Published Monthly

BHBIRochester.org

Published Monthly

Vol 43/No 4

Tevet-Shevat 5769

January 2009

Editor: Stan Schaffer

Congregation Beth Hamedresh – Beth Israel

B U L L E T I N

January President’s Message

Friends,

Our annual BHBI Chanukah party was once again a big success! Congratulations go to Hanni Metlay and to Stan Schaffer who won first prizes in our first ever Chanukah hula-hoop contest, in the kids and adults categories respectively. Be sure to see the embarrassing photos on our shul website (www.BHBIRocherster.org)! Next up was the Amazing Jack who astounded the audience with his repertoire of mystifying, mind-bending, card tricks. A delicious dinner of lentil soup, latkes, blintzes and spanakopita followed. The highlight of the evening was our Chinese auction of various and sundry presents contributed by attendees. The bidding was fast and furious, all the more so as people realized that the last present on the auction table was the only thing between them and dessert! I would like to thank Judith Mercer for her great help in the kitchen, Janet Grable for her wonderful desserts (be sure to see the picture of her electric menorah cake on our shul website!), Leon Metlay for shopping and making a mean mojito, Jack Teitel and Alana Spezio for setting up, everyone who contributed a present for our auction or purchased one, and all others who helped with the entertainment and the clean up – in short, thanks to everyone who braved the cold and the snow to come out and help make the party the great time that it was.

While I am sure that everyone right now is more concerned with keeping warm than with keeping cool, it is never too early to think ahead! I am therefore pleased to announce the addition of a new high-powered air conditioner for our kitchen. Many thanks to Dianne Hooker, who arranged for the donation of the unit by her employer, Uncle Bob's Self Storage. And many thanks to Harry Rogachefsky for underwriting the needed electrical work and installation.

As we all know, 2008 has gone out with the full force of winter. In fact, my stepdaughter in sunny Santa Cruz, California, just told me on the phone that our Rochester snowfall made it onto to her local TV newscast. I invite you all to mail a box of our Rochester snow to your friends in California or other warmer climes! We have had more than enough to share! With the snow, invariably comes ice. I ask you all to be careful walking up the steps to our main entrance. For those for whom this is a particular difficulty, we will now be leaving the side door on Hawthorne Street unlocked for Shabbat morning services. This door is only one step up from the side driveway and will hopefully be more convenient for those who have difficulty navigating the main stairway.

See you in shul,

Steve Teitel

Do You Know Anyone Who is Unaffiliated and Interested in Joining a Congregation?

Let them know about BHBI’s special free 3 month trial membership (available to prospective first-time new members only). Have them contact BHBI at 244-2060 or BHBI@frontiernet.net and we will be happy to give them information about BHBI and this great offer!!

Join Us for Torah Study

Join congregants from BHBI, Temple Beth Am and Temple Beth David for Torah study at BHBI on Wednesday evening, January 14th at 7:30 p.m. Our joint Torah study sessions are always most interesting and engaging!

BHBI CALENDAR OF EVENTS – JANUARY 2009

Friday	Jan 2	8:00 PM	Shabbat Evening Service Light candles at 4:28 PM
Saturday	Jan 3	9:30 AM	Shabbat Morning Services Torah: Vayigash
Sunday	Jan 4	9:00 AM	Service, Breakfast and Discussion
Friday	Jan 9	8:00 PM	Joint Shabbat Evening Services with Temple Beth Am at Beth Am Light candles at 4:35 PM
Saturday	Jan 10	9:30 AM	Joint Shabbat Morning Services with Beth Am at BHBI Torah: Vayechi
Sunday	Jan 11	9:00 AM	Service, Breakfast and Discussion
Monday	Jan 12	7:30 PM	BHBI Board Meeting
Wednesday	Jan 14	7:30 PM	Joint Small Shul Collaborative Torah Study Session at BHBI
Friday	Jan 16	7:00 PM	Shabbat Evening Service at Heather Heights in Pittsford Light candles at 4:43 PM.
Saturday	Jan 17	9:30 AM	Shabbat Morning Services Torah: Shemot
Sunday	Jan 18	9:00 AM	Service, Breakfast and Discussion
Friday	Jan 23	8:00 PM	Shabbat Evening Service Light candles at 4:52 PM
Saturday	Jan 24	9:30 AM	Shabbat Morning Services Torah: Vaeirah Blessing for the New Month
Sunday	Jan 25	9:00 AM	Service, Breakfast and Discussion
Friday	Jan 30	8:00 PM	Shabbat Evening Services Light candles at 5:01 PM
Saturday	Jan 31	9:30 AM	Shabbat Morning Services Torah: Bo

AMAZON.COM

The next time that you want to buy something from Amazon.com go to the BHBI web page at www.BHBIRochester.org and click on the Amazon.com link. Each time you make a purchase after linking to Amazon.com from our web page, BHBI gets a percentage of the purchase. Buy gifts or something for yourself or your family and support BHBI at the same time!!

