Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on September 25, 2022

LONG BEACH, N.Y. -- Police on Long Island have increased patrols at synagogues and temples ahead of the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

There are no credible threats of violence, but police are working with congregations.

"We will be going into each and every house of worship. We know when they're going to be holding services. We'll be walking right into the synagogue itself. The congregants will know that we're there," said Long Beach Police Commissioner Ronald Walsh.

"People know that their synagogues and their rabbis and their lay leaders are taking all the precautions necessary together with their local police departments," said Rabbi Eli Goodman, with Chabad of the Beaches.

In recent months, there have been incidents of antisemitic flyers placed at dozens of homes in Nassau County.

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Police increase patrols at Long Island synagogues, temples ahead of High Holy Days - CBS New York

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Posted By admin on September 25, 2022

As a policy, Manhattans Congregation Beit Simchat Torah doesnt sell tickets for services on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. To charge for High Holidays, says synagogue President Sabrina Farber, is just not in our DNA.

But this year, two years of pandemic-driven challenges and a recent economic downturn have made sticking to that policy more difficult for CBST, an LGBTQ+ multidenominational synagogue in midtown Manhattan.

People have left jobs, people have moved, people have suddenly downsized in a way that obviously impacts giving, Farber, whose synagogue instead asks for dues on a sliding scale, told eJewishPhilanthropy. Im not gonna lie, were in a tough spot.

Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur can overwhelm synagogues in every way. Staff and volunteers are swamped. Some synagogues rent extra space, while others rent chairs or additional equipment. Organizing services can cost congregations exorbitant amounts of money. For many congregations, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are some of the only days members attend services. Because of that, congregations often depend on High Holiday appeals, ticket sales to non-members and annual membership dues generally paid during the High Holiday season that support the synagogue all year. Many synagogues told eJP that they need a ticket system simply because there is just not enough space to accommodate everyone.

But this year, congregants and synagogues across the country are stretched thin, whether they have voluntary dues, set dues, negotiated dues or a tiered payment system. When congregants have less money to spend, will synagogue membership still be on their radar?

For most synagogues in the Conservative movement, budgets, including staff contracts and membership fees, have already been set for the year, Linda Sussman, the interim director of synagogue consulting for the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, told eJP. Recent economic shifts, she said, would certainly not [be] something that could affect anything in terms of [determining what this years] membership dues would be. That would be next year.

While synagogues may have saved money on serving food and hiring security while they were closed due to COVID-19, Sussman said that the pandemic hasnt lowered expenses for most synagogues. Staff salaries generally remain their biggest expense.

When the pandemic began, many Conservative synagogues anticipated to take a massive hit in terms of synagogue dues, expecting membership payments to drop off as much as 20%. But instead, Sussman said, It was much, much, much lower, more like maybe 3 to 5% of the drop. According to internal studies conducted by USCJ, she said, donors stepped up too, understanding that synagogues were under financial stress and needed extra support. Whether that will happen this year again, I dont know, she said.

But as synagogues begin to consider next years budget, Barry Mael, the senior director of synagogue affiliations and operations for USCJ, told eJP that an increasing number of synagogues are considering moving from fixed to voluntary dues.

Im getting more calls in the last several months about synagoguesevaluating if their dues model was the best dues model for them, he said. Sometimes coming out [of] something like a pandemic, where so many things have been upended, its a good time to evaluate and say are we generating our revenues and supporting the community in the best way?

For those who made the jump to voluntary dues, overall they feel good about it, Mael said. Sometimes its a matter of culture, that people dont have to ask for a dues level. They make a pledge, and therefore that whole awkward process of some people needing to talk with others about what they can give disappears. But no matter the dues model a synagogue chooses, he said its important for congregations to make sure theyre not confusing the dues model as the answer to their financial challenges versus looking at their overall financial sustainability. Instead, he said, they need to focus on cultivating a culture of philanthropy by strengthening their relationship with members.

Rabbi Aaron Melman of Congregation Beth Shalom, a conservative synagogue in Northbrook, Ill.,serving more than 1,000 member families, told eJP that he avoids the term dues completely, instead using the word commitment.

The word dues maybe doesnt sit as well with people as it once did, he told eJP. So he stresses the concept of recognizing that there is a commitment to being part of congregational life. Like most congregations across movements, Beth Shalom wont turn members away if they cant pay.

We try to really work with people, Melman said. There are people in the congregation who pay more than their commitment amounts to help offset those people who arent able to pay. We call it pay it forward.

COVID and the economy have accelerated the way synagogues think about the economics of the High Holidays, Amy Asin, the Union for Reform Judaisms vice president of congregational engagement and leadership experiences, told eJP, but a lot of these trends were happening before. Synagogues were realizing that even though their own costs were increasing, she said, they needed to see the High Holidays as an opportunity to engage their communities, not close budget gaps.

On the other hand, they do need revenue, Asin said. From their perspective, if they could charge, Im sure that they would. Im sure that they would want to raise prices. Theyre balancing a lot. And many of them, even before the pandemic, had started to lower their prices or not charge. Theyre balancing their own economics, their own structure, the effect of their costs going up And at the same time, they want to lower barriers to participation in Jewish life, and they want to deliver something thats deeply meaningful and transformational for the people who attend.

Rabbi Jill Maderer of Congregation Rodeph Shalom, a Reform synagogue in Philadelphia with 1,000 members,told eJP that while many members are not able to give as generously as they did in the past, more members are contributing smaller sums.

