1836 Rohrerstown Road Lancaster, PA 17601 office@tbelancaster.org 717-581-7891 www.tbelancaster.org Volume 70, No. 3 NOVEMBER 2017 Mission Statement The mission of Temple Beth El is to provide a house of Conservative Jewish worship which fosters spiritual fulfillment, Jewish theology, life-long Jewish education, and community support throughout the cycles of the seasons. Board of Directors Co-Pres. - David Ehrlich & Gary Kogon 2nd VP - Steve Gordon Secy - Harold Koplin Treasurer - Samantha Besnoff Financial Secy - Linda Hutt Lynn Brooks, Bob Brosbe, Abshalom Cooper, Sue Friedman, Yitzie Gans, Randi Jacobs, Bob Matlin, Stacy McCormick, Arne Ostroff, Debbie Rubin, Dolly Shuster & Marc Weiner Sisterhood Rep. - Joan Goldman Rabbi Daniela Szuster & Rabbi Rami Pavolotzky Principal - Larry Besnoff Men s Club - Steve Kleinman USY/Kadima - Alyssa Gottlieb Sisterhood - Sisterhood Board Membership - Sue Friedman Inside this issue: Rabbi Daniela s Message 2,3&4 Principal s Message 4 Adult Ed 5&6 JCAL Kick-Off Campaign 7 Calendar 10 JCAL Chanukah Dinner flyer 11 NOVEMBER EVENTS Nov. 1 Executive Board meeting @7:30 PM Nov. 2,9 & 30 Beit Midrash class 7:15 PM - 8:30 PM Nov. 5 DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME ENDS Nov. 9 Sisterhood Board Meeting @1:00 PM (Koplin s Home) Nov. 12 Rabbi s Talk - The Jews of South America @10:00 AM Nov. 13 Temple Board meeting @7:15 PM Nov. 16 JCAL Annual Kick-Off Campaign at Beth El @7:30 PM Nov. 18 Tot Shabbat & Junior Congregation Nov. 19 Rosh Chodesh program @10:00 AM Nov. 23 Thanksgiving Day Schedule of Shabbat Services Nov. 3 Shabbat Services 7:30 PM Weekend sponsors needed Nov. 4 9:30 AM Torah Reading:Vayera Nov. 10 Shabbat Services 7:30 PM Weekend sponsors needed Nov. 11 9:30 AM Torah Reading:Hayei Sarah Nov. 17 Shabbat Services 7:30 PM Weekend sponsors needed Nov. 18 9:30 AM Torah Reading:Toldot Nov. 24 Shabbat Services 7:30 PM Weekend sponsors needed Nov. 25 9:30 AM Torah Reading:Vayetze Candle Lighting Times November 3 5:41 PM November 10 4:34 PM November 17 4:28 PM November 24 4:24 PM
Volume 70, No. 3 NOVEMBER MESSAGE FROM RABBI DANIELA B H Our closing message for these High Holidays Rabbi Daniela For the sermons of Yamim Noraim, the High Holy Days of this year, we chose the theme The prayers of the High Holidays and their relationship to some contemporary issues. We hope you have enjoyed the different topics we discussed. We think it is very advantageous for congregants who heard all the sermons or most of them to listen to a closing summarizing sermon that covers the main messages we delivered during these days. We like to have this closure in the final sermon we deliver before the service of Neilah, the last service before Yom Kippur ends. For the congregants who couldn t attend the Neilah service and for those who attended and want to review it again, we would like to share this last sermon in this bulletin so that you will be able to enjoy it and will continue to think about it. One remarkable feature of the Yamim Noraim is the beauty of its t filot, the prayers. These prayers are a guide that allows us to explore our inner selves, connect to our feelings and evaluate our actions. The prayers of the High Holidays move us, as they did our ancestors for generations, and help us to put in words what our hearts feel. 2017 Temple Beth El Page 2 During this Yamim Noraim, we reflected on the following t filot: Avinu Malkeinu, Unetane Tokef, Musaf for Rosh Hashana, Kol Nidrei, the Vidui, Yzkor and Neila. We studied these prayers and also tried to relate them to some contemporary issues. connect to God. We talked about the prayer Avinu Malkeinu and said that through this prayer we ask for basic and very important things that every human being needs. We express in this prayer that all of us, rich and poor, young and old has the same basic needs. All of us are standing before God and feeling that we are very vulnerable and fragile. We studied the religious poem Unetane Tokef. The poem depicts God judging every living creature during Rosh Hashana. Who will live and who will die, who will live a long life and who will come to an untimely end. Especially, after having been witnessed natural disasters like the hurricanes and earthquakes of the last weeks, we realize how small and defenseless we are. From one day to the next, everything may be destroyed. We feel afraid and powerless. We feel that our lives are in God s hands. When we recite these words, we connect with the feelings of our ancestors from different ages who lived in different situations. All of us, they and we, stand before God and ask for mercy and compassion and that He deals with us charitably and lovingly. We pointed out the opposite meanings of Avinu, our father, and Malkeinu, our king, explaining that sometimes we feel very far from God. We are angry, disappointed and frustrated over all the bad things that we are experiencing in our lives. So, we think of God as a king