Welcome to Temple Beth-El! I am delighted that you are interested in our congregation and its activities.  As the congregation’s rabbi I look forward to engaging with you about your potential involvement in our community. We love when our building is filled with the many wonderful occasions we enjoy – from ritual observances to life cycle celebrations to social gatherings, and especially when someone expresses an interest in joining our community. You can be part of the great joy of Temple! Now is a great time to become part of the Temple Beth-El family: for your child’s Jewish education; for your own personal fulfillment through community involvement; for finding Jewish friends in the neighborhood – Temple Beth-El can help you reach these goals. Consider yourself warmly invited to join us at one of our many upcoming activities. I hope to continue building the special relationship that I cherish with so many members of the congregation. We hope to hear from you soon. For more information about Temple Beth-El, please call, write or drop on by!
Most sincerely-
B’shalom,
Rabbi Eric J. Siroka
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Cleaning out your
closets, basement, garage?
Temple is planning a YARD SALE,
so before you drop your stuff off at a local charity,
consider bringing the items to Temple.
Don't Forget to shop at the
Temple Beth-El Sisterhood Gift Shop
If you go to amazon.com by clicking the icon below Temple will receive a percentage back.
HELP TEMPLE RAISE FUNDS BY SHOPPING!!!
Our Scrip program lets you purchase gift cards and gives Temple a percentage of the sales. Some of the best sellers and highest percentage of profit include: Outback, Bonefish, Carrabba's, Panera, Starbucks and Chipotle. Now you can reload gift cards online and also print several gift certificates from your computer. Please consider ordering gift cards from Great Lakes scrip on a regular basis. Go to www.glscrip.com and click on the list of retailers for a complete list. If you are interested in reloading cards for places such as Gap, Starbucks or Speedway contact Lisa Gerber. If you would like e-mail reminders to place an order, send an e-mail to Lisa to indicate this. Thank you for your support of this program.
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by Jonathan Segal The year 70 BCE, the most valuable place to the Jewish people was destroyed. The second temple and everything that came along with it was demolished, leaving the Jewish people without a religious center in the world. Although the temple was destroyed, the west wall of the complex remained standing and to this day this wall is remembered as the greatest physical evidence of prosperous Jewish life before the Common Era. Today, the Western Wall stands for many things and for many people. To some people the wall stands for history, loss, or victory while to others [...]
Shavuot is not the first holiday that comes to mind when someone asks me about Jewish holidays. When I’m asked about my faith, I usually talk about Shabbat services and dinner with my family, regaling them with stories about my family’s obsession with making the utmost of the roast chicken we have every Shabbat (it’s an Olympic sport in my family). Yet as we approach Shavuot, more and more I think it exemplifies much of the best that Judaism has to offer. On Shavuot we celebrate the handing down of the Ten Commandments to Moses at Mt. Sinai with a [...]
It was just a year ago when I had the opportunity to be part of the listening campaign of the Campaign for Youth Engagement with the WRJ District Presidents during their annual retreat to Kutz Camp. Last year these women shared their unique and powerful stories about a time when an interaction with a young person influenced their lives.
by Cantor Deborah Katchko Gray In the new home of the National Museum of American Jewish History, a Women Cantors’ Network postcard shares space in a display case with one of Bella Abzug’s hats. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined such a pairing. Likewise, in early 1982, neither could I have imagined the founding of the Women Cantors’ Network. During the spring of 1981, as one of only two women cantors serving Conservative congregations, I attended the Cantors Assembly convention. A fourth generation cantor, I’d previously attended the convention with my father when I was a college [...]
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May 2012
followed by a potluck dairy dinner & Social Justice Study Program by Temple's confirmands
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The month of May is now upon us, and it is exciting to see the return of sunshine, warmer weather and the springtime activities that go along with this time of year. The highlight of this month will be Shavuot - the festival celebrating the giving of Torah at Mt. Sinai just 7 weeks following the Exodus from Egypt which was marked at Passover. As we rejoice in *z'man matan torateynu* - the time of the gift of Torah, we are also mindful of our continued responsibility to perfect the world. And so we combine our holiday observance with the chance to explore themes and opportunities to engage in social justice.
The eve of Shavuot will be Saturday, May 26th. We will begin our observance with our Festival/Confirmation service at 5:30 p.m. This will be followed (at approximately 6:45 p.m.) by our "Taste of Confirmation" pot-luck meal, highlighted by some favorite dishes of our 6 confirmation students (call the office to sign up, offer to bring a dish, and remember that Shavuot is traditionally a dairy - i.e. non-meat - meal). Dinner will lead into our social justice program, for which several members of the congregation will share insights and information about a range of current issues facing our society and community; as well, the confirmation class will have a chance to show off their advocacy and lobbying experience gained on Capitol Hill this past January. Join us for this profound and meaningful occasion.
Our Shavuot observance will conclude the following morning, Sunday the 27th, with the Festival/Yizkor service at 10:30 a.m. We will include the names of those members of the extended Temple family who have passed away since last Shavuot, as well as discuss the powerful messages of the book of Ruth.
May this time counting toward Shavuot and the ever-growing gift of Torah be one of renewal and blessing for all.
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