November 3, 2006 –
Heshvan 13, 5767
Thank you to all who made
last week’s
inaugural Synaplex Shabbat
so successful.
If you have not yet filled out the
Synaplex survey,
please take a few moments
to do so, at
http://www.insightexpress.com/s/Temp109227
Check our website at www.tbe.org for super photos of our spectacular
TBE Sukkah
and mp3 and text files of the
High Holidays sermons.
Send your friends and relatives the gift of Jewish awareness -- a
Shabbat-O-Gram each week, by signing them up at www.tbe.org. To be removed from
this mailing list, sent e-mail request to office@tbe.org. If you have signed up and are not
receiving our e-mails, check your spam filter to make sure that TBE is not being
“spammed out.”
Contents
of the Shabbat O Gram:
(Click
to scroll down)
Just
the Facts (service schedule)
The (Occasionally) Ranting Rabbi
Mitzvah/Tzedakkah Opportunities
Required Reading and Action Items (links
to key articles on Israel and Jewish life)
Announcements (goings on in and around
TBE)
Quote for the Week
FOR ELECTION DAY…
“These three things are always
here.
Just to be is a blessing.
Just to live is holy.
Rabbi Chanina, the Deputy of Priests,
would often say,
“Pray for the welfare of the
government,
for were it not for the fear of it,
people would swallow each other
alive.”
Pirke Avot 3:2
Friday Evening
Candle
lighting: 4:30 pm pm on Friday, 4
November 2006. For candle lighting times, other Jewish
calendar information, and to download a Jewish calendar to your PDA, click on http://www.hebcal.com/. To see the festivals of other faiths as
well, go to http://www.interfaithcalendar.org/
Shabbat Evening
service: 6:30 PM– in the sanctuary. This week, we will be combining our regular
service with our 6th grade class. Following the service, the 6th
grade families will have their class dinner.
Tot Shabbat – 6:45 PM – in the chapel
Shabbat
Morning: 9:30 AM– on Shabbat, we celebrate the Bar Mitzvah of Jonathan
Karp. Mazal tov to him and to his parents
Sharon and Doug Karp!
Children’s services: 10:30 AM – (jr.
congregation service in the chapel, Tot Shabbat morning downstairs. 6th
and 7th graders not on the Shabbaton are expected to be in the main
sanctuary)
Saturday Mincha and Havdalah – 4:00 PM – This Shabbat afternoon we celebrate the Bar Mitzvah of Jake Levensohn, son of Hope and Peter Levensohn. Mazal tov to all!
Our Torah
Reading for Shabbat Morning
Parashat Lech-Lecha
פרשת
לך־לך
Genesis 12:1 - 17:27 – The Abraham
Saga Begins…
1: 16:1-6
2: 16:7-9
3: 16:10-16
4: 17:1-6
5: 17:7-17
6: 17:18-23
7: 17:24-27
maf: 17:24-27
Haftarah Isaiah 40:27 - 41:16
See a weekly commentary
from the UJC Rabbinic Cabinet, at www.ujc.org/mekorchaim. Read the Masorti commentary at http://www.masorti.org/mason/torah/index.asp. University of Judaism,
JTS commentary is at: http://learn.jtsa.edu/topics/parashah/. USCJ Torah
For online Parsha quizzes from Pardes in Israel, go to http://www.pardes.org.il/online_learning/parsha_quizzes/ Torah for Kids: http://www.torah4kids.net/ Weekly Lesson of Popular Israeli Rabbi Mordechai Elon: http://www.elon.org/archives/archives.htm - and his parsha sheets: http://www.mibereshit.org/special/download_eng_pdf.htm From Bar Ilan University: http://www.biu.ac.il/JH/Parasha/eng/; http://www.torahproductions.com/weekly_article.jsp
THE ENTIRE
HEBREW BIBLE (AS WELL AS OTHER JEWISH SOURCES) CAN BE FOUND WITH SIDE-BY-SIDE
TRANSLATION AT
Morning Minyan: Weekdays at 7:30, Sundays at
9:30 AM
TO ENSURE A “GUARANTEED MINYAN” FOR
THE DAY OF YOUR YAHRZEIT – GO TO THE ROSNER MINYAN MAKER AT WWW.TBE.ORG
AND ALSO CONTACT ME AT RABBI@TBE.ORG.
We’ve had several people coming lately
who are saying kaddish following recent deaths in the family. We want to make sure we have a minyan
each day. Your presence any morning is greatly appreciated!
We’ve had a special request for a
guaranteed minyan on Sunday Nov. 5 at 9:30 and for Tues. Nov. 7 at 7:30.
Please sign up at the Rosner Minyan Maker at www.tbe.org
The
(occasionally)
Today marks the
11th anniversary of the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin. It is especially sobering to consider
how hopeful we were back then and how bleak are the hopes for peace now. Whether or not the hopes of November 4,
1995 were misplaced is a matter for conjecture, but there are many who believe
to this day that had Rabin lived, history would have turned out quite
differently.
