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Torah Portion
November 23, 2013

 Vayeshev

 (Genesis 37:1-40:23)

The Joseph narrative begins. After annoying his brothers with his divine premonitions of being their ruler, Joseph is sold by them into slavery. In a strange interlude, Tamar conceives twin sons by her father-in-law, Judah. Meanwhile, Joseph prospers in Egypt until he is framed by Potiphar's wife and is thrown in jail. While incarcerated, he correctly interprets the dreams of Pharoah's cupbearer and baker.

Rabbi Andrew R. Sklarz, MA, MSW, RJE

  rabbisklarz@grs.org 

Cantor Sabrina Lipton

sabrinalipton@grs.org  

Stephanie Glaser

Executive Director

stephanieglaser@grs.org

Eliana Hall 

Director of Education

eliana@grs.org

Clarita Agulay

Bookkeeper

clarita@grs.org

Laura Seltzer

Administrative Assistant

laura@grs.org    

Peter Babivskiy

Caretaker

GRS Featured 

in Greenwich Magazine!

Dear Friends,

In commemoration of the 75th anniversary of Kristallnact, 

I was recently interviewed by Greenwich Magazine. I am pleased share the full article below:

A Symbol of Hope & Healing

(Reprinted with permission from Greenwich Magazine)

This month marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of a particularly dark time in our world's history. And yet Greenwich is home to a symbol of triumph and perseverance. On November 9, 1938, Kristallnacht or "The Night of Broken Glass" began. It was a Nazi-sanctioned massacre of Jews throughout Germany and parts of Czechoslovakia. During Kristallnacht the contents of more than fifty synagogues along with their Torahs (sacred handwritten scrolls containing the five books of Moses) were destroyed, and the demolition of Jewish artifacts continued throughout the war. Today the Greenwich Reform Synagogue is home to one of those historic Torahs in danger of destruction.

"The Nazis aimed not only to rid the world of all Jews but
every trace of our existence," says Rabbi Andrew Sklarz of Greenwich Reform Synagogue. "The parchment of Torah scrolls often became lamp shades, or inserts for shoes, and I once saw a banjo made from the parchment of a desecrated Torah scroll," he explains.

Eventually, several decades after the war, the Torahs were transferred to London and were lent to synagogues throughout the world as a memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. Greenwich Reform Synagogue received its Torah in the 1980s. 

Sklarz shares the story of the Torah at every Bar and Bat Mitzvah at the synagogue.

"Despite what Hitler tried to do we continue to thrive, we are alive, and this scroll is a testament to that," he says.

-Erik Ofgang

 Photo courtesy of Michael Chait, Chait Video