Shul News & Notes

Members of our shul and the North Fork Reform Synagogue in Cutchogue will meet on Zoom on Wednesday, April 23, at 7:30  p.m., to join with Jewish communities around the world observing Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day — honoring the Six Million Jews murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust. As the number of Holocaust survivors dwindles, and antisemitism rises throughout the world,  remembering those who were lost from 1939-1945 becomes critical to a mission to “Never Forget” what hatred can inspire.

The online ceremony will be led by Rabbi Gadi of our shul and by Rabbi Barbara Sheryll of the Cutchogue synagogue. The focus of the ceremony is the lighting of yellow candles, a reminder of the yellow stars Jews were required to wear sewn to their outer garments to identify them as Jews. Attached to each candle is the name of a child lost in the Holocaust. In addition, shul member Rena Wiseman will share her story of growing up as the daughter of Holocaust survivors, and the impact of that dark history on her own family, a generation later.

Although the candles are distributed free of charge, those choosing to acknowledge the gift of the candle with a contribution can do so with a check made out to the shul, or online logging on to the website, www.tiferethisraelgreenport.org, and clicking on the donate tab. Funds collected are used to pay bus transportation for Greenport High School’s 10th-grade history class to attend the Holocaust Museum in Glen Cove as the culmination of their unit of study on the Holocaust.

In previous years, several students who attended the museum have attended a Friday evening Shabbat service at Congregation Tifereth Israel. They willingly share their thoughts on what they learned about events that occurred in the past and how to combat hatred in their own communities now. Comments by the students resonated affectingly with synagogue congregants, many of whom may have lost relatives in the infamous concentration camps in Germany and Poland, where innocent Jewish families were rounded up and murdered. The students are scheduled to attend via Zoom at the Shabbat service on Friday, May 2, at 7:30 p.m.

The observance of Yom HaShoah challenges all generations to remember the horrors and persecutions of the past, and to instill in all generations the commitment to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

Shul member Judith K. Weiner, working with the staff at Peconic Landing, has arranged a Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) program at the senior living community in Greenport.

Judith Weiner will introduce the program and featured speaker Rena Wiseman will share her story with the residents as candles bearing the names of children lost in the Holocaust are lighted. Afterward, participants will view the film, “Zone of Interest.” Loosely based on the 2014 novel by Martin Amis, the film focuses on the life of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss and his wife Hedwig, who live with their family in a home in the “zone of interest,” within sight of the notorious German concentration camp. Pictured, the family recreates in the shadow of the horrors taking place nearby.

The program at Peconic Landing will be held on Wednesday, April 23, at 3:30 p.m.

The Book Circle will meet on Thursday, May 15, at 3 p.m., in the community room at the shul, where the group will talk about Goyhood, a debut novel by Reuven Fenton. Here, a devoutly Orthodox man discovers in middle age that he is not, in fact, Jewish. He is, however, a Talmud scholar, married into one of the greatest rabbinical families in the world. Now what?

Meyer Belkin grapples with a God he believes betrayed him, and an emotionally withdrawn wife in Brooklyn, who is about to learn that her husband is a counterfeit Jew.

The Book Circle meets monthly to explore books by Jewish authors writing on topics of Jewish interest. For more information about the Book Circle and its current selection, email ctigreenport@gmail.com with a message for Susan Rosenstreich, coordinator of the group.

Veronica Kaliski, chair of the shul’s Tikkun Olam Group, told The Shofar that the annual donation of funds to provide chickens to CAST clients took place this year in time for Easter.

In acknowledging the $300 contribution, Sarina Harley, CAST’s interim food relief program manager, thanked the group and the shul for generosity in time for Easter. “We are elated to have so much chicken to distribute to the CAST clients,” she wrote. “Chicken is by far the most popular protein to the population we serve, and is not always available to them.”

Our shul hosted a Second Seder on Sunday, April 13. The beautiful table setting invited participants into the community room, where Rabbi Gadi led the gathering through the dramatic Passover story of slavery in Egypt and the flight to freedom through the parted sea and 40 years in the desert to the land of Israel. Later that week, the shul hosted the annual Model Seder luncheon for GEM (Greenport Ecumenical Ministries) clergy and their parishioners. Once again, Rabbi Gadi led the group of 50 through the story, pointing out the symbolism of the items on the traditional Seder plate, which offer a visual presentation of the Passover story. Parishioners said they always look forward to the annual Model Seder at our shul.

Rabbi Gadi Capela and SMBloom  photos