Ken LaVetter

I want all of you to know what a great time I had seeing and talking with you at the reunion.  Here's wishing you a 2016 - and beyond - filled with fabulous health, heartfelt happiness and abundance.

Beverly Parries (Rideout)

It's hard to believe a year and a half have passed since the reunion. I enjoyed seeing so many of you and look forward to the next reunion. Just wanted to update you on happenings in my life since then. My beloved husband Thomas passed away on February 5, 2015 from lung cancer and COPD. I was blessed to spend 16 wonderful years with him. This past September I was in Cleveland to help my mom celebrate her 100th birthday! All things considered, she is still enjoying watching the Browns and Cavaliers games and is well taken care of at home by my sisters. I just celebrated my 70th birthday in December! Wow, still trying to get used to that, but I am alive and well and still loving life in Las Vegas!

Betsy Dennis (Frank)

Beverly, so sorry about your husband. But much congratulations to your mom.  Who would have thought we could be reaching 70! Betsy

Evie Fertman (Braman)

I'm very sorry to have to pass news about two deaths in our class.

Leslie Kyman Baumoel died on October 27 in 2015, losing her battle with cancer.

Doug Heinlen passed away several days ago in Sarasota, Florida after a four and a half year struggle with pancreatic cancer.

I have partial information for both as to preferences for donations if anyone would like to make any in memory of Leslie and/or Doug.  I am waiting for addresses for acknowledgements to be sent and will write again soon to complete this information for everyone.

Evie

Dana Shepard (Treister)

Evie~  Although I didn't know either of them well, thanks for sharing this sad class update...  Yet another reminder of the preciousness of every single day.

Judi Bachman (Holtze)

This is indeed sad news.  I have known leslie since elementary school, altho had no contact with her.  I did sit with her at the 40 th reunion.  My condolences to her family.

Betsy Dennis (Frank)

As we get older more and more of us will pass on. May their memories be for a blessings. Betsy

Gary D Hermann

Sorry to hear about both Leslie and Doug.    I have particularly fond memories of Doug from home room.  High school wasn't always a great time for me, but Doug was a person who I looked forward to talking with--he was always friendly in a very sincere way.    As it turned out, we had a later connection because I ended up coaching his nephew in ice hockey years later and we had some laughs about that at the reunion. A very nice guy who I'm sure will be missed by a lot of people.  

Beverly Parries (Rideout)

We have lost another classmate. I was informed yesterday of the passing of Veronica (Pratt) Pierce on March 9, 2016 from cancer. (The obituary appeared in the Plain Dealer on March 16 and 17.) Ronnie and I were best friends from junior high school until now, and we shared the same birthday. We have stayed in contact over the years and would get together whenever I was visiting my family in Cleveland. Ronnie, Pat Grayson and I had dinner together last September when I was home for mom's 100th birthday. I will miss seeing her on my annual visits to Cleveland.

Dana Shepard (Treister)

THANKS for sharing this sad news - I remember Ronnie well from school, but probably haven't seen her or heard any news from graduation until now. 

I just google the obit, and came up with this info - for those of you who are in Cleveland:

MEMORIAL SERVICE TODAY 4 PM FOLLOWED BY RECEPTION UNTIL 7 AT BRUNNER SANDEN DEITRICK FUNERAL HOME RECEPTION CENTER AT 8466 MENTOR AVE IN MENTOR

DANA

Dana Shepard (Treister)

And, Beverly, belated best wishes to your mother on her hundredth birthday inSeptember!!

Joseph G Blake

May I wish our Jewish classmates all the best for Passover and may you celebrate next year in Jerusalem.

I recently got this link about Hamilton and Passover. 

http://forward.com/the-assimilator/339017/hamilton-haggadah-puts-broadway-in-your-seder/

Some of you may have seen the rap musical Hamilton which has been hugely successful. The article refers to using some of the tunes from the musical to wrote about Passover.

So glad to see that Hamilton will stay on the 10 dollar bill and that Jackson will be demoted as he should be.

Happy Passover.

