TEMPLE BETH-EL OF GREAT NECK

SHEMA HAS BEEN LOVINGLY ENDOWED BY SANDRA ATLAS BASS VOLUME 5 • NUMBER 1 | FALL 2020/5781 EDITOR’S NOTE Contents

I don’t know why I love you like I do, exposing deadly inequities in our system. High Holy Days observance in The Tale of the Mystery : Editor’s Note Part 1 of an Interview with After all these changes that With schools opening and an election a pandemic: By Len Schiff Marjorie Kurcias and Eileen Walk you put me through. bearing down, it feels like we’ve spent “...throw open the traditions and say, 2 18 By Len Schiff —Al Green, “Take Me to the River” months running backward, eyes fixed on ‘What are the parts of our tradition Lay-led Mornings: the past, bracing for the next shock. that we have an ability to maintain Hope + Healing + Love Deepening Community I woke up this morning, out of a dream Times as they are, nobody would and what’s the best way to maintain By Meir Feldman 4 21 By Jennifer Still-Schiff where I had witnessed our first contact blame us if we put High Holy Days them?’ Find a way to do some sort with an alien species. In my dream, services on hold for a while, maybe took of recognition, not just the people in The Healing Power of Apocalypse, Nu? a twisting spindle of fog had appeared a nap until 5782—but that’s not what’s the temple who died in the last year, Community in a Time of Change 5 22 By Len Schiff above the great lawn of Astoria Park— happening. Everywhere I look, are but around the country, who have not By Rabbi Tara Feldman drawing a mass of onlookers. It shed finding ways to seek joy and renewal been properly mourned. You can find Advocating for LGBT Inclusion ragged scraps of cloud as it turned, taking at the end of this very imperfect year. The a dozen ways to give people a sense of Cantor’s Notes with Herb by My Side By Cantor Adam Davis on shape and definition until it finally Kotzker Rabbi Menachem Mendel (1787- connectedness that are different from 6 25 By John Hirsch-Leiman resolved, to the crowd’s amazement, 1859) reminds us, “There is nothing more the way they normally it, and maybe into an old-school flying saucer. Great, whole than a broken heart, and nothing some of them will even be better.” Getting to Know Our New People Want to Help: A Conversation I thought, one more thing to deal with. more upright than a crooked ladder.” In these pages, you’ll find stories of 8 Temple President, Gary Slobin 28 with Jane and Gary Stone This issue’s theme is Change, of which I miss standing together in prayer— change: confronting it, learning from it, By Howard J. Herman By Stuart Botwinick all of us, like Al Green, have had a little but only in a Zoom service do we see creating it. I hope you find something to TriBE! Your Community Within Book Review of MaNishtana’s too much. Sure, we coasted through the each other’s faces. This year, we won’t inspire you as we face whatever changes Your Community Ariel Samson: Freelance Rabbi first weeks of the year, but by mid-March celebrate side-by-side, but soul-by-soul. 5781 has in wait. 9 By Jaqui McCabe 31 By Jennifer Still-Schiff we knew 2020 would be like nothing On a recent podcast, Andy Slavitt, Give kavod, not COVID! we’d ever seen. COVID brought us to who ran the Centers for Medicare and ) Wind, Breath, Soul) רּוחַ Adapting to Change a standstill; George Floyd’s murder Medicaid Services under President L’Shana Tovah! 10 By Vicki Perler 31 By Nina Koppelman brought us to the streets—both events Barack Obama, offered some advice for Len Schiff : Our New Joint Religious Education Program with Temple Much Ado About Noshing Puzzle 12 By David Woolfe 32 SENIOR OFFICERS 2020-2021 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE TRUSTEES EX-OFFICIO HONORARY Meir Feldman MEMBERS-AT-LARGE VICE PRESIDENTS Improving Our Temple Home Tara Feldman PRESIDENT Leslie Abrams, PRESIDENT OF Howard J. Herman Preplanning at Beth Moses Cemetery Gary Slobin Past President BROTHERHOOD William K. Peirez 13 By Elliot Rosenzweig 33 CANTOR Franklin S. Abrams, Matthew Moshen Adam Davis VICE PRESIDENT Past President SISTERHOOD CHAIRS HONORARY TRUSTEES So Long, Farewell: Saying Goodbye to Sheila Aronson Ronald M. Epstein, Lessons from Lockdown RABBI EMERITUS Sandy Lubert David A. Cantor Rabbi Muhlbaum and Cantor Lapin Immediate Past President Compiled by Len Schiff and Sheri ArbitalJacoby Jerome K. Davidson, DD VICE PRESIDENT Rochelle Rosenbloom Louise Feldman 14 35 Compiled by Sheri ArbitalJacoby Doug Bernstein Judi Rosenzweig Ann Finkelstein CANTOR EMERITA BOARD OF TRUSTEES Jennifer Still-Schiff Cindy Gold Lisa R. Hest VICE PRESIDENT 2020-2021 Alan Greene COVID Creations Stuart Lempert Who We Are Andrew Aaron PRESIDENTS Shari Isacowitz Compiled by Sheri ArbitalJacoby EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR 15 36 Sheila Aronson OF CLUB Gloria Landsberg Stuart Botwinick VICE PRESIDENT Doug Bernstein Ann Finkelstein Jerry Landsberg Jordana Levine Joanne Davis Ellen Permut DIRECTOR OF Norma Levitt Our First Zoom Bar Jason Gilbert Linda Rice EARLY CHILDHOOD VICE PRESIDENT PAST PRESIDENTS By Barbara and David Podwall Stuart Lempert Bobbie Rosenzweig 16 EDUCATION Barbara Podwall Marjorie B. Kurcias Jordana Levine Amy Spielman Vicki Perler, MS SAS Stephen G. Limmer FINANCIAL SECRETARY Felisa Myer Michael Zarin Roger Tilles EDUCATOR Barbara Podwall Andrew Aaron Shelley M. Limmer David Woolfe Philip Ross Franklin S. Abrams SECRETARY David Schwartz SHEMA Nina Koppelman DIRECTOR OF Randi Weiler Lawrence Siegel Len Schiff, Editor Leslie Abrams CONGREGATIONAL Jennifer Still-Schiff Sheri ArbitalJacoby, ENGAGEMENT Ronald M. Epstein TREASURER Gary Slobin Managing Editor Jaqui McCabe Philip Ross David Sutin Leslie Abrams and Grant Toch Howard J. Herman, Peter Tufel Proofreaders Randi Weiler 2 SHEMA | FALL 2020/5781 TEMPLE BETH-EL OF GREAT NECK 3 HOPE + HEALING + LOVE THE HEALING POWER OF COMMUNITY IN A TIME OF CHANGE

But how can G-d, or Torah, command created b’tzelem Elohim, in the image of ince March, our world, our ramifications for our emotional and an emotion? How can anyone tell us G-d. We are all touched with the Divine, nation and our beloved Temple physical health. what to feel? all made of the same, infinitely precious SBeth-El community have been In these trying days, we are newly In the 19th century, the sage Naftali stuff. How can we not, then, love our cast into a period of deep uncertainty; aware of our interdependence. Our Zvi Yehuda Berlin, whom we call the neighbors as ourselves? we have collectively experienced actions and choices have the power to Netziv, addressed this question. But let’s return to that odd equation isolation, fear, tremendous suffering and hurt or heal, to infect or protect. Your The problem, says the Netziv, is I mentioned, 1+1=26, for one last loss. Mi Sheberach, our prayer for powerful and heartfelt response to our that we are used to thinking of love as a perspective from the ancient tradition healing, is always a central fixture of our many Zoom classes, volunteer outreach feeling when really it’s an action. Look of . worship experience, but this High Holy calls, virtual Shabbat services, Shabbat BY RABBI at the phrase v’ahavta l’reiakha, love Days season, it has a renewed poignance bag deliveries, robocalls and video BY RABBI MEIR FELDMAN your neighbor. That lamed at the and urgency. As we face the new year messages is an expression and affirmation TARA FELDMAN start of l’reiakha makes neighbor 5781 together, we, your rabbis and of our ancient Jewish wisdom: Even into the direct object of love, a verb. cantor, feel called as never before to when physical distance is essential, we refu’ah: healing. need human connection in order to heal. burdened by illness, separation from רְפּואָ ה Amar Rabbi Akiva Love, says the Netziv, can’t just be focus on .a thing we sit around and feel—it But how can we begin the process The contains a story that loved ones and fears for our future אָמַר רַ ּבִי עֲקִ יבָ א, Rabbi Akiva said: demands action and can only be of healing body or spirit when a vaccine illustrates this reality: But, perhaps, we can also experience a embodied in deeds. We don’t have has yet to be found, when we have Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai was known newfound humility, an awareness of the V’ahavta l’reiakha kamocha, love—we do love. It happens when still not returned to life as we knew for his healing powers. Visiting another sanctity of all life. Each of us matters and we reach out to another, whether it and the full ripple effect of this rabbi who was ill, Rabbi Yohanan would every moment of health and even illness וְאָהַבְּתָ לְרֵ עֲָךּכָ מֹוָך “‘You should love your neighbor family, friend, acquaintance or pandemic continues to unfold before speak with him, extend his hand and is a gateway to holiness, for our tradition as yourself.’ stranger. When we sit quietly and our eyes? What wisdom might our raise up his suffering friend. But one day, teaches that G-d’s very presence hovers listen to the concerns of another or tradition have to offer? Yohanan ben Zakkai became sick and above the head of the one who is ill. Zeh klal gadol ba’Torah we donate or deliver food from the First and foremost, teaches was visited by Rabbi Hanina. They talked When we affirm our connections with Samuel Field Y to the St. Aloysius that healing is an interpersonal and for a while about the great sage’s pain; each other—through a caring call or זֶה ּכְלָל ּגָדֹול ּבַּתֹורָ ה refu’ah then Rabbi Hanina held out his hand and prayers for healing, virtual gatherings or רְפּואָ ה :That is the central rule of the Torah.” RC Church Interfaith Food Pantry, Illustration by Adam Schiff communal endeavor it’s present in all the ways we put cannot happen alone. According to lifted up Rabbi Yohanan. a socially distanced visit with a friend; The asks, “Why did Rabbi through sharing the challenges and gifts of ּבִּקּור חֹולִ ים Remember this: 1+1=26. Trust me. ourselves aside for a moment and Every act of hope, every act of Maimonides, the mitzvah of attend to the needs of someone else. healing, is also an act of love. Put two bikur cholim, visiting the sick, is Yohanan wait for Rabbi Hanina to each day—we draw closer to the Divine. he theme for these High Holy At Temple Beth-El, v’ahavta l’reiakha acts together, and in that moment incumbent upon us all, for it is through restore him to health? If he was able Pirke Avot, the Ethics of the Fathers, Days is Hope, Healing and has been a central tenet for more than is G-d. This is the message of every this act that we fulfill the obligation to heal his student, let Rabbi Yohanan with its 2,000-year-old wisdom Al אַל ּתִ פְ רֹׁש מִן הַּצִ ּבּור ,ve’ahavta l’reiakha stand himself up!” But the passage mandates וְאָהַבְּתָ לְרֵ עֲָךּכָ מֹוָך -TLove—and, in these challenging nine decades. , the message of Temple Beth times, oh how we need all three. Tara But who—or perhaps what—is being El and our mission in these Days of Awe kamocha, love your neighbor as yourself. continues, answering its own question: tifrosh min hatzibur. Do not separate .yourself from the community אֵין חַבּוׁש מַּתִיר עָצְמּו מִּבֵ ית :has written about healing and Cantor commanded here? Who is the you? from Rosh Hashanah to . (See Rabbi Meir’s article “Hope + “They say Ayn chavush matir atzmo This year, may we be empowered הָאֲסּורִ ים (”.Adam about hope; I write about love. Is it your body, the solid object we see May this be a year in which your love Healing + Love Akiva tells us that Love is the klal with our eyes, or is it your neshama, grows by leaps and bounds, and your According to the Talmud, visiting a mibeit ha’asurim. A prisoner cannot free and inspired, knowing that when healing gadol, the great rule of Judaism. It’s that your soul? experience of G-d is present in every sick person removes one sixtieth of his himself from prison but depends on is needed, community means more simple. Don’t be distracted by centuries It’s the latter, say our rabbis: We’re tiny gesture and modest moment of or her illness. These teachings shine a others to release him from his shackles.” than ever. of argumentation, overwhelmed by more than flesh and bones. Our mortal, giving. We are so blessed to share this light on the challenge of healing in a As this pandemic continues to Sources the subtle, sophisticated, gorgeous time-bound bodies are clothing for the journey of moments with you—let’s time of social distance. If a visit from unfold, we may feel at moments like Babylonian Talmud, Bava M’tzia, 30b; complexity of our tradition. First soul, the infinite and essential. Though make them many in this year of 5781. another is central to the healing process, that prisoner described in the Gemara, Babylonian Talmud, Berakot, 5b; Babylonian comes love. our earthly forms differ, our souls were Shana Tovah. the isolation of quarantine has major unable to move as freely as we once did, Talmud, Nedarim, 40a; Pirke Avot, 2:4.