Were really pleased to see people who are really showing their commitment, but its not easy, she said. The synagogue has a three-tier system for dues based on how much a member can afford. The synagogue also organizes a weekly food pantry and has hosted a diaper drive.

Synagogues are also searching for new ways to support themselves. Asin said that some Reform synagogues have planted cell towers on their buildings while others sold their buildings and rented space for less money. The Houston Congregation for Reform Judaism holds a yearly golf tournament and bark mitzvah with pet vendors, food trucks, music, a chew toy giveaway and a dog blessing given by Rabbi Steve Gross, who described the day as a festival for dogs. Manhattans CBST has been seeking grants. All the while, synagogues try to support their congregants even as they struggle themselves.

Every clergy person has a discretionary fund, Asin said. And I guarantee you that those rabbis, those cantors, are using their discretionary funds to support congregants in need and the community.

The synogages that eJP spoke to said that they havent had to cut staff, often thanks to federal pandemic loans that were quickly forgiven, but they also havent been able to grow programs and initiatives as they would like to. Farber said retaining staff is something that weve worked very, very, very hard to preserve because, if anything, going virtual just made our work more difficult, more confusing and required a whole new set of skills.

Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun, an Orthodox synagogue on the tony Upper East Side of Manhattan with around 1,200 members, sees itself as a community center, fulfilling its congregants religious and social needs even giving its members space to throw birthday parties.

Especially in Manhattan and a big city where things can feel impersonal community doesnt just happen on its own, said Associate Rabbi Roy Feldman. Community has to be built.

Mael believes that COVID forced all of us to be more relational in our connection to our members because the doors were closed. If synagogues stay focused on meeting their members needs, , he said, members will will feel connected and committed to supporting the community, even in tough economic downturns. But if people dont feel connected, synagogues, unfortunately, sometimes, are one of the places [where] people make a choice whether or not to spend their money.

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Pandemic's aftermath and economic crisis have some synagogues rethinking their membership fees - eJewish Philanthropy

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Posted By admin on September 25, 2022

As a child in Haifa, Israel, Meeka Simerly grew up in a secular Jewish family.

What it means is that we never really did anything religious whatsoever other than celebrating the staple holidays, Simerly said.

Because of this, she felt like something was missing for her. When she turned 30, Simerly moved to the U.S. and began attending a Reform Jewish synagogue for the first time in Santa Cruz, California.

The minute I stepped into the synagogue, and I could sing in Hebrew and in English my soul just started to soar, she said. I felt so incredibly fulfilled [on] so many different levels.

This was the beginning of a path for Simerly, which eventually led her to become the newest rabbi at Temple Adas Shalom, a Reform congregation in Havre de Grace.

It really does feel so good and so right to be here, said Simerly, who will lead her first Rosh Hashana service at sundown Sunday at Adas Shalom. Rosh Hashana is the celebration of the Jewish New Year.

The synagogue, celebrating its 67th anniversary next month, draws families from Harford County, eastern Baltimore County, Cecil County and northwest Delaware. It serves approximately 140 Jewish and interfaith families.

Part of what drew Simerly to Temple Adas Shalom is its openness to LGBTQ+ rights.

Im dying to wed a gay couple, she said.

Another draw for her is being able to work with children. On Thursdays, she leads children in songs in both Hebrew and English to preach tolerance of all faiths while playing her guitar. The children attend the synagogues Early Learning Center, a preschool open to the general community.

Simerly has an extensive background in music. While in Israel, she played in punk, rock and bluegrass bands. She also studied music education in college. She said she enjoys how music allows people to be silly with themselves.

There is something that allows our spirit to really soar with the music, she said, with the way that people are so comfortable with one another without being judgmental.

When she plays guitar, Simerly communicates a lot with her facial expressions, she said, because Im holding the guitar and I cant really direct or conduct or say, so I emote with my body. I emote with my facial expressions sometimes the children imitate me and I see what they do and it looks really funny.

On a recent Thursday, Simerly also blew the shofar, a rams horn used during Jewish holidays, particularly Rosh Hashana. The children were served grape juice and challah bread, and Simerly went around to each child to offer a fist bump and a Shabat Shalom, a wish for a peaceful Sabbath.

A gig leading a youth choir is what first brought her to the synagogue in Santa Cruz and Reform Judaism. A voice kept telling her to go further, she said, so Simerly became a cantor, who sings while guiding congregations through prayers during religious services. Simerly studied to get her masters in Jewish music, and then she and her husband, David, moved to San Jose, where she served as a cantor at a synagogue for about 10 years.

Simerly realized she wanted to continue her education and become a rabbi. Once she became one, she moved to Wayne, New Jersey, to serve as rabbi at Temple Beth Tikvah for about six years before coming to Temple Adas Shalom.

When Rabbi John Franken left Temple Adas Shalom earlier this year to move to Israel, Simerly was found by a rabbinical search committee made up of the synagogues congregants, including Ashira Quabili.

I really feel like we are blessed to have found someone who aligns so well with who we are as a community because [Simerly is] genuine and full of light and love, and that is exactly the spiritual leader that we wanted, Quabili said.

The comment nearly brought Simerly to tears. She called it bashert, the Yiddish word for destiny, for her and Temple Adas Shalom having found each other.

Nobodys pretentious here, Simerly said. There is a level of kindness here and sincerity and welcoming that really doesnt exist anywhere else.

