Category: Jewish Community & Israel

In the wake of terrorist attacks in Israel

March 7, 1996
The community is having a memorial service and rally of solidarity on Monday, March 11 at the JCC [in memory of the 63 victims of recen t terrorist acts in Israel, including a young man from West Hartford and his fiancee] . The organizers asked if I’d be a speaker. I’ve ducked this request for other occasions several times, but Ethan Felson (our wonderful CRC staff person) convinced me that it would be especially appropriate for a parent of an American-Israeli to participate. … After the fifth reading of your [Lisa] letter, I decided that I want to incorporate it into my remarks and will do so if you give permission. I want to say very personal things purposely to make others feel a personal connection to Israelis and to put faces and places to what, for many, is often abstract.

March 11, 1996
I guess I’ve now made my debut as a “community speaker” but I pray to God I never have to speak at another occasion like this one.

March 23, 1996
I want to tell you, Lisa, that it’s almost two weeks since I gave our speech at the Memorial Service/Rally and every day since then, I have seen someone — in the grocery, the post office, the synagogue, the library — who has made a point of telling me how moving, powerful, impressive, the speech was. A friend of the Richmans [asked them to relay to me] that the speech was the best part of the program. I even got a couple of notes in the mail and several phone calls. Some I don’t even know by name have stopped me and said, “didn’t you speak at the Jewish Center?” and then told me of the impression it made on them.

April 6, 1996
I saw Jay Leipzig at the JCC. He gave me a hug and said, “Your talk was sensational. Cindy (Chazan, his wife, Director of Federation) said she was petrified to speak after she heard me.” (Cindy with the 4th/final speaker of the evening.)

Speech delivered on March 11, 1996 at the Greater Hartford Jewish Community Center, Memorial Service and Rally in Solidarity with Israel

When Seymour and I became parents over 40 years ago, we never envisioned that we would become frequent flyers to San Francisco and to Israel in order to see our grandchildren, that earthquakes in California and war and terror in Israel would become part of our daily anxieties.

Our middle child and only daughter, Lisa, went to Israel in September 1973 on the Young Judea program, a week before her 18th birthday, two weeks before the Yom Kippur War. That year quickly spawned a decision to attend college in Israel which led to aliyah. Since then our lives have been enriched by our Israel connection, which over the years has come to include nearly 300 cousins whom Seymour has discovered there.

Lisa is married to Yuval. Their third child was born a month after the Gulf War ended. Ten years ago they moved to the Modiin Region, halfway between Tel Aviv and Yerushalayim. They both work for high-tech companies.

With Lisa’s permission I want to read parts of two letters she recently wrote us.

On March 6, my 67th birthday, she wrote:

“The goal of terrorism is to destroy the routine of our daily lives, to make us fear the unknown in familiar surroundings, to shatter our equilibrium. The pain is so sudden, so acute, that it gashes the heart and leaves a deep empty hole. Memories of and longings for the lost loved ones swarm in that hole, together, perhaps, with anger and guilt. And it can never again be filled completely with joy.

In Hebrew we say, halev nikrah. It is not simply the heartbreak of those who have lost loved ones. It describes the way all of us in Israel feel. It holds our mixed emotions of anguish and relief. Our hearts are split by our grief and sorrow for those who died and by our relief at having survived and being able to go on with our lives.

So many news flashes this week, so many deaths, so many wounded — as if I were in a nightmare and couldn’t wake up…

(more…)

In my capacity of steering committee member of the [Jewish Federation’s] Community Relations Council, I went this morning, with two other CRC members, to the Moslem service celebrating the end of Ramadan. There are four “mosques” in the Greater Hartford area. The one we went to is a community almost entirely of blacks. The service was held in the gym of the Fox Middle School (corner of Albany and Blue Hills Ave.) and attended by about 130 men, 130 women and 40-80 children. I counted the men and women separately because they were sitting (or rather kneeling) separately, women in back of the men, children also separated by gender. We left our shoes at the door. The service lasted about an hour. The ritual part was mostly in Arabic. The homily by the imam was very low-key and in English and lasted about half an hour. By explaining several Moslem Arabic concepts, he spoke very movingly about the significance of fasting, of separating oneself from bad habits, bad behavior, pessimism, etc., and as a creation in Allah’s image, acting responsibly for oneself, for one’s community, with optimism.

… I sat in a chair in the very back, along with other older women who obviously couldn’t get down on the floor.

I was able to examine a copy of the Koran used by one of the worshippers. I felt like I was lokoing at a Hertz Chumash. Arabic was on the upper right side of the page, English on the upper left side, and both columns on the bottom half of the page were filled with notes and commentary.

When the service was over, we accepted the invitation to attend the “feast” in the cafeteria. not to have done so would have been an insult. Again, lines for male and female were separate. The food had been prepared by the women. It was normal American food, and very tasty.

I can tell you that I didn’t feel like I was having an alien experience!

Published in The Bridge – Spring 1995, the last issue edited and produced by Bernice Meyer Saltzman

Our daughter, Lisa, went to Israel in September 1973 “just for a year” on the Young Judea program, a week before her 18th birthday, two weeks before the Yom Kippur War. That year quickly spawned a decision to attend college in Israel which led to aliyah. In early 1977 Lisa sent a clipping from The Jerusalem Post describing a new organization for parents with children in Israel. “You ought to join this,” she wrote.

