The Bulletin of TEMPLE BETH EL Fall River, Massachusetts 88th Year April 2016 Adar II/Nissan 5776 No. 8 Regular Service Schedule Morning Minyan (Monday & Thursday).................................8:00 am First Friday Evening Service (1st Friday of each month) .........6:30 pm Friday Evening Services (All other Fridays)...........................5:30 pm Shabbat Morning Services................................................10:00 am Communal Passover Save the Date! Festive Meal Sunday Breakfast & Lecture Featuring Matan Zamir Friday, April 29th Sunday, May 15th at 9 am Due to the timing of the Sabbath, Temple Beth El’s Matan Zamir is Israel’s communal Pesach celebration will not be on one of Deputy Consul General to New the traditional Seder nights of Pesach, but near the England. He has been a mem- end of the Passover period, on Friday, April 29th (the ber of Israel’s Foreign Service evening marks the beginning of the 8th day). since 2011, previously serving as the Deputy Chief of Mis- The full-course chicken dinner, with all the Passover sion at the Israeli Consulate in favorites, will be catered by The Butcherie. Mumbai. Zamir led a decorated ca- Shabbat service begins at 5:30 pm, reer in the Israeli Defense followed by the Passover meal. Forces. He served in the IDF from 1999-2003 and was released as a lieutenant. During his service Cost is $25 for adults, $10 for children under 12. he trained over 1,000 cadets. In 2003, Zamir was honored for his service and received the Presi- Reservations MUST be made by Wednesday, dent’s medal of excellence for Israel’s 55th Inde- April 20th. Don’t miss the deadline - RSVP today! pendence Day. Before joining the Foreign Service, Zamir was an International Business Manager at Bezeq In- Please join us for this special, ternational, an Israeli Telecom Company (2010- festive Passover event! 2011) and the Director of the Training Department of the Israeli Supreme Court (2007-2008), a posi- tion that was part of Israel’s Center for Citizenship and Democracy. Zamir grew up in Jerusalem where his family has lived for nine generations. He is a lawyer; he received his L.L.B. from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 2008. Though still learning the basics of America’s national pastime, Zamir, too, is sure to become an Please Note: adoring member of Red Sox Nation. There will be no Shabbat service at the Temple If you are planning to join us for breakfast, on the first night of Passover, Friday, April 22nd. please RSVP by Monday, May 9th. Page 2 The Bulletin of Temple Beth El April 2016 A message from our Spiritual Leader, of individual liberties, free speech, freedom of religion and Cantor Shoshana Brown of the press, and for valuing the lives of women and girls as equal to those of men and boys. We have not always From Purim to Passover: lived up to these ideals (and many times we have act- a Time to Take a Stand ed in ways diametrically opposed to them, especially in our dealings overseas with poor people in resource-rich I am writing on the first day of Spring, with a snow- lands). Nonetheless, these ideals – not our religion, race, storm having just begun! Three days before our celebra- or even our language – are what define us as “Americans.” tion of Purim, I don’t yet know how our spoof, “Politicians Without these ideals, we are indeed just a potpourri of dif- on the Roof” will turn out. Yet I am keenly aware that, as ferent ethnic and cultural groups jostling elbows between it must have seemed for the Jews of ancient Persia, the two oceans, vying for cultural dominance, political power times we are living through seem fraught, with globally and wealth. As much as I love Judaism, Jewish culture, important outcomes riding on words not necessarily spo- rituals, music, the Hebrew language and our sacred texts, ken in earnest, and with the fate of our nation hinging on I do not feel that I have the right to impose these on oth- things hinted at but not fully revealed. ers, or that America would be a more attractive land to live in if everyone in the land would adopt them! Many of us have become “political news junkies” who never were before. We watch the current presiden- We live in a time of such global turmoil, the popula- tial race, mesmerized by a spectacle that just seems to tions of so many lands bleeding into others. Europeans grow ever more outlandish as the weeks go by, often- understandably feel threatened and compassion-fatigued times making us laugh, but also giving us reason to worry as they struggle to cope with a never-ending flow of refu- and wonder about the soul of our nation: who are we as gees from war-torn, famine-wracked and economically a people? Are we a nation that welcomes the “tired,” the dysfunctional countries. When we look at this refugee “poor,” the “huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” crisis, combined with the threat of Islamic terrorism and as the Jewish poet Emma Lazarus wrote in 1883 (a time climate change, we see more and more that all nations when Jews, fleeing pogroms in Eastern Europe, landed that pay lip service to the upholding of international hu- on U.S. shores in the greatest numbers that would ever man rights must work to address these crises together, be allowed)? Or are we, rather, a nation that has exhaust- for neither global terrorism nor extreme weather events ed itself and its resources, trying to “police” an increas- and rising seas recognize national borders. Like Noah ingly complicated and dangerous world – a nation coming and his ark full of pairs of all the world’s known species of under attack for our values of individualism, freedom of animals, we are all in this boat together…the waters are speech, of religion, and of the press? rising, and we have to learn how to live together, how to share resources, how to care for one another, and for the Unlike with the Jewish people, the notion of “people- ark itself, which is our planet Earth. hood” as it pertains to the American people does not rest in any one culture, ethnicity, religious heritage, or in any As we celebrate Passover, our holiday of freedom par identifying genetic markers (with the exception, of course, excellence, I invite you to contemplate the following – that of our original, indigenous peoples). It’s not so much that being “free” does not consist in being able to do anything we are a hodge-podge of peoples, or a “melting pot;” rath- we want. Rather, “freedom” comes at a cost: that of each er, we are a “people” forged through the crucible of ideals person’s willingness to stand guard over the freedom of and historical events. Some of these events have been their neighbor. It is not a state of ease, but of vigilance, lofty and soul-stirring, such as the drafting and adoption something we can never take for granted. The reason of our founding documents, the Declaration of Indepen- that so many of us are mesmerized by politics these days dence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, which are as is that rarely have we seen so many hugely important is- defining to American citizenship as the Torah and Talmud sues hang in the balance as they seem to today. I believe are to Jewish peoplehood. Others of these “events” have it is important to bear witness to this time, and also to been long drawn-out periods of ignominy, such as the think carefully how to act, that we “not stand idly by” (Lev. two-hundred-plus years of slavery permitted in this land, 19:16) while the soul of our nation teeters on a precipice. and the even longer period of oppression (and sometimes I am proud to be an American, and also a member of genocide) of this land’s native inhabitants. a more ancient people, renowned for deep thought and lively discussion—let us always remain alive to the issues Like any other nation or people in the world, we have of the day, standing up for the dignity, equality, and free- things to be proud of, to celebrate, and things that we dom of all peoples. would rather sweep under the rug. We are not perfect, but the values championed in our founding documents have Wishing you all a joyous Passover. both shone out as beacons of hope and attracted violent hatred across the world. We are known for our esteeming Cantor Shoshana Page 3 The Bulletin of Temple Beth El April 2016 President’s Message Sisterhood President’s Message On behalf of the entire congregation, I would March has been a month of cold one day and nice like to extend birthday greetings to two or our elder spring weather the next. At this time we are all look- statesmen, Charlie Stampler and Dr. Irving Fradkin. ing forward to higher temperatures. Longer daylight Charlie, who continues to amaze us all at 101, is hours sure help with that matter. itching to get back out on the golf course. Irv is still We recently celebrated Purim here at the Temple. working tirelessly at 95 to return our country to a It was filled with tradition, frivolity and good food. grass-roots democracy. They are both living proof Next we are planning our Communal Passover Fes- that age is just a number, something we would all tive Meal. It will be held on Friday, April 29th.