TEMPLE BETH-EL OF GREAT NECK BULLETIN MEMBER OF THE UNION FOR REFORM JUDAISM NOVEMBER 2015 CHESHVAN/KISLEV • 5776 VOL. LXXXVIII, NO. 3 The Temple Bulletin has been endowed by Sandra Atlas Bass SHABBAT, NOVEMBER 6-7 Chayei Sarah, Genesis 23:1−25:18 Shabbat Eve 6:30 pm Family Shabbat and FACEtime Shabbat K-3 7:00 pm Erev Shabbat Service: Emanuel AME Church Shabbat Shabbat Morning 10:00 am Torah Study and Prayer A Passion for SHABBAT, NOVEMBER 13-14 Tol’dot, Genesis 25:19−28:9 Shabbat Eve 7:00 pm Erev Shabbat Service Shabbat Morning 9:15 am Torah Study Forgiveness 10:30 am Congregational Shabbat Service: Joshua Oken becomes a Bar Mitzvah THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19 10:30 am Thursday Morning Service: Jack Knupfer becomes a Bar Mitzvah SHABBAT, NOVEMBER 20-21 Vayeitzei, Genesis 28:10−32:3 Shabbat Eve 7:00 pm Erev Shabbat Service Shabbat Morning 9:15 am Torah Study 10:30 am Congregational Shabbat Service SHABBAT, NOVEMBER 27-28 Vayishlach, Genesis 32:4−36:43 Shabbat Eve 7:00 pm Erev Shabbat Service Shabbat Morning 9:15 am Torah Study 10:30 am Congregational Shabbat Service Sisters of Myra Thompson z”l Speak Victim of Charleston Church Shooting Erev Shabbat Service November 6th Rabbi’s Message Contact Us at Temple Beth-El Temple Office We are excited and moved to share with you that the very (516) 487-0900 Temple Website first Shabbat of this month we will welcome beloved guests www.tbegreatneck.org from Charleston, South Carolina, into our synagogue, into our hearts and into our homes. When we visited Mother Temple Staff in Alphabetical Order Joy Allen Emanuel, A.M.E. Zion Church this past July, we had no Administrative Assistant to the formal invitation and hardly knew what to expect. Yet, in Religious School spite of the mass shooting which had occurred only two Ext 126 weeks before and despite an overwhelming influx of [email protected] visitors from all over the country, we were met with open arms and grateful hearts. Stuart Botwinick Althea, Reverend Clementa Pinckney’s assistant of many years, greeted us in the Executive Director church office with warmth and trust, and she invited us to take a few quiet moments in [email protected] the main sanctuary. Formed in 1791, Charleston’s Mother Emanuel is the oldest A.M.E. Ext 107 Rabbi Jerome K. Davidson Church in the South and began as a congregation of free blacks and slaves. As we sat Rabbi Emeritus alone in this time-worn sanctuary with its sloping balcony, a room that can seat hun- [email protected] dreds, we imagined the prayers, hopes, sorrows and dreams of those who have prayed Ext 116 there. We thought of the church members who had just occupied these pews as the last of Debbie El Kashash the “Charleston 9” was eulogized and laid to rest. Administrative Assistant Later that day we joined the community for the 6 p.m. Wednesday evening bible [email protected] Ext 110 study, the very same class at which the shooting occurred only two weeks before. As was Rabbi Meir Feldman described in Meir’s Yom Kippur sermon, the experience of hearing these beautiful souls Senior Rabbi speak about forgiveness and healing left us forever changed. We have so much to learn [email protected] from them—lessons of humility and strength, lessons of transformation and faith. Ext 120 We learned the story of Myra Thompson, formerly a public school teacher who was Rabbi Tara Feldman studying to be a min- Senior Rabbi ister and was teaching [email protected] Ext 118 bible on the very night Amanda Greenawalt that she was killed. Development and Membership Myra came from a large Services and deeply connected Director of Youth Engagement extended family. When [email protected] we took this photo with Ext 108 a few of her sisters, we Cantor Lisa Hest [email protected] never imagined that we Ext 123 would have the privi- Cari Horn lege of inviting Myra’s Controller family to Temple Beth- [email protected] El. But we have and we Ext 119 will. Through letters, Joy S. Palevsky email correspondence Office Manager [email protected] and phone calls, a friendship has evolved with Blondelle Gadsden, one of Myra’s eldest Ext 115 sisters (second from the left in the photo.) Vicki Perler In early October, Blondelle made clear her hope to bring her sisters to Great Neck. Director, ECEC Please join us on Friday night, November 6, at 7:00 pm, as we worship with them [email protected] and hear their stories and journeys. Plans are evolving for gatherings on Saturday. We Ext 129 will inform you of these plans and details as they are finalized. Check your email or call Rabbi Rachel Van Thyn the main office for more information as this special