The Brooklyn Jewish Historical Initiative places great priority on conducting oral histories and hopes to expand to video histories. Its aim is to make these histories accessible on the internet and to have them catalogued and indexed to resource lists as well as permanently added to the archives of the Brooklyn Historical Society (BHS).

BHS President Deborah Schwartz, “who had been sparklingly participating in all the meetings,” according to the Brooklyn Jewish Historical Initiative’s website, helped forge a partnership between the two organizations. Together, they plan to work on producing public events, such as lectures, symposia, tours, publications and exhibits highlighting the lives and achievements of Jews in Brooklyn.

During the second annual Brooklyn Jewish Hall of Fame on Nov. 15, City Councilman Stephen Levin told the gathering that he has allocated funds to support the oral history project.

This year’s inductees represent a wide array of professions: several are entertainers: Neshama Carlebach, who is continuing the legacy of her dad, Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, also beloved for his musicianship; Jake Ehrenreich; and Brooklyn native Lainie Kazan, who at the last minute was unable to attend. Also honored were real estate developer Bruce Ratner, matrimonial attorney Raoul Lionel Felder; jurist, attorney and educator Judge Alice Fisher Rubin; and food moguls Lloyd Handwerker, for his family that founded Nathan’s Famous, and Simon Bergson, whose Manhattan Beer Distributors expanded from a small warehouse into outlets throughout the NYC metropolitan area. Journalist and author Nicole Dweck and Jack Laub, decorated U.S. Merchant Marine who had a hand in the liberation of France during World War II and went on to become a pioneer pharmacologist and enjoy a long basketball career, were also inducted.

Fyvush Finkel, a charter Hall of Famer in 2015, was also memorialized for the laughter and joy he brought through his career in the theater.

Forum Will Address Nonviolent, Christian Responses to Evil

What is a Christian response to the reality of evil?

This topic, which has fascinated the Rev. Steven Paulikas for a long time, has become more urgent in the wake of shootings and other violent attacks against people across the U.S., and a particularly acrimonious Presidential election year.

Fr. Paulikas, who is rector of All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Park Slope, is examining the Christian response to evil as part of his doctoral degree program. He will be facilitating a community-wide presentation next week titled, The Good Response to Evil: Envisioning a way forward after the election.”

Fr. Paulikas is a doctoral candidate in theology at Oxford University. His essay, titled “How Should We Respond to ‘Evil’?” was published in the Op-Ed section of The New York Times last summer. This dialogue, that the Episcopal parishes of South Brooklyn are organizing, is a new program exploring the deep spiritual roots of nonviolent resistance. It take place on Thursday, Dec. 8, at from 7-9 p.m. at All Saints’ Church, (corner of Seventh Avenue and Seventh Street) in Park Slope. The dialogue will include a discussion of the efficacy of nonviolent resistance to confront evil actions.

Fr. Paulikas told the Brooklyn Heights Press on Nov. 28, “I have a personal fear that political rhetoric about evil is used to perpetuate and incite violence.” In his op-ed, Paulikas had written, “These questions led me to the work of Paul Ricoeur, a prolific philosopher whose concerns grew, in part, from his contact with manifest evil in 20th-century France. Ricoeur was orphaned when his father was killed in World War I.

“While serving in the French military, he was captured by the Germans in 1940 and spent five years as a prisoner of war. Like that of other European intellectual contemporaries whose lives were shaped by the unrelenting violence of their time, Ricoeur’s work strives to create channels through which strangers and enemies can observe a common humanity in one another…Because evil exists beyond the limits of reason, what matters for Ricoeur is not that we identify evil, but that we respond to it appropriately,” he wrote.

When the clergy of the Episcopal deanery met recently, they wondered “what sort of wisdom and knowledge the Church would have to offer the community at large. We decided we would have this event, so that the people would have the opportunity to discuss this important topic, and begin to coalesce around the values of non-violent resistance which have been so successful in the past, in this country and others, in terms of effecting social good in the world.”

Paulikas told the Heights Press that non-violence “is a Christian value, and Christians have used it effectively, especially in the Civil Rights movement. It’s very important to us — the Episcopal clergy in the area — that we understand there is a spirituality of justice that enables people to persevere through difficult times, and to give any movement a shape and fold. We’re hoping to open up that perspective to the community. And we’re also very open to being shaped and formed by the community outside of the walls of the church — outside our own opinions and presumptions.”

While the sponsoring parishes — including Ascension Church in Greenpoint — are all Episcopal, the entire community is invited to this forum, which will incorporate food and fellowship, and singing.

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