Good friends soon pulled us into the Connecticut chapter which had organized in April 1976. By September 1977 I had become editor of the chapter newsletter. In 1982 I started writing reports for The Bridge and in Spring 1983 accepted the job of editor. The degree I had earned from Syracuse University School of Journalism in 1950 finally got framed and hung on the wall next to my husband’s diploma from SU Medical School!

Thus did PNAI, both local and national, become the arena for most of my pro bono activities as well as the main channel for expressing my profound interest in and concern for the State of Israel. The hardest part of being editor has been having to plan visits to family in Israel, California and Virginia around The Bridge publishing schedule. The best part has been the acquisition of computer skills that make the eyes of others my age glaze over. And the most interesting part has been the overview, from the editorial territory, of the organization, its chapters and individual members. I am deeply grateful for the many blessings in my life of many blessings, that PNAI has awarded me: learning new skills, expanding my knowledge of Israel and Judaism, above all acquiring cherished friends.

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Don’t know if I told you — After many years sitting on the Israel Task Force of the Community Relations Council of the Federation, I was asked last year to sit on the Board of the CRC (about 7 people). My name is now on the Federation stationery!

The meetings are interesting and the people (most of whom I’ve know over the years in one connection or another) dedicated, articulate, intelligent and open-minded. It’s interesting that this group exhibits — vis-a-vis Israel — the same spectrum of opinions and positions seeming to take shape in Israel itself, and in the American Jewish community. We all seem to realize that the relationship between Israelis and American Jewry is changing and will change more, but most of us haven’t grasped the direction or how to go in it. For me the direction is toward business and economic, educational and cultural exchange and certainly away from philanthropy.

Got a call from a Hadassah lady who wants me to be on a panel for the Connecticut Region Education Day. Subject is Israel-Diaspora Relations and they want a “PNAI spokesperson” for our viewpoint. I accepted. When I told her I was a Hadassah Life Member and that my daughter went to Israel via Young Judaea, she said, “you really are the right person for this program.”

On Sunday morning, Jan.13, I took the limousine from Richmond to Washington National Airport. There a member of the Greater Washington DC PNAI chapter picked me up and took me to their general meeting in Rockville, MD and I was the main or guest speaker. It being the day it was (2 days before the Gulf crisis deadline), there were about 60 people, a larger than usual turnout I was told. I saw that everyone was sitting in rows so when I was introduced, I asked everyone to move out into a big double circle. I said I was throwing away my “script” (I was billed to talk about the history, goals, purpose and future of PNAI as well as about the next Convention). “Let’s tell each other when we last spoke to our kids and what they told you.” I asked the people with children who’d been there less than three years to start, more than five years, ten years, etc., around the room.

Today I got a note from someone who attended: “it was the best meeting we have had in years, probably because of your input.”

After an hour of this, I suggested we end the meeting, but they asked me to take at least another 15-20 minutes to say what I had come to talk about.

The couple who are presidents, Ben and Elaine Wostein, then took me to their home for supper before taking me back to the airport for my flight to Hartford at 8 p.m. They are lovely, warm Young Israel people. Imagine my pleasure when I mentioned Ruth Seligman and Ben said, “Harold Seligman was my best friend in college.”

A small world story: A young man named Aaron Mittleman works for Computer Resources, the company I bought my system from. Aaron brought the equipment to the house and spent two hours breaking me in. He is from New Jersey, graduated from University of Hartford, and decided to stay in the area.

While he was here I showed him a copy of The Bridge so he’d know why I wanted PageMaker. He leafed through it, spotted a pictured of Lou Kriegsfeld and said, “that looks like my Uncle Lou in Phoneix!” Aaron’s grandmother and Lou are brother and sister. I and Lou (when I reported it to him) got a big kick out of that.

My work with and for PNAI continues to be very gratifying. Though a handful of people seem to do most of the nuts and bolts jobs, those few are truly outstanding people. Sedell Gold, our national president (and mother of Dore Gold of the Jaffe Center) has become a good friend and is taking us, I think, in a good direction.

…. We had a meeting last Sunday in new York of our National Executive Board (16 of 25 attended) and I was struck by the abilities, diversity and creativity of the individuals. I particularly noted that none of us there need PNAI. We are all adjusted to and comfortable with our children’s aliyah and all of our children are making it (though not without financial struggle) in Israel. But PNAI needs all of us, and our work on behalf of the organization is a way of doing something unique to support Israel.

March 20, 1989
People are really starting to respond to the growing good quality of The Bridge, and consider it a good place to publish — even though unpaid!

May 16, 1989
… I got some super manuscripts for this issue of The Bridge. Several were written by professional, freelance writers. We have some impressive talent in PNAI!

When you called this afternoon I had just come home from the JerusalemFest – what they called, this year, our annual Israel Celebration. It was a glorious day, hot and sunny, and thousands of people were there – in the fields at King Philip School. I was a volunteer (when am I not a volunteer?). It was fun and pleasant …