“I found the Tállya cemetery in northeastern Hungary by chance. I am a Christian scholar researching Jewish culture, and I have been photographing Hasidic pilgrimages in nearby Kerestir, Olaszliszka and Sátoraljaújhely and elsewhere for years. I often visit the area, and I discovered the cemetery.

“When I was there, I was saddened by the careless condition of the otherwise beautiful carved tombs, the sight of the fallen tombstones, and the weeds. Someone had to do something. I organized an event to tidy up the cemetery, gathering Jewish  and non-Jewish volunteers to work together to save the cemetery from destruction. Unfortunately, there are more than 1,000 historic and abandoned rural cemeteries in Hungary that no one takes care of or visits. In many places, including Tállya, the Jewish cemetery is the last surviving monument from the once-thriving Jewish community.

“It is important that we nurture the memory of the Jews who once lived here. The memory of the culture and religious diversity they represent will fade away without care.”

• Bence Illyés

More than 70 years had passed since Ruth Brandspiegel last saw her friend Israel “Sasha” Eisenberg at an Austrian displaced persons camp. Then she heard a familiar name being called out in a Yom Kippur service held this year on Zoom.

Holocaust survivors Ruth Brandspiegel and Sasha Eisenberg call their reunion a miracle that began on the holiest day in Judaism. Decades ago, their families, who came from the same city in Poland, escaped the Nazis, crossed into the Soviet Union, and were sent to different labor camps in Siberia. They later met at a displaced persons camp in Austria, where they became close friends. They last saw each other there, in 1949.

Brandspiegel, now a Philadelphia resident, heard a familiar name being called out in a Yom Kippur service on Zoom at her son’s synagogue in East Brunswick, NJ. Could it be the same Sasha Eisenberg? She called her son Larry Brandspiegel, a cantor at the East Brunswick Jewish Center, and asked him to help her check.

After some back-and-forth on the phone with the Eisenberg family, Larry called his mother with the news: it was indeed her beloved childhood friend. His wife had called out his name at an appropriate time during the service in honor of their 53 years of marriage.

Larry Brandspiegel hosted a socially-distanced gathering at his home in East Brunswick under a Sukkah, where both families cried joyful tears, according to Religion News Service.

[Photo provided by Ruth Brandspiegel. Sasha is on the left, and her son Larry on the right.]

The Marcus Foundation has pledged $20 million to USY (United Synagogue Youth) to subsidize teen travel to Israel each summer. The project, called RootOne, is part of the Jewish Education Project, which also sponsors EpicIsrael, for shorter trips to Israel.

The winner of the $1 million Genesis Prize, known as the Jewish Nobel, will be announced early next year. The seven individuals on the short list have been selected from more than 4,000 names nominated by some 45,000 people worldwide, including the following:

• Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Elena Kagan
• Actor, producer, director Sasha Baron Cohen
• Singer and actress Barbra Streisand
• Theologian, author and former Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom Lord Jonathan Sacks
• Actress, producer and activist for the empowerment of young women Gal Gadot
• Mega-philanthropist Marc Benioff
• Film director, producer and screenwriter Steven Spielberg

Past recipients have included Natan Sharansky, Michael Bloomberg. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Itzhak Perlman.

Yad Vashem in Jerusalem and the University of Notre Dame and its global network are teaming up to increase and encourage advanced Holocaust education and research across the world. Yad Vashem’s International Institute for Holocaust Research and its International School for Holocaust Studies will work together with members of the faculty, staff and students at the university.

“For our students who study abroad in Jerusalem, the collaboration will allow for greater access to Yad Vashem’s resources…to pursue their research…on Holocaust studies, said Michael Pippenger, the university’s vice president.

“Yad Vashem is committed to ensuring that the history of the Holocaust continues to be relevant today and in the future,” said director-general Dorit Novak.     Photo: Hall of Names/DShank

America is launching its first mission to Mars — and there’s a chumash on the spaceship. This is not a treasure hunt. It’s part of a Jewish subplot in the first season of Netflix’s space soap opera “Away.” The chumash is the prized possession of one of the main characters, black Jewish botanist Kwesi Weisberg-Annan, played by American-born actor Ato Essandoh.

According to Irene Connelly, reviewing for The Forward, the series is an astronaut drama with more emotional baggage and crises per episode than “Grey’s Anatomy.” The plot revolves around a multi-national crew of astronauts led by American commander Emma Green, played by Hilary Swank, whose major job seems to be solving the astonishing number of mechanical problems that plague the supposedly state-of-the-art space craft, Connelly says.

Kwesi’s Jewish journey began in Ghana, where he was born and orphaned, and continues when he was adopted by a British couple: Miriam, a Jewish woman, and Sisi, a Ghanaian immigrant who came to Judaism through his wife. Through Kwesi, Judaism is central to the show’s exploration of faith.

“Away” is one of several recent shows with Jewish characters and themes, including “Unorthodox,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” and “Shtisel.”