The Yom Hashoah Committee has been working on our annual Commemoration to the Holocaust, to the victims and survivors, and all ways our lives and our world has changed as a result. The morning will include a service, memorial video, music, and presentation by a survivor. You can view and print a copy of the Yom Hashoah service here.
Celia Kener will be speaking during our program. Celia Kener was born in 1935 in Lvov, Poland. When the Germans invaded in 1941, life totally changed. Her father was drafted into the Russian army while the rest of her family moved into the ghetto. Celia’s mother was selected for a labor camp and was periodically brought in to visit the family on weekends. Her mother found a childless Catholic couple and promised her daughter to them because she didn’t think that she would survive. Celia was eventually reunited with her mother. The family was liberated by the Russians. Her father escaped the Russian army to an Uzbekistan Displaced Persons camp under an assumed name and survived. Celia and her parents came to the US in 1949.
We will not have our usual schmooze, life cycle or announcements during this program, but we will look forward to catching up with people at the next KB Sunday.
During the service, we will share a list of names of some people who perished in the Holocaust. In the past we handed out armbands with those names on it. Since we are unable to do that in a remote service, we invite people to write down a few names from this list and have them nearby during the service. You can see the list here.
We will be lighting and extinguishing candles during the service in memory of all who suffered and all who died. If anyone is interested in doing the same, please have a candle and matches available for their use during the service.
The Executive Committee is Kahal B’raira’s leadership and coordinating body. It includes the president, vice-president, treasurer, secretary, members-at-large, Sunday school chair and representative to the Society for Humanistic Judaism. Meetings are open to all KB members. RSVP for Zoom link to info@kahalbraira.org
B Mitzvah meetings are for young people and adults at any stage of B Mitzvah planning. Frances will meet with the young people while adults meet separately. After introductions and a brief review of the program, there will be time to ask questions and get advice from other parents.
The B Mitzvah handbook, checklist, and other resources are available here.
For the Zoom link, please email Lidia at l.pruente@kahalbraira.org.
This course involves screening popular American and Israeli movies in order to study a complex
and profound issue in Jewish life today. This issue is the fundamental tension between the lives
and attitudes of modern Jews, and the lives and attitudes of traditional religious Jews (also
sometimes referred to as hareidim, ultra-orthodox, or hassidim). Designed as the first of two
courses (each may be taken separately), this course focuses on films that offer starkly different
depictions of traditional Jewish life. In particular, these films will help us attend to deep conflicts
over issues such as individual self-expression, family, the value of communal life, and the
experience of romance and love. Students will screen the films on their own before class;
important clips will be shown in class. Carefully chosen academic readings, and short stories will
be provided each week, both for background on that week’s film, and to enhance the experience
of viewing it.
Dates: 5 Wednesdays, 4/7, 4/14, 4/21, 4/28, 5/5
Time: 7:00 – 9:00 pm
Cost: $165, generous financial aid is availableFor more information, contact Marilyn Stern at meah@hebrewcollege.edu
Instructor: Dr. Jacob Meskin
Sponsored by Hebrew College and hosted by Congregation Eitz Chayim, Tremont Street
Shul, and Kahal B’raira, Cambridge
KB members are invited to join our book group where we will learn together through reading, self-reflection, and discussion. We will read both non-fiction and fiction (current and historical fiction) and will also share online resources with each other that will support our learning and current experiences. This is a peer-supported group and not led by an expert on the subject. We are on a learning journey and hope you will join us.
For the Zoom link, please email info@kahalbraira.org.
Tentative Schedule
October – initial meeting – discussion / introduction initial self-reflection
November – So You Want to Talk About Race, by Ijeoma Oluo
December – Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
January – The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas
February – Movies: 13th and Selma
March – The Water Dancer, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
April – The Color of Law, by Richard Rothstein [no relation]
May – Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own, by Eddie S Glaude, Jr.
June, July, and August – Caste: The Origins of our Discontents, by Isabel Wilkerson
This course involves screening popular American and Israeli movies in order to study a complex
and profound issue in Jewish life today. This issue is the fundamental tension between the lives
and attitudes of modern Jews, and the lives and attitudes of traditional religious Jews (also
sometimes referred to as hareidim, ultra-orthodox, or hassidim). Designed as the first of two
courses (each may be taken separately), this course focuses on films that offer starkly different
depictions of traditional Jewish life. In particular, these films will help us attend to deep conflicts
over issues such as individual self-expression, family, the value of communal life, and the
experience of romance and love. Students will screen the films on their own before class;
important clips will be shown in class. Carefully chosen academic readings, and short stories will
be provided each week, both for background on that week’s film, and to enhance the experience
of viewing it.
Dates: 5 Wednesdays, 4/7, 4/14, 4/21, 4/28, 5/5
Time: 7:00 – 9:00 pm
Cost: $165, generous financial aid is availableFor more information, contact Marilyn Stern at meah@hebrewcollege.edu
Instructor: Dr. Jacob Meskin
Sponsored by Hebrew College and hosted by Congregation Eitz Chayim, Tremont Street
Shul, and Kahal B’raira, Cambridge
Join on Zoom: https://zoom.us/j/92438039826
Meeting ID: 924 3803 9826
Dial by your location: 929-205-6099