Simerly, who lives in Whiteford, said she has received that same welcoming feeling from the Harford County community.

Its like living in a kibbutz [a communal style of living], she said. Even though here, every farm and every family unit really takes care of themselves, there is a sense of community regardless.

While Simerly hasnt been with the synagogue very long, having started as rabbi Aug. 10, she already fits in well.

Its been wonderful, said Mark Wolkow, Temple Adas Shaloms president. It hasnt been very long but definitely refreshing.

Simerly did not always see herself on this path, however.

If you asked me 30 years ago, what am I going to do when I grow up, and you told me, I think youre gonna be a rabbi, I would just, like, roll on the floor laughing my tuchus off, she said.

As a child, she rarely stepped foot in a synagogue, partially because she did not want to be separated from her father since men and women are traditionally apart in orthodox synagogues.

When one leaves a place to go and live somewhere else it means that there is some unrest and agitation from the inside that really moves us towards our path, Simerly said.

Reform Judaism allows for more of an individual path for a person to take and also allows for greater liberty with gender equality and overall inclusiveness in ways that orthodox Judaism does not, she said.

Simerly said that Reform Judaism in Israel currently is very small. The main two sects of Judaism are secular and orthodox.

Its really a dichotomy in Israel, Quabili said. You have secular Jews and you have religious Jews, and theres not much of a middle ground there.

Theres all of these different ways to be Jewish in America, and so it is a lot more accommodating to find yourself a path to your own Jewish identity.

Simerly has four goals in her new role as rabbi: caring for her congregants; reaching out to the greater community; connecting with local interfaith representatives; and connecting with hospitals, retirement homes and other organizations to provide spiritual and emotional care, with the help of her guitar and her Bernedoodle, Oreo.

Heading into the Jewish New Year, Simerly hopes to see people coming together again. Shes seen how people have been vastly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and hopes to see people begin to move forward from it.

Im really hoping that people will really let go of their fear of coming together, she said. My hope is that those that are really terrified will feel a sense of solace on their inside somehow.

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If people still dont feel comfortable returning to synagogue, Simerly hopes they will let us know how we can help to support them so they dont feel isolated anymore.

She also hopes that people who have been driven apart due to political differences can find their way back to one another.

It is people before politics, always, she said.

Simerly said her congregants know her humor she cracks herself up. For instance, instance, she flapped her arms like a bird when discussing having to fly from New Jersey to Los Angeles once a week while in rabbinical school.

As a leader, she tries not to come from a place of being a leader.

For me, it is about teaching everybody and giving different opinions, Simerly said. My job is to make sure that you make your own educated decision. And thats how I lead.

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'Exactly the spiritual leader that we wanted': Rabbi Meeka Simerly to lead her first Rosh Hashana at Havre de Grace's Temple Adas Shalom - Baltimore...

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Posted By admin on September 25, 2022

Three decades after its founding, Or Shalom Jewish Community has finally purchased property of its own.

San Franciscos first and only Reconstructionist synagogue, it has operated out of living rooms, rented spaces and the occasional park since the community was established in 1991.

But now Or Shalom has closed on a parcel of land that includes three buildings on Cortland Avenue, in the Bernal Heights neighborhood. Leadership hopes to be able to hold services in the new space by late spring 2023.

Establishing a permanent location for the community has been in the works for seven years, said Amy Mallor, the synagogues executive director. We have been wandering Jews, Mallor said.

Indeed, for nine years, Or Shaloms home was at Congregation Ner Tamid in the Sunset District.

Then, starting in 2014, members were able to call Congregation Beth Israel Judea home, and it was at that location on Brotherhood Way where Or Shalom celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2017. (Beth Israel Judea synagogue has since merged with Congregation Bnai Emunah and been renamed Am Tikvah.)

Just before the Covid-19 pandemic started, the wandering continued: Or Shalom vacated its shared/rental space at Beth Israel Judea and only recently established a new indoor meeting place next door, at the Brandeis School of San Francisco.

Further complicating matters, longtime Rabbi Katie Mizrahi stepped down in April, leaving the community without a spiritual leader for the first time in 15 years.

So the decision to buy the property in Bernal Heights has indeed been a galvanizing moment, according to Matthew Rudoff, president of Or Shaloms board.

I think its really making people feel very positive about the outlook for Or Shalom, and the potential for not just our sustainability, but our growth, Rudoff said.

Finding the property was kismet, or fate, Mallor said, as the listing agent was a congregant and member of the board. The new address will place Or Shalom in the center of Cortland Avenues bustling commercial corridor, between a religious-themed bar called Holy Water and the laundromat Bernal Bubbles. Of the three buildings the synagogue will own, one is a back cottage that Mallor hopes can be used to house visitors. The other two, both storefronts, will house worship and office space.

The purchase was made possible by a building fund campaign started by members nearly a decade ago. Knowing that the rental/share situation at Beth Israel Judea would last for only six years, congregants have been donating to the campaign all along, Mallor said, and the synagogue has been trying to save money, as well. Soon, a Cortland Campaign will be launched to raise additional funds for improvements and upkeep.

Rudoffs hope is that the new space will help to establish the synagogue as a staple of San Francisco Jewish life and attract new members who may be unfamiliar with Or Shaloms history and principles.

Weve been known as the best-kept secret, Rudoff said. Were hoping to become a little wider-known secret.

