In This Moment: The Unheeded Prophet: Moses and MLK; 100 Days

 

In This Moment Today marks 100 Days since October 7, and 100 days of captivity for the hostages. Israeli writer Eshkol Nevo writes about this on the front page of today's Yediot. The translation of th8is passage is found at the bottom of this email. As I prepared to address the congregation Friday night, on two of the greatest prophetic leaders of all time, Moses and MLK, I was intrigued by an article I spotted from Time Magazine in 2020, 10 Historians on What People Still Don’t Know About Martin Luther King Jr. One of these experts, Gary Dorrien, author of Breaking White Supremacy: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Black Social Gospel, said something rather shocking. "Dr. King, in his last years, was more radical than everyone around him. He dragged the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to campaign in Chicago, where his lieutenants did not want to go. He got pelted with rocks in Chicago and admonished his staff that white Americans had never intended to integrate their schools and neighborhoods. He added pointedly that white Americans “literally sought to annihilate the Indian.” He defied the Civil Rights establishment, the Johnson Administration, and his closest advisors by opposing the Vietnam War. He campaigned for a minimum guaranteed income and bitterly regretted that he could not speak in public about democratic socialism. At the end he dragged SCLC into the Poor People’s Campaign, now outflanking even James Bevel, his usual barometer of going too far. After he was gone the memory of King taking the struggle to Chicago, railing against the Vietnam War and economic injustice, emphasizing what was true in the Black Power movement, and organizing a Poor People’s Campaign faded into an unthreatening idealism. King became safe and ethereal, registering as a noble moralist. It became hard to remember why, or even that, King was the most hated person in America during his lifetime. But the King that we need to remember is the one who keenly understood what he was up against." King might have been hated, but for Moses it may have been worse. He was unheeded. Is it better to be despised or ignored? Either way, for both, the message was not getting through. Why did the people not listen to Moses? Exodus supplies two answers, one having to do with Moses himself - he begged God not to force him to speak in public because he had "uncircumcised lips" i.e. he stuttered; and one having more to do with the people, who were simply too exhausted from slave labor to listen to anyone, much less to understand the "Urgency of Now" of a Midianite refugee who grew up as a child of privilege. They were too downtrodden to listen - much like Dr. King's audience in 1968. The Torah commentaries give us much food for thought. In the end, of course, both prophets' messages propelled them to immortality and neither now face the enmity or apathy that make it so hard for them to break through while they were alive. The sermon explores this theme in depth. How much of the problem was the speaker's and how much the listener's? I invite you to download and listen to it. You can either click on the Substack podcast link for the audio, or find video on the archived livestream (toward the end) and while you are at it, listen to the incredible music from Friday's service. Tomorrow's Front Pages Jerusalem Post Ha'aretz Yediot Ahronot Recommended Reading Click below to read Jewish passages reflecting MLK's key themes 100 Days by Eshkol Nevo Get up in the morning, open your eyes. reach the hand to the phone, to enter the news site.Go over the names of the dead. The eye passes over the names. The heart beats hard. First reading, quick. To make sure that there is no one among the dead that I know. The balance so far, in three months of war: the son of a good friend. Son of a student. My daughter's friend's brother. A place, on trees, on the facades of buildings, in squares, pictures of abductees hang. Some are still there, languishing in some tunnel. Some will never return. And some returned in the first transaction, the only week in these hundred bad days where there was good news: a boy ran to hug his father. Grandma returned to her grandchildren. Good Israelis stood on the sides of the roads, at night, and waved their flags to express solidarity. This morning there is no familiar name, so now a second, slower reading. Honor the fallen. Who did we lose? What young lives were taken. They always look like children in soldiers' costumes in the pictures. Then get out of bed, force yourself to get out of bed even though the body is heavy, heavy, pulling down. Don't despair. wear sweatpants. Go outside to the street, start running. The streets are empty, at such an early hour. In general, if there is anything that inspires hope in the last hundred days, it is the Israeli spirit, which has been rediscovered. 100 Days in Captivity (Judicious) Taking a break from the news, the constant bombardment of antisemitic and anti-Israel sentiment, and zero-sum thinking is a luxury that our loved ones in the Middle East simply do not have. Tel Aviv Diary: One Hundred Days of War; Where Do We Stand? Where are the Hostages? Where Are We Going? The worst thing American Jews can do right now is hide - A Los Angeles synagogue moving its service due to a nearby pro-Palestinian demonstration is an example of what not to do (Forward) Israel says it uncovered Hamas terror network planning attacks in Europe (TOI)  Unholy: Two Jews on the News, with Guest Michael Walzer: https://omny.fm/shows/unholy/the-first-100-days-with-special-guest-michael-walz - As the war reaches an important milestone, Israel faces a legal challenge in the International Court of Justice in the Hague: Yonit and Jonathan go into that full throttle, and are then joined by the world's leading authority on the morality of war, philosopher Michael Walzer. POV: Under God (PBS) Inspired by the lawsuits filed in Florida challenging the state's abortion ban on the basis of religious freedom, Under G-d is a documentary short film about the national Jewish response to the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization U.S. Supreme Court decision woven through the lived experiences of impacted Jewish women and the various lawsuits currently being launched by rabbis, Jewish organizations and interfaith leaders to challenge the overturning of Roe v. Wade, state by state. Through the lens of maintaining the separation between church and state, these nationwide efforts are predicated on ultimately protecting religious freedom – and democracy – for all. World Premiere, 2023 Sundance Film Festival US pastors struggle with post-pandemic burnout. Survey shows half considered quitting since 2020 | AP News - Post-pandemic burnout is at worrying levels among Christian clergy in the U.S., prompting many to think about abandoning their jobs, according to a new nationwide survey. More than 4 in 10 of clergy surveyed in fall 2023 had seriously considered leaving their congregations at least once since 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic began, and more than half had thought seriously of leaving the ministry, according to the survey released Thursday by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research. About a tenth of clergy report having had these thoughts often, according to the survey, conducted as part of the institute’s research project, Exploring the Pandemic Impact on Congregations. The high rates of ministers considering quitting reflects the “collective trauma” that both clergy and congregants have experienced since 2020, said institute director Scott Thumma, principal investigator for the project.“Everybody has experienced grief and trauma and change.” Many clergy members, in open-ended responses to their survey, cited dwindling attendance, declining rates of volunteering and members’ resistance to further change. “I am exhausted,” said one pastor quoted by the report. “People have moved away from the area and new folks are fewer, and farther, and slower to engage." Some of these struggles are trends that long predated the pandemic. Median in-person attendance has steadily declined since the start of the century, the report said, and with fewer younger participants, the typical age of congregants is rising. After a pandemic-era spike in innovation, congregants are less willing to change, the survey said. The reasons for clergy burnout are complex, and need to be understood in larger contexts. Temple Beth El 350 Roxbury Road Stamford, Connecticut 06902 203-322-6901 | www.tbe.org    A Conservative, Inclusive, Spiritual Community

