Category: Rabbi’s page

Man plans and God laughs.

דער מענטש טראַכט און גאָט לאַכט.  Der mentsh trakht un got lakht.

This summer was carefully planned in our household. Robert was headed to Europe and Israel for the trip of a lifetime with NFTY and his Eisner camp friends. Sam was combining exciting summer internships with travel and time with friends. Olga and I were headed to Israel for some quality learning time at Shalom Hartman institute, and we even planned to have a mini reunion with some of our fellow classmates from a Jewish leadership program, on this 25th anniversary of our graduation. Then there was time working at Camp, and of course, an opportunity to take a deep breath, regroup, and prepare for the next academic year at our Hebrew school, High Holy Days, and an exciting year of programs at TE.

Alas, none of these plans can happen. We are, of course, not alone in our reality of dramatically shifting our expectations this summer — the entire country, the entire world — have had to rapidly change and cancel plans. As the old Yiddish saying goes, “Man plans and God laughs”; or as my father likes to say, “Want to make God laugh? Tell Him your plans.” Of course, the realities of this pandemic are no laughing matter – the staggering numbers of illness and death continue to grow and shock us. We know a little more about the disease than we did back in March, but many questions remain unanswered, and we continue to listen to the advice of epidemiologists and other medical professionals on how best to keep ourselves, our loved ones, and all the vulnerable in our society as safe as possible from the brutal effects of Covid-19. We continue to encourage people to practice physical distancing as much as possible, to wear masks in public (especially when inside) to prevent the further spread of the infection while scientists are working on a vaccine and treatments. A special blessing for wearing a mask and saving lives is circulating on the Jewish internet, reminding us that it is indeed a true mitzvah, to keep each other safe.

So what should be our lesson from this year? Should we stop making plans? Should we become so cautious that we no longer travel or plan exciting gatherings with family and friends? For the time being, yes, that seems to be the case – we should put a hold on many of our exciting plans. But should we stop being aspirational about our lives, and stop making “God laugh”?

I don’t believe that’s a good lesson to take away from all of this. Judaism constantly reminds us to be a little less self-assured; not to ignore the fragility of life, of our health, of our safety and security. Not to fall into despair — far from it — but instead to approach life, and especially all of our plans, with a little more humility. Traditionally observant Jews often say be’ezrat haShem (“God willing”).  For some, perhaps, this phrase does mean that they accept God’s control in every aspect of their lives, but I think the more appropriate reading of this phrase is to say that as we plan, we should remember that not all plans can come to fruition. And if some of our plans, no matter how big or small, cannot happen, perhaps we can take a deep breath and remind ourselves that sometimes things don’t work out the way we planned them – and that’s okay, too.

I will not get to do many of the wonderful things I hoped to be able to experience this summer. I’m a little sad, but that’s okay. Next year at TE will look a little different than in the past – but, as we have been discovering over the last few months, a little different is not all that bad! More people have been attending Shabbat services every week; more people have been coming to Torah study; Religious school saw amazing attendance every week we were online. Would I choose to do it that way? No, of course not – I miss seeing all of you in person, hugging people, sharing food… But I take comfort in knowing that we met this challenge as a community – and will continue to do so in this coming year. Thank you for being part of this journey.

Stay healthy and safe!

Revelation, Pain, and Suffering…

Last week we celebrated the Jewish Festival of Shavuot. We marked the giving and receiving of the Torah, the Revelation. I read from the Torah scroll the Ten Commandments (actually, Ten Utterances, or aseret hadibrot in Hebrew), laying out the foundation of our lives, our understanding of the world, our faith and our behavior. One of the most dramatic episodes that occurred at the foot of Mount Sinai follows shortly after. The people who experienced God’s presence and were shaken to their core with awe and inspiration proceeded, only a few short weeks later, to create a golden calf, an idol that violated one of the commandments received directly from God in a direct revelation! How could this be?

