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This Shabbat morning
We will include Hallel and Yizkor during Shabbat morning services. Light your Yahrzeit candles BEFORE your Shabbat candles on Friday night, April 2nd. Pesach concludes at 7:49 PM Sunday night, April 4th.
Save the Date
Yom HaShoah v'Hagevurah - Holocaust Memorial Day is Wednesday night April 7th through Thursday April 8th. Rabbi Rosenstein is preparing a Zoom presentation for our community which will be held during the month of April. This year's theme will focus on what Jewish communities of Europe looked like between the two world wars. Not every Jew lived in a rural shtetl where woman wore babushkas and men had beards down to their navels. That very narrow stereotype is not an accurate portrayal of the complex and varied Jewish life experience between the war years. Many Jews dressed in modern clothing, participated in social and cultural activities, owned automobiles, attended universities, were merchants, doctors, teachers, and business owners. What Rabbi Rosenstein hopes to convey a portrait of Jewish life between the war years that more fully represents European Jewry of that time.
To get our Yom HaShoah commemoration off to a good start, Rabbi Rosenstein is recommending a YouTube video called He Gave Us Life- The Story of David Cassuto, A Sephardic Jew from Italy. Here is a synopsis of the video produced by Yad Vashem: "David Cassuto was born in Florence, Italy in 1937, to Hannah and Nathan. During the Second World War, his father served as a doctor and as chief rabbi of the Florence Jewish community. In 1943, as deportations of Italian Jewry to the extermination camps began, his family scattered in different hiding places. His father was an underground member, and helped rescue Jews until he was caught and arrested. In trying to release his father, his mother was also caught and imprisoned. The two were interrogated and then sent to Auschwitz. During this period, David and his siblings, under assumed identities, were hidden in various locations unaware of the fate of their parents. David, his brother and sister survived the war, and after the liberation of Italy, immigrated to pre-state Israel, where they were received in Jerusalem by their grandparents, Prof. Moshe Cassuto and his wife Simcha who raised them. David would go on to become an architect and a lecturer in architecture."
This is not a video filled with the horrors of skeletal bodies, mounds of eye glasses or piles of shoes and shorn hair. This is a story of personal triumph, positive attitude, and strong family connections. It is a good way to begin our Yom HaShoah commemoration. The production quality is first rate and is appropriate for mature tweens, teens and adults. The video is about an hour long.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cPbncqjFbQ
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