As Holocaust survivor Joseph Gringlas spoke to a group of Catholic school teachers at Daylesford Abbey last Thursday, Eileen Marie Dunn had the urge to apologize to him on behalf of the Polish nation. Over the four-day Bearing Witness professional development program developed by the Anti-Defamation League, Dunn came face to face with survivors for the first time. The middle...
A few minutes after sunrise on a recent Thursday, Barry Gesserman arrived at Congregation Beth Hamedrosh, an Orthodox shul in Wynnewood, and took his seat in a long, narrow room as light began filtering in through the floor-to-ceiling windows. Nearly every day for the past 15 years, save for an emergency or a trip out of town, Gesserman has gotten...
Before he died, when he knew his end was drawing near, Joseph Smukler told his rabbi that he wanted lots of people to attend his funeral. He got that wish. The cavernous Main Line sanctuary at Har Zion Temple was filled to capacity as hundreds poured out on a hot summer Sunday to mourn and honor a longtime pillar of...
For U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the head of the Democratic National Committee, the toughest question of the evening came at the end: Why had President Barack Obama urged Israel to retreat to its pre-1967 borders? Speaking to the roughly 1,200 people who had gathered Monday night at Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel in Elkins Park, the Florida congresswoman said she...
When Willow Grove Day Camp opened in 1955, founder Howie Zeitz estimated that practically every camper was Jewish. Even today, Zeitz estimates that up to 90 percent of the children who spend the summer boating, swimming and playing on their grounds are members of the tribe. Directors at several other secular day camps around the area also report overwhelmingly Jewish...
Sivan 12, 5773
