- 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
…a Jewish community and has been living as a Jew, there is no need to instigate an investigation into that person’s Jewishness. We affirm that trust is the default position in these matters.” If that’s the default position, then it sounds to me like a reason to accept patrilineal descent in situations like my granddaughters’. Al tistakel b’kankan, ellah b’mah sheyesh bo. Will we continue to focus on the vessel – from which parent is the Jewish blo…
…have to deal with a small portion of the population, that is, those with legal problems too complex or important for the lower courts. In a schematic sense, picture a circle of courts, with the litigants on the outside. Most of the judging for cases among the people would be dealt with by the outer layer of judges; if there were broader ramifications of the decision made in a particular case, it would be brought to an inner court. If need be, Mosh…
…series? How about a book fair? A juried art exhibit. A children’s choir. A gardening club to landscape the new entrance. A scavenger hunt for adults. A congregational trip to Israel. There’s really no end to what we can do. I know that in the months and years ahead, under the leadership of our next president Donna Levine and those who follow her, BEKI will thrive and grow, because we will continue to take upon ourselves sacred obligations and pass…
…pation today, and to Steven Pincus for sharing Amy with us on countless Sunday mornings. Thanks also to Steve, Richard, Lenny, Dominic, John and Don for their constant support and their taking on of the Spring Fling on our behalf, at which we hope to see you all dancing tonight. Again we want to thank the congregation, who along with Rabbi Tilsen provided a welcoming and encouraging community for us to give our freewill offering of study and parti…
…and a ten mile long outer wall protecting the immediate countryside. Eight gates opened into the city. One of them, the Ishtar gate, was magnificently decorated with blue enameled bricks into which were set red and white depictions of bulls and dragons. It opened on to an extraordinarily lovely avenue sixty three feet wide and paved with red and white stones was bordered by sixty large ceramic lions. Near Nebachadnezzur’s palace was an enormous zi…
…90 percent of West Bank residents are Arabs. In contrast, zero percent of Gazans are Jews (despite the presence of Jewish residents in Gaza from ancient times until 1929, and then from 1967 until 2005), and zero percent of the residents of Jordan (which constitutes 75 percent of the land area of Mandatory Palestine) are Jews, while about 95 percent are Arabs, and of them about 75 percent are Palestinian Arabs, constituting the bulk of the Palesti…
…eaching. To my mind, it’s no coincidence that there are a disproportionate number of gay clergy. Half of my ordination class was gay or lesbian. The process of coming out of the closet, the work we’ve done to become whole and unashamedly ourselves is deeply spiritual. Perhaps this is the Torah that gay men and lesbians have heard and give the world – the lesson that we all, gay or not, must be honest about our lives. And it’s a lesson that is usef…
…or Shabbat. We found women in the contemporary print by Deborah Joy of an egalitarian congregation. Women dance in a mid-century print by Sol Schreibman. Only one work, a print by the Israeli artist Simcha Nornberg, depicts a woman with a Torah. This is the only work of someone holding a Torah that is not entitled “Rabbi.” We also noted that non-Ashkenazi Jews are under-represented. There are two wonderful prints of watercolors of Yemenite Jewish…
