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Rabbis Jen Kaluzny and Jen Lader
with the women’s group they lead
on a trip to Eastern Europe.
Temple Israel women’s mission
participants at the gates of
Auschwitz.
On Redemption
Temple Israel women’s mission to Eastern Europe spurs refl ections, connection.
RABBIS JEN KALUZNY AND JEN LADER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
S
everal weeks ago, we stood at
the waters of Birkenau and said
Kaddish next to a pond where the
ashes of a half-million of our people
were cast away. Then we found redemp-
tion in the vibrancy of the Jewish
Community Center in Krakow.
We closed our eyes and sang the
Shema in the synagogue of Rabbi Moses
Isserles, a space now quieted by history.
Then we found redemption in the col-
orful classroom of the first Jewish kin-
dergarten in Poland since the 1940s.
We stood in the gardens of Mikulov
in the Czech Republic, home to the
Maharal of Prague, one of the greatest
Jewish minds in history. There isn’t one
Jewish person left in the city, and the
synagogue is a silent museum. A mau-
soleum. But not that day. Our voices
raised in praise brought redemption to
that sacred place.
We sang Pitchu Li Shaarey Zedek
(“Open for me the gates of righteous-
ness”), the inscription nailed above the
door of the synagogue. We stood on the
sturdy bimah and offered the priestly
blessing to the women on our trip —
probably the first time this blessing had
been recited there since World War II.
We gazed out at the waters of the
Danube, among the bronze shoes for-
ever frozen in memorial of the Jews
40
November 22 • 2018
jn
who were killed on that very space. We
found redemption at Shabbat services
where the music was familiar, and chil-
dren played on the bimah, laughing,
playing, relishing in the candy the rabbi
gave them to keep them from knocking
over the Torahs.
Our week was a journey from the
depths of despair, to the song, the
poetry, the vibrancy and the shores of
redemption. We saw it in Poles and
Austrians who refused to let our history
die with the millions who were killed.
We saw it in the young adults who are
living in the Moishe House of Budapest.
We wandered around these cities,
these places, these spaces where our
people lived and breathed and thrived,
and now are ghosts. Shadows. Empty
rooms and photographs and memories
and memorials.
But we carried life with us.
When news of the attack at the Tree
of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh hit,
we were headed to a cooking class in
Budapest to learn to make our grand-
mothers’ goulash and strudel. After a
challenging week of bearing witness
and learning how quickly countries and
governments that we know and trust
can slip into chaos and darkness, we
were ready for a little levity and a little
joy. Instead, we watched with horror
and dread as news trickled in, little by
little, person by person, death by death.
It was an hour before any of our rab-
binic colleagues in America knew what
had happened. They were all on the
bimah, leading our holy, peace-seeking
people in prayer for a better, more righ-
teous world.
Mere hours after the first shots were
fired, we sat in the dark, our Havdalah
candles flickering, a group of women
in terrible pain, thinking quietly of our
children. Our parents. Our neighbors
and friends. But when they spoke about
how much it meant to them to be
together, holding each other, immersing
themselves in their faith and culture
and history, finding truth and meaning
in being a link in the chain of tradition
that reaches back thousands of years,
through so much trauma, we felt hope.
We felt strength.
Our history is a repetitive journey
from despair to redemption.
The attack on our people in
Pittsburgh was a time of deep despair.
And yet, these moments of together-
ness, these moments of redemption will
carry us tenderly into the future. ■
Rabbis Jen Kaluzny and Jen Lader are rabbis at
Temple Israel in West Bloomfield. They led a
group of women on a mission to Eastern Europe
from Oct. 20-29.
he Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit is gearing
up for a special #GivingTuesday
this year — matching donations dol-
lar-for-dollar and letting donors decide
where their matched dollars go.
Beginning in 2012, and held annu-
ally the Tuesday after Thanksgiving,
#GivingTuesday has become a global
day of giving.
“When the shopping frenzy of
Black Friday and the internet sales
of Cyber Monday have settled down,
#GivingTuesday is a chance for peo-
ple to give back to their community
and support the causes close to their
hearts,” said Federation CEO Scott
Kaufman. “We’re excited to give our
donors an opportunity to make their
gifts go even further and help us allo-
cate where they go.”
Anyone that comes to Federation’s
website to donate Nov. 23-27 will not
only have the gift matched up to $180,
but also will have the opportunity to
pick up to three “focus areas” to direct
those dollars. The focus areas include
community security, emergency assis-
tance, employment services, family
programming, Israel advocacy, Jewish
summer camp, Jewish education, older
adult services, and teen and young
adult engagement.
“For those donors who can’t pick
just three, there is also an option to
have their match dollars go into the
Annual Campaign, which will then be
distributed among our local and global
agencies as well as emergency funds,”
said Federation’s Senior Director of
Philanthropic Operations Lisa Cutler.
In addition to website donations,
Federation volunteers will be calling
donors during morning and evening
telethons on #GivingTuesday to make
pledges over the phone. All pledges
and donations taken over the phone
will be matched up to $180, but donors
will need to go to the website to make
their donations that day if they would
like to select where their matched dol-
lars go. ■
To give to Federation #GivingTuesday, visit
jewishdetroit.org/donate Nov. 23-27.