Grafenberg Family Stolpersteines

by Richard Gray

I recently had an amazing family bonding time that was all about legacy and cementing an appreciation of my family roots. 

What brought three generations of my family together in body and spirit was the Stolpersteine movement started by German artist Gunter Demnig to remember gypsies and later expanded to Jews and others affected by the National Socialists.  There are now about 70,000 brass cobble stones across Germany and Europe remembering the murdered and disenfranchised each calling out someone’s plight in no uncertain terms.   Read about Stolpersteines online. 

I experienced my grandchildren playing in the ancestral home of my father and grandfather in Gottingen Germany.  A group of German high school students researched, publicly honored and acknowledged my grandfather’s plight.  Our gentile and Jewish hosts felt they were making a real difference.  The current owner of my grandfathers home, where my father grew up, expressed her family’s relationship to my family.  Her grandmother bought the house from my father and his sister in the 1950’s in a transaction that she recognized as not without the marks of history.  One mark being that her family was in the same trade as my family and feeling good about that link and the other recognizing that her father would not answer her questions about what he did during the war. 

Of course realities of the tensions of our times crept in.  We faced the reality that much of my family was murdered or, more positively, ejected by the national socialists in Germany.  We certainly found a generation of righteous gentiles and in our own way helped them build their case in Germany.  We also felt that during the ceremonies we were being observed by apparently less than supportive modern-day national socialists – while we under the supportive wing of municipal leaders and law enforcement.

Just before my trip I mentioned that I was going to Gottingen, Germany at my Temple Emanuel men’s club meeting.  Immediately one fellow said he was most moved by seeing the Stolpersteine stones in his recent trip to Berlin.  Another said he goes regularly to my ancestral town of Gottingen Germany on business. 

Sharing and extending one’s legacy feels so good. 

Work Hard, Play Hard, and Sleep Hard

by Rachenne Nabong

Compliments of the “Village Pulse” and Cherry Ka Yan Lam,
Research Coordinator, NYC Pain Specialists

We’ve all heard the typical sayings used to motivate and comfort an athlete: “You can do it if you put your mind to it!”, “Eyes on the prize!”, and “Hard work beats talent if talent doesn’t work hard!” However, a crucial piece of advice that athletes should be reminded of more often and not take lightly is to get a good night’s rest. It’s funny to think that how well you perform can depend partly on how well you sleep and for how long. Whether it is observing changes in activity from sleep deprivation or sleep extension, multiple studies strongly suggest good sleep for improved athletic performance.

A study at Stanford University was done on the men’s varsity basketball team during the National Collegiate Athletic Association seasons from 2005 to 2008. Data was recorded during the basketball player’s normal sleeping hours and was used as a baseline to establish a sense of normal physical performance. The baseline was approximately 6.8 hours and was maintained for 2-4 weeks. A period of extended sleep was then initiated and lasted for 5-7 weeks. Researchers compared free throw shots and field goal shots made by each participant after a specific number of attempts during baseline sleeping hours and during extended sleeping hours and found an increase in mean shooting percentage for the latter. Extended sleeping hours were also associated with decreased sprint times, faster reaction times, and lower self ratings of fatigue.

Another study focuses on the effects of a lack of sleep. A meta-analysis study described in the article “Sleep, circadian rhythms, and athletic performance” analyzed up to 113 already published articles related to sleep and exercise. Several articles indicated that sleep deprivation ranging from 30 to 60 hours did not affect certain muscle strengths and movements such as knee flexion torque, elbow flexion or extension strength. Endurance of the knee flexors and extensors was also not affected in 40 meter dashes. Although there were exceptions to some muscle movements, the data overall supported that activities of high power output for a short period of time are not affected by sleep deprivation of a couple nights or less. A possible explanation for these outcomes across different research studies is that sleep decreases motivation. Although the tasks mentioned require motivation, they do not require a high level of it. Therefore, sleep deprivation does not come in effect for short but high power activities.

The effect of sleep deprivation on activities of longer duration is another story, however. One study from the meta-analysis reported that activities such as sprinting and 50 minute exercises of repeated deep squats were negatively affected by 30 hours of sleep deprivation. Additional studies showed that two to three nights of sleep deprivation decreased treadmill walking distances as well ergometer cycling distances. The decrease in distance coverage proposes that sleep deprivation leads to accelerated exhaustion and thus, has a significant effect on long duration physical performance.

All of the studies mentioned do not come without their flaws and limitations. There are other factors to consider such as the athletes’ training regimen, diet, and age as well as the sleep debt of the participants and time of day the activity is performed. What can be confirmed is that optimal sleep can potentially help obtain optimal athletic performance. Who knew sleep could have so much power?