or a queen. Sometimes we feel very close to God. We need His warmth, His help, His support and guidance. So, we see Him as a father or a mother. It is part of our spiritual life to change our ways to connect to the divinity. The prayer Avinu Malkeinu gives us two different options, two ways to Together we prayed Avinu Malekinu during these High Holidays, being aware of our vulnerability and also knowing that there is a great power when we pray all together as a community. There is hope for man in the poem. God not only is willing to hear man s prayer, but God is actually willing to forgive him. Repentance, prayer and charity help us enormously, and we carry them out with hope and faith. However, every day we still see that the dark words of the poem come true. Bad things happen every year, people get sick, suffer and struggle. The poem Unetaneh Tokef addresses how we should fight to try to avoid them, and it gives us hope. How should we cope with the bad things that happen to us in this world? Our values, laws and traditions teach us that we should always help each other and face life s difficulties with the help of our fellow man. As a congregation, we do our best effort to help those who are adversely hit by life. We try to help those who experience financial hardships, those who are sick, those who are suffering emotionally, those who are lonely, and those who suffer a death in the family. As Jews living in the general society, we should also try to defend our values and speak up for them. Independently of our political preferences, there are some issues where our Jewish values and customs (Continued on page 3)
Volume 70, No. 3 NOVEMBER (Continued from page 2) should guide us. Everybody should have access to health care, including, of course, those who for some reason cannot earn a decent living. We should be more generous with those who suffer the blows of mother nature. If our way of living is increasing the intensity and frequency of natural disasters, we should try to do whatever is needed to reduce the damage we are inflicting upon our home planet. We should stand up for every minority group that is threatened, including ourselves, of course. And, especially as Jews, we should raise our voices to defend the State Israel, attacked every day by speakers in public forums, universities, and social groups, here and around the world. We should continue helping those in need by contributing to different charities. At the same time, we should also be aware that the shrinking of the middle class in our nation could bring terrible consequences to our communities. It is necessary to stop this trend. We studied the paragraph Hayom Harat Olam, Today the world stands as at birth that is in the Musaf for Rosh Hashanah and said that it unites two important themes of Rosh Hashanah: Rosh Hashanah as the anniversary of the creation of the world and as a day of judgment. We were reminded that after the creation of the world, God gave us a mission, to be guardians and caretakers of this planet. We are to care of all the wonderful things He created. And every year He judges our actions. We asked the question: Do we take care of the world that God created? We concluded that for many years, human beings thought that they were the center of the world and that they were entitled to do what- 2017 Temple Beth El ever they wanted to do with the environment. They forgot about this important value, that we must take care of the world. We stated that we have incredible powers to destroy, abuse and exploit. Now we know that we have the power to alter what God created; we are able to change important phenomenon of nature with our actions and habits. But also we have the power in our hands to repair and fix our planet, to do Tikun Olam. Now, during this season of repentance, of Teshuva, it is an appropriate time to regret and take appropriate conservatory actions before it is too late. Now is the time to do whatever is needed to reduce the damage we are doing to our home planet. We concluded that we should think about how we can become greener people this year than in the past. As a congregation, we also may think about the actions we may implement this year in order to be a greener congregation and make a difference. We should plan to be guardians of God s creation. We examined the Kol Nidrei. We said that Jews around the globe have used this prayer to try to reconcile with their fellow Jews and welcome them back to the synagogue, or to the family, every year. When the Cantor sang the introduction to the Kol Nidrei, congregations around the world understood that it was a good time for welcoming back those who for different reasons had been away from the synagogue and the Jewish tradition. We said that the Kol Nidrei night of reunion and reconciliation is a good time for us to think of ways to open our doors so that those who are not here will want to come next year. And especially interfaith families, we