KOL The Voice of Congregation Dor Hadash An Affiliate of Jewish Reconstructionist Communities Volume 54 July-August 2015 Number 2 Tammuz/Av/Elul 5775 About Our President’s Summer Our own Congregation President, Mark Rubenstein, will be heading back to Pittsburgh soon after is providing service this summer with one of his other passions, Pittsburgh Youth Leadership. He’s on a 39-day cross- country bike journey with eight young men and three PYL staff members. They will cover 3,000 mile shaving started June 14 in Seaside, Oregon and finishing July 21 in New Jersey. This is the 10 th anniversary of Pittsburgh Youth Leadership, which Mark founded in 2005. On the Fourth of July there was a very extensive article on this year’s trip in USA Today, in the High School Sports section. Excellent reading! Here’s the link: http://usatodayhss.com/2015/pittsburgh-youth- leadership-mark-rubenstein. From L to R: Judy Grumet, Laura Horowitz, Nancy Levine, Jean Clickner, and Beth Hydovitz B’Not Mitzvah Sisters’ Big Day On May 30 six women celebrated Congregation Dor Hadash’s first-ever adult Bnot Mitzvah ceremony. Starting after Yom Kippur of last year, the women worked hard to prepare for the event. The Torah portion was Naso. At the beginning of the journey, Cantor Cheryl Klein provided lessons in Judaism. Lisa Levinson taught them the Torah trope and coached them in chanting their individual sections. Cheryl had the task of guiding them through learning haftorah trope and each of their portions. A beautiful Kiddush luncheon followed the service. The “Bnot Mitzvah Sisters” are grateful for the support and contributions from Dor Hadash and its members
Transcript
KOL The Voice of
Congregation Dor Hadash
An Affiliate of Jewish Reconstructionist Communities
Volume 54 July-August 2015 Number 2 Tammuz/Av/Elul 5775
About Our President’s Summer Our own Congregation President, Mark Rubenstein, will be heading back to Pittsburgh soon after is providing service this summer with one of his other passions, Pittsburgh Youth Leadership. He’s on a 39-day cross-country bike journey with eight young men and three PYL staff members. They will cover 3,000 mile shaving started June 14 in Seaside, Oregon and finishing July 21 in New Jersey. This is the 10th anniversary of Pittsburgh Youth Leadership, which Mark founded in 2005. On the Fourth of July there was a very extensive article on this year’s trip in USA Today, in the High School Sports section. Excellent reading! Here’s the link: http://usatodayhss.com/2015/pittsburgh-youth-leadership-mark-rubenstein.
From L to R: Judy Grumet, Laura Horowitz, Nancy Levine, Jean Clickner, and Beth Hydovitz
B’Not Mitzvah Sisters’ Big Day On May 30 six women celebrated Congregation Dor
Hadash’s first-ever adult Bnot Mitzvah ceremony.
Starting after Yom Kippur of last year, the women
worked hard to prepare for the event. The Torah portion
was Naso. At the beginning of the journey, Cantor Cheryl
Klein provided lessons in Judaism. Lisa Levinson taught
them the Torah trope and coached them in chanting
their individual sections. Cheryl had the task of guiding
them through learning haftorah trope and each of their
portions. A beautiful Kiddush luncheon followed the
service. The “Bnot Mitzvah Sisters” are grateful for the
July / August 2015 THE VOICE OF CONGREGATION DOR HADASH Page 2
Goodbye and Hello
A Fond Farewell from Helene
Dear Dor Hadashers,
I am very sad to announce that I will be leaving my
osition as Congregation Manager. You are a unique
and wonderful congregation, with a remarkable
group of synagogue lay leaders and congregants. I
thank you for the privilege of working for you and
with you. One of my favorite quotes is from Hillel
- "Do not separate yourself from the community."
(Hillel Mishna Avot 2:4) Dor Hadashers live this,
by your involvement and commitment to the
congregation and each other. Thank you for
allowing me to be a part of this, even for a short
time. I am sure I will see many of you "up street"
in Squirrel Hill.
L'shalom,
Helene Kessler Burke
Welcome to Jean Hartz,
Our New Congregation Manager Congregation Dor Hadash is sad, too, about
Helene’s departure. During her brief tenure she did
an outstanding job. She will be missed and we wish
her the best.
The Dor Hadash Board’s Search Committee was
able to quickly interview several very capable
candidates. After reviewing the committee’s
recommendations, the Board approved the hiring of
Jean Hartz as our next Congregation Manager. Jean
began her duties on July 15.
Jean joins us with extensive administrative
experience. She has managed several local medical
practices, including Rabinowitz & Ciesielka Family
Medicine and has served as the Executive Director
of the Zionist Organization of America, Pittsburgh
Chapter. Please extend a warm welcome.
