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 temple6359@aol.com 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:temple6359@aol.com

Bertha Bodenheimer

Elcha Buckman Rabbi Sruli: djsruli@gmail.com

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 (ral@laskofflaw.com) 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