would love to have them here with us, Page 3 to share the joy of educating their children in the Jewish tradition, to have them join a congregation that will allow them to live their Jewish life with happiness, care and support. We have a congregational responsibility to ensure that no one is missing from our family. We need to work harder to bring in those who are on the margins of Jewish communal life. We have to make sure they feel that they belong and are welcome, that they are important to us, that they are needed, that they count. We talked about the prayers of Vidui, the confessions and said that according to our tradition, one of the important steps of the Teshuvah, repentance, is the Vidui, the ability to recognize our error and to verbalize it. We said that we should recognize in our Yom Kippur confessions that we are very ignorant; we don t know our neighbors very well. We have a lot of prejudices and stereotypes about different people because we don t know them very well. All of us are part of a society and all of us need to live in a society. However, sometimes we feel that our differences are so big that we hurt each other with our quills like the porcupines in the story and are not able to live together harmoniously. As the porcupines did in the story we told, we should also look for a balance between our space and the space of the others, between our identity and the identity of others, between our opinion and the opinion of the others; without hurting each other and respecting our differences in religion, political positions, gender, age, nationality and race. (Continued on page 4)
Volume 70, No. 3 NOVEMBER (Continued from page 3) If each of us does the exercise to approach someone who belongs to a different group than ours, during this year, we would make a difference in our society. We studied the Yizkor service and said that during these Yamim Noraim we reviewed old prayers and tried to give them new meanings that are relevant for our times. However, we noticed that there are prayers that although they are old and written in a language we don t use daily, are remarkably modern and very close to our hearts. These prayers need no explanation, because deep within us, we understand them very well. They compose Yizkor, the service we pray to remember our loved ones. May the memories of those who we remembered be a source of blessing. May we remember our loved ones with affection and respect. And may we be inspired by the many memories we have of our loved ones. They instructed us when they were alive, and although they are no longer with us, their teachings still guide us. We hope that the explanations we have shared with you about the prayers in the Machzor during these High Holidays may help you to better understand them and connect to them in a sacred, moving and spiritual way. We hope you found relevant ways to connect these prayers to your lives and to the contemporary issues that we were discussing during our sermons. We hope you were able to see our society through the lenses of these meaningful and sacred words that our ancestors collected for us many centuries ago. We hope you were able to pray sincere prayers from your hearts and are able to start the New Year with more energy, taking more initiatives, 2017 Temple Beth El fulfilling more commitments and making better and more meaningful decisions. Gmar Chatima Tova! Shanah Tova! Rabbis Daniela and Rami PRINCIPAL S MESSAGE What a way to start off the year. These last two months have been packed full of fun for the students of the Religious School and their families. Classes started in mid-september and we have been providing our students with a fun learning experience that is welcoming, adaptive, and encouraging for the kids and they want to come each week. We have had out of school programs at the temple including Youth services for High Holidays, Pizza in the Hut, Simchat Torah Celebration, and several of our students attended the Sukkah in the Park program in Hershey Park which was a great experience. These are great learning and socialization opportunities for the students and their families. This year we have a good group of future Religious School students in our Pre-K class being lead by Miss Amanda who has some fun activities for them each month. In the rest of the school, we have been having a fun morning prayer learning session and specialized Hebrew sessions adjust for the students various levels of experience and ability. Also new this year, we have introduced online classrooms to continue the learning at home which has worked out well so far. With the help of the Jewish Community Alliance of Lancaster along with Shaarai Shomayim and Degel Israel, the older students will be visiting the Forbidden Arts Exhibit at the Ephrata Library to tour the art work of various Holocaust prisoners. This partnership Page 4 will continue throughout the year with two additional programs. The first is a