To The Day!

Dear Friends,

For some time now it has felt by many Jewish residents of this area that a Reform-Liberal-Progressive Jewish Congregation was necessary to provide for the religious needs of many families presently unaffiliated with any congregation and many others who find it inconvenient to go to congregations at some distance from homes.  Accordingly, a group of us are calling a meeting to consider the formation of a Reform Jewish Congregation. 

May we take this opportunity of inviting you to attend the meeting to be held on WEDNESDAY EVENING – May 21^st – at 8:15 o’clock, in the MARY ELIZABETH TEACH ROOM, 96 Engle Street, Englewood, New Jersey.  We shall have the pleasure of hearing from RABBI DANIEL L. DAVIS, Director of the New York Federation of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.  He will discuss with us the ideas and programs of a Reform Congregation, and will be prepared to answer questions that may be put to him concerning the organization of the new Congregation….

…May we invite you to join with other interested mean and women in this creative undertaking to the end that we may form a Congregation, modern in spirit, dedicated to the liberal interpretation of Judaism, and providing a program for effective Jewish living on the American scene….”

           

The above is excerpted from a letter signed by “the Committee of Sponsors,” made up of 5 founding families of Temple Sinai:  Mr. and Mrs. George S. Grabow, Mr. and Mrs. Michael G. Lane, Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mannes, Mr. and Mrs. Maurice Rosalsky and Mr. and Mrs. Arthur R. Wecker.  The date of this letter:  May 12, 1952.

Tomorrow evening, sixty years to the day from when this founding document was written we will be celebrating the anniversary of the congregation formed as a result of this auspicious letter, Temple Sinai of Bergen County.  Believe it or not, Jane Gellman, co-chairperson of our celebration at the Palisadium tomorrow evening, told me today that when the date was chosen for this 60^th anniversary celebration neither she nor anyone else involved knew that it was to be exactly 60 years from the date of this letter.  “There must have been some Hidden Hand at work.”  I’ll say.  That is the definition of b’shert!

There have also been a lot of unhidden hands at work, i.e. a remarkable committee led by Jane and her co-chair, Freyda Simon, to make for what promises to be a spectacular evening.  Two-hundred and twenty people are coming, the largest group to attend a Temple gala in years.  Twenty-two past presidents of Temple Sinai and Congregation Beth Am will be there.  The “Party Dolls,” a female singing group will serenade us with sixties songs.  Co-President Jack Reich will lead a group playing at the cocktail hour.  There will be a DJ “spinning” 60s tunes.  The bar will even feature a drink in our honor, the “Sinai Sling.”  The dress – as so many are asking – is “Sixties Optional.”  I will be wearing jeans and a tie-dyed shirt with a jacket over it. 

If you have somehow neglected to rsvp, email Jane Gellman at janegellman@me.com. 

I look forward to seeing so many of you tomorrow night!!!

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Jordan Millstein

Happy Yom Ha'atzma'ut!

Dear Friends,

Happy Yom Ha’atzma’ut – Happy Israel Independence Day! Today we celebrate Israel’s 64th birthday. In case you don’t know, Yom Ha’atzma’ut commemorates when David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, publicly read Israel’s Declaration of Independence on May 14, 1948. According to the Jewish calendar that year May 14 was the fifth day of the month of Iyar. So, usually Yom Ha’atzma’ut is celebrated on the fifth of Iyar. But, if the fifth of Iyar falls on a Friday, as it does this year, Yom Ha'Atzma’ut is observed a day earlier so that the festivities do not interfere with preparations for the Sabbath. (And, by the way, if the fifth is a Saturday, the holiday is celebrated the prior Thursday, on the 3rd of Iyar.) Ah, to have a Jewish State!

Yes, there are many mishugeneh things about the State of Israel, some trivial, like the confusing calendar, and some not so trivial, like the internal divisions over religion and politics, and the seemingly intractable conflicts between Israel and her neighbors. But, today is not a day to dwell on such things. Today is a day to appreciate and celebrate the miracle that is the State of Israel. It is a day to recall the Zionist Movement and Israel’s early pioneers, the “chalutzim,” who built the state. It is a day to remember those who defended the state through its trials and tribulations. It is a day to celebrate all that Israel has achieved, all that Israel has become: a vibrant democracy; a technological and economic success story; the living, breathing homeland of the Jewish People who returned to Zion after 2000 years of statelessness!

I hope that you can join us tomorrow evening at 7:30 p.m. as we bring the special spirit of Israel into our Shabbat services in a unique way. In place of a number of our usual readings from our prayer book we will be reading the poetry of several Israeli women. Featuring the voice of Israeli women is a positive way for us to assert our Reform Jewish belief in egalitarianism while also celebrating the importance of Israel in our lives.

