onward

"Hello, I Must Be Going..."

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 01:25:02 +0100

As the editor of The Bulletin prepares to take his leave (he’s not a leave, he’s a bow. He’s a bow to leave! :-), words of praise and gratitude pour (okay, drip) in:

The Editor’s Letter to the Board

Greetings from the Editor's Desktop --

After much consideration, and due deliberation, I have decided to take a break as editor of The Bulletin, this after the June, 2012 edition is put to bed in May.

Call it a hiatus, sabbatical, leave of absence or simply a long overdue rest (of indeterminate duration), my departure will, hopefully, give rise to a new generation of editors, scriveners and missive-makers, bringing new vitality and a renewed spirit for what, during 60 years, has served as the voice of our JCC of West Hempstead.

While the announcement of my exit, stage left, may be met with dismay in some quarters, and delight in others, there comes a time when each of us reaches a crossroad. Roadblocks, detours and the occasional dead end aside, my tenure as editor has been quite a ride.

I thank you for having given me the opportunity to serve our sacred kehillah for these many years, the latitude to freely express my thoughts, even when the sentiment was not necessarily shared by the masses, and the guidance to take The Bulletinwhere few such monthly newsletters have gone before.

With gratitude and humility, I do not bid farewell, but rather, adieu.

B'Shalom,
Seth Bykofsky

The President’s Response

Dear Seth —

It is with a lot of thought that I am responding to your letter of resignation as the editor of our Bulletin.

You have done a tremendous job in making our publication a reader-friendly light-hearted and yet extremely informative publication for many years. I understand that we all get burned out of some tasks and recognize fully the time and effort that goes into it each month. (I myself was the editor of my Knights of Pythias lodge bulletin for over 5 years. It was not only a huge task but many times it was thankless.) To keep up a project such as this I understand the time constraints involved.

If I may subject you to some humor, gallows or otherwise, on the heels of your imminent departure:

If it has anything to do with my shorter monthly missives, I apologize. If it is because I don’t thank you enough for doing the job, I apologize. If I haven’t done my share of getting advertisers, I apologize. If I haven’t run to the post office enough to find out about the newest rules and regulations, I apologize. If it is that my sense of humor is as warped as yours, I apologize. If my picture in The Bulletin makes me better looking than you, I do not apologize.

And I hope you understand that with your resignation I am not obligated to give you a recommendation for you to continue this job for any of our competitors’ bulletins, newsletters or journals.

In all seriousness I thank you from the bottom of my heart, and on behalf of the Executive Board, Trustees and the entire congregation for all that you have done these many years in making The Bulletin a great periodical and hope that we can count on you for contributions to it on regular basis.

Richie Selzer
President JCC West Hempstead

The Grouch Who Stole Chanukah

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 15:59:06 +0100

Halloween has just passed. Thanksgiving is still a couple of weeks away. And the New Year? Well, that depends which calendar you're looking at!

Visit any mall or big box store, however, and you'd swear, perhaps quite literally, that it was Christmas eve. The garland is hanging. The glitter and glitz is spangled. The sleigh awaits Santa's tufted tuchas. And, oh yes, the Christmas music (I'd say "holiday," but I don't hear too many Chanukah songs blaring over the speakers at Macy*s) plays 24/7, beckoning -- or is it "annoying?" -- shoppers, who are moved to either buy their stocking stuffers before the leaves have fallen off the trees or, better yet, to shop online, from the comfort of their easy chairs, sans "Come All Ye Faithful."

With this, an ode to the season -- or next season, or the Independence Day Sale to be held in March. Read on:

Deck The Shuls With Loaves Of Challah

‘Twas the night before Halloween

And all through the malls

Visions of Sugar Plums

festooned the walls

Ghouls and goblins

Were nary in sight

Yet holiday music

Blared through the night

Christmas is but one day

Chanukah is eight

Where are the dreydels?

Are we too late?

Holiday shoppers

A retailer’s dream

Still listening to Jingle Bells

Is making us scream

If we celebrate Christmas

Nearly two months away

Let’s at least give a nod to Chanukah

Come Valentine’s Day

On Jacob, on Moses

On all Maccabees

We’ll light the Menorah

When they put up those trees

Oh, we’re not complaining

Who are we to kvetch?

But face it, October?

What’s with the Creche?

The season once kicked off

With the Macy*s Parade

Santa Ho-Hoing

A sleigh bell serenade

Now it is Christmas

Just South of July

Angst among parents

A collective, “Oh my!”

So here’s to good tidings

A healthy new year we pray

Happy Chanukah to all

And to all an Oy Vey!

