I was born in 1920, in a city called Aachen, also known as Aix-la Chapelle. It was one of the most tumultuous and significant periods in world history. World War One, "the war to end all wars" had just ended. It took less than twenty years for another war to ravage Europe and plaid havoc with the entire world. In this memoir, I have researched the origins of my family, dating back to the early 17th century in the German/Dutch region of Europe. I have examined how their lives, as Jews, were influenced by their times and how their experiences set the stage for the catastrophe that befell Europe in the 1940s. I discuss my personal experiences and how these tragic events turned my life upside down and how my outlook and my future were influenced. ZACHOR, let us remember together Kurt Rosendahl
We are all born into a story, each with its own plot, characters and settings. For the children of Holocaust survivors, that story is tinged by the fact that their mere existence is a miracle: after all, their parents weren't supposed to live much less procreate.Many second-generation survivors grew up with a stifled and mysterious background. Others grew up with an overflow of traumatic information. Some grew up emotionally and psychologically scarred. Others felt overwhelmed with and by their parents' stories. And yet others again developed coping skills not just from their parents' experiences but also from how those experiences were conveyed to them.Vera Freidin's daughters fall into the latter category. Never hiding the realities of her Holocaust experience, Kathy and Sue's mother conveyed her stories with sensitivity, dignity and, at times, with humour. She instilled in them her positive outlook, her passion for life and learning, and her determination not to just survive but to strive to thrive.In the year leading up to her eighty-fifth birthday, Vera Freidin sat down with her daughters to compile her memoir. Kathy and Sue carefully and lovingly transcribed her stories as she told them: the familiar stories with which they grew up and some new stories they had not previously heard. That exercise, frequently punctuated by awe, tears and laughter led to this book.Vera Freidin and her daughters hope that you will feel, as you read Zachor, I remember. Will you? that she is sitting with you, perhaps enjoying a cup of coffee and a slice of cake, as she personally tells you these stories.Zachor, I remember. Will you? is a collection of memories which describe a determined woman, a kind woman, a highly intelligent woman, an inspirational woman, a woman with a remarkable memory and a woman who, despite having good reason to hate and be bitter, does not know how to hate or be bitter. The woman who is Zachor, I remember. Will you? is a good person: you will like her.
The award-nominated stories in this collection will bring memories of the future fl ooding back. Two new stories and all-new afterwords enliven the past with a touch of the present and that which is yet to come. You don't need a collection of antique spaceships or a carefully calibrated time machine to share the memories of the final Holocaust survivor. You don't have to jump through the gate between universes in search of a lost friend. All you have to do is open your eyes. You'll remember the future. The future remembers you.
Discusses the nature of Jewish historical memory which traditionally concentrated on the religious meaning of history rather than on the events themselves. Medieval Jewish historians focused either on the ancient past or on recent persecutions, tending to identify them with biblical patterns of oppression. For example, the Hebrew chronicles of the Crusader massacres show awareness of a deterioration in Christian-Jewish relations, using the "binding of Isaac" as a pattern for Jewish martyrdom. Although the chronicles were forgotten, the memory of the persecutions was preserved in halakhic and liturgical works. The expulsion from Spain in 1492 stimulated a minor resurgence in Jewish historiography. However, the kabbalistic myth proved more influential than history. Modern Jewish historiography is based on the secular concept of historical science and, especially since the Holocaust, cannot take the place of group memory.--Publisher description.
In his highly readable, educational and inspiring memoir, Holocaust Survivor Ben Lesser’s warm, grandfatherly tone invites the reader to do more than just visit a time when the world went mad. He also shows how this madness came to be—and the lessons that the world still needs to learn. In this true story, the reader will see how an ordinary human being—an innocent child—not only survived the Nazi Nightmare, but achieved the American Dream.
A collection of caregiving tools combining the values of Jewish tradition and self-relations—useful for practitioners of ANY faith! Self-relations, a powerful framework for doing respectful and humane caregiving for oneself and for others is here brought into relationship with Jewish thought. Jewish Relational Care A-Z: We Are Our Other’s Keeper is an extensive resource for caregiving tools and approaches. Using Jewish tradition and Self-Relations as take-off points, experts from many fields provide insightful perspectives and effective strategies for caregiving. In the language of self-relations each of us is not referred to as a Self. Instead, each of us is more accurately described as a relationship between “selves”—relationship is the basic psychological and religious unit! Jewish Relational Care A-Z: We Are Our Other’s Keeper sensitively centers on relationships and the healing process, using the understanding that to spark healing in others, a loving, respectful relationship must first be present between every aspect of our “selves.” Thirty-six categories of caregiving are comprehensively presented, allowing its use as a helpful resource for any clergy considering any of the included topics. Each author’s personal reflections, and personal experiences using care tools clearly illustrate how love-respect relationships within oneself can transcend into effective care for others. Jewish Relational Care A-Z: We Are Our Other’s Keeper provides helpful tools and explores: the use of language as a relational care tool time management for optimum performance for oneself and for others compassion fatigue, the need for self-care, and nurturing your own spiritual and psychological development purposeful visiting as a sacred task silence as an important part of spiritual care the profound difference made in lives through relational listening music as sacred power—a communion between humans and the Divine chanting as an intimate expression of the soul creative ritual in relational healing spontaneous prayer, and its place in relational care relational care with other faiths inside and outside of the community care for those going through divorce care when a pregnancy is unwelcome relational care for sexual orientation and gender identity issues successful caring for those who don’t care about you dealing with traumatic loss care for those who have sinned sexually fragile relationships care with the healthy aging relational care and retired clergy care for those traumatized by sexual abuse care for the cognitively impaired, mentally ill, and developmentally disabled care for the final moments of life care for the sick and dying care within the grieving process Jewish Relational Care A-Z: We Are Our Other’s Keeper is practical, insightful reading for clergy and caregivers of all denominations, educators, students, and lay people who care about clergy and their work.
"Rarely have I encountered a collection of essays that coheres so well around an overarching theme. This will be an important resource."—Hillel J. Kieval, author of Languages of Community
Revelations come in many varieties. Mine arrived during a morning meditation. After a formal recitation of a morning prayer-I thank You for Your gift of being, I was suddenly gripped by a torrent of uncontrollable sobbing. During these tearful moments I experienced a penetrating awareness of how grateful I was, repeating, over and over: Thank You. Thank You. This text of my heart served as the impetus to examine the liturgy of Judaism and discover the centrality of gratefulness in ones spiritual life. This book is my exegesis of that moment by which I examine the many dimensions of gratefulness and demonstrate its transformative power as a path of loving interaction among individuals and groups.
God gave the Torah to Moses and our ancestors at Mount Sinai thousands of years ago, and we’ve been studying it ever since. Rabbi Charna S. Klein continues the tradition in this scholarly work, interpreting the Torah’s fifty-four chapters in Inside the Torah. Klein presents interpretations from ancient Sages to modern commentators and adds original rabbinic interpretations on important topics such as creation, evolution, societal development, gender, sexual diversity, and more. The author also applies scientific lenses, including cultural, archeological, physical and medical anthropology to explicate hidden meanings in the Biblical text. Meant for Jews and non-Jews, the book is a significant contribution on the interpretation of the Torah from the perspectives of Chassidus and the Jewish mystical tradition of Kabbalah, its concepts, structures, and meaning. Rabbi Klein encourages the Jewish people as inheritors of the Mosaic tradition to connect with God and repair ourselves and the world. Awaken, know, delve deep and reach high to make yourself a vessel for good.
