Agnes Adler is a little pixie of a thing with a musical Hungarian accent. As she and her husband David walk into a room, she tells him to smile, to say hello, not to be a grump, and he lovingly responds, “Yes, Mammi, whatever you say.” He is wont to stay in the background, however, as an invisible flying buttress, supporting her in artistic endeavors and much more, while also creating his own massive sculptures.
David stands a full head taller than his wife, continues to smile the smile of the gentlemen chauvinists of his generation. He and Aggie love to sharpen their blades on their wit and humor. She complains, “I have to do everything and he expects me to wait on him hand and foot. Men! Impossible!”
Until December 4, La MaMa E.T.C. reprises “Golem,” an innovative and colorful dance-puppet theater rendition about the mythical giant who protected Prague’s Jews in the Middle Ages. It was first presented in 1997, and now the reconceived and upgraded performance — with music by Frank London (founder of the Klezmatics), choreography by former Teaneck resident Naomi Goldberg Haas, and written and directed by the Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre artistic director, V’t Horejš — is playing at LaMama in the East Village.
The headline on the e-blast inviting people to Congregation Beth Aaron on Thanksgiving morning was catchy.
“Is your turkey kosher?” it asked. “Are you sure about that?”
One could imagine the panic among desperate housewives. “What?! OMG! If turkey is treif, what will happen to my kosher kitchen? Why did you wait until Thanksgiving to tell me?”
The economic and gastronomic ramifications of turkey being declared a member of the non-kosher bird family were frightening — especially only hours before the start of Thanksgiving dinner.
Rabbi Jack Bemporad begins his day very early by listening to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, then reading from his beloved prophets and going from them to Plato. This soothes his soul, he says, and prepares him for his long and full days. Bemporad is senior rabbinical scholar at the 20-year-old Chavurah Beth Shalom in Alpine, which honored him at a gala held at the Clinton Inn on Nov. 16. Also honored was the congregation’s founding rabbi and cantor, Rabbi Nat Benjamin. The event was attended by more than 150 people.
Tova Gold, designer, full-time working mom, and Teaneck resident has a set of grandmothers, Madame P and Lady K, both Shoah survivors, who love their bling — their “muchness” — and are always impeccably dressed in their own inimitable styles. (The word “muchness” has been used in Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland” and by Shakespeare to express that individual style, that cutting edge, not-quite-over-the-top edginess that creates big personalities.)
As they say in the family, the apples do not fall far from the orchard. This little bit of glitter always came through in Gold’s joie de vivre until the day she lost her identical twins, Sunshine and Daisy, in her 24th week. The sparkle and the inspiration were gone, and Gold was in despair. Her muchness disappeared, wiped out by her grief.
A group of rabbis and imams came together last Sunday at Temple Emanu-El in New York to discuss perspectives on the interpretation of foundational religious texts. The all-day seminar, attended by 30 leading scholars of sharia law and halachah was closed to the public, with the exception of an afternoon panel moderated by Rabbi Jack Bemporad of the Center for Interreligious Understanding (CIU), and scholar in residence at Chavurah Beth Shalom in Alpine. The event was organized by the CIU, the Interdisciplinary Program in Law and Education Columbia School of Law, Catholic University of America, and the Muslim Chaplains’ Association.
After visiting Auschwitz with a group of imams last year, Bemporad realized that in addition to interfaith dialogue, leading Muslim and Jewish religious scholars needed to discuss foundational texts to improve relations and to study how those texts impact our lives today.
Days after I learned I was going to Poland for a conference on Child Holocaust Survivors and their descendants, I was asked to prolong my stay by Sigmund Rolat, chairman of the North American Council of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews. He wanted me to learn about the museum being built where the Warsaw Ghetto once stood (I discovered it sits on top of the street where my mother and grandmother lived) and to see some of Poland.
Most especially, however, Rolat wanted me to experience the I.B. Singer Festival, sponsored by The Shalom Foundation and run by a human powerhouse and the Polish queen of Yiddish culture, Golda Tencer. As an actress in the state-run E.R. Kaminska Yiddish Theater, Golda established the foundation in 1988 to promote Yiddish culture and “pass on its rich heritage.” In addition to theatrical performances, seminars, courses, and film festivals, the foundation established the first kindergarten and Sunday School for Jewish children in post-Communist Poland.
Joining his family in paying tribute to a young Englewood man who died four years ago, some 125 people gathered at the Kaplen JCC on the Palisades last Wednesday to dedicate the David Benaroya Youth Wing.
Benaroya, an aspiring actor, was just beginning his professional career when his life was cut short at age 27.
Standing before guests, family members, and community leaders — including Rabbi Shmuel Goldin of Ahavat Torah, Rabbi Zev Reichman of the East Hill Synagogue, Englewood Police Chief Arthur O’Keefe, and former Englewood Mayor Michael Wildes — Raphael Benaroya spoke about his son.
Teaneck’s Cong. Beth Aaron is set to unveil its newly expanded facilities with a weekend-long dedication program (chanukat habayit) running through Sunday.
The Orthodox synagogue was founded in 1972 by Rabbi Meir Gottesman in a modest house on Merrison Street, and had 25 members, 10 of whom were under the age of 21. It moved twice, until settling into its current location on a corner lot at 950 Queen Anne Road. The expansion and renovations included a new study hall, a dedicated library, an expanded kitchen, new office space, renovated bathrooms, a Shabbat elevator, four new classrooms, and a mother-baby room.