Now, it is my pleasure, if not distinct honor, to be among the first to wish you a Happy Valentine's Day, a ziesen Pesach, and a reflective Memorial Day. And may you be inscribed in the Book of Life -- as well as on Santa's List of who's been good -- for 5773 and beyond!

See you in The Bulletin!

Seth D. Bykofsky, Editor, Webmaster, Tweetmeister & Honorary Scrooge

Write to The Bulletin editor at JCCeditor@aol.com

State of The Temple Message, 2011

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 16:58:30 +0100

As delivered by Richie Selzer, President, Jewish Community Center of West Hempstead, September 29, 2011.

Rabbi, Cantor, Fellow congregants and those who join us for prayers welcome to the JCC.

Taken right from SESAME STREET the word for the day is ACTIVE.

A simple word yet so important.

Active is key.

We are THE most active synagogue in SOUTHWEST NASSAU. We have programming and activities that are bar none; the envy of other local groups Jewish as well a non Jewish. We have been proactive and continue to sponsor many different and varied programs all week long.

As I have said previously there is no shame in going from youth groups to senior groups as long as we fill the programs. Our Rabbi continues to teach to packed houses in the MINI UNIVERSITY and our book groups are all well attended. We continue to run our book fairs as a fundraiser and have done real well as long as you participate. Thank you HELENE FASTMAN.

We have started to take trips with packed busses and we look forward to continuing these as well. Now thanks to two of our new members we are hosting our newest cultural event, THE FALL CONCERT, featuring our own Audrey Schneider and Arbie Orenstein, two accomplished music professionals. We look forward to our congregation support and participation in making this event a true success. We continue to average over 50 people each and every SHABBAT, and congregations much larger than ours do not get this attendance unless they have a simcha. Activities that has been our key and I look forward to more special programming.

Our BULLETIN and WEB PAGES, TWITTER, FACEBOOK all of our electronic media headed by our Bulletin editor SETH BYKOFSKY, whose humor and passion in taking our temple out of the DARK AGES and into the 21st century has been monumental. Thank you SETH.

WE are also REACTIVE. I am proud to say that in the last 18 months we are one of the few congregations to BOAST that we have NEW MEMBERS, some from other organizations, some who have been unaffiliated for many years, and some who have returned to our temple seeking solace, religion and our caring family. I not only welcome you to our temple, I thank you for having faith in us to fulfill your religious needs.

We have started some new traditions in conjunction with neighboring congregations. JOINT PROGRAMMING. Whether we are here at the JCC or at other venues, the idea of shared programs for the common good has worked wonderfully. This has enabled us to go from 65 to 85 people for our YOM HASHOAH PROGRAM to over 225 people in a combined community event. It was tremendous to have this many people in one room, and we look forward to sharing and joining more often toward a common good. Thank you LARRY ROSENBERG.

And now the bad news. The INACTIVE.

Those of you have just heard about all the things that have been going on here at THE JCC and you are sitting here and saying to yourself, “how have I missed those events. How didn’t I participate in the bus trip, the BBQ, the Succot dinner? Why wasn’t I at the Yom Hashoah program? Where was I when the Rabbi gave his class, how did I stay home and not come to the Sisterhood program on Early TV comedians that had over 50 people in attendance. WHERE was I when all of this was taking place?” We would like to know that as well. We offer the programs for almost no expense and these programs are all quality events.

PLEASE, PLEASE. ALL WE ASK IS THAT YOU TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THESE EVENTS, COME ON DOWN AND JOIN US.

And now, the toughest part of my State of the Temple message. When I took office a little over a year ago, I begged, pleaded and urged every congregant to not pass on as we cannot afford the loss and I hate going to funerals and shiva calls. Well, I am sad to say that we lost some dear family members this past year. In fact, we had the worst year in the history of the JCC.

A few of those who passed this year our Flower and Plant LADY and my dear friend BARBARA KLEIDMAN. Our perennial Sunday minyan man ED ROTH. A quiet but faithful friend SAM HALPERN. And even from Israel the family that sponsored the CHAVURAH PRORAM, WALTER MILLARD, and one of the original 50 families MAL LUTCHEN, and our beloved MOISHE ROTH. Just to name a few.

We wish all of our families who suffered losses this past year that they suffer no more adversity in the New Year. I mention these people for a reason. They left a void in many things that go on here at the JCC. Moishe in particular.

