Shabbat Shalom - 20 Cheshvan - Kristallnacht Remembrance

This evening’s Family Erev Shabbat Service, conducted by Rabbi Dreyfus, will begin at 7:30 PM. Music will be provided by Nancy Friedman and the Youth Choir, and Rabbi Dreyfus will bless those student with Birthdays in the Month of November. But this week there’s more. On November 9 and 10, 1938, hordes of Nazis destroyed Synagogues and Jewish owned business throughout Germany and in Vienna in an officially endorsed rampage to become known as Kristallnacht, or Night of the Broken Glass. Windows were smashed, buildings burned and Jews were beaten and killed and sent to concentration camps. It has become our tradition both to commemorate Kristallnacht and retell its story on the Shabbat closest to November 9, each year. On this Shabbat, longtime member Walter Falk well tell of his experiences being sent to England in the KinderTransport.

Tomorrow morning’s Shabbat Service, conducted by Rabbi Dreyfus will begin at 10:00 AM. Barry Bayer will be the Cantorial Soloist.

The Parasha is Vayeira , Genesis 18:1?22:24. This Parasha is a busy one, telling the story of Lot, Lot’s fatally curious wife, and Lot’s daughters, who after being offered up to the immoral citizens of Sodom to protect two visitors to Lot’s house, spend some time in caves with their father who is, as far as they know, the last man on earth, Abraham’s bargaining with G-d over the destruction of Sodom and G’mara, the unpleasantness with Abimelech, the birth of Isaac and the binding of Isaac for sacrifice on a mountain top, and more, in only four biblical chapters.