5785/2024 Tzedakah Gifts from Dorshei Derekh

Thanks, Lynne Jacobs, who heads up this annual practice, along with Jennifer Paget and Betsy Teutsch.

We allocated $3000 from our Treasury, $400 each to 7 grantee organizations and $200 to a local volunteer effort. Our members recommend grantees.

AmericanFriends of Combatants for Peace is a diverse community of U.S. and international activists working in solidarity with CfP to raise awareness and resources, build community, and take direct action to advance the work of CfP for a just peace in Israel and Palestine.

(Several Dorshei members involved with the Philly Chapter.)

Combatants for Peace (CfP) is a joint Palestinian-Israeli community-- guided by the values of nonviolent resistance—that works in solidarity to end the occupation, discrimination, and oppression of all people living on this land.

AmericanFriends of the Parents Circle shares the human side of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with the American public to foster a peace and reconciliation process.  (DD Members are supporters).

The Parents Circle – Families Forum is a joint Israeli-Palestinian organization made up of more than 600 bereaved families. Their common bond is that they have lost a close family member to the conflict. But instead of choosing revenge, they have chosen a path of reconciliation.

FamilyPromise works with Philly families in times of crisis to prevent eviction, find shelter, and provide access to safe, affordable housing.  (Many DD/GJC supporters. Led by Rachel Falkove for many years.)

GJC Refugee Welcoming Team c/o Fed. of Neighborhood Centers

For work with 2 refugees from Colombia.  (many DD/GJC volunteers)

Hand inHand: Center for Jewish-Arab Education in Israel  

Fast-growing, integrated social movement, working with thousands of people every day, proving that people can live together as Jews and Arabs, Israelis, and Palestinians. (Dorshei supporters)

Rebuilding Together Philadelphia

Providing free home repairs for low-income homeowners in Philadelphia, with a focus on health, safety, and energy efficiency, allowing for family wealth preservation.  (DD supporters and employees.)

TogetherWomen Rise

A community of women and allies dedicated to achieving global gender equality with hundreds of local chapters across the U.S.  (DD supporters; NW Philly groups started by Betsy Teutsch, but NOT her suggestion.)

+ $200 to GermantownCommunity Fridge

Fights hunger and food insecurity.  Provides free, supplemental food in Germantown, Philadelphia. Stocked by the community, for the community, anyone who needs food is welcome to take it. 

Yamim No'raim 2025

On behalf of our amazing High Holy Days Planning Committee—Joyce Silverman, Rabbi Avruhm Addison, Rabbi David Teutsch, and Rabbi Simkha Weintraub—we are pleased to share the schedule for Dorshei Derekh's services. We will meet in person in the Temin Canteen Room and 

via Livestream at https://venue.streamspot.com/27827b08

Thursday, October 3rd

Rosh Hashanah Day 1

9:30 am

 

Friday, October 4th

Rosh Hashanah Day 2

9:30 am

 

Saturday, October 5th

Shabbat Shuvah

10 am

 

Friday, October 11th

Kol Nidre

6 pm

 

Saturday, October 12th

Yom Kippur

 

Morning @ 9:30 am

 

Afternoon & Evening

Bregman Program @ 3:30 pm

Pre-Ne'ilah Study @ 4:40 pm

Ne'ilah @ 5:45 pm

Tekiya G'dola @ 7:07 pm

 

Before each event, we will share more detailed information, including resource sheets.

 

Shana tovah!

Elul Learning with Dr. Elaine Leeder - Sunday 9/22 on Zoom

The live Zoom Link: 

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88145610903?pwd=sne8WHP4GbEpnHuImdsbCgjX3YMR5u.1

 

Are We a People Chosen by God? - Parshat Re'eh 2024

Are we a people chosen by God?

