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NEW HAVEN — Dr. Ruth Westheimer shared her experience as part of the Holocaust’s Kindertransport at “Orphans of the Holocaust,” the opening event of the Yom Hashoah-HolocaustRemembrance Day commemoration at Yale University’s Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life. Westheimer is co-teaching a course on “The Family and the Jewish Tradition” at Yale this semester with the university’s Jewish chaplain, Rabbi James Ponet.

Dr. Ruth Westheimer was born in 1928 in Frankfurt, an only child in a lower middle class Orthodox family. When her father was taken by the Nazis, her mother and grandmother thought it would be safest for her to be evacuated from Germany.

“They closed the Samson Raphael Hirsch Orthodox school, and I was told I had to join a group of children going to Switzerland or my father couldn’t return.” Wertheimer boarded the kindertransport to Heiden, Switzerland on Jan. 5, 1939. She waved to her mother for what would be the last time.

In Switzerland, Westheimer, then only ten years old, lived in a children’s home overlooking Lake Constance. “We could see Germany,” she recalls. She was enrolled in vocational training, where she learned to care for Swiss children (bathing them, doing their laundry and cleaning their toilets). Westheimer wasn’t permitted to attend school, though she had dreamed of studying medicine. She communicated with her parents and hoped she would see them again. The letters stopped suddenly in September of 1941; she later learned that her parents had been taken to the Lodz Ghetto, where her father was a cemetery gardener, and most likely killed in Auschwitz.

At the conclusion of the war, Westheimer was 17 years old. She decided to go to Palestine, where she lived on a kibbutz picking olives and tomatoes. She also served in the Haganah, a precursor to the Israel Defense Forces, where she became a sharpshooter. She was badly injured on her twentieth birthday, while doing guard duty; an Arab shell exploded at her feet. Luckily, she recovered and was able to walk.

Westheimer moved to France in 1950. Eventually, she resettled in New York, and received a doctorate in education from Teachers College of Columbia University. Affectionately known as “Dr. Ruth,” Westheimer is best known for her radio program, “Sexually Speaking,” which began in Sept. 1980. Westheimer spoke movingly of her parents and grandparents and of the importance of early childhood socialization. She spoke of how the orphans “created a community to have a family again,” and of how “many boys and girls went in to the helping professions.”

Sharing the stage with Westheimer at the Holocaust commemoration was a local Kindertransport survivor, Irm (Irmgard) Wessel. A social worker, Wessel is a long-time resident of New Haven and a member of Congregation B’nai Jacob in Woodbridge. During the war, she was sent to England from her home in Kassel, Germany. Unlike Westheimer, Wessel was eventually reunited with her parents in America.

Describing her family as “German first and Jewish second,” Wessel said her businessman father, the vice president of a steel factory, held positions of importance in the synagogue and in the Jewish community. His position of importance, and his role as a mediator between the Jews and the Nazis would prove useful in getting Irm on the Kindertransport to England.

The audience listened intently as Wessel shared the details of her story, including the actual date of Krystallnacht. While most histories report Krystallnacht to have taken place in Germany on Nov. 9 and 10, Wessel notes, “The Nazis practiced in Kassel on Nov. 7, 1938.”

Kessel also spoke about being forced to add the name “Sarah” to her name (all girls were forced to add “Sarah” and males, “Israel”), seeing her father cry for the first time, the train ride to England, and life in her English foster home.

Upon arriving in New York at age 14, Kessel was forced to throw her stamp collection overboard as she was told she could not enter the U.S. with “anything of value.” Following her reunification with her parents and resettling in Iowa and later Illinois (partially assisted by the American Friends/Quakers), Wessel eventually settled in Connecticut where she is a member of the therapeutic community, and an activist.

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NEW HAVEN — The Jewish Community School of New Haven (JCS) is moving ahead rapidly with plans to open its doors in Sept. 2009.

Founded by Rachel Light and Rebecca Silvera Sasson, the trans-denominational day school will offer a pluralistic Jewish envionment for children in kindergarten through fifth grade.

Light, the schools’ president and treasurer, is a physician and author, with extensive experience teaching high school at such institutions as the Ramaz Middle School in New York City and SAR Academy in Riverdale, N.Y.

“Young families in New Haven are looking for a Jewish educational experience that combines serious Jewish study with a progressive, child-centered approach,” says Light. “In today’s climate of high stakes testing, the joy in learning and discovering is harder to achieve. JCS is committed to cultivating a learning community where children’s questions and interests become the basis for meaningful, authentic learning.”

Rebecca Silvera Sasson, the school’s vice president, is a former Wexner Graduate Fellow. She has taught in both public schools and Jewish schools, and is currently co-leader of DeLeT, a teacher education program at Brandeis University that specializes in preparing teachers for Jewish day schools. Sasson shares Light’s excitement.
“We believe that Jewish families who have never considered Jewish day schools in the past, will be compelled by the mission of a pluralistic day school,” says Sasson.