He wore so many kippahs in our daily life it has taken a multitude of people to do his job. From laining torah, making sure we have minyans, resetting the religious goods of our congregation, setting our weekly kiddishes, making sure that shiva houses are prepared for daily prayers to changing the bulletin board and setting the memorial plaques each month for those observing yarzheit, we are still finding out about all the things he did for us. But I take this moment to thank the many people who have quietly stepped up and have taken on many of the tasks that MOISHE did. We still have room for more volunteers every Friday and Shabbot in setting up for our wonderful Kiddishes led by MADDY SCHWARTZ. In order for us to take this active role in our community WE NEED YOU! Please come forward and give us a few minutes of your time, especially for the minyans.

In closing, I continue to thank the congregation that has given me its confidence and strength to take our great temple to new heights; to our religious leaders who have guided me on the righteous path; my board of directors and committee chair people who make me look good.

To my wife and children who have permitted me to take the time from them to work for the JCC, my real home away from home.

And finally, to our building staff our one and only SAM WALKER and STEVE PINA, and of course the true hard workers of our temple, ADDIE and TORI.

I wish each and every one you a healthy happy new year and the strength to keep doing what we do SO WELL, Making the JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER OF WEST HEMPSTEAD so great. Exactly what our name says, the CENTER of the JEWISH COMMUNITY. How great is that?

Good Yom Tov!

YIZKOR APPEAL – YOM KIPPUR 2011

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 02:18:21 +0100

As presented by Janna Gabel

Good Shabbos and good yuntif, Rabbi Vernon, Cantor Rosner, everyone.

Each year, when I first walk into services on the High Holidays, I’ve just come off a hectic and harried week of cooking, cleaning, and clearing the calendar of errands and appointments. The pressures of everyday living are still upon me, and it has not yet sunk in that I am finally in a place where I can clear my mind and spend some time in a spiritual state. Shaking off the last few lingering thoughts of all I’ve been doing and things I may have left undone, I wonder to myself, “How do I begin this process? What exactly am I doing here?”

And then I pick up the prayerbook, my machzor, and open to the first page, where every year I find my answer…in a poem. It is there that I read:

“This book of prayers, old and stained with tears, I take into my hand,

And unto the G-d of my fathers, Who from ages past has been their

Rock and Refuge, I call in my distress. In ancient words, seared with

the pain of generations, I pour out my woe.”

In those few words, I am abruptly reminded of the trials and obstacles of the previous year. I am transported back to my first High Holiday yizkor after the passing of my beloved mother, who used to sit in these pews with me, and I am stung once again with the pain of her absence. I remember how my own tears fell upon my prayerbook. I look at the book in my hands and see the comforting Hebrew letters forming the ancient prayers that we hope will ascend to heaven, beseeching G-d to judge us favorably even though we have been all too human. I smell the familiar musty odor of the prayerbook caused by all the time it’s spent in storage, awaiting this season of awe, and am reminded of all the regrets and missed opportunities that have similarly been stored up inside me until this moment. And then I know exactly why I am here.

And that, I know, is the common denominator for all of us here today. We are all aware of our humanity, our shortcomings, our flaws, and our reluctance to admit them – yet we plead for G-d’s patience and forbearance, for more time to better ourselves. We have experienced loss in our own lives, and we know that time is a commodity promised to no one.

There is a story of a Reb Simcha Bunim of Pishishka who would give each person a New Year greeting that he or she be inscribed for a good year, and then he would add, “I can’t imagine this world without you.” Isn’t that a wonderful, endearing – and empowering – statement? In just that way, each of us is an essential part of this day, this service, these prayers. Together, we create a kehilla kedosha, a sacred community. And we gather here in this beautiful, inspiring place, our Jewish Community Center of West Hempstead, with its years of history, of tradition, and of faithful service to this community.

I love this place, with its beautiful stained-glass windows that refract the rays of sunlight into a million brilliant colors to dazzle the eyes. I love these pews, because they have creaked joyously to share my simchas as well as sighed in compassion when I sat here in sorrow or anguish. I love its big brass front doors, through which I have come to find knowledge, spirituality, and a comforting sense of belonging. It’s not just a part of my life – it’s the very fabric of my life.

And its congregation – you are my neighbors, my friends, my fellow Jews. We live side by side, sit elbow to elbow, volunteer hand in hand. You offer me a warm handshake on Shabbat, wish me mazel tov when I celebrate, embrace me when I most need support.

Will you do the same for the shul that does the same for us?

This building shelters our congregation, warms us on frosty days, cools us in summer’s heat, and inspires us with its places of sacred beauty. It is a part of each minyan, each Shabbat and holiday, each celebration and commemoration. It may be an older building that needs upkeep and care, but without it, we are orphans without a home.