Rabbi Robert Tabak

Parashat Re’eh – Aug 31, 2024,  Minyan Dorshei Derekh

Based on RT’s article for T’ruah’s (M)oral Torah series of commentaries) August 2024   https://truah.org/resources/robert-tabak-reeh-moraltorah_2024_/

Other quotations in part from a Late Spring 2023 symposium on “Confronting Chosenness” in the RRA Connection, newsletter of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association and re-posted on Reconstructing Judaism’s Evolve website.  https://evolve.reconstructingjudaism.org/symposium-confronting-chosenness/ 

 _______________

The Torah portion Re’eh includes a famous and troubling line: “For you are a people consecrated to the Eternal your God; the Eternal your God chose you from among all other peoples on earth to be a treasured people.” (Deuteronomy 14:2)

What does it mean to be chosen, treasured by God? Is this poetic image, reinforced at so many places in the Torah and the traditional prayer book, meaningful or harmful? Are Jews "better" than other people? How do we reconcile this special relationship — woven deeply into Jewish texts — with other texts, especially the creation story in Genesis where all humanity is created in the image of God, long before there are different peoples and certainly no Israelites?’

Rabbi Toba Spitzer:
“When I was in my late 20s, before I knew much about Reconstructionist Judaism, I had stopped saying most of the first paragraph of the Aleinu. When attending services, I’d chant “Aleinu l’shabe’akh) … leyotzer bereshit,” then shut my mouth, and pick up again on “Va’anakhnu korim.” I knew enough Hebrew to feel profoundly uncomfortable thanking God for not making me like other people. Imagine my delight when, as I was reading about Mordecai Kaplan and Reconstructionism in preparation for my first visit to the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, I discovered that there was a movement that had completely removed the idea of the Jews being a “chosen” people from the liturgy!” , (RRA Connection, Early Spring, 2023).  

Mordecai Kaplan, founder of Reconstructionist Judaism, delivered forceful critiques of chosenness in the mid-twentieth century. He saw this idea as a historical development, but no longer one that was harmless or served to sustain an oppressed minority. Kaplan stated that belief in being “chosen” leads to claims of Jewish superiority — something untrue and incompatible with a democratic society. He rejected the idea that this idea was necessary for Jewish survival today. “By no kind of dialectics is it possible to remove the odium of comparison from any reinterpretation of an idea which makes invidious distinctions between one people and another.” (The Future of the American Jew, 1948, p. 217. Emphasis in original.)

In the Reconstructionist siddur [prayer book], prayers such as the Friday night kiddush, the blessing before reading the Torah, and the Aleinu prayer are re-worded to drop chosenness. Other prayer books have also made some moves in this direction. The Reform Movement in the United States created a prayer book that includes several alternative readings for Aleinu, as does the Israeli Masorti (Conservative) siddur. The newest Israeli Reform siddur (2021) does not drop the idea of chosenness, but in several places — including the Torah blessings — offers a radical re-working as an alternative: a few letters change to convert the traditional “who has chosen us from all peoples” to “who has chosen us with all peoples.”

Have Reconstructionist alternatives influenced other movements?

A number of Reform and Masorti (Israeli Conservative) siddurim have recently offered alternatives to the first paragraph of the Aleinu[ii], for example — sometimes offering the Reconstructionist-based text as one alternative.[iii] Two Reform siddurim (the British Reform movement Forms of Prayer [2008] and the Israeli Reform Tefilat haAdam [2021]) parallel this Aleinu text with another version including chosenness, though not the traditional wording. The Israeli Masorti (Conservative) siddur includes the traditional Aleinu text as the lead option. The American Conservative movement mentions the Israeli alternative Aleinu text (though not the Reconstructionist version) but does not include it in Hebrew.[iv] The U.S. Reform Mishkan T’filah offers an alternative to the traditional Aleinu.[v] The Reconstructionist Kol Haneshamah (1994) retains the traditional Aleinu text in smaller print below a line, with a disparaging commentary.

On the other hand, Orthodox texts in Israel and the diaspora, including modern editions like the Koren siddur, often include the even more exclusivist, “uncensored” text of Aleinu, with the line שֶׁהֵם מִשְׁתַּחֲוִים לְהֶֽבֶל וָרִיק, וּמִתְפַּלְלִים אֶל אֵל לֹא יוֹשִֽׁיעַ, “They bow down to vanity and emptiness and pray to a god who cannot save” — references that many understand as anti-Christian and anti-Muslim.

