by Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback
Greetings from the homeland of our People! It has been an eventful few weeks for Cantor Lam and me – we had a very meaningful experience in Europe with members of our Stephen Wise Temple community along with others who joined our group from around the country. We visited the Jewish communities of Prague, Budapest, Krakow, and Warsaw. It was especially poignant for me personally to visit places where members of my family once lived (Prague, Budapest, and Warsaw). We stood together in memory at Auschwitz-Birkenau near to one of the crematoria in which dozens of members of my family were murdered. I had the opportunity to recite kaddish for my cousins Yocheved, Sheindel, Chava Raichel, Sara, and Moshe Yehuda Davidvoits who arrived at Birkenau on June 6, 1944. In addition to remembering what was lost, we also celebrated the rebirth and renewal of Jewish life in each of these communities, especially at the JCCs in Budapest and Krakow.
Our time in Israel has been wonderful with opportunities to enjoy the beaches of Tel Aviv (where, wouldn’t you know it, we bumped into quite a few Wise congregants!) and to pay a visit to the Israel Sports Center for the Disabled where we were inspired by the amazing athletes we met. You may remember that last May we welcomed special guests from ISCD to join us and speak at Shabbat Services (watch here).
Last week Cantor Lam and I had the wonderful opportunity to celebrate the B’nai Mitzvah of Wise members Ethan Aron, Alexa Simantob, Jacob Melamed, Gabby Melamed, Teddy Rotgin, Justin Tishbi, and David Tishbi. By the way, at the Tishbi B’nai Mitzvah, I asked which members of the extended family had celebrated becoming Bar or Bat Mitzvah with Cantor Lam – THIRTEEN hands went up – that’s pretty extraordinary! On the way back to the egalitarian section of the Kotel in the afternoon, I saw about a dozen security officers so I knew that some VIPs (besides Cantor Lam) were in attendance. Then I saw Natan Sharansky, the famous refusnik and outgoing chairman of the Jewish Agency. The security, though, was there for the diminutive woman standing right beside him: Associate Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg.
We also placed into the Kotel all of the notes we received over the past few months from congregants as part of the Maxine Dunitz Western Wall project. Our deepest gratitude to Maxine for her generous donation to making such a meaningful moment happen for all in the Wise community.
May we all merit to meet at simchas (joyous occasions) in the future.
Filled with gratitude for the gifts of community, Torah, and the most meaningful work I can imagine, I wish you all Shabbat Shalom.
Rabbi Yoshi and Cantor Lam took our traveling Wise group to the Krakow JCC.
Rabbi Yoshi and Cantor Lam inserted Wise community prayers and notes in the Kotel thanks to a generous campaign sponsored by founding generation member Maxine Dunitz.
