NEW VOICE • February 2007 • CONGREGATION B’NAI JESHURUN rabbi’s message Rabbi Felicia L. Sol n December 10, while driving on a “tour” of the “affluent” Lakeview Oneighborhood of New Orleans with the Board of Jewish Funds for Justice (I am a new member of the Board), we passed a building with the inscription on its entrance V’asu li mikdash v’shakhanti betokham (Exodus 25:8), Make for Me a sanctuary so I may dwell amongst them. It was the Orthodox Synagogue in the neighborhood with the extraordinary inscription recognizing INSIDE: the power of human hands to build a place so God may dwell amongst us. In 2 addition to the inscription, we saw the water line on the building which was Social Action/Social Justice about 8 feet high. The building was closed. The neighborhood was desolate. Contemplative Practice: There was barely a soul to be found. Nobody was in the neighborhood to build A Source of Support for Wise a sanctuary, nor to build a house, nor to clean up the mess. Lakeview is the and Compassionate Action for “affluent” neighborhood, you can’t even imagine what the Lower Ninth Ward Justice and Healing. looked like—the impoverished neighborhood before the storm, a destroyed ghost town now. 3 Upcoming Limud It is estimated that 230,000 jobs were lost due to Katrina and Rita. 80% of New 5 Announcements Orleans public housing remains closed. 83% of New Orleans public schools were 6 Calendar damaged by Katrina and it is estimated that 95% of the public school population was African American and while much money was given to create 8 Youth and Family Education (continued on page 4) Unmasking Purim Important Dates for February 9 New Members EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’s message 10 Upcoming Community Activities This month’s article highlights the recent BJ Family Trip to Israel and is written by Kerrith Solomon, Family Life Educator. Donations d yavo shalom aleinu—salaam—aleinu v’al kol ha olam—salaam. 12 Contacts O Peace will come upon us and on everyone. There could not have been more fitting words to serve as the motivation behind the BJ Family Trip to Israel this past December. Based on the success of the Family bus on last year’s 180th anniversary trip, we decided to provide the opportunity for more families to join us on the ground in Israel, and they signed up in force! More than 25 families (90 people) committed to having an Israel experience through BJ and they took the country by storm. From the beginning days in Tel Aviv discovering the old and the new in the country, to Shabbat in the desert and then an ascension towards Jerusalem, the group seamlessly encountered the people, the land and the history. They tackled difficult issues, discussed what they were exposed to and took their experience in their own hands. (continued on page 4) SYNAGOGUE :257 W. 88th St. • OFFICE :2109 Broadway (Ansonia), Suite 203, New York, NY 10023 • TEL :212.787.7600 • FAX :212.496.7600 • WEBSITE :www.bj.org NEW VOIC E•February 2007 SOCIAL ACTION/SOCIAL JUSTICE Contemplative Practice: A Source of Support for Wise and Compassionate Action for Justice and Healing “Min ha’metzar karati Yah, Anani va’merchav In our contemplative practice classes, weekly meditation Yah.” —Psalms 118:5 groups at the JCC, monthly Friday night services, and annual retreats, we experience and learn readily applicable meditation “From the narrow place I call on Yah. Answer practices. We learn and practice together in a silent container me through Divine Expansiveness.” of safety and support. Come join us in this opportunity of spiritual fellowship, rest and renewal. here is such tremendous suffering in our world. It can be truly overwhelming. How do we respond as The practice of contemplation helps many people to rabbis and congregants to the pain we experience in experience a deeper closeness to God and clearer insight into T our own lives and which we see in our BJ the underlying Unity that connects us all. On that basis, we community? How do we respond to the pain caused to strengthen our commitments to honor the divinity in each ourselves and to our local and global neighbors by socio- human life and to act as wise partners in God’s creation—to political problems, degradation, and injustice? We care deeply seek the healing and justice that allows the divine in our world about the world, and we will engage with it to repair it. But to flourish. n we need to do so in sustainable ways. —Rabbi Rachel Cowan, co-chair, Social Action/Social Justice Steering Committee Meditation practice can be a powerful source of support for us in our work in this world. Meditation can help us to stay centered and rooted. It can help us to realize in all of our actions, as Abraham Joshua Heschel put it, our “adjacency to Contemplative Shabbat services are held on the the