Prefatory note:
This community of Jews, pictured here grew up with the stories their parents told them, or withheld depending on circumstances of the years in the Polish ghettos, the concentration and death camps and death marches, starved, beaten and forced to work as slaves by the Nazis and their collaborators, witnesses to the murders of their families and friends, now find ourselves threatened on many sides by people who chose to hate Jews because they are Jews, wishing to deny us the right to defend ourselves while providing moral and material support to a group of terrorists and murderers, Hamas.
We are reminded that we must be vigilant and active in protecting ourselves and communities here and working to ensure the survival of Eretz Yisrael.
Note the date when these were taken and remember what happened less than two weeks later.
And now on to catching up.
The Radomer Mutual Culture Center (the Society) by our tradition holds a yizkor service at our ground at the New Montefiore Cemetery in Pinelawn, NY every year on the Sunday between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. This year if fell on the eve of Yom Kippur. The service is always moving since we remember our own family members who've passed away, most of whom are buried in our land, friends of our family, and most importantly, those who were murdered in the Shoah and have no marked grave and often, no surviving relatives to say kaddish for them. It being only a few hours before Kol Nidre the Yizkor service added poignancy.
Of course we also take pleasure in seeing old friends, many of who we only see at the semi-annual gathering. We are now mostly the second generation and beyond. Very few are living witnesses to the horrors and each year the number shrinks. This year it was more than 78 years since the end of World War II.
Considering the threat of heavy rain and wind from an off-shore tropical storm, attendance was good. We were lucky again this year that the rains held off during our service.
And, as usual - with the exception of one year when I forgot my camera - I took some photos of the participants. I hope those who see them that were there have good memories stirred to the surface, and for those who could not come, will smile at familiar faces.
A digital copy of The Book of Radom: The Story of a Jewish Community Destroyed by the Nazis / Sefer Radom is available at the New York Public Library's web site (1961) -and a translation of the Yiddish section and transliteration of much of the English at Jewishgen.org - Book of Radom. For those who may be interested in the early history of the Society and other Jewish Radomer groups, a more or less official history through 1961 is included.
And now, some photos:
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