local Synagogue tour and Scavenger Hunt between the three temples in early November for our younger students. Then in April we will be taking the older students to the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC for the day. These should be some really great trips for the kids to experience. Please look on the calendar for our normal Jr. Congregation Services and Tot Shabbat (Oct. 28) and Religious School led Friday night services (Nov. 10) each held once a month. Larry Besnoff Religious School Principal principal@tbelancaster.org HaKaFoT-A-Thon It is still not to late to make a donation to the Religious School as part of our Annual HaKaFoT-AThon fundraiser. No amount is too small or too big, so give today and help us continue to give our students the best Jewish Education BULLETIN DEADLINE The deadline for DECEMBER S bulletin is Wednesday, November 15
Volume 70, No. 3 NOVEMBER 2017 Temple Beth El Page 5 AARON BESNOFF BAR MITZVAH DECEMBER 2, 2017 Hello, my name is Aaron Besnoff and I will become a Bar Mitzvah on December 2, 2017. I look forward to becoming a Jewish Adult and being able to participate fully at Temple Beth El. Currently, I attend 7th grade at Manheim Township Middle School and enjoy all of my class subjects, especially Math and French. I play percussion in the school band which is a lot of fun. I am also very athletic with baseball being the sport I love to play the most. I have been playing as long as I can remember. I like to beat, I mean play, my father and grandfather in Pickleball. In the Summer I like to spend time at the beach with my family where I enjoy playing in the ocean and in the sand. I enjoy playing video games and watching TV in my free time. For my Bar Mitzvah project, I held a golf outing in September to raise funds and awareness for Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome (CVS). A disease close to my heart as I suffer from CVS. I am still collecting funds through my Bar Mitzvah and if you would like to donate and learn more about this rare disease, please visit cvsaonline.org. I am excited to share in this simcha with my parents, Larry and Samantha and my big brother Tyler as well as the entire congregation of Temple Beth El. New from the Life-Long Learning Committee (LLLC), Temple Beth El s newly established umbrella committee for educational programming. LLLC members include the Rabbis, Francine Koplin, Becky Rhoads, and Lynn Brooks (chair). Our year-long theme for congregational learning is The Torah Living and Thriving: From the Holocaust to Here-and-Now, inspired by the landmark event of repairing our Holocaust Torah. Some upcoming program highlights: 2, 9, 30 November, and 7 December (Thursdays), 7:15 pm 8:30 pm The Rabbis will lead the first Beit Midrash study group of the year, topic Tahara- The Body Preparation before Burial. We will study some general Jewish sources on death and mourning, and specifically on the purification of the body. We will review the most important concepts about the body of the deceased and how it needs to be treated. We will study the different customs and laws regarding the Tahara and we will try to explain why we observe them. The course is open to all TBE members and especially recommended for those who serve in the Chevra Kadisha or are thinking about joining it. This course will be lead by Rabbi Rami. 12 November (Sunday), 10 a.m. By popular demand! Our Rabbis will offer to the congregation the very same talk they presented at the Food Festival: The Jews of South America. Light refreshments available. 19 November (Sunday), 10 a.m. Rosh Chodesh Kislev, women s study group, led by Rabbi Daniela. Topic: The Mikveh: Source of Marginalization or Spirituality? 3 December (Sunday), 10 a.m. Interfaith couples class, led by the Rabbis. AN ENCOURAGING UPDATE ON THE 2017-18 FINANCIAL COMMITMENTS We are now in our second fiscal year of the voluntary Financial Commitment model and the congregational response has been very positive. The Board of Directors has shared with the membership the cost of running our synagogue, and you have risen to the challenge! So far this year, 96 congregants from 57 households have made Sustaining Level commitments of at least $1300/adult. This includes 27 congregants from 18 households who were able to go above and beyond the Sustaining Level, for which we are exceedingly grateful. Additionally, 45 congregants from 31 households have made much-valued Financial Commitments at a level in keeping with their circumstances, and out-of-town members and Friends of Temple Beth El have contributed as well. All together, this support will help put us on the right path toward financial stability. We will still have an operating deficit this year, so we critically need ongoing donations and fund raising support from activities such as the Food Festival. But this is a wonderful trend that we hope will continue. Many thanks for answering the call to keep Temple Beth El strong!