As we celebrated Shavuot this year, we were shaken by yet another cruel death of an unarmed black man, George Floyd, murdered by a policeman in broad daylight, in front of the passers-by who pleaded with him to stop… Around the same time, we were confronted with yet another story of blatant racism when Christian Cooper, a bird watcher in Central Park, politely confronted a woman whose dog was off-leash in a bird sanctuary, only to be threatened with police to be called on ‘an African American man’. Luckily, that story did not end in death or bodily harm…

How could this be happening?

Time and time again we find ourselves in shock and anger over these murders and injustices, we protest, we march, we mourn, we seek and demand justice, we demand to find a solution. And yet, a few days, or weeks, later we find ourselves hearing the same stories, learning new names of victims, repeating the same, now iconic, words ‘I can’t breathe’…

The cruelty leaves us numb. The anger bubbles up and erupts on the streets, and the violence and destruction that travels on the coattails of this anger further threatens the world around us. At this moment in time, we want to believe that we can finally begin to get somewhere, and yet history teaches us that even after the most dramatic moments humans can quickly forget and make the same mistakes again…

When we talk about receiving the Torah at Sinai we remind ourselves that just because the Torah was given to us, it does not necessarily mean we received it. The ancient revelation of Sinai has to be reenacted by each and every one of us in order to be present in our lives. We engage with the Torah, its stories and narratives, its laws and challenges, and through that struggle and learning we make it our own, we truly receive it today.

Let us commit today not to let the passion for justice subside. Over the last few days, we have begun to convene to plan a thoughtful response to these tragedies, and the underlying issues of racism, hate, and violence. In the next week or so we will begin to share the ideas for programs and conversations, movies and books that will help us as a TE community to engage these painful but crucial questions. If you would like to be involved in planning such events, or if you have any expertise to offer, please kindly be in touch with Robin Levine-Ritterman or myself.

I end with the words of a statement issued today by the New Haven Board of Rabbis and Cantors, of which I currently serve as Chair:

  As rabbis and cantors of the Greater New Haven Jewish community, we cannot be silent at a time of communal crisis. We add our voices to those avowing the principles of our democracy and mourning the senseless murder of George Floyd. We stand in solidarity with our Black neighbors, including Jews of Color, knowing many live each day with the incessant reminder that racism is still a virulent disease in our society.  As we sadly add Mr. Floyd’s name to the ever-growing list of senselessly lost black lives which now includes Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and so many other people of color, we pledge to work together to find ways to bring an end to this calamity by safeguarding the rights of all and, through education, removing the stains of bigotry and hatred.

       We condemn those employing ugly rhetoric to marginalize and further divide our nation. We link our arms with those who peacefully demonstrate, voicing a message of hope through the democratic principles of free speech, communal gathering, and the spirit of open dialogue.

       We strongly stand in opposition to those who have used this time of mourning and loss to sow chaos through looting, violence, and destruction of property.

       We reach out to individuals of all faiths to work with us in each of our communities to help repair this world by modeling divine attributes of mercy and compassion. As God is merciful, may we be merciful to all those we encounter. As God is gracious, let us offer grace and compassion to lift up both our neighbors and the stranger in our midst. As God is abundant in goodness and in truth, may we find the strength to do good and seek the truth in all our encounters each and every day. 

A Shofar Column in the time of a pandemic

Shabbat on ‘zoom’

As a popular meme reminds us, 2020 is a leap year – there are 29 days in February and 300 days in March… As I think back over the last few weeks, I cannot quite believe what we have all been through, what we learned to do, to live with (and more importantly, live without). Some of us have been blessed to be able to switch to work remotely, while others began to deal with almost instant loss of work and income. Some had to find ways of coping with loneliness of isolation, while others are struggling with pressure of parenting young children and online learning, while trying to work from home. All of us are feeling incredible stress of these unprecedented (at least in most of our lifetimes) days. And then there are essential workers, first responders, medical professionals – people who MUST go out there, to make sure we can still function, eat, treat the sick, bring babies into this world. And then, of course, there are those of us who have caught the dreaded virus and had to cope, first hand, with its assault on our bodies and our spirits. And then, of course, some of us have lost our loved ones during this time – and even though they did not necessarily succumb to the virus, we couldn’t even come together as families and as a community, to say goodbye, to hold and support each other at this time of loss…

