Tag Archives: Rabbi Israel Zoberman

Library commemorates International Holocaust Remembrance Day

Written by Harold Henkel, Associate Librarian

On January 27, 1945 the advancing Soviet army entered Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp. In 2005, the United Nations designated this day as International Holocaust Remembrance Day, an annual day of commemoration to honor the victims of the Nazi era.

This year, on the 66th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the Library marked this solemn event with two days of commemorative events. From 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, the Library screened Claude Lanzmann’s 9½ hour film Shoah. Based on interviews with concentration camp survivors, guards, and witnesses from surrounding villages, Shoah (1985) has been acclaimed as the most important of all Holocaust documentaries.

At 6:30 p.m., in front of a standing-room only audience in the Library Auditorium, a memorial service for victims of the Nazis was held in conjunction with an introduction to the world premier of The Auschwitz Album Revisited, an exhibition of 28 paintings by artist Dr. Pat Mercer Hutchens. The memorial service included reflections on the Holocaust by Library Dean Sara Baron, University Chancellor Pat Robertson, and President Carlos Campo. Five honored guests also spoke. Dr. Israel Zoberman, founding Rabbi at Congregation Beth Chaverim in Virginia Beach, led the recitation of the Kaddish (Jewish Mourner’s Prayer). Holocaust survivor and Chesapeake resident David Katz gave a moving testimony of how he survived the war with the aid of French “righteous Gentiles,” and even served as a courier for the French Resistance. A brief autobiography of Mr. Katz may be read here.

Following Mr. Katz’s remarks, Rev. Sonny Mathew introduced the artist. Dr. Hutchens recounted looking at the Auschwitz Album and feeling deeply moved by the photographs, particularly those of women and children. “I tried to think about how I would have felt, and I was overwhelmed with sorrow.” It was then that she felt God’s call to give artistic expression to the subjects of the photographs. Initially, Dr. Hutchens had planned to do a series of only twelve paintings, but as she worked on the project, she felt a responsibility to memorialize all the children in the Auschwitz Album. Twenty-eight paintings have now been created, and Dr. Hutchens continues to add to the series.

The memorial service concluded with Cantor Roni Wexler chanting the El Male Rachamim (prayer for the departed). A video of the memorial service may be viewed by clicking here.

Following a five-minute break, the audience re-assembled in the Library gallery, and the artist’s husband, Brigadier General James Hutchens, US Army (ret.), offered a prayer, blessing the paintings and officially opening the exhibition. A video of Gen. Hutchen’s remarks may be viewed here.

The Auschwitz Album Revisited will be on display in the Library gallery through February 18th. The paintings will be taken to the Krakow Jewish Cultural Festival in Poland this summer.

On January 28th at the Library, 14 readers joined historian Dr. David Meyer for a discussion of Elie Wiesel’s memoir of Auschwitz, Night, one of the foundational works of Holocaust literature.

Throughout all the commemorative events, the declaration “Never Again” emerged as the over-arching theme of the proceedings, with President Campo articulating what must be the end-purpose of all education about the Holocaust: “We will ever remain vigilant, and I stand in the tradition that says ‘never again.’”

Holocaust Remembrance Day events at Library

January 27th is the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp. In 2005, the United Nations designated this day as International Holocaust Remembrance Day, an annual day of commemoration to honor the victims of the Nazi era.

This year, the Library will mark this solemn day with a Remembrance Service and the world premier of “The Auschwitz Album Revisited,” an exhibition of oil paintings by artist Pat Mercer Hutchens. The paintings in the exhibit were inspired by the Auschwitz Album, “the only surviving visual evidence of the process of mass murder at Auschwitz-Birkenau.” The paintings will be on public display in the Library Gallery from January 23 through February 6 before being taken to the Krakow Jewish Cultural Festival in Poland.

The Remembrance Service and exhibition opening will begin in the Library Auditorium at 6:30 PM and conclude with a viewing of the paintings in the Library Gallery. A number of distinguished guests will speak, including Dr. Hutchens, cantor Ron Wexler, Rabbi Israel Zoberman, and Holocaust survivor David Katz. University Chancellor Pat Robertson and President Campo will also speak. The event will conclude with a reception and fellowship.

For more information on the Remembrance Day Service and events, including links to speaker biographies, see http:www.regent.eduNEVER-AGAIN.

The Library also encourages the Regent community to participate in this year’s Winter Common Read. Several of the Schools, as well as the Library Book Club will be reading and discussing Night, Ellie Wiesel’s memoir of Auschwitz. To receive notification of the time and date for the Book Club discussion, please contact harohen@regent.edu.

Image credit: Yad Vashem The Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority. http:www.yadvashem.org.

Rabbi Israel Zoberman leads Book Club discussion at the Library

Rabbi Zoberman and Dr. KickasolaWritten by Harold Henkel, Associate Librarian

On Monday, February 8, Rabbi Dr. Israel Zoberman led a Book Club discussion at the Library. Fifteen students, faculty, and staff from Regent and CBN took part in a fascinating discussion that ranged from Jewish history, contemporary Israeli politics and society, and Israel’s renowned writer, Amos Oz.

Dr. Zoberman, the son of Polish immigrants, was born in Israel. He has lived in the United States since the 1960s and is founding Rabbi at Congregation Beth Chaverim in Virginia Beach. On January 16, 2010, Rabbi Zoberman, participated in the inauguration of Bob McDonnell, reading Psalm 8 in English and Hebrew.

Dr. Zoberman, proved to be an ideal guide to Amos Oz. Born within a few years of Oz, whose parents fled anti-Semitic violence in Lithuania, Dr. Zoberman has literally lived through most of the themes in Oz’s writing. Of the many varieties of Zionism in Israel today, Dr. Zoberman identified himself with the point of view articulated by Amos Oz: “The Zionist enterprise has no other objective than the right of a drowning man to grasp the only plank that can save him. And that is justification enough…there is a vast moral difference between the drowning man who grasps a plank and makes room for himself by pushing the others who are sitting on it to one side, even by force, and the drowning man who grabs for himself the whole plank and pushes the others into the sea.” *

*Amos Oz and Nitza Ben-Dov, The Amos Oz Reader (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009), 237.

Rabbi Israel Zoberman to lead discussion of Amos Oz on February 8th

Amos OzWritten by Harold Henkel, Associate Librarian

On February 8th, Dr. Israel Zoberman, Founding Rabbi at Congregation Beth Chaverim in Virginia Beach, will lead a discussion at the Library of stories and essays from The Amos Oz Reader.

Amos Oz is Israel’s best known novelist and one of the country’s most respected intellectuals. In a career spanning nearly half a century, Oz’s writing has been rooted in the history and people of Israel. Newsweek characterized the author and his work as “eloquent, humane, even religious in the deepest sense, [Oz] emerges as a kind of Zionist Orwell: a complex man obsessed with simple decency and determined above all to tell the truth, regardless of whom it offends.” Rabbi Zoberman, who grew up in Israel, has known Amos Oz for many years and corresponds with him regularly. He has reviewed several of his books and is a uniquely qualified guide to this important author.

In order to allow the greatest possible participation, we have selected the following chapters from the book as suggested readings, which together come to only 110 pages: