- 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
…e Ely House, Center for Contemporary Art, New Haven, CT, and has curated a number of independent exhibitions. She studied at the Akademie fuer Angewante Kunst in Vienna, Austria, and received her MFA from San Jose State University. Anna Broell Bresnick has collaborated with dancers and musicians in the creation of installations for performances. These have included large sculptural str uctures, floor drawings and video. Broell Bresnick has taught…
…Abby Fraade, the volunteer who manages sponsorships. Please note that cellphones and photography are permitted on weekdays, but not on Shabbat or Yom Tov. If you choose to have a ceremony at BEKI on some other day, please work out the general plan in advance with Office Manager Peggy Hackett. She will arrange kitchen supervision and custodial services. Please note that we do NOT allow self-catering or a plan that’s “friends will take care of setu…
…ificial. The sanctuary space should be clearly different from the familiar day to day. A BEKI sanctuary should be warm, orderly, and quiet. It should be respectful of tradition, have qualities of timelessness. The physical symbols and decorations that might provide us with these feelings have changed since the sanctuary was designed forty years ago. Styles and values, even technology and the materials from which art, and synagogues, are made, have…
…Amida work? It seems to be different each time I’m at services. Signed, Amida Amida Dear Amida, The Amida or shemona esrei prayer, a part of each service, is repeated in the presence of a minyan (quorum) during shaharit (morning), musaf (additional) and minha (afternoon) services, but not during maariv (evening) service. There are two ways this can be done, at the discretion of the officiant or shaliah tsibur (reader or leader). First, when the co…
…ll do it that way, too. But this procedure often created a dilemma: If the number of qaddishes was limited, there might still be some who did not get to say one; if there was no limit to the number of qaddishes added, the service became burdensomely long. So after careful scrutiny the rabbis allowed all mourners to say qaddish simultaneously. This rabbinic solution was adopted only after careful consideration, and after it was determined that mour…
…their own Hanukia, and each lights a number of lights corresponding to the number of the day of the holiday. We are fortunate that we are able to do this mitzva in such a complete and beautiful way. But what of the poor person who can not afford all of this “hidur mitzva” but must struggle to light even one lamp? The Mishna Berura, written at the beginning of the twentieth century by the Hafetz Hayim, comments on the section of the Shulhan Arukh c…
…e person up to the Torah is prohibited by several rules of Halakha and standard procedure. The problems that joint aliya seeks to solve can be addressed through other means. Joint aliya for women had its place in history, but it is inconsistent with a Congregation that upholds equality of men and women. When our children go to camp and college and participate in the larger Jewish world, I want them to be able to know that what they learned and pra…
…n to welcome us. I felt embraced, and I didn’t feel invisible anymore. One day I was speaking with my brother-in-law on the phone. I was talking about BEKI (which by this time I had joined) and the feeling that I have here. And I confided in him that one day I’d like to get up on the bima and read from the Torah. And as I said these words I began to tremble. The very thought was overpowering to me. To even think of myself as playing such an honore…
…children are needed to help strengthen the community and fellowship every day of the year. Captains are needed to help organize daily services. Master Chefs, Vegetable Choppers & Shoppers – Cooks, cleaners, shoppers and organizers are needed to participate in the four Kiddush Preparation Teams managed by the Kiddush Committee, and the same is needed for the Benei Mitzva Kiddush Committee. On most Shabbatot and festivals, the Congregation provide…
…p services, which is a conventional way to interpret the second pillar, avoda. It’s that third one that I want to talk about: gemilut hasadim. Doing acts of hesed, kindness. I think we can do that a little better…. [But, because I can’t resist a bad pun, heres a small digression: What did the bank robber say when he held up a bank in Me’a She`arim? “Gimme loot, Ḥasidim!”] This fall, we are launching a Hesed Committee, chaired by Board member Murie…