MEMORIAL PLAQUES

Memorialize a friend or loved one by purchasing a BHBI memorial plaque. For more information, contact Stan Schaffer at 473-8072 or stanschaffer@frontiernet.net

YAHRZEITS

At the following Shabbat Services, we will read the names of our late loved ones whose Yahrzeits will occur on that Shabbat or during the following week.

Jan 2-3

Tevet

Jan 9-10

Tevet

Jan 16-17

Tevet

Jan 30-31

Shevat

Meriam Jossem*

David Goodman*

Selma Kauffman Lansky*

William Silverstein*

Maurice Bloom*

Manuel Miller*

Sadie Aberman*

Sol Lazarus*

Fannie Osband*

Celia Suskind*

Dora Rogovin*

Nathan Garver

Dorothy Lapides

Henry Orbach

Fannie Sablowsky*

Philip Sanzel*

Joseph Schiff*

Hannah Senzel*

Jeannette Fink Snyder

Louis Bernstein*

Carl Kleinstein*

Rose Needler*

Estelle Hirsch*

Shie Schnidman*

Anna Buff*

Benjamin Dvorkin*

Goldie Simon*

Leah Keyfetz*

Joseph Morris*

Esther Sanzel*

Samuel Meilstein*

Ida Boyarsky*

Philip Hershkowitz

Sidney Applebaum*

Jacob Komenski*

Morris Suskind*

Max Springut

Herman Strauss*

Dvora Brodie*

Samuel Goldman*

Daniel Hirsch*

Hyman Aaron Nusbaum*

Miriam Weinberger

* Denotes name memorialized on BHBI Memorial Plaque

Jan 23-24

Tevet –

Shevat

Jack Glazer

Joe Lazarus*

Jean Spencer

Morris Weinstein*

Etta Levinson*

Ida Silver*

We pray that our mourners will be comforted among all the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem and that the memory of the deceased continues to be a blessing to all who knew them.

So far our TOPS Gift Card fundraiser has been quite successful.

Remember, TOPS Gift Cards are now available through BHBI in $50 denominations.

To purchase TOPS Gift Cards, contact Stan Schaffer

at 473-8072 or by e-mail at stanschaffer@frontiernet.net

THANK YOU TO OUR KIDDUSH SPONSORS

FOR THE MONTH OF DECEMBER

December 6	Steve and Ruth Teitel in memory of Steve’s mother, Eleanor Teitel
December 13	The Congregation in honor of our guests from Temple Beth Am
December 20	The Congregation
December 27	Jill Clark in memory of her aunt, Barbara Bertman

TO OUR DONORS -- THANK YOU FOR YOUR GENEROSITY!

GENERAL FUND

Moris and Terry Amon

EVENTS IN THE JEWISH COMMUNITY

Koreh Rochester, the Jewish community book club, is sponsoring 2 events in January:

THE BIRKENAU BOYS REVISITED
At this program, excerpts of the award-winning documentary “The Birkenau boys,” about 89 boys who were chosen by the infamous Dr. Joseph Mengele to become slave laborers at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, will be shown. Local Holocaust survivor Henry Silberstern, one of the boys featured in the film, will talk about reuniting with some of his fellow prisoners in later life. The program will include lunch and will be held on Tuesday, January 13, 2009, 12 noon - 1:30 pm at the Jewish Community Federation, 441 East Avenue. Cost: $8 per person. Salad Bar (kosher, dairy). RSVP by calling 461-0490 or on-line at www.JewishRochester.org

TREAT AND TREAT ALIKE: MEDICAL ETHICS IN ISRAEL
Israeli physician Dr. Igal Breitman, who served on the front lines of emergency medicine in Israel, treating both Israelis and Palestinians during days of intense conflict, will be speaking. Seating is limited. The program will be held at the Jewish Community Federation, 441 East Avenue, on Tuesday, January 27, 2009, 7:00 pm. There is no cost to attend; no RSVP is required.

Two interesting films will be presented at the Little Theatre in January:

ARRANGED

Presented as part of the Rochester Jewish Film Festival, this 2007 film describes how two first-time school teachers, one Muslim and one Jewish, form an unlikely friendship in this endearing comedy that smartly tackles issues of prejudice and diversity. The film will be screened on Tuesday, January 20 at 7:30 pm at the Little Theatre. Tickets can be purchased at the JCC ($8 for members, $10 for non-members).

THE COMMANDMENT SEEKERS

Learn about a fascinating community of Jewish Americans that challenges stereotypes and the myth of monolithic race and religion. Attend the Rochester sneak preview of "The Commandment Keepers," a documentary work-in-progress by Rochester native Marlaine Glicksman about the Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation, an African American synagogue founded in 1919 in Harlem, where it carried on for more than four generations. Both the filmmaker and Rabbi Schlomo Levy, spiritual leader of the Beth Elohim Hebrew Congregation in Queens, New York, will be on hand to offer commentary after the screening. An open discussion will follow. Black-Jewish relations will also be addressed. The film will be shown on Thursday, January 29 at 7:00 pm at the Little Theatre. . The program will conclude at 9 pm. It is free and open to the community but tickets are required; seating is limited. Tickets for The Commandment Keepers may be picked up at the Jewish Community Federation, 441 East Avenue. For further information, contact Isobel Goldman, 461-0490, ext. 235.