Read about that
dark chapter in the Jewish Virtual Library, at http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/rabinass.html
Below is an
excerpt from my column in this week’s Jewish Week…
http://www.thejewishweek.com/top/editletcontent.php3?artid=5471
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(11/03/2006) |
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‘Power
To The Person’ |
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Joshua
Hammerman |
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In case you missed it, we have entered the Era of the Individual.
Groupthink is yesterday’s news. Mass culture is over. Thomas Friedman
proclaimed it in his recent best seller, “The World is Flat.” “It just happened — right
around the year 2000 … people all over the world started waking up and
realizing that they had more power than ever to go global as
individuals.” |
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Synaplex…
the morning
after…the month before
The beauty of the Synaplex Shabbats that we began
last week is that, unlike other valuable events, we won’t have to wait a
year for the next one to happen. In
fact, the next one is only a month away.
More details about that elsewhere.
I’m finding that many people who had held some reservations about
the idea became full-fledged converts last week. It was pretty hard not to be enthusiastic about the idea when so many hundreds of
people found their way to meaningful Jewish experiences on Shabbat in a
synagogue.
Anyway, given that people might now be more able to
understand what we were trying to do, here is what the people at Synaplex say
about why this project has become so important:
The
Challenge Synaplex Addresses
There is an old
saying, “If we don’t change our direction, we’ll end up where
we’re headed.” The funders of Synaplex looked at the trends, talked
with the experts, and came to the undeniable conclusion that if American
synagogues were to succeed in bringing more people back to synagogue on
Shabbat, they would benefit from making some “direction adjustments.”
The statistics
are sobering:
- 52 percent of
American Jews do not believe in God [1]
- American Jews are
demographically endangered [2]
And, according to
research on Jewish “Millenials” and Gen X’ers, [3]
the diversity in the population is only going to magnify. The
research indicates that members of these two generations:
- have fewer
memories of Jewish family celebrations and fewer experiences of being in
the synagogue with their families
- are less
interested in classical Jewish rituals
- are accustomed to
self-directing their life choices
- celebrate
religious, cultural and ethnic diversity and have weaker Jewish social
bonds than did their parents
- value subjective
spiritual experiences as a way of knowing the world over traditional
propositional truths
What we know about American Jews
- American Jews
enter Jewish life through many Jewish portals: study, social action,
culture, spiritual, as well as prayer
- people undergo
spiritual, emotional, cognitive and physical developmental changes
throughout their lives. What suits them at one stage of life will not
necessarily appeal to them at another stage
- a large
percentage of Jews today identify as secular
Not relishing the
direction these statistics were taking American synagogues, STAR funders
decided it was time for a new direction.
Synaplex is
designed to help synagogues better serve the Jewish community’s diverse
population of new family structures, including but not limited to: large
numbers of singles, single-parent, gay and lesbian, bi-racial, empty-nester and
adoptive families. Greater diversity means no single approach or program will
satisfy the needs and interests of the American Jewish community.
What Synaplex Believes
Synaplex believes
that Jewish identity is created within a community of shared meaning and
intimate groups, in which participants engage in high-quality
experiences.
Synaplex believes
synagogues should facilitate that community building by offering flexible
programming to match the diversity of spiritual, cultural and educational
interests of congregants and potential congregants.
Synaplex believes
synagogue involvement is a process, and people first need to experience the
value of belonging before they are ready to join.
[1] Harris Interactive Survey, 2003
[2] National Jewish Population Survey, 2000-2001
[3] Millenials (born between 1979 and 1994)
Gen X’ers (born between
1964-1979)
Mitzvah/Tzedakkah
Opportunties
Beth El Cares
Cathy Satz (968-9191; csscounsel@yahoo.com)Cheryl Wolff (968-6361; cwolff@optonline.net)BETH EL CARES co-chairs
HABITAT FOR HUMANITY VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
Habitat
for Humanity is recruiting volunteers to assist with the planning and building
of 6 to 9 housing units on West Main Street in Stamford (near the Kentucky
Fried Chicken). The actual timing of the building depends on site plan and
other approvals, but the ceremonial ground breaking should take place in
October 2006. Please contact
bknebal@habitatcfc.org if you want to help in any way. Assistance is needed now
in the formation stages, as well as later with the building. Bob Knebel, CEO,
can tell you what jobs are available.
LOCKS OF LOVE HAIR DONATIONS CONTINUED
Any
one wishing to donate 10 or more inches of hair to Locks of Love can contact
Cathy or Cheryl for more information on how to donate and how to get your
before and after photo on the TBE web sit
Cheryl
Wolff
Cathy
Satz
What Was Kristallnacht?
