Yom HaShoah Shabbat Service

Apr 9, 2025 | Shabbat Services, Speaker - Services

Friday, April 25, 2025
7:00 PM
Temple Adat Elohim

Join us for a meaningful Shabbat service in observance of Yom HaShoah, Israel’s Holocaust Memorial Day – an evening of remembrance, learning, and reflection with guest speaker Shoshana Brower.

About Shoshana Brower

Shoshana Brower is a writer, speaker, and advocate for social justice whose work sheds light on stories of moral courage and compassion. We are honored to welcome her as our guest speaker for the evening.

Brower will share reflections from her powerful article, The World Should Take Notice of Albania’s Code of Honor, which highlights the extraordinary actions of Albanians during the Holocaust. Guided by Besa, a sacred cultural code of honor, many Albanians risked their lives to protect Jewish refugees by opening their homes, disguising identities, and standing united in the face of danger.

A Legacy of Courage

Could you protect others if their lives were at risk, even at the expense of your own safety?

This is the provocative question Brower asks as she shares stories of Albanian families who followed their moral compass, putting honor above fear. Albania remains the only country in Europe where the Jewish population increased during the Holocaust, thanks to the bravery of individuals who saw no strangers, only guests.This is the provocative question Brower grapples with in her article. It’s a question that challenges us to consider what we would do in the face of hatred and persecution.

Brower’s storytelling often highlights the courage of individuals who hid Jewish families in his home, and countless others who followed a collective moral compass that valued honor above fear.

An Evening of Reflection and Inspiration

As we welcome Shoshana Brower to our congregation, we look forward to learning from her insights and experiences. Her message challenges each of us to consider how we might live by that same code of honor, to protect and care for others, no matter the cost.

Shabbat Speaker: Bonnie Klapper

Jul 19, 2022 | Shabbat Services, Speaker - Services

Bonnie Goldenberg’s journey into World War II history began when she was given a treasure trove of letters her parents had exchanged during her father’s service in a U.S. Army antiaircraft battalion from 1943 until 1945. Those letters became the foundation of Love, Abe: A Jewish GI’s World War II Letters Home.

Goldenberg is also a poet whose works have been published in a variety of literary journals and anthologies. Before leaving her professional career to focus on raising her son, she was a labor attorney in New York and Washington, D.C., and a writer and editor for a legal publishing house in New York City.

In addition to writing, she is the business administrator of her husband’s biopharma startup. She and her husband live in Thousand Oaks, California.

Love, Abe: A Jewish GI’s World War II Letters Home

A story of wartime life, love, and service

The children of immigrants, Abraham “Abe” Klapper and Lillian Schein were newlyweds expecting their first child when Abe was inducted into the U.S. Army and later served in an antiaircraft battalion. Between 1943 and 1945, the couple exchanged over 800 letters. In Love, Abe, author Bonnie Goldenberg draws from her parents’ voluminous correspondence to reveal the unique perspective of a first-generation American Jew sent to fight the Nazis in Germany.

While contending with the vicious anti-Semitism of the Nazi regime, Abe was no stranger to prejudice on the home front. An articulate observer, he shares his experiences during training stateside and his service overseas, including:

• Celebrating Passover in Hitler’s Germany
• Joining the front line for Europe’s biggest antiaircraft battle at the bridge at Remagen
• Using his background in Yiddish to act as an interpreter with German civilians and POWs
• The elation of V-E Day and V-J Day
• Daily life in postwar occupied Germany
• Guarding the Ministerial Collecting Center as part of “Operation Goldcup” to recover documents scattered across Germany during the Allied bombing

In his letters, Abe poured out his love, hopes and dreams for his wife and young daughter and the future he was fighting for.

This is a story unique to Abe and Lillian, but much of their experience was also shared by many of the Americans who served in World War II and their loved ones at home.