AUGUST 2015 AV / ELUL 5775 CONTENTS RABBI’S MESSAGE Selichot at Beth Am: RABBI’S Race and Responsibility MESSAGE 1 in Baltimore City CANTOR’S Rabbi Daniel Cotzin Burg CORNER 3 PRESIDENT’S In a free society, some are guilty, but all are responsible.” PERSPECTIVE 4 “ ~Abraham Joshua Heschel This year, for the first time in a long time, we will observe CONGREGATION Selichot at Beth Am. We do so as we conclude a year in Baltimore LEARNING 5 that has been filled with heartache, sadness and loss. The death of UPCOMING Freddie Gray and the upcoming trial of those in whose custody EVENTS 7* he lost his life has forced our community, indeed our country, to grapple with the consequences of structural racism. CONTINUING Selichot is a time for introspection, but it cannot be a solitary EDUCATION 8 affair; each of us must also confront our place in the broader society. To this end, Beth Am is partnering with Jews United HIGH HOLYDAYS 10 for Justice for prayer, study and discussion about race and CALENDARS 12 responsibility. Selichot is observed this year on Saturday night, September 5. We’ll begin with Havdalah at 9 pm. Please come GRADUATIONS 16 with open minds and willing hearts. COMMUNITY NEWS 18 SELICHOT AT BETH AM: CONTRIBUTIONS 20 RACE AND RESPONSIBILITY IN BALTIMORE CITY (In partnership with Jews United for Justice) FUND Saturday, September 5 at 9 pm DESIGNATION 23 Selichot, prayers seeking forgiveness, are traditionally said *throughout bulletin a Saturday night before Rosh Hashanah (This year, Selichot is observed September 5). It will be a particularly poignant moment for us to come together here in Baltimore. We’ll pose and respond to questions like: • What is structural racism? US • What is our role in responding to structural racism? ON • Do we play a role in the perpetuation of the oppression of Black members of our communities? facebook.com/ Join us as we learn, examine our history and our hearts, pray, BethAmBaltimore and make plans for the year to come. Light refreshments available. BETH AM BOARD OF TRUSTEES Rabbi Daniel Cotzin Burg Standing Committees Continuing Ed Chair Roberta Greenstein Officers Continuing Ed Co-Chair Rachel Rosenheck President Julie Gottlieb Finance Chair Alan Kopolow 1st Vice President Lisa Akchin Finance Co-Chair Joe Wolfson 2nd Vice President Lynn Sassin House Chair Sam Polakoff Treasurer Alan Kopolow Kiddush Chair Meg Hyman Secretary David Lunken Membership Chair Patricia Fradkin-Berman Membership Co-Chair Robin Katcoff Trustees through 2016 Religious Services Chair Joe Wolfson Neil Kahn Social Action Chair Arthur Shulman Cindy Paradies Social Action Co-Chair Jackie Donowitz Desiree Robinson Youth Education Chair Dina Billian Jim Schwartz Ad Hoc Committees Trustees through 2017 Annual Fund Honorary Chair Gil Sandler David Demsky Annual Fund Chair Ricky Fine Risa Jampel Annual Fund Vice Chair Jim Jacobs Ashley Pressman Balt. Jewish Council Rep. Ben Rosenberg Naomi Rosner Beth Am Connection Joanne Katz Risa Jampel Trustees through 2018 BAYITT Chair Sarah Goodman Debbie Agus Congregant to Congregant Joyce Keating Dina Billian Development Chair Lainy LeBow-Sachs Carol Berkower Development Co-Chair Cy Smith Matt Herman In, For and Of, Inc. Don Akchin Marketing Chair Ellen Spokes Past Presidents and Life Members Operations Co-Chair Ashley Pressman Past President Scott Zeger Operations Co-Chair David Demsky Past President Cy Smith Res. Hill Improvement Council Carol Shulman Honorary Life Member Lainy LeBow-Sachs Honorary Life Member Efrem Potts Office Hours Rabbi Daniel Cotzin Burg Tuesday-Thursday: 9:00-4:00 443.202.0912 (cell) (emergencies only, please) Friday: 9:00-3:00 [email protected] Cantor Ira Greenstein Office Contact Extentions: 443.759.7807 (home) Tel: 410.523.2446 / Fax: 410.523.1729 [email protected] Extensions: Rabbi Daniel Burg - 14 Rabbi Gludt - 15 Rabbi Kelley Gludt, Henry Feller, Exec. Dir. - 20 Director of Congregational Learning Linda Small, Senior Staff Coordinator - 12 520.248.9541 (cell) Gabby Pasternak, Development Officer - 21 [email protected] Ralph Shaver, Finance Manager -18 Henry Feller, Executive Director Norm Weinstein, Bookkeeper - 17 [email protected] Nakia Davis, Front Office Coordinator and 443.742.9654 (cell) (emergencies only, please) Assistant to the Rabbi - 11 Valerie Tracy, Marketing Coordinator- 10 Julie Gottlieb, Board President Sandy Winters, Ritual Coordinator: [email protected] 410-598-6397 410-294-7418 In case of an emergency, please contact: Office E-mail: Henry Feller, Executive Director Email: [email protected] 443.742.9654 (cell) Web site: www.bethambaltimore.org 2 3 CANTOR’S CORNER The Separation or Reconciliation of Religion and Science Cantor Ira Greenstein Much attention has been paid to the the scientific and mathematical realms. separation of church and state in politics, It took me until age 16 to disentangle and the slippery