Community

Community programs at United Hebrew Congregation Terre Haute

Ellie Loeb Merar to return for CANDLES talk; student rabbi set for fall 2018

By Terry Fear
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Ellie Loeb Merar, a Terre Haute resident from 1937-1943, will speak at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, May 19, at CANDLES Holocaust Museum & Education Center.

Before World War II, Ellie’s parents Emma and Albert Loeb owned a store in Lauterecken, Germany. Starting in 1933, then 7-year-old Ellie and younger sister Stella endured anti-Semitic instructors in school, while Nazis targeted the family’s store.

The Loeb family left Germany in 1937 and came to live with family in Terre Haute. Blanche Loeb Wolf and Carl Wolf, grandparents of late former United Hebrew Congregation president Ed Wormser, sponsored the Loebs.

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Agnes Schwartz shares Survivor’s story as community observes Yom HaShoah

By Ken Turetzky
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The ideal of forgiveness helps some victims of trauma overcome their suffering.

That concept is anathema to Agnes Schwartz, who survived the Holocaust in Budapest, Hungary, passing as the Catholic niece of a compassionate family housekeeper.

Agnes was guest speaker for “Remember the Past – Transform the Present”, the April 15 Yom HaShoah observance co-sponsored with CANDLES Holocaust Museum & Education Center at United Hebrew Congregation.

An audience of about 125 people attended the second annual event on a Sunday afternoon in the Temple sanctuary. Participants from area social action groups lit candles to to honor the 11 million Jewish and non-Jewish victims of the Holocaust.

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Temple, CANDLES reunite to observe Yom HaShoah with ‘Remember the Past – Transform the Present’

By Terry Fear
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For the second consecutive year, CANDLES Holocaust Museum & Education Center and United Hebrew Congregation will partner to remember victims of the Holocaust with a Yom HaShoah program, featuring guest speaker Agnes Schwartz.

The event is set for 2 p.m. Sunday, April 15, in the sanctuary at United Hebrew Congregation and is made possible through the generous sponsorship of the Florence and Laurence Spungen Family Foundation.

Theme of the program is “Remember the Past – Transform the Present”.

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Rabbi Aaron returns to Terre Haute for Veterans Day, celebrates ‘the everyday American’

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Veterans Day holds special significance for Student Rabbi and U.S. Army Capt. Aaron Rozovsky, who served United Hebrew Congregation Terre Haute during the 2016-17 academic year.

Aaron, who has completed deployments in Cuba and Afghanistan, filled the Westminster Village community room last year for a special Veterans Day Shabbat service.

The event’s success invited a repeat performance, and Aaron returned this Veterans Day, in fatigues and camouflage yarmulke, to celebrate Shabbat with the retirement community and guests.

Aaron also took the opportunity to re-connect with his former congregation and conduct evening Shabbat services at Temple Israel. He recently completed two weeks’ active duty in South Carolina and is in his final year at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati.

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