Summer 2021|5781 May, June, July Iyar, Sivan, Tamuz, Av INSIGHTinto Temple Israel of Boston INSIDE THIS ISSUE: • Vaccination Site at Temple Israel • Shavuot & Confirmation • Celebrating Helen Cohen “Enlighten our eyes with Your teaching, and let our hearts embrace Your commandments.” - Morning Liturgy INSIGHTABOUT THE COVER... AT TEMPLE ISRAEL, WE... build community and encounter the sacred through relationships. embrace Torah in all its dimensions as our enduring source for inquiry, discovery, and inspiration. Students participate in the TI Wilderness Program. explore spirituality and innovate our traditions of ritual and prayer. IN THIS ISSUE... pursue justice, in partnership with others, to The TI Scene .......................................................3 realize our vision of what the world ought to be. From TI President & Executive Director .............4 are Ohavei Yisrael, Lovers of Israel, committed to the vitality, From the Senior Rabbi ........................................5 peace, and well-being of the Jewish people in Israel and Thank You, Rabbi Jen Gubitz! .............................6 throughout the world. Shavuot and Confirmation .................................7 draw strength from our diversity and wisdom from all who TI Vaccination Site ...........................................8-9 walk through our open doors. Next Steps in our REDI Work ............................10 Welcome Rabbi Andrew Oberstein ..................11 Stories of TI Impact on Our Youth ....................12 Welcome to Our New Staff ...............................13 Celebrating Helen Cohen ..................................14 Adult B'nei Mitzvah & Chochmat Lev ...............15 High Holy Day FAQ ............................................16 GBIO Listening Groups & Friends Match ..........17 Anticipating Our New Website .........................18 Photo Gallery ....................................................19 Life-Cycles ....................................................20-22 Yahrzeits ......................................................22-25 Cemetery Histories and Mysteries ..................26 Contributions & New Members ..................27-29 UPCOMING HOLIDAY DATES... Shavuot: May 16-18, 2021 Tisha B'Av: July 17/18, 2021 Tu B'Av: July 24, 2021 2 Living Judaism together through discovery, dynamic spirituality, and righteous impact. “Enlighten our eyes with Your teaching, and let our hearts embrace Your commandments.” - Morning Liturgy The TI Scene: Living Judaism Together Tu B'Shvat hike at the Blue Hills Rabbi Dan Slipakoff's Mixtape Midrash Class TI Cares Co-Chairs putting together Mishloach Manot packages for Purim Rabbis Zecher, Gubitz, and Slipakoff, and Cantor Stillman during the virtual Curb-side pick up from Oasis vegan restaurant Matzah Brei Cookoff YOU ARE NOT ALONE! Being in quarantine can be isolating, frightening, and lonely. If you or anyone you know are sick with COVID-19, please let Amy Sherr know so we can reach out at [email protected]. We are here for you! Please let us know if you need immediate assistance. www.tisrael.org/insight | 617-566-3960 3 FROM THE BOARD PRESIDENT & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR It is hard to believe this is my last Insight column as President of Temple Israel. While the last two years have flown by, I can honestly say no one chooses to lead an organization during a pandemic, but then we rarely have warning of such occurrences. What is clear is that I am filled with gratitude for all the incredible work, tenacity, and creativity that our Clergy, Staff and whole community poured into Temple Israel during this time of COVID. We have not only survived, we have thrived, as we nimbly transitioned to online presence, observance, learning and governance. We widened our reach and expanded our orbit during this past year. We innovated new rituals, Marc Maxwell reconfigured our familiar events, accommodated our safety and made sure every member of our Board President community had access and connection to all we have to offer. We continued planning for our future, with our Ongoing “Inventing our Future” and are planning for our re-entry into in-person gatherings at Temple, as we safely can. We are making plans for our “Welcome Home” changes to our building, technology, and operations, starting this summer and planning for “hybrid” High Holidays come September. It is difficult to list everything we have accomplished in the past year. It has both been “business as usual”, while truly nothing has been normal in the way it unfolded. We have said good-bye to seemingly irreplaceable members of our Clergy and Staff team and successfully integrated Cantor Stillman and new staff members. We lent our space to others and turned our Atrium and Auditorium into a Vaccination Site. We supported minority and mainstream organizations, while staying true to our core values and mission. I am truly grateful for the opportunity to have served in this