Seemingly incompatible temperaments can work together. My husband Duncan and I are a prime example of this. We could not be more different when it comes to our emotional response and tolerance. We compare ourselves to the way different materials react to heat.
Something has awoken in us. In the past four weeks we’ve heard an outcry that was previously silenced. Those in positions of power are being held accountable for their actions, and victims who felt vulnerable and threatened are speaking out against their abusers.
This past week, I received a very interesting letter from a 19 year old member, which he has allowed me to share. He went to Neveh Shalom from third to sixth grade culminating in his Bar Mitzvah. After that, though, he grew distant from his Judaism. Part of that distance stems from a philosophical problem he was struggling with.
“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” Like a lot of clichés, the literal reading is completely false. Something that almost causes your death doesn’t make you stronger; it makes you weaker, and likely significantly weaker. Instead, it’s the figurative interpretation that is meant to resonate with us.
It happened on November 7th, 1938. In France. Ernst vom Rath, a German diplomat stationed in Paris, was assassinated by a German Jewish teenager, Herschel Feibel Grynszpan. Grynszpan’s motives are still unknown to this day. Either this was a lovers’ quarrel at a time when homosexuals were routinely killed by the Nazi party, or Grynszpan killed him as revenge for the expulsion of Polish Jews from Germany.
I have a very vivid memory of my parents and grandparents discussing the locations of their future graves. My immediate family is all buried in the same cemetery in Detroit, which makes it convenient to “see” relatives when I go back for a visit. My Nana and Papa are at the front as you drive in. Walk a few sections down and you arrive at my Grammy and Zayde.
Just yesterday, on Thursday, November 2nd, marked the Rabbi Joshua Stampfer Community Enrichment Award Dinner. Each year, the planning committee celebrates and honors youths and adults who have made substantive contributions to our city. We can all take pride in Anna Shapiro, who received well-deserved recognition for her many contributions to the life of Neveh Shalom.
