Kol Nidre Appeal 2003 One Rosh Hashanah morning, the Rabbi ...

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Kol Nidre Speech – 2003 Gut Yuntif. Thank you, Rabbi, [for your kind remarks]. We all know that without your financial support, TRZ cannot survive. But before I ask you for that support, I want us to think together about why we’re here – why the Jewish people continue to survive, and why some of them are here at synagogue tonight with their community. I’m sure you recall Rabbi Tucker telling us on Rosh Hashanah about the man who visited the TRZ booth at the Jewish Festival, and when greeted, said he didn’t really need any information. He knew everything he needed to know from driving past our building every morning. That really happened, because I was standing there when he came by. I listened to that story, and started to think about all of us now sitting here at High Holiday services. As the Rabbi said, none of us just drove by; rather we actually got out of our cars and came inside. Why did we make that choice? Why are we all here tonight? As I thought about it, I saw the large letters that are in front of me on our Holocaust memorial wall – Zachor – Remember. This is one of the major themes of the High Holidays. I realized that we come to synagogue because of our memories. We enter these doors, and we remember the pride in our parents’ eyes when we were Bar or Bat Mitzvah-ed. We remember the sweetness of our aufrufs and weddings. We remember the faces of our children at their baby-namings. And we also remember the tears that we cried as we said kaddish for those who are gone. The Jewish people are a nation that remembers. Honoring the greatness of Abraham and Moses, cursing the names of our enemies; this tradition goes back to the times of the Torah. We are told to remember what the Amalikites did to us when they attacked the defenseless women and children at the rear of the Israelite column. We remember that Haman planned to murder the entire Jewish community, so we curse his name on Purim. We are fond of saying that many throughout history have tried to destroy us, and yet we are still here, and they are not. By acknowledging this, we are not portraying ourselves as victims. Rather, our story of survival is a mantra of strength. As we look to our past, we must remember the oppression as well as the glory. But I have to ask: How well do we really remember? Fewer than 50 people attended this year’s Yom Hashoah memorial service. On the second day of Rosh Hashanah, we heard Rabbi Diamond mention the ironic and troubling fact that Spain and Poland, countries that were willing participants in the worst persecutions and murders of our people, are now two of the United States’ closest allies. Why should that worry us? 15 th century Spain is in the distant past, and even the
Holocaust happened 60 years ago. But, what we need to remember is that the world does not love us—not in the least. The Rabbi’s comment about Poland struck very close to home for me. My father was born in Hrubieszow, a small town in Poland that had 7,000 Jews before the war. By 1943, the vast majority of the Jewish population has been sent to be gassed at the Sobibor death camp. The ones who were left were in hiding – mostly women and children. They were systematically pulled out of their hiding places, not by the SS or Gestapo, but by the Polish civilian population, and then shot by the Germans. The last Jews of Hrubieszow were the hundred or so that had been used as forced laborers to clean out the Jewish homes. Toward the end of that year, they (and my father was one of them), were sent off to work as slave laborers in a series of concentration camps. Why am I telling you this now? Because a couple of years ago, as part of researching my family history, I asked someone visiting Poland to go to this town, look up some records, and videotape some buildings. So now, I have this heart wrenching tape that shows an empty field where there was once a multi-acre Jewish cemetery and the marks still on the door posts of house after house where the mezuzot once were. But the worst thing on the tape is a scene where the camera pans down a street and we see graffiti spray-painted on a wall. The graffiti is a drawing of a person hanging on a gallows. And the person has a Star of David on their chest. This is in a town that has not had a Jewish resident, and very few Jewish visitors, for 60 years. The world does not love us…. But we needn’t look that far into the past. We all know what is going on in Israel, and what the Palestinians and other Arabs would like to do to the Jews in Israel, if not worldwide. It is sometimes easy to ignore the issue here in the US, as we only hear when a major bombing happens, as it did this weekend. But I get emails from some of the United Synagogue discussion lists urging congregations to remember all of the Israeli victims of terror in their weekly services, and listing the names and circumstances of their deaths. And these emails come in all too often, sometimes several a week. I want to read you a very recent one: “On Friday evening in Israel, a Palestinian gunman (for whose actions Islamic Jihad later claimed responsibility) knocked on the door of a home where Jews had gathered for a holiday meal, then shot and killed Eyal Yiberbaum, 27 as he opened the door. The gunman then shot and killed a seven-month old baby. Please remember these victims in your services this Shabbat”. These are some of the things that I remember when I enter this room. This is what motivates me to stay active in the TRZ community. The memories that bring you here may be different, but I know we all have much in common…. We are here because we need to know that Judaism will be around for our great grandchildren, that another Holocaust or another war will not destroy us. Some of us may not believe in God, some may not believe in prayer, but we all remember that in the face of all of this history—and all of this hostility—this synagogue is the place where we
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Page 5 and 6: Yom Kippur Appeal 2003 Hillel said:
Page 7 and 8: 60% of our members pledged $500 or
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Page 11 and 12: meeting our financial obligations.
Page 13 and 14: President’s Message-Kol Nidre 200
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Page 27 and 28: ROSH HASHANAH - 2003 The great Jewi
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Page 37 and 38: Each of you should have received a
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Page 43 and 44: Yom Kippur Speech Oct.5, 2003 Rabbi
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