The Museum of Jewish Life-Agudath Achim

01/27/2025

A tour group from before COVID. Many came and were blessed to hear the testimony of Mrs Eva Zeno who escaped N**i Germany with her parents in 1939. A young teenager, she travelled to America and ultimately Arkansas . Eva passed from this life a few months ago. Fewer and fewer Witnesses to the tragedy of the genocide- fueled Holocaust remain. Will only witnesses like the young folk in this photo continue the gut-honest tale of history’s dark night of terror?
Today is the Day of Remembrance. Spend a moment remembering, refreshing your knowledge of this time. It will help us all to be informed.
And as my relative, a Liberator at Dachau demanded, “SHOUT IT FROM THE ROOFTOPS! NEVER FORGET!”
Amen.

04/22/2024

PASSOVER. YOUR HOME. YOUR DWELLING. WHERE YOUR WIFE LIVES. YOUR CHILDREN, young and old.
Your widowed mother. And your servants. Your animals that feed and support you.
That’s what was promised.
The Angel of Death would not come nigh your dwelling.
Your firstborn son would survive. And you, as well, would survive for YOU are the firstborn of your family.
You will escape the tyranny that has held you down for so long.
You are invited to go feast in the desert.
To eat bitter herbs…
only flatbread, non risen, will grace the camp table.
Thousands of years later. Little dark haired children: bearded men, women with hair covered, will cook and set tables, and remove every trace of crumbs of leavened cakes and challah.
reciting the story. Singing the songs.
Reciting the words of the Torah—
A billion times in a billion homes since that first eve of Liberation in the dark night of Egypt.
Read. Remember. Respect the act. Enable freedom to live in your life.
Honor the Guide who led and fed the Israelites .
The Creator still guides us today.
Chag Pesach.
Shalom.

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03/25/2024

Queen Esther may have been showered with many precious jewels, but nothing surpassed what lay beneath those Royal stones.
Esther, Hadassah her Hebrew name, was precious to the core. Brave. Strong. Trusting and obedient. Results? She helped stay the genocide of the Jews in Persia.
A short read, indulge your curiosity about the great action story: King, evil supplanted, wise uncle, beautiful innocent, subterfuge, violent justice. Sound like the most recent action film? It’s even better than that. You’ll find “Esther” streaming on your private devices. Search. Read. Challenge:
1. Find the Name of the Orchestrator of the Universe in the passages.
2. Rejoice that though this was one of many, many attempts to eliminate the Children of the Creator, it failed. Then look around. The Nation of Israel lives!
3. Don’t be surprised should YOU someday be called to fill the role of one of the characters in this tale.
Live to support the main characters, the Jewish people of today.
Some things never change. Yet Israel still exists! Am Yisroel Chai!

01/27/2024

Saturday is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Here, where the streets of Jerusalem lay deserted, tourists are banned by threat of violence.
Once again, as evil acts of antiSemitism rear their ugly heads, just as before WWII, no one is automatically labeled “safe”.
Remember, “SHOUT IT FROM THE ROOFTOPS! NEVER AGAIN!”
(Nathan Steppach Sr. Liberator Dachau Germany).

01/25/2024

12/12/2023

The season of Light: Hanukkah! Nothing can destroy the tradition of good over evil, restoration and return to worship even when it required a miracle.
Light your lights.
Be a light.
Chag Sameach. A joyful holiday.

12/08/2023

11/10/2023

Eva Zeno. AKA Ursula Kraminski. Formerly from Berlin Germany.
13 years old. 83 years ago.
Little girl. Walking to school. But she cannot make it through the shattered shards of glass littering her path down her city street.
She turns the corner to run to the safety of her school. But she had been kicked out of the school she attended with her friends. Just as she was kicked out of her peer group. Being a ‘dirty Jew’ even at her young age, she now attended her synagogue for her education.
But as she turned the corner, her new ‘school’ was closed. No classes or services today.
November 10th, 1938, the adolescent stood and wept as her place of safety stood broken, battered and burning. Her Synagogue, ablaze with literal and symbolic flames.
Lies. Terror. False libels. Counterfeit religious beliefs.
Determined to murder Eva, her family. Friends. Congregations. Citizens. Of the city.
The state.
The nation.
The region.
The continent.
The world.
Who?
Of course:
“The dirty Jews”.
Wherever they lived. Travelled. Worshipped.
Ate. Drank. Prospered.
Procreated.
Yes. Eliminate them as well.
1959:
Little Rock, Arkansas, USA, North America, the world.
A 12 year old student sat in his class in historic area of city. Good school. Good teachers. The “right kind” of citizens in the “right kind” of neighborhood.
Years after the end of the War, death camps closed and partially destroyed.
Beaver Cleaver ruled the screen in a similar neighborhood on tv. Light days. Light challenges in Post-War America.
This son of a Liberator of Dachau Concentration Camp, sat on his hands to avoid reacting.
His fellow student from this good area and good background sat punching the back of his neck.
Bam! Slap! He battered the young man’s head.
Repeating:
“DIRTY JEW! (Wham!)
DIRTY JEEEEEW! (Pow!)
Over and over.
The unaware teacher, seeing a commotion, immediately judged the situation, and sent the beaten student to the Principal’s office for punishment for causing a commotion.
85 years later. After Eva faced such taunts from 10 year old children who used to be her pals.
2023:
October 7, 2023.
The most Jewish people murdered, massacred since the Holocaust, in one day, will now forever be branded in our sites, our minds, our spirits.
Will you react in shame and horror? Have you wept over babies and children and mothers and grandparents?
Once again, tortured and burned like in the death chambers? Infants seared to their momma’s charred body?
“Dirty Jew”.
Does it offend you?
Then do your part to break this unholy cycle.
Wherever you are.
Stand for righteousness and show you care.
Today. Tonight. Don’t let 85 years dim your memory or your heart.
For hatred will never stop at the Jewish nation.
It will come for you.

To celebrate the new year: a photo of survivor Eva Zeno. Escaped Germany at the age of 13. Today she continues to survive war, famine and pestilence in the safety of her snug home in America. Ever cheerful and kind, the Holocaust failed to limit her status today.
May we all follow that path into the coming days as we are continually challenged by virus and economic concerns.
May we hear the words from portions of Psalm 91 as encouragement and security in 2021: “ He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the L-rd, ‘my refuge and my fortress, my G-d, in whom I trust!’ For it is He who delivers you from the snare of the trapper, and from the deadly pestilence.... You will not be afraid of the terror by night or of the arrow that flies by day; or the pestilence that stalks in darkness, or of the destruction that lays waste at noon....”
That sounds sadly like much we face today. Yet the promise thousands of years ago is as true today as then.
When in fear or uncertainty as we approach these coming days, remember Eva Zeno and others who faced far worse threats than most of us will ever encounter. Remember the Creator and Provider who continues to bless today.
Happy New Year. May we soon be able to begin our Museum tours in safety and shalom. Peace to all.