Jewish Standard Staff
For the sin of … missing a good show
Lots to choose from this year as S’lichot lead-ins
Once upon a time, a world ago, people would leave their homes at 2 a.m. on a Sunday morning and head for the local synagogue to hear a cantor chant the penitential prayers that opened the High Holy Days season. They needed no more inducement to attend a S’lichot service than the knowledge that Rosh Hashanah was only days away.
That was then and this is now. People still turn out for the opening S’lichot service of the penitential season, but not at 2 a.m., and as synagogues have discovered, a little entertainment as a lead-in does not hurt attendance.
This year, on Saturday evening, Sept. 8, before the chazan chants the opening strains of Ashrei, synagogues will offer musical diversions, films and discussions of those films, workshops, topical speakers, a little meditation and some yoga throw in, a taste of Leonard Cohen, and food (of course, food; well, dessert, anyway).
Teachers in Englewood discuss rescue as resistance
Dozens of teachers from New Jersey and New York gathered at Congregation Ahavat Torah in Englewood a week ago Thursday to learn about “Rescue as Resistance.” Presenting was Dr. Eva Fogelman, co-director of Child Development Research (CDR) and a Pulitzer Prize nominee for her book on rescuers, “Conscience and Courage.” Also presenting was Dr. Mordechai Paldiel, former director of the Department of the Righteous at Yad Vashem. Paldiel spoke about Jews who rescued Jews, with special mention of the Orthodox rabbi, Michoel Ber Weissmandl.
The conference, sponsored by CDR, an umbrella organization for a number of projects involving child survivors of organized persecution, was made possible with the cooperation of Dr. Paul B. Winkler, executive director of the State of New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education. Winkler spoke to the teachers about bullying in schools and “the three H’s.”
Second suspect arrested in synagogue attacks
With the arrest of a second Lodi resident, the Bergen County Prosecutors Office has announced that they have resolved all the executed and planned attacks on area synagogues in December and January.
Nineteen-year-old Aakash Dalal is being charged as co-conspirator in the most dangerous attacks, in which firebombs were thrown into the rabbi’s residence at Congregation Beth El in Rutherford. According to Prosecutor John Molinelli, who announced the arrest at a Friday afternoon press conference, Dalal has been friends since middle school with Anthony Graziano, who was arrested in January and charged with nine counts of attempted murder for the Rutherford attack.