Human beings are incredibly resilient creatures. We learn to cope, we adjust our expectations, and we look for ways to help others. We have switched all our school programs online overnight, with the help of our incredible teachers and madrichim. We have switched Shabbat services online too – and in the process watched TE members in their 90s conquer zoom and YouTube! We held a Passover Seder online – perhaps the best attended TE congregational seder in my 11 years here. It wasn’t perfect, and I hope we don’t have to do THAT again – but it happened, and we recited the ancient words while smiling at each other across the time and space, marveling at wonders of modern technology that allowed us to be together despite everything. We will hold our Annual Meeting online too, and we will continue to look for ways to keep our TE community Jewishly engaged, supportive and strong – online, in person, over the phone or zoom – or across the street.

If you are feeling anxious – please let me know, I am here to talk. If you need help with groceries or any other tasks – please let me know, we have volunteers ready to help. If you are feeling lonely – pick up the TE directory and call someone to check up on them. If you hear that someone is ill, or in need of help or support – please drop me a line. This is a difficult period, but we don’t have to remember it only for the pain that it brings – let’s also make an effort to remember the joy that we can bring into each other’s lives, especially now.

Sending you all a COVID-appropriate virtual hug from a distance,

Rabbi Farbman

POSTPONED: Siyum – a sacred celebration of ending a sacred task

I often talk about the importance of transitions in Judaism: the threshold marked with a mezuza, the start of Shabbat marked with candles and kiddush, the end of Shabbat marked with Havdalah ceremony and so on. The new beginnings are to be celebrated with much joy and excitement, but so are the endings! In fact it’s the endings that often deserve that much more joy. A siyum is the completion of any unit of Torah study, or book of the Mishnah or Talmud. A siyum is usually followed by a celebratory meal – the joy of reaching a certain moment surely deserves a party!

As most of you know, this year we have engaged in a very special project: restoring the Temple Emanuel Holocaust Memorial Torah Scroll. This has been a humbling experience, as we researched the history of the town of Horazdovici and its Jewish community, raised funds necessary for the restoration and the upkeep of our Torah scrolls, and helped dozens and dozens of TE families experience the joy of assisting the scribe in restoring the damaged letters in the scroll, one by one. This has been a remarkable project, and I am delighted to report that we are nearing the end! With the scroll restoration nearly complete, the scribe will return to Temple Emanuel on March 22, allowing 40 plus additional families to take a personal part in restoration all throughout the day.

The most important moment will come at the end of the day at 6:00pm, as we celebrate the Siyum – a completion of the restoration process. The scribe will write the final letters and affix the final stitches, we will sing and dance with the Torah, carrying it not only around our sanctuary, as we do during the Torah service, but also outside and around our building (weather permitting, of course), before we joyously place the Torah into the Ark where it will now reside once again. There will be music from our band, and lots of joy to go around, and food, and a chance to say l’chayim to the completion of this sacred task.

There will be more information coming your way in the Shofar blast over the next few weeks, but in the meantime please make sure you mark your calendars for the evening of March 22 – just write ‘siyum’ and get ready to celebrate one of the most special things we ever get to do as a community.

On Memory and Ritual

Speak to the Israelite people and instruct them to make for themselves fringes (tzitzit) on the corners of their garments throughout the ages; let them attach a cord of blue to the fringe (tzitzit) at each corner. That shall be your fringe (tzitzit); look at it and recall all the commandments of Adonai and observe them, so that you do not follow your heart and eyes in your lustful urge. Thus you shall be reminded to observe all My commandments and to be holy to your God. (Numbers 15:38-40.)

This paragraph from the Torah may be very familiar to you – or perhaps only a portion of it is. It describes the Divine commandment to wear tzitzit, or fringes, on the corners of our garments as permanent reminders to follow and observe the mitzvot, commandments of the Torah. The text in full appears as part of the third paragraph of Shema in the prayerbook, restored to full length of the text in the Mishkan Tefilah and Mishkan haNefesh from the shortened versions that have been standard in American Reform siddurim, where tzitzit was not mentioned, even though the reminder to follow God’s commandments was very much retained.