Shabbat approaches. Associate Rabbi [email protected] The Emanuel A.M.E. Zion Church was founded on the premise that, even through Ext. 104 great trials and challenges—Emanuel-El. This Hebrew translates as, “God is with us.” No Michael Witman doubt, this special visit will enable us to encounter the presence of holiness, the presence Director of Education of God, in new and unexpected ways. [email protected] Ext 121 2 TEMPLE BETH-EL OF GREAT NECK Temple Beth-El is honored and proud to welcome GUEST SPEAKER RABBI RICK JACOBS President of the Union for Reform Judaism SUNDAY, DECEMBER 6 9 a.m. Breakfast | 10 a.m. Lecture Breakfast: $12.00 for All | Lecture: Free to All Organized by the Brotherhood of Temple Beth-El of Great Neck, his appearance at TBE presents our congregation and the greater community with a rare opportunity to interact with one of today’s major Jewish leaders. Rabbi Jacobs is a dynamic and compelling speaker whose views on issues affecting Reform Judaism, Israel, and the future of Judaism in the United States are sought and respected. A full bagel and lox breakfast will be served by the Famous Brotherhood Bagel Brigade. Contacts: Temple Office: 516-487-0900 ext. 110 Martin Einhorn: 917-254-2377 or [email protected] We anticipate a large attendance so Breakfast RSVP’s are required by 12/02/15. There will be separate check-in spots for RSVP and non-RSVP attendees. A Special Temple Beth-El Shabbat Please join your friends on Friday, November 20, for a very SPECIAL SHABBAT @ HOME experience. TBE families will welcome fellow congregants into their homes to celebrate Shabbat together. We will have dinner, a special home Shabbat observance and will welcome Shabbat with joy and friendship. Imagine the vision: Dozens of homes, many dozens of Beth-El congregants seated around the tables, the brightness of the Shabbat candles and the glow of community making this Shabbat a very special evening. Theodor Herzl: “If you will it, it is no dream.” Please RSVP to Debbie in the main office: [email protected]. NOVEMBER 2015 • CHESHVAN/KISLEV 5776 3 ToBe “With” Care Cards by Rabbi Rachel Van Thyn and Terri Levin The Care Cards Committee is under the Rabbi Rachel Van Thyn: auspices of the Caring Community of “When my grandmother passed away in 2012, I remember the ways that my community the temple. Handwritten cards are sent immediately rallied around my family. It wasn’t just that people sent food—it was the to member families when there are hap- myriad ways people stepped in to help us through our grief. People led shiva minyans; py occasions such as an engagement, they came to our house to set up and put away food; they sat with us; they called us in wedding or birth. Congratulations the days, weeks and months after the funeral. People I had never met before held us close are extended on behalf of the Caring to them, hugged us and held our hands in both big and small ways. In that community, Community. So, too, are personal cards every person counted. The best way I know how to repay people for their kindness is to sent if there is an illness or death. extend the same efforts when they are in need. These cards are a wonderful way to communicate thoughtfully with the Terri Levin: congregation. When someone receives “In 2001, we got the phone call that every parent fears. It was from the hospital near our a card they know there are people who daughter’s college: she had been in an accident; she was severely injured and was in very care about what is happening in their critical condition. We flew out on the next plane and left behind 2 young children with lives. The temple is an extension of our my parents who were 78 and 83 at the time. My daughter remained in the hospital for family and we want you to know that three months and we did not ever leave her side. we share both your joys and sorrows as It is with extreme gratitude to G-d and to the many people (friends and strangers) that a community of caring people. we all made it through that year. People donated blood, said prayers, made meals, offered their homes, drove my children to school, and quite a few people flew out to St Louis to Leslie Dobbin be with us. Care Cards Coordinator I cannot repay the debt of gratitude I feel towards those friends and strangers who were “with us” at that time, doing whatever needed to be done or helping whatever way they could. I can only try to extend the support to the next person who comes along and is drowning in fear or grief of their own.” As part of the next phase of Project ToBE, we are thinking about ways in which we, as a The Syrian community, can best respond in times of need.