4 SHEMA | FALL 2020/5781 TEMPLE BETH-EL OF GREAT NECK 5 CANTOR’S NOTES Am Yisrael, The People of Israel, have survived by learning to overcome obstacles, oppression and the neverending march of time that is change.

Heraclitus wrote, “The only constant despite being unreclaimable, yeiush. Returning to Nachman’s In Your goodness, You daily renew is change.” We are all living in a time We’re all grappling with loss of what was, wisdom, observe how his axioms creation. This radical statement isn’t of significant personal, societal and wishing it will return yet knowing it will are active, future focused but in passive optimism. The Eternal models global change. So much rapid change at never be the same. present tense: hope as an active state through daily once produces a form of psychological Rebbe Nachman of Breslov focused renewal. We can ritualize this through paralysis known as “change shock.” on this in his famous quotes: Im ata ma’amin sh’ykholim lekalkel prayerful recitation of words, a quick family morning affirmation or private אִם אַּתָהמַאֲמִין ׁשֶ ּיְכֹולִים לְקַ לְקֵ ל Perhaps you’ve felt it—staring blankly at your laptop screen, in pajamas, as the Ein shum ye’ush ba’olam klal journaling. Doing so can diminish .ta’amin sh’yecholim letaken despair in our world אֵ ין ׁשּום יִאּוׁש ּבָעֹולָ ם ּכְלָ ל sourdough proofs and cable news blares ,Likewise, our morning blessings ּתַאֲמִיןׁשֶ ּיְכֹולִים לְתַּקֵ ן in the background. It seems to accelerate There is no despair in the world daily, along with our heart rates and (that can’t be overcome). Nissim b’Chol Yom (Daily Miracles), are BY CANTOR anxiety levels. We’re all enduring, If you believe breaking is possible, a rich ritual of the potential and poetry ADAM DAVIS simultaneously, the pandemic, political Kol ha’olam kulo gesher tzar me’od, believe fixing is possible. found in every moment of waking up—providing the opportunity to be ָלּכ הָ עֹולָ ם ּכֻלֹו גֶ ֶ ׁשר צַר מְ אֹד ,strife, civil unrest, economic turmoil familial proximity—the list goes on. Feiler’s previous brush with mindful and grateful for the minuscule Each of these is a potential “lifequake,” veha’ikar lo le’fached klal. mortality, documented in Council of microseconds as our minds click on a set Dads, sought a way to handle just one tone for the entire day. Over time, this וְהָעִ יקָ ר לֹא לְפַחֵ ד ּכְלַ ל halom! I am thrilled to be your a psychologically seismic, life-altering new cantor. I’m so pleased to event. We know the effect of negative lifequake. Researching his new book, and other ritual recitations of gratitude S be part of the TBE team and ones like serious health events, the death All the world is a very narrow bridge, he found a pattern among people who produce a context of continuity that am grateful to everyone who made of a loved one, major financial loss or a and the essential thing is not to be managed multiple periods of life change stands up to any backdrop of change. it possible! I look forward to getting social setback. Positive ones also have an overwhelmed by fear. successfully. Each mitigated the impact When our newly freed ancestors left acquainted, however possible under impact, though: marriage, the birth of a of transitions through use of rituals. Egypt, they could hardly take care of current circumstances. child, a new home, a new job, winning Attachments to the familiar comfort Waking up, eating, sleeping and themselves let alone create a society or Moving to a new city or job is a lotto or retirement. us—but can lead to our being stuck studying all have rituals to mark the start govern a land. Upon their first arrival to daunting transition for anyone, even Bruce Feiler’s new best-selling book, in the past (TV reruns, anyone?). and end of days. Consider the mundane the land flowing with milk and honey, in normal times. My interviews at TBE Life Is in the Transitions, notes that we all As time passes, our proximity to that minutiae of these daily events and they were unprepared for the transition. began as COVID-19 seeped into the experience eight to ten lifequakes—each pain diminishes and we gain new you’ll realize you already have some. But it was in the chrysalis of the Sinai news; by my final one, we were socially requiring adjustment averaging five years. perspectives. Overcoming yeiush We have Jewish versions of these as well. desert that they created and adopted distanced as everything was shutting As his title suggests, we spend half our requires letting go of yesterday, living And for the end of a week, a new month the laws and commandments, festival down. Now that I’m in Great Neck, it’s lives working through lifequakes. Good in the now and anticipating tomorrow. and, of course, the new year. seasons, social structure and spiritual masks in public; but I’m training B’nei or bad, each has tremors, aftershocks, loss, The inverse of yeiush is tikvah, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, former chief rituals which helped them navigate Mitzvah students, leading services and joy and rebuilding phases. But through familiar from Israel’s national anthem, rabbi of the United Kingdom writes, through very uncertain times. Morning , , Shabbat doing everything else online rather than them, we can learn, grow and repair “The Hope.” In Hebrew, words morph “The whole of Judaism is a set of laws Am Yisrael, The People of Israel, services, TriBEs, stocking food-pantry in person. It’s all changed so quickly—so (tikkun) to become more the humans as they change tense. Interestingly, and narratives designed to create in have survived by learning to overcome shelves and social-action initiatives— much is upside down! Everything I do G-d intended. The question is how? though, in Hebrew there is no good people, families, communities and obstacles, oppression and the Temple Beth-El offers so many. What as a cantor to bring people together in The Jewish tradition speaks of two future tense for the word or even a nation habits that defeat despair. neverending march of time that is new rituals can you create in your communal song has flipped into the states of mind, each related to something concept of hope. “I will hope” is a Judaism is the voice of hope in the change. We were not lost amidst a Red own home? muted, Hollywood Squares arrangement we care about, and our anticipation clumsy expression. Instead, we say conversation of mankind.” Sea of lifequakes; with the Eternal’s Change may be the only constant of Zoom, an online software platform of what will happen to it in the future. “Yesh tikvah,” (I have hope) or “Ani On waking each day, we declare it help, we marched through it. We for the foreseeable future. Yet, as that actually prevents people from The first is an acute sense of loss. m’kaveh,” (I hope). For hope to be alive, new and full of possibility. Future focus memorialized the “Song of the Sea” we head into 5781, as long as we singing together. The Talmud (Sukkah, 30b) names we must nurture it in the now. We can’t is woven into our morning prayer Yotzer moment into a daily ritual recitation of create, reinterpret and adopt rituals It is challenging to get to know people the particular sense of despair over hope for the past, only for the future Or (Creator of Light), Uvtuvo m’chadesh Mi Chamocha. What new rituals will you to overcome lifequakes, we can like this. something continually pined for— while in the present. b’chol yom tamid ma’aseh bereishit: adopt this new year to create more hope? say “Yesh tikvah,” we have hope.

