Bulletin APRIL 2021

בס״ד   

Rabbi Eichenholtz’s Message:

 

Have you ever had a once in a lifetime experience? Years ago a family friend, who is a rabbi, had what she described as a once-in-a-lifetime experience.  She was hired to serve as the onboard rabbi for the Cunard around-the-world cruise on the QE2.  Leading services, serving as a chaplain, running seminars, and traveling around the world was certainly a dream opportunity.  A few years later we were talking about the experience and she remarked that the most amazing part of her once-in-a-lifetime experience was that she got to do it three times! 

 

Usually, when we talk about this type of moment they are positive experiences we hope to have once.  They are our wishes fulfilled, fantasy moments, things beyond our wildest imagination. 

 

Last year as we approached Passover, I hoped and prayed and took precautions, so that last Pesach would be a once-in-a-lifetime moment.  We thought about a world where we’d only need to spend one Passover apart.  We looked to history to see how Jews spent Passover distanced and split in the past, and we ended our seder by saying Next Year in Jerusalem! Next Year in Person!  We didn’t really expect to become skilled (or at least passable) at Zoom, at masked and physically distanced socializing, at remote work and school.  And yet here we sit a year later, having just ended our sedarim with the same prayers: Next Year in Jerusalem! Next Year in Person!

 

Judaism doesn’t really know what to do with a once-in-a-lifetime moment.  Even those times when something is once in our life, we insist on connecting to all of the lifetimes of Jews past, and all of the lifetimes of Jews yet to come.  Life cycle events like weddings and B’mitzvah, welcoming children into Judaism, and even funerals, connect us to one another. This connection we create makes each of these moments more than once in a lifetime.  We participate as community members, as fellow congregants, as friends and family, as Jews.

 

It feels Jewishly poetic to have just completed our second once-in-a-lifetime Passover.  We are rooted in repeated experiences: holidays that come every year, Torah that is read in its entirety annually, 49 days of counting the omer, the list goes on and on.  ‘From generation to generation’ is a cornerstone of Jewish identity.  What of our once-in-a-lifetime seder did we take and add to this year’s seder?  What did we do differently? What will we take with us, when we are hopefully celebrating in yet a different way next year?

 

I look forward to dreaming up all kinds of wonderful once-in-a-lifetime experiences, and I look forward to living through the hard ones only once.  But in the meantime, I’m going to take this period of the Omer to consider.  What does it mean when our once-in-a-lifetime happens twice? Do we just chalk it up to an experience?  Do we find ways to acknowledge the experience in an ongoing manner?  For you, do you have other once-in-a-lifetime moments that you would like to repeat?  What happens to them, when they do repeat?  How do you relate to them when they are recurring?

 

I have no answers, only questions — and that’s also very Jewish.

 

 

–Rabbi Eichenholtz

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• Thursday Morning Minyan: We will be holding morning minyan at 7:15am or 8:30am on alternating weeks (see below)

• Friday Kabbalat Shabbat 6:00pm

• Saturday Shabbat Service 9:30am

Thank you for helping keep us all safe!

If you do not have access to the internet to fill out the form, you may call SJ in the office at (978) 534-6121

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We need your submissions to the Ma’asim Tovim jar!

Did you notice someone doing something awesome? Is there a community member who deserves recognition for being great?

You may send in submissions anonymously on the postcards included in your HIgh Holiday boxes or by using the “message us” link on our website.

Or you can just email or call SJ in the office! Thanks!

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There will be no cooking class on Friday, April 2 or on Friday, April 23 this month

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Reminder: If you feel unsafe at home, help is available.

Journey to Safety is

1-781-647-JFCS (5327)

–a program of Jewish Family and ChildrenServices – Boston.

National Domestic Violence Hotline is 1-800-799-7233

–also available by text and internetchat on their website.

 

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Torah Study and Cooking over Zoom

continues on Fridays in April!

April 9, 16, and 30

Pirkei Avot 3:17 says

” Where there is no bread, there is no Torah; where there is no Torah, there is no bread. “

Join Rabbis Eve Eichenholtz and Rabbi Aviva Fellman for

Torah and Cooking on Fridays

Login to Congregation Beth Israel’s Zoom for Rabbi Fellman’s Parsha Study at 10:00am, then log into CAA’s new community meeting room

immediately following (around 11:00am) to continue with Congregation Agudat Achim as Rabbi Eichenholtz shares how to cook some of her favorite recipes!

Please note that these Zoom events are NOT at the regular CAA Zoom link!

The links for Torah Study and for Cooking are available from SJ in the office.

You will need to log out of the Torah Study meeting and then log into the Cooking meeting if you plan to attend both. Cooking will begin at approximately 11am, immediately after the Torah Study concludes.