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In This Moment: Israel's Day in Court; The Truth About Lies; The Talmud of MLK

 

In This Moment You may have heard the news that Fauda star Idan Amedi (who plays Sagi) was seriously wounded in Gaza. He seems to be out of danger, thankfully. It's one more example of how the war hits home for Israelis. Amedi is also a singer, and he first became known to Israeli audiences several years ago with his participation in the reality series, "A Star is Born," (Kochav Nolad). Below is when he introduced what became a signature song for him, "K'ayv Shel Lochamim," "The Pain of Warriors," about the trials of a soldier with PTSD.The actual song begins a few minutes in, and the translation is below. War hits close to home for all Israelis. TBE Milestones....A Sermon Sampler Israel's Trial, Gay's Resignation & The Truth About Lies With Israel being put on trial for genocide today in the most Orwellian of terms imaginable - accused of turning Gaza into a "concentration camp," it seems as if the entire concept of truth has been turned upside down. There's no greater miscarriage of justice than accusing the nation founded by victims of the Holocaust of a Holocaust. As Semafor describes it: The case...carries huge symbolic weight. On one side, Israel’s founding came in the wake of the killing of six million Jews in the Holocaust. On the other, South Africa — which sees parallels between apartheid and Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, and whose apartheid rulers had a close military alliance with Israel — was the subject of an ultimately unsuccessful 1960s ICJ case seeking to end the system of segregation. “Like the [1960s] case,” a legal expert wrote in South Africa’s Mail & Guardian, “this is about more than just the present legal dispute.” Apartheid...Holocaust...Genocide... It seems as if the one who owns the language owns the truth. Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan included this prayer in the Reconstructionist Prayerbook. From the cowardice that shrinks from new truth From the laziness that is content with half-truths, From the arrogance that thinks it knows all truth, O God of Truth deliver us. (Reconstructionist Mahzor p.190) The fine line between truth and falsehood can be complicated at times. One of the first High Holidays sermons I ever gave here, back in 1990, discussed the hard truths about lying. I've made truth a key theme of mine often during my tenure (for example, here, here, here and here), but what makes this sermon special for me is that not only has it stood the test of time in a general sense, but I could have delivered the exact same one this year (to be truthful, not quite exact). Some excerpts: Moving ahead a quarter of a century, here are some excerpts from my 2015 sermon, "Truth and Trust." Why am I bringing this topic up now? Because, of all the evils that afflict our world, and especially our country, the degradation of truth and, by extension, trust, may be the most insidious. What I spoke about in 1990 has gotten exponentially worse. Fox News wasn't even invented until 1996, and no entity in our society has done more to take the "Big Lie" and make it flourish on American soil. The Big Lie, so often attributed to Goebbels (though truthfully, we don't know who invented it) but now it's as American as apple pie (even though, truth be told, apple pie actually originated in England, not America). The Big Lie has infiltrated every cranny of our society. The rabbis were immensely invested in truth and integrity. It should also be noted that when Harvard's president resigned, the reason was not her regrettable testimony to Congress and lack of conviction in condemning antisemitism. It was for her betrayal of strict academic standards of truth and attribution. While I do not think her testimony warranted dismissal - a clear change of course in dealing with antisemitism on campus would have been much more constructive - I do think it's no small thing to ask our community leaders to stand up for truth. The Talmudic rabbis were absolutely obsessed about attribution. As we read in Pirke Avot, Whoever repeats a statement in the name of the one who said it brings redemption to the world. (Avot 6:6). That's a pretty big deal. So yes, the accusations that led to Claudine Gay's resignation were impeachable - just not the ones many Jews have been focusing on. It's about truth. Veritas. Or as they say at Brandeis, Emet. Here's what I wrote about the word Emet in 2014: The one sermon about truth that I did not mention yet is the one that is most recent, this year's Rosh Hashanah second day talk about A.I. I could not have imagined in 1990 that within my lifetime, not only would the