An important way to demonstrate your support of Israel as Reform Jews is to contribute to the Association of Reform Zionists of America/Reform Israel Fund (ARZA). This organization supports the growth and development of Reform Judaism in Israel. Your Temple dues statement includes a check off option to join ARZA for $36. Do you know if you have paid these ARZA dues? Contact Jeff Katz in our office to make sure at jkatz@templesinaibc.org. Let him know you want to support ARZA . For additional information about ARZA go to www.arza.org. At the same time I hope that you also contribute to the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey, which sends a substantial portion of your contributions to the Jewish Agency for important projects in Israel.

Perhaps the best way to support Israel (short of making aliyah!) is to travel there. Temple Sinai is planning a congregational trip for this coming December (December 20, 2012 – January 1) during the holiday break. Now is the time to register. For more information contact me at rabbimillstein@templesinaibc.org.

Happy Yom Ha’atzma’ut!
Rabbi Jordan Millstein

P.S. While Israel is turning 64, don’t forget that our very own Temple Sinai, born just a few years later, is turning 60. You can still get an ad into the journal for the May 12 celebration if you contact the office immediately. Also, please RSVP that you will be attending our 60th anniversary bash asap. Contact Hillary in our Temple office at hhans@templesinaibc.org. Go to the Temple web site, www.templesinaibc.org for more information.

Don't Be Silent

Dear Friends,

In 1958 Olga Owens Huckins wrote a letter to the editor of the The Boston Herald in which she described the death of numerous birds around her property due to the aerial spraying of DDT to kill mosquitos. She sent a copy to her friend, Rachel Carson, already a well-known naturalist and writer, and former Editor-in-Chief of publications for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Carson had already begun collecting research on the effect of pesticides, especially DDT, as far back as the 1940s when it was used extensively during the Pacific war effort. Huckin’s letter, by Carson’s report, was the spark that led her to embark on the project that would eventually become, Silent Spring, the book that many argue launched the environmentalist movement.

This is the 50th anniversary of the publication of Silent Spring. The Tenafly community, along with many others, will be marking this anniversary this Sunday on Earth Day, founded a few years after the publication of Silent Spring, in 1970. Tenafly Interfaith Association, led by Temple Sinai, the Church of the Atonement and the Presbyterian Church at Tenafly, will be holding a brief, interfaith creative service this Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Tenafly Nature Center, in the Pavilion – rain or shine! (The Pavilion is covered in case of rain). If it is not raining you are encouraged to come early and enjoy the trails and nature center before our service. Light refreshments to follow the service. Please bring your own reusable water bottle to refill at the pavilion.

If it is not raining, after refreshments we will carpool in groups to cleanup an area of land along East Clinton Ave. This would be a great project to join in with your kids or grandkids. Safety apparel, traffic cones, and cleanup equipment will be provided by the town of Tenafly. .

It is hard to imagine what our world would be like had the environmental movement not come into being in our country. I wouldn’t want to speculate. And to think that it was one person’s letter to the editor that triggered the book that began this movement which has made this a safer world for all of us….

Hope you can join us on Sunday at the Tenafly Nature Center at 2 pm – rain or shine!

Shabbat Shalom,
Jordan

This Year In Jerusalem!

Dear Friends,

Chag Sameiach and Shabbat Shalom – A happy Passover to all of you! And to those on this list on this Good Friday who are not Jewish – Happy Easter this coming Sunday!

With all the spiritual energy in the air today you might think that I would give you a lengthy message filled with teachings for the holiday. However, it is my hope that you are all going to be experiencing that this evening in the form of a seder. Consequently, I did not think such a message was necessary. Plus, I have to finish getting ready for my own family seders. Tonight at my sister’s in Nyack we have the “gantze mishpucha” – the extended family - a truly diverse group including 3 rabbis, many secular Israelis, Christians, secular American Jews, Asian Americans, Jewish day school kids, “New Age” spiritual non-conformists, etc. Perhaps, you have a similar gathering. After all, why should the rabbi’s family be different from all other families? Tomorrow night we have a second seder at my house in Demarest with just my two sisters’ families and my parents. You would think that this would be a seder where we would delve into the deep meanings of the Hagadah, debate the various ins and outs of the midrashim, go on for hours and hours. But, guaranteed, after 15 minutes the choruses will begin, “Do we really need to do that part? Can’t we skip it? When are we going to eat?” Dayeinu.

If you are looking for last minute help with finding material for or organizing your seder I suggest going to www.urj.org, our Reform Movement web site, or www.myjewishlearning.com, which has a guide for leaders of a seder. If you’ve got no Hagadah and a group that won’t tolerate a seder of more than a half hour, you can download a seder for about $20 from www.30minuteseder.com. To be clear, I have not used this seder but friends from the Temple whom I trust say that it covers all the bases, even if it’s not so scintillating.

