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Honor Wall

In honor or memory of your loved one, or friends, or your Yiddish heritage.

Maya Wax Cavallaro

In Memory Of My Cousin

Florence “Faygy” Ruderman

Scholar, New Yorker, fluent Yiddish-speaker and writer. May her memory be for a blessing.

January 2022

Rivka Greenberg

In Honor Of

Leor

Dearest Leor, this is the last bar mitzvah donation in honor of your day. You provided such joy and happiness to me. May you continue to be well and thrive. Love Bubbie

January 2022

Stephen McNeil

In Appreciation For

Armando Paone

My Yiddish teacher.

January 2022

Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb

In honor of

Erik Bendix

For all the dancing he taught my community!

January 2022

Nicholas Schommer

In memory of

Rev. Cyril O. Schommer S. J.

My Uncle. He was an inspired violinist who played glorious instruments loaned by the Jacobson Family. (Buffalo, NY – d. 1983)

January 2022

Lainie Friedman

In memory of

Eric J. Artzt

January 2022

Members of the Flisik Salon

In honor of

Ben Stern

who helps us to celebrate and improve our Yiddish

January 2022

Anita Feinstein

In honor of

Judy Kunofsky

Thank you for your hard work in helping keep Yiddish culture alive and relevant!

December 2021

Karen Libman

In memory of

Roslyn Bresnick-Perry

a wonderful storyteller and keeper of Yidishkayt.

December 2021

Lita Krowech

In memory of my mother

Selma Krowech

who died in May at age 97. She treasured her Jewish roots. She took my grandmother to Yiddish plays, which I’m not sure she completely understood. She loved to traveled and researched and found distant relatives whose parents or grandparents originated in Poland or Vilna where her family once lived.

December 2021

Fran Quittel

My last name is Quittel which derives from the yiddish word kvitl or (pl) kvitlekh, like the French quittance (receipt) or the German quittung (also receipt.) You can ask for a “kvitl” from a rabbi (for example: “I want my daughter to marry a doctor”) or put a kvitl in The Wall in Jerusalem, where they are periodically taken out and buried at the Mount of Olives. I love having this name because I am also a writer.

December 2021

Sheila Resseger

In memory of my parents

Benjamin & Ida Brown Berman

My father, Benjamin Berman (Beryl Birman), left with his mother and two brothers from the shtetl Racioz in Poland in 1923 when he was 10 years old, so the family could be re-united with his father, who had come to America two years earlier. My father was a warm, honest, hard-working family man, who would do anything for his children. My mother, Ida Brown Berman, was born into a family who had also immigrated from Poland to America. She was a loving and devoted mother. Both are deeply missed.

December 2021

Joshua & Diane Wirtschafter

In gratitude for

Susan Duhan Felix’s

always joyous participation at KlezCalifornia events.

December 2021

Naomi Newman

In memory of the multi-talented

Corey Fischer

Together, with Albert Greenberg, we founded A Traveling Jewish Theatre. Corey was my close friend and artistic partner for over 50 years. I miss him immensely.

December 2021

Rachamana Rivqa

In memory of

Max J Roasbach

My zeyde.

December 2021

Robin Braverman

In memory of my grandparents

Pauline & Bundy (Andrew) Lang

December 2021

Janis Lightman

In HONOR of my Mother

Arlene Miller

who worked at the National Center for Jewish films for 22 years. Her love of Yiddish, Yiddish film and her work there was a tribute to her parents and ancestors. Thank you to KlezCA for continuing this work and bringing joy to all who love and appreciate Yiddishkayt.

December 2021

Barbara Kuperstein

In memory of

Joseph & Sara Kuperstein

December 2021

Evie Groch

In memory of my parents

Joseph & Faye Goldberg

who raised me in Yiddish and ignited my love for it.

December 2021

Barbara Wezelman

In memory of

Rose & Ernie Wezelman

December 2021

Susan Frank

In honor of

Josh Horowitz

Josh has given us the surprises and delights of his “Promiscuous Jewish Music” series via Zoom all through this crazy pandemic. Who can retell the fun and wonders?

December 2021

Sonia Zyl

In memory of my father

Perec Zylberberg

who was a Bundist and a strong believer in Yiddish language and culture his whole life. He would have been so happy to see so many people, especially young people, participating in Yidishkayt.

מײַן טאַטע, פּרץ זילבערבערג, איז געווען אַ בונדיסט און אַ שטאַרקער גלויביקער אין ייִדישער שפּראַך און קולטור זיין גאַנץ לעבן. ער וואלט געווען אזוי צופרידן צו זען אַזוי פֿיל מענטשן, ספּעציעל יונגע מענטשן, באַטייליקן זיך היינט אין יידישקייט

October 2021

Susan Katz

In memory of my Great-Grandpa

Ruben Smith

who was born in 1873 in Russia/Lithuania, and became “Smith'”in 1890 upon arrival in the USA–he was a blacksmith. I first met him and Great-Grandma Sarah in their Los Angeles home when I was 11. He took us all to his blacksmith shop, an L.A. anachronism, complete with pin-up girl calendars, hearth, and bellows. At 92 he still made custom tools for the City, and was a front page feature in the L.A. Times. He proudly told me he never shoed horses, and gave me a set of knives, which I still cherish, along with his memory.

September 2021

Dorrit Geshuri

In honor of

Judy Kunofsky

and all the time and energy she has put into promoting Yiddish culture.

September 2021

Sheila Resseger

In loving memory of my grandfather

David Berman

who was born in 1884 in a shtetl in Poland. He had a horse and wagon and would deliver groceries from Warsaw to the shtetl. He happened to drop his cap in a market square and so was arrested as a spy. Then he was sent to prison in Siberia. There, he was in jail for eighteen months and then miraculously released. He persevered through much hardship to make it back to his family in the shtetl, and finally came to America, sending for his family two years later.

September 2021

Ellen Deacon

In tribute and honor to

Rabbi Levi A. Olan

of Temple Emanu-El in Dallas Texas (1948-1970) who offered a sane and enlightening voice to the mind of a little gentile girl who listened to his weekly radio messages all through the 1950’s, and learned, and was thus opened up to the beauty, sense and groundedness of Jewish perspectives and practices. May his memory be for a blessing.

July 2021

Esther Erman

In Loving Memory of my Parents

Gucia & Mulek Gerstenfeld

Holocaust survivors from Poland, each was the sole survivor of their family – most relatives perishing in Treblinka or Auschwitz. My parents met and married in a displaced persons’ camp in Germany and gave me birth in Stuttgart. In our tenement apartment on the Lower Eastside, my parents taught me my first language, Yiddish. Polish was always the language of secrets. Once I started kindergarten in the Bronx, I abandoned speaking Yiddish for English. My parents always spoke Yiddish to me. They’d be thrilled to know I’m reconnecting.

June 2021

Philip “Fishl” Kutner

In Memory of

Pearl “Perele” Kutner

Mom is my hero. She was born and raised in Tiktin (Tikocyn), Poland. After WWI she came to America and married Max who was a WWI veteran. Mama spoke Yiddish to her four boys and was fluent in six languages with English being her poorest one. On our farm she did all the cooking and cleaning besides helping with our chores. She was a pillar of strength.

June 2021

Elaine Elinson

For My Mother

May Gomberg Elinson

Remembered for her warmth, kindness and generous spirit. With her favorite expression “Esn, fresn, gezesn,” she welcomed family and friends from far-flung places to share our table and enjoy her kneydlekh, stuffed cabbage, and mandlbrot.

May 2021