This coming
week we mark the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, when
many say the Holocaust really began.
Here is some background on this tragic anf foreboding night, excerpted
from the Jewish Virtual Library. To
see the full article, go to:
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/kristallnacht.html
Almost immediately upon assuming the Chancellorship of
Germany, Hitler
began promulgating legal actions against
In the first half of 1938, numerous laws were passed
restricting Jewish economic activity and occupational opportunities. In July,
1938, a law was passed (effective January 1, 1939) requiring all Jews to carry
identification cards. On October 28, 17,000 Jews of Polish citizenship, many of
whom had been living in Germany for decades, were arrested and relocated across
the Polish border. The Polish government refused to admit them so they were
interned in "relocation camps" on the Polish frontier.
Germans pass broken window of Jewish-owned
shop (USHMM Photo).
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Among the deportees was Zindel Grynszpan, who had been
born in western
Zindel Grynszpan's seventeen-year-old son, Herschel,
was living with an uncle in
The assassination provided Joseph
Goebbels, Hitler's Chief of Propaganda, with the excuse he needed to launch
a pogrom against German Jews. Grynszpan's attack was
interpreted by Goebbels as a conspiratorial attack by "International
Jewry" against the Reich and, symbolically, against the Fuehrer himself.
This pogrom has come to be called Kristallnacht, "the Night of
Broken Glass."
On the nights of November 9 and 10, rampaging mobs
throughout
The burning of the synagogue in Ober Ramstadt (USHMM Photo).
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The official German position on these events, which
were clearly orchestrated by Goebbels,
was that they were spontaneous outbursts. The Fuehrer,
Goebbels
reported to Party officials in
Three days later, on November 12, Hermann
Goering called a meeting of the top Nazi leadership to assess the damage
done during the night and place responsibility for it. Present
at the meeting were Goering,
Goebbels,
Reinhard Heydrich, Walter Funk and other ranking Nazi officials. The intent of this meeting was two-fold: to make the Jews
responsible for Kristallnacht and to use the events of the preceding
days as a rationale for promulgating a series of antisemitic laws which would,
in effect, remove Jews from the German economy. An interpretive transcript of
this meeting is provided by Robert Conot, Justice at
'Gentlemen! Today's meeting is of a decisive nature,' Goering
announced. 'I have received a letter written on the
Fuehrer's orders requesting that the Jewish question be now, once and for all,
coordinated and solved one way or another.'
'Since the problem is mainly an economic one, it is
from the economic angle it shall have to be tackled. Because, gentlemen, I have
had enough of these demonstrations! They don't harm the Jew but me, who is the
final authority for coordinating the German economy. `If today a Jewish shop is
destroyed, if goods are thrown into the street, the insurance companies will
pay for the damages; and, furthermore, consumer goods belonging to the people
are destroyed. If in the future, demonstrations which are necessary occur,
then, I pray, that they be directed so as not to hurt us.
'Because it's insane to clean out and burn a Jewish
warehouse, then have a German insurance company make good the loss. And the
goods which I need desperately, whole bales of clothing and whatnot, are being
burned. And I miss them everywhere. I may as well burn the raw materials before
they arrive.
'I should not want to leave any doubt, gentlemen, as
to the aim of today's meeting. We have not come together merely to talk again,
but to make decisions, and I implore competent agencies to take all measures
for the elimination of the Jew from the German economy, and to submit them to
me.'
It was decided at the meeting that, since Jews were to
blame for these events, they be held legally and financially responsible for
the damages incurred by the pogrom. Accordingly, a "fine of 1 billion
marks was levied for the slaying of Vom Rath, and 6 million marks paid by
insurance companies for broken windows was to be given to the state coffers.
(Snyder, Louis L. Encyclopedia
of the Third Reich.
Kristallnacht
turns out to be a crucial turning point in German policy regarding the Jews and
may be considered as the actual
beginning of what is now called the Holocaust.
1.
By now it is
clear to Hitler and his top advisors that forced immigration of Jews out of the
Reich is not a feasible option.
2.
Hitler is already
considering the invasion of
3.
Numerous
concentration camps and forced labor camps are already in operation.
4.
The Nuremberg
Laws are in place.
5.
The doctrine of lebensraum
has emerged as a guiding principle of Hitler's ideology. And,
6.
The passivity of
the German people in the face of the events of Kristallnacht made it
clear that the Nazis would encounter little opposition—even from the
German churches.
Following the meeting, a wide-ranging set of
antisemitic laws were passed which had the clear intent, in Goering's words, of
"Aryanizing" the German economy. Over the next two or three months,
the following measures were put into effect (cf., Burleigh and Wippermann, The
Racial State: Germany, 1933-1945. NY:
1.
Jews were
required to turn over all precious metals to the government.
2. Pensions for Jews dismissed from c