In order to make your seder a little more interesting I am attaching two documents. One comes from our Reform Zionist organization, ARZA, and is a really clever take on the splitting of the middle matzah in order to create the afikomen. It’s an artful way to communicate the relationship between American and Israeli Jews and its importance.

The other is the itinerary for our congregation’s Israel trip this coming December. At the end of the seder each year we say, “Next year in Jerusalem.” In context, this is an age-old prayer for the coming of the messianic time, when, tradition teaches, all Jews will be united again in Israel and the world will be at peace. This year we can, quite literally, say, “This year in Jerusalem!” Why not take a few minutes at your seder this evening or tomorrow evening and discuss joining my family and other members of the Temple Sinai community and their families on our grand adventure to Israel? For additional information, including costs and information on the optional trip extension to Eilat and Petra, please see the “Shavua Tov” Constant Contact email blast that will come out Sunday evening this week. If you would like to receive all the information on the trip or have questions please email me at rabbimillstein@templesinaibc.org.

This year in Jerusalem! This year may all be free!

Chag Sameiach,
Jordan

p.s. Don’t forget we have no services tonight at Temple Sinai but we do have a service (not a seder) at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow morning. We will be hosting members from Temple Emeth in Teaneck and Congregation Adas Emuno of Leonia. It is followed by a Kiddush lunch. Please join us!

More Than a 1000 Words

Dear Friends,

I was just going to tell you about it, but it’s much more fun to send you a picture. 

Construction has begun on the Sol and Margaret Berger Playground and Outdoor Sanctuary and Learning Center!  Today Risa Tannenbaum, the teachers of our ECC and Paul Nielsen, our project manager, showed the children in our Early Childhood Center what was happening right outside their classrooms.  As you can see they are ready to build the playground themselves! 

Please mark your calendar now so you can join us at the official groundbreaking on Sunday, April 1st at 1:00 p.m.  This is a special moment for our whole congregation.  You do not need to be younger than five years old to attend. 

Many, many thanks to Michele Harris, Risa Tannenbaum and their committee for the enormous amount of work they are putting in to make this happen.  A huge thanks as well to the Berger family and all of you who have contributed to this meaningful project.  It will make an enormous difference to our congregation to have such a beautiful, multi-use outdoor space.  But, we continue to need your support to complete this project.  Go to http://www.templesinaibc.org/ecc/SentryPlaygroundOrderForm2.pdf  to see how you can help.

The prophet Isaiah looked forward to a wonderful future when, “All your children shall be taught of the Lord and great shall be the happiness of your children” (Isaiah 54:13).  In a word play on the Hebrew in the verse, the rabbis of old instructed, “Don’t read it as simply ‘banayich,’ (‘your children’); read it as well as ‘bonayich’ (‘your builders’).”  As you can plainly see in this picture, our children are our builders.  We build for them so that they can build for the future.  May we merit having the words of the prophet be fulfilled through us.

Shabbat Shalom,

Jordan

Gold Standard

Dear Friends,

Greg Smith may have won a bronze medal in table tennis at the Maccabiah Games but when it comes to menschlicheit he deserves the gold. 

Like the rest of the world I read Mr. Smith’s Op Ed piece in Wednesday’s New York Times with great interest.   It’s not every day that those of us outside of the financial industry get to read the resignation letters of managers at major Wall Street firms, let alone a manager who resigned in protest over the ethics practiced at his company.   And like the rest of the world I found what Mr. Smith said about Goldman Sachs distressing.  But, when I read the part where he mentions winning a medal at the Maccabiah games I had to smile.  Maybe it’s the fact that so many Jews have been caught in Wall Street scandals; maybe it’s just the rabbi in me.   But, it’s great to see a Jew do the right thing.  It’s great to see a Jew do the menschlich thing and live by Jewish values.

The word “mensch,” means “man” in German.  In Yiddish, though, it means much more.  It means a person who embodies the Jewish ideals of compassion and generosity, righteousness and integrity.  It means a person of character.  One Temple member commented to me that if Greg Smith was such an ethical person and the culture at Goldman Sachs was so bad why didn’t he leave sooner?  I can’t answer that question, obviously.  None of us can.  Smith says that the culture changed while he was there.  Is this true?  Again, I have no idea.  I am not writing to pass judgment on Goldman Sachs.  What I do know is that Greg Smith came to the conclusion after working at the firm for 12 years that the culture of the firm had become thoroughly unethical and he had the guts to blow the whistle.  In so doing he has sacrificed a very lucrative position, left the only company he has every worked for and did something that could make it hard to find an employer willing to hire him.  Whether or not Goldman Sachs is really that bad and whether Smith’s depiction is accurate I leave to others to judge.  It’s the fact that he believed it to be the case and was willing to act that wins him menschlicheit gold in my mind.

