory of Shirley Goodman
LIBRARY FUND
Edward & Gladys Koss
In memory of Rebecca Koss
Sandra & Allen Miller
In memory of Paulyn Rosenthal
MARCUS MEMORIAL GARDEN FUND
MINYANAIRES FUND
NUSSINOW PRE-SCHOOL FUND
Scott and Amy Nussinow
In memory of Lillian Schneidman,
Murray Nussinow, Rose Nussinow,
and Sheldon Nussinow
RABBI’S DISCRETIONARY FUND
Sharon Day and family
In memory of Nathan (Nick) Day
James Lifter
In appreciation
RANDALL SILVER LIBRARY FUND
PRAYER BOOK/PULPIT FUND
Barry & Roslyn Kutzen
In memory of Jules Asher
(Non-Profit OrganizationU.S. PostagePAIDAuburn, MEPermit #4)Temple Shalom, Synagogue-Center
74 Bradman Street
Auburn, ME 04210-6330
ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED
DATED MATERIAL
April 2018
APRIL AT TEMPLE SHALOM
Thursday, 4/5 7.00 amWeekday morning minyan & breakfast
Saturday 4/7 9:30 am Shabbat Service AND Yizkor
Sunday 4/8 11:00 amBrunch Historian Abe Peck
Monday 4/9 4:00 pmBook Group
Monday 4/9 5:15 pmProgram Committee Meeting
Monday 4/9 7:00 pm Board Meeting
Thursday 4/12 7:00 amWeekday morning minyan & breakfast
Saturday 4/14 9:30 am Shabbat Service
Thursday 4/19 7:00 amWeekday morning minyan & breakfast
Saturday 4/20 6:00 pmPotluck Dinner
Saturday 4/20 7:00 pmKabbalat ShabbatStorytelling
Saturday 4/20 8:00 pmDessert & Storytelling
Tuesday, 4/24 12:00 pmLunch & Learn
Thursday 4/26 7:00 amWeekday morning minyan & breakfast
Friday, 4/27 7:00 pmLA Arts – Etty’s Song
Saturday 4/28 10:00 amJensen B’nai Mitzvah
Sunday 4/29 2:00 pmLA Arts – Poetry and Conversation