eternal.” This practice can help us to avoid burnout, and it fourth Friday of every month at SPSA/86th Street, can help to make our activism sustainable. at the same time as the regular early service. Contemplative services are led by Rabbis Rachel Cowan Additionally, meditation can inform how we engage in the and Marcelo Bronstein with a team of BJ lay leaders. world. Instead of reacting to the world reflexively, we can cultivate our ability to bring more space into our consciousness, and thus greater wisdom. This wisdom will help us respond appropriately to a given situation—not out of fear or anger, but out of genuine compassion. JOIN US FOR THE SECOND ANNUA\L CONCERT OF Music O F TH E BJ Shabbat Musicians Saturday, February 3 • 8:00 PM • 88th Street Sanctuary Join us as we celebrate with our resident musicians as they gather to present their own original music and amazing artistry. The different bands will offer an eclectic mix of styles including Middle Eastern, cocktail cabaret, classical and traditional Jewish song. Tickets: $15/$10 students, available at the door. 2 SYNAGOGUE :257 W. 88th St. • OFFICE :2109 Broadway (Ansonia), Suite 203, New York, NY 10023 • TEL :212.787.7600 • FAX :212.496.7600 • WEBSITE :www.bj.org NEW VOIC E•February 2007 upcoming LIMUD Jewish Practice Skills Workshop: Kashrut Teacher in Residence Shabbat Rabbi Dara Frimmer, Marshall T. Meyer Fellow In Memory of BJ Member Ceil Merritt z”l 3 Tuesdays (remaining classes February 6, 13) Throughout the course of the year, we will have the • 7:00–8:30PM • 86th St. Chapel • Cost: Free, opportunity to have an intensive Shabbat learning experience registration required. Chewing cud, split hooves, with distinguished visiting teachers. Unless otherwise noted, scales and fins, meat and milk: Come learn how to the scholar will teach at a Shabbat B’Ya had dinner following navigate the vast system of rules and regulations of the Friday night 5:45PM service at 86th Street, give the D’var keeping kosher while uncovering principles of conscientious Torah during Shabbat morning services, and teach on Shabbat consumption and marking sacred time. afternoon at 86th St. To sign up for a Friday night dinner and teaching, please visit www.bj.org or contact Amanda at x233. First Annual Stuart Polly Interfaith Study: • • • Introduction to Islam for Jews and Christians The Tefillat Ensemble Rabbi David Freidenreich, PhD February 9 –10 4 Thursdays (February 1, 8, 15, 22) • 7:15–9:00PM Currents of the River : Four young, innovative Israeli • 86th St. Parlor Room • Cost: Free, registration required composers/performers explore the roots of Hebrew prayer and This course introduces the basics of Islam: Muhammad and the song. They navigate the multicultural soundscape of 21st- Quran, Islamic belief and practice, Islam from Muhammad to century Israel and present a unique interpretation of modernity, and Islam in America. It is designed for members of traditional and modern Jewish materials, including settings of BJ and SPSA and will assume minimal knowledge of the faith sacred Hebrew poetry from North Africa and the Middle East, and traditions of our Muslim neighbors. Students will be Hassidic niggunim, and original musical and literary expected to attend regularly and to participate in discussion. The compositions. Currents of the River includes texts from the course will be taught by Rabbi David Freidenreich, PhD, whose Mishnah, daily prayers, 19th Century Moroccan Rabbi Shlemoh Columbia doctoral dissertation dealt with comparative study of Hacohen, and modern Israeli poets Rachel and Rivka Miriam, as the three Islamic faiths, and will feature speakers representing well as tunes from the oldest surviving manuscript of Jewish the diversity of Islam in the metropolitan area. music (12th century), and a piece by Jewish composer Andre Hajdu. Yair Harel, vocals and percussion; Nori Jacoby, viola Shabbat: A Sanctuary in Time -and vocals; Yonatan Niv, cello and vocals; Matti Kovler, piano Rabbi Jonathan Lipnick, Chapter 4 and vocals. Saturday, February 3 • 4:30PM • 86th St. Social Hall • Cost: Free, registration not required. During the course of Abraham Rosh Hodesh Women ’s Group for Adar Joshua Heschel’s centennial year, we will read together as a Monday, February 19 • 7:00PM • 88th St. • Cost: Free, commu nity Heschel’s The Sabbath . On the first Shabbat of each registration not required month, a different rabbi/teacher in our community will teach Join Rabbis Felicia Sol, Dara Frimmer and Lauren Holtzblatt to one chapter through various sources. All are encouraged to buy study and pray together on this holiday traditionally associated the book and bring it to the Shabbat afternoon sessions (copies with women. Please bring a dairy/vegetarian/kosher snack for of each chapter will not be distributed).