Or Shalom began when Rabbi Pamela Frydman wanted a space to teach children, including her own, the fundamentals of Judaism in an egalitarian setting. The community, which is now some 200 families strong, prides itself on diversity and acceptance.

According to the website description: We are Jewish, non-Jewish and its complicated; straight, gay and its complicated; single, married and its complicated, old and young and in between. All are welcome.

The synagogue identified itself as independent until 2008, when congregants voted to join with the Reconstructionist movement.

Founded on the ideals of 20th-century thinker Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, Reconstructionist Judaism submits that Judaism is an always evolving religious civilization.

Today, Or Shalom is deeply committed to social justice work. One of its main social justice programs is Sanctuary Or Shalom, a congregation-wide initiative to support immigrants in California.

Or Shaloms new home is just one part of the community rebuilding after the pandemic and Mizrahis departure, Mallor said. Leadership recently brought in an interim rabbi, Rabbi Chaya Gusfield, who has also served at Kehilla Community Synagogue, a Renewal congregation in the East Bay.

Its important for the community to know that we are here, Mallor said. And were not only here, but were survivors.

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After 30 years, Or Shalom of S.F. finally has a home of its own J. - The Jewish News of Northern California

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Posted By admin on September 25, 2022

LANCASTER A history of Jewish tradition in Lancaster has been discovered by Lancaster-native Austin Reid. Through his research, Reid is attempting to inform the public of a once-forgotten part of the city's past.

Reid has been doing this research in a volunteer capacity as a hobby, working in collaboration with multiple historical societies. Instead of making his discoveries as part of a job, he does it out of a passion for the work.

"I think there are really two goals I have in my mind," said Reid. "The first was I hope these pieces are engaging for a broad audience including non-Jewish readers. I think many people don't know much about Judaism and I think sometimes there's this impression that Judaism is a religion that is only found in big cities but there's a really long history of Jewish life in small towns as well and I hope these histories are an accessible way for individuals to learn a bit about a community that has a long presence in many parts of Ohio. It is an important piece of local history."

"The second goal is for the descendants of these families who are now living in various areas," said Reid. "I'm hoping this can be a valuable genealogical resource for them to learn about their forebears and how they made contributions to small towns."

While much of this history is not well recorded, Reid has found his ways of digging up information.

"The primary resource I'm using is newspaper archives," said Reid. "A lot of these are digitized on a website called Ohio Memory that is run by the state library of Ohio and Ohio History Connection. You can also find the Eagle-Gazette archives on a website called newspapers.com. In addition to the newspaper archives I'm also looking at Jewish newspapers from across Ohio, particularly in Columbus and Cincinnati. Even though these newspapers aren't based in Lancaster, they often carry reports from smaller communities."

Reid originally decided to follow Lancaster's history with Judaism because of traces he noticed while living in the area. Although he does not live in the area anymore, those signs stuck with him and pointed him towards his research. One of those traces was the site of the former B'Nai Israel synagogue, which stopped serving as a place of worship in 1993.

"On 131 East Chestnut Street you can still see the former B'Nai Israel synagogue," said Reid. "Now it's a private home and it's been a private home since 1994, but it was originally built by a Lutheran congregation and was converted into a synagogue in 1927. So I think, look I'm in a historical Facebook and every few months it seems like there's someone who asks about this building. You can tell it used to be a place of worship, but there's not a congregation meeting there now and I think it gets people curious about what the building was used for."

Among the most interesting stories of Jewish history that Reid found in Lancaster included a fire at B'nai synagogue in 1961, in which two members of the congregation, Clearance Epstein and Jacob Molar, ran in to save Torah scrolls.

Another story of interest that stood out to Reid was the Jewish Welfare Society, which earned itself a shoutout in the book 'Fairfield County in the World War' by Van Snider. He said this was significant because despite the Jewish community never totaling more than 100 people, they made enough of an impact to be put in Snider's book.

"(Snider) mentions in this book that this Jewish Welfare Society was very active with volunteering with the Red Cross and helped to raise funds for literary loans, so despite being a really small community, it still made a big enough impact that this author noted it in his book about Fairfield County in World War One," said Reid.

With Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, on Sept. 25, Reid believes that this is a perfect time for readers to be exposed to Lancaster's rich history of Judaism.

For readers interested in learning more about Lancaster's forgotten Jewish past, Reid's full article is available online through the Columbus Jewish Historical Society: https://columbusjewishhistory.org/histories/history-jewish-community-lancaster-surrounding/

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Traces of local Jewish history found by native of Lancaster - Lancaster Eagle Gazette

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Posted By admin on September 25, 2022

In retrospect, the three women Sheila Pallay, Judith Weinberg, and Marlene Yesley were destined to team up; it was beshert, to use the Yiddish word. All three belonged to synagogues with Czech Torahs. And all three had honed skills in retirement that together would ensure the success of their NewBridge project.

Their partnership is embodied in a new quilted cover Something beautiful to dress this Torah after all it has been through, said Weinberg, 71, who spent more hours than she can count stitching the mantle at her Pfaff sewing machine.

The Torah and other scrolls were among more than 200,000 Jewish artifacts confiscated by the Nazis and brought to specialists from the Jewish Museum in Prague to be cataloged and labeled. When the specialists were finished, they were deported to death camps; only a few survived. Meanwhile, the artifacts were warehoused in Prague. After the war, the Czech communist government moved the Torahs to a derelict synagogue for 20 years, and then sought buyers.

