Havurah on the Hill Monthly Kabbalat Shabbat: Exodus from Egypt
Friday, April 21
6:30 PM
$12/person
Join Havurah on the Hill for our monthly Kabbalat Shabbat celebration. This month we welcome Dr. Solomon Gabbay, an Egyptian-born, Newton-based cardiologist, to speak about his family's experience as Jews living in Egypt during the Six Day War in the 1960s.
New faces are always welcome at Havurah on the Hill, so bring your friends.
Schedule of Events:
6:30 PM - Wine and Appetizers
7:00 PM - Shabbat Services
8:15 PM - Guest Speaker
8:45 PM - Kosher Buffet Shabbat Dinner
(As always, vegetarian and vegan options will be available.)
Vilna and Havurah on the Hill will never turn anyone away for inability to pay. If you would like to attend but finances are of concern, please email Director of Communications and Community Outreach Lynne Krasker Schultz at lynne@vilnashul.org.
More about Dr. Solomon Gabbay:
Dr. Solomon Gabbay resides in Newton and is a Board-certified cardiologist and Fellow of the American College of Cardiology. Dr. Gabbay is part of the last generation of Jews from Egypt. Dr. Gabbay was born in Cairo during World War II. He received his primary education at Lycée Français and his medical school education at the Faculty of Medicine of Cairo University (also known as the "Harvard of the Middle East"). Initially serving in the Egyptian Public Health Service in the villages of the Upper Nile for 6 months, he was later transferred home and allowed to serve as the Physician to the Jewish Community of the Cairo Rabbinate. At age 26, on the first day of the Six-Day War, Dr. Gabbay was picked up from his home and detained by the Egyptian secret police along with all other Jewish men in Egypt between the ages of 17 and 55. Held by coincidence in the same 70-person cell with his younger brother, Moses, Dr. Gabbay spent 3 years in detention. In 1970, through the efforts of the Red Cross and the Joint Distribution Committee, as well as the State of Israel, the two brothers were among the last 167 Jewish prisoners taken from their jail cells and expelled from Egypt as "Stateless Refugees", traveling to Paris and spending nearly a year there waiting to be joined from Cairo by his parents and sisters and obtain a refugee visa to the US. The family traveled to Boston, where Dr. Gabbay completed his cardiology fellowship training at Brigham & Women's Hospital and Boston Medical Center. While in private practice in Waltham, Dr. Gabbay also taught clinical cardiology for more than 2 decades, at first with Brigham & Women’s Hospital, later Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and finally Tufts Medical Center, before retiring from the faculty last September. Today, he provides cardiac consultations at Newton Wellesley Hospital to inpatients and in the emergency room. Dr. Gabbay will be joined by his nephew David to share the story of his family's experiences in the once-thriving Jewish community of Egypt.
Getting to the Vilna Shul:
Free validated parking is always available for Havurah on the Hill's monthly Shabbat celebrations at the Charles River Garage (165 Cambridge Street, Boston). Please note that this is NOT the above-ground Whole Foods lot, but the parking garage between the Whole Foods lot and the Au Bon Pain. Please bring your green ticket into the Vilna for a validation stamp. The Vilna Shul is also easily accessible by public transportation. Take the MBTA Red Line to Charles/MGH.