- Congregation Beth El–Keser Israel
85 Harrison Street, New Haven, CT 06515-1724 | P: 203.389.2108 | office@beki.org
85 Harrison Street, New Haven, CT 06515-1724 | P: 203.389.2108 | office@beki.org
…t it means to not have free speech. In going through customs, they did not search me for weapons. They did not search me for drugs. They looked for printed material. They confiscated a week-old Zimbabwean newspaper. The university library could not stock the book The Green Revolution — a book about agriculture — because of the word “revolution” in its title. They say that when President Kennedy was assassinated, their nation newspaper reported tha…
…uld be. Maybe it was destiny that on this day I would sing the Song of the Sea because the sea is such a fitting metaphor for what has separated my Jewish soul from my Jewish home all these years. I think the waters parted for me a few years ago. I had been living in Connecticut for a few years now and had toyed for a long time with the idea of seeking out a synagogue. I got on the mailing lists of all kinds of synagogues in the area. Each month I…
…of heaven earth light night sky dry land seas plants fruit trees sun moon sea monsters swarming sea creatures winged birds cattle creeping things wild beasts people the first words the first dominion the first stopping Shabbat the first garden the first commandment names wisdom curses exile sex children jealousy sin murder the first city the first music bronze work iron work prayer the mating of divine beings and humans and finally, the desire fo…
…r friends, neighbors and families wished to exact.35 Similarly, an unknown number accepted induction but made private arrangements with the administration whereby they could avoid actual combat or use of weapons, or could avoid serving in the occupied territories. At the same time, thousands of others found other ways to avoid the military altogether, through Yeshiva deferments, emigration, and faked medical or psychiatric exemptions.36 Moreover,…
…e have now. Do we expect to lose seating capacity? We expect to reduce the number of seats on a typical Shabbat — which is not the same as losing seating capacity. A major goal of the redesign is to make the sanctuary feel more intimate. Our current capacity is 332 fixed seats — perhaps one-third of which were typically filled, pre-Covid. The sketches show roughly 200 seats. Since they are all movable, we can expand capacity when needed. What happ…
…erent. Everybody does something behind closed doors, whether it be write a cheap romance novel or go to some forbidden site on the Web. The thing I do behind closed doors is write poetry. Long and involved, they usually represent some flaw in humanity or in myself or just some tragic love poem. Words spurt out of my mouth and I have to write them down or else I lose them, the ideas slipping through my fingers like grains of sand in an hourglass. I…
…to the assassination of Mr. Rabin. Before Yigal Amir pulled the trigger, a number of Orthodox rabbis had stretched medieval Jewish law beyond all reasonable limits to classify Mr. Rabin as a “pursuer,” whose life could be taken in self-defense. The same body of medieval law explicitly sanctions the killing of Jewish heretics as the Union of Orthodox Rabbis surely knows. To publicly denounce Reform and Conservative Jew as apikorsim in the current h…
Phone: 203.389.2108 Fax: 203.389.5899 Postal Address: Congregation Beth El-Keser Israel 85 Harrison St. New Haven CT 06515-1724 Office Manager Peggy Hackett Ext. 114 Education Director Annie Norman-Schiff Ext. 113 President Russell Epstein Rabbi Eric Woodward Ext. 120 Ritual Committee Chairperson Bruce Spierer Youth & Family Programming Director Annie Norman-Schiff Ext. 113 BEKI Bulletin bulletin@beki.org Cemetery Association cemetery@beki….
…showed that those who intended to go to the Westville site preferred mixed seating (also known as family seating). As it was felt that Rabbi Shuchatowitz was not inclined to adapt to this arrangement, Rabbi Isaiah Rackovksy, who had served in the US Army with Robert Goodwin and was well-known to him, was interviewed and found to be learned and well-spoken. Rabbi Rackovsky, who had Orthodox semikha (ordination), did not object to the mixed seating,…
…ments for further information. A schedule is presented below. To purchase tickets online, click here, then scroll down to High Holy Days – Tickets. SECURITY UPDATE: Please know that our High Holy Days team is working hard to make sure that while remaining the warm and welcoming community we have always been, it is doing its best to implement some new procedures and policies, which take your security very seriously. Your understanding and total…