Works Cited:

Mah, Cheri D., et al. “The Effects of Sleep Extension on the Athletic Performance of Collegiate Basketball Players.” Sleep, vol. 34, no. 7, 2011, pp. 943–950., doi:10.5665/sleep.1132.

Thun, Eirunn, et al. “Sleep, Circadian Rhythms, and Athletic Performance.” Sleep Medicine Reviews, vol. 23, 2015, pp. 1–9., doi:10.1016/j.smrv.2014.11.003.

Suicide - I really don’t want to talk about this.  Not now.

by Harvey Braunstein

I am writing this now because my next door neighbor of many years, Bob, took his life yesterday.   For the past 10 years, he had not been my next door neighbor.  His lovely wife, Patty retained the house in a separation and then a divorce.  Bob moved up about 40 miles to northwestern Connecticut.  Which is where he killed himself – in the house where he was living with a woman who came to not appreciate him. 

If this were my first brush with suicide, I would not bother you all.  However, over the past 10 years, three of my fellow congregants at the Westchester Jewish Center, Mamaroneck, NY have committed suicide.  They have knowingly and willingly taken their own lives.

Don was the first of these three.  The night before our daughter, Janet, was to be bat-mitzvahed, we received a call from his wife, Roberta, saying that they couldn’t come because Don was missing.  They found him in a motel room in New Jersey, a survivor of a drug overdose; a failed attempt to exit this world with much less than grace.  Had he succeeded, he would have left his wife with a teen-aged daughter and two twin younger daughters.

Three years later, after hospitalization, a divorce and a move to California to live near his brother, Don succeeded. He was in his mid-sixties.  His wife had a lot of patient explaining to do with the kids.

Five years ago, the son of good friends of ours, Arthur, after months of refusing to take his medication, was found in his apartment hanging from the shower curtain.  Or lying over his bed.  The details are shrouded in time.  Arthur was exceedingly bright and worked in a high-profile position, which he felt needed his maximum mental alertness. And this would have been severely dulled by prescription medication. Arthur was 27-28.

Earlier this year, a brilliant endocrinologist, Mona, parked her car near Pelham Bay in the Bronx, walked into the ocean and never came out.  She left a husband and children. I am told that her associates never knew or realized the demons she was fighting.

Two years ago, one of my clients, himself Jewish, told me that he had been trained in suicide Intervention and wanted to work with synagogues, among other groups, to teach how to recognize a potential suicidal individual and notify a professional.  And for those who wanted to learn, to be able to intervene.  The course could be taught on both a higher (extensive) level and on a lesser one (several hours only) as well.  And an overview PowerPoint presentation could be done within a Sunday Brunch framework as well.

I notified my rabbi. For several “reasons” this was tabled. Finally this spring, I arranged for Josh to make a brief presentation. Rabbi had agreed.  The outcome of the presentation was, “Yes, we should do this.” “But first, I need to know what other synagogues in the (general wider) area have done with this.”  The discovered reality was that nobody had; and a scheduled May presentation which would have included returning college students, never happened.  This aspect of synagogue & congregational life is currently tabled.  And the future will be what it will be.

Suicide is apparently something that we wish wouldn’t happen to Jews.  So let’s not talk about it.

The “age bracket most likely to….” is 15-30. But we see it at age 12 – and statistically frequently enough to be able to document.  Teen and pre-teen pressures are real and have real consequences.  Is synagogue just a place to pray and to send our children to Hebrew School, so that they can study, learn how to pray in Hebrew and prepare for their Bar/Bat Mitzvah?  Is adult education confined to Torah Study, Hebrew Literacy, Israel and the like?  Is the phrase, “Insular Jewish Community” a redundancy?

Is the FJMC more comfortable with programs that revolve around tefilin and candles, than a recognition of a disease that takes our children and their parents, just as it takes the lives of their non-Jewish peers?

Imagine Life Initiative

“Imagine Life”  Before it is Too Late

A Mental Wellness Initiative by The Foundation for Jewish Life and the FJMC.

Summary Overview - December 16, 2019

by Gary Smith

 Because of the unrelenting social problem in America of Mental Illness and its companion addictions, the FJMC Foundation for Jewish Life and FJMC are partnering to find ways to help tackle this problem through Education, Prevention, and Creation of Awareness.  We are reaching out with specific initiatives for parents, preschoolers, elementary schoolers, and teenagers.

It is our hope that by creating innovative programming we can make a difference in the future of the lives of young families in our communities. The FJMC Foundation for Jewish Life and FJMC have made it a priority to help destigmatize mental illness and addictions in our synagogues and Jewish communities.