- 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
…long as you follow the law as defined by the majority of the sages. In the United States, the Supreme Court records dissenting or concurring opinions. This practice can be traced all the back to the earliest recordings of halakha, Jewish law. The Mishna, the second-century compendium of law, itself records divergent opinions on law in many hundreds of cases. In masekhet Eduyot (1:5), it explains the purpose of recording opinions that did not becom…
…r the movement. The various institutions, such as the Rabbinical Assembly, United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, Cantors Assembly, Seminario Rabinico Latinoamericano, Jewish Theological Seminary, Zeigler School, and the rest, may individually or collectively address the issues of how we deal with Gay and Lesbian Jews. The papers endorsed by the Committee give some food for thought, but there is no force-feeding. There is not a satisfying meal,…
…f Jewish families settled in the Dixwell Avenue neighborhood. Before long, united by their faith in God, they laid aside differences in religious usage and established a small congregation which met at different homes for daily and Sabbath Services. Eventually they collected the funds wherewith they purchased the Synagogue on Foote Street. With the Synagogue building also came the Hebrew School. For many years the Keser Israel Family worshipped in…
…and the second half refers to the end of days, when all the world will be united in worship of one God: “Ba-yom ha-hu, yehiye Adonai ehad u-shemo ehad — On that day, the Lord will be one, and His name one.” According to a midrash on the Shema, God described His singularity this way: “My children, everything that I have created has been created in pairs: heaven and earth, the sun and the moon, Adam and Eve, this world and the world to come. But My…
…m Iraq during the current war. In August 2009, the press reported that the United Arab Emirates planned to deport hundreds of ethnic Palestinians, particularly Gazans, in the coming weeks. In contrast, Israel has not forcibly expelled Arabs since Rabin dumped (“deported”) 415 HAMAS terrorists into Lebanon in 1992, but subsequently took them back under Israeli court order. (This does not count the expulsion of tourists with expired visas and assort…
…o them or not. I have never heard of any synagogue being expelled from the United Synagogue for any policy violation, except failure to pay dues. Our religious heritage, as documented by the Mishna and other rabbinic texts, endorses the values of free speech, intellectual integrity and democracy. Individual sages were allowed to teach whatever they actually believed, even if it was not in keeping with the majorityʼs view. The sages could speak the…
…ust make Conservative institutions such as BEKI, Camp Ramah, Ezra Academy, United Hebrew School and the Jewish Theological Seminary our top priorities. It is here where the “tire meets the road” and a new generation is trained in what “Judaism” was, is and will be. As we redouble our own efforts to build a strong Conservative community in Greater New Haven, let us be appreciative of the heritage created for us here by our elders and ancestors, and…
…works have also been selected for exhibitions in over 70 venues across the United States. Many of her creations have appeared as covers for books from publishers including Penguin, Routledge, Global Publications, McGill-Queen’s University Press, and Vallentine Mitchell Publishers. At BEKI, Two Artists Channel Visions Of Home, by Al Larriva-Latt Review of exhibitions by Suzanne Neusner and Naomi Safran-Hon Click here for a list of Suzanne Neusner’s…
