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 Rabbi Edwin Goldberg The most traditional texts for the Torah reading on Rosh HaShanah morning are Genesis 21 and Genesis 22. In many congregations that observe two days of the holiday, it is most customary to read 21 on the first day and 22 on the second day. Genesis 21 begins with the notion that God remembered our matriarch Sarah and enabled her to have a child. The idea of remembering is tied to a name of Rosh HaShanah in the Bible: the Day of Remembrance. This is the lesson: God remembers us as God remembers Sarah. To paraphrase [...]
As Shabbat services ended at the URJ Board Meeting the URJ Board had a new nominee, a 19-year old determined, committed Jewish leader - Evan Traylor. At the public announcement of his nomination, the URJ Board burst into applause. In one day, the Reform Movement truly moved; in a dynamic way. No longer is the youth voice in Reform Judaism symbolic.
by Ira Miller I was interested to read Billy Planer’s blog post “I Have Met The Enemy of Jewish Teen Engagement and It Is US” and the conversation it has inspired. I’ve known Billy for years and have always been impressed with his work and the incredible programs he runs, including Etgar 36. Billy makes an excellent argument about appreciating new “non-traditional” programs and seeing them as worthy recipients of funding, scholarships, and grants. I’m hopeful that he will help open the eyes of some the incredible philanthropists in the Jewish community who are looking to invest in programs that [...]
For many, summer is a season of travel and that’s certainly true for me right now. Last week I was in Chicago, where I had the pleasure of meeting with a number of my rabbinic colleagues, synagogue professionals, and lay leaders in congregations throughout the city. This past week I was in Baltimore, where similar meetings were held. I spent Shabbat evening together with the Oheb Shalom family in this city rich in Reform Jewish history as the congregation celebrates its 160th anniversary. What a milestone! No matter the city or the congregation, though, it’s always important to get a [...]
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On Wednesday May 22, ten members of Rabbis organizing Rabbis – representing the Reform movement and its Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), and Religious Action Center (the RAC) – visited Capitol Hill to lobby in favor of comprehensive immigration reform and the bi-partisan legislation that will be presented to the Senate following next week’s congressional recess. I was honored to be one of our “gang of ten.” Accompanied by talented and dedicated RAC staff members – particularly deputy director Rachel Laser, legislative Assistant Sarah Krinsky, program associate Molly Benoit, program director Michael Namath (who participated as one of our rabbinic delegates, and the indefatigable director David Saperstein – we had the opportunity to discuss the legislation and crucial issues related to it with the offices of eight key senators, including three of the “gang of eight” who have spearheaded the effort to formulate a comprehensive approach to addressing our immigration system – which is universally held to be broken and in need of repair. To our great delight, we found out in the morning that the proposed legislation, S.R. 744, had passed out of committee late the previous evening, by a vote of 13-5.
And so we shared heartfelt, value-laden conversation with Senators Michael Bennet, Joe Donnelly, Angus King, Dick Durbin, Dan Coats, Kay Hagan, Mark Kirk and Robert Menendez. We expressed our concern that of course the legislation is flawed, a notion with which the senators who drafted it wholly agree. And our perspective is not to let “perfect” get in the way of doing what is good. We also shared our enthusiasm for getting the bill passed, and our willingness (and that of the entire movement) to mobilize on the local and national level to support this effort, and publicly commend those senators who champion this cause. Our presentations were favorably received, and further energized our group’s enthusiasm to rally the Reform Jewish community behind this significant and timely endeavor.
Kudos to my passionate colleagues: Rabbis Seth Limmer, Sam Gordon, Esther Lederman, Baht Weiss, David Adelson, Greg Litcofsky, Ari Margolis (as well as those named above); it was a thrill to join you, to serve the movement and bring RoR to life. I know they join me in expressing deepest gratitude to the senators and their staffers for the time they gave us to address immigration reform at this vital moment. More so, we are grateful to the amazing RAC staff for arranging our opportunity to meet with such an array of essential personnel. May it be our continued fortune to see comprehensive immigration reform made real, and “to ensure that justice for our country’s most vulnerable is imminent and everlasting – that it is neither delayed nor denied.”
B’shalom,
Rabbi Eric J. Siroka
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