Community Corner

Arthur Schwartz was 110 pounds when liberated at Auschwitz. He had been in eight concentration camps. The youngest of nine children, he was the only one to survive. “What I saw was unbelievable.”

Gila was an outgoing and well-liked 18-year-old young woman. The night before dying by suicide, on December 19, 2019, she bought a bag of candies to give to those looking sad in the Old City of Jerusalem.

Connection, dedication, and enthusiasm are just a few of the things that are apparent when stepping into a session of Emet’s TorahConnect for Women. Held on Wednesday evenings at Kehilat Avodat Hashem in Hillcrest, the learning program pairs Emet students of varying Jewish backgrounds with members of the community for in-depth Torah study. Attracting an average of 20 sets of partners each week, each student and mentor have been thoughtfully paired based on similar interests and personalities. The result is budding friendships and an educational and spiritually uplifting experience.

This week, unfortunately, we are all mourning the loss of Rabbi Zechariah [Shimon ben Yitzchak] Wallerstein HaKohen zt”l and Rabbi Moshe Neuman zt”l, remarkable men who gave chinuch to hundreds of women. They both initiated schools and other educational programming to ensure that every girl had the opportunity to learn and grow spiritually. It made no difference to them the background of the students, be it Sefardi, Ashkenazi, Litvish, or chasidic. Their genuine love and dedication to all members were what made them both very successful.

Following declarations from partisan Jewish individuals and organizations claiming that restrictions on abortion represent a “specific Christian belief” that would limit the ability of Jews to “practice their religion,” the Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV), issued the following statement:

Fifteen years ago, a small ad in a metro New York Jewish weekly newspaper led to the founding of a now worldwide event in support of disabled Israel Defense Forces veterans. That advertisement was for the inaugural bicycle ride for a little-known group, The Zahal Disabled Veterans Organization, known to many as Beit Halochem.