Hi! Livvie and Kessie here. Today we continued walking and again went to our local cafe and sat with mom. Lots of people petted us. The sun was as warm and buzzy as a summer day. Mom said that she heard a lone cricket or cicada last night at midnight on her way home from synagogue.  We would like to tell you that this coming week is the 75th anniversary of Kristallnacht, or Night of Broken Glass. (November 9-19, 1938). This was the night in Nazi Germany and parts of Austria, when the hateful words that were being expressed toward Jews culminated in violence. Many synagogues were burned to the ground and Jewish homes, schools, hospitals, and businesses were attacked as well.  German authorities watched without intervening.

Mom is teaching us about Kristallnacht, and to love everyone we can

Last night, at mom’s synagogue there was a special service  joined by a German Catholic church in the neighborhood. It commemorated Kristallnacht through beautiful choral music that the church and the synagogue sang together. All the synagogue prayers and chants were composed by German Jews of the period around and after Kristallnacht. The cantor, music director  and rabbi all wore religious robes that had been worn by their counterparts in the Mannheim Synagogue, pre-1938.  The inspiring sermons/drashot that the priest and the rabbi gave inspired everyone to reach out and never let anything like this happen again to ANYONE.

House in our neighborhood that reminded mom of Mannheim Synagogue

We are pretty historically aware doggies! Mom says this is important, and we should make sure we help whenever we can. She says that it was touching that the German Catholic church and the synagogue worked together to make this gorgeous music.  Thanks for listening,

Doesn’t this tree look like a big foot?

All our love,

Livvie and Kessie