The
Jewish Learning Center at Hillel has some great
courses to offer this year for U-M students and Ann Arbor community members. I am also very proud that our new Beit Midrash will open soon and be dedicated as the Brodsky Beit Midrash. What else is new at Hillel? We've added two great people to our staff with Lori Hoch (Berman Fellow) and Jacob Kander (Program Associate). And we are also excited about the weekend in honor of Michael Brooks upon his reaching twenty-five years as Executive Director of U-M Hillel.
The nine-day experience I had in Ukraine at the end of August was both eye-opening and exciting. Watching our fifteen U-M students interact each day with their counterparts in Kharkov was amazing, and being able to help the Jewish communities in Kharkov, Konotop and Sumy was truly exhilarating. While the Jewish communities in these areas, including the capital city of Kiev, are rebuilding, there is no hiding the virulent anti-Semitism that still occurs there. As soon as we arrived in Kiev we held a memorial service at Babi Yar (34,000 Jews murdered in a few days) and were "welcomed" to this burial ground by a Ukranian teen who greeted us with the Heil Hitler sign and then told us we were number one with his middle finger. The day before we left two Orthodox Jewish teens were assaulted in a train station and a
Ukranian rabbi and his fourteen-year-old son were badly beaten just yesterday in Kiev.
As we approach the new Jewish year of 5766 I pray that the dedicated Jewish men and women all over Ukraine and the rest of the FSU will celebrate the Jewish renewal they have been passionately working for and so very much deserve.
I pray that those in Louisiana and Mississippi who have lost their homes as a result of Hurricane Katrina will find the courage to rebuild and move on, and that humans everywhere will continue to reach out and help those who are in need. I pray for
Shalom al Yisrael - a lasting peace in the Jewish homeland and that the sukkah of peace will spread out over the entire region.
Finally, I pray that our men and women in uniform serving our country all over the world will be able to return safely and quickly to their families...
...and to that we all say:
L'CHAYIM!
