Save the Date: Holocaust Survivor Testimony

On Thursday, April 11th we are honored to have Dori Katz coming to speak to our 6th graders.

Dori Katz, a Professor Emeritus of French and Comparative Literature at Trinity College, was born in Belgium in 1939. She survived the war by hiding with a French Catholic family and by being placed in an orphanage for Christian children. Her mother lived underground with counterfeit papers but her father and the rest of her whole family were deported and killed in various concentration camps. She and her mother immigrated to America in 1952. She has written and published poems in journals and anthologies. Her books of poems, Hiding in Other People’s Houses was published in a Spanish/English bi-lingual edition in Mexico. She has translated from the French books by Henri Raczymow and Marguerite Yourcenar, as well as poetry by Eluard, Ponge, Guillevic, Max Jacob and others. She is willing to read from her poems, talk about her experience during the war and as an immigrant to America and field questions from students.

Survivor testimonies—firsthand accounts from individuals who lived through or encountered genocide and other atrocities—help students more deeply appreciate and empathize with the human and inhuman dimensions of important moments in history. They supplement what we learn from historians and secondary sources by offering unique perspectives on the difficult and sometimes impossible situations individuals were forced to confront during moments of collective violence and injustice.  The experience of listening to a survivor is a powerful learning experience. The personal testimonies of survivors can have a deep emotional impact that stays with students into adulthood.

Families and the community are invited to attend Thursday, April 11th at 4:15 in the main sanctuary.

Announcements

1. Save the Date: Installation of Rabbi Rebecca Epstein
Friday, March 1 beginning at 5:00 PM

Friends and families of all ages are invited to join us for a special dinner and Shabbat service to officially welcome Rabbi Epstein to the CBE family! Yachad students present will help lead the service together!

2. Upcoming Closures | Presidents’ Week
Yachad will be closed Saturday Feb 16 – Saturday Feb 23 for Presidents’ Week.

On Thursday, April 11th we are honored to have Dori Katz coming to speak to our 6th graders.

3. URJ Camp Info Session & Lunch 2/9

This Saturday the Director of URJ Crane Lake Camp, Debbie Shriber, will be coming to CBE to tell us all about Eisner, Crane Lake, and Sci-Tech! This is a great opportunity for students and parents to ask questions and learn about the URJ camping system. We will be providing lunch as the presentation will be directly after Yachad in the Ballroom. Please email Hannah Isaacs (hisaacs@cbebk.org) to let her know you’re attending!

Dori Katz, a Professor Emeritus of French and Comparative Literature at Trinity College, was born in Belgium in 1939. She survived the war by hiding with a French Catholic family and by being placed in an orphanage for Christian children. Her mother lived underground with counterfeit papers but her father and the rest of her whole family were deported and killed in various concentration camps. She and her mother immigrated to America in 1952. She has written and published poems in journals and anthologies. Her books of poems, Hiding in Other People’s Houses was published in a Spanish/English bi-lingual edition in Mexico. She has translated from the French books by Henri Raczymow and Marguerite Yourcenar, as well as poetry by Eluard, Ponge, Guillevic, Max Jacob and others. She is willing to read from her poems, talk about her experience during the war and as an immigrant to America and field questions from students.

Survivor testimonies—firsthand accounts from individuals who lived through or encountered genocide and other atrocities—help students more deeply appreciate and empathize with the human and inhuman dimensions of important moments in history. They supplement what we learn from historians and secondary sources by offering unique perspectives on the difficult and sometimes impossible situations individuals were forced to confront during moments of collective violence and injustice.  The experience of listening to a survivor is a powerful learning experience. The personal testimonies of survivors can have a deep emotional impact that stays with students into adulthood.

Families and the community are invited to attend Thursday, April 11th at 4:15 in the main sanctuary.

Jewish Studies Update

This week in addition to continuing Family History presentations, students have started learning about Jewish Life Before World War II. This week, we focused on Jewish Nationalism and Zionism. Students explored the following questions:

• Why did the idea of creating a modern Jewish state develop?
• What should a country for Jewish people look like?
• What were the different visions of what the Jewish state should be?
• How does the existence of Israel influence our Jewish identities today?

Students participated in an activity where they put themselves in the shoes of the early Zionists and went around the room “voting” with stickers on different issues like, “What language should we speak int he Jewish state?”, “How should immigration be handled?, and “Where should the Jewish state be?”

Hebrew Update

Last month students started working on the blessings for reading the Torah. Students will continue practicing those blessings this month while reviewing the V’ahavta and Mi Chamocha.

Students in our more advanced groups learned the numbers, days of the week, colors, and items of clothing while other groups continued working on reading and decoding skills such as differentiating vowels and look-alike letters.