Beth El Bulletin

Please check the online Beth El calendar or email [email protected] before leaving to attend ANY event. As we go to press, there are still few in-person events in November! Beth El Bulletin November 2020 Beth El Hebrew Congregation Cheshvan/Kislev 5781 November Highlights Worship Services Friday, November 6 Erev Shabbat Services 7:30 pm Saturday, November 7 Shabbat Morning Services 10:30 am Tot Shabbat 11:00 am Friday, November 13 Erev Shabbat Services 7:30 pm Saturday, November 14 Shabbat Morning Services 10:30 am Friday, November 20 Erev Shabbat Services Even during a pandemic, we’ve got a lot 7:30 pm going on! Join us! We are Beth El! Saturday, November 21 Shabbat Morning Services 10:30 am In this Issue Tot Shabbat of Giving Thanks Rabbi’s Remarks ............... 2 Evening of Mussar ........... 8 Congregational Kudos .... 15 11:00 am Cantor’s Corner ................ 3 Brotherhood News .......... 9 Chapel in the Woods ...... 16 Friday, November 27 Erev Shabbat Services Readers of Beth El ............ 3 WRJ Social Action ........... 10 Thank You, Brotherhood 7:30 pm President’s Point of View . 4 Alexandria Volunteer Donors ......................... 17 Saturday, November 28 Prayer Book Return Opportunity ................. 10 Season of Thanks Dinner 17 Shabbat Morning Services 10:30 am Program ......................... 4 Culture Club ................... 10 Donations ....................... 18 Religious School Report ... 5 Member News ............... 11 Israel Committee Executive Director’s B’Nei Mitzvah ................. 11 Reflections ................... 19 Entry .............................. 6 Calendar .................... 12-13 Confirmands and Caring Community ALiVE! ............................. 14 Consecrants ................. 20 Committee ..................... 6 Creativity During New Feature: Member J-Care Journal ................... 7 a Pandemic .................. 14 Website Advertising .... 21 Permanent Endowment Torah Study .................... 14 ...and lots of tantalizing Fund News ..................... 7 Tot Shabbat .................... 14 tidbits scattered throughout, WRJ News ......................... 8 Judaica Shop Online ....... 15 so don’t skip a page! Page 2 Rabbi’s Remarks: 10 Sources of Antisemitism1 N THE NIGHTS of Nov. 9- 7. Holocaust Denial: An effort to deny or minimize 10, 1938, mobs throughout Nazi atrocities seeks to remove blame from the per- O Germany and its recently petrators. Further, claiming Nazi ideas and actions acquired territories of Austria and are now practiced by Israel allows antisemites to Sudetenland openly attacked Jews in the street, in their label Israel as “Nazis,” suggesting that the former homes, at their places of work, and in synagogues. At victims have taken on the behaviors of their oppres- least 96 Jews were killed. Hundreds more were injured. sors. More than 1,000 synagogues were burned. Almost 7,500 8. Israel as the Collective Jew: Anti-Zionism repre- Jewish businesses were destroyed. Cemeteries and sents the most recent, overt, and socially acceptable schools were vandalized. Thirty thousand Jews were expression of antisemitism. Boycott, Divestment, arrested and sent to concentration camps. As we do each and Sanctions (BDS) efforts against Israel represent year, November marks this barbaric tragedy, Kris- a core strategy. The BDS movement uses economic tallnacht, “The Night of Broken Glass.” pressure to weaken Israel and slides into antisemitic While nothing parallels the horrors of the Holocaust, behavior when it demonizes, delegitimizes, or holds antisemitism in the United States from both the Right Israel to a double-standard to which no other nations and the Left is indisputably in ascent. In 2019, the Anti- are held. Defamation League tabulated 2,107 antisemitic incidents 9. Intersectionality, Cancel Culture, and Replacement throughout the United States, a 12% increase from the Theory: In intersectionality, the misrepresented vic- 1,879 incidents recorded in 2018 and the highest number timization of Palestinians is cataloged along with on record since the ADL began tracking antisemitic inci- other persecuted groups who have also been so iden- dents in 1979.2 With white supremacists in the United tified. In cancel culture, people whose pro-Israel States experiencing a resurgence since 2016, driven in politics and Zionist political identities are viewed as part by the rise of the alt-right, absurd QAnon conspira- problematic or with suspicion and their legitimacy is cy theorists, and an ideology that centers on the assertion associated exclusively with these identifications. that the white race is in danger of being drowned by a Replacement theory claims that another people or rising tide of non-white people who are controlled and culture are entitled to claim ownership to Jewish manipulated by Jews, we revisit ten sources of anti- identity (i.e., Black Hebrew as the “real” Jews), ulti- Jewish behavior according to Dr. Steven Windmueller:3 mately asserting that Jews should be eliminated as 1. Cycles of Antisemitism: Historically, trigger events we have no legitimacy. generate