Elyse Wechterman: “ When we are asked, or ask ourselves, what makes Reconstructionists unique in the ever-widening and flattening denominations and stripes of Jewishness, it is this: the radical notion that all people and peoples are equally beloved of God and have a role to play in the future redemption of our species and planet.

And this idea of radical egalitarianism is more necessary now than we might have thought. The forces of White Christian Nationalism in the United States and virulent Jewish supremacy in Israel (see Menachem Klein’s essay “Israel’s Rule Over the Palestinians Has Created a New Judaism,” in Haaretz, April 8, 2023) make clear what notions of Divine election portend.”(RRA Connection, Early Spring, 2023).  

This discussion is not only about synagogue texts and prayers. Today, especially in Israel, there is much more frequent assertion of “Jewish superiority.” Professor Menachem Klein says, “…The new Judaism — Israeli Judaism it should be said — identifies sovereignty and the rule wielded in its name, with Jewish supremacy and oppression.” (“Israel’s Rule over the Palestinians Has Created a New Judaism,” Haaretz, 8 April 2023.) Rabbi Sharon Brous says, “As painful as it is, we must affirm that Jewish supremacy poses a real and present danger to the Jewish State and to the Jewish people.” (“Tears of Zion,” Feb. 2023). Events since October 7, 2023 have magnified these tendencies.

Yet other texts provide a different framework. Leviticus 19:1 says “You shall be holy…” not “you are already holy. “ Orthodox iconoclast Yeshayahu Leibowitz wrote, “The uniqueness of the people Israel is not a fact; it is a task. The holiness of Israel is not a reality but a role.” (“The Uniqueness of the People Israel”, 1975, in Y. Leibowitz, Emuna, historia, v’erachim 1982, p.117. Ttranslation by R.T.) Like challenges to patriarchy in Judaism, contemporary Jews need to confront the problematic texts in the centuries of biblical, rabbinic, and later works. 

The continuing war in Israel and Gaza, violence against Palestinians by West Bank “religious” Jews, and crises in Israel have accelerated the need for an active role from American Jews who support different views of Judaism.

 Writing before the current war, Rabbi Amy Klein (who lives in the Upper Galilee in Israel and is a leader in protests against policies of the current Israeli government) wrote in 2023 about the aftermath of a pogrom by Jewish settlers against the West Bank Palestinian city of Huwara. “Huwara has legitimized speaking out against racism at demonstrations to save Israel’s democracy,” (RRA Connection, Early Spring, 2023).  

Menachem Klein wrote, “Another possibility, which hasn’t yet been tried, is to find a Jewish theological and historic basis for sharing sovereignty with non-Jews.”  However, Prof. Klein errs in not identifying alternative Jewish visions. Now, in a time of war, need to learn from and add our North American Jewish voices and insights, liberal and traditional, to those Israelis — including those in groups such as Rabbis for Human Rights and Hasmol haemuni [Faithful Left]  — working to strengthen varieties of Judaism based on tzedek (justice), equality, and shalom (peace).   If Jews are to express some sense of being “treasured,” we need new visions of religious perspectives recognizing everyone as created in God’s image.  

Discussion questions:

1. Does the idea of the “chosen people” mean to you?

2. How do we wrestle with parts of Jewish tradition (from the Torah onward) that have values or ideas we disagree with?

3. How do we relate to a Jewish people that includes people –not only a tiny fringe--who assert that Jews are superior to other people and should have more rights than others in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories?