This home of ours nurtures chavurahs – groups that meet regularly to learn about prayer, talk about current events, watch thought-provoking movies, or speak Hebrew or Yiddish – and new groups are being added all the time. It is a home base for a vibrant Sisterhood, where you can take in a program on classic TV comedians or learn how to improve your memory, play Mah Jongg or Scrabble with friends over a pizza lunch or dinner, or join a book discussion. And let’s not forget our terrific Mitzvah-of-the-Month activities which help feed the hungry, bring cheer to the hospitalized and provide help for the needy. It’s home to our Men’s Club, the source of great events like baseball games and football pools, and where you can learn to wear tefillin with pride or get timely information on a variety of topics. This is the place from which we took a trip to the Jewish Museum in Philadelphia, and where we will gather to get on a bus to Atlantic City from time to time. Our Rabbi Vernon teaches short stories with Jewish themes for our semi-annual Mini-University, and later this fall, Cantor Rosner will resume teaching his weekly Sunday morning adult class on the weekly Torah portion or on upcoming holidays.

A lot happens here. We’re glad you’re a part of that. If you’re not – well, you should be, because look at all you’re missing.

If this building, this Jewish Community Center of West Hempstead, is your home, too – your house of prayer, your place for gathering with friends, your center for learning about all things Jewish – then I ask you to remember that home is where the heart is. When our ushers come around with those little white donation envelopes, I ask that you return yours now with a pledge, and please be as generous as you can. If you are thinking about it – please do your thinking here. Look around at the faces of your neighbors and friends who are helping to keep our shul a beautiful, spiritual, vibrant place that is central to our Jewish community. Be comforted by our Yizkor service and the honor it brings to the memory of your loved ones. Stay till late afternoon to watch the setting sun stream through these windows and let it bring warmth and encouragement to your soul.

Just as Reb Simcha said to all he met, we, too, can’t imagine this world without you. This place – our world – needs you, each and every one of you. Your Yizkor donation, given in memory of those who you are here to remember and honor today, is a special blessing and a beautiful mitzvah fulfilled.

Our sages taught, “It is not your duty to complete the work, but neither are you free to turn away from it.” The very nature of a synagogue deals with unfinished business because it is about our ongoing lives – our hopes and fears, our worries and triumphs, even life and death itself. We are all works in progress, just as is this building that houses us and the efforts we make to be of service to our congregation. As we rise in a few moments to begin the Yizkor service, please also stand up for this shul, all we are and all we hope to be, with your Yizkor pledge. Thank you, and may you and your loved ones be sealed in the Book of Life for a healthy, happy, and sweet New Year.

This message was delivered from the Bimah on Yom Kippur by the writer, who is the First Vice President of the JCC of West Hempstead.

A Shaynere, Besere Velt

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 14:19:06 +0100

Building A Stronger Jewish Community and A More Beautiful, Better World

By Seth D. Bykofsky

A Shaynere, besere velt. Not just a catchphrase or an ideology of Jewish thought. More than simply the refrain from a folk tune harmonized by a chorus. Far beyond the storied themes of traditional Jewish support for labor and social justice, universal healthcare, human rights, and the Yiddish language.

For generations, Jews have spoken the words and carried forth the banner, sometimes in epic battle, as in the struggle against totalitarianism and the fight for workers’ rights, espousing the cause which every Jew believed in his or her heart – to create that more beautiful, better world.

To a great extent, mostly through the efforts of generations past, we, as a people (not to be confused with the artificial, too often self-serving moniker of “Peoplehood”), have made great strides in building that Shaynere, besere velt. Workers, once exploited and mired in poverty, rallied, not simply behind a cause, but to the forefront of a movement. Jews, from the ultra-Orthodox to the secular spiritualist, joined hands with brethren of all races, not simply to stand up and march for civil rights, but to risk life and limb for equality and the dignity of all people.

The notion of a shaynere, besere velt is as engrained in the Jewish psyche as the concept of tikkun olam – our responsibility to repair the world – has been part and parcel of Jewish tradition since time immemorial.

As Paul Shane, a progressive secular Jew and Professor of Social Work/Social Welfare at Rutgers University, once postulated, “We are humanists, when often humanity fails. We work for social justice when often the cause seems doomed. We are Jews, when often it is difficult… We celebrate our humanness and love of life, connect with all humanity through our Jewishness. Our beliefs and our spirituality help us remain optimistic about life, people and Jewishness, in spite of all setbacks.”

