Jewish Community News

News: February 2008

Shir Hadash office manager retires

Bryna Wallace, office manager at Congregation Shir Hadash for the past eight years, will retire at the end of February and move to Winnipeg, Canada and Florida to be closer to family. She will be honored at services on Saturday morning, February 23, as a part of Shir Hadash’s Sisterhood Shabbat

“Bryna sets a tone of welcome, helpfulness and professionalism with everyone who comes in contact with her,” said Shir Hadash Executive Director Art Scher. “Her efficiency and organizational skills make Shir Hadash run smoothly for all of us. Whether she is working with a Bar Mitzvah family to plan a party for 200, overseeing guest speakers and lunch for our senior members or making sure there are cookies and drinks at the Oneg, we all know it will be done in a timely, calm and quality manner. Bryna will be sorely missed by all of us.”
    Bryna, a native of what was then Poland (it’s now Lithuania), was born during the Nazi occupation of the area, at a time when the Germans were forcing Jewish families to live in ghettos, a precursor to being sent to the death camps.
     After seeing a Jewish man being beaten to death because the Nazis thought he knew the location of some hidden money, Wallace’s father decided it was time for his family to leave. A total of 65 Jews, including Bryna’s family, escaped into the neighboring forests of Babalee during the early 1940s. It was during that time that Bryna was born, and none of the 65 Jews were captured. However Bryna’s father, who recently passed away, lost his entire family and Bryna’s  mother lost many of her family members, as well as  two of Bryna’s sisters.