The 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht ("night of broken glass") will be commemorated at the Kabbalat Shabbat service Nov. 7. Micah members Jerry Liebenau and Eva Jacob, who were young children in Germany at the time, will speak at the service.

On Nov. 9, 1938, the Nazis unleashed a wave of pogroms against Germany's Jews. In the space of a few hours, thousands of synagogues, Jewish businesses and homes were damaged or destroyed. This event came to be called Kristallnacht for the shattered store windowpanes that carpeted German streets. These pogroms marked an intensification of the Nazi anti-Jewish policy that would culminate in the Holocaust.

Liebenau will talk about a letter that his father received from the rabbi of their synagogue in Berlin describing the burning of the building. Liebenau will also relate his experience upon returning to the ruins of that synagogue at the end of the war.

Jacob will give her perspective on the event that was, she said, "a central part of my story and my family's story. It was a miracle that we got out at all."