Sunday, November 9, at University Synagogue, 11960 Sunset Blvd. from 7-9 p.m., celebrate Kristallnacht, the Night of the Broken Glass, when Nazis burned the synagogues and smashed Jewish businesses. University Synagogue will feature Dr. John Roth, Fr. Alexei Smith, Councilman Bill Rosendahl, a representative of the Federal Republic of Germany and the clergy of the University Synagogue.
The commemoration will feature an evening with the famed Yanov Torah, from the Yanov work camp. Inmates there were allowed to go into the town of Lvov and bring back provisions. They went to the Jewish cemetery to rescue a Torah buried there. To hide it, the prisoners parceled the Holy Scripture out and smuggled it in pieces into the camp and hid it. A section was read each week.
After the war, the rescued parchment pieces were stitched together and kept in Lvov for the survivors of Yanov. The manuscript was eventually placed in safekeeping with the late Rabbi Erwin Herman. The Torah is now being sent to tell the story of these courageous people of faith.
Dr. John Roth is the featured speaker on “Ethics After Auschwitz.” He is the founding director of the Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights at Claremont McKenna College, author of numerous books and articles, and a renowned speaker on the Holocaust throughout the world.
The public is invited, free of charge. For more information call (310) 472-1255 or email ktrent@unisyn.org