Light and Sasson describe the school as resting on three core values, including education of the whole child – intellectual, emotional and physical — dedication to Jewish values, texts and traditions, and a commitment to tikkun olam (repairing the world).

The school will began with a combined kindergarten and first grade class and will expand by one grade each year. Students will spend two years in each two-grade classroom.

“The mixed-age classroom is central to our mission because it creates an environment where students of different abilities and interests can interact as part of a complex community of learners and teachers, and where students can progress at their own pace as they work individually, in small groups, and in full-class contexts,” explains Light. “Over the course of their time at JCS, students will be grouped in varying ways according to age, skill level and interests.”

Sasson adds, “The JCS experience will be infused with arts experiences and education such that the study and practice of visual, musical, movement, and performance art will be integrated across the curriculum.”

Acknowledging that there are area day schools for Jewish parents to choose from, Light and Sasson say there is always room for one more.

“JCS has a very different philosophy from other schools in the area,” they note.

For more information, about the Jewish Community School call (203) 397-0327 or email jcsnewhaven@gmail.com

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While no Connecticut companies had booths at Kosherfest 2008, there were several people in attendance with strong Connecticut connections.

Barbara Hodes, who with her husband, Andrew, is the owner of Judaica of New Haven, was scouting out potential merchandise for her Judaica shop. A Kosherfest regular, Hodes noticed a surplus of new wines and fruit drinks.

Rabbi Mosha Epstein, director of Kashrus Care at the Jewish Home for the Elderly of Briddgeport, was speaking to vendors and sampling products he felt would be appropriate for the Homes’ 400-plus residents. He patiently showed off some of his “finds,” including Schmerling’s of Switzerland light cheeses, no-sugar chocolates, and lactose free desserts.

At the Shanon Road booth, the company’s gregarious Chief Operating Officer Moshe Sonnenschein was giving out ice cream scoopers and free samples of his pareve ice cream. Sonnenschein’s Connecticut connection includes two brothers who live in Waterbury –including Rabbi Yosef Sonnenschein of B’nai Shalom Synagogue in Waterbury.

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NEW HAVEN — For New Haven residents Dov and Nechama Langenauer, this Israel trip will be different from all previous trips Dov will be viewing Israel from his bike, and Nechama will be supporting riders on the Wheels of Love International Alyn Charity Bike Ride. The ride will take place November 9 – 13 and will benefit Alyn Hospital, Israel’s premier Pediatric and Adolescence Rehabilitation Center.

The Langenauers, Westville residents for 43 years and grandparents of seven, have a very strong connection to Israel. They have an apartment in Jerusalem, and many family members who live in the Jewish state, including an adult son studying in yeshivah.

“My parents came to Israel after the Holocaust,” notes Nechama, “I was born in Israel and lived there until I was nine. It was always my parents’ dream to go back.”

For Nechama, this trip will be a poignant one. Her father, Rabbi Avraham Eliezri, died in January, 2007 and was buried in Beit Shemesh, and her mother, Shalva Eliezri, died just fifteen months after later. Her three siblings and many other relatives will be in Israel for her mother’s unveiling, which will take place several days following the bike ride.

Dov, a child psychiatrist, who works at Saint Frances Hospital in Hartford, and serves as medical director of the adolescent inpatient unit at Hartford’s Mount Sinai Hospital, playfully explains why he is participating in this years’ Alyn ride. “I love bike riding, and I love Israel. It is a way to combine two of my three loves!” He then remembers that his wife will be joining him as a volunteer and corrects himself, noting that he can combine all three of his loves. Langenauer adds, “It is a chance to help and support a tremendous hospital, devoted to children with severe disabilities.”

With Nechama leaving for Israel ahead of her husband, Dov can focus on training for the ride, and continue getting sponsors. “I am working on building my distance,” he reports.

If the experience of fellow bike rider, Rabbi Joel Levenson of Congregation B’nai Jacob in Woodbridge is informative, perhaps Langenauer should focus on the hills as well. “I rode my bike from Jerusalem to Eilat with the 2004 Hazon/Arava Israel bike ride. On our way out of Jerusalem, we made our way up Nes HeHarim – Miracle of the Mountain. After cycling to the top, we said to each other that the ‘miracle’ was that we made it to the top!” Levenson notes.

Langenauer remains very upbeat and excited. “Riding in Israel always gives one the feeling of being both in the present and the past. Each view, each landmark is a connection to our religious and national past”.

Those wishing to sponsor Dov Langenauer’s ride and support Alyn Hospital may send a check made out to “American Friends of Alyn Hospital” to Dr. Dov Langenauer, 2115 Chapel St., New Haven, CT 06515. For more information, visit: http://www.alynride.org

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