Rabbi Fellman’s Parsha Study, 10:00am – 11:00am (approx)

Cooking with Rabbi Eichenholtz follows immediately after

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HOLOCAUST OBSERVANCE

The annual Twin Cities Holocaust Observance, Y’om Ha Shoah, will take place over Zoom

Thursday, April 8, at 7:00 PM

.There will be a special memorial candle lighting by direct descendants of Holocaust survivors. We invite you to join us.

Contact Sarah Jane in the office, 978-534-6121, for further information.

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Remembering Edith and Morris Sandrof:

Three years ago when Morris Sandrof was about to celebrate his 100th birthday, he was asked how it felt to have reached that milestone. His answer turned a few heads but didn’t surprise his family. Afterall he had recently painted the cellar floor and was about to start his income taxes online.

“I don’t feel any different than when I was 50 or 75 years-old,” he said. Without skipping a beat his wife Edith quipped, “I think I might have had something to do with that. I took good care of him…I didn’t feed him any junk!”

Married in 1950, Edith and Morris (Bud) Sandrof spent nearly 71 years together sharing countless “I’ve got your back” moments along with plenty of nutritional tips too. They passed away at home in Leominster, MA just four days apart, of COVID 19, dying as they lived—together. Edith passed away on January 25, 2021. Morris watched her funeral on his computer as he lay in bed, waving to her with eyes closed as the rabbi recited the Jewish prayers for the dead. He died the following day, January 29, 2021.

Edith was born on December 31, 1922 in Everett, Massachusetts. She was theonly child of the late Jacob and Pauline Kucher

Bloom, who were among many fleeing the anti-semitism of Poland at the time. Most of their relatives were not as fortunate.

After graduating from Everett High School, Edith worked as a bookkeeper. Then a blind date with Morris changed the course of her life. Her reluctance to move from the “big city” to the small town of Gardner, MA gave way to Morris’ persuasive letters to his fiancée. They made their home in the downstairs apartment of the two-family house built by Morris’ parents, Hyman and Freda Arkin Sandrof, who were refugees from Russia. Years later Edith and Morris relocated to Leominster where they lived for nearly 45 years.

Edith grew to become a homemaker extraordinaire and made her family and homethe center of her life. Every night at least three homemade pastries would be taken out of the freezer for dessert along with any number of summer fruits—blueberries, strawberries, peaches—harvested by the couple at local farms and frozen, to be enjoyed over the long New England winters. Despite failing health during the last year of her life, Edith was still eager to share recipes and housekeeping tips honed over seven decades with a number of her devoted caretakers.

Morris was born on March 2, 1918 in Gardner, MA. He was the youngest of six siblings: artists, musicians, writers, filmmakers, photographers, and one merchant who took over their father’s business, Sandrof’s Clothing on Pleasant Street in Gardner. Theirs was a creative household that fostered Morris’ lifelong inquisitive nature and fine-tuned eye.

A graduate of Gardner High, he attended Clark University before joining the Navy in 1942. He served on the aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill in the South Pacific asYeoman Second Class. Morris was responsible for debriefing pilots after they returned from reconnaissance and bombing missions and submitting those reports through a chain of command. For his service he received five Bronze Stars foraction with the Pacific Fleet.

Well into his nineties Morris returned to memories of those years, spending hours on the computer learning more about the ship’s missions and searching for shipmates who might still be alive. He was surprised to learn recently that his unassuming commander at the time had become one of the country’s more prominent philanthropists in the arts and had served as a trustee at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Never one to let an interesting fact lie fallow, Morrisdecided to connect with a staff member of the Museum to share a few wartime anecdotes for their archives.

After the war, Morris worked as an independent photographer. He then joined the family business and later continued his retailing career in central Massachusetts. In retirement, he would volunteer his time helping the disadvantaged with tax preparation and offer companionship to the elderly. Morris was a member of the Masons for more than 50 years. An avid reader, he enjoyed several hobbies, including stained glass, photography and gardening. He was known to appreciate a ripe summer tomato more than most and even last summer found the energy togrow a patch of cherry tomatoes. Ever the news junkie, Morris read at least two daily newspapers—for his 100th birthday his children gave him a subscription to The Gardner News.

Edith and Morris were active members of the Leominster synagogue Congregation Agudat Achim where Edith’s steady presence as the office manager of the religious school and resident “mother hen” was appreciated by the children, their parents and the principal; and Congregation Ohave Shalom in Gardner, the city’s first and only synagogue, built on the land Morris’ father Hyman donated to the community.The deed for that parcel is now housed in the Gardner Museum.

