Many, many thanks to our member, Judith Auerbacher, for so graciously allowing me to interview her. How she could sit there and speak so calmly of the last time she saw her mother and then her father, just leaves me in awe...

And I am equally impressed by our marvelous, caring members: even on a weeknight we had about 80 people in attendance! (Contrast that to many other congregations that have either had to create "communal commemoration," or artificially boost attendance by relying on their Hebrew school or high school students).

This was in Wednesday's NYT:

Click here to read Preserving the Ghastly Inventory of Auschwitz

This year we have experienced an unusual combination of calendrical/historical confluences. With respect to Yom haShoah the Hebrew date (marking the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising) coincided with the civil date for the 70th liberation of the Bergen Belsen concentration camp. And this year the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide just about coincides not only with our Yom haShoah, but with the Orthodox Christian Easter.

It is this unique combination of events - and the rampant victimization and murder of Christians on the African and Asian continents - that prompted the Pope to make the strongest comments issued by the Vatican, to date, about the Armenian Genocide.

Shab Sha!

kas

Below is an excerpt from a lengthy article written by my colleague, Rabbi Dr. Richard Rubenstein (author of After Auschwitz, and yes, he of "God is Dead" fame). He reads more than just ethnic or religious hatred, or social and economic circumstances into the extermination of 1.5 million Armenians; he understands it as rooted in Muslim jihad:

"When I first wrote about the Armenian genocide of 1915, I stressed the modernity of the enterprise and its economic, political and military motives. I did not consider the possibility that the perpetrators' motives might have included a very important religious component. Today, I would argue that religion was an indispensable component in the motivation for genocide. It was certainly an indispensable element in defining the otherness of non-Muslims in the Ottoman Empire. I would further argue that the crimes perpetrated against the Armenians were regarded by the Turks as legitimate defensive methods of dealing with dhimmis who had violated the conditions of the dhimma, and, hence, were outlaws for whom everything, including life, property, freedom, and family, was forfeit. I would also argue that the persistent Turkish genocide denial - so different from the German way of dealing with their genocide - has been due, at least in part, to the Turkish belief that they did no wrong in exterminating the Armenians, a belief that rests ultimately on the traditions of jihad and the dhimma."

The full article may be accessed at this link.

Jeff Jacoby, columnist for the Boston Globe, concurs with Rabbi Rubenstein:

Click here to read The Armenian Genocide was Also a Jihad.

As we read in the Passover Haggadah: mi'yagon l'simcha; mei'eivel l'yom tov; u'mei'afeila l'or gadol...

from sorrow to joy, from morning to festivity, from darkness to great light...

Yom haAtz'ma'ut - Israel's Independence Day

Will be celebrating it in the shul one week later on Wednesday, April 29 at 7 PM

with the showing of phenomenal new movie:

Above and Beyond

In 1948, just three years after the liberation of Nazi death camps, a group of Jewish American pilots answered a call for help. In secret and at great personal risk, they smuggled planes out of the U.S., trained behind the Iron Curtain in Czechoslovakia and flew for Israel in its War of Independence. As members of MaCHa"L (Midnadvei CHutz L'Aretz) - "volunteers from abroad" - this ragtag band of brothers not only turned the tide of the war; they also embarked on personal journeys of discovery and renewed Jewish pride.
ABOVE AND BEYOND is their story.

Admission is Free                                                                                                       Refereshments will be served

The Miracle of Israel

Watch the video by clicking here. 

In Honor of Yom haAtz'ma'ut, the 67th Anniversary of the Establishment of the State of Israel

Dr. Newton Scherl shared this video with me. Dr. Dan Schuftan is smart, humorous and to be reckoned with. He spoke at the Center for Jewish Life Annual dinner in London last February

CJL Benefit Dinner 2015 Speech Dr Dan Schuftan

(the video that follows immediately after Dr. Schuftan is also interesting, but not of the same caliber)

10 Things I Wish I'd Known Before Moving to Israel

(I would have moved there sooner!) Click here to read. 

The Search for Israeli Cuisine                                                                           
Soon to be a PBS documentary...                                                                                                                                         
Hummus and falafel were all I knew of Israeli Cuisine before I visited Israel for the first time four years ago. I discovered a vibrant restaurant scene in Tel Aviv that rivals New York City's, a street food rich with history, and astonishing vegetables. I tasted wines from some of the 350 boutique wineries gaining international acclaim. I savored distinctive local cheeses. What is remarkable is how food traditions as diverse as Moroccan, Persian, and Lebanese, French, Italian, and Russian can be found on the tables of the most cutting-edge restaurants. The Search for Israeli Cuisine will feature Jews, Arabs, Palestinians, Christians, and Druze -- kosher and non-kosher, secular and religious. Click here for more information.

Barry Schrage is an old friend of mine from day camp; we met up again in Cleveland, where I served as a Rabbi and my first pulpit, and he was working for the Federation. Then Barry left for the Boston Federation... But it's not Barry's letter, rather the one that follows it, that is so important. Click here to read. 

The deadline has passed a vote by vote by mail; it can now only be done electronically.

Please view the short, simple message contained in this video

MERCAZ, representing Conservative/Masorti Jews in the World Zionist Congress

and then, please access your registration form at

www.VoteMERCAZ.ORG

Vote for MERCAZ, Slate #2.

