Email from Rabbi Chaim Miller to Marissa Poock with book blurbs for 'Turning Judaism Outwards'

A letter from President Ronald Reagan to Elie Wiesel, dated May 15, 1981. Reagan expresses pleasure at meeting Mr. and Mrs. Wiesel and other members of the American Jewish Community at the White House. He highlights the significance of the annual "Days of Remembrance" as a national reminder of the Nazi Holocaust. Reagan thanks Mr. Wiesel for the thoughtful gift of an inscribed copy of his biography, "A Jew Today," and concludes with warm best wishes to the Wiesels and their associates on the United States Holocaust Memorial Council.

Aaron I. Reichel, an attorney, writes to Prof. Wiesel to request an interview for a chapter in the forthcoming English translation of the biography of Chief Rabbi Emeritus Shear Yashuv Cohen. The biography is already in its second Hebrew printing, and the new chapter will focus on Rabbi Cohen's impact through his international travels as a fundraiser, lecturer, and advocate for Jewish unity. Reichel provides a list of questions for Prof. Wiesel, covering various aspects of his interactions and impressions of Rabbi Cohen, including personal anecdotes, his roles as a scholar and unifier, and invitations. Prof. Wiesel is asked to provide responses that would be interesting or inspirational for the book and can choose to respond by phone or in person. Reichel prefers to be contacted by email or snail mail at his Kew Gardens address, or by text message.

This document is a photograph of a sign or banner, likely displayed at a religious institution. The sign announces a "Mezuzah Affixing Ceremony" (מעמד קביעת מזוזות) for "Heichal Mishneh Halachos - Ungvar" (היכל משנה הלכות - אונגוואר). The ceremony is stated to be under the leadership of "His Holiness our Master, the Rebbe, shlit"a" (כ"ק מרן אדמו"ר שליט"א) and takes place in "the holy city of Jerusalem" (עיה"ק ירושלים תובב"א). The design of the sign features visual elements resembling stage curtains, classical columns, and a sky backdrop, suggesting a formal and significant event within the Hasidic community.

Writing to her sister-in-law Maria, Rebecca shows support for Maria's sister, Sara, who recently lost a son. She also shares Julia Hoffman's living plans after the death of her father and includes a receipt for expenses.

Armand Mednick, named “Avrum” by his Yiddish-speaking parents, was born in 1933 into a close, extended family in Brussels, Belgium. He grew up as a stranger in a non-Jewish neighborhood, often taunted by anti-Semites influenced by the fascist Rex Party. At age six, he was hospitalized with tuberculosis until May 1940, when his father, an active political leftist, fled with his family to France. His father was drafted into the French Army, deserted and placed his son, renamed “Armand”, in a sanitarium at Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne Mountains. Armand’s father, mother and baby sister hid nearby in Volvic, where they passed as Christians. When Armand recovered, he joined his family and attended Catholic school. At home, there was some Jewish observance and Armand recalls walking for seven miles with his father to attend a clandestine seder. Armand’s father joined the French resistance in 1944 and the family returned to Brussels in 1945, where Armand was the first Bar Mitzvah celebrant after the war. The Mednick family moved to Philadelphia in 1947. Buchenwald death lists confirmed that most of their extended family of 55 relatives had been killed. Armand became a potter and teacher and produced a series of clay reliefs with symbolic Holocaust images, in an attempt to exorcise his painful childhood memories. See also interview with his father, Bernard S. Mednicki. Interviewee: MEDNICK, Armand Date: June 15, 1983