To paraphrase JFK, today, the torch that burned so brightly for our parents and grandparents – that vision of a shaynere, besere velt – has been passed to a new generation of Jews.

A new generation, ostensibly divided by denominational rancor, by adherence to ritual, or the distancing therefrom, by politics, both foreign and domestic, by brick and mortar versus a virtual reality, is called upon not only to sally forth under that illustrious maxim, but, more critically, to shore up the very foundations of Jewish community.

For creating a more beautiful, better world requires of us that we not only endeavor to repair the world around us, but that we make efforts, sometimes gallant, other times in tiny increments, to repair the world within.

To build fundamentally stronger Jewish communities – be they in the shtiebel or the shtetl – commands of us a commitment beyond the rhetoric, the dogma, the routine rites and conventions. We must pledge to take our communal cause further than the mere talk of community-building and synergy, and rethink the time-honored, well-intentioned acts of soliciting money only to cast it to the wind as perceived panacea for every possible ill.

Yes, there are plans aplenty to build that stronger, sustainable Jewish community. As with any plan conceived in contemplation of building or rebuilding – call it Master Plan, Renewal Plan or Strategic Plan – it is not in the drafting of the plan, or even in its public display, that moves us forward, but rather, it is in the implementation.

After all, we know what commonly becomes of those “best laid plans…”

As we reflect upon the year behind us, and embark on that great adventure that is the new, let us not simply play homage to building a stronger Jewish community and a more beautiful, better world, as if but another auld lang sine. Let us instead obligate ourselves to actually act, taking strides, both the seemingly immeasurable steps that may go unnoticed, and those giant leaps for all mankind, toward that shaynere, besere velt.

Contact The Bulletin Editor at JCCeditor@aol.com

Shofar, So Good!

Sun, 25 Sep 2011 19:16:38 +0100

The High Holidays. Already? Seems like just a tower of tayglach ago that we were breaking the fast, and here we are, yet another opening (of the ark), another sho(far). [I’m here all week folks. All you have to do is feed me!]

So, as the great circle game begins anew (cue Harry Chapin or The Lion King), here are some ideas on how we, as a congregation, and Jews worldwide (should we choose to go viral on the Internet), could ease the long, and, to some (okay, to most), repetitive tedium of the High Holiday services:

· Offer valet parking. From two blocks away. [This way, it will look like everyone walked to shul.]

· Open a concession stand. Pretzels. Hot dogs. Shwarma-to-go. Hey, food always packs a house!

· Open the Ark. Close the Ark. Open the Ark. Close the Ark. Fuggetaboutit. Open the Ark once. Take care of business. Close the Ark. Fartik! In and out by Noon, at the latest.

· The High Holiday Prayer book will be on Kindle. No more flipping back and forth. Rabbi’s sermon to follow on YouTube. [Come on, folks. This is the 21st Century!]

· Lather. Daven. DON’T Repeat. Say each prayer once. Not 200 times, or 20. Once. He gets it. The first time.

· Dispense with the choir. Same old tunes. Not very catchy. Melodies only the tone deaf could appreciate. Instead, bring in Lady Gaga. Just think how many tickets we could sell. How many could your editor scalp? Not an empty seat in the house. Standing room only. So, we change the words from Poker Face to Pulka Face. Who would ever know?

· Have a Kiddish after Rosh Hashana services. At Le Cirque. Why not? A field trip. Stretch those legs. All included in the price of admission.

· When Yom Kippur falls on shabbos, it shall be adjourned to the following year. [Kiddish to be substituted.] Too much like work, this Yom Kippur, without the coffee break. Would it hurt anybody to skip the hunger pangs just once every few years?

· Yes, you can look at the Cohens. Why can’t we look at them, anyway? We look at the Schwartzes and the Levys, don’t we? This year, we only look at the Cohens. Nobody else. So there!

· Next year in Miami Beach. Or maybe a nice cruise. Davening is sooo much better when the sea is causing you to schukle. [And no one ever fasts on a cruise, right?]

Okay. Okay. They were only suggestions. Commentary, if you will, handed down throughout the ages of Jewish suffering and oppression (and that’s just during Minyan, mind you). You expected, maybe, Rashi?

If laughter is indeed the best medicine — and it certainly is — what better way to start off the new year (5772. Or Star Date 5772.24 for you Star Trek fans) than with a hearty chuckle [I said “chuckle,” Cantor, not “schukle.” Oy!]

