TOURO SYNAGOGUE Volume 188, Issue 3 • January/February 2017 - Tevet/Shevat/Adar 5777 A Message From Rabbi Silverman "...But From My Students I Have Always of students met with their own local and Learned the Most." state representatives in Congress to state their views on those issues and to offer It’s Sunday night around 11:00 pm, and ideas of how to begin making change. As a fourteen-year-old is pacing the room. they learned that late Sunday night -- and Back and forth, she passes by a desk throughout the entire weekend -- that overflowing with paperwork that offers kind of experience requires deep thought statistics and anecdotes and suggestions and lots and lots of prep work. for how to improve her writing. Her Before traveling to Capitol Hill for their friend sits on the floor, propped against meetings with representatives, we spent the wall, surrounded by half-eaten plates time not only in informational sessions on of food and bags of chips and snacks. specific topics, we also ventured into the They are preparing for Monday morning’s city for a look at institutions dedicated to presentation. preserving the memory of what inaction reminds you of who we, Touro Synagogue, This might sound like a familiar scene to and apathy can bring about. At the strive to be. They came to consensus on a lot of families – last minute prep on a United States Holocaust Museum, we one in particular: Sunday night. But these two teens, plus were reminded of what a minority might "It is not enough to say, ‘We must not wage six more of their classmates from Touro’s face if they are vilified en masse because war.’ It is necessary to love peace and Confirmation Class, weren’t working on of their religion, culture and creed; at the sacrifice for it. We must concentrate not something for school; they were preparing Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, they took merely on the negative expulsion of war, but for their meeting with Louisiana’s United in the words of a single person who led a on the positive affirmation of peace." States senators in Washington, D.C. dedicated army of the open-hearted, an Their reasoning? “We can’t just sit and hope Over the weekend of December 2-5, army that took down institutions built on that things get better.” How proud I was I was proud to lead eight of our 9th racism, fear and hatred. On the steps of the to remind them of all the things we, as a Grade students to the hallways of our Jefferson Memorial, they sang the words synagogue, do on a constant, continued nation’s government to experience the of Havdallah, marking the end of Shabbat, basis that bring a bit of light to the lives of L’taken Social Justice Seminar through and listened to the belief enshrined by the those in darkness; to alleviate the slightest the Religious Action Center (“RAC”) of Founding Fathers which we still work to bit of hurt that someone might feel; to live the Reform Movement. All weekend make truer today, that all individuals are out our Jewish values in a way that bring long, students and chaperones alike creatures of God and deserving of equality positive balance to the negativity around met with peers from across the country as such. us. and Canada and took part in programs While gazing up at the carving of Dr. As we stood at Reagan National Airport designed to educate them on social issues King beside the Tidal Basin just off the to board our flight home, one of the afflicting our country and steps that they National Mall, I charged the students teens showed me what he had been could take on their own to help alleviate with a task: from all of the engraved posting on his Instagram account on his them. As a culmination of the time spent quotes on the marble wall surrounding iPhone: quotes he had found, pictures he together, each synagogue’s delegation his statue, find a quote of Dr. King’s that had taken, and facts that he had learned throughout the weekend about the ills of the world he had become fairly well-versed on. The number of people following him and learning alongside was mind-blowing -- how quickly this young man had managed to spread the word and gain some followers in his quest to right the world’s wrongs. Ta’anit 7b of the Babylonian Talmud offers one rabbi’s intriguing observation of his life as an educator: “I have learned much from my teachers and even more from my colleagues; but from my students I have always learned the most.” Isn’t that the truth. 1 Table of Contents A MESSAGE FROM RABBI SILVermAN...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................1 SHABBAT KUMZITS..........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................2 SHABBAT ROCKS..............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................2 messAge from PresIDENT susAN gooD................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................3 the L'chAYIM AWArD FUNDRAISER ..............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................3 JEWccY NEWS...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................4 UPcomING B'NAI MItzVAH...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................4-5 george DANsker Lecture - the greAT BroADWAY musICALS of RIchARD roDgers.....................................................................................................................................6 NEWS AND the JEWS.................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................6 VIENNese coffee house WIth RABBI Berk........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................7 touro Book grouP meetING..........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................8 IsrAEL reADING serIes............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................8 SAUL'S LIght BLooD DRIVE...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................9 HAVDALAH & chAVerIM........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................9 JEWIsh meDICAL ethIcs meetING................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................9 MARDI grAS EVENts......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................10-11 ADVocACY AWAreNess........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................12 socIAL ActION INITIATIVes........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................12-13