Purim 2024/5784

 

It was cold! Thanks Betsy, Grace, Eleanor, Sheila, Bob and Ruth

Thanks to all who contributed in so many ways! Enjoy your goodies, cards, and the reusable cocofiber basket, which you can return for next year. And, reuse the shower cap for covering open containers. :-)

Origami creators: Eleanor Brownstein + Sheila Erlbaum

Bakers/Content Contributers:

Phyllis Berman
Fredi Cooper
Helen Feinberg
Pesha Leichter
Ruth Loew
Naida Mosenkis
Irene McHenry
Sharon Strauss

Assemblers/Deliverers:

Michael Blackman

Eleanor Brownstein

Sheila Erlbaum

Grace Flisser

Ruth Loew

Sharon Strauss

Bob Tabak

David Teutsch

Mayven/Meister

Betsy Teutsch

This year we netted around $1200, we we are sending $300 to each of four tsedakot.

1) Philadelphia's own Female Hebrew Benevolent Society, for Passover ma'ot chitim, provisioning for Passover for low income clients.

2) The Community Germantown Fridge, a community 24/7 street access pantry for our hungry neighbors. We are excited that this year all GJC will be collecting surplus chametz and donating it to the CGF as well.

3) To Dorshei Derekh Alum Ari Brochin, son of Rabbi Reena Spicehandler and Jermy Brochin. The donation will fund the group he works with at the Jerusalem African Community Center, whose members are primarily seeking asylum.

4) To Anya Friedman-Hutter, daughter of Rabbi Dayle Friedman and David Ferleger, who works in education in Beer Sheva and will share it with the hungry there.

The Role of Adina Abramowitz, z”l, in Reconstructing Judaism

The role of Adina Abramowitz, z”l, in Reconstructing Judaism  - by Ruth Loew

On December 13, the Germantown Jewish Centre community was stunned and saddened by the unexpected death of Adina Abramowitz z”l.  Adina and her wife, Naomi Klayman, were longtime members of Dorshei Derekh, the Reconstructionist minyan within GJC.  In the minyan, Adina and Naomi often led Shabbat morning services.  Sometimes Adina presented a teaching (d’var Torah) on that week’s Torah reading and led the discussion that followed.  She coordinated Dorshei Derekh’s High Holiday services for several years and took turns as the coordinator for leading services or presenting divrei Torah.  Many who had worked, learned, and worshiped with her, in GJC and in the larger world, valued her for her deep knowledge of Judaism; her talents for organizing (whether a meeting, a project, or a budget) and for teaching; and her honesty, generosity, humility, and dependability.  She had a rare gift for clarifying issues that others found hopelessly confusing.  Her sense of humor was also appreciated: Rabbi Micah Weiss, the Reconstructing Judaism staff Tikkun Olam Specialist, valued Adina’s “ability to lovingly roll her eyes.” 

Her entire career, both professional and volunteer, was driven by her values: she was dedicated to creating a better life for those who were disadvantaged.  Professionally, she worked with CDFIs (Community Development Financial Institutions), which offer financial resources to underdeveloped communities. In her private life, among the many organizations that benefited from her time and talents was the Reconstructionist movement. Most of her work with it was related to one of three projects: the Prayerbook Commission of the 1990’s, the Tikkun Olam (Repairing the World) Commission, and change management support for the Board of Governors.

The Prayerbook Commission created guides to Reconstructionist worship, including a siddur (prayerbook) for Shabbat and holidays; a mahzor (prayerbook for the High Holy Days); a weekday prayerbook; and one for houses of mourning.  Her excellent command of Hebrew and of Jewish liturgy were great assets.  Also importantly, she presented a perspective from the LGBTQ community.  Rabbi David Teutsch, who worked with her on this venture, describes her as “judicious, thoughtful, and capable of working with grace and good will.”

Adina was more recently active in the movement’s Tikkun Olam Commission, which addresses social justice issues. She was passionate about its work, particularly its commitment to racial justice, including reparations. She and Naomi were among the first to sign up for Reconstructing Judaism’s civil rights pilgrimage last spring. She was first a commission member, then became the transitional lay co-chair of the commission. When the new chair was on-boarded and ready to take on leadership, Adina, with characteristic humility, intended to step back into her role as a member.