Seriously, though, this is America 2010, not Poland in the 1800s. We’re all for tradition (as in the traditional Kiddish after services), but change, as the Rabbi suggests in his message, is inevitable, and often necessary. Podcast sermons and Internet services are realities of the modern age, and if we are to sustain a thriving, enthusiastic, upbeat congregation, attractive and compelling to Generation Next (let alone to Generation Text), maybe, just maybe — charges of blasphemy and heresy aside — we need to shake things up a bit. [Think about it the next time you are a closing eyelid away from dozing off in the pews, having glanced at your watch a dozen times.] What better place to start new traditions than at our JCC, and what better time than now, as we begin this new year!

-Seth D. Bykofsky, Editor ☺

Write to your editor at jcceditor@aol.com.

The Koach of The Bulletin

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 17:18:10 +0100

alav hashalom

On any given day, save Shabbos, I half expect the telephone to ring, the JCC’s PhoneTree to be on the other end of the line.

“We regret to inform you of the passing of The Bulletin,” says the voice, recognized by your editor as that of shul stalwart Joe Richmond, “member of our synagogue community since 1951. Services will be held in the Moseson Chapel on the 15th of the month — preceding deadline. Kiddush to follow in the Wachtel Room.”

Could it be? The Bulletin, geshtorbin? Victim of benign neglect, consigned to be read and, perhaps, beloved by a congregation from afar, but rarely contributed to by the adoring masses, but under the most intense pressure from certain quarters, with tacit threat of excommunication (assuming we Jews had such a thing).

I often awake at night, near publication date, in a cold sweat, dreading the open, blank page staring back at me from my laptop. “Last month’s events — again.” “No word from the masses.” “Nothing but yahrzeits…”

Your editor pleads, begs, down on one knee, even, for the written word — or any number of them, strung together to form a sentence. That a few, or many among the congregation might shrieb a bissel. A prayer for divine intervention, perhaps. Gornisht!

I check e-mail, religiously, and, on occasion, visit The Bulletin mailbox at the shul office, hoping against hope that someone, anyone, everyone would send a letter, a story, a remembrance, or a check, payable to cash. No such luck.

And I wonder, just how long any monthly missive, dedicated not only to the history of our people, our shul, our Jewish way of life, but to posterity as well, can endure and survive without the participation and engagement of its readership?

True enough. The editor’s road is a lonely one. A place of solitude and reflection. But I should be like Robinson Crusoe?

The koach of The Bulletin, like that of our shul itself, requires not passivity or passing mention, but rather, concerted, active, and, yes, even occasional impassioned participation. Your editor is not asking each of you to write for this newsletter on a monthly basis, any more than he would ask you to attend minyan daily or services weekly. But once in a while, like on the High Holidays, wouldn’t be such a bad thing, would it?

The future of The Bulletin — your Bulletin — is not etched in stone. Reports of its demise are greatly exaggerated, indeed. There is still time to immerse yourselves, in the activities of our shul, in the work of our sacred community, and, yes, in the pages of this communiqué.

Say not a prayer — and certainly not kaddish — for The Bulletin. Hope springs eternal that with your editor’s persistence, your involvement, and a well-placed misheberach or two, The Bulletin will go on, gezunterheyt, like our shul and its members, biz hundert un tsvantsig.

See you in The Bulletin!

-Seth D. Bykofsky, Editor ☺

Write to your Editor/Webmaster at JCCeditor@aol.com

Swiftly Flow The Years. . .

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 21:37:37 +0100

Sunrise, sunset. Sunrise, sunset. Swiftly flow the years… If only we could find someone to pen the music, we’d have a hit on our hands! Wow, 5772 already. We can still remember when 5772 was the price of a new car. Today, 5772 will just about cover your shul dues and a Happy Meal® from McDonald’s.

The start of a new year brings with it renewed hope, a fresh perspective and, yet again, the opportunity to make new mistakes, giving us something to atone for next year.

Looking back at 5771, we can certainly say that it was a time of uncertainty. We faced terror, at home and abroad, yet we refused to be terrorized. We witnessed threats (both real and perceived) to our safety and our liberties, and still we persevered. Although we found ourselves faced with a tumultuous economy - and not only at our shul - we nevertheless opened our hearts and our wallets to causes most precious and to those less fortunate.

Here at The Bulletin, we, too, have held our ground. Despite persistent pressure for us to raise our newsstand price, we are pleased to announce that there will be no increase. For the cost of your JCCWH dues, you will continue to receive The Bulletin [thanks, in great measure, to our shul president waiving his salary]. Now that, dear friends, is truly priceless!

