New York Times:  From Auschwitz, a Torah as Strong as Its Spirit

The back story of how a Torah got from the fetid barracks of Auschwitz to the ark of the Central Synagogue at Lexington Avenue and 55th Street in New York City is one the pastor of the Lutheran church down the street sums up as simply “miraculous.”  Click here for the article.

JTA:  Non-Jewish Germans preserve memories by saving cemeteries

Many non-Jewish Germans have tried to restore dignity to Jewish cemeteries, but Eckehart Ruthenberg's efforts range farther than most. Since 1987, he has been "adopting" cemeteries across the German state of Brandenburg and into western Poland.  Click here to read the article.

The Forward:  A Diary Found, and a World Recovered

The lilt of a Yiddish-Irish brogue is not heard often in northeastern Ohio. But thanks to the efforts of Eudice Landy Gilman, we can now connect Jewish Cleveland to the Emerald Isle. Gilman, 91 — who remembers sitting on the porch of her family’s cottage in Chippewa Lake, Ohio, and listening to her grandmother’s stories about life in Ireland — recently resurrected an artifact from her family’s past, bringing those stories to a much wider audience. Gilman’s grandfather, Hyam (Hyman) Singer, a cantor who left Riga in 1888 and immigrated to Dublin, and then to Chicago in 1901, left behind a journal of writings in Yiddish and Hebrew.  Click here for the story and some of the photographs from the journal. 

JTA:  San Francisco's new museum owns no art, focuses on ideas

The Contemporary Jewish Museum, set to open June 8 in its new San Francisco location, is a mind-blowingly grand celebration of what Jewish sensibilities can contribute to the American cultural experience.  Click here to read the article. 

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