August 30, 2003
Dear Madrichim,
I guess I have to come to terms with the fact that summer is just about over......
School is beginning next week......Luckily, I don't have anything this Tuesday, soooooo I may get some boogie body boarding in after the tourists leave this weekend!!
Lotsa' news.......Little Robin Sternfield is getting married this weekend....She is an attorney living in Chicago! Carin Resnick will be married September 13.....
Other Madrichim summer marriages include Jordan Katz, (Dana Newman was there).....Janine Okmin married a song leader who she met while teaching Religious School, Lori Ginsberg will be married in a few weeks, and the following Madrichim are engaged but not to each other!
Love Slipock,Frank Drummond, Lisa Bronstein and Rebecca Price!
We saw the following family members of Mads at various social stuff throughout the summer:
Bret and Leslie Scher, Lee Finkel, Greg Goldman, Ali and Erin Graff, Carin, Dana and Sari Resnick, .....Debbie and David Sandweiss, Jeremy and Becky Gimbel , Ben and Becky Barth, Jessica Gimbel, Anne, Susie and Eddie Goldberg, Julie Bachrach, Lori, Judith and Dara Wolochow, M Leah and Eve Goldman, Jackie and Genae Gerson
Ari, Tammy and Todd Harrison, Steve Koppel's brother, David and Marc Eisenberg, Jamie Babin, Allen, Murray and Spencer Peller, Lori Ginsberg, Karen Levy, Lauri, Naomi and Daniel Kroll, Patrick and Tony Pollock, Dana Jacobs, Lisa Jacobs, Kate and Amy Haimsohn, and in person: Amy Haimsohn, Ali Small, Alison Fisher, Anne, Susie and Eddie Goldberg, Jeff Silberman, Karen Foster, Julie Bachrach, Elizabeth Williams, Matt Rosenberg, Dana Jacobs, Todd Bloom and his wife (Our camp nurse and hearthtob) Lynette.....There were lots of high school reunions this summer....Isn't it amazing to think that it's been 10, 20, 30 or more years since you graduated??????!!!!
I'm looking forward to beginning the school year....
Avi will be in the 2 yr old class and Sydney will be with the fours!......Laruen, Lee Finkel's daughter, will be at our wonderful Day School.........and
Molly Vener (Middle kid of Louie and Tammy) is going to be my 5th grade Hebrew Madricha this year!
There are just sooooo many kids of Madrichim......wish you all were there!
Hope you had a great summer.....
Much Love,
Eemah
Enjoy!
The new madrichim program description and link to the madrichim website
are now on our high school page:
http://www.cbisd.org/education/high_school.html#madrichim
Hi Helene!
My husband, Keith is riding in the Pan Mass Challenge, 150 mile bike ride to raise money fo the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Would you mind passing this information on to your mailing list?
Thanks so much,
Laura Katleman Palmer
My husband Keith is participating in the Pan-Mass Challenge, a 150 mile two day bike ride to raise money for the Jimmy Fund.
The Pan-Mass Challenge is the largest bike-athon in the world - 4,000 riders this year - and aims to raise $16 million for Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Please take a few minutes to sponsor his ride at what ever level you can afford.
Visit his web-site, click the "eGift link" and send a donation to support this worthwhile cause.
https://my.pmc.org/personal.asp?UID=KP0043
Alternatively, for those who do not wish to donate on-line, please write a US check to PMC/Jimmy Fund and mail to me at, 11 Truman Road, Dedham, MA 02026
Fill and send in a matching gift form if your company does matches.
Thanks in advance for your help and enjoy the rest of the summer!
Laura Katleman Palmer
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I was the short shy child raised by my single mother Edith Chapman. I was happy to see a couple of names I recognized when finding the Beth Israel website for San Diego in yourself and Mr. Roditi. I am writing because I wonder if you recall who the Librarian was at Beth Israel in either 1988 or 1989. I briefly worked as a library aide in that time. I currently live in Laughlin, Nevada with my wife and three year old child. A job opening in this small town at the county library as a front desk person would be perfect for me. Experience in a library is a requirement, and my after-school help 15 years ago is all I have. Sincerely, Michael Chapman.
No Laughing Matter: Why World Jewry should be saluting Bob Hope
By Rafael Medoff
http://www.jewishworldreview.com | Bob Hope's death yesterday at 100 has
been the occasion for an outpouring of heartfelt tributes to one of
America's greatest comedians. Among his many achievements, Hope is
perhaps best known as the premier entertainer of America's troops. What
is not well known is that he also took a courageous, if not
controversial, stand during Hitler's war against the Jews.
At the peak of the Holocaust, in early 1944, Hope volunteered to perform
in an all-star show at Madison Square Garden to benefit the Emergency
Committee to Save the Jewish People of Europe.
