Judith Sherman, a survivor of Ravensbruck Concentration Camp, along with her daughter Dr. Ora Gelb and 16-year-old granddaughter Ilana, presented a three-generation narrative based on her book “Say the Name: A Survivor’s Tale in Prose and Poetry.”

Offering a student’s perspective was senior Ezra Fishman, while fellow seniors Yehuda Yeger and Jason Katz presented a poem and a picture.

In honor of Israel’s 62nd birthday, I’ll forgo the expected Op-Ed about Israeli government corruption, the Bibi-Obama drama, or the Israeli Rabbinate’s stranglehold on marriage and divorce.

Instead, I offer this love letter to Israel: “Top 10 tiny details about Israel that make it the most wonderful country on earth.”

10. Egged Bus #394: The midnight ride from Tel Aviv to Eilat. The trip begins in the gray-stucco slums of south Tel Aviv. Two hours later, you’re rolling through the desert beneath a blanket of stars. You crack open the window. The desert smells dry and ancient, like an attic. At dawn, you pull into Eilat as the city comes to life.

We have much to celebrate this Yom Ha’Atzmaut (Israel’s Independence Day).

To use one of today’s more popular terms, Israel began as a start-up dream. Groups of Jewish upstarts connected to the nationalist fervor of the late 19th century and began to dream of a Jewish state in Palestine. Theodor Herzl expanded on these nationalist ideals in his writings “The Jewish State” (1896) and “Old New Land” (1902). These early utopian works expounded the Zionist dream for a Jewish and democratic homeland and today, a little more than 100 years later, we celebrate the vibrant and exciting State of Israel.

Three years ago, my cousin Milka Zeiler Lichtenauer and her husband Shmuel, who live in Israel, made it their mission to visit Gerolzhofen, the small town in Germany where Milka’s father and my mother were born and raised, and where the rest of the Jews were rounded up and killed in 1942. Milka had been in contact with the mayor of this town, and his wife, who coincidentally is a Jew — the only Jew who lives there. This woman has since uncovered much of the history of the Jewish population there and continues to work to educate those who live in this area.

BERLIN – It isn’t easy facing the cold stare of a Nazi perpetrator, even in a photo. Increasingly, however, memorial sites in Germany are making the confrontation possible, opening a door that long has been sealed.

A new exhibit at the former Ravensbrueck women’s concentration camp in the ex-East German state of Brandenburg is the latest example.

“The Fuehrerhaus: Everyday Life and Crimes of Ravensbrueck SS Officers,” opened March 20, allowing a glimpse into the life of camp commandant Max Koegel and his SS underlings through informational panels arranged in his former villa, steps away from the barracks that once housed thousands of prisoners.

Few scholars have been able to communicate with equal efficacy in both the beit midrash and the pulpit. Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm has long excelled at both.

A “rabbi’s rabbi,” he enjoys renown both as a talmudic luminary and a masterful darshan. When I received semicha from him 25 years ago — and in subsequent conversations over the years — he has always left me with the same charge and challenge: “Go be ‘me-chadeish.’” Bring novel dimensions to your deliberations.

On Passover, we’re all looking for those new and different appetizers and entrees that aren’t the same old same old recycled boring ones. This year, shake up your Pesach menus with the following extra-special and fun recipes from the Orthodox Union.

Question: I’m gluten intolerant, but I know it’s a mitzvah to eat matzoh on Passover. Are there any gluten-free matzot for people who can’t digest gluten?

-Linda

Answer: Gluten is the common name for proteins found in all forms of wheat, rye, barley, and triticale. These days lots of people are discovering that their bodies have trouble digesting gluten, or that they have Celiac Disease, which means that any glutinous food they eat causes damage to their small intestine.