antisemitism where Christianity and Islam 10. Jews and Whiteness: For white supremacists, Jews continue to influence culture and behavior. One can of Central and Eastern European descent are at- identify belief patterns in connection with anti- tempting to replace “whites” in positions of power Jewish behaviors in religion, economics, health and and are described as becoming “too white.” Related- welfare, politics, and race. ly, on the other end of the political spectrum, Jews 2. External Factors and Antisemitic Behaviors: Eco- of Central and Eastern European descent are seen as nomic dislocation, political upheaval, health/ abandoning their minority and victimhood statuses pandemic conditions can each contribute to antisem- in exchange for “becoming white.” In doing so, per- itism. secutorial claims are invalidated. 3. Conspiracy Ideas: One of the oldest forms of antisemitism, antisemites ascribe to individual Jews out- — Rabbi Spinrad sized power and influence, labeling Jews and Juda- ism as existing outside society. ____________________________________________ 4. Marginalizing Jews: In attacks against Jews based 1. Note: I spell the word “antisemitism” rather than “anti- on assumed personality traits, practices, and beliefs, Semitism.” “Semitic” is a largely obsolete term for ethnic or cultural groups principally in the Middle East and North and this antisemitism represents a practice prominent in East Africa. Antisemitism is unique and directed exclusively at the Middle Ages and within early modern societies. Jews and no other groups. 5. Economics and Antisemitism: Negative stereotypes 2. https://www.adl.org/audit2019 of Jews using wealth as a means of control is one of 3. Dr. Steven Windmueller: https://ejewishphilanthropy.com/from- the oldest antisemitic tropes employed against Jews. qanon-to-traditional-modalities-of-hatea-catalogue-of-anti-jewish- 6. Social Media: Social media plays an outsized role in behavior/ antisemitism today, serving as purveyor of antisemitic messaging and radicalizing white supremacists. Beth El Bulletin November 2020 Beth El Hebrew Congregation Page 3 Cantor’s Corner O I REMEMBER it like it was yesterday. We had This is an excerpt from my contribu- decided the day before that our building was going tion to the Yom Kippur Afternoon Heal- S to be closing, though we had no idea for how long, ing Service and truly, I don’t think any of us at the time really un- Months ago, when we entered into derstood what that would mean. this period of social distancing, none of It was on a Thursday morning that I started to worry us could have imagined what the next about how Shabbat services — the first that I was going few months of religious life would look like together, let to be leading from my home — were going to work. I alone an online High Holiday season. The message I drove to Beth El, rummaged the building for large Rub- shared in our healing service offers a snapshot of how so bermaid containers, piled my entire music library into many of us had to re-invent how we approached our them, and then dragged them into my car. Not knowing work together in the early days of social distancing. the next time I would be in the building, I simply had to Every single one of us learned new skills and technolo- have my entire music library with me. gies to bring our community into this new era. It’s be- Once I got home, books in hand, I began to figure out cause of your openness and resilience that the High Hol- how on earth were we going to stream services live, idays were as meaningful and sacred as they were. from my living room. I’m full of gratitude for the clergy, professional, and By Friday night, Kirk and I together figured it out. music teams that I’m a part of. I feel blessed to be a For the next few months, our living room transformed member of this sacred and innovative Beth El communi- into a TV studio, surrounded by gadgets, lights, and ty. I appreciate everyone’s trust, partnership, and sup- computer monitors. What you see on your side of your port. There are so many people to thank for the High computer screen is really only half the story. Holidays being as successful as they were. Please know, I then began to return my library to my office, after I’m always afraid to list individuals’ names at risk of learning how to digitize my music, which now lives in accidentally forgetting a single person. So to everyone Dropbox and this iPad. who helped to create this year’s High Holiday season, A year ago, I didn’t understand any of the technology particularly our technological wizards who made every- that now I use on a daily basis. And I know that for thing run seamlessly. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! many of you who watch this service on your computer THANK YOU! screen you’ve had the same experience. We’ve learned May this year of 5781 be one of healing, be one of and we’ve grown. innovation, and be one of holiness. None of us knows exactly what the future holds for us, but I’m grateful for the blessings of new technology — Cantor Jason Kaufman that allow us to gather in ways we could have never imagined.

Load more