So what is tzitzit? The rabbis of the Mishnah looked for ways to define and codify what these words were referring to, and so the tzitzit that consists of strings (8) and knots (5) was designed to remind us of the 613 commandments (with Hebrew tzitzit adding up to 600 in gematria). But the knots and strings are mostly there to remind us of something bigger – Judaism, commandments/mitzvot, rituals and observance. It’s a mnemonic device, a reminder – when your eye catches it, you will remember. My teacher Rabbi Lionel Blue (alav hashalom) used to describe tying knots in the handkerchief as a child, to remember something – and tzitzit is exactly that!

In more traditional settings, Jews interpret the commandment of tzitzit as something constantly required – the ‘tallit katan’ is an undergarment that contains tzitzit and is worn at all times as part of clothing. For non-orthodox Jews the tallit, a prayer shawl, is the garment that has tzitzit attached to it, and is worn at specific ritual moments. The traditional rules of tallit specify that it is worn during the daytime hours – so usually only for the morning and afternoon services, with exception of Yom Kippur which is treated as one long day, and hence the tallit is worn for Kol Nidrei (evening service) and then for the entire day of Yom Kippur. In addition, Shaliach Tzibbur, the person leading prayer, often wears the tallit even when leading services at night – that is why you will always see me wearing a tallit on the bimah, night or day, but not if I simply attend the evening service led by others. Traditionally women are considered exempt from the mitzvah of wearing tallit, since it is considered a time-bound mitzvah – but contrary to some popular beliefs, nowhere does it prohibit women from wearing a tallit, and so the non-orthodox movements have embraced the practice of women and men wearing the tallitot as a sacred ritual.

Our ritual committee recently discussed the wearing of tallitot and kippot on the bimah at TE. It opted against creating any kind of formal policy on the matter, reflecting the long held reform tradition of informed choice. It has also decided to encourage all those coming up to the bimah, especially as part of the Torah service, to wear a tallit where appropriate. (Following a wide-spread minhag (custom), we reserve the wearing of tallit to Jewish adults, or teens who have reached the age of majority, having celebrated their bar or bat mitzvah). Tallitot have always been available by the entrance into our sanctuary, but moving forward we will also make some available right by the bimah in case you are offered a mitzvah in the service or an Aliya to the Torah. If you have never experienced wearing a tallit, please let me know and I will gladly help you recite a blessing for donning the tallit. If you own one, please bring it with you next time you sign up for an Aliya on Friday night, or when you come to Shabbat Morning minyan or a bar/bat mitzvah ceremony. Then we can chant the words of the Shema together and fulfill this ancient Jewish tradition! Let me know if you have any questions, and I look forward to seeing you on the bimah, wearing your tallit, soon!

Restoring the Holocaust Memorial Scroll #1178

Earlier this year a Torah scribe visited TE to inspect our Torah scrolls, provide minor repairs and to teach our students and our teachers a little about the scribal art. In the process of his visit, we discovered a few minor fixes that were required for two of our scrolls – which were properly performed. We also discovered that one of our Torah scrolls will need a number of serious and costly repairs, rendering the scroll not kosher. But there was also a piece of amazingly good news: the Holocaust Memorial Scroll #1178, the first-ever TE Torah scroll which has been part of every Bar and Bat Mitzvah at Temple Emanuel from 1967 until 2007 while badly damaged, is NOT beyond repair! The skilled scribe can repair and restore this very special Torah! It will take time and money, but we can reclaim this Torah scroll, and bring it back to serve the Jewish people in the best way it knows how – by using it to share the words of Torah with people gathered in this sanctuary to celebrate Shabbat and special occasions.

As many of you heard me explain on Rosh Hashanah, I read from this very special, currently non-kosher scroll on that morning. But I did so with a mission: to invite you all to join me in a sacred task of repairing and restoring this Torah scroll, to reclaim a wonderful TE tradition, and to renew our commitment to keeping the memory of the Jews of Horazdovice alive – not just by seeing their Torah (as it is currently displayed in a special glass cabinet in our lobby), but by reading from their Torah.