whole concept of truth be subverted, but that humanity would be subsumed by a world of artificiality and deception. As I stated: A.I. is built on a premise that artificiality can appear real, that a mechanical construct can fool us into believing that it is sentient. And even when it learns from its mistakes and spews out more facts, it is still fake. We must stand up for the primacy of the real. As we move forward through uncharted waters, we need to maintain our independence of thought and understand that, in the words of Pamela Meyer in her TED talk: Lying is a cooperative act. Think about it, a lie has no power whatsoever by its mere utterance. Its power emerges when someone else agrees to believe the lie. Ultimately, we have the power to affirm, protect and defend truth. This year, more than ever, we need to do just that. Click here for a number of Jewish quotes on the importance of truth Tomorrow's Front Pages Jerusalem Post Ha'aretz Yediot Ahronot The Jerusalem Post, like so many of us, is sick of the hypocrisy, and brings a most gruesome photo to Friday's front page. Click on it to see the full page pdf. Yediot features Idan Amedi up top and on he lower left, children's drawings from captivity. Recommended Reading Click below to read Jewish passages reflecting MLK's key themes Martin Luther King Jr.’s Legacy 60 Years After the March on Washington (Pew) See also Martin Luther King's Talmud (PDF) What You Need to Know about South Africa’s Baseless Genocide Accusation Against Israel (AJC). See also South Africa accuses Israel of genocide and urges top UN court to halt Gaza war. You can also read the complete 84 page brief prepared by the South Africans. While the claims of genocide may be groundless, there are dismal facts here that cannot be ignored. See also As Israel faces charges at The Hague, a Cornell expert in genocide weighs in (TOI) 12 UNEXPECTED ANIMAL STORIES FROM THE ISRAEL-GAZA WAR (Israel 21c) - Whether keeping soldiers safe, visiting the wounded or enduring Hamas captivity, animals too are caught up in the war. A brief history of the Messianic movement that inspired the tunnel under 770 Eastern Parkway (Forward) See also: How Twitter activists turned a viral story about Orthodox Jews into a modern blood libel Eyal Shani’s fast-casual Times Square restaurant Miznon is going kosher (JTA) Antisemitic incidents have ‘skyrocketed’ in the United States post-Oct. 7, ADL reports (JTA) - see also Zadies Bake Shop Attacked by haters Anne Frank’s diary, ‘Schindler’s List’ among titles at center of major Florida book-ban lawsuit (JTA) Thank God for Israel’s huge economic resilience (Jewish Chronicle) Temple Beth El 350 Roxbury Road Stamford, Connecticut 06902 203-322-6901 | www.tbe.org    A Conservative, Inclusive, Spiritual Community

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In This Moment: The Rabbi Who Spoke Before King; Creatures, Great and Small; Driving on Shabbat, Revisited, But With a Twist

 

In This Moment "Up on the Roof: As Peaceful as Can Be" When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, so that you do not bring bloodguilt on your house if anyone should fall from it. From this week's portion of Ki Tetze, Deut. 22:7 Right smack dab in the middle of town, I've found a paradise that's trouble proof... On the roof, it's peaceful as can be; and there the world below can't bother me Carole King, Gerry Goffin  Click to enlarge these photos and see my "Jerusalem Rooftops" album Shabbat Shalom! It looks like the weather will be bringing us indoors this Shabbat (after some gorgeous days during the week), but lots to to look forward to, including Friday night's barbecue and special musical service, plus an ufruf on Shabbat morning for Harrison Shapiro and Elena Reiss. Mazal tov to them and their families. 60 Years Ago... The Rabbi Who Spoke Out at the March on Washington Sixty years ago this weekend, Rabbi Joachim Prinz, a Holocaust survivor, drew the speaking slot just before Martin Luther King in the March on Washington. Hear his story in the feature above and watch his unedited speech below. Click here for a site commemorating his career. Click here for the March on Washington website. And here for the ADL's dedicated site. The Speech I speak to you as an American Jew. As Americans we share the profound concern of millions of people about the shame and disgrace of inequality and injustice which make a mockery of the great American idea. As Jews we bring to this great demonstration, in which thousands of us proudly participate, a two-fold experience -- one of the spirit and one of our history. In the realm of the spirit, our fathers taught us thousands of years ago that when God created man, he created him as everybody's neighbor