This was not merely another benefit concert for a worthy cause. For Hope
to support the controversial Emergency Committee took real political
courage. The Committee's public criticism of the Allies apathy toward
the Holocaust had infuriated government officials in Washington and
London. In fact, the State Department repeatedly tried to have the
Emergency Committee's chairman, Peter Bergson, drafted or deported. At
State's urging, the FBI opened Bergson's mail, rummaged through his
trash, and planted informants in his organization in an unsuccessful
search for information that could be used to muzzle or prosecute the
Bergson activists.
Donate to JWR
Bergson, a maverick Zionist emissary from Palestine, established the New
York-based Emergency Committee in 1943.The news of the Nazi mass
slaughter of millions of European Jews had been publicly confirmed by
the Allies, yet the Roosevelt administration insisted nothing could be
done to help the Jews except winning the war. Bergson, by contrast,
urged the Allies to take immediate steps, such as opening the gates of
Palestine or using empty supply ships returning from Europe to bring
refugees to temporary detention camps in America.
One of Bergson's most important supporters was Academy Award-winning
screenwriter Ben Hecht (Gone with the Wind, Scarface). Hecht's Hollywood
connections helped bring stars of stage and screen to Bergson's ranks.
His pageant, We Will Never Die, publicizing the plight of the Jews,
opened at Madison Square Garden with Edward G. Robinson, Paul Muni,
Sylvia Sydney and Luther Adler in the leading roles. Later performances
included guest stars Claude Rains, Edward G. Arnold, Ralph Bellamy and
Howard Da Silva.
The Bergson Group also placed full-page ads in hundreds of American
newspapers, organized public rallies, and staged a dramatic march to the
White House by 400 rabbis. Bergson persuaded leading Members of
Congress, in October 1943, to introduce a resolution urging creation of
a U.S. government agency to rescue Jewish refugees. The resolution
quickly passed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and was the
subject of well-publicized hearings before the House Foreign Affairs
Committee. This Congressional pressure, boosted by behind-the-scenes
lobbying efforts by Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau, Jr. and his
aides, persuaded FDR to establish the War Refugee Board.
The Board's activities, which included financing the rescue work of the
Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, ultimately saved the lives of over
200,000 people during the final months of the war.
During the crucial early months of the Board's work, in the spring of
1944, Bergson's Emergency Committee played an important supporting role.
The committee sponsored newspaper ads backing the rescue effort;
provided the War Refugee Board with information about rescue
opportunities; and dispatched two special emissaries to Turkey to assist
rescue activity (one was Ira Hirschmann, the Bloomingdale's executive).
To raise funds for this work, the Bergson Group organized an all-star
Show of Shows at Madison Square Garden on March 13, 1944. More than
20,000 people attended, including 150 servicemen whose tickets were paid
for by the famous Jewish boxer (and WWII hero) Barney Ross.
The evening was a combination of pleasant entertainment and bitter reality.
On the one hand, it featured skits and comedy routines by Bob Hope, as
well as by Gracie Fields, Jimmy Durante, Ethel Merman, Zero Mostel,
Molly Picon, and others. Milton Berle served as master of ceremonies.
Musical numbers were performed by Paul Robeson, Perry Como, the Andrews
Sisters, the Xavier Cugat Band, and the Count Basie Band, among others.
But the evening also included a dramatic reading by Helen Hayes of a Ben
Hecht poem about the Nazi massacres. Emergency Committee chairman Dean
Alfange (a leader of the American Labor Party), in a stirring address,
declared that it was the duty of the Christian world to help these
stricken people in this black hour of their misery and distress. Bergson
also spoke, appealing to Allied officials and Jewish community leaders
to brush aside political considerations at a time when thousands of us
are dying daily.
According to the New York Times, the Show of Shows netted $80,000--quite
a sum for that era and an important boost to the rescue campaign.
While other entertainers used their talents simply to gain personal
wealth and fame, Bob Hope and his colleagues had demonstrated that they
were a cut above the rest. The participants in the Show of Shows took
the risk of associating with a controversial group, for the sake of the
vital humanitarian cause of rescuing Jews from the Holocaust.
As Bob Hope is celebrated by saluting his contributions to American
culture and his aid to American troops overseas, his aid to the Jews in
Hitler's Europe should also be noted. For that, too, Bob Hope deserves
our salute.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in Washington
and in the media consider "must reading." Sign up for the daily JWR
update. It's free. Just click here.
Dr. Rafael Medoff is director of The David S. Wyman Institute for
Holocaust Studies, which focuses on issues related to America's response
to the Holocaust. Comment by clicking here.
© 2003, Rafael Medoff
