Daily Archives: November 4, 2005

Psychiatrist’s Legacy Continues the Search for Meaning in Life

A century after the birth of Viktor E. Frankl – who spent three years in four Nazi deaths camps, and used his experiences to transform psychotherapy into a discipline that encouraged patients to resist despair and embrace life – proponents of his ideas are using his approach for everything from treating terminally-ill cancer patients to improving workplace dynamics.

This was the central theme running through an Oct. 30 conference held at the University of Pennsylvania that celebrated the life of Frankl, an Austrian-born Jew who died in 1997 at the age of 92. He would have turned 100 this past March.

Some Florida residents in the dark after the ravages of Hurricane Wilma

Thousands of elderly Florida residents, including many elderly Jews, were still without power this week as a result of Hurricane Wilma.

Last Friday, most Florida Power and Light customers were still without electricity, rendering hurricane cleanup and Shabbat preparations arduous.

The disruptions from Wilma, which swept through the region on Oct. 24, were just the latest from a storm that hindered Sukkot celebrations through South Florida, a region densely populated with Jews.

Chabad class to explore modern relevance of Holocaust

People all over the world are signing up for a six-week class that is defined more by what it is not than what it is. It’s not a history, not an explanation, not about the pain and suffering, organizers say. Rather, it’s a “journey into the intense realm of meaning.”

“Beyond Never Again: The Holocaust —- A View From the Soul” explores the ways in which the Nazis’ concerted effort to obliterate European Jewry during World War II affects this generation.

“We know what happened,” said Rabbi Yossi Bryski, who will conduct the series of classes at the Chabad Educational Center in Scripps Ranch, “We know how it happened. We know the numbers. We know about the bad guys. We know about the good guys. What we don’t know is —- where was God?”

Chabad Lubavitch to Thank Pair for Their Helping Hands

Chabad Lubavitch of Northwest Connecticut gets plenty of help in its mission of spreading the word about the richness of the Jewish faith and culture, and two of its most valuable advocates will reap the dividends of doing good deeds in the form of being honored at the organization’s third-annual Community Awards Dinner Sunday.

Attorney Norman Drubner of Washington is to be recognized as Man of the Year for his continuous contributions to the organization, and Charles “Chic” Frosch of Brookfield, president of Union Savings Bank in Danbury, is to be honored with a Community Service Award for the bank’s ongoing support of the Jewish Fest, the organization’s largest annual event.