BH. Teves
11, 5775 / Jan 2, 2015
Candle-Lighting: Community Newsletter of the Maimonides Hebrew Day School of the Capital District 4:15 404 Partridge Street Albany NY 12208 (518) 453-9363/3434 www.maimonidesschool.org Shabbos Ends: produced by Rabbi Mendel & students in the TNT (Torah ‘n Technology) Program 5:21 Maimonides is accredited by the NYS Board of Regents & is a beneficiary of UJF-NENY
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This newsletter is sponsored in loving memory of
Moshe “Mike” Sinai longtime Albany housepainter, a founder of Shomray Torah on New Scotland, a Holocaust survivor via the Kindertransport, a warm hard-working Jew! A HIDDEN CHILD STORY The Horan’s grandfather was visiting, so we asked him to share his childhood experience of being hidden as a child (a girl actually!) during the Holocaust in Czechoslovakia. He told the story from a child’s perspective, and being hidden in a town little affected by the war, it was a light and easy, pleasant story, even humorous, until you consider the background implications and what was really going on… perhaps the most fascinating part was that his parents didn’t tell him he was Jewish at first, and he found that out much later on, in a most unusual circumstance. Not to give it all away, because he is now writing a memoir, which he plans to open with that last story. He brought a series of pictures that he passed around at different parts of the narrative, and children of all ages appreciated and benefitted from this first-person Holocaust survivor story. Below, his grandson Ari (2nd grade) helps him say the Shema in Tefillin.
LEAVING POLAND IN 1938 The 5th Day of Chanukah (a Friday in 1938) is the anniversary when R’ Moshe Losice arrived with his parents from Loshitze Poland, thankfully in time before the Holocaust. At a special “Better Together” breakfast with our HS boys and community, he shared memories of his hometown, including the very first time he saw an automobile (it was in the very same town square where Jews were later rounded up by the Nazis) and the farewell blessing from his grandfather which stayed with him throughout life. Economic conditions forced his father to leave the town he loved, for opportunities in America. It took years to get the proper papers,
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and a Hashgacha Pratis encounter of an Albany relative with a NY Senator on a train. Reb Moshe recalls non-Jewish ruffians trying to break into the room where they stayed at the Polish port. Another strong memory was when the photo of the ship he sailed on (it was Poland’s luxury liner, but only the children didn’t get seasick) was pictured on the front page of a newspaper in America when it was torpedoed by German U-Boats only about a half-year after their December voyage. There were humorous parts of his story, too, like the time he interfered with a stickball game in Albany and got a beating, because he didn’t understand the game or speak the language…