6 SHEMA | FALL 2020/5781 TEMPLE BETH-EL OF GREAT NECK 7 TriBE! YOUR COMMUNITY WITHIN YOUR COMMUNITY BY JAQUI McCABE, DIRECTOR OF ENGAGEMENT

It seems like virtual environments of Zoom, YouTube to tell their stories, share their struggles, yesterday that and Facebook Live. But, in this new find ways to help those in need and, Rabbi Tara, Rabbi world, Temple Beth-El has continued most importantly, connect. As we Muhlbaum and to do what it does best: Inspire through increase engagement and further train I launched the purpose, be known by love. our leaders, we continue to be inspired rebranding of As a reflection of that mission, the by these meaningful gatherings and our Small Groups TriBE initiative has not only survived hope to see more of our members find with Purpose the change but actually flourished, their TriBEs. initiative. Within gaining new members along the way. a week, more We launched the TriBE Quarantine than a hundred Affinity Groups initiative, offering congregants opportunities for those who have been registered for affected by COVID-19 in a variety of TriBEs that spoke to them. With ways to find new, necessary TriBEs. tremendous excitement and energy, TriBEs continue to convene and some we were off. have even expanded their capacity Then, overnight, everything by meeting multiple times a month. changed—the doors to the temple closed With new, adaptive TriBEs like and all programs, events and religious Documentaries and Discussions, Temple members maintain strong connections observances had to relocate to the members of the Beth-El family continue even during the most challenging times.

8 SHEMA | FALL 2020/5781 TEMPLE BETH-EL OF GREAT NECK 9 ADAPTING TO CHANGE BY VICKI PERLER, DIRECTOR OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

all shared began to shut down. The the children—and, of course, our first conference, scheduled for March 19, Pre-K Zoom Graduation. was canceled a week before the much- During this difficult year of anticipated day. uncertainty and quarantine, we were The reality of a changing world was always certain about one thing—that surfacing, and we chose to keep our we could count on our children arriving school open virtually, doing our best to each morning with a keen desire to learn new skills and platforms to engage laugh, learn and have fun. Each day, they our young children and their families. “lightened our loads” and helped make With the strong support of the temple’s our days happier and more meaningful. leadership and staff, the teachers and I am so proud of every child’s growth I rallied to overcome the steep learning in compassion, responsibility and self- curve as we trained ourselves to meet confidence. They showed us how resilient our new goals. they are, and I am confident that they Quickly finding its way into the will continue to recognize and honor homes of our students and their families their individual strengths and talents, were a combination of Zoom (which take pride in their accomplishments so many of us had never even heard of and respect the feelings of others as they before), FaceTime one-on-one meetings grow and mature. with children and parents, prerecorded Our children clearly “lead the way” in videos of teachers reading stories, nature our school and in our remote education walks, cooking, science experiments and from home. We learned many lessons I BELIEVE THE CHILDREN ARE OUR FUTURE other valuable learning. during this past year. TEACH THEM WELL AND LET THEM LEAD THE WAY Our dedicated Parent-Teacher Through it all, the relationships built SHOW THEM ALL THE BEAUTY THEY POSSESS INSIDE Council provided sessions of music and at Temple Beth-El Early Childhood GIVE THEM A SENSE OF PRIDE TO MAKE IT EASIER dance every week, our music teachers Education Center remained intact and LET THE CHILDREN’S LAUGHTER REMIND US HOW WE USED TO BE and cantor went virtual, and I set up my strong. We remained steadfast to our living room as a production studio for core values and our unwavering love — LINDA CREED, “THE GREATEST LOVE OF ALL,” our weekly Shabbat Sing. for children. The bond among our Teachers transformed their homes teaching staff became much stronger, It was the pinnacle of many years of This special honor was a result of our and created lessons with materials they and our knowledge about using new From far left: The ECEC Director used her thought, innovation and creativity. The strong relationships with the organization had on hand and used their creativity methods to accomplish our goals grew home production studio for weekly Shabbat Early Childhood Education Center and in recognition of our school being to find new and innovative resources to to a higher level. Sing experiences for the entire school. (ECEC) teachers and I were thrilled to a model early-childhood program. achieve their goals. When we return to our temple home Teachers offered virtual hugs to the children at face-to-face meetings. Morah Vicki be selected to host the We collaborated for months to make As we evolved, our virtual school this month, we will once again, recreate regularly led Shabbat Sing on Zoom. The Project’s annual early-childhood our school the very best it could be. flourished for many students. So many a warm and loving place for children to Pre-K Class of 2020 enjoyed some remote conference. The conference topic We planned and worked with vigor, options were available for engagement grow, laugh and lead the way into the time together. At end-of-year in-person gatherings, each student received a special was When We Create: Empowering and in the process our own learning was every week, and everyone was trying future. And may we continue to go from gift bag from the ECEC. Children’s Unique Voices Through the inspired and ignited. The provocation to create and build new relationships strength to strength. Arts, and it was to bring together more created a motivation and momentum that with the children, the families and the From my family to yours, may the than 200 early-childhood professionals was stimulating, engaging and exciting. educational environment. joyful sound of the welcome and leaders from across the metro–New We were almost ready—and then The grand finale was face-to-face end- in a new year of health, happiness, York area for professional development. the beautiful community that we of-year gatherings with the teachers and fulfillment and peace. L’Shanah Tovah.

10 SHEMA | FALL 2020/5781 KULANU: OUR NEW JOINT IMPROVING OUR TEMPLE HOME RELIGIOUS EDUCATION PROGRAM BY ELLIOT ROSENZWEIG WITH TEMPLE ISRAEL

• Starting in fall 2019, Temple Beth-El issued photo ID cards to all parents • What will become of our profound commitment to our students will remain and caregivers with children in embrace of egalitarianism, of as firm as ever. our Early Childhood Education environmentalism, of combined Affirming our shared values means Center. All parents entering the families, of members of the LGBTQ also honoring our differences in ritual temple without an ID card were community? and observance; at Kulanu, we will required to verify their identity at • What will become of our embrace practice the wise tradition of the temple office. of the prophetic call to passionate habayit—of observing the “traditions • The outer door from the parking lot justice? of the house.” When we are at Temple entrance to the temple is now locked. These are legitimate questions and, Israel, we will respect and participate Anyone seeking to enter the vestibule in voicing them, you give us the terms according to their practice. When we will have to either use an ID card, by which we will measure the success gather for programming at Beth-El, enter a security number or be buzzed of Kulanu. As progressive Jews, the we will teach, explain and celebrate our in from the temple office. Reform and egalitarian Conservative practice. Bar and Bat Mitzvah education • When we are all back to the movements share an engagement with and preparation will remain unique to “new normal,” we will implement the world as it presents itself to us along each congregation. I will teach in the Emergency Response Drills with a commitment to its constant seventh grade program to help ensure (ERDs) to ensure that, in case of an BY DAVID WOOLFE improvement—what a great foundation that the transition is successful for our emergency, all staff members are upon which to build a program for TBE students. I will also be working familiar with security protocols. our children! with students throughout the school The old sanctuary air conditioning and heating units were removed from the roof and replaced ur commitment to tikkun olam, Having been an educator at both to improve the Hebrew skills so with a new powerful system. LOWER-LEVEL RENOVATIONS repairing the world, affirms Reform and Conservative congregations, necessary to enjoy the fullness of Last summer, we began renovating the Othese basic truths: Through I know how vital and vibrant our Jewish experience. Although COVID-19 has prevented us recognize that each additional level of building’s lower level. thoughtful action, we can make the combined program can be and what a We will continue to enlarge the safe from being together in person, work to security brings its own inconveniences, • The first step was to discard 50 years’ world a better place; “better” is always stellar Jewish education we can provide and meaningful community in which improve our facilities continues. When but we believe this is a reasonable price worth of old technology, files and ahead of us, urging us on; and getting for all our students. Rabbi Amy Roth, our children are cared for and learn— we do return, we will be able to enjoy to pay for the protection and peace of filing cabinets, along with everything to “better” demands change. As we’ve director of the new program, affirms and we will continue to strive to make these enhancements. mind of everyone in our extended family. else that found its way into the all experienced during the past few Kulanu’s focus on our shared values: their world a better place. • During the past few years, Temple lower level. The refuse filled five months, change isn’t always easy. Yet, “We may have differences in observance, That is change we can all believe in. SANCTUARY Beth-El has received several 30-yard dumpsters. for all the challenges of this period, we but they are not going to be imparted in COOLING AND HEATING Homeland Security Grants that have • Cinder-block walls that created have also found wonderful opportunities the new religious school. We are always We were unable to use our sanctuary permitted significant enhancement of several rooms have been removed. for connection and new ways of open to recognizing the different types during fall and winter 2019–20, because our security. While some of the work • The elevator that travels from the accomplishing our mission. of Jewish observance.” “We will continue to the air conditioning units were no is covered by these grants, parts of sanctuary lobby to the lower level was One significant change is, of course, All of us involved in our educational longer operational. these costs are not included. overhauled in July. our new journey with Temple Israel: are committed to ensuring enlarge the safe and At the end of May, the old units were • You may have noticed closed-circuit • Plumbing, electrical, structural the joint religious education program, that every student is respected, honored removed from the roof and replaced TV, strobe lights and paging systems and cosmetic renovations will Kulanu. I believe that this moment is and meaningfully engaged. Rabbis Meir meaningful community— with two new Trane 25-ton units that being installed the last time you continue, and the lower level will be alive with potential and opportunity. That and Tara were deeply involved in the will both heat and cool the large space. were at temple. Those efforts, which reimagined and transformed into a said, I hear your questions and concerns: planning of Kulanu, and will continue and strive to make their started three years ago, are ongoing. special space. • What will become of our program to be involved, along with Cantor Adam TEMPLE SECURITY Nearly two miles of wiring, or 400 To learn more about these and the values most important to our and me, as we move forward. Although world a better place.” Work continues to ensure the safety of sets of data cables, were used to improvements, contact Executive Jewish experience? the future will bring many changes, our the Temple Beth-El community. We connect the systems. Director Stuart Botwinick.