slope one steps onto when religion and science, discussing my confusion mingling the two. But an equally slippery with the head of Camp Ramah one summer, slope has been religion and science. Ignoring and when I have engaged in this topic with the perversions that come when politics our B’nai Mitzvah students, I have found mingles the two, is complete separation that our own kids today are also puzzled required? Can these two be reconciled? In by the seeming conflicts. They wonder how what scientific context can we see religion, we can reconcile praying to God with the and in what religious context can we see natural forces governing the universe. What science? exactly are we hoping to achieve by prayer, I was reminded of this, and further or to receive from a magnanimous Deity? It enlightened myself, when reading The is a very big question…but for the majority Island of Knowledge by Marcelo Gleiser, an of non-Orthodox Jews, I think it may be astrophysicist at Dartmouth. Gleiser has an focused in the wrong direction. Instead of interesting way of tracing the history of that looking at a prayer book, perhaps we adults relationship through the centuries, in the should be looking in a mirror. We adults may words and thoughts of the mathematicians be deficient at explaining things to the next and scientists themselves, whose incremental generations, maybe because we have not theories brought both clarity to science and really given it enough thought ourselves. expansiveness to the natural world. For whom is the Mi Shebeirach (prayers for Blaise Pascal, in appreciating the healing, favorable outcomes, etc.) recited? immenseness of the Universe when he lived Some of us have expectations of God, others in the early 1600s, felt sincere awe: “When need comfort or simply to fulfill a desire to I consider the short duration of my life, have SOME degree of participation in a swallowed up in the eternity before and process we know we don’t control…which the little space that I fill…I am frightened, is why religion came about in the first place. and am astonished at being here rather than I am not making value judgments, but if we there, why now rather than then. Who has don’t have some understanding ourselves, put me here?” Sir Isaac Newton (also in the we will be challenged to explain this to our 1600s) believed that God and the Universe own kids, and perhaps we are ourselves were the same: “God endures always and is impeded in achieving some purpose (other present everywhere, and by existing always than social) in our own prayers. and everywhere He constitutes duration and Sometimes I think we are so into the space.” In the ensuing centuries, that awe details and ritual, and with bringing a and appreciation continues among many in Continued on page 6 3 PRESIDENT’S PERSPECTIVE Julie Gottlieb It is with some trepidation that I put Kahal Shalom Synagogue on the island of (metaphorical) pen to paper for my first Rhodes, whose Jewish community swelled President’s Perspective. It’s a great privilege after the Inquisition and was virtually to be entrusted with this role and to work wiped out by the Holocaust. Attached closely with our extremely talented clergy, to the synagogue is a small museum that dedicated staff, members of the Executive recounts in detail the history of Rhodian Committee and Board of Trustees, and Jews and the stories of individual families. other volunteers. Over the next two years, We learned that the Jewish secondary school we face important decisions about how to was the best on the island, so Gentiles sent deploy our human and financial resources their children there. We also learned that to “reinvigorate urban Jewish life in the community’s ancient Torah survived Baltimore” and “transform ourselves and World War II because leaders of the Rhodes our community” while remaining “rooted Muslim community hid it in their mosque. in tradition; a spiritual home for learning, In the early 20th century and in the prayer and advancing social justice.” I am run-up to World War II, many members excited about our journey together. In the of the community left for the Congo and meantime, let me share some reflections on Zimbabwe, ultimately arriving in South the season. Africa. One of the museum volunteers told Summer is a time for change from the us he was born in Rhodes and now lives routine. Many of us use the warm months to in Cape Town. He spends half of each catch up on pleasure reading, both to learn year working at the South African Jewish and for the pure joy of immersing ourselves Museum teaching local school children in the stories of other people, whether about Jews, Judaism, and religious tolerance fictional or historical. Summer travel also and the other six months in Rhodes, keeping yields stories from family, friends, and those alive the histories of members of the we encounter in new places.