ShalomCT! This week in Jewish life

THIS WEEK IN JEWISH LIFE Jan. 20, 2023

Shabbat Shalom CT!

It certainly has been a week of reflection. Many of us who were on the Civil Rights Mission are still talking and writing about it on the WhatsApp group thread. I think it will take some time to really process all we learned and begin planning for 'what's next.'

One thing I recognized early into the trip was that this was not about educating us about Civil Rights history.

It was about creating mutual respect-- and with the original group's help, we will figure out how to best do that.

This week, you can read the thoughts and impressions from Nancy Diamond and Jeffrey Mayer, or click on the links and read more stories .

This past Sunday at Chabad of Westport, we offered an important program about our own history. In conjunction with Holocaust Child Survivors of CT, "Who Will Speak for Them?" was an afternoon of animated discussion with second- and third- generation (2G & 3G) Holocaust survivors.

Dr. Eva Fogelman was the keynote speaker. A 2G herself, Eva talked about resources to help us retell our family stories of the Holocaust.

In the subsequent discussion, every person's story was different. Every survivor had their own point of view. Many were very vocal. Some were crying. Others were angry.

What we all agreed on was that soon enough, our survivors would not be here to tell their stories, and we are responsible for keeping history alive. How else to ensure 'Never Again?'

As a 3G, first generation-born American, I have been teaching about the Holocaust in classrooms across the country (now on Zoom) to non-Jewish students.

I used to talk about the horrors of the Holocaust and my own family's story. But a couple of years ago, something changed in this country.

Now, I no longer teach about WHAT happened; I teach THAT it happened. That's a chilling shift to combat Holocaust denial that underscores the critical need for us to tell our stories.

Year after year after year after year after year.

Sunday's event was just a sample of the programs and training that we will be offering through the new Holocaust Resource Center (HRC), opening here in summer/fall of this year.

HRC partners like American Society for Yad Vashem, Holocaust Child Survivors of CT and others will offer meaningful programs and opportunities to educate and inspire.

I'll be writing a lot more about this community resource in the coming months -- if you are interested in getting involved or supporting the Center, contact me. I'd love to hear from you.

I wish you a safe and peaceful Shabbos.

Carin Savel, CEO

carin@shalomct.org

MISSION MOMENTS: Nancy Diamond and Jeffrey Mayer

We began our journey together with Rev. Raphael Warnock telling a parable from the Gospel of Luke that could have been about any of us: About the wealthy man whose biggest challenge was where to store his excess wealth.

The Reverend warned us about confusion: Confusion about who we are, where we are going, and where we are from. How like the Al-Chet prayer on Yom Kippur where we ask forgiveness for confusion of mind.

We realized that, like the man in the parable, we were confused. Confused after walking beneath the steel slabs commemorating thousands of lynching victims around the country, hanging like strange fruit from tree limbs.

Confused after following Rosa Parks’ two-block bus ride and reliving her arrest for the simple act of standing her ground against humiliation. Confused after hearing Ms. Lynda Blackmon Lowery recall the beating and kicking she endured at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Confused after standing in the Kelly Ingram Park in Birmingham, where children were attacked by police dogs and knocked down by pressure hoses.

We thought that, as Jews, our history of oppression equipped us with a special empathy for our Black brothers and sisters. We imagined a special kinship as we watch the growing threat of white nationalism and found comfort in our empathy. But we realized we have not walked in our brothers’ and sisters’ shoes. We have failed to see ourselves as others see us. We were confused.

The 89-year-old Bishop Calvin Woods appeared diminutive this morning, dressed in a double-breasted polyester suit with a silk pocket handkerchief and paisley tie. Then he began speaking and we were stunned by his exuberant baritone, punctuated occasionally by a whoop and holler worthy of an Alabama football crowd.

As Bishop Woods began to relate his stories of the movement in Birmingham in the 1950s and 1960s, the pain of his past was palpable. While he broke into protest songs with a booming voice, and at times leaped into the air with the energy of a 50-year-old, he still seemed to be traveling the road toward healing from the traumas he has experienced most of his life. Through his oneness with God, preaching from whatever pulpit he can, he perseveres. “I’m here for a reason,” he said. “God has spared me to be here to tell you about God’s movement.”

Bishop Woods seemed truly moved to have had the support of a few white folks during the movement. “We believed in love and non-violence and because of that we got more white people,” he said. “God made us a beautiful bouquet of flowers.” He told Jeff afterwards that he reminded him of the white man at the J.J. Newberry lunch counter who stepped forward and tried to protect him and four other young men who were about to be attacked by white boys and the police for their non-violent sit-in. It was a powerful and moving exchange.

Here was somebody who witnessed horrific events and could speak to them live. As with Holocaust survivors, it won’t be long before we are unable to meet a civil-rights survivor. To quote our friends in the south, we are “truly blessed” to have had this opportunity.

None of us will forget the Bishop.

Our guide, Billy, reminded us this morning of MLK’s comments, written from his Birmingham jail cell in April 1963 and exhibited at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute: “I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace, which is the absence of tension, to a positive peace which is the presence of justice.”

Those words are challenging. Like this three-day trip through the Deep South, they make us uncomfortable. How often have we practiced patience over persistence, caution over courage, silence over protest?

While this trip has certainly not yet dispelled our confusion, it has helped us to begin our process. It has been gratifying – enjoyable would not be the appropriate term -- to experience this provocative trip with new and old friends from Connecticut.

We expect this will be the beginning, and not an end, to our exploration of our shared history, to a search for meaningful ways to dispel the confusion of the man in Rev. Warnock’s parable, to finding practical ways to ease the modern-day legacy of slavery and the courage and energy to do so.

Nancy Diamond and Jeffrey Mayer

MORE MISSION MOMENTS

Ellen Lautenberg and Melissa Kane

Mindy Siegel and Alan Feldman

Bonnie Slyn and David Ball

Carin Savel and Ofek Moscovich

Rabbi Evan Schultz and Rabbi Sarah Marion

Shalom,

This week, during Merkaz, I saw a very special surprise.

I was walking in the lobby right before the classes started and I saw two college students who were very familiar to me. As soon as our eyes met, both of the figures started to shout my name, they walked in my direction and asked me if I remembered them.

It took me a few seconds but then I realized -- those two young adults were my students in B’nai Israel Hebrew school five years ago! Both of them are much taller, smarter and grown up! They came especially on their school break to Merkaz to see if the rumor was true, that “Ofek is back in the community."

I was so happy to see them, we chatted and I heard stories from college and I shared with them information about programs in Israel for college students such as Birthright and semesters abroad.

This moment showed me again how important the connections we Emissaries create are. The relationships we are making and the connection that is created with Israel will stay forever!

Those students know I’m back and know that if they are ever in Israel, they can reach out to me and stop by for a cup of coffee.

I’m looking forward to creating more connections like this one and in 2028 I will be back to see everyone again!

Ofek Moscovich

Federation Israel Emissary

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Wednesday, Feb. 15 | 12 noon

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COOKING ALLA GIUDIA: A CELEBRATION OF THE JEWISH FOOD OF ITALY

with author Benedetta Jasmine Guetta

Sunday, Feb. 5 | 3 PM

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Take an expansive and inspiring tour of one of the world's oldest Jewish communities and learn how Italian techniques and flavors have long been a part of the Jewish diet and vice versa.

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