Every week I teach a group of 9^th graders we call the “confirmation class” where we discuss Jewish values.  As it happens this year’s confirmation class has many students who are heavily involved in athletics.  I can imagine one or another of them participating in the Maccabiah Games one day, maybe even winning a medal.  Who knows?  If so, I will be incredibly proud.  But, what would really make me proud is if they grow up to be menschen, people who, whether they reach for the gold or not – in athletics, on Wall Street, or in whatever endeavor they choose – will live by the gold standard of Jewish values.  To his credit Greg Smith did.  May all of us teach our children and grandchildren to reach for this gold.

Shabbat Shalom,

Jordan

p.s. For those interested in traveling to Israel with our congregation there is a meeting with Rabbi Bill Berk, our trip organizer with Keshet Tours, on March 27^th at 7:30.  Please let us know if you can attend or if you cannot attend but are interested in the trip by RSVPing to rabbistudy@templesinaibc.org.  It is helpful to us to hear from you now even if you have attended earlier meetings about the trip or mentioned your interest to us in the past.  I hope you can make it on March 27^th!

I Just Can't Quit You

Dear Friends,

There were many very significant, life or death issues in the news this week. This email isn’t about any of them.

There was the whole Bibi and Barack at AIPAC thing. I must have read 50 articles on that and I still don’t know which one of them is right on Iran. There was the whole Super Tuesday thing. I must have read 50 articles on that and have nothing enlightening to say about that either.

But, there was one piece in The Times today that caught my attention and really made me think: David Brook’s column entitled, “Hey, Mets! I Just Can’t Quit You.” OK, so those of you who know that I am an avid Mets fan are now LOLing all over the place. And “laughing out loud” is really what I should be doing about the Mets if I wasn’t so bitter. “The Mets have suffered a pair of bone-crushing late season collapses that have changed the personality of the franchise. The team is mired in financial turmoil. It is expected to be mediocre for the next several seasons at best,” Brooks writes. I think that’s about the nicest thing that’s been said about the Mets in months. The Mets are talentless and broke, with little hope for improvement unless the franchise is sold. But, the Wilpons (is there a financial reason, is it just ego or something else?) refuse to sell. Like David Brooks I would love to quit the Mets.

And like David Brooks, I can’t. Not that I’ve really tried. Brooks describes how he tried to become a Washington Nationals fan. Feh. That may be the only thing sorrier than being a Mets fan. (OK, maybe being a Cubs fan is more pathetic. How many years has it been since they’ve won?) Actually, the Nationals have a lot of young talent and seemingly a promising future, so they’re not a bad choice. But, as Brooks correctly points out it’s not about choice. When one is a true fan of a team one is not capable of changing allegiances, no matter how bad the team becomes. One can go to games less often or watch less often on TV, become more distant and even act disengaged. But, like many a Knick fan who experienced “Linsanity” a couple of weeks ago, just get a whiff of success and you’re back in your seat, excited and joyful like you were as a child.

There’s a core American debate between “On the Road” and “It’s a Wonderful Life,” Brooks writes. “’On the Road’ suggests that happiness is found through freedom, wandering and autonomy. ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ suggests that happiness is found in the lifelong attachments that precede choice [my emphasis]. It suggests that restraints can actually be blessings because they lead to connections that are deeper than temporary self-interest. “ Brooks goes on to say that the happiness research suggests that ‘‘On the Road’ is an illusion and ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ is correct.

Huh… I thought about that for a while and realized: Is this not what being Jewish is all about as well? We develop our allegiance to the Jewish People early, experiencing it with “youthful enchantment,” as Brooks describes becoming a fan. Or we become Jewish as an adult, adopting our faith enthusiastically through conversion. Through these experiences, “the team crystallizes in your mind, coated with shimmering emotional crystals that give it a sparkling beauty and vividness. And forever you feel it’s attraction.”

Sure, we can become disillusioned as Jews, become angry, behave apathetically, stop going to the “ballpark,” so to speak. Most of us do, at least for some periods in our lives. But, it is folly to think that you can let it all go and find a better team to root for. It is foolish to quit. “Happiness is found in lifelong attachments that precede choice.” So, I will continue to be a Mets fan, no matter what the score. And I will continue to be a loyal Jew.

Fortunately, the Temple is doing a lot better than the Mets. We’re having a fantastic year. If you were here on Purim for our Purim shpiel you experienced our version of “Linsanity.” What an incredible night. With all the new, exciting things happening it feels a bit like spring training!

Shabbat Shalom,

Jordan