In 1964, the British philanthropist Ralph Yablon purchased 1,564 of the Torahs, which were then shipped to a London synagogue. Some were found to have been pierced by bullets and stained by blood. Tucked inside many were notes with messages like Save us, save us.

The Memorial Scrolls Trust was established soon after to preserve the Torahs and loan them to synagogues around the world. Over the last six decades, at least a thousand have found homes with American congregations, including one at Temple Sinai in Sharon and that is where the story of the Torah Sisters begins.

At 75, Sheila Pallay carried the Czech Torah around Sinais sanctuary as she celebrated her bat mitzvah. That same year, the retired high-tech marketing executive obtained a certificate in digital photography from the Rhode Island School of Design after completing a project documenting the restoration of a 17th-century Czech scroll by Rabbi Kevin Hale, a Torah scribe based in Western Mass.

Pallays interest in the Torahs deepened in 2019 when she traveled to the 132 Czech towns that the Nazis used as collection points for Jewish artifacts. Photographs from the trip appear in Light Beyond the Shadows: The Legacy of the Czech Torah Scrolls and the Renewal of Jewish Life in Czechia, which she cowrote with Julius Mller, a Czech genealogist who was her guide and translator. The Memorial Scrolls Trust published the book in 2020.

Jews first settled in Czechoslovakia 1,000 years ago. Before World War II, the nation was home to 354,000, but nearly three quarters died in the Holocaust. Most of the rest emigrated. Today, the Czech Republic is home to about 4,000 Jews.

When Pallay moved to the Hebrew Senior Life community last September, she dreamed of bringing a Czech Torah there to celebrate her upcoming 80th birthday.

While visiting the campus as a prospective resident, she met Weinberg, 71, who had moved to NewBridge in May 2021. They discovered that they had both visited Sobslav, the original home of the Czech Torah on loan to Weinbergs synagogue, Temple Beth Shalom of Needham.

I mean who goes to Sobeslav on vacation? she said of the town 70 miles south of Prague. The fact that we had both been there was an immediate connection.

After retiring as a Needham special education teacher, Weinberg pursued fabric art. When Pallay subsequently told her about her plans for obtaining a Czech Torah for NewBridge, she jumped at the chance to sew its cover.

The last piece of the partnership fell into place in March, when Pallay met Marlene Yesley, 83, in an art class. A longtime educator including decades teaching at Newton North Yesley turned to painting in her retirement and had moved to NewBridge four years before. She had visited the Czech Republic after her synagogue, Temple Israel of Boston, obtained one of the Torahs.

Based on Pallays concept of the tree of life, Yesley set to work designing the Torah cover. An old copper beech tree in a NewBridge courtyard served as her inspiration. She modified the image so that the branches would encircle the Torah, protecting it.

I started with a much more realistic design, and with Sheila and Judys input abstracted it more and more, Yesley said.

The tree has five roots to represent the Five Books of Moses, which make up the Torah. Yesley delineated the patterns of bark on the trunk and limbs, referencing the bark-like doors of NewBridges ark. After 50 hours of penciling and erasing on ever larger sheets of graph paper, Yesley inked the final drawing on sewing tracing paper and turned it over to Weinberg.

Rabbi Judi Ehrlich, the communitys chaplain, wanted the cover to coordinate with two already at NewBridge. Those have a burning bush design and were made from microsuede, a quarter-inch-thick synthetic fabric that is now hard to find.

The Torah Sisters made do with remnants of the other covers, ranging from inches to yards in size. Piecing them together was like assembling a puzzle. Wed look at it and look at it, said Weinberg, who had not worked with the material before. I would not take a stitch until I checked in with them.

To complete the tree, they trimmed to size velvet leaves of assorted colors that were part of a fabric found appropriately enough by Beverly Sky, who had designed NewBridges other Torah covers. While Yesley already had inked in the leaves, the trio together decided on which color to place where.

It wasnt so much a formula like a coloring book, as what we thought looked lovely, Weinberg said.

Overall, the look is autumnal, fitting for a congregation whose members are in the autumn of their lives. The ground beneath the tree bears the Hebrew inscription ldor vador (from generation to generation), the responsibility to pass on values and cultural traditions.

As the women collaborated on the project, they shared their own stories and talked about their families. Playing Jewish geography, Weinberg and Yesley realized their brothers had been friends as children in Dorchester.

The trio also bonded over their feelings about the Torah. Weinberg said, I was the crier when we would get emotional about the Torah, just knowing that this was 250 years old and what it means to the Jewish people and knowing people whose family have gone through the Holocaust, including some of my husbands family.

Pallay said, We can emphasize that it survived the Holocaust, but for me I like to think about the 13-year-old boy in the 1800s who read from this Torah at his bar mitzvah.

Pallays connections with the scrolls trust expedited the process. She and her husband, Herb, drove to New Jersey to pick up a Torah that had been returned by a synagogue that had closed. Like those at two synagogues in Sharon Temple Sinai and Temple Israel the scroll comes from Petice, a town 70 miles southwest of Prague.

Its just amazing that these three Torahs are together again, Pallay said.

The Torah and its cover made its NewBridge debut June 4 on Shavuot, which celebrates the giving of the five books of Moses on Mount Sinai. When the curtain opened, Pallay said, there were joyous gasps across the congregation. People started crying. The three of us were so thrilled.

