June/July 2013 - Anshe Emet Synagogue

WorshipRabbi Abe’s Summer Reading ListFrom RabbiAbe Friedmanafriedman@AnsheEmet.orgIn the past year, I read three grippingbut very different books that considerthe place – in history and in the present– of Hasidic Judaism. One novel, onebiography, and one that nearly defiesclassification at all, these books offerfascinating glimpses into a world thatcan seem foreign and familiar all atonce.I am Forbidden, by AnoukMarkovits, (Hogarth, 2012)Markovits’ first English-language novelopens just a few years before theShoah burns across Europe, and followsthe fortunes and misfortunes of twowomen – sisters by fate, if not by birth– as they move with the Satmar community from Romania to Parisand ultimately New York. Buffeted by the storms of the twentiethcentury as well as by their own inner stirrings, Atara and Milawrestle with the question of whether history must become destiny.Markovits’ writing conveys a sense of beauty mixed with pain as herheroines wind their way toward the novel’s shocking conclusion.The Rebbe: The Life and Afterlife of MenachemMendel Schneerson, by Samuel Heilman andMenahem Friedman, (Princeton Univ. Press, 2010)In this biography, Heilman and Friedman, two of the leadingsociologists studying Orthodox Judaism today, set their sights on afigure who is at once ubiquitous and enigmatic: Menachem MendelSchneerson, the seventh and final Rebbe of Lubavitch. While hisimage and name are instantly recognizable the world over, thanksto the efforts of his Chabad “shluchim” (messengers), much of theRebbe’s background remained cloaked in shadow. In this landmarkwork, Heilman and Friedman painstakingly trace the story of a manwho began his life in Russia before the Soviet Revolution, workedwest across Europe mere steps ahead of the Nazis, and against all oddsbuilt an empire in America that exceeded even the wildest dreamsof his predecessors. There can be no question that the LubavitcherRebbe forever changed the face of Judaism in America – and perhapsthe world – and The Rebbe gives a striking portrayal of who this manwas in life and how his image lives on past his death.Nine Gates to the Hasidic Mysteries, by Jiri Langer,(Jason Aronson, 1993)What would possess an otherwise urbane, middle-class Jewishteenager to flee Prague in search of enlightenment at the court of theRebbe of Belz? And when he returns, years later, how does he squarethe mystical, timeless rhythms of Belz with the bustle of interwarPrague? The closest we may ever come to an answer lies in Langer’sNine Gates, a book that is not quite academic scholarship, not quitesacred legend, but instead carves its own unique place somewhere inbetween. Reading Nine Gates is almost like reading sacred text, a workthat carries us to a realm that bridges this world and the one that liesbeyond. “All you, then, who wish to live, enter this gate with me, forthere you shall read all this…”Crossing the River, by Dr. Shalom Eilati, (Universityof Alabama Press, 2009)On a personal note, I just received news that my cousin ShalomEilati’s stirring memoir, Crossing the River, is about to be released inpaperback. A bestseller in Israel in the 1990s (the present edition wastranslated from the Hebrew by Vern Lenz), Eilati’s story of his escapefrom the Kovno Ghetto, hiding with non-Jews in the Lithuaniancountryside, and eventual emigration to mid-1940s Palestine ismixed with his late-in-life reflections on the life that he rebuilt as thefledgling State of Israel was building itself.Anshe Emet Live!A community-wide musical serviceLast Anshe Emet Liveof the season!Friday, June 21, 7:30 p.m.Oneg Shabbat to followCome join your friends and make new ones as we celebrate Shabbat in an interactivecommunity service. This event is open to the entire Jewish community.For more information, please contactRaquel Johnson at 773-868-5119 or e-mail rjohnson@AnsheEmet.org.Funded bySustaining FundContributionsJune-July 2013 / Sivan-Tammuz-Av 5773 5