I am writing from Warsaw. In a few hours, I will return to Walnut Creek. Still, my emotions are raw from being a fellow mourner but lifted somewhat by meeting the newer Step by Step students, seeing old friends, and visiting familiar places in Warsaw at this time before the fall holidays. It is a warm fall, and people are still outside in the cafes.
The Golden Age of Progressive Jewish life
Remembering Rabbi Burt Schuman (1947-2024)
Rabbi Burt Schuman (1947-2024) was the first full-time rabbi in Warsaw’s Progressive congregation, Beit Warszawa, later Beit Polska. Schuman passed on Shabbat morning, Kee Tavo. His brilliant late career was marked by a surprisingly quick grasp of Polish and Yiddish.
He was a gifted teacher and shared musical and vocal talents that inspired a city to emerge into a spiritual awakening.
We Mourn the Passing of Piotr Stasiak
On Shabbat (September 14, 2024; 11th of Ellul 5784) Kee TayTzey, Piotr Stasiak’s soul completed this cycle. In Barry Cohen’s Opening the Drawer: The Hidden Identities of Polish Jews, At age 15, Piotr Stasiak enacts the book’s title, discovering the documentary proof that his Jewish father Leon Stasiak is Lazar Sylman. His father survived Buchenwald and Auschwitz and finally was rescued by his Catholic mother and her brothers. Piotr Stasiak was both a child of Jewish survivors and Catholic Righteous Gentiles.
Benefit of the Doubt as a Cornerstone of Trust
Thoughts on parashat Ki Tetze 5784
Let me start our reflection with quoting some laws from our Torah portion:
In the case of a virgin who is engaged to someone —if another man comes upon her in town and lies with her, you shall take the two of them out to the gate of that town and stone them to death: the girl because she did not cry for help in the town, and the man because he violated his neighbor’s wife. Thus you will sweep away evil from your midst.[…]
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