- 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
Spirit and Fire A Retrospective Exhibit Leslie J. Klein is a mixed media and fiber artist from South Florida. She has worked in pastels, oil pastels, graphite and mixed media, creating her images from a Jewish and feminist perspective. She has had many one-person shows both in the U.S. and in Israel, including “The Eden Trilogy”, an installation in oil pastel first exhibited at the Artist’s House in Jerusalem. Klein is also well known for her wor…
…Prior to that, the last tribute dinner anyone could recall took place about 15 years ago, honoring Mr. Friedman, alav hashalom. Well, once every 15 years isn’t often enough. This coming November, we will hold another tribute dinner. I am honor bound not to say too much tonight. The Board and the honorees know why. This year’s first-ever auction, chaired by Donna Levine, was a brilliant success and a lot of fun. We are already planning the next one…
…g aside, the talker in Oppenheimer will get to do just that on Sunday, Dec. 15, 10 a.m., at Congregation Beth El-Keser Israel in New Haven, when he is guest speaker at a book talk and brunch celebrating publication of his new book The Newish Jewish Encyclopedia, which he co-authored with Stephanie Butnick and Liel Leibovitz. Synagogue Denied 65 Square Feet Of Light, newhavenindependent.org, Sep 18, 2019 And New Haven’s zoning board proclaimed: Let…
…tell stories that celebrate our shared past. It is also a place where our spirits and our community can be invigorated, nourished, and rested. It is a safe place, made safe by the community’s recognition of its sacredness. The sanctity of the sanctuary derives not from its location, structure or furnishings. Sanctuary services can take place in a store front, a dining room, a concentration camp, or in a submarine. Any space with any architecture…
…spect to annual income. (Data: DeNavas-Walt, Carmen and Robert, Cleveland, U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Reports, P60-218, Money Income in the United States: 2001, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 2002.) Even more: On the global level, I am in the top 1%. So when I say that the rich should pay, I am including myself. When we share our spiritual, financial and other blessings with others and consequently see their Hanuka li…
…ing to say the berakha (blessing) on their own, or even with coaching. If a 12- or 13-year old can find the courage to stand in front of their elders, and before the Throne of Glory, and lead prayers, then the aunts and uncles or grandparents must find the courage to stand up and recite three Hebrew sentences. To say that someone who would not even read the blessings in transliteration had an “aliya” detracts from the honor of all other olim (hono…
…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…
…s a few questions of his own and would be happy to receive written answers. 1. When someone posts a “Vote For Candidate X” bumper sticker on a “Stop” sign, do they intend to promote or to “stop” that candidate? 2. When one shampoo bottle says “for shiny manageable hair” and the second says “for dry damaged hair,” who buys the one that makes their hair dry and damaged? 3. When the orange juice carton advertises “squeezed orange juice,” how else mig…
…th lists start with a broad thing to give up and then narrow it down: list number one — go from your land, your birthplace, your father’s house. List number two — take your son, your only son, the one you love, Isaac. This similarity led me to still others. One of the first, and most obvious, comparisons between the two instances of lekh lekha was that in both, God is sending Abraham on a journey. In the first lekh lekha, God is starting Abraham o…
…of all the people. Imagine if the parshah has told us, tribe by tribe, the number of people in each tribe, and separately, the number of males, 20 and up, who were fit for service. Would that kind of census send a different message to us, a message saying, “everyone counts”, including all the women? The second census, what I’ll call the redemption census, I find a strange one. It requires counting of all the male Levites who were at least a month…
