Rabbi Howard Morrison

Dear Congregational Family,

On Sunday, I officiated the funeral for a one hundred year old woman who survived the Shoah. Although the family was not affiliated with Beth Emeth, they knew me from years before and requested my presence. The deceased woman miraculously survived by identifying herself as a non-Jewish Polish teenager. At her death, she was survived by two children, a sibling, seven grandchildren, and nine great grandchildren. I truly marvel when survivors are able to start life fresh in a new country and go on to pioneer multi-generational families.

Ironically, this family's shiva will overlap with International Holocaust Remembrance Day, January 27, which commemorates the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. This year marks the seventy-sixth anniversary of liberation.

In this week's Torah portion, we read the first liberation from genocide and oppression. The Children of Israel embark on their liberation from Egypt. In the Parsha, we read the miraculous crossing of the Sea of Reeds. 

One can only imagine the stories told by those who experienced the Biblical exodus to their children and grandchildren who would be born in the wilderness of Sinai.

Likewise, one can only imagine the stories told by Holocaust survivors to their children, grandchildren, and in some cases, even to their grandchildren.

It is imperative that we know the stories of our peoplehood, happy and sad. The journeys of those who came before us four thousand years ago to eighty years ago to today will surely shape current and future generations.

Sincerely,

Rabbi Howard Morrison