The 2023 Elsie Adler Yom HaShoah Program

by Caryn Roman
Acting Director of Lifelong Learning

 

“Not to transmit an experience is to betray it.”
– Elie Wiesel, z”l, Holocaust survivor, political activist, Nobel laureate and teacher

 

The obligation to remember the Holocaust and its victims is so much a part of modern Jewish life that the philosopher Rabbi Dr. Emile Fackenheim suggested it be considered the “614th commandment,” referring to the traditional 613 mitzvot outlined in Torah. At Emanu-El, our Religious School students and families honor that commitment each spring at the Elsie Adler Memorial Holocaust Remembrance Program.

Elsie Adler (z”l) was a beloved and dedicated member of the Emanu-El community, who herself escaped from Nazi Germany as a child. She was passionate about preserving the memory of the Holocaust and educating younger generations to better understand, appreciate and learn from one of the darkest periods in Jewish history. Her generosity to the Temple allowed for the creation of annual programming in this vein, geared specifically toward 10-to-16-year-olds and their parents.

On April 16 and 17, 2023, 5th through 10th grade students, parents and faculty had the opportunity to hear testimony from Holocaust survivor Martin Bloch. Martin was born in Ivje, Poland. The Nazis murdered his father in the early years of the war and Martin, his mother and older brother were forced into the local ghetto in Belarus. They escaped from the ghetto and, for a short time, they hid with non-Jews in a nearby forest before joining the Bielski brothers, a Jewish partisan group. When the war ended in 1945, they went to the Bergen-Belsen Displaced Persons Camp where they were forced to remain for seven years before immigrating to New York in 1952. Mr. Bloch eventually attended City College of New York and founded Frequency Electronics Incorporated, an aerospace engineering firm.

Following Mr. Bloch’s presentation and a Q & A period, students and their families proceeded to Blumenthal Hall for an interactive ritual service marking Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, that included opportunities for personal reflection and small-group discussion.

Click here to download a copy of the service

Click here and here to read reflections from students, parents and faculty submitted during the service.

Before leaving, participants were offered multiple ways of continuing to commemorate the Holocaust and its victims and survivors at home and in the future, and were encouraged to find ways to share what they’d learned with others outside of Religious School. Many students chose to take memorial candles and affix labels with the name of a child who perished in the Holocaust, in order to light the candle at home for Yom Hashoah in that child’s memory. Others read about Norwegian educators’ resistance to Nazi ideology during World War II and took paperclips to emulate and honor their strength.

As part of the last generation of people who will have the benefit of hearing testimony about the Holocaust from living survivors, the entire Lifelong Learning community at Temple Emanu-El is grateful to Mr. Bloch, Rabbis Ehrlich and Sapadin, and all others who planned and participated in this year’s programs.

Emanu-El Downtown: Celebrating Sukkot

By Dina Mann | Director, Emanu-El Downtown “Cast your bread on the water, and one day it will come back to you.” This dose of biblical study came courtesy of my kids’ new PJ Library book, Nuri and the Whale. The original text is from the book of Kohelet/Ecclesiastes. Kohelet is traditionally read on the …

Celebrating Rosh Hashanah Downtown

By Dina Mann, Director, Emanu-El Downtown September 22, 2022 – Summer might be over, but the good energy is spilling over into fall at Emanu-El Downtown. On Sunday, September 18, we welcomed over 150 babies, kids, and grown-ups to our New Year Festival, an afternoon of arts and crafts, music, apples, honey and so much …

JTA: In an effort to reach young families, Temple Emanu-El opens an outpost in Chelsea

September 16, 2022 – Emanu-El Downtown was featured in Jewish Telegraphic Agency/New York Jewish Week, with quotes from Rabbi Joshua Davidson, Emanu-El Downtown Director Dina Mann, and members of our growing community. Want to learn more? We hope you’ll join us at the New Year Festival on our new Downtown satellite this Sunday, September 18, …

An Illuminating Path at the Crossroads of Sefarad

By Jenny Silber When you think of what it means to be Jewish, lox and bagels on a Sunday morning or matzah ball soup on Passover may be some of the first things to come to mind. The commonality of sharing these traditions can make us feel like we know a Jewish person before we …

Emanu-El Downtown: Play. Explore. Learn.

By Dina Mann | Director, Emanu-El Downtown This Friday, Jews around the world will add the shofar to their morning prayer service signaling the new Hebrew month of Elul, which precedes Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. The shofar is a wake-up call. A jarring reminder to get to work on yourself, your family, and …

Hey Alma: I Never Thought About Being Jewish Until I Left New York

July 13, 2022 Read this terrific article in Hey Alma by Religious School teacher Sophia Garcia Maier about her Sephardic heritage, and how her experience on our Lifelong Learning faculty has been a meaningful part of her Jewish Journey. “I am a New York Jew, the Jewish daughter of two unabashed New Yorkers, and I …

Honeycomb: Am I Responsible Within My Own Community?

June 23, 2022 Click the link below to read an article cowritten by Teen Philanthropic Committee Co-Chair and Honeycomb Youth Ambassador Brady Popper on antisemitism and what the Jewish community can do to respond and educate, which interviews Rabbi Joshua Davidson. Throughout history, people practicing Judaism have been the target of antisemitic jokes, discrimination, and …

Nursery School Gala Honors Alumni and Parents

On Monday, May 23, the Temple Emanu-El Nursery School gathered together for a festive evening Gala at Tavern on the Green honoring Alumni Parents and Children. Over 200 attendees enjoyed cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, and music while bidding on silent auction items and purchasing raffle tickets. All proceeds from the gala will benefit the Nursery School. …

Talking With Your Teenager About Recent Events

From the 2019 9th Grade Civil Rights Journey in Montgomery, Alabama All of us share a desire for our children to be fearless advocates for justice and empathy. In times like these, it is difficult to know how to draw the line between addressing current events directly and shielding those we love from the world’s …

‘175 Years Ago Today’: A Message from Rabbi Joshua M. Davidson

Dear Friends, One hundred seventy-five years ago today, April 13, 1845, thirty-three German immigrants, refugees of the despotism surging in Western Europe, founded Temple Emanu-El in a small rented facility downtown on the corner of Clinton and Grand streets. It was the city’s first Reform synagogue, and soon became the model for Reform congregations around …