On Sunday, November 24 the Torah scribe will return to Temple Emanuel, this time to begin a process of restoration. Every TE family will have an opportunity to help restore this scroll – literally by writing in individual letters (with the help of the scribe, of course). Every TE family will have an opportunity to schedule a personal ‘Torah restoration appointment’ – we really do want EVERY member of TE to have this sacred opportunity. As we restore this sacred scroll together, we will make every effort not just to honor its long, and at times painful history, but to also remember the joy of community that wrote it, and the joy of our community that has used it over the last 50 years. Our 7th graders, inspired and supported by the Barbara Rosenthal memorial fund, lovingly created by the Weber family right here at TE, already began a special project of researching the history of the Jewish community of Horazdovice, and will present their findings on November 24th.

Next year we plan to use this Torah scroll again during the High Holy Days, with all its symbolism, and all its history. Next year it will be kosher. THIS is how we respond to hatred: by building a strong Jewish community, by raising Jews with a strong Jewish identity.  By continuing to invest in the JOY of being Jewish – not the OY. THIS is how we keep Judaism alive.

Financial Requirements for the TE Torah Restoration Project

There are 3 areas that will require financial support:

1.           Restoration of the Holocaust Scroll (including the actual cost of Scribal repair and restoration, as well as the cost of special visit(s) from the scribe to Temple Emanuel, enabling us all to participate in the sacred task of restoration

2.           Repair of Temple Emanuel’s other Torah Scrolls and maintenance of all our scrolls, including the Holocaust Memorial Scroll #1178.

3.           Holocaust education for our religious school and for adults.

Several generous donors have already reached out to support these activities. We are soliciting funds to assure we can do all of these tasks in relation to our Torah scrolls and Holocaust education as a combined project.

Our fundraising goal for this project is $50,000. We have already secured nearly $30,000 toward that goal, part of which is an $8,000 matching challenge – – matching dollar for dollar contributions that other TE families will commit.

If you would like to discuss any of these details or offer your generous support to this special project, please speak to Alan Kliger or Melissa Perkal.

The month of Elul and the opportunities it offers us

Rosh Chodesh Elul falls on September 1st this year, a somewhat unusual aligning of the Hebrew and Gregorian calendars. The month of Elul offers us a chance to arrive at Rosh Hashanah and the Days of Awe a little better prepared for the experience. Just as the Kabbalat Shabbat section of our Friday night service allows us to ‘ease’ into the tefilah experience with melodies and poetry, so is the month of Elul offering us a chance to get ready for the intensely personal and communal experience of the High Holy Days. There are multiple ways to do so: craft for yourself some additional Jewish experiences, read a book with a Jewish theme, visit a service you don’t regularly attend, watch an Israeli movie or TV show (which now abound on our streaming services), brush up on your Hebrew reading skills (or start learning!). What YOU do depends on what you like to do, or what works for you – the goal is to be extra mindful about the Jewish experiences you create for yourself and those around you, moments that will help you ponder your life and your actions, as well as the collective journey of the Jewish people.

This year, once again, we will begin using the new High Holy Day machzor all through the month of Elul, helping us get better acquainted with the prayer book and the themes of the Days of Awe. As always, there’s no better preparation for the moving and inspiring Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur than to refresh our prayer book skills together while celebrating Shabbat during the month of Elul. (We will make an exception on September 6 for our Annual Shabbat Under the Stars service, when we will use our usual ‘traveling’ siddurim). The culmination of our preparation will be the Selichot service, an annual event that brings together four reform synagogues in our area for the joint experience of preparing for High Holy Days with rabbis, cantors and a combined choir. On September 21 at 7pm we will be hosted by Temple Beth David in Cheshire, and I very much hope to see many of you there for this immensely moving and special start for the Days of Awe.

Rosh Hashanah is coming September 29. Will you be ready?

Mazal Tov!

In most synagogues in America and around the world, July 1st is an important day. It is the start of the new fiscal year, when the old budget gives way to a new one, officially marking a transition which would otherwise be left unnoticed. Presidents and synagogue boards begin their new terms. Most Jewish professionals – Rabbis, cantors and educators who work in synagogues – begin their work in new communities, or celebrate the number of years in their current positions.

