People and personalities involved with United Hebrew Congregation Terre Haute.
Dr. Nancy Sommers, a native of Terre Haute and former member of United Hebrew Congregation, will be keynote speaker for Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) at 7 p.m. Sunday, May 5, at UHC.
Her subject will be “My Mother’s Story — Creating Light from Darkness and Optimism out of Tragedy”. Dr. Sommers’s mother is longtime UHC member Louise Levite Sommers, a Holocaust survivor and resident of Terre Haute.
The program is sponsored by UHC and CANDLES Holocaust Museum and Education Center.
The Indiana State University Alumni Association has announced the recipients of the 2018 Distinguished Alumni Awards, the association’s most prestigious honor. Our very own Jo Einstandig is among four honorees who will be recognized during the event at 6:30 p.m. Friday, October 12, at the Sycamore Banquet Center.
Jo earned undergraduate (1961) and graduate degrees (1967) in elementary education from Indiana State. She was employed with the Vigo County School Corp. and also served as vice president of Jebb’s Inc. for 20 years and vice president of Jeiba Inc., a trucking company in Terre Haute.
Rarely do people who move from Terre Haute and leave United Hebrew Congregation as long ago as 1943 return for a visit. Eleanor Loeb Merar, now 92, came back to her adopted home Saturday, May 19 — almost the 76th anniversary of her confirmation service in Temple Israel.
Ellie, who now lives in Skokie, Ill., and is a member of the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center Speakers’ Bureau, came to Terre Haute to speak at CANDLES Holocaust Museum & Education Center. Her trip was made possible by Danny Spungen and the Florence and Laurence Spungen Family Foundation.
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.