Then And Now
At Jewish Newport
Shavuot, 2019
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Rabbi Marc Mandel’s Dvar at Newport’s Touro Synagogue on the first day of Shavuot this year was succinct, yet inspiring.
He posed the question, “Why was the Torah given in the desert, and not in the land of Israel?” He gave two answers.
His first explanation was, “The Torah is open to everyone like the desert is.” It did not belong to a part of the people of Israel, such as the kohanim (priests). It belongs to all the people of Israel, and even to the entire world.
Another explanation, he said, was, “The Torah challenges us to create a community out of the desert. We are supposed to build.” The Torah is about building a society, and giving it in a settled land would dilute its impact.
On the second day Rabbi Mandel said, “Shavuot is one of the four Jewish new years. On Shavuot we are judged for fruit.” Then he spoke about the environment. “Our parents and grandparents,” he said, leading up to Yizkor, “did not have the luxury of worrying about the environment. But we must.”
In both explanations, the burden is upon us to make things better, with the guidance and inspiration of the one above us. Are we up to the challenge?
On the first day Rita Slom sponsored a special kiddish. As is well known, sponsoring kiddush and speaking at kiddish often overlap. Since Rita is my cousin, I was expecting great things, and was not disappointed. Rita reviewed the past, and looked to the future,
“I am so happy to see all of you here on this Shavuot afternoon. It is my honor to sponsor this luncheon in honor of what would have been by husband Aaron’s 100th birthday and his yahrzeit 16 years ago. My sons and their families all celebrated his birthday, but they could not be here today.
“Aaron and I and our sons were all born in the Newport Hospital, went to Hebrew School here and Aaron and the boys were bar mitzvahed here. In fact, Bernice Gamins Schweber and I were confirmed in this synagogue. I have never lived any place else - a real native.
“We all graduated from Rogers High School and this is what I want to talk about today. Aaron was born in 1919, a year after the big war, and graduated from high school in 1936. I was born in 1933. Obviously, we were not high school sweethearts. But we did meet at Touro and eventually dated and married!
“We often wonder how many Jewish families were here in those years. For those of you who read the Touro Update, you would have seen a picture taken in 1927 of a group who were at a Jewish community picnic. Aaron and his parents and his friends are in the front rows and my parents and my oldest sister Doris are in one of the rows in the middle. This was not the entire Jewish community. There was another synagogue in Newport at that time.
“I recently read Aaron’s yearbook and found that there were 21 Jewish students in his class. Of that number, only ten continued living in Newport. Many of them were active in the community and this synagogue. Two of them became president of Congregation Jeshuat Israel - my husband Aaron and Bernard Kusinitz. Two of them had sons who became presidents - Bea Berman Bazarksy’s son David and Irving Tobak’s son Paul Tobak who is currently co-president. Eleanor Meirowitz Davis graduated two years after Aaron, and her husband Seymour Davis was president. So were Mort Kosch and Samuel “Sonny” Friedman.
"Fred Alofsin became mayor, and my husband Aaron was on the school committee for 19 years.
"In my high school class there were 10 Jewish kids and only two of us, Michael Josephson and myself, are still in Newport. I was the first woman president of Touro Synagogue.
"In looking at my sons’ classes, there were not that many Jews, primarily because by then we had three high schools on the island. But in looking through the names of those in Rogers, I don’t think that any of those graduates still live in Newport. A sign of the times were the young ones have all moved out of town for jobs or for marriage.
"I am so proud of our Hebew School and all of the volunteers and children who are there. When we worry, ‘Who will be here after we are all gone,’ we can see that they are coming up behind us and hopefully will stay in Newport.
"Thanks for joining us today.”
Shabbat Shalom from Jewish Newport!
Thanks to Rabbi Mandel and Rita Slom for sharing, and to Beth Ginsburg Levine for editing. Touro Synagogue - Newport, RI @rogershighschoolnewportri
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