Meanwhile, back in Petice, a church is preparing to display Pallays photographs of Czech Torahs, a sacred relic of the towns past.

Steve Maas can be reached at stevenmaas@comcast.net.

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Torah Sisters bond to piece together Jewish history - The Boston Globe

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Posted By admin on September 25, 2022

Shalom and greetings from the Rabbi, Board of Directors, and congregation of the Jewish Community of Sedona and the Verde Valley.All the services, classes, and programs are listed on the synagogue website.Visitors are welcome to attend services. Special uplifting weekly messages for the Hebrew month of Elul recorded by Rabbi Magal are posted on the synagogue website.

On Friday, September 23, a Friday evening Erev Shabbat service, led by Rabbi Alicia Magal, begins at 5:30 pm both in person and on Zoom, and livestreamed for members and their invitees. Congregants participate by lighting candles, doing a reading, or having an Aliyah for the Torah service. Verses from the Torah portion will be chanted:Nitzavim (Deuteronomy 29:9 30:20) as Moses speaks to the new generation of Israelites before they enter the Promised Land, and reminds them of the Covenant which is binding upon all of them, as well as on all the generations to follow for all time. The Torah will be theirs as much as if they had personally received it at Sinai.Blessings for those who are ill, and a Mazal Tov for those celebrating a birthday or anniversary will be offered at the Kabbalat Shabbat service. Kaddish, the Mourners prayer, will be recited in memory of those who passed away either recently or at this time in past years. Shabbat offers a time out from work and worry, an opportunity to be grateful for our lives and the bounty with which we are blessed.

Sunday night, September 25, we will usher in Rosh Hashanah the Jewish New Year 5783 that begins the High Holy days. Services continue on Monday, September 26, including hearing the blasts of the shofar to wake us up and help us ask for forgiveness for when we have missed the mark of our highest intentions over the past year. Rabbi Magal and Cantorial soloist Marden Paul will lead the services, which will be both in person and livesreamed and through zoom. The full schedule is on the synagogue websitejcsvv.org. Second Day Rosh Hashanah services will be on Tuesday, September 27 on zoom only.

Wednesday morning minyan begins at 8:30 a.m. on September 28 on zoom. Join the group to offer healing prayers, and to support those saying the mourners prayer, Kaddish, for a loved one who has passed away. Every person counts and is needed!

On Wednesday at 4:00 pm Rosalie Malter and Rabbi Magal will lead a class on Jewish meditation on Zoom. Each session focuses on a different tool or aspect of Jewish meditation practices.

On Thursday, September 29, at 4:00 pm, Torah study, led by Rabbi Alicia Magal, will be held on Zoom. The Torah reading for that week is Vayelech (Deuteronomy 31:1 31:30) telling of the appointment of Joshua by Moses to be his successor as leader of Israel. Moses faces his own mortality nad entrusts the Torah to the Kohanim, priests, and the Elders of Israel. The Torah was not to remain the specialty of the priests but was to be heard and to become familiar to all of the people.

The Social Action Committee is continuing to collect food for the local Sedona food pantry. Please drop off cans or boxes of non-perishable foods in the bin which will be inside the foyer of the synagogue through Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, October 5.

The Jewish Community of Sedona and the Verde Valley, located at 100 Meadow Lark Drive off Route 179 in Sedona, is a welcoming, egalitarian, inclusive congregation dedicated to building a link from the past to the future by providing religious, educational, social and cultural experiences. Messages to the office telephone at 928 204-1286 will be answered during the week. Updated information is available on the synagogue website http://www.jcsvv.org.

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Jewish Community of Sedona and the Verde Valley: September 30-October 6, 2022 - Sedona.biz

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Posted By admin on September 23, 2022

This past weekend, I decided to attend a two-night camping trip programmed by the Wesleyan Jewish Community (WJC). However, deciding to sign up for this trip wasnt the easiest or most obvious choice for me.

On move-in day of my freshman year, a group of enthusiastic and charismatic upperclassmen representatives from the WJC handed my family and me a pamphlet with all of the upcoming Jewish events on campus. Before I even got a chance to read the list in its entirety, my parents were eagerly reading off every single event and why I should attend. I mean, I dont blame them. I was in a new, less Jewish environment for the first time in four years, and they just wanted to make me feel like I was back at my Jewish high school. Hearing them tell me, This will be good for you! and Youre going to make so many friends who have the same experiences as you! made me realize that from now on, being Jewish is a choice I get to make.

Going to services, taking Jewish Studies courses, and blowing the shofar (a rams horn blown on significant Jewish holidays) were all going to be up to me. Going into college, I would be able to have a non-Jewish space for a little while. I wanted to hear about religious experiences other than my own, and more than that, I wanted to be part of a community where Judaism wasnt the common denominator.

All I can remember about the first few calls I had with my parents during orientation week is them telling me to go on the camping trip advertised on that paper the WJC handed to us. And, like most young people when receiving advice from their parents, I tend to push it away. So, I told them, Ill think about it. And I did think about it: during the first half of orientation, I came to the conclusion that I wouldnt go on the trip, mostly because the trip was going to be my second weekend at Wesleyan and I didnt want to miss out on meeting different types of people, not just Jewish ones. I thought that by going on the trip, I would be limiting myself to the type of people I had been surrounded by for so long.