Contributions
In honor of B'not Mitzvah Class for Kiddush
Norma Artman
Alfred and Dolores Blumstein
Sy and Ruth Drescher
In honor of Cheryl Klein
Norma Artman
Carol Reichbaum and Reichbaum Family
In honor of Angrist and Drescher
60th Wedding Anniversaries
Allen and Liz Baum
In honor of Dor Hadash
Nathana Marunich
In honor of Ellen Surloff's Bat Mitzvah
Ellen Golding
Marlene and Jeffrey Haus
In honor of Laura Horowitz's Bat Mitzvah
Brad and Bernita Myers
In honor of Judy Grumet's Bat Mitzvah
Arnold and Yetta Freedman
In honor of Harry Levinson's
60th Birthday
Nancy Levine
Sarah and Stan Angrist
July / August 2015 THE VOICE OF CONGREGATION DOR HADASH Page 3
Religious School News
By Hal Grinberg, Principal
Another school year has come to an end. Thanks to Tina London, who served as chair of the Religious School Board and is now VP of Youth Education. Thanks also to the Board of the Religious School, which is now the Youth Education Committee: Dan Zuckerman, Wendy Kobee, Michael Marks, and Loren Resnick.
We are going through some changes with the merger of the Religious School with the Congregation, and there were a lot of things to work out. Thanks to all these people members of religious school board who helped with that.
It rained at our Friday evening picnic service on June 5th, but we had a lovely time indoors, with the service and potluck dinner. Lots of students participated in the service.
By the time we were finished, the weather had cleared and the kids went out to the park to play soccer and frisbee. Thanks to Michele Woltshock for supplying the oneg desserts, and thanks to Eric Woltshock for playing guitar during the service.We celebrated the Bat Mitzvah of Delilah Hollander on June 20th, and Delilah made a different and interesting presentation of her haftarah.
Instead of chanting it, she wrote and read a summary, made an art presentation of four scenes from it, and wrote
a dialogue related to each scene that some of her relatives read aloud.
The art piece was made in the shape of a cape, which Delilah presented to her grandmother, who had made her tallit. The haftarah presentation was very meaningful to her and her family and, I hope, to everyone in the congregation. To prepare it, Delilah had to study the haftarah in a very different way than learning the trope and learning to chant it.
At Dor Hadash, we don’t read the haftarah at our monthly Shabbat Torah service. The ritual committee has periodically discussed the idea of alternative ways to present the Torah at Bar/Bat Mitzvahs, ways that engage the students’ talents and interests. I finally dared to suggest we do it. Delila is a fiber artist who goes to CAPA, so this was a good opportunity to try this change, and Delilah was enthusiastic about it. Her portion was Korach, and this was the right portion for it. In it, Korach is asking whether the way things were set up was the way things had to be. For Reconstructionists, that is always a good question.
RECRUITMENT FOR NEXT YEAR As always at this time of year, I ask all our congregants to help with recruiting new students for the religious school. Tell your friends, family, colleagues and neighbors who have children about our Religious School. Encourage any family that shows interest to contact me, and I will tell them more:
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The Modern Meaning of Tisha b'Av By Rabbi Lewis Eron
From the Jewish Reconstructionist Communities Website; http://www.jewishrecon.org/resource/modern-meaning-tisha-bav
The Jewish Memorial Day, The Fast of the Ninth of the Jewish month of Av, Tisha b'Av, marks the end of a three week period of mourning during which our people remember the series of events that led to the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem and the destruction of our people's first Temple on that date in the year 586 BCE. Sadly, it also marks the day some six hundred years later in the year 70 CE when the Roman legions pushed through the crumbling defenses of Jerusalem to desecrated and destroyed the rebuilt second Temple, as they crushed a rebellion that shook the heart of the Empire and drove our people into exile. Over time, our people associated many of the most painful moments with this grim day.
Traditionally, Tisha b'Av was a dark day of mourning as we cried over our loses and bewailed our exile. On Tisha b'Av, we felt most keenly our sense of powerlessness and our feeling of separation from our spiritual center in our ancestral homeland. It was the day on which we acknowledged the emotional and spiritual pain of our people's exile. But today, we are no longer in exile. Our people have returned to our ancient homeland and rebuilt our towns and cities. We are no longer powerless. Our world has changed and our needs have changed. To speak to us today, Tisha b'Av can no longer be the day on which we remember all the evil that has happened to us. It needs to become the day on which we understand that despite our setbacks, our struggles, our real loses and deep suffering, we, the Jewish people, have overcome the obstacles fate has set before us. Our existence today is a triumph of our people's spirit. Any commemoration of Tisha B'Av that does not acknowledge this reality is inadequate. There is something miraculous about the Jewish people, our culture, and our faith.
We no longer need to find ways to mourn our losses but need to discover new paths to cherish all that we have gained. Thank God, our chief worry is not being crushed in our weakness but becoming arrogant and careless with our success and power. We need to enhance our sense of appreciation for the blessings that we have. We must not take for granted and foolishly lose all that for generations we could only obtain in our dreams. A renewed and transformed Tisha b'Av commemoration can help us greatly in this task. We need to refocus Tisha b'Av from a day of Jewish mourning to a Jewish Memorial Day. Let us transform it to a day on which we can solemnly acknowledge all those of our people, who over the centuries accepted hardship, experienced sorrow and even suffered death so that we, the Jewish people, could survive. Let us make Tisha B'Av the day on which we give thanks to them for their loyalty to our people and our faith and the day on which we renew our commitment to the heritage they so lovingly and painfully bequeathed to us.
We, the Jewish people, are survivors and the descendants of survivors. Let us not forget all those whom over the countless generations of our people kept the faith in our God, in our Torah and in each other. Let us not forget to honor their struggles but, also, let us, also, not forget to celebrate their gifts.
