Words From Rabbi White

Dear Chevra Shaas/Shearith Israel

Last shabbat, I happened across the following amazing article. It was fitting for parashat vayaqhel, since the word "bemar'ot" which means "likeness, appearance" appears in that parasha, but it is also fitting for this week, since often Vayaqhel is joined to pequdei.

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Hessy Levinsons Taft (born Hessy Levinsons; 17 May 1934) a Jewish German, was featured as an infant in Nazi propaganda after her photo, which had been submitted by the photographer who had filmed her baby picture, won a contest to find "the most beautiful Aryan baby" in 1935. Taft's image was subsequently distributed widely by the Nazi party in a variety of materials, such as magazines and postcards, to promote Aryanism. Her picture appeared on the cover of the Nazi magazine "Sonne in Haus," claiming to have found the perfect Aryan baby. The photographer, an anti-Nazi German, later claimed that he wanted to allow himself the "pleasure of this joke."

Taft's Ashkenazi Jewish parents, Jacob and Pauline Levinsons were originally from Latvia and were unaware of their photographer's decision to enter the photograph into the contest until learning that the photo of their daughter had been selected by Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels as the winner.

Fearing that the Nazis would discover that their family was Jewish, Taft's mother informed the photographer, named Hans Ballin, that they were Jewish. The photographer told her mother, Pauline, that he knew they were Jewish and deliberately entered Taft's photograph into the contest because he "wanted to make the Nazis ridiculous."  In July 2014 Taft told the German-language newspaper Bild that "I can laugh about it now, but if the Nazis had known who I really was, I wouldn't be alive."

In 1938, Jacob Levinsons was briefly arrested by the SS. In the same year, the family immigrated to France and settled in Paris, then later moved to Cuba and from there to the United States in 1949.

Hessy Levinsons studied chemistry at Julia Richman High School in New York, and majored in chemistry at Barnard College, graduating in 1955. As a graduate student in chemistry at Columbia University she met her husband, mathematics instructor Earl Taft. She retired in 2016.  [the above from Wikipedia and other sources.]

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This week, the Foxmans are making the kiddush in memory of Simcha's mother Chaya Necha, yahrzeit 29 Adar.

This Sunday night and Monday, 2 Nissan, is the yahrzeit of my dear wife, Sarah Devorah (Sukey).

And the cycle of life: the other day, our granddaughter Leah White was engaged to Avi Rapoport from Toronto.

Even though Rosh Hodesh is the Sunday after Shabbat, we do not read the haftarah "mahar hodesh," but rather from Ezekiel 45.

Only one day Rosh Hodesh. The molad was Shabbat morning, 1 heleq after 7:46 AM.

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This past Sunday afternoon, Israeli real estate agents came to my shul (Keter Torah) in Teaneck to make a presentation for purchasing property in Israel.  Although the venue had not been publicized, the "from the river" crowd got wind, and came to protest. Sadly, 1/3 of the protesters were dressed in Hasidic garb. The police did a great job in keeping the peace and keeping two sides separate, and there were no incidents. B"H