***Please sign up for our Yom HaShoah ceremony on Sunday evening, May 5th at 6:30pm: https://jccjapan.jp/event-registration/
No newsletter next week***
Japan’s role in the Shoah usually begins and ends with a discussion about Righteous Among the Nations Chiune Sugihara who as a young diplomat in Kovno, Lithuana issued visas saving thousands of Jewish souls. While the vigorous historiographical debate continues on Sugihara-san until today, much less attention is paid to the efforts of the Jewish community already extant in Japan who worked tirelessly on behalf of their betrodden brethren.
Yad VaShem’s archives contain the historical papers of past JCC president Anatole Ponevejsky (later Anatol Ponve) which paint a multivalent world of advocacy and desperate hope that somehow European Jewry could be rescued. The documents show exhausted businessmen organizing visa paperwork at the Far East office of HICEM, a confluence of three Jewish migration associations, and the ‘Yiddishe Mammes’ of the Ladies Committee doing their best to welcome the new arrivals.
With an eye towards posterity in what he must have known were historic times, Ponve mixes seriousness with gallows humor. One note reads: “The Hardest Task. To whom extensions of permits of stay can be granted? Committee member, Mr. Kolberg, at his difficult work.” In another, Ponve writes self-deprecatingly “Taking up of documents before going to the consulates in Tokyo or Yokohama: Who knows, maybe I’ll succeed!” Separated by a continent from the horrors of Europe and an ocean from the American Jewish establishment, Japan’s ‘Jewcom’ played a vital role in rescuing the famed Mirrer Yeshiva from certain destruction but fell devastatingly short in their much larger ambitions.
Ponve’s documents provide intricate detail into exactly how passport and visa information was cabled to embassies, budgets balanced, train and steamship tickets purchased and accommodation arranged for the arriving refugees. These mundane activities often go unacknowledged in the broader historical narrative. But one can’t help but be inspired by Jews of all nationalities and observance levels doing their utmost to save lives out of a sense of religious and ancestral kinship.
Nearly a century later, the global Jewish population has still not rebounded to the levels of 1933. But for the people who Ponve and countless others helped, they and their descendants owe no less than their lives to the heroic work performed by Japan’s Jewcom, HICEM office and Ladies Committee. Of course, Ponve himself would never have taken credit for what was in his mind the only right thing to do. There was no choice in the matter.
Stranded by the Attack on Pearl Harbor after having visited San Francisco in April 1941, Ponve became an even more vociferous advocate given his ability to travel directly to the headquarters of American Jewish organizations instead of merely cabling from overseas. His yahrzeit plaque outside our sanctuary and Beit Ponve of Asia House in Tel Aviv pay testament to his incredible life.
With the indefatigable work of our spiritual forebears like Anatol Ponve in mind along with everything and everyone we lost, we invite you to join us for the JCC’s annual Yom HaShoah ceremony on Sunday night, May 5th at 6:30pm. Registration details: https://jccjapan.jp/event-registration/
Services
Kabbalat Shabbat
Friday, April 26th
Services: 6:00pm
Dinner by reservation: 7:00pm
Shabbat Chol HaMoed Passover
Saturday, April 27th
Kiddush sponsored by Wasker Family in honor of their brother teaching English in Hokkaido
Services: 10:00am
Kiddush: 12:00pm
Passover Day 7 – Shōwa Day
Monday, April 29th
Services: 10:00am
Kiddush: 12:00pm
Kabbalat Shabbat
Friday, May 10th
Services: 6:00pm
Dinner by reservation: 7:00pm
Shabbat Parshat Kedoshim
Saturday, May 11th
Kiddush sponsored by the Scheer Family in celebration of Akiva Levi’s First Birthday
Services: 10:00am
Kiddush: 12:00pm
Friday Night Dinner Reservations can made on our website: https://jccjapan.jp/shabbat-meals-sign-up/
Events
Yom HaShoah Commemoration at the JCC
Sunday, May 5th at 6:30pm
Registration Details: https://jccjapan.jp/event-registration/
Film Screening: The Wolf of Baghdad
A graphic memoir by Carol Isaacs (The Surreal McCoy cartoonist), comes to life panel by panel as a motion comic (animated slideshow) with its own soundtrack of Judeo-Arabic and Iraqi music. A unique audio-visual journey through a Jewish family’s memories of their lost Iraqi homeland.
Followed by Q&A with the creator of the film Carol Isaacs moderated by the JCC’s Rachel Walzer.
Tuesday, May 7th at 7:00pm
Registration Details: https://jccjapan.jp/event-registration/
If you have an idea for an event or a topic you would like to share with others, please visit our website: https://jccjapan.jp/event-committee-inquiry/
Announcements
Mazal Tov to the Sloyer Family on the birth of Mila Sakura!
Congratulations to the Yanay, Travin and Altschuler Families on their Afikomen victories. Teamwork makes the dream work. We express our appreciation to the Staiman Family for generously donating our Afikomen Grand Prize this year…Robux!
Thank you to Izaki-san, Lena, Nakasone-san, Tal, Ayako-san and the army of support staff who helped make our Passover seders the best they’ve ever been. Over both nights, we hosted nearly 300 people and sang the Ma Nishtana in over a dozen languages. We welcomed back JCC members from the Shōwa and Heisei Eras as well as first time visitors who came to us straight from the airport. An additional debt of gratitude to everyone who helped make the minyan on Tuesday morning when we enjoyed beautiful Chazzanut and Torah/Haftarah readings.
None of the above would have been possible without our members whose support enabled us to organize our largest Passover shipment yet. Your commitment to sustain Jewish life in Tokyo does not go unnoticed or unappreciated.
The JCC was honoured (British/Commonwealth spelling) to host Australian MP Julian Leeser and family for seder. May we merit such wisdom in the Diet.
Otsukaresamadeshita to the JCCers who hosted their own seders inviting wide swathes of the community. Yashar koach on your commitment to live the values found in the Passover Haggadah’s ‘Ha Lachma Anya’ of ‘all who are hungry, come and eat’.
The newsletter will be on hiatus next week for Gōruden Wīku. Safe travels or better yet, have a nice staycation, avoid the traffic and join us for Yom HaShoah on Sunday night.
Yiddish Club with Jack Halpern: Please contact Jack at jack@cjki.org if you are interested to join. All levels are welcome, from beginner to advanced. Much more than just language, the club’s monthly meetings explore Yiddish culture as well.
Shabbat Chol HaMoed Pesach
Candle Lighting: 6:05pm
Havdala: 7:05pm