As I am writing these words, and as I begin the 11th year at Temple Emanuel, I am still aglow from the incredible event on June 23, celebrating 10 years together with all of you. I still cannot quite believe that I have had the honor and the privilege of being the Rabbi of Temple Emanuel for 10 years.

There are no words that can describe my gratitude to all of you – the organizers, the worker bees, those who took time to write most moving messages, and of course all those who came to celebrate. Suffice it to say, this was an amazing evening, and Olga and I are still floating on air!

10 years ago it was a leap of faith for us, and it was a leap of faith for Temple Emanuel. We certainly could not have imagined what blessings awaited us in Orange, and what an incredibly rewarding journey we were going to embark on together. We take pride in how much we have achieved in the last 10 years, and we are so grateful for the partnership that makes TE, our mutual home, such a special community to be a part of.

To all the lay leaders, presidents and officers past and present, and to all of you – THANK YOU! What a joy it is to celebrate the mutual love and blessings today! Mazal tov to Robin Levine-Ritterman as she becomes our new President, mazal tov to the new TE Board and Officers, and a huge thank you to Alan Kliger as he becomes an immediate past President!

Thank you all – we are truly honored and humbled by your love. Here’s to the next decade!

Routines of our lives

Routines are important. We begin to learn the routines almost immediately after we are born: we sleep, we eat and everything in between. Parents of newborn children quickly learn that if something happens once, it is not yet significant – but once a skill or an action is repeated 3 times, that may very well be a new routine.

Judaism values routines greatly: there’s a lot of comfort and meaning in the daily rituals of prayer, weekly rituals of Shabbat; not to mention the annual rituals of Jewish festivals that allow us to pay ever-closer attention to life around us, to our families, to ourselves, and to our traditions.

We have just celebrated the Festival of Passover, perhaps the most symbolic routine-filled occasion of the annual Jewish calendar. Food, family, community, ancient history and modern reality – all of it is intertwined into the special week of Passover, when we celebrate our freedom and our very existence as a Jewish nation (despite, as the Haggadah reminds us, multiple attempts to deny us the right to exist and to be ourselves).

As we said goodbye to Passover, we were once again faced with the terrible news – this time from Poway, CA, where a white supremacist filled with hate opened fire on Jews in the synagogue. A holy soul, Lori Gilbert-Kaye z’l lost her life, and the rabbi and two more congregants suffered gunshot wounds (but are recovering). Thanks to the incredible bravery of the congregants, and ineptitude of the cowardly shooter, a much greater tragedy was averted.

We have been here before. Six months ago, to be exact. We had to figure out how to respond to the Pittsburgh tragedy, the first such devastating attack on a synagogue in American history. We cried, we prayed, and we gathered as a community, surrounded by friends and neighbors of all faiths. We reviewed our safety procedures, and for the first time in our 56 year history, we began keeping our doors locked at all times, even on Shabbat and Festivals. We hugged our loved ones tighter than usual, and we went back to doing what we do best: celebrating our traditions, teaching and learning, feeding the hungry and working to make this world a better place, one step at a time.

On Sunday morning I stood in our sanctuary, sharing words of wisdom and comfort with our school community. I realized that I am getting to be far too experienced at teaching wisdom to kids, through song, while offering comfort to adults between the lines. This is one routine I never expected to develop in my rabbinate. But as Haggadah reminds us, we have seen this before – and we know what our response should be. We will continue to strive to be the better versions of ourselves: to be better spouses, better parents, better children, better members of our community, and better Jews. THIS is our routine.

Am Israel Chai!

