Thank you to everyone who attended and participated in our Yom Hashoah Holocaust Remembrance program on April 16th, especially those 8th grade students from Patrick O’Malley and Melissa Lindley’s Language Arts classes at Discovery Middle School.
As I write these lines, Jewish communities worldwide are marking off the seven weeks between the Festival of Freedom (Passover) and the Festival of Weeks (Shavuot), the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai. This special time of year offers an instructive paradox. On the one hand, all eyes look forward to the great moments at Mount Sinai. On the other, according to the sages of the Kabbalah, each of the forty-nine days in the interim has its own unique qualities and opportunities.
During the week of Passover, we saw rocket attacks on Israel from both Lebanon, Gaza, and even from Syria. While the American media had trouble connecting the dots to make sense of these attacks, for most Israeli analysts the root cause was clear. The serious security challenges facing Israel can be understood by looking at what is called the “Axis of Resistance” that is coordinated and funded by the Islamic Republic of Iran.
We are pleased to present you with the lineup for this month's film festival and hope you will join us either virtually or at DeBartolo! The committee and I have been working diligently over the past several months to get us here, reviewing hundreds of trailers and watching dozens upon dozens of films to find the right mix for this year’s edition. The 8 films we landed on will delight, provide perspective and hopefully lead to thoughtful discussions with other filmgoers.
Passover is behind us and the count-up (Omer) to Shavuot has begun. Shavuot commemorates the day that we experienced Hashem’s mass revelation and willingly accepted the Torah. With the declaration of “Na’aseh V’nishmah”- “We will do and we will listen” – we formally gave our pledge of allegiance to Hashem and His Torah. On Shavuot we officially became the nation of Israel and would soon accept the principle of “kol yisrael araivim zeh bazeh”- we are all responsible for each other.
In all my time learning about the Holocaust at both the Jewish Federation and Sinai Synagogue, I have never truly been able to understand the lesson of the Holocaust. Yes, it was one of the worst things to ever happen to the human race, but so what? While it may seem like a blatantly ignorant question to ask, it is a very real question that came to my mind. In my mind, and I’m sure in at least a substantial portion of other kids, I simply couldn’t understand what needed to be done.
Pizza, boxed wine and a dozen Jews sit in a living room to discuss the political situation in Israel…could be a recipe for disaster, but this first community sitdown in one of our Partnership cities, Toledo, was an amazing way to understand the mind set of everyday American and Israeli Jews living in the US.
I have vague recollections about the first time I had tilapia. Mainly, I remember that I didn’t like it. But since I kept hearing it praised and seeing recipes for tilapia that sounded good, I figured I’d give the fish another chance.
The following is an update of Temple Beth-El’s move into the future. Since we all are looking ahead at options for change, I wanted to describe what we have done and what we still have to do.
