- 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
…mething important and unexpected: cast out though I was into an alien and frightening environment, I did not feel alien or frightened. While I sensed the urgency of the situation, I did not lapse into denial, anger, fear, or guilt. This does not mean that I went through it 100% anxiety-free. I felt my will assert itself, however, from a level deeper than any anxiety. When my best medical alternative quickly became clear, my deeper energies turned…
…and his plans included placing the multi-lane Oak Street Connector highway right through the heart of the so-called “Jewish Ghetto.” The synagogue would have to move. While most members now lived in the western section of the city, those who remained downtown would not ride on the Sabbath; therefore, the city would have to make available property in the area on which to build a small synagogue for them. The city offered the congregation land on Co…
…evision programs around the world some months ago depicting an Israeli Telephone Company employee stuffing faxes into the Western Wall. It is in fact a custom among many of our brothers and sisters to insert small handwritten personal notes and petitions to God between the stones of the Kotel, the Western Wall of the Temple in Jerusalem. The service provided by the phone company allows people unable to visit the Wall in person to fax their petitio…
…Don’t make an impoverished laborer wait overnight for his pay. Protect the rights of those who have no one to stand up for them: the non-citizen, the widow, the fatherless. Use honest weights and measures in trade. I want to look at a few verses from the parasha that seem at first unconnected to life in New Haven, and relate them to a project were starting at BEKI, a project that I hope you will participate in. If it thrives it will help us become…
…in the Synagogue To volunteer, contact the office at office@beki.org or by phone at 203.389.2108 x114. Administration – Members are needed to serve on the work-groups, committees and board that steward and administer the congregation. Membership recruitment and retention, financial management, library services, and the Gallery are among the many areas that require eager and willing volunteers. Office Tasks – Stuffing envelopes, preparing mailings…
…find those attempts at the least annoying, and often disrespectful and outright dangerous. Our response is to make sure we don’t do unto others as we don’t want others to do unto us. However, the truth is that, at least in America, far more Christians convert to Judaism than the other way around. Very few Jews convert to Christianity, since for the educated and devout Jew there is really no attraction, with all due respect, in part because of the…
…of the intentions of the legislator. Instead of strengthening the state’s rights over the mīrī land and the rights of the cultivators, the a`yān [notables] succeeded in registering large stretches of land in their own names.”29 All together, the laws contributed significantly to the concentration of property titles into the hands of a few individuals and the state.30 One writer observes concerning the code that “long before the Balfour Decla…
…, which lights do we light first, the Shabbat or the Hanuka? Signed, Light Right Dear Light Right, Light the Hanuka candles first, then the Shabbat candles. Once Shabbat candles are lighted and the blessing recited, one should not kindle any lights until after the conclusion of Shabbat. Dear Rabbi, I thought all the candles on a Hanuka Menora have to be the same height. But in the BEKI giftshop there is a Menora and the candles are not all at th…
…nt on my great-grandfather, with his long beard and black cap (pictured at right), saying, “He must have been very Orthodox.” They would not be more mistaken if they were to say, “He must have been a Hippy.” My great-grandparents were decent people and observant Jews. When he caught his partner in the rag-peddling business adding rocks, thereby cheating customers of a few pennies, Herschel refused to work with that man ever again. Herschel and Cha…
…y exclusive; rather, they are complementary. I believe that human life and rights should rightly be among our highest values and should have priority in our limited activism. But I would not condemn Animal Rights activists for promoting a cause that is not self-serving and that aims to elevate the ethical quality of our society, insofar as their advocacy and activism is lawful and not conducted directly at the expense of human welfare or dignity….