However, by the end of orientation, after hearing numerous peoples names, hometowns, and prospective majors, I realized my parents were right. I missed talking about Judaism, but more specifically, I missed being part of a larger Jewish community. I was beginning to realize that going to college wasnt just a social and academic transition, but a religious and cultural one as well.

When the first week of classes started, I was really eager to get involved in Jewish life, and no, it wasnt just my parents talking. I went to Shabbat services and eventually signed up for the camping trip, and Im so grateful I did.

One memory that stands out to me the most from this trip was the final night. After doing havdalah (a ceremony marking the end of Shabbat), we began to sing around the campfire. I know this sounds like a pretty conventional camping experience, but it wasnt. One after another, other people shared Jewish and non-Jewish songs they had previously learned. Hearing familiar Jewish prayers brought me back to feeling like I was at home, and hearing non-familiar songs made me feel like I was a part of something new. Even though I assumed I would be surrounded by the same types of people from my high school or synagogue, I was actually surrounded by an entirely new set of people with all different relationships to Judaism.

I think a metaphor that resonates with me and the way I want to practice Judaism in college is something [Director of Religious and Spiritual Life and University Jewish Chaplain] Rabbi David [Leipziger Teva] said at the first Shabbat I attended. He told us that his favorite animal is a crayfish because of how frequently it molts its shell. In a way, I want my relationship with Judaism to be like a crayfish. The way I relate and engage with my Jewish self is an ever-changing and shedding process with many layers that can be pulled off and regrown as my time at Wesleyan continues.

Zara Skolnik can be reached at zzskolnik@wesleyan.edu.

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From the Shabba-tent: My Relationship to Judaism and the WJC Camping Trip - Wesleyan Argus

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Posted By admin on September 23, 2022

(September 20, 2022 / JNS) One of the staples of pre-Rosh Hashanah journalism in recent decades is the evergreen story about how rabbis are afraid to speak honestly in their High Holiday sermons about Israels faults. A 2013 surveyshowed that a third of American rabbis were reluctant to speak about the subject, due to concerns about wealthy donors threatening their jobs for the sin of discussing the Jewish states failings.

But perhaps what we really ought to be worrying about is the way unabashedly pro-Israel figures, including rabbis, are becoming wary of speaking out in Jewish forums and synagogues, due to the growing strength of anti-Zionism, and fear of those whose hostility to Israeli policies often renders them indistinguishable from those who now question whether it even ought to exist.

That became apparent last year when the main response from many Americans to Hamas missile and rocket attacks on Israel in May 2021 was to blame the latter for its efforts to defend itself. Indeed, when a letter published in the Forward, signed by dozens of rabbinic and cantorial students at Reform and Conservative seminaries denouncing Israeli self-defense and expressing solidarity with the Palestinians, it seemed to mark a turning point in the discussion.

Some in the rabbinic community rightly denounced the message for its lack of empathy for fellow Jews under attack, and for its failure to acknowledge the nature of the demands made by foes bent on Israels destruction.

That letter shocked many who pointed to the way in which the anti-Israel invective in response to the fighting helped foment anti-Semitic violence, both abroad and in the United States. But there was also a general recognition that the rabbinical students sentiments were in sync with those of the intersectional left that is a growing force in the Democratic Party to which the overwhelming majority of American Jews is deeply loyal. The idea that Israel is an expression of white privilegeand that Zionists and Jews are part of the class of oppressors victimizing people of colorhas become commonplace in American discourse since the explosion in 2020 of the Black Lives Matter movement, which was founded in 2013.

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So, while some on the left continue to complain about rabbis being prevented from speaking out against Israeli policies, the script has largely been flipped in the opposite direction.

This decline in pro-Israel sentiment spurred the establishment in 2019 of the Zionist Rabbinic Coalition, whose aim was to give voice to the need for Jewish leaders to stand in solidarity with Israel, rather than identify with those seeking its elimination. Led by Rabbi Stuart Weinblatt, it now has hundreds of members. Its goal is to foster love for Israel and Zionism, and to help recreate a non-denominational and non-partisan consensus among American Jews. The idea is to counteract the Jewish leaders drift to the left that has led to the mainstreaming of harshly critical positions on Israel and even of anti-Zionism.

While surveys continue to show that most American Jews still have strong feelings of identification with Israel, they are fighting an uphill battle.

The notion of supposedly courageous truth-tellers about Israeli oppression has been, for a while now, somewhat of a clich within the Reform and Conservative movements. In 2012, Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the head of the Union of Reform Judaism, Americas largest Jewish religious denomination, told Haaretz about the problem of liberal rabbis constrained by conservative congregants.

It was, he claimed, not merely a congregational problem, but a disconnect between what most American Jews thought and an outdated idea about consensus that demanded silence where Israels flaws were concerned. While some of it stemmed from anger about the failure of Israels government to recognize Reform and Conservative rabbis as equal to their Orthodox counterparts, it went deeper than that, and involved questions about the countrys political leadership, security policies and the ongoing stalemate with the Palestinians.

According to Jacobs, North American Jews dont see an Israel that reflects their core values.

That attitude speaks to the deep political and cultural divide between American and Israeli Jews that has become even more pronounced in recent years. Jews in America are overwhelmingly politically liberal, and reflect notions about sectarian states and movements like Zionism, which are in many ways antithetical to support for a Jewish state whose purpose is to give agency, sovereignty and protection to Jews in particular. Even though the toxic myths of the left that are part of critical race theory and intersectionality grant a permission slip for anti-Semitism, many Jewish liberals have acquiesced to, rather than fought, this trend.