Dietz Hasso Ziechmann

Thanks Joe for your comments. Alexander Hamilton, a practicing Presbyterian, learned religion at a heder (one-room Jewish school house on St. Kitts, or was it St. Nevis?) He was a political and business partner with Dr. Isaac Roosevelt (one of my ancestors, from the Hyde Park branch of the family), co-founders of the Bank of New York and fellow members of the New York State Assembly . (The Ken Burns-Geoffrey Ward PBS documenatary made it appear as if the Roosevelt family involvement with statecraft and politics only began with TR.)

Betsy Dennis (Frank)

Thanks Joe for your greetings and fostering the discussion on Alexander Hamilton. The synagogue on St. Thomas has been continually in existence since the late 1700's so the Virgin Islands have a long history with regard to the Jewish population.

Dana Shepard (Treister)

Marianne Coplan (Schapiro)

Thanks for this enlightening info, Dana! (And let's get together in Chicago again soon!)

Betsy Dennis (Frank)

Thanks for sharing. The synagogue in St. Thomas was fascinating. Sounds like a similar story a century later. Betsy

Phyllis Hammer (Gubanc)

Thank you for all of this information. I'm sitting here today, wearing my Shaker Heights Raiders sweatshirt, and realizing how much it means to me to be "from Shaker Heights."

Gary D Hermann

Thanks for the very interesting information.   

Joseph G Blake

I used to travel to Brazil in the 90s and learned some interesting details about Jewish immingration to the New World. The oldest synagogue in the Ameircas is in Recife, a port city in northern Brazil. when they settled there, that part of Brazil was under Dutch control. The Dutch were also the first to allow Jews to have synagogues in western Europe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kahal_Zur_Israel_Synagogue

I was told that Jews in Brazil and possibly elsewhere were often forced to change their names. In Recife they opted for last names that were flowers, trees and vegetables etc. The history of Sephardic Jews reflects a similar response to Spanish persecution in the same period in comparable ways. And even to this day one of the most prominent families in Bahrain has Sephardic roots. For those in NYC the furniture and rug dealer Savavieh has Sephardic roots ( and I think they came here from Persia). 

Dietz, thanks for your story. Just now I forget Hamilton's religion at birth but he was an Anglican/Episcopalian when he died. He is buried in Trinity Church graveyard at Broad and Wall in NYC. Oddly on the night before his fatally stupid duel with Burr he received communion at an Episcopal service. 

Patricia Ann Richards (Armstrong)

Always enjoy information about things like this, Dana and Joe.   Many thanks.  Hope all is well with you both.  

Betsy Dennis (Frank)

And when I did a Charorses recipe from Surinam I learned when Jews were expelled from Recife in the 1600's they went to Surinam. 

Dana Shepard (Treister)

Wow -- all fascinating information for sure!  Thanks everybody; and thanks especially to Joe for getting this started, in  the true spirit of ecumenical solidarity...  As far as the "oldest" synagogue in the Americas, I believe Willemstad, Curacao is actually home to the oldest synagogue in CONTINUOUS use.  Mikve Israel was founded in 1651. My husband Michael and I attended Shabbat services there Fri 3/2/12 - about 4 yrs ago.  The attached photo will clarify why I have no other pictures!  We were told sand covers the floor for a couple of reasons, one as a remembrance of the 40 yrs Jews spent wandering the desert - which brings us right back to the Passover Seder story!  .

More historic Jewish sites we visited in Willemstad:
*Beth Haim Cemetery , oldest in walled Jewish Cemetery of the Western Hemisphere dating back to 1659.
*Monqui Maduro Museum and Library , situated in an old Landhuis [Plantation house] since 1853 in the hands of the same Jewish Family
*Curacao Liqueur Factory , home of the world famous blue Curacao, founded by a Jewish family; and most current shareholders are Jewish.
*Old Jewish Neighborhood of Schaarloo 1850 -1970 .
*Mikve Israel Emanuel and Jewish Cultural Historical Museum.

DANA

Betsy Dennis (Frank)

Dana, When we were in St. Thomas, the tour guide at the synagogue there told us the sand floor was reminiscent of Jews hiding under the floors to avoid detection. So many stories that are rich in memory. Betsy

Ken LaVetter

Not to alarm anyone, but Tom Osher and Richard Silver may be the same person.  Check photos.