- 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
…t has become untenable. Perhaps in the next few years we will see a better way to reconcile an ancient rule with a radically changed world, but in the meantime, life goes on. After all, we don’t want to take Biblical rules lightly; but in this case, there is not much else we can do but treat it the same way we treat some other technical violations. Unfortunately, most of the CJLS papers promote sweeping and far-reaching approaches where a simple a…
…ive directly to and from shul, on condition that they make no stops on the way. In places where Jews (of all affiliations) were already driving to shul it seemed hypocritical to rope off the parking lot and have them park a block away. The choice facing the Rabbis seemed to be: They come by car or they don’t come, and the Rabbis wanted them to come. It seemed preferable to violate the prohibitions of driving than to have much of the religious fabr…
…ely innocent victim. In each test, the brothers behave in a most exemplary way. In the last test, rather than showing indifference to Jacob’s pain, (as Joseph himself did) Judah shames Joseph with his obviously sincere compassion for Jacob. At this, Joseph’s harsh facade cracks, and he is forced to accept that his brothers are not wicked and inhuman and that they and he share a deep human bond. Hearing Judah’s courageous argument to spare Jacob th…
…ve credo (Latin scholars: credamus). The words can be translated different ways. I grew up with: “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.” In this translation, the stress is on God’s one-ness, indivisibility. More commonly used today is, “Hear O Israel, Adonai is our God, Adonai alone.” This version affirms two ideas — that we believe Adonai is God, and that God is unique. Rashi wrote that Adonai Elokenu refers to now, and to the God of…
…nger and gathers up his family, servants and flocks and stealthily sneaks away from Laban to return to his family in Canaan. An incensed Laban pursues Jacob, and in a final, hostile encounter the two negotiate a cool parting of the ways. Now Jacob faces an even more frightening encounter, with his brother Esau, who has vowed to kill him. Jacob’s past has finally caught up with him. He fears for his life. His worldly success has not prepared him to…
…high-output stage lights in the sanctuary, and halogen lamps in the entry way and art display areas were replaced in Spring 2015. An initiative to promote Conservation and Alternative and Renewable Energy as Jewish values was begun in 2006 as a Legacy Heritage Innovation Project funded by the Legacy Heritage Fund. This initiative uses the existing education structures of the Congregation as vehicles to further awareness and action. The initiative…
…ent—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 o…
…that Arab expulsion of Palestinian Arabs from Kuwait is more than half the number of Palestinian Arabs who fled or were expelled from Israel in 1947-49. The “Jenin Massacre” (2002) turned out to be a hoax; while it was reported that hundreds or thousands had been massacred, the reality was that about 55 Arabs (including 5 or 10 civilians) died, along with 22 Israeli soldiers. The headline story in mid-August (2009) of the Swedish daily Aftonbladen…
…First things first. As many of you know, my mother Shulamit Lubarr passed away last year. She was a gifted Hebrew teacher. She taught kitah aleph and bet for many years at Hebrew schools in New Jersey and Florida and helped hundreds of children learn to read Hebrew and begin to understand their heritage. Quite a few of her students grew up to become rabbis and Jewish educators, but even the students who were dragged against their will to Hebrew sc…
…familiar symbolic images embedded as decorative elements. “All That Remains” will next be presented at the Virginia Holocaust Museum, Richmond, VA, in October 2020. The works in this show include images from each of these series. In this retrospective of her work, a number of works in private collections are represented by photographic reproductions, thus providing context for the entirety of exhibition. for more information and for purchasing wor…