With this, we leave you with best wishes for a happy and healthy new year, and may we be among the first, as has become our custom over the years, to wish you and yours a ziesen Pesach und a frieliche Purim.

-Seth D. Bykofsky, Editor

Write to your editor at JCCeditor@aol.com. ☺

In Remembrance: 9/11/2001 - 9/11/2011

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 04:20:02 +0100

The Shoah and September 11, 2001-2011

Reflections of a Survivor

By Dr. Solomon Goldman

The enormous growth of the Holocaust literature, its history, poetry, drama and theology is being augmented by many feature films, documentaries and stage plays. Serious attempts to treat it humorously, objectionable to some, understandable to others, only prove how deeply affected sensitive people are by what has happened in the twentieth century n the heart of Europe – the center of Western civilization. Indeed, the claim that the world will never be the same is attested to by the behavior of many people, institutions, and governments. The most painful soul-searching and examinations of tenets of faith – a process still in its infancy – befell the two major religions; the Jewish and the Christian, the first one groping the eternal question “why,” the other with the unfathomable “silence.” Conquering the sin of silence is not limited only to the Vatican. At the 1943 Bermuda Conference, the Allies still did not see fit to organize any rescue of the Jews though cognizant of the Nazi’s implementation of a plan for Jewish annihilation. Not until January 1944 did Roosevelt agree to establish the War Refugee Board, the rescue agency. Alas, too late…The tragic consequence of untold human suffering, mass murder and genocide of an entire people are still visible as manifested by the survivors, by the many memorial museums that have sprung up all over the world and by the vanished and devastated Jewish communities of Europe.

For decades now Jewish scholars and philosophers have struggled with the concept of “uniqueness” of the Holocaust. Internally, this characterization of the Holocaust affected both Jewish individual and group behavior and religious practice as well. In fact, the Holocaust became, for many Jews, the rationale for either or rejecting their faith. Its impact on Jews the world over and on the State of Israel in particular, has translated almost as an article of faith.

The world has become impatient and irritable with Jews using the Holocaust as a placard. The ritual of taking every foreign dignitary visiting Israel to the YAD VASHEM memorial in Jerusalem resulted sometimes in unpleasantness, as was the case with the German Chancellor Kohl who refused to don a cap on his head during the memorial service, in keeping with Jewish tradition. The policies of the State of Israel were often severely criticized even by its friends as being primarily nurtured by the “never again,” combative post-Holocaust psychology. This hypercritical attitude towards Jews is best illustrated by the discovered diary of the late 33^rd president of the United States, the folksy and generally admired, Harry S. Truman. On July 21, 1947, after a ten minute telephone conversation with Henry Morgenthau Jr., he penned the following entry: “The Jews, I find are very, very selfish. They care not how many Estonians, Latvians, Finns, Poles, Yugoslaves or Greeks get murdered or mistreated as DPs (displaced persons) as long as Jews get special treatment.” It should be noted that this entry was made only two years after WWII, when the ovens of Auschwitz, Buchenwald and Dachau hardly had time to cool off. Sara Bloomenfeld, director of the U.S. Holocaust memorial Museum, explained Truman’s comments as “typical of a sort of cultural anti-Semitism that was common at the time in all parts of American society. This was an acceptable way of talk.”

For the historical record, it must be recalled that it was the same Truman who was the first among all other world figures to recognize the newly born state of Israel, literally minutes after its birth. A further discussion of this incident would detract from the main purpose of this article.

Juxtaposing the Holocaust with the American tragedy of September 11 is not intended to draw either historical or moral parallels. Except for the irrational wickedness and evil which generated these two events, they were generically different. The Holocaust perpetrated by a godless tyranny was tragically partially nurtured by traditional Christian doctrine which condemned Jews to martyrdom for their sin of rejecting Jesus as the savior and son of God. September 11 was perpetrated by fanatical Muslim extremists in the name of God.

What motivated me in undertaking this very delicate analysis of the two events was only one striking similarity. One remembers an utterance by the late Golda Meir characterizing the Shoah to this effect: “The tragedy of the Holocaust is that the unthinkable happened.” The same applies to September 11: again “the unthinkable happened.” As a result, America will never be the same.

The trauma of our nation and the civilized world has so deeply cut into our consciousness, that hereafter we will forever speak of the pre or post September 11 era. Our domestic and foreign policies will hereafter be dictated by our collective and individual memories. The upsurge of patriotism, the outpouring of emotions, the ecumenical spirit have rallied this ethnically diversified nation into a new, renewed nation of Americans. The moral lesson derived from these two unique, “unthinkable” events can be only one: Evil wherever and whenever it appears must be confronted forcefully and uncompromisingly. Alas, we are not yet at this level. The world community and the UN have so far failed to create an instrumentality capable of halting atrocities. These atrocities continue daily throughout our globe. Is this an absolutely unavoidable fact of the human condition?

