{"id":42975,"date":"2018-10-28T23:24:02","date_gmt":"2018-10-28T21:24:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=42975"},"modified":"2022-05-22T15:19:22","modified_gmt":"2022-05-22T12:19:22","slug":"in-memoriam-tree-of-life-or-lsimcha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/in-memoriam-tree-of-life-or-lsimcha\/","title":{"rendered":"In Memoriam: Tree Of Life – Or L’Simcha"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[444,431],"acf":{"old_id":"42975","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":36663,"related_cahpter":"77","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"The 11 victims were: Joyce Fienberg, Rich Gottfried, Rose Mallinger, Jerry Rabinowitz, Cecil Rosenthal, David Rosenthal, Bernice Simon, Sylvan Simon, Daniel Stein, Melvin Wax, Irving Younger. \r\nMay their memories be for a blessing.\r\n","content":"

The following heartfelt piece is by Beth Kissileff: writer, 929 contributor, resident of Squirrel Hill, and wife of Rabbi Jonathan Perlman of New Light, about their congregants:<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I could not sleep last night and came downstairs at 2 AM \u00a0and read the parsha, Chayei Sarah.<\/p>\n

I immediately knew what I needed to say. The first words of the parsha are about the life of Sara who she was and how she lived, not her death and when and how it happened.<\/p>\n

In remembering the martyrs of the Shoah,\u00a0I believe it is much more important to remember who they were and what they stood for , what kind of lives they led rather than focusing on the details of their deaths.\u00a0 I believe Yaffa Eliach\u2019s Tower of Life at the Holocaust Museum in DC, with photos of her shtetl Eishystock is a powerful way to remember the Shoah.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I never thought I would be writing about those who died\u00a0\u201cal Kiddush Hashem\u201d sanctifying God\u2019s name, people I knew and worshipped with.<\/p>\n

All three of these men were dream congregants, the kind every rabbi wants, those willing to do whatever is needed and go above and beyond the call of duty.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Melvin Wachs was always the first in the synagogue for each service.\u00a0 He was devoted and caring, a pure soul.\u00a0 He often led parts of the service and read Haftarah regularly.\u00a0I hope his daughter, son-in-law and grandson and family find comfort among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

Rich Gottfried broke both his knees, on the ice last winter. He was not expected to make a quick or full recovery but due to his determination, he was back at shul, reading Haftara as he does many weeks with his leg braces.\u00a0 He was due to retire soon and wanted to spend more time strengthening himself and the shul. He will never get the chance to do that.\u00a0 I hope his widow, his three sisters including his twin, find comfort among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

Dan Stein just became a grandfather seven months ago.\u00a0I wish his grandson could have gotten to know him.\u00a0 Dan always had a word of cheer and a fist bump for everyone at shul. He read his bar mitzvah Haftara each year, annotated with the date.\u00a0 I hope his son will continue.\u00a0I wish his time doing this were longer. May his widow, son and daughter in law, daughter and grandson and family find comfort among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

Rashi says about Genesis 23:1, that \u201cthe word years is repeated and without a number to indicate that they were all equally good.\u201d\u00a0 All the years of the lives of Daniel Stein, Richard Gottfried, and Melvin Wachs were filled with goodness and devotion to Judaism.\u00a0 May their memories be for a blessing and may the occasion of their tragic deaths help us all \u201cincrease devotion\u201d in the words of Abraham Lincoln\u2019s Gettysburg address so their deaths shall not have been in vain.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Please do not be afraid to gather in multitudes in synagogues, to sanctify God\u2019s name among the multitudes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Please do all you can to advance the cause of gun control so that no more of these senseless tragedies occur.<\/p>\n

Please acknowledge all those around you as being created \u201cin the image of God\u201d b\u2019tzelem elokim, with a spark of divinity within them.\u00a0 We need to treat each human with kindness and respect as our tradition teaches and anyone fomenting hate must be stopped.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

photo credit: diy13\/shutterstock<\/p>\n","image":false,"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"A Special 929 Post","main_caption":"On the Lives of Those Who Are No More","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"In Memoriam: Tree Of Life - Or L'Simcha","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":42976,"id":42976,"title":"shutterstock_670078525","filename":"shutterstock_670078525.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/shutterstock_670078525.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/in-memoriam-tree-of-life-or-lsimcha\/shutterstock_670078525\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"shutterstock_670078525","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":42975,"date":"2018-10-28 21:17:46","modified":"2018-10-28 21:17:51","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":4689,"height":3082,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/shutterstock_670078525-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/shutterstock_670078525-300x197.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":197,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/shutterstock_670078525-768x505.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":505,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/shutterstock_670078525-1024x673.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":673,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/shutterstock_670078525.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1010,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/shutterstock_670078525.jpg","2048x2048-width":2048,"2048x2048-height":1346,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/shutterstock_670078525-1200x789.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":789,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/shutterstock_670078525-639x420.jpg","home_baner-width":639,"home_baner-height":420}},"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":"shutterstock 670078525"},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"old_create_date":"","links":false,"send_noty":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42975"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42975"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105024,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42975\/revisions\/105024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}