As part of the Tikkun Olam Commission, she led a qualitative research project on racial justice work in member congregations. What initiatives had the congregations tried? What were they accomplishing? What feedback were they hearing from members of color? This project concluded with recommendations for congregational action. Adina helped make racial justice a primary role of the Commission.

A third area in which Adina took a leading role in Reconstructing Judaism was change management: helping the movement assess its organizational and financial future, particularly in the wake of Covid and, more recently, of October 7, 2023 and its aftermath.  She served as a pro bono consultant to the Reconstructing Judaism Board and movement leadership in evaluating what products and services Reconstructing Judaism offers and how it does its work. That meant working closely with its president, Rabbi Deborah Waxman; its executive vice president, Rabbi Amber Powers; and the senior leadership team. She offered individual coaching and led a pivotal discussion at their retreat this past fall.  She quickly became a trusted advisor, confidante, and coach to many with whom she worked. As Rabbi Deborah Waxman said, “All of this was in a volunteer capacity and all with generosity, creativity and effectiveness.”

Adina quietly went about being helpful whenever she could, without calling attention to herself. She didn’t care whether she was praised for her work; she just cared that the work was done and done well.  As Rabbi Teutsch said, “I never asked for help with anything that she didn’t say yes.” 

Zichronah liv’rachah – זיכרונה לברכה - May her memory be for a blessing.

Thank you to those who agreed to be interviewed for this article: Mark Pinsky, Rabbi David Teutsch, Rabbi Deborah Waxman, and Rabbi Micah Weiss.

 

A Farewell to Ellen from Rabbi Simkha Weintraub

 

A Prayer/A Psalm at the Funeral of Rabbi Ellen Bernstein zts’l

Halleluyah!

It is good to give thanks for Rabbi Ellen Bernstein/HaRav Nehamah bat Etta v’Pinhas

Who leaves this life too soon for us, and passes on to the Garden of Eden,

which she will certainly till and probably enhance.

“And Adonai/God took the Human and put the Human into the Garden to till it and to guard it.”

(Genesis 2:15)

May the colors of Ellen’s garments and jewelry, flowers and plants, dishes and travel

Bless and rebuild our assaulted planet, from Kibbutz Be’eri to Zaporizhzhia,

from Gaza to benighted American zip codes,

from bursting refugee camps to razed forests, choked oceans, and decimated species.

“The Heavens are Heavens of the Holy One, but Earth was given by God to humankind.”

(Psalm 24:1)

God, give Ellen the power to empower those who truly value and respect Earth,

Who see the whole of our planet as Holy,

And seek to live on it with reverence, awe, and responsibility.

Introduce our dear Ellen to the Matriarchs and Patriarchs, to Hagar, to Serach bat Asher,

to Shifra and Puah, Miriam, Pharaoh’s daughter, and Yael.

Arrange banquets with Tzelophhad’s daughters, and those of Rashi and Mordecai Kaplan;

Brunch with Eleanor Roosevelt and Bella Abzug, Afternoon tea with Gluckel of Hamelin,

Dinner with Margaret Mead, Rachel Carson, and Henrietta Szold.

Under Your sheltering Sh’khinah, may Ellen find not just rest but peace and renewal,

Not only comfort but creative freedom and discovery,

Stellar insights, and radiant innovations.

I want You to know, God, that Ellen asserted M’hayei haMeitim loudly in a Reconstructionist

minyan in Philadelphia – affirming that You do, or will, revivify the deceased,

And so we request that You acknowledge her traditional and yet rebellious affirmations.

“Praise Adonai from the earth, sea monsters and all deeps;

Fire and hail, snow and smoke, stormy wind executing God’s command;

The mountains and all hills, the fruit trees and all cedars,

The wild animals and all cattle, creeping things and flying birds…”

(Psalm 148:7-10)

Enliven our memories of Rabbi Ellen,

Not only for our own savoring, but for the sake of the world itself.

Amen v’Amen, Halleluyah!

(Rabbi Simkha Y. Weintraub, Feb 29, 2024)

Photo: Steven Tennenbaum