In the meantime, we ought to be more understanding and charitable toward the victims of “God’s wrath,” who resort to the “never again” slogan as the rationale for their existence. It is not only the leitmotif of Jews and Israelis. All Americans, and primarily the bereaved families, are determined to fathom the yet undisclosed intelligence which would bring some solace to their despair. Their aim is not so much the pointing of fingers as the assurance that never again shall this happen to our nation.

Lt. Kevin Shaefer, one of the victims of the attack on the Pentagon, was burned over half of his body and had only a fifty percent chance of survival. He underwent seventeen surgeries and suffered two near-fatal heart attacks. He was discharged from the Walter Reed Army Medical Center of December 14, 2001. He is now a staff member for the independent 9/11 Commission. He signs his e-mails “Never Forget.”

Indeed we were commanded to “blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven, thou shalt not forget” (Deuteronomy 25:19). The often quoted American philosopher and poet, George Santayana, said it more gently: “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to relive it.”

Dr. Solomon Goldman is Director of Department of Education, Emeritus of the Jewish National Fund of America.

A New Year, A New Beginning!

Sun, 21 Aug 2011 16:22:56 +0100

As Jews, we often hear the expression, “shver tzu zein a Yid.” Loosely, it’s tough to be a Jew. But what other people, with the exception, perhaps, of the Chinese, have the good fortune to celebrate the new year, not once, but twice.

Double the pleasure. Double the fun. [Where are those Doublemint twins?] A time for reflection, resolution, course correction and a fresh start. New year. New beginning.

Much the same is true for our JCC of West Hempstead, as we renew and reinvent ourselves as a dynamic, thriving center of Jewish community here in southwest Nassau.

Over the past few months, your editor, wearing his cyberhat (does this come in an extra large?), has been tinkering with the shul’s website (www.jccwh.org), establishing a presence on Facebook, and exploring this new, and still mysterious world of Twitter (www.twitter.com/jccwesthempstd), where one, or so the hype goes, has the opportunity to converse (in 140 characters or less) — albeit indirectly, by means akin to the tried and true Instant Messenger (IM) — with people and organizations of similar backgrounds holding like interests.

And so, I’ve been tweeting with my Tweeps (gotta learn the vernacular) at METNY, UJA, The Workmen’s Circle, Hillel, the 92nd Street Y, and other familiar folks, as well as making new acquaintances with the likes of Jewlicious, JewishIdeas, YeahThatsKosher, and JewishNewsDaily.

A great way to share and exchange information, news, thoughts and ideas, and to reach out to people, both within our fold and, yes, well beyond the settlement.

This, of course, is the objective. Outreach. To inform. To cultivate. To enlighten. To entertain. To invite. To sustain. To grow.

Of course, none of this happens, mind you, through the cyber-sound equivalent of one man tweeting. Yes, I know. Many of our fellow congregants are strangers to the Internet. On the other hand, your editor’s contemporaries, the so-called Baby Boomers, and certainly, Generation Text, are well versed, if not in the intricacies and nuances of the net, then, most assuredly, with e-mail, browsing for websites, and Facebook.

It would be nice to see more of you (or at least some of you) as “friends” on the JCC’s Facebook page (simply click on the Facebook link at the bottom of the shul’s homepage at www.jccwh.org, log on, and click the “like” button), and, indeed, as “followers” on Twitter. [Join, and follow @jccwesthempstd, at www.twitter.com/jccwesthempstd]

Keeping the lines of communication open among our own congregants would itself be wonderful. Opening new lines of communication, within our community and elsewhere, with JCCers taking the lead in reaching outward, would be even better.

True, this generation of JCCers may be somewhat Internet-adverse, a reluctance to log in, sign up, and be out there. Most assuredly, the next generation of JCCers, if there is to be one, will be on the web, surfing, browsing, tweeting, making friends and kindling affiliations through cyberspace. Let us resolve, in the coming new year, to take full advantage of this burgeoning opportunity to let the world know that we, as the conservative center of Jewish community in southwest Nassau, are here!

From the Bykofsky family — Melissa, Francyne & Alex, Joan and yours truly — to your family, a happy, healthy and prosperous new year. See you on the Internet!

-- Seth D. Bykofsky, Editor/Webmaster ☺