12 SHEMA | FALL 2020/5781 TEMPLE BETH-EL OF GREAT NECK 13 LESSONS FROM LOCKDOWN COMPILED BY SHERI ARBITALJACOBY CONGREGANTS SHARE SOME INSIGHTS FROM THIS UNPRECEDENTED TIME OF SOCIAL Imaginations have been sparked and artistic DISTANCING DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC. endeavors ignited as Temple Beth-El Just What the Compiled by Len Schiff and Sheri ArbitalJacoby What I’ve Learned Doctor Ordered congregants sheltered in place during the past Samantha Pravder, ⦁ I own more sweatpants than several months. From culinary confections a pediatric resident at I thought I did. Westchester Medical Center, ⦁ We spent our best Passover ever and comfort food to expressive dance celebrated the completion remotely—with people of her first year of residency and paintings, our Temple Beth-El members we wouldn’t normally get to by making this colorful gravity-defying cake. be with. have been producing inspiring works. ⦁ I am terrible at housekeeping. Hooked on Learning Hebrew —Debbie Sutin I became totally hooked on learning Hebrew conversation during the pandemic with the help of David Revising the Definition of Elderly Berry Sweet and Delicious Roberta Lulov recreated a $38 Woolfe from TBE’s Religious School As an avid writer and reader, I cherish words—and, in this time of pandemic, and by practicing with congregant Briermere Farms Mixed Berry Cream Pie many words have taken on new meaning for me. One is elderly. for a special dinner with her children. Linda Diamond for half an hour each We often hear that the people most vulnerable to COVID-19 are those with which means underlying conditions and the elderly. Being in good health, I most certainly did ,ׁשָלֹום חֲבֵרִים ׁשֶ ּלִ י .day either “hello, my friends” or “goodbye, not fall into either of those categories—but, out of curiosity, I Googled the word. my friends”—depending whether Personally, I have always associated elderly with vulnerability and fragility, Dancing for Peace you’re coming or going. qualities more appropriate to someone in their 90s perhaps than to me. Karen Siegel choreographed and —Mel Feuerman According to Medicare and the U.S. Census Bureau, though, anyone older performed “A Prayer for Peace,” than 65 is elderly; this means that for a decade, I have fallen into this category. set to Karl Jenkins’ “The Armed Man Mass” (A Mass for Peace). Clearly, my personal connection with the word needs to change. My newly revised definition of elderly is “a category of person who earns respect based on years of experience, which culminates in strength and wisdom, the need for self-care and acceptance of care from others.” Cooking Up a Storm Vulnerable, perhaps, but in no way fragile. Barbara Herman treated her —Nina Koppelman family to zucchini-potato latkes. Stopping to Smell the Roses

Seven weeks into my retirement, COVID hit. I had always loved being on the go, but I now had to hunker down. A new me developed. I was able to enjoy sitting at my desk, watching the birds create a nest in the gutter outside my window. It was a joy when the chicks began to reach with their little beaks and eat the food their parents brought—and Feeling Fortunate breathtaking to observe Mother Nature in the early spring, This has shown me how fortunate I am in family, creating magnificent flowers from her beautiful palette. home and community. Brushing Up on History I learned how to literally stop and smell the roses. Adam Schiff painted holy , —Linda Diamond —Chris Bazinet one of the oldest cities in the world.

14 SHEMA | FALL 2020/5781 TEMPLE BETH-EL OF GREAT NECK 15 From left: held the Torah, surrounded by his family. After the service, friends greeted him in the TBE parking lot at his “car mitzvah.”

people would enter the temple, which bathrooms would be open, where the 10 attendees would sit. In what was surely a first, we even designed personalized hand sanitizers and masks for all in the sanctuary. No detail was overlooked. And, so, the big day came. In the presence of immediate family, but with hundreds watching on Zoom, Jacob read wonderfully from the Torah and gave a meaningful d’var. Afterward he came to the parking lot, where friends greeted OUR FIRST before the big weekend, though, we that could not occur in a time of social him with a “car mitzvah”—another TBE were hit with the reality that we would distancing. Jacob’s service would be held first. Our caterer delivered kiddush box have to change all our plans. Jacob’s in the sanctuary instead of the chapel—a lunches to everyone’s car, and then we ZOOM BAR party would have to be canceled—or at much bigger room which would lend went home. least postponed. More importantly, we itself to social distancing—and so began Jacob’s Bar Mitzvah wasn’t what we MITZVAH needed to figure out a plan for a new planning the first Bar Mitzvah in a expected it to be—but it also exceeded BY BARBARA AND kind of Bar Mitzvah service. generation to occur inside that space. our expectations. We cannot thank DAVID PODWALL Temple Beth-El has been a second We had one podium for Jacob and enough both the clergy (the Rabbis home to us since we first moved to the other Podwalls in attendance and Feldman and Cantor Vlad) as well as Stu Great Neck 15 years ago, so we were another for Rabbis Meir and Tara Botwinick who did everything possible ho would have thought thrilled when New York’s Governor Feldman, with each space outfitted with to make our event the best it could be. a year ago that we would Andrew Cuomo announced that plexiglass and a separate laptop. Only In a time when the world appears to be W have a new word in our groups of as many as 10 could our family would touch the Torah, and falling apart, it is comforting to know everyday vocabulary in 2020—Zoom. congregate inside a house of worship. Jacob would have to chant his portion that Temple Beth-El is here for us. We As life suddenly changed by the The announcement came only two without Cantor Vladimir Lapin at his know that Jacob will always remember emergence of COVID-19, our family weeks before the Bar Mitzvah, though. side. In fact, the cantor wasn’t even in how he was the first Zoom Mitzvah at found itself Zooming in order to It was legally possible to be at the the room, but on Zoom. TBE. We will always be grateful—and communicate with the world: Zoom temple, but could we actually do it? All the wires and speakers created a couldn’t be more proud. happy hour with friends, Zoom work We only had two short weeks to figure new problem: microphone feedback. and temple board meetings, Zoom out all of the logistics. How would we And it only became more complicated Passover Seders and family reunions keep clergy and attendees at the temple from there. and, sadly, Zoom calls. safe from the virus? How could we Barbara’s mother was in Florida And now, Zoom has also become the create a seamless experience for those and her brother was in California, so nationwide platform on which B’nei attending via Zoom. It was a daunting their would have to be done Clockwise from top left: Jacob read from the Mitzvah are broadcast live for friends challenge, but incoming Temple Beth-El over Zoom. Torah on his special day. The Bar Mitzvah boy and family in virtual attendance. President Gary Slobin assured us that the Undaunted, Executive Director Stuart read from the Torah as his sister and Rabbi Meir looked on. Barbara and David Podwall We had been preparing for our temple was going to make this happen. Botwinick took it on as a challenge and wrapped Jacob in his . The Podwall family son Jacob’s Bar Mitzvah for years and So began two weeks of constant worked hours to get it right. Rabbi Meir, celebrated in the TBE parking lot. The caterer were looking forward to a celebratory conference calls with Rabbi Meir Stu, Jacob and the two of us met multiple delivered kiddush box lunches to guests’ cars. When Jacob exited to the parking lot, friends weekend and a packed Rudin Chapel Feldman, reviewing all aspects of the times at the temple for rehearsals—and greeted him in what the family termed a for his service. Only three months service and reinventing those rituals to keep working out the details: how “car mitzvah.”

16 SHEMA | FALL 2020/5781 TEMPLE BETH-EL OF GREAT NECK 17 Clockwise from top left: This 16th-century THE TALE OF THE MYSTERY TORAH Torah was discovered wrapped in a towel in a desk drawer in the temple basement. PART 1 OF A TWO-PART INTERVIEW WITH The origins of the Torah remain a mystery. MARJORIE KURCIAS AND EILEEN WALK The detail is exquisite.

having an occasion, a marriage or Bar Museum, named after Rabbi Rudin’s Mitzvah… wife. And there’s a room behind that room where stuff got stored. EW: …birth; anything, really… EW: Now this roof leaks, so it had MK: Rabbi Rudin simply said, “I have a flooded back there too. But we started beautiful kiddush cup—would you like going through boxes from everywhere: to acquire it in honor of your occasion?” first paperwork and photographs, then And everybody did. art stacked up in boxes, tchotchkes. EW: So that’s how the Judaica collection We separated out a pile of pieces that grew. And, meanwhile, people who had people could immediately adopt for emotional or personal connections to a donation to the temple. There were different artists would start donating old books from the 16th and 18th pieces, but they didn’t always supply the centuries, design portfolios from proper paperwork—or maybe it wasn’t artists, silver artifacts and a desk always filed correctly. The point is… covered with tapestries and bimah and Torah covers—just sitting there. MK: …it was a mystery. Then, in the basement, there were EW: Anyway, I called the guy at Emanu- all these display cases, tons of office El and he wanted to come as soon furniture and thousands of pounds as he could. So we started searching of dead computers. BY LEN SCHIFF SHEMA: So, how did the collection- EW: I said to Marge, “This is your job: everywhere in the temple: downstairs So, anyway, one of the last things appraisal project begin? Go get us the funding for an appraiser.” in the basement, which was being we uncovered was a desk, and in the I called Temple Emanu-El in New York, completely emptied; upstairs in the bottom drawer was something wrapped An elite task force of Temple Marjorie Kurcias: Initially, it was for our and Marge spoke to a local appraiser for balcony area above the lobby. in a towel. insurance, because an appraisal hadn’t Beth-El members and staff non-religious objects, Fred Pine, and been done for 10 years. MK: It’s a play area now, but that was our MK: No, no, no—hold on. We did we both came up with the same name: set out to catalog and appraise first museum space, the Elsie K. Rudin not find it. After we were starting to Eileen Walk: And it wasn’t complete. Beth Weingast. organize everything, John told Executive the temple’s enormous We didn’t even know where all the stuff MK: So, we had two appraisers: one Director Stuart Botwinick that, wrapped EW: It was on skin, not parchment— was—or how it was organized. collection of art and Judaica for Judaica and one for non-religious up in a towel in a desk drawer, was a you could tell, because one side was objects. Torah. Well, Stu ran up there as fast as very dark. Something I learned when in 2019. What they discovered his legs could carry him and brought it I was doing research was that around SHEMA: Is the collection all in the down to Beth, the appraiser, who was the 16th century, Jews didn’t write will amaze you. Shema sat temple or is there a storage facility? It doesn’t sound like TBE SHEMA: sitting at a table working on cataloging on parchment—they went to has always had the most systematic “When we unwrapped it. [The down to talk with two of the EW: It’s all in the temple but spread the collection. skin, because buying parchment would approach to acquiring art. appraiser’s] mouth just fell open. team’s leaders, Marjorie out over many different spaces. So John And we unwrapped it. Her mouth identify you as a . So the animal skin Hirsch-Leiman got the keys, and we EW: Many of the pieces dated back She took off the mantle, which just fell open: “What is this? Don’t touch immediately clued her in and suggested Kurcias and Eileen Walk, and it! Put on your white cotton gloves, and went from place to place—chatting, to when Jacob Rudin was rabbi. He, was pretty threadbare, and unrolled a possible age. we’ll take off the mantle.” So she took off shares their experience in trying keys and labeling them as himself, was a collector of Judaica. we went. it. And she said, ‘This is very old.’” the mantle, which was pretty threadbare, SHEMA: Wow. this first installment of that MK: And he bought what he loved, and unrolled it. And she said, “This is MK: By that time, we had formally —Marjorie Kurcias which eventually became a very large very old.” MK: And that began our search. wide-ranging interview. started the appraising project. collection. When somebody was