They leave behind three children: Susan, of Newton, MA; David and daughter-in-law Sheri of Buffalo Grove, IL; and Nancy, of Annapolis, MD; their grandchildJeremy Sandrof, of Columbus, OH; and several nieces, nephews, cousins and friends. Morris was pre-deceased by sisters Sara Sandrof and Rose Levine and brothers, Max, Ivan and Samuel.

Funeral services, arranged by Stanetsky Memorial Chapel, were held for Edith on January 28 and for Morris on February 1 at New Tifereth Israel cemetery in Everett,

Donations in their memory may be made to Congregation Agudat Achim in Leominster.

Obituary from Gardner News, March 27, 2021

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Yahrzeits for April 2021

Apr 1 – 10

Celia Cohen, Miriam Levine, Robert Smith, Rose Berman, Abraham Cohen, Jennie Joseph,Freida Treewater, Hyman Weinstein, Yette Flashner, Bertha Kahn Klein, David Padonle,Charles Shack, Maidie Alpert, Allan Frankle, Morris Levin, Richard Slarskey, Nathan Caplan,Harry Miller, Diane Spiller, Rebecca Dubinsky, Ethel Resnik, Samuel Steinberg, Fanny MandelTharler, Edward Weizer, Sam Williams, Henri Falk, Brian Maxwell Krumholz, Allan Loeb, LeoSirvint, Bessie Malchman Reed, Anna Rosenbaum, Samuel Sager

Apr 11 – 17

Harry Mishkin, Franz Moos, Jacob Sarkin, David Bayard, Louis Rubin, Evelyn Striar, SamuelTater, Eric Maier, Simon Saperstein, Joseph Glickman, Isidor Meyer, Molly Fine, Isaac Flaum,Herman M. Leavitt, Louis Tater, Henry Cohen, Bernard Padonle, Celia Stone, AdolphWiederlight, Ida Alintuck, Louis Cerier, Ida Perlstein, Orion Silverman, Ida Slarskey

Apr 18 – 24

Susan Byer, Robert Chernoff, William Elkins, Esther Folman, George Irwin Gould, JacobLigom, Benjamin Primack, Sadie Zerinsky, Herbert Brenner, Fred Gordon, Goldie Grant, LeslieLowey, Baba Shirazi, Harold Willner, Martin Fisher, Louis Novick, Allan Sarafconn, ManningEmanuel Selvers, Joseph Sisitsky, Louis Rudnick, Tillie Ungar, David Weisner, Mary Cohn,Minnie Rome, Sadie Burwick, Ida Greenfeld, Elizabeth Loitman, Lewis M. Perlstein, IsraelZerinsky

Apr 25 – 30

Harry Levine, Anne Lipton, Gabriel Bockstein, Leo Dunn, Max Gruber, William Rosancrans,Harold Aronoff, Hyman Sharpe, Meyer Feingold, Jennie Possick, Ruth Lillian Simmons, RuthAlpert, Gabrielle Feldman, Abraham I. Rome, Frieda Jacobs, Celia Jones, Phillip Katz, HarryTall

 

CALENDAR FOR APRIL 2021

Thursday, Apr 1: Morning Minyan via Zoom 7:15am

(early time this week)

Friday, Apr 2: Kabbalat Shabbat via Zoom 6:30pm

Saturday, Apr 3: 7th day Passover Service w/Yizkor, via Zoom 9:30am

Thursday, Apr 8: Morning Minyan via Zoom 8:30am

Yom haShoah Day of Remembrance via Zoom 7:00pm

Friday, Apr 9: Zoom Parsha Study 10:00am

Zoom Cooking Class following Parsha Study

Kabbalat Shabbat via Zoom 6:30pm

Saturday, Apr 10: Shabbat Services Zoom and in-person 9:30am

(RSVP for in-person!)

>>Monday, Apr 12: Board meeting 7:30pm

Thursday, Apr 15: Morning Minyan via Zoom 7:15am

(early time this week)

Friday, Apr 16: Zoom Parsha Study 10:00am

Zoom Cooking Class following Parsha Study

Kabbalat Shabbat via Zoom 6:30pm

Saturday, Apr 17: Shabbat Services Zoom and in-person 9:30am

(RSVP for in-person!)

Thursday, Apr 22: Morning Minyan via Zoom 8:30am

Friday, Apr 23: Kabbalat Shabbat via Zoom 6:30pm

Saturday, Apr 24: Shabbat Services Zoom and in-person 9:30am

(RSVP for in-person!)

Thursday, Apr 29: Morning Minyan via Zoom 7:15am

(early time this week)

Friday, Apr 30: Zoom Parsha Study 10:00am

Zoom Cooking Class following Parsha Study

Kabbalat Shabbat via Zoom 6:30pm

**Services will remain available via phone and online. We will let you know when more servicesbecome available in person. Thank you for your patience and adaptability!