Program for the Installation Ceremony of Rabbi Yaakov Y. Kermaier as Sixtieth President of The New York Board of Rabbis

This document is the program for the 2010 Tom Lantos Human Rights Prize Award Ceremony, held on Wednesday, November 17, 2010, at Tishman Auditorium, The New School, New York, NY. The ceremony honored Elie Wiesel as the recipient of the prize. The program includes a welcome by Katrina Lantos Swett, video presentations, and musical performances by the Terezín Music Foundation, Charity Sunshine, and Levi Tillemann-Dick. Governor Bill Richardson presented the award, which Elie Wiesel accepted. The program provides biographies of Elie Wiesel and Tom Lantos, details the mission of the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice, and acknowledges various contributors, including founding humanitarians and those involved in video and photographic content. It also lists the Board of Trustees of the Lantos Foundation.

This is a Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) greeting card sent in September 2012 by Michael Oren, then Israel's Ambassador to the United States, and his wife, Sally, to Professor Elie Wiesel and his wife, Marion. The card features the seal of the State of Israel and pre-printed greetings in English ("Wishing you a happy, healthy and peaceful New Year") and Hebrew ("Shanah Tovah U'Metukah"). The Orens added a personal, handwritten note expressing their "deepest wishes" and signed "Michael & Sally." Below the pre-printed names, there is another handwritten Hebrew phrase, "לשנה טובה תכתבו ותחתמו" (May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year). The item includes the original envelope, postmarked September 24, 2012, from Washington, D.C., with the return address of the Embassy of Israel.

Walter Silberstein, was born November 9, 1902 in Stargard, Germany, son of the only rabbi serving that area. He studied engineering and economics in Berlin and Leipzig and nearly completed his doctorate when his University of Leipzig professors were fired for their political views in 1933. After a brief business venture in Prague, he returned to Berlin in 1934, where he lived with his parents until July, 1939, when he left for Shanghai without a visa.

He describes in detail his voyage on a German luxury liner and the shock of arrival in the Hongkew district of Shanghai during a cholera epidemic. He notes the character of the native and newcomer Jewish communities and the political subdivisions of Shanghai. In 1940, his parents arrived, with Japanese visas, and his father served as rabbi to the refugee community. He gives an eyewitness account of their life after the December 1941 occupation by the Japanese, who did not persecute Jews, despite pressure from the Germans. He describes serving with other Jews, Russians and Chinese in the Pao Chia, as air-raid wardens and ghetto guards in summer, 1945. He notes a contented life between the American liberation on September 6, 1945 and the Communist takeover in 1949. In 1950, he left with his mother on a year’s odyssey until returning to Germany. They lived in Displaced Persons camps at Rhön and Föhrenwald; on October 29, 1951, they arrived in the United States.

Rabbi Helmut Frank, born April 15, 1912 in Wiesbaden,Germany, talks about his early interest in Judaism, details pre-war Jewish life including religious education, relations with Gentiles and sporadic antisemitism. He describes education at the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums in Berlin from 1931 to 1937. He also studied at Berlin University and received his Ph.D. from the University of Bonn in 1935. He gives his impression of Leo Baeck and his role in the Reichsvertretung. He explains why many Jews still felt they could survive in Germany.

He was ordained in 1937 and was appointed as a Rabbi in Worms. He provides a history of the synagogue. His vivid, detailed eye-witness account of Kristallnacht, November 9, 1938 includes several vignettes, the burning of his synagogue, damage to his apartment, and lack of reaction by the fire department. He was arrested, along with other Jews. They were compelled to clean the debris in the streets, then transported to Buchenwald. He describes brutality, organization of camp life, lack of medical treatment, effect of incarceration on prisoners’ physical and mental health and religious observance. He mentions Aktion Jews and Jehova’s Witnesses and that Nazis warned released prisoners never to talk about Buchenwald. He worked in a labor squad but was released after his parents got him a visa for China.

Rabbi Frank returned to Worms where he opened a House of Prayer and a school with permission from the German authorities. He describes the extent of the damage in Worms and the continued persecution of the Jewish community. He left for the United States in August, 1939. He discusses the immigration process, postwar conditions in Worms, and restoration of the Worms synagogue in 1961.