18 SHEMA | FALL 2020/5781 TEMPLE BETH-EL OF GREAT NECK 19 SHEMA: That must have been unrolled it many times. I sat with him uncomfortable. in his office while he was doing it. And LAY-LED SHABBAT MORNINGS: he looked for telltale indications of how MK: I cannot tell you how nervous some letters were formed—especially we were, but Beth took responsibility. DEEPENING COMMUNITY the lamed. She then picked up the snipping with a BY JENNIFER STILL-SCHIFF And he said, “I can tell you that the sterile tweezer and put it into this sterile calligraphic style dates it to the 16th test tube. We waited about two or three century. I will also tell you that it comes months, and in the end they said they or songs seem to speak to us or to from either North Africa or Yemen. It’s a couldn’t get a date because there was the time we’re living in. Lea Caplan very valuable Torah. But it’s still a Torah, sulfur contamination in the specimen— requested Modim Anachnu Lach, a one you should use and have on display, and asked us if we could please send prayer which brings a scientific world so that people understand how old it is another one. view to the liturgy. With a simple and how it’s been passed down through So we did, and it came back the same. pronoun change from I to we, Susan the generations.” Beth contacted more carbon-dating Weiss-Horowitz helped break down All the grandiose conjectures we’d labs in Europe—in Cambridge and the alienating barriers of our Brady had about it, how it came out of the Switzerland—but both refused to do it Bunch Zoom boxes. Since some of us Inquisition and was smuggled through because they didn’t want to take on a are studying with David Woolfe, we some port, none of those were true. sample that had been rejected twice. have also become eager to try out more texts from the traditional pages of the SHEMA: But, the skins? Mishkan T’filah. SHEMA: Did the lab give you any sense MK: That’s just how they were doing it One event canceled by the quarantine of where the sulfur contamination then in North Africa. was the group Torah service that the might have come from? B’nei Mitzvah class had been EW: What do you do when you have MK: No idea. “I enter this sacred space to voice something I had learned in my earliest preparing for all year. Having perfected an object like that? Are we prepared to The longings of my heart in prayer...” interactions with Judaism: that studying her parashah, Susan chanted for us and EW: Who knows how this thing was display it, to store it or give it as a long- “May the door of this synagogue to become a Bat Mitzvah would equip invited her family and Hebrew teacher handled? term loan to a place that has the proper be wide enough…” a Jewish adult to lead a minyan, even to attend. We have had Cantor Adam storage facilities? Without knowing the MK: But the mystery of the whole thing —Mishkan T’filah stranded on a desert island. What and the Feldmans join us to lend their provenance, do we even have the right? is, how did it get to Temple Beth-El? could be more stranded than our voices but, even with their visits, the When did it get here? Who brought it? MK: But I want to amend that. I don’t f the space I am entering is a Zoom sudden quarantine? sessions have retained the informal I called every person I could think of, want to disagree, because these Room, is it really a space? Is there Nina, it turned out, was also finding feeling of a gathering of friends finding From top: The scroll was made of skin, not including, of course, Rabbi Davidson are legitimate concerns. But the last Ireally a door? And could a team her Saturdays too quiet. “I have missed ways to worship together. parchment—you can tell, because one side and Rabbi Rudin’s son. Nobody has any gentleman who looked at it said, of lay-leaders open that door to a the services,” she wrote me. “Shabbat does Every week brings a new opportunity is very dark. No one knows how this 16th- century Torah wound up at Temple Beth-El. idea of how it got here. We do know “Put it in your ark and use it. Don’t meaningful worship experience? not seem complete without them. There to share virtual space and real how it got to that desk: Rabbi Davidson coddle it. Roll and unroll it. Better After the joyous hubbub of , the is something uplifting about following connection, praying together and found it in the ark in the chapel, behind to use it than have it hidden away.” sudden quiet of the March shutdown study with prayer. I would love to work checking up on each other. We tell EW: Beth took photos and sent them to the curtain in a corner, and had it The Torah belongs here. left many of us lonely and adrift, missing on a lay-led service with you.” Elaine personal anecdotes about the people we a woman at University who was brought upstairs. the togetherness of the TBE community. Springer got on board enthusiastically. remember for or Mi Sheberach. an expert in Torah scrolls. Our clergy and leadership leapt into the The clergy buoyed us up with their Sometimes we sing. EW: We don’t know how long it was MK: The expert also said it was very gap with generosity and speed, and I was support. Cantor Lapin was happy to So is it really a space? Have we made lying there. old; she couldn’t be more specific but grateful for all the opportunities they guide us through the major points of the the door wide enough? suggested we have it carbon-dated by MK: John took it to a scribe in New York created to bring us together virtually. service. We unapologetically parroted The smiling faces that lift our spirits sending a sample to the University of who said, “Yes, it’s very old.” But, sitting on my sofa after Saturday his nusach from years of Saturdays, and every Saturday morning say yes, we have Illinois at Urbana. Torah Study, my day seemed too empty. made it our own. Our Rabbis Feldman created a sacred space. It may have started EW: The thing is, because we don’t know “One of the last things we uncovered Now, carbon-dating is a very technical Over leftover challah, I wondered offered enthusiastic help including as a stop-gap synagogue, but our lay-led the provenance, we don’t know if it’s a process. They sent us sterile containers was a desk, and in the bottom drawer if I was the only one who missed practical guidance for leyning. Shabbat morning service has created legitimate possession. in a box, and we had to take sterile was something wrapped in a towel.” morning services. Then I remembered Since April 25, a core group has been a fellowship to outlast the restrictions scissors and find an obscure seam on the MK: But there was one other person how strongly, back in the building, experimenting with weekly worship of shutdown. In person or online, the Torah where it wouldn’t be seen if we who looked at it: the official Judaica —Eileen Walk Nina Koppelman had urged Shabbat together, negotiating which prayers to members of our informal will snipped off a sixteenth of an inch. consultant at Sotheby’s. He rolled and morning attendance. I remembered highlight each week. Certain readings continue to come together.

20 SHEMA | FALL 2020/5781 TEMPLE BETH-EL OF GREAT NECK 21 APOCALYPSE, NU? A JEREMIAD

BY LEN SCHIFF

“It’s the end of the world every day, out to a final, decisive act. Later, Jewish for someone,” wrote Margaret Atwood sects elaborated on the idea with a in The Blind Assassin. That’s certainly grand end-times theology, complete true for the Jews, who have danced to with armies angelic and monstrous, a the rhythm of cataclysm and rebirth messiah and a last battle. Jesus taught it for generations. Spaced every few to his followers, who really ran with it, centuries or so, these episodes have left and the rest is history. It would be a time the invisible borders of our community Sisterhood organized communal baking us staggering in the wilderness, forcing for great truths about the universe to be and see the devastation wrought on the drives to feed frontline health-care our sages to make sense of a shattered revealed, so it came to be known by the most vulnerable—the elderly, the poor workers. Still, our attention was largely past and an unknown future. So it was, Greek word for “uncover”: apokaluptein, and, overwhelmingly, communities of turned inward. that in 597 BCE, hanging up their lyres or apocalypse. color. By April 2020, Black and brown That all changed on May 25 by the waters of Babylon, the exiled Jews Like temple sacrifice or Sammy’s communities like Hempstead had when the murder of George Floyd, looked back toward Jerusalem and did Roumanian Steakhouse, apocalypse is reported almost five times the number of and the subsequent protests, some hard thinking. We had a covenant part of an older, stranger Judaism—far positive cases as neighboring majority- shocked us into attention. with G-d. We had a kingdom. What the removed from mainstream practice; as white towns like Garden City. We hell happened? science fiction, though, Apocalypse has didn’t create these deadly disparities, BUT JUDAISM CALLS divide, built on groundwork laid by while in wealthier neighborhoods the Answering that question would never been hotter. The entertainment but as Reform Jews we are obligated to US TO REACH BEYOND decades of institutionally racist housing exact opposite occurs. The prophet require a new way of thinking about industry has provided us with a steady address them. OUR COMMUNITY policies: Redlining practices codified Leonard Cohen put it more succinctly: history, one in which the story of stream of apocalypses, each with its With that in mind, here are the Is there a mitzvah more profoundly into standard practice by the Federal “Everybody knows the fight was fixed/ G-d and the Jews wasn’t only current sternly prophetic warning. “Eco- three insights that I believe COVID Jewish than loving the stranger? Citing Housing Authority, Robert Moses’s slum The poor stay poor, the rich get rich.” events but would play out throughout pocalypses” speak of global warming has granted us. Talmud,1 Rabbi Reuben Firestone notes clearance and parkway system, whites- COVID didn’t create this disparity, millennia, and in which the Babylonian and robot uprisings of technological that the Torah tells us to care for the only racial covenants that came standard but it certainly exploited it—taking hold captivity wasn’t the breaking of a hubris, while zombie apocalypses COMMUNITY IS OUR stranger more frequently than it tells us in many Long Island developments and in places where living spaces were too covenant but a bump in a very long road. inevitably reveal that the true monster is GREATEST STRENGTH to love G-d. Most commandments are property-appraisal policies designed to cramped, health care was inadequate or The exile, explained the Prophet Ezekiel, man. Terrible as they are, these visions When the lockdown began, the Temple given without justification, but here the artificially price certain neighborhoods inaccessible and most jobs opportunities was an admonishment to a people who are united in a kind of optimism: We can Beth-El family took steps to ensure Torah calls us to radical empathy—we out of reach. were as low-paid essential workers. Like had grown complacent and stopped learn from our mistakes and be better. that, even in isolation, no one would must love the stranger because we were Children of history, we lead lives a boulder, the virus crushed anyone caring about justice. The Jews had lost We can repent. be alone. Clergy and staff mobilized strangers ourselves. profoundly shaped by what came who couldn’t get out of its way. Little their sense of the sacred and abandoned Is this such a moment? Separated teams of volunteers to bring necessities But, here on Long Island, it can be before us. The consequences of wonder that the slow, sadistic murder of their moral center, “practiced fraud and from family and friends, anticipating to vulnerable members, check in with hard to actually encounter a stranger— hypersegregation are well-documented: George Floyd in Minneapolis served as committed robbery...wronged the poor our first remote High Holy Days, it’s other members by phone and create and that’s by meticulous design. Based For those 11 Black and brown a flashpoint, exploding long-simmering and needy and defrauded the stranger” hard to deny that we’re in a state of online opportunities to worship, study on 2010 census data, Nassau is the communities, a set of interlocking anger into public demonstrations that (Ezekiel 22:29). But repentance, though exile: from our holy places, from our and shmooze. With Zoom came a new most segregated county of its size in vicious cycles in which limited access still continue. hard, was also inevitable. That’s what loved ones, from our everyday lives. kind intimacy: Unguarded and exposed, America. Of Long Island’s 291 distinct to critical resources—quality health Martin Luther King Jr. was saying when Many of us have been sick, or have we saw into each other’s homes—and communities, the majority of Black care, sufficiently funded education, LOVE THE STRANGER. he reminded Americans that the arc of grieved for someone cruelly taken by sometimes into each other’s noses. residents live in just 11—a pattern career opportunity and adequate SEEK JUSTICE. FIX STUFF the moral universe bends toward justice: COVID-19; we’ve been lonely, anxious Our focus wasn’t entirely on the Princeton professor Douglas S. Massey housing—only serves to further As Jews, our highest obligation is to not In the long run, righteousness would and exhausted. Still reeling from the last TBE community: The Brotherhood calls “hyper-segregation.”2 It’s a shocking entrench a community in poverty, accept the world as it is. Where pain prevail. G-d and the Jews were bashert. shock, we brace for the next. continued, even expanded, its critical Seen this way, history was a stage But we only start to understand the work with the Interfaith Food Pantry 1 In Tractate Bava Metzia, Rabbi Eliezer says the Torah warns against harming the stranger either 36 or 46 times, depending on who’s counting. on which a cosmic drama would play scale of the disaster when we look past at St. Aloysius RC Church, while 2 https://projects.newsday.com/long-island/segregation-real-estate-history/.