Holding a Torah Scroll…

Torah scrolls are very special. It is an incredible honor and privilege to read from the Torah scroll in front of the congregation. It requires skill and effort, and lots of preparation for each such occasion – a labor of love on behalf of the community and of the Jewish people. Holding the Torah scroll does not require a special skill (perhaps some strength is useful), but it can be a truly moving, emotional experience. When holding the Torah, whether for the first time as a bar or bat mitzvah, or for the 100th time, we cannot help but be in awe of the incredible chain of tradition, of hundreds upon hundreds of generations of Jews that cherished their Torah, and passed it on, leaving a small mark that perhaps cannot be seen, but can be felt by us as we accept the Torah from their hands and carry it forward. The sense of continuity, of importance of ritual and of connection with our people’s past is palpable whenever one holds the Torah — a truly awe-inspiring feeling.

As I held TE’s Holocaust Memorial Scroll #1178, and as I marched in a quiet procession of over 70 Czech memorial scrolls, I was overwhelmed for a moment by a different kind of emotion. In my arms I held not only an incredible treasure of the Jewish people that was created and lovingly maintained by previous generations of Jews I did not know, but a scroll that belonged to the destroyed Jewish community of Horazdovice, a community that perished in the flames of the Holocaust. This was not just the Torah connecting me to the Jewish past – this was a moment to acknowledge, once again, that the future of this Torah’s Jewish community of Horazdovice was wiped out by the cruelty of hate and yet somehow, miraculously, the orphaned Torah has survived and found its way into the loving hands of our community, right here in Orange, CT. Scroll after scroll paraded through the room packed with over 800 people from some 80+ synagogues in the Tri-State area, honoring the painful past – and celebrating the miraculous survival of Judaism. I will never forget this moment and this feeling.

TE delegation at the gathering of Holocaust Memorial Scrolls.

I have invited other members of TE who were able to attend to share some of their experiences from that day. I hope that their words can help you experience some of that special occasion:

“Tuesday, February 5th was truly a spiritually and personally meaningful experience for me. Watching the processional of more than 70 Czechoslovakian Holocaust scrolls, with our rabbi carrying our 1850 scroll, was a moving sight. To be there with a group of folks from my TE family made everything even more special and exciting, starting with the difficulty of parking at the train station to our rolling, sometimes party-like conversations on the train back and forth, and our long walks from Grand Central Station to Temple Emanu-El and back. It is such a privilege for our congregation to have been entrusted with one of these rescued, restored scrolls. In addition, it now appears that the scroll we retired in 2007 (to be only displayed) may indeed be able to be restored and put back into use. As one of those lucky enough to have chanted from that scroll during the retirement service, I would feel even more fortunate to once again chant from it in the near future. Any such opportunity would enhance my feeling of connection to those who perished for their beliefs and heritage, and for whom I may speak when chanting.” — Barbara Berkowitz

“Having convinced myself that one of the Czech scrolls must surely have come from the shul of my grandmother Adele Kolish Reyman, I felt that I needed to be at this rare reunion of the Czech scrolls residing in the Tri-State area. Reading and hearing about these scrolls, gently touching the covers, viewing the IDs affixed to the wood, and seeing the solemn walk with the Torahs were profoundly moving experiences.

Who can say that Adele, her four older brothers and their parents did not see one of these very scrolls I was seeing? No one can say it is not there, so it is. I needed to be there.”  — Barbara Miller

“Awesome, proud, sad, memorable, honored, humbled, grateful.

These are some of the emotions that the ten Temple Emanuel members felt as they saw the parade of more than 70 Czech Holocaust scrolls from all over the United States come down the aisle at Temple Emanu-El in New York City on February 5th. This was the largest gathering of the Czech scrolls ever in one place. The Memorial Scroll Trust has 1,564 scrolls on permanent loan to congregations throughout the world. Temple Emanuel’s scroll from Horazdovice came to the Temple Emanuel congregation in 1966 under the leadership of then-Presidents Lois and Paul Levine. It has been used in countless Friday night services, b’nai mitzvah services and High Holy Day services over the last 50 years.

During World War II, the Jews of Bohemia and Moravia were wiped out. The people had been lost, but amazingly 1,564 Torah Scrolls from more than 122 congregations had been saved. Westminster Synagogue became the home to these Czech Scrolls in February of 1964. There they were stored, restored and then sent back out into the world by the Memorial Trust Fund. The evening of February 5th brought 70 of these scrolls and their congregants together for the first time.” — Melissa Perkal