Community | Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle - Part 2

Community

Coming Events, July 2025

Posted on: June 26th, 2025 | 30 Sivan 5785 by Special to the Chronicle

Tuesday, July 8  New Moon Soundbath A unique experience that harmoniously blends the ancient tradition of Rosh Chodesh with the healing power of sound. Members $25. Community $30. July 8, 7:15 – 8:30 p.m. Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center – Studio B, 6255 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Whitefish Bay. Register at JccMilwaukee.org/newmoon. Contact: […]

Let’s ‘Stand Up Against Hate’ together 

Let’s ‘Stand Up Against Hate’ together 

Posted on: June 25th, 2025 | 29 Sivan 5785 by Rob Golub

Welcome to the Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle’s annual Standing Up Against Hate special section. I proposed that we launch this special section several years ago. I had no idea how relevant it would become.  For this year, at a time of consternation and heightened antisemitism, I’d like to share a list of people around me whom […]

How to stand up against hate: It ain’t easy!

How to stand up against hate: It ain’t easy!

Posted on: June 25th, 2025 | 29 Sivan 5785 by Special to the Chronicle

There is general agreement that silence in the face of everyday hate is not helpful.   Elie Wiesel, the renowned survivor and conscience of the Holocaust, taught us that. He pointed out that silence and indifference help the perpetrators of undue hatred because it unwittingly condones it. Although the Beatles sang “All You Need is Love,” […]

Boker Tov in Waukesha!

Boker Tov in Waukesha!

Posted on: June 25th, 2025 | 29 Sivan 5785 by Special to the Chronicle

Cantor Martin Levinson, right, and religious education director and teacher Carrie Barbakoff led children in song at Congregation Emanu-El of Waukesha, on Sunday morning, May 4. As in synagogues everywhere, they greeted the children in Hebrew: “Boker tov!” (“Good morning!”) Photo by Rob Golub. 

More than 25 organizations and 250 volunteers were part of the effort in Milwaukee 

More than 25 organizations and 250 volunteers were part of the effort in Milwaukee 

Posted on: June 25th, 2025 | 29 Sivan 5785 by Special to the Chronicle

Built on the foundation of the annual Community Passover Food Drive, Good Deeds Day – Milwaukee was a full day of community-wide volunteering. The day was held April 6th, 2025, organized locally by Tikkun Ha-Ir, Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center, and Milwaukee Jewish Federation. With opportunities for all ages and abilities both […]

Meet the Upstanders: Ted Neitzke IV is on a teaching journey, to remember the Holocaust

Posted on: June 24th, 2025 | 28 Sivan 5785 by Special to the Chronicle

Ted Neitzke IV, who is not Jewish, had never heard directly from a Holocaust survivor.  An educator, Neitzke had read extensively about the genocide. He researched. He wrote. But it was all, as he said, “through one-dimensional, breathless texts.”  Then he met southeastern Wisconsin’s Eva Zaret, a survivor. Zaret, of Budapest, Hungary, shared her experience […]

Meet the Upstanders: Teacher Maria Prust worked on a Holocaust education event at Wausau’s Grand Theater, for more than 800 students

Meet the Upstanders: Teacher Maria Prust worked on a Holocaust education event at Wausau’s Grand Theater, for more than 800 students

Posted on: June 24th, 2025 | 28 Sivan 5785 by Special to the Chronicle

Back in mid-April, the Nathan and Esther Pelz Holocaust Education Resource Center teamed up with Wisconsin teacher Maria Prust to host a Holocaust education event, featuring a survivor and a child of one, at Wausau’s Grand Theater. The event drew more than 800 students from several districts in the central part of the state.   Prust […]

Meet the Upstanders: Rachael and Golan 

Meet the Upstanders: Rachael and Golan 

Posted on: June 24th, 2025 | 28 Sivan 5785 by Rob Golub

The program Student to Student dates back to 1992, when it was created by the Jewish Community Relations Council in St. Louis. It aims to fight antisemitism by having students talk to other students, including some who might have little previous familiarity with Jewish people, to foster understanding.   Twelve students recently entered the Milwaukee Jewish […]

Meet the Upstanders: Faye Zemel tells her grandfather’s Holocaust story to school children in Wisconsin

Posted on: June 24th, 2025 | 28 Sivan 5785 by Special to the Chronicle

While held in the Buchenwald concentration camp, Rabbi Franz (Frank) Rosenthal set up a small medical clinic. One day, as he was caring for a man suffering from pneumonia, he was summoned over the loudspeaker. He was going to either die or be set free, so he gave the stranger his clothes off his back […]

Meet the Upstanders: Marty Thau gets ‘swamped’ with questions when he tells the story of his father, a Holocaust survivor

Meet the Upstanders: Marty Thau gets ‘swamped’ with questions when he tells the story of his father, a Holocaust survivor

Posted on: June 24th, 2025 | 28 Sivan 5785 by Special to the Chronicle

On Dec. 7, 1941, as the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, a young Jewish man in what is now Ukraine had a harrowing choice to make. Either be captured by the Nazis — who had already taken his parents and two brothers — or run and hide in a forest.   Charles Thau chose the latter, fleeing […]