22 SHEMA | FALL 2020/5781 TEMPLE BETH-EL OF GREAT NECK 23 ADVOCATING FOR which it aspires until we address ongoing racism in all sectors and at all levels of society. We remain in LGBT INCLUSION WITH solidarity and action with the NAACP’s urgent #WeAreDoneDying HERB BY MY SIDE campaign, whose policy demands we cover areas of criminal justice, economic justice, health care and voting, especially as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to disproportionately impact Black Temple Beth-El has long been known for its activism on human- Americans. As the NAACP says, ‘Senseless hate crimes and rights issues, so in 1987 when the Union of American Hebrew incidence of COVID-19 cases and Congregations (UAHC)—now known as the Union for Reform deaths spreading throughout the Judaism (URJ)—convened a committee to draft a statement on gay Black community display the rights, TBE was significantly represented. The resulting Resolution continuance of systematic racism BY JOHN HIRSCH-LEIMAN and privilege granted to white people of Support for Gays and Lesbians said, in part: in America.’” “God calls upon us to love our neighbors as ourselves. We have y darling Herbert left me on American Jews are justly proud of their the first day of Pesach this historical association with the Civil welcomed [gays and lesbians] into the UAHC congregations with Myear. While not unexpected, Rights Movement, but we live now. This special outreach, but we must do more. as he had been ill for some time, his fight is our fight, because to love the death still took me by surprise. We had stranger as ourselves is to fully embrace Therefore, be it resolved that UAHC: been together for 53 years, sharing good the fact that Black lives matter as much times and bad, friends and adventures. as our own. We must understand that Inspired—then mentored—by Rabbi exists, we are called to heal; where things the depth of pain over the injustice the most furious anger is born of broken 1) Urge its congregations and affiliates to: Davidson, we were also activists, are broken, we are called to tikkun olam that people of color—and particularly hearts. Then we must reach out to our working with others within the Reform or repair the world; and where we bear Black men—have been subjected to Black and brown neighbors, listen to a) Encourage lesbian and gay Jews to share and participate movement to secure full inclusion for witness to pervasive systems of abuse, throughout the generations. In recent their stories, be guided by their truths in the worship, leadership and general congregational life gays and lesbians in congregational we are called to break the cycle. We must months we have seen, yet again, too and build a better Long Island. life. Our time together is part of a long move out of our comfort zones, examine many devastating examples of In the end, I don’t know if this is of all . story of social change in the Reform our own biases, confront racism where persistent systemic racism, leading to any sort of apocalypse, but it doesn’t movement. we see it and work in alliance with our the deaths not only of Mr. Floyd but matter—from across the centuries, b) Continue to develop educational programs in the synagogue If you had known Herb as a boy, neighbors to realize the country we want of other precious souls, including Judaism’s prophetic voice still calls us and community which promote understanding and respect you might never have suspected that to see. Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery. to act now, to push back the darkness. he would become an activist. Always So in this critical moment, informed “We remember others before In a similar moment in Tolkien’s for lesbians and gays. brilliant, he was an Eagle Scout and a by the highest moral aspirations of our them: Eric Garner. Tamir Rice. Fellowship of the Ring, Frodo scholar—enrolling at the University tradition, the Reform movement calls us Trayvon Martin. Sandra Bland. Oscar and Gandalf speak for all of us: c) Employ people without regard to sexual orientation.” of Chicago at 15 and graduating at an to action. On May 30, Rabbi Jonah Dov Grant. Philando Castile. Walter age when most of us were finishing Pesner, director of the Religious Action Scott. Terrence Crutcher. Samuel “‘I wish it need not have happened in Rabbi Jerome K. Davidson and Marjorie Kurcias served on that high school. In 1953, after earning a Center of and senior Dubose. Michael Brown. The list feels my time,’ said Frodo. second degree and finishing law school, vice president of the Union for Reform endless—and so, too, is our despair. committee; so did John Hirsch-Leiman and his husband, Herbert Herb enlisted in the U.S. Army. He Judaism, issued a statement that reads, But as we recite the Mourner’s “‘So do I,’ said Gandalf, ‘and so do all Hirsch-Leiman, who passed away on April 9. The two were an returned two years later to begin a law in part: Kaddish for them all, we say now, who live to see such times. But that unstoppable team, traveling to temples all around the country to practice in Hempstead but remained again: ‘We will not sit idly by.’ is not for them to decide. All we have in the reserves for years. set up gay-inclusion committees. In the spirit of this issue’s theme, “The national rage expressed about “Our country simply cannot to decide is what to do with the time I don’t believe that sexual orientation the murder of George Floyd reflects achieve the values of ‘justice for all’ to that is given us.’” Change, Shema asked John to share some of their story. played any role in his life at that point.

24 SHEMA | FALL 2020/5781 TEMPLE BETH-EL OF GREAT NECK 25 From far left: John and Herb celebrated marriage equality at an Oneg Shabbat on June 26, 2009 (photo by Barbara Herman). The pair (back left) celebrated Herb’s birthday at Jackson Hole with members of the Greater New York Council of Reform Synagogues on October 12, 1994. Herb focused on work in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in March 1949. Young Herb was all smiles. The couple commemorated their 20th wedding anniversary in 1987. The duo traveled to Washington, DC, with the Greater New York Council of Reform Synagogues for a final showing of the AIDS quilt.

we moved to the suburbs, we joined I began to travel and speak nationally At TBE’s Religious School, I had taught Judge Ira Warshawsky officiated over we have made are our family. From that Temple Beth-El. It was liturgically about the place of gays and lesbians in 35 years’ worth of fifth graders about a ceremony complete with all the first Shabbat, Herb and I felt accepted, Reform enough for my tastes and liberal mainstream congregations Herb was the , the formal Jewish marriage trimmings: a , live music, welcomed and soon loved. Thank you, enough to have hired the first ordained always with me. I frequently introduced contract, before Herb and I decided we flowers, brunch, a three-tiered wedding Jerry Davidson, you encouraged us. female cantor, Barbara Ostfeld. Jerry him as my chauffeur, until one evening a wanted one for ourselves. We went to cake with a two-groom topper and, of Herbert was a quiet man but he Davidson and Membership Chairman woman in the audience actually believed Vermont, where Rabbi Davidson fulfilled course, a beautiful handmade ketubah. found his voice, and he helped make Dan Rubin made us feel welcome me. The truth is, it was never a secret our wish and solidified our relationship Throughout our days as makhers in the movement for full acceptance from the first evening we walked in, a that Herb was my spouse. One time, by joining us in a civil-union ceremony. Reform Judaism, we met so many other of gays and lesbians in mainstream momentous day in our lives. I was invited to speak at a symposium Later, when same-sex marriage became makhers who started as colleagues but congregations a success. He was a With Herb’s encouragement, I took at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue. legal in Canada in 2008, off Herb and I became dear, dear friends. We were wonderful attorney who balanced out my first steps down the road of moving As we entered the temple, I asked Herb went to Toronto where a judge who was always accepted and generously cared my artsiness, and he made it possible for UAHC to welcome gays and lesbians if he was OK with my participation also a dear friend performed the rite. for, respected and loved. Our lives us to be recognized as family—at temple, Herb was, if anything, a nerd: a quiet, into mainstream religious life. It was like since I didn’t want to compromise him But it wasn’t until 2012, when finally together at Temple Beth-El have been at the URJ and elsewhere. Everyone who solid person—with numerous other that first night in the Kismet kitchen—I in any way. “It’s a little late for that,” sharing our joy with friends and family beyond our hopes or expectations. For met him in any of those venues loved quiet, solid, intelligent nerds to fill his became passionately, almost religiously, he responded. we could have a real wedding at Temple more than 40 years, Temple Beth-El has and respected him—and feels his loss. life. His friends were gay and straight, obsessed with the cause. Our activism grew. I was named to Beth-El. Rabbi Devorah Marcus and been our true home, and dear friends I miss him beyond words. from law school and the army. It was In 1987, I wrote to Rabbi Alexander the national board of the UAHC and one of his army friends, Hugh, who Schindler, then president of UAHC, chair of the Gay and Lesbian Task set us up on a blind date in 1967. I had a long letter in support of accepting Force, while Herb worked on outreach. been a marching-in-the-streets social gays and lesbians as fully participating I served two terms on the national activist since high school, and Herb members of mainstream congregations. board, then Herb served two more. We was still military—but we proved that After speaking with Rabbi Davidson, attended 12 or more URJ Biennials; differences do attract because it was Rabbi Schindler had Al Vorspan, his where I went, he went and vice versa. love at first sight. vice president, set up a meeting. It turns For more than 25 years, Herb and Over the course of the 1950s and ’60s, out that Al Vorspan and his wife were I led the Greater New York Council gay life slowly became less clandestine already friends with Herb’s brother from of Reform Synagogues contingent in and more social. One hotspot was Fire the South Shore. It helped prove my events like New York City’s Gay Pride Island, where Herb owned a place in the point that, whether they know it or not, March, as well as marches on Long community of Kismet. Having a beach everyone knows someone gay or lesbian. Island. They were wonderful, joyous house has always come with a load of Rabbi Schindler appointed me to times. In 2004, perched on the back houseguests, and Herb had plenty. But the Committee on the Changing of a convertible and wearing that April, I was the latest. I made myself Jewish Family. matching striped shirts, we were at home right away, taking over the So I began my life as an openly gay honored to be grand marshals of the kitchen, mending a torn mattress, flying man in the Reform movement with Long Island parade. a kite. Somehow, this endeared me to Herb on my arm—or with me on his. He Rabbi Jerry Davidson remained our Herb—he could tell I was housebroken. was there when I spoke at the the 1987 mentor throughout our involvement We spent that summer courting, getting Biennial in Chicago, introducing 5,000 in the UAHC/URJ and in all of our to know one another and taking long Reform Jews to gay and lesbian issues. activities with Reform Judaism, but walks on the beach. Herb was so proud of me that day. perhaps the most intimate role he played We discovered early our shared Coming out in the 1980s could pose in our lives was officiant at the first of affinity for Judaism; and in 1978, when a real risk to one’s career, but when our three weddings.