And, yes, my offer to refund your registration fee is still on the table.

From our "homegrown" David Meyers,

Tribeca Film Festival | The Arrest
Now through Apr 25 @ Regal Cinemas Battery Park
The 14th annual Tribeca Film Festival will take place Apr 15 - 26th, 2015. The film festival's mission is to provide artists with unique platforms to expand the audience for their works. Israeli film, The Arrest, directed by Yair Agmon,
will be shown at the festival. 

Book of Amos, Words with Gods
Sat, Apr 18, 6pm @ Rubin
 

Museum of Art
Directed by Amos Gitai, this film is "conceptually elaborate...passages from the eponymous Hebrew text are recited by a relaying group of street folk (played by faces familiar from Gitai's past features) as soldiers face down a public riot". Followed by a conversation with rabbinical spiritual leader Amichai Lau-Lavie and psychotherapist Robert Rosenthal of the Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Science.

Elad Kabilio
Thurs, Apr 16, 6pm @ German Consulate General
Four reputed cellist will explore original music composed for the ensemble and a premiere of a cello quartet arrangement of Bach's The Art of Fugue, as part of MusicTalk's Bach330 celebration.
MusicTalks brings classical music to an intimate and informal setting. Performed by the finest young artists, MusicTalks breaks down the barriers between musicians and audience by taking advantage of the intimacy that
chamber music provides. 

Akhshav: Contemporary Israeli Painting
Thurs, Apr 23, 7pm @ Stein Rose Fine Art
Akhshav is a survey exhibition of contemporary Israeli painters Nivi Alroy, Shai Azoulay, Noa Charuvi, Maya Israel, Meital Katz-Minerbo, Alon Kedem, and Elad Kopler. Today, in an Israel where new media, installation, and performance artists occupy center stage, a group of intrepid young pioneers have taken up the brush, determined to reinvent this most ancient and hallowed art form and perhaps themselves and their subjects along with it.
 

Felix & Meira
Opening Apr 17 @ Lincoln Plaza Cinemas
Israeli actress Hadas Yaron stars in this story of an unconventional romance between two people living vastly different realities mere blocks away from one another. Meira (Yaron), a Hasidic Jewish wife and mother and Félix (Martin Dubreuil), a Secular loner, unexpectedly meet in a local bakery in Montreal's Mile End district. What starts as
an innocent friendship becomes more serious. 

Assaf Evron | The Sea Was Smooth, Perfectly Mirroring The Sky
Through April 25 @ Andrea Meislin Gallery
Andrea Meislin Gallery is pleased to announce Assaf Evron's one-person show "The Sea Was Smooth, Perfectly Mirroring the Sky." This will be Evron's first exhibition at the gallery, and will include photographs, photographic objects and sculpture. 

New York Jewish Film Festival Presents Keren Cytter

Mon, Apr 20, 6:30-8pm @ Scheuer Auditorium
Israeli artist Keren Cytter uses visual media in strikingly original ways to build powerful and affecting narratives out of
skewed scenes of everyday life. Cytter's films, video installations, and drawings represent social realities through experimental modes of storytelling characterized by a non-linear, cyclical logic and multiple layers of images. 

Columbia's Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies presents an evening with Ron Leshem
Tue, Apr 21, 8pm @ 501 Schermerhorn Hall, Columbia University
Novelist ("Beaufort"), Screenwriter ("The Gordin Cell"/"Allegiance"),and Producer for Legendary Entertainment and Keshet Broadcasting ("Prisoners of War," "Arab Labor," "Traffic Light," and others)ץ We'll screen the pilot episode of "The Gordin Cell," followed by a wide-ranging Q&A with  Ronץ RSVP at iijs@columbia.edu.

Westchester Jewish Film Festival
Ongoing until 30, 7:30pm @ Jacob Burns Film Center
The Jacob Burns Film Center's annual Westchester Jewish Film Festival, now in its 14th year, has a diverse array of programs celebrating the grand sweep of the Jewish experience, including 14 films from Israel. Many of the films will be followed by discussions, live performances, and receptions. 

The Upper West Side Celebrates Israel! 

April 21-April 26 @ Various Locations
Join the Upper West Side's spectacular annual celebration of Yom Ha'atzmaut, Israel's Independence Day. Synagogues, schools, and Jewish organizations are coming together to sponsor events throughout the neighborhood celebrating the rich and complex culture, history, and people of Israel. Featuring the Party by the Shore, where the Hudson River is transformed into Tel Aviv and Dabke by Zvi Dance, one of the most highly-acclaimed Israeli
choreographers and artistic directors.
Wed, Apr 22, 7:30pm @ JCC  MetroWest Maruice Levin Theater

Celebrate Israel! Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest, 

New Jersey is proud to present a fabulous Yom Ha'atzmaut concert featuring Capaim.

"Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem" in theaters
Lincoln Plaza Cinemas
An Israeli woman (Ronit Elkabetz) seeking to finalize a divorce (gett) from her estranged husband finds herself effectively put on trial by her country's religious marriage laws, in this Golden-Globe nominated powerhouse courtroom drama from sibling directors Shlomi and Ronit Elkabetz.