Posts tagged judaism

A Night Inside ‘Bubby’s Kitchen’ With Shira Ginsburg

As the tradition goes, the center of many Jewish households is the kitchen. And for Judith Ginsburg, hers was no exception.

She took pride in her vibrant, tight-knit family piling around the table, sharing laughs and smiles and food — by far and away her love language — and it was there that her granddaughter, Shira, first heard her Bubby’s stories about World War II.

In fact, she can’t imagine a time that she hasn’t known them — or when she started to realize they were unique.

“Like any other child, you don’t know that you’re different, that anything is different, until you get a little bit older and you start to see yourself in the context of the rest of the world,” Shira Ginsburg said during a telephone interview. “So for me, it was just what I knew — until I started telling people my grandparents were in the woods in the war, and they were like, ‘What do you mean, like, camping?’”

Not quite. As teenagers, Judith Ginsburg and her husband, Motke, lived for years in the forests of Belarus, serving as resistance fighters against the Nazi regime.

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Holocaust Survivor Finds Solace on the Dance Floor

When Helena Weinrauch dances, she forgets.

In the arms of her trusted partner, she feels no fear, twirling in her gown across the floor as she waltzes, rumbas, tangos and foxtrots. At age 95, she feels free — and, for a moment, not like a Holocaust survivor.

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Temple Adas Israel Is Home for a Congregation

Now known as Temple Adas Israel, the oldest synagogue on Long Island stands as a metaphor for the Jewish experience, one of resilience and overcoming the most impossible of odds. It is a theme passed down through the generations as both a practical tool in everyday life and, above all, the faith that Jewish existence is not accidental, insignificant or trite.

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Clergy See a Way Forward

According to recent Pew Research Center studies, the United States has experienced slight but steady declines in the overall number of Americans who say they believe in God — lining up with findings that American adults under age 40 are less likely to pray, attend church services and identify with any religion than their elders, threatening the future of organized religion.

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