26 SHEMA | FALL 2020/5781 snack and it helps me refocus. Thank PEOPLE WANT TO HELP: you for the donation.” JS: Our own children required support A CONVERSATION WITH to find success, so we recognize that others may need that support. JANE AND GARY STONE Sometimes, it’s just making sure they BY STUART BOTWINICK have a snack. Through our work, we hope to provide it. GS: We started getting involved when esidents of Great Neck for 22 years, the Stones have been members of temples on Old Mill Road reached out to Rachel was studying for her Bat Mitzvah and noticed that kids in the community Temple Beth-El since 2003. After beginning her career as a Wall Street us so they could help with the effort. were having trouble getting enough to Rexecutive, Jane spent the last 25 years working as a examiner at the GS: No child should ever go hungry. eat and were taking clothes from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Gary worked in computer programming A need existed in our community and school lost and found. She couldn’t and as a Wall Street trader before moving to Bloomberg, where he has worked people wanted to help—both in our believe there was food insecurity in for the last 19 years. Their daughter, Rachel, 19, is a sophomore at Indiana backyard. We’ve often given to national our community. She asked if she could University, and their son, Ben, 21, recently completed job training and is causes or personal interests that affected donate her Bat Mitzvah gifts to the seeking an apprenticeship in plumbing and heating and air conditioning work. us, but we saw a need in our own town. Interfaith Food Pantry at St. Aloysius. Addressing it would not only take This inspired Jane, who realized that it SHEMA: So, tell us your story. connect with a temple. As we met more money but time and purpose. Time was a long-term problem and we had people in the community, we realized is our most finite resource—we felt to act. Gary Stone: We look at our lives as that many we liked and respected compelled to use some of it to make a journey—a strange one, but there’s JS: On the back of a napkin, Gary ran belonged to Beth-El. These were people a difference. nothing we’d change and everything some numbers to fund a “proof of we wanted to be with outside of work, JS: that’s happened has meaning. I’m from Meeting TBE’s Susanne Marcus and concept,” figuring out how many families, who would become part of our lives. Boston; Jane is from Queens. We met Bertha Del Carpio of the St. Aloysius how many meals. We decided to skip the From far left: Jane and Gary Stone have been members of Temple Beth-El since 2003 and have So we decided to join and quickly felt on a Number Four, Lexington Avenue, RC Church Interfaith Food Pantry was vacation, because this was important. been very involved through philanthropy. TBE volunteers filled shopping bags to help feed that we made the right choice. life changing for us and our kids. They 40 families during school vacation at a Great-Full event last June (photo by Barbara Herman). subway train. We’re very different but The Great Neck Spirits had fun cooking. Jane Stone spotlights all the food that was set out were the ones who helped us identify share a mutual respect for each other, GS: We participate in Friday night SHEMA: Are your temple efforts for bagging. and we work hard to find common Shabbat services, but our involvement the need. We admire their allegiance to focused entirely on serving the service and dedication to eliminating ground. It’s a real partnership. is primarily through philanthropy— food insecure? TBE’s Director of Engagement Jaqui GS: There’s always more to do. TBE making a difference in the community. food insecurity among the vulnerable in Jane Stone: Gary and I both come from JS: We also enjoy our TBE work with a McCabe and the clergy. The solutions members can bring projects to the next We want to help the temple inspire our community, especially children. modest backgrounds. My father, who local group home for people with special come from us. A lot of people want level or start new projects. We think the others and do good in the community, GS: Having experienced our own lived with us until he recently passed needs. We know the challenges that to get involved. The hard part is just TriBEs small-group initiative can make so we support the small groups TriBE challenging journey to create our family, away at 90, was a dress salesman in families have when trying to integrate getting started. It doesn’t need to be big a real impact, focusing on philanthropic program which assists others in finding we wanted to assist Susanne and Bertha the Garment District. Both families their children into the community and or perfect. In fact, it won’t be perfect. purposes—and we could incubate other their “cause or passion” to help make our in their efforts but focus on the children. stressed the importance of education create social events for them. With Sheila You figure it out as you go. It just needs projects. community a better place. It transcended religion or politics— and charitable giving. Just as our families Aronson, Laurie Haber and TBE help, to start. Little things we do can make a it was our community. In one of our taught us the value of writing a check, we have quarterly events at the temple dramatic impact. What’s something that efforts, we worked with the church SHEMA: we’ve come to understand the importance for from the Great Neck Spirits, a We’d love to get more people surprised you about Temple Beth-El? and the schools to provide snacks for of giving our time—it’s become a fixture SHEMA: What are you most proud local special-needs basketball program. involved in this work. If you can make summer school kids, drawing in a whole of our association with Temple Beth-El. of at TBE? phone calls, do some shopping or help JS: We are somewhat private people. I team of shoppers, packers, delivery pack bags, we need you. If you want to have Crohn’s disease and when I wasn’t JS: Four years ago, we learned that while volunteers and coordinators—all critical SHEMA: How can someone get SHEMA: How did you come to be part take a lead role, even better. Gary and well in 2016–17, we hardly told anyone. local students in need receive free meals to the effort’s success. We made mistakes involved? of the Temple Beth-El family? I hope to get more people involved, so We didn’t want to be a burden. We were during the school year, the program and learned a lot. JS: When you see a problem, don’t keep we can dedicate time to working with wrong. I learned about the number JS: Gary had a Conservative synagogue isn’t offered in July and August—so we I’ll never forget the card we received it to yourself—talk to someone. If you others to solve some other problems. of friends I have at TBE. My circle of upbringing. I was raised more culturally started the summer breakfast/lunch from one of the summer school discover an underserved group, talk COVID-19 has helped identify new— friends is something special. So many Jewish, but when we began raising replacement program. Once we started, students: “Sometimes my mind wanders to your temple friends, leaders both at and exacerbate old—problems that people came to support us and make a family in Great Neck we decided to some of the members of the other when I am in class, but then I have a the temple and in the local community, need new solutions. sure we were OK. We don’t have a big