role, for the constant support of Clergy, Staff and Congregants, and to step aside so others who have agreed to step up can lead us forward. These two years have been among my most rewarding, to be given the opportunity of giving back to an institution that has so supported me over my decades of association. It is clear Temple Israel will continue to thrive and advance as we collectively create our own rich and engaging future. I hope you will join me in supporting those leaders who follow and in assuring Temple Israel’s expansive journey into our collective future. This has been a year unlike any other. I invite you to join us over Zoom for our annual gathering on June 10 at 7:00 p.m. We’ll celebrate our past year, take a moment to mark where we are, and look toward the future. We’ll also have the opportunity to thank some of our staff who are moving on, including Rabbi Jen Gubitz and the founding director of the FJECC, Helen Cohen. Helen is retiring after raising up a full generation of our youth, and setting them on the path to success. Those of us who have been lucky enough to have a child attend the FJECC have been witness to the deep and abiding values that Helen and her staff have instilled in their students. Dan Deutsch Executive Director We’re grateful to all who have helped to strengthen our organization over the years, but I would be remiss if I didn’t take this moment to express my deep gratitude to our outgoing Board President, Marc Maxwell. Over the last two years of his presidency, Marc has been generous with his time, money, and wisdom. He has led us with a supportive and direct vision, as he has a full understanding of the many facets of our community and what it takes to strengthen our work. His steady approach and presence have been a gift to us. As we look toward the next fiscal year, our team is working hard to plan for many contingencies. Soon, we will have more details to share about our vision, including how we will spend the High Holy Days. Stay tuned! As we’ve learned throughout this pandemic, the only constant is change – but we are learning to be excellent change-managers here at Temple Israel. Our doors, whether physical or metaphorical, are always open to you. 4 Living Judaism together through discovery, dynamic spirituality, and righteous impact. FROM THE SENIOR RABBI How do we get from Passover to Shavuot? We spent Passover moving from the narrow straits of Egypt to the open pathway through the sea to the wide expanse of freedom. Our journey hardly ends here. Torah awaits. The Seder helped us move from there to here. But how do we again get from here to there — from the wild ecstasy of freedom to the guiding light of Torah? The stepping stones come from Pirkei Avot, the ethical teachings of the rabbis of the Rabbi Elaine Zecher Mishnah who lay out a plan with their counsel. They provide six chapters of inspiration, like Senior Rabbi an arrow shot from a bow piercing the air on its way to prepare us and direct us toward the ultimate instruction of Torah. Let these words and images from these chapters guide you on this path: 1:6 Provide yourself with a 2:7…the more Torah, the 3:8: Know whence you teacher, and acquire for more life…the more counsel, came, and where you are yourself a companion and the more understanding, the going, and before Whom you judge every person in the more tzedakah, the more will have to give account scale of merit. peace… and reckoning. 4:1 Who is wise? The one 5:22 Turn it, and turn it again 6: 3 Those who learn [Torah] who learns from every (the Torah), for everything from another; a single person… is in it; And contemplate it, chapter, or a single law, or and grow old and grey over a single verse, or a single it, and stir not from it, for you utterance, or even a single have no better principle letter must treat that person than it. with honor… www.tisrael.org/insight | 617-566-3960 5 Thank you, Rabbi Jen Gubitz! For the past five years, Rabbi Jen Gubitz has brought warmth and wit, care and concern, scholarship and spirit to our congregation. We are grateful for her presence in our lives and the many relationships she has fostered. She has mentored and warmly welcomed as she has modeled living Judaism with meaning. Thank you, Rabbi Gubitz! We wish you much success in the next chapter of your vibrant rabbinate. 6 Living Judaism together through discovery, dynamic spirituality, and righteous impact. Mark your calendar for... SHAVUOT & 5781 CONFIRMATION TIKKUN ZOOM SHAVUOT 25 Hours of Virtual Learning, beginning Sunday, May 16 at 5:00 p.m. Learn more and join us at www.tisrael.org/tikkun-zoom-shavuot On Shavuot, we go big. We celebrate the revelation of Torah at Mount Sinai by learning together, often in what is called a "Tikkun Leil Shavuot," a yearly Torah all-nighter. This year, we go even bigger as dozens of teachers, artists, and facilitators lead us in study, prayer, art making, music, and more over a full 25 hours in the zoomosphere.