Arguments about the presidencies of former presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump about whom the two Jewish tribes had very different opinions have only exacerbated this divide.

It is also a function of demographics. Assimilation and soaring intermarriage rates among the non-Orthodox, as well as the growth among those labeled by demographers as Jews of no religion, have led to a decline in a sense of Jewish peoplehood among American Jews that was bound to have an impact on attitudes towards Israel.

These factors were responsible for marked decline in support for Israel when it underwent a trial by fire in 2014. This was when Hamas rockets first fell on Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, not only on towns and cities adjacent to Gaza.

But as Weinblatt pointed out in a column in JNS, the fighting in 2021 produced even more Jewish criticism of Israel than the events of 2014, though the latter had resulted in far more Palestinian casualties and greater structural damage in Gaza. Clearly, the shift in American-Jewish opinions about Israel, which was articulated in polls like the Pew Research Centers 2021 study, have been taking a toll on the notion of Jewish unity.

Weinblatt, who was ordained by the Reform Movements Hebrew Union College, but later founded a successful Conservative synagogue in Potomac, Maryland with his Israeli-born wife, understands that the culture of American-Jewish life is making support for Zionism less normative.

This is why, instead of the usual breastbeating of rabbinic liberals broadcasting their more-in-sorrow-than-anger denunciations of Israeli policies, what is needed this year at Rosh Hashanah is more rabbinic courage of the kind that Weinblatt and his colleagues are seeking to model.

The point of such advocacy isnt to pretend that Israel is perfect or that its policies are above criticism. Rather, it is based on a recognition that the debate about Israel being mainstreamed by publications like The New York Times and The Washington Post is not about where Israels borders should be relocated, or what to do about settlements and the best way to respond to terrorism. It now revolves around whether one Jewish state on the planet is one too many, and whether Zionism is a form of racism.

Rabbis in non-Orthodox congregations must use the unique opportunity for reaching Jews on the high holidaysespecially now that the coronavirus pandemic has subsidedto reaffirm the need to stand with the Jewish state and the Zionist idea that is the national liberation movement of the Jewish people. The alternative is to cravenly stand by as a rising tide of anti-Semitism, fueled by left-wing myths, is allowed to further sabotage the ties between American Jews and Israel.

Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of JNS (Jewish News Syndicate). Follow him on Twitter at: @jonathans_tobin.

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Can Reform and Conservative Judaism support for Zionism be revived? - JNS.org

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Posted By admin on September 23, 2022

(JTA) Progressive Jewish leaders have launched a new think tank meant to counter what its founders see as an effort by a few billionaires to flood the Jewish world with conservative ideas.

Emor, the Institute for Bold Jewish Thought, is a project of Truah, an advocacy organization of rabbis dedicated to promoting human rights and social justice. In Hebrew, emor is a directive meaning speak.

The think tank will fund research, host events with scholars, and publish essays that draw on Jewish traditions and teachings to influence public discourse and policy around issues such as racism, immigration and LGBTQ rights in the United States. Emor will also provide a forum for scholars and thinkers who are critical of Israel.

The right has put significant resources over decades into thought leadership, said Rabbi Jill Jacobs, the CEO of Truah. In the Jewish world, we have Tikvah Fund and the Maimonides Fund and others who are investing very heavily in putting out conservative ideas that are cloaked in Jewish language and who are claiming authenticity. Emor is a response to the need for the progressive Jewish world to go really deep into our texts in our traditions and in our history and respond to the biggest questions of our moment.

Ahead of its official launch, Emor dipped its toes in the work of think tanks, linking up scholars for conversations about democracy, nationalism and human rights in a Jewish state and helping set up a symposium on democracy and Judaism.

In the spring, Emor plans to publish a single-issue magazine called Freedom that reclaims the idea of freedom from those who seek to use it in order to compromise the safety, security and rights of others, according to a press release.

Over the past two years, progressive Jewish leaders such as Jacobs have watched with dismay as ideological rivals have rolled out a series of intellectual initiatives that have drawn attention inside and beyond Jewish communities. Last year, for example, saw the launch of Sapir, a journal of ideas edited by conservative commentator Bret Stephens on behalf of the Maimonides Fund. For its part, the Maimonides Fund rejects that it is pushing a conservative agenda, and Stephens has said Sapir seeks to publish a range of views, including those to the left of his own (though drawing a line at anti-Zionism and support for the BDS movement). (Maimonides is a supporter of 70 Faces Media, the Jewish Telegraphic Agencys parent organization.)

Soon after the launch of Sapir, a new group known as Jewish Institute for Liberal Values, organized an open letter to warn of social justice ideology,as a pernicious force that is antithetical to Judaism.

More recently, the right-wing Tikvah Fund featured Republican politician Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, as the keynote speaker at its Jewish Leadership Conference, where he and other conservatives railed against the left and argued that Judaism is more compatible with conservatism.

Jacobs said that what distinguishes Emor from these conservative initiatives, besides ideology, is how its being funded. She said that while right-wing ideas are being promoted in the Jewish world by just a relatively small number of ultra-wealthy donors, Emor is collecting smaller donations from a larger number of supporters.

This broader base of funding reflects that the majority of the Jewish community is not where those conservative publications are and is actually committed to human rights, she said.

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Progressive Jewish group launches think tank to counter spread of right-wing ideas - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

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