Since last Yom Kippur, we mourn the loss of four members of our Shomrei Torah family – two long time members and two much too young:
• Irwin Nijaki, Jack Gaba, Jeff Razen and Keren Friede

As well as many relatives:
• Daniel Dunn, brother of Marilyn Hirschhorn
• Howard Trachtenberg, father of Alan Trachtenberg
• Paula Sheffler, mother of Beth Julie
• Jeffrey Kornblau, brother of Marc Kornblau
• Jack Kronick, brother of Rhoda Fishler
• Ann Borsack, mother of Linda Dumoff
• Irma Steinberg, mother of Margo Bader
• Bernice Herman, mother of Stephanie Whitman
• Alvin Waxman, father of Adam Waxman
• Herman Schwarz, father of Paul Schwarz
• Shirley Marks, mother of Michael Marks
• Martin Dumoff, father of Mark Dumoff
• Gert Sherman, mother of Phyllis Staloff
• Arnold Sheydwasser, brother of Frank Sheydwasser
• Doris Seltzer, mother of Richard Seltzer
• LeRoy Grayson, father of Ronnie Brass
• Betty Kressel, mother of Neil Kressel
• Irving Cooper, father of Michelle Beer
• Roberta Cohen, sister of Marsha Rolnik
• Frances Walnick, mother of Lena Kamo and most recently
• Gloria Nahum, mother of Laurie Nahum
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We are not only members of the Shomrei Torah family, but also members of the Jewish people and citizens of the world. Therefore, at this moment before Yizkor, we also remember the following people whose lives made a difference to the world, but are no longer with us:

67 Israeli Soldiers killed defending the land of Israel
1800 Gazens in spite of the best efforts of the IDF to keep casualties to a minimum
Tom Clancy, popular author, who wrote about the use of a hijacked airplane as a terrorist device back in 1994
Rabbi Ovadya Yosef, the brilliant legal scholar who's Shas party mobilized Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews in Israel into a political force, but whose reputation was tarnished at the end by political corruption
Lou Reed, guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of the Velvet Underground.
Arik Einstein, Israeli singer of ballads and love songs that seduced a nation
Nelson Mandela, who chose reconciliation over revenge in South Africa
Peter O'Toole, who set a record with 8 Best Actor Oscar nominations without a win
Edgar Bronfman, who used his immense wealth and power to fight for Holocaust victims, Soviet Jewry, Hillel and Jewish education
Mikhail Kalishnikov, the inventor of a popular rifle, who late in life wrote a letter to his Priest regretting his invention
Ariel Sharon, the Israel hawk, who was on the verge of taking a bold step towards peace, when a stroke sent him into a coma for the last eight years of his life
Pete Seeger, who infused folk music with politics for the labor movement, civil rights, anti-war, and environmental causes
Shirley Temple Black, the child star, who brought cuteness, music and light into a country weighed down by the depression
Sid Caesar, one of the original Kings of Comedy
Maya Angelou - Poet and author
Casey Casem – Disk Jockey of American Top 40
Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, whose fusion of meditation, music, dance, and mysticism into synagogue practice energized and renewed the Jewish world
Robin Williams, who made all of us laugh but whose death is a reminder of the serious nature of depression
Lauren Bacall, who charmed America with her husky voice and sultry looks
Leonard Fein, founder of MAZON: A Jewish response to hunger
Joan Rivers, whose wit was both self-deprecating and sharply acerbic

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All these do we remember, together with the ones who were so close to us, for they too are a part of our world.