By Dr. Miriam L. Zimmerman Not many couples celebrate retirement by going to a death camp. My husband Richard and I have joined the CANDLES tour to Krakow and Auschwitz-Birkenau for the 75th anniversary of its liberation. “CANDLES” is an acronym for “Children of Auschwitz Nazi Deadly Lab Experiment Survivors,” an organization of surviving “Mengele […]

By David Heilbron The Jewish tradition tells that Jews learn best when in a group and commends the practice of learning in pairs saying that “a [learner] sharpens the countenance of their friend.”(Talmud Bavli, Ta’anit 7a) Now what would happen if you acquired not only study partner with which to study but also joined a […]

By Morton Gold A new release (Nov. 2019) has come out of a CD titled: Rejoice! Honoring the Jewish Spirit. (Essential Voices USA). It was published by Acis (APL97092). The CD contains nine compositions, all selected and conducted by Judith Clurman. The excellent accompanist is James Cunningham, and the fine cellists are David Miller in […]

On April 30, the Jewish Federation of Greater Indianapolis presented their 2019 campaign kick-off. One of the special events for that evening was a provocative play titled, The Soap Myth by American playwright Jeff Cohen. It starred Ed Asner, a seven-time Emmy Award and five-time Golden Globe Winner, famous for his role as Lou Grant […]

By Miriam L. Zimmerman This column originally appeared in our July 12, 1995 edition. In remembrance of Eva Kor, who passed away in Poland on July 4th we are posting it now. Eerily, I recently met what could have been a mirror image of my own family: a doctor, his daughter, the son who followed […]

By Tracie Freudenthal-Mrakich On March 21, 2019, my sister Linda and I boarded a flight to Frankfurt, Germany. Packed in my suitcase were three tins, each containing a dozen hamantashen baked by my friend, Beth Valinetz-Grimm. Beth sells thousands of hamantashen every year to benefit the JCC Early Childhood Education program. I also carried a […]

By Miriam L. Zimmerman Multitalented filmmaker Roberta Grossman just completed a feature documentary, Who Will Write Our History (WWWOH)? Having seen other Holocaust and Jewish-themed films by Ms. Grossman, including 2008’s Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh and 2013’s Hava Nagila, The Movie, I can think of no other filmmaker […]

Holocaust Educator By Miriam L. Zimmerman My first Lyft ride took me to Pittsburgh International Airport from Seton Hill University, the scene of a conference that I attended Oct. 21–23, 2018 titled “Women, the Holocaust, and Genocide”. (See conference coverage in JP&O, Oct. 31, 2018). The 75 minute drive from Greensburg, Pa., passed through downtown […]

On May 5, 2018, Ian Plaskoff became a bar mitzvah at Congregation Beth El Zedeck. One important lesson from his Torah portion, Be’har was that when we give tzedakah, we must not be thinking about what we will receive in return. We are simply to help others for the sake of helping out. As part […]

Holocaust Memorial Center: 28123 Orchard Lake Road, Farmington Hills, Michigan 48334 Adat Shalom Synagoge: 29901 Middlebelt Road, Farmington Hills, Michigan 48334 It is important for everyone to RSVP to Rosa as shown on the flyer

By Tracie Mrakich My late father, Kurt Freudenthal, immigrated with his family to the United States from Mannheim, Germany in 1939. Arriving in New York City on the SS Noordam, they continued their journey to Richmond, Ind., where their sponsor, an aunt, lived. Eventually, my grandparents moved to the Washington Heights neighborhood of NYC (upper […]