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Volume 70, No. 3 NOVEMBER 2017 Temple Beth El Page 8 CONGREGATIONAL THANKS I want to thank everyone who made donations and sent cards and notes in Leon s memory. I sincerely appreciate your thoughtfulness. It helped so much to know that our TBE family was thinking of us during this extremely trying time. Again, thank you! Phyllis Baronfeld & Family MANY THANKS!! The toiletries that you so generously donated over the past year have been assembled into 54 individual bags and will be delivered shortly to the School District of Lancaster s Families in Transition Program (formerly Homeless Student Project.) Alyssa Gottlieb and the USYer s deserve a big thank you for doing this work!!! Robin Adler BIRTHDAYS & ANNIVERSARIES NOVEMBER Birthdays 1st Numa Lavy 2nd Rodney Gleiberman 3rd Stewart Abowitz 4th Linda Kogon 4th Elliot Weinstein 5th Cassidy Gleiberman 5th Mandy Paul 6th Scot Harlacher 6th Carolyn Kleinman 9th Phyllis Baronfeld 11th Eli Natan 17th Bob Matlin 17th Chuck Paul 18th Nadine Abowitz 18th Aaron Besnoff 18th Bryan Kaplan 18th Debra Naudain 20th Evy Epstein 20th Scarlett Allwein 21st Matthew McCormick 26th Samantha Besnoff Anniversaries 22nd Lynne & Scot Harlacher 24th Julie Kerich & Dan Rosenberg 10th 13th 16th 22nd Landmark Elise & Matt Allwein(5 yrs) Linda & Gary Kogon(35 yrs) Tracy & Adam Kidan(15 yrs) Debra & Thomas Armstrong (30 yrs) MONTHLY YAHRZEIT LISTING Yahrzeit begins the evening before the day listed. The names of departed loved ones are memorialized at Shabbat services the week prior to the yahrzeit observance. Saturday, Nov. 4 Francine Koplin Paul Gottlieb Monday, Nov. 6 Boris Palchuk Tuesday, Nov. 7 Steve Kleinman Stewart Abowitz Wednesday, Nov. 8 Gary Kogon Janet Gitomer Johanna Lever Thursday, Nov. 9 Hal Koplin Friday, Nov. 10 Arne Ostroff Saturday, Nov. 11 Marcie Natan Sunday, Nov. 12 Hal Koplin Monday, Nov. 13 Judy Anthony Husband Thursday, Nov. 16 Carolyn Kleinman Joan Samitt Saturday, Nov. 18 Anne Kepner Monday, Nov. 20 Diane Wilikofsky Sam Feldstein Francine Koplin Paul Gottlieb Sandy Frey Wednesday, Nov. 22 Gary Kogon Saturday, Nov. 25 Diane Wilikofsky Deena Hertz Deena Hertz Sunday, Nov. 26 Carol Gleiberman Ira Grushow Herb Shiroff Monday, Nov. 27 Walter Kamlot Thursday, Nov. 30 Evy Epstein Friday, Dec. 1 Edna Naveh Dolly Shuster SAVE THE DATE Brother Sister Step- Sister-In-Law Temple Beth El will be serving a Community Meal on Tuesday, December 19, 2017 at the First Reformed Church in Lancaster City. Watch for the Sign Up Genius Link in November to help with food or volunteering to help. Thank you for the past and current success of this Mitzvah.
Volume 70, No. 3 NOVEMBER 2017 Temple Beth El Page 9 ONEG & KIDDUSH SPONSORS - NOV. 2017 Monthly Sponsors Nina & Earl Stein Jill & Michael Sherman In Honor of Their children Samantha, Brett & Alex Week-End Sponsors are needed Call the Temple office if you would like to be a Week-End Sponsor SISTERHOOD FUND *Sisterhood Fund cards are now $3.50 If your last name begins with A-M, please contact DEENA HERTZ at SisterhoodFundA-M@tbelancaster.org If your last name begins with N-Z, please contact BEV RUBIN at SisterhoodFundN-Z@tbelancaster.org GET WELL Gloria Klein Tobi & Bob Sherman Betsy Sterenfeld Tobi & Bob Sherman Murray Sims - husband of Beverly Sims Tobi &Bob Sherman Beverly Rubin Lori & Ralph Taber Marcie & Eli Natan Sue & John Wolf RELIGIOUS SCHOOL Contact Shellie Gordon RelSchoolFund@tbelancaster.org GET WELL Jan Gitomer Michele & Bob Matlin Shellie & Steve Gordon Arlene & John Branas Olive Kliose Shellie & Steve Gordon Murray Sims Shellie & Steve Gordon RABBI S DISC. FUND office@tbelancaster.org IN HONOR OF Abbey & Arnie Harris - birth of new granddaughter Joanne & Lloyd Goldfarb - birth of new granddaughter GET WELL Judy Anthony Jan Gitomer Deljean Shapiro - mother of Nina Shapiro Leon Baronfeld Sam Gordon - uncle of Steve Gordon BETH POMERANTZ EDUCATION SERIES FUND office@tbelancaster.org Murray Sims Joan & Beryl Sherman GENERAL FUND office@tbelancaster.org Gwen Weisman Carol Ram Roman LIBRARY FUND Librarian, Nina Stein library@tbelancaster.org Donation Congratulations to Robin Adler on her new position on the Communications Committee & for all she does for the synagogue Beverly Sideman Irving Mall - Mary & David Boyer Susan Morris - Marilyn & Jay Reichenthal YAHRZEIT FUND office@tbelancaster.org Emma Shapiro & Morris Abowitz Nadine & Stewart Abowitz Harris Lee Sherman Joan & Beryl Sherman Howard Adler & Robert Weinstock Robin Adler Evelyn Ehrlich Dave Ehrlich Marvin S. Margolis Marvin Margolis & Renee Hartman
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