28 SHEMA | FALL 2020/5781 TEMPLE BETH-EL OF GREAT NECK 29 BOOK REVIEW family nearby, but out of pure friendship It doesn’t just have to happen when accepting community that stresses the people came to the rescue. Our rabbis there’s a death in the family or because equality of women, as we see when ARIEL SAMSON: FREELANCE RABBI were there from the start—Rabbi Tara someone’s sick. We have a lot of people women of multiple generations read even lay in the bed with me when I was who have built successful businesses. Torah at a Bat Mitzvah—some for the BY MaNISHTANA at home recovering from major surgery. They’re an incredible resource—not just first time. Great Neck’s diverse Jewish BY JENNIFER STILL-SCHIFF for talking about their own success but community can find a home at TBE. GS: The people in this temple naturally to help with business brainstorming, Moreover, the temple is working to want to help. When Jane was in the like figuring out how to retool after the forge a larger community, creating hospital, we learned that by not talking My book suggestions until now with him. When he gets a television writing job and creates a pandemic. A half hour conversation opportunities for dialogue and finding about what was happening we were have been about works I’ve read, character that parodies himself, you may feel uncomfortable. with a few of our members could make common cause to solve community being selfish denying people the understood and happily He will take you into a very intimate look at how some Jews a significant difference. problems. I’m proud of our clergy and opportunity to express their caring. I recommended, adding, where possible, can be stubbornly inhospitable to anyone who seems different their visibility. think that experience is why we agreed a side of insight or critique. Writing and where white can be blind to its racism to do this interview. I guess we decided SHEMA: Does TBE impact you outside this issue’s column, though, presented and defensiveness. JS: I find it to be a comfortable, that we needed to tell our story so that of your temple involvement? me with an unexpected challenge: This character also has faith in our people that goes beyond unpretentious atmosphere where no others could develop theirs. What, I wondered, was a reader to do, his frustrations and the prejudice he encounters. Teaching a JS: My TBE connection has taught me one is turned away. I see all kinds of When there are other needs, talking face-to-face, with a book that requires new convert, he tells him: “…remember, that [the Jews] can about Judaism and its impact on my life, people at Friday night services. to others can help, too. Talking can a 15-page glossary on Kindle? be a great people. They wish to be. They only lack the light to work and communal responsibilities; it’s Some dress up, some don’t—and inspire people and help them grow, The best thing, I decided, was to admit I was show the way. So sometimes your job is to be that light. allowed me to recognize subtleties about that’s OK. TBE’s leadership and help their families grow and allow them uncomfortable—and forge ahead anyway. So let me offer you “‘That message is so profound,’ remarked the man’s mother, being Jewish in the workplace and the infrastructure enable you to discover to impart important things to their the chance to jump into something witty, difficult, snarky ‘what is that? ? Proverbs 3:1?’ greater world. things about yourself and things you children. Maybe they need career advice and provocative. A 2018 Finalist for the National Jewish Book “Ariel half-shrugged, sheepishly, ‘Superman 47:18.’” care about that you didn’t know existed. or have always wanted to do something Award’s Goldberg Award for Debut Fiction, Ariel Samson: So, what other books have you read lately that made you but don’t know how. Asking for help The thank-you notes tell us that TBE SHEMA: What would you tell a friend Freelance Rabbi is a semiautobiographical novel which tells stretch your knowledge and perspective? As we begin a new can be uncomfortable, but by telling is having a dramatic impact on those about Temple Beth-El? a fast-paced, irreverent tale of personal and public journey year, let’s commit to finding the voices we haven’t read before, people what’s going on in your lives you kids’ summer—and maybe their toward meaning. especially voices within our own shared Jewish community. give them the chance to respond—and GS: We would recommend TBE school year or their lives. It’s an It’s not as if the author hasn’t anticipated my hesitation. people want to respond. highly. It’s attracting a more open and indescribable feeling. With a pen name that literally means “why is this different,” MaNishtana has written a deeply personal novel about a character whose experience is quite different from my own. Male, Black, born an Orthodox Jew, the hero of this novel is (RUACH) רּוחַ a science-fiction nerd raised in an observant Jewish home who nevertheless has more than a glancing familiarity with WIND, BREATH, SOUL the marijuana plant. Fluent in Hebrew, and the BY NINA KOPPELMAN shibboleths of Orthodox observance, he is also a rabbi. Hoping I could get to know his point of view, I had barely dipped my Wind toe into the first chapter when the narrator grabbed me by the ankle and dragged me into the deep end. The gentle breezes caressing, embracing But it was the novel’s humor and lightning pace that made The gusts howling, shifting, relocating me hold my breath and take the plunge. Before the end of the second page I knew that the hero, an innovative rabbi Breath and target of attempted murder, had shown up at an awards The first cry at birth ceremony unprepared with a speech he was to give and The steady flow for a lifetime was contemplating fortifying himself with a dose of Kosher The last gasp at death Dutch courage—“a perplexing vintage smelling faintly of overcooked raisins wrapped in Band-Aids, blending Soul scintillating notes of acetone and a dead human foot. Ruach, from birth to death, connecting With a spiteful cherry finish.” With God’s peace and strength Ariel, the 28-year-old new rabbi in search of a proper looking inward for healing breath. job and a relationship, is someone you will empathize with, Grocery shopping kicked off a Great-Full weekend of food packing for Great Neck students who would otherwise miss school lunch during despair of and cheer for—even if you struggle to keep up February break in 2018.

30 SHEMA | FALL 2020/5781 TEMPLE BETH-EL OF GREAT NECK 31 PREPLANNING MUCH ADO AT BETH MOSES CEMETERY ABOUT NOSHING By Doctor Aleph

Last issue, Agatha Schvitzy, professor of crime fiction, found her favorite book titles had been surreally Semitized. This is someone’s weird idea of a Jewish joke, thought Agatha. I’ll clear my head with some matzo ball soup at the Café Edison. But when she got to the Theater District, she knew something wasn’t kosher—her favorite plays and musicals were suddenly all about Jewish cooking! Based on the clues below, can you identify the new names of the shows? In our tradition, when saying “Happy Birthday,” people may wish their loved ones the blessing that they live to be 120 years Example: In this musical, an old man scandalizes his small Spanish town by Manischewitz of La Mancha old. Few will see this age, and everyone will one day face the making heavy kosher wine. reality that our earthly journey will come to an end. The sages of the , the early interpreters of the Torah, 1. A prisoner waxes nostalgic about the sublime potato pastries served by his favorite movie heroine in this musical. had important wisdom for thinking about our end of days. In fact, they advise us to purchase a burial plot even while we 2. This musical revolves around a special Baghdad variety of a sesame-based are still alive and well. It is sometimes said that doing so will confection. actually bless one with a long life. On a more practical level, 3. The operatic tale is about a murderous barber and the girlfriend who turns purchasing a grave avoids a burden for a loved one. Sometimes his victims into sauce for falafel. this is a parting gift to those around us. Our Temple Beth-El family is blessed to have its own 4. This bio-musical tells the story of a Lower East Side pastrami visionary. sections of the Beth Moses Cemetery in Farmingdale. In the coming year, the purchase price for our plots will increase as we 5. In this musical, Commodore Perry teaches Tokugawa, Japan, about what is continue investing in care and upkeep of the property. and what isn’t kosher for Passover. Please consider purchasing graves for your family. Plots are only available for purchase by temple members, but can be 6. Attention must be paid to this classic American tragedy surrounding a soda- used for your extended family. Single graves are available, and TERRI LEVIN water vendor. there are also plots for any number of graves, including 20+. Licensed Real Estate Salesperson 7. This musical revue focuses on the career of a groundbreaking theater Stuart Botwinick, our Executive Director, is happy to tour the The Levin Team director/producer who was also a stuffed, fried crepe. grounds with you. m 516.607.4544 o 516.500.8226 For additional information, please contact Joy Palevsky 8. In this comedy, a New Yorker is held captive on a street populated by spiral [email protected] cinnamon danish. in the main office at [email protected]. or 1695 Northern Blvd., Manhasset, NY 11030 516-487-0900, ext. 115. 9 This is an affectionate musical tribute to everyone’s favorite organ meat.

10. In this musical, a man is increasingly certain that a pot of chicken fat is talking to him.

CLUES Pacific Overtures Do I Hear a Waltz? The Rocky Horror Show Oliver Sweeney Todd Kiss of the Prisoner of Prince of Broadway Cats Death of a Salesman

Spider Woman Second Avenue

5. 5. 2. 8. Prisoner of Schnecken Avenue Schnecken of Prisoner 8. Overtures Pesadich Show Halvah Iraqi The

10. 10. 7. 4. 1. Do I Hear a Schmaltz? a Hear I Do Broadway of Blintz Katz Woman Spider the of Knish

ANSWERS 9. 9. 6. 3. Oy, Liver! or Ah, Liver! Ah, or Liver! Oy, Seltzerman a of Death Todd Tahini

32 SHEMA | FALL 2020/5781 TEMPLE BETH-EL OF GREAT NECK 33 We sit on the same side of the table as our clients, and provide advice based on a deep understanding Understanding. of their needs. Creating long- term relationships that are built on trust is our ultimate goal. So Long, Farewell The Temple Beth-El family said farewell to Rabbi Elle Muhlbaum and Cantor Vladimir Lapin late last spring. Congregants thanked them for their Ronald M. Epstein contributions during a Caravan of Well Wishes car Financial Advisor parade in the temple parking lot and honored them at a Special Farewell Erev Shabbat Service, which Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. concluded with a slide show of heartfelt messages.

666 Third Avenue • New York, NY 10017 COMPILED BY SHERI ARBITALJACOBY Phone: (212) 667-4037 [email protected]

Investments | Asset Management | Capital Markets www.oppenheimer.com

Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. Transacts Business on All Principal Exchanges and Member SIPC 2625574.1

34 SHEMA | FALL 2020/5781 Temple Beth-El is Great Neck’s Tomorrow What will be your legacy? first synagogue and the largest As part of our planning for the future, we look beyond ourselves to home to liberal Judaism in the next generation. In Jewish tradition, on the Yahrzeit date (the anniversary of our community. Our temple someone’s passing), we remember and read the names of loved ones is changing lives now—and who came before us. Beyond a Yahrzeit, we are building toward a strong future. so honored that every year TBE members pledge to be remembered for their ongoing impact, well beyond their lifetime. A bequest is one of the easiest Today Our Annual Campaign, the Eternal Light Initiative (ELI), and most significant ways to leave is vitally important to the synagogue, ensuring the delivery of our a legacy. Even if you’re someone day-to-day programs and wide-ranging services throughout 2020–2021. of modest means, your gift can go a long way. As we look beyond our 90th anniversary and start the next TEMPLE BETH-EL OF GREAT NECK 90 years, make a pledge to our Who We Are Jewish community.

Naming Opportunities 1 3 15 Consider having your name or that new Religious School, Kulanu, TBE clergy now lead us in prayer, TriBEs have been connecting was founded in partnership by song and learning—Rabbi Tara, regularly, building strong bonds of a loved one added to a temple Temple Beth-El of Great Neck and Rabbi Meir and Cantor Adam, the within our TBE community, space, a meaningful program or Temple Israel of Great Neck. eighth cantor of our congregation. through these small groups. the title of a clergy position at TBE. Immemorially, a gift to the temple can ensure the perpetuation of our Jewish community and tie a special name to something holy 198 300+ 500+ students from pre-K to homemade desserts were baked Chesed Caring and Kaddish and important. Grade 12, transitioned from for local Families in Need and 600 calls were made to congregants in-person classes to online were made for Essential Workers, facing loneliness, illness or loss. studies during this past year. organized by TBE Sisterhood. More are being made every week!

Every Gift Matters Can we count on you? 600 1,000s 6,000+ families from across Nassau of pounds of nutritious food online views of Shabbat, Havdalah Learn more by contacting Stuart County and Queens—and were delivered to the Interfaith and tot Shabbat services as well Botwinick, Executive Director, at even some from out of state!— Food Pantry at St. Aloysius as adult master classes have been call Temple Beth-El home. RC Church by TBE Brotherhood. enjoyed since the pandemic began. 516-487-0900.