After 61 years, pilot who defied law to help Israel's birth receives pardon

_{From Various News Agencies}

Officials in Jewish organizations in the United States this past week were calling Charles Winters a righteous gentile, a hero of Israel's War of Independence who was insufficiently honored in his lifetime. No less than 24 years passed from the death of the Miami businessman until his pardon by President George W. Bush for crimes committed in 1948. Winters violated an arms embargo, helping to send three B-17 bombers to Israel in its infancy.

Winters, a Boston-born Irish Protestant, did not serve in the military for health reasons but served the government during World War II and later founded his own air transport company. He did not tell his family much about that period in his life. His son Jimmy, 44, who owns a neon sign company in Miami, learned about his father's past only after his death, from an obituary in The Miami Herald in 1984 with the headline, "Charles Winters, 71, Aided Birth of Israel." The blue-and-white flowers sent to the funeral by the Israeli government were another clue.

The only hint he ever received about his father's time in jail was his father's refusal to let him go hunting with his friends. As an ex-convict, Winters was banned from buying or possessing firearms for life.

"It happened 16 years before I was born. He went to jail and he didn't want his kids to know. He was old-school and proud," Jim Winters said by way of explaining his father's reluctance to talk about the past. "My father was a very instrumental, important person in the history of the world, and I didn't realize that. It would make a great movie."

The Neutrality Act of 1939 prohibited U.S. citizens from supplying combat aircraft to belligerent nations without presidential approval, but in the summer of 1948 Winters was recruited by Al Schwimmer to help him smuggle weapons in an effort to give Israel a strategic advantage over the invading Arab armies. Winters personally flew one of the bombers to Czechoslavakia, where it was retrofitted before being transported to Israel.

In February 1949, Winters was sentenced to 18 months in prison and fined $5,000 by a Florida court. Schwimmer and a third partner, Hank Greenspun, were also convicted but Winters was the only one to serve time and the only one not to receive a presidential pardon -- until now.

In 1961, Golda Meir issued a letter of commendation recognizing Winters' contributions to Israel's survival.

Earlier this year Jim Winters launched a fight to clear his father's name, spurred on by what he said were his father's last words to him: "Keep the faith." "He was a quiet but courageous man who did what was right even though the personal consequences were severe," said Jim Winters’ attorney, Reginald Brown. "Charlie's decision to chart the moral course left him with a clear conscience even though his legal record was blemished. The pardon cleanses Charlie's legal record, as well as the conscience of a nation. If Charlie were alive today he'd probably smile upon hearing the news of a pardon, and then return to the day's regular tasks. That's the kind of man he was - humble, not looking for the spotlight, but brave enough to do the right thing regardless of the cost."

Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y YY Y Y Y Y Y Y Y

FEDERATION SCHOLARSHIP OPPORTUNITY

The Jewish Community Federation of Greater Rochester is pleased to announce the availability of need-based awards for Jewish young people between the ages of 13 and 21, participating in accredited Israel programs. In addition to Israel trips, funds may be applied to other upcoming Jewish travel experiences, Jewish high school programs, and college courses with Jewish content. Spring distributions will be made for programs to take place summer 2009 or during the next year. The deadline for application is March 15, 2009. For a full description of the scholarship guidelines, contact Josh Boress, Coordinator of Teen Educational & Israel Trips by phone at 461-0490 or email jboress@jewishrochester.org.

OFFICE: The shul office is checked regularly for mail and messages. The shul phone is 244-2060. For urgent issues, call Steve Teitel at 473-5741 or Stan Schaffer at 473-8072. You can also e-mail us at BHBI@frontiernet.net

WANT TO REMEMBER OR HONOR SOMEONE OR A SPECIAL OCCASION?

Consider sponsoring a kiddush or making a donation to any one of our funds (General Operating, Kiddush, Library, Torah, Rabbi Aaron Solomon Scholarship, Our Youth, Special Events, or the Sam Malina Memorial Fund). Please indicate which fund you would like your donation to go to and we will send out an acknowledgement card as you indicate and print an announcement in this bulletin. A standard sponsored kiddush at BHBI costs just $40 while a larger enhanced kiddush is just $50.

BULLETIN CONTENT

What do you enjoy reading in the BHBI Bulletin? Is there something that you would like added (or taken out)? If so, please let Stan Schaffer know. We always appreciate feedback.

DID YOU MISPLACE YOUR BULLETIN?

Don’t worry. BHBI Bulletins going back several months can now be found on our web page: www.BHBIRochester.org

WANT TO GET YOUR BULLETIN HOT-OFF-THE-PRESS? Consider having us e-mail it to you! Contact Stan Schaffer at: stanschaffer@frontiernet.net

Congregation Beth Hamedresh-Beth Israel

1369 East Avenue

Rochester, NY 14610