Eric Feigenbaum, President eric@templeetzchaim.org

On May 7th Temple Etz Chaim kicked off its new “sister synagogue” relationship with Temple Etz Hayyim of Hania, Crete. In a Sunday Stickaround, we had the opportunity for video conversation with TEH’s leadership and educators in which we met and learedn about them and they got to know us.

Why a “sister synagogue” program? Why is this important?

Our Temple Etz Chaim is relatively young and thriving. We have more than 220 children in our Early Childhood Education Center with a waiting list. We have more than 420 families and a robust religious school that includes confirmation and post-confirmation programming. This month, we complete the renovation of our synagogue building. Whatever concerns, worries and complaints we have from time-to-time, we are a growing, dynamic Jewish community.

Temple Etz Hayyim of Hania Crete has a much longer history than us – it was constructed in the 14th century and became a synagogue in 1669. It is part of a 2000 year-old tradition of Judaism and Jewish life on Crete and is filled with rare texts including a Sefer Torah completely in Greek. Cretan Judaism was largely nonTalmudic and has all kinds of fascinating layers. In 1944 the Nazis wiped the entire Jewish population off Crete and most every other

Greek island. And Temple Etz Hayyim became the last standing shul on Crete – being used as a garbage dump.

Thanks to the hard work of Nikos Stavroulakis, a Jewish man from Crete, whose family successfully fled to England when he was a child, Temple Etz Hayyim was restored and is now a UNESCO World Heritage site. During summers, there are enough Jews to consistently have services and minyans in-person. And during the rest of the year, a community of Jews from around the world – who know and visit TEH in the summers – continue to have services and remain a congregation.

Almost 80 years after the Holocaust, Temple Etz Hayyim is still just beginning to recover. I was fortunate enough to meet Nikos Stavroulakis when visiting Hania in 2010. He explained that he had a choice whether to make Etz Hayyim a Holocaust museum or to try to make it an active shul despite the odds. “The world doesn’t need another Holocaust museum,” he said, “we defeat the Nazis when we live on.”

I hope you’ll join for the upcoming events with Temple Etz Hayyim and the courses they will offer us as we try to bring our two very different – and similar – Trees of Life together, expanding our Jewish communities.