Englewood, Tenafly, Paramus and Teaneck events planned
Congregation Ahavath Torah of Englewood, in cooperation with East Hill Synagogue, Kol HaNeshama and Kehilat Kesher, is holding its annual Yom HaShoah commemoration on Sunday, April 7 at 7 p.m. Five survivors will be honored in a candle lighting ceremony. They will talk about their experiences in the Holocaust in a videotaped presentation.
The sixth candle will be lit by a group of third-generation teens who traveled to Poland through the Asher Strobel Youth Leadership Program at East Hill Synagogue. The youth program, named in memory of Asher Strobel, an Englewood resident and graduate of Frisch Yeshiva High School who passed away in 2011, brought 20 high school juniors and seniors together to learn about the holocaust in Asher’s memory. Asher’s grandfather, Manny Buchman, is one of the survivors being honored.
The students visited Auschwitz and Treblinka and the town of Krakow, where the shul of the Ramah, Rabbi Moshe Isserles, is being restored. They also visited the Warsaw Ghetto, now the site of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, and also Yeshiva Chachmei Lublin, which has been recently restored. A videotape of the students talking about what the trip meant to them will be shown at the program.
Other survivors being honored are Esther and Henry Glenn, Jerry Stein, and Serena Neumann. Speakers include Rabbi Shmuel Goldin of Congregation Ahavath Torah and Rabbi Zev Reichman of East Hill Synagogue.
A Yom HaShoah program will take place April 7 at 7:30 in the JCC on the Palisades. There will be a candle lighting ceremony by survivors and their families and performances by students of the JCC Thurnauer School of Music. Keynote speaker will be Helene McQuade, Vice President of Art and Remembrance, a non-profit arts and education organization, who will present a film produced by the organization about her mother’s childhood in the Holocaust.
The 70th annual Yom HaShoah program organized by the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey, one of the oldest commemorations in America, will take place April 7 at the Paramus Jewish Center. The event attracts 600 – 800 people each year. Six survivors will be honored with a candle lighting ceremony and their stories will be read by area high school students. Seventy yahrtzeit lamps will be lit to recognize the event’s anniversary. Key note speaker will be Stuart Rabner, Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court. The event opens at 3p.m. with a photo exhibit; the program starts at 3:30 pm.
The Jewish Community Council of Teaneck’s 33nd annual observance of Yom HaShoah, will take place on Monday, April 8th at 7:30 p.m, in the Teaneck High School auditorium. The keynote speaker is Moshe Baran, a Holocaust survivor from Poland and partisan. (See profile of Moshe Baran, p. 16)
This annual event attracts more than 1,000 people across denominations. It touches survivors and their descendants, up to the fourth generation, many who reside in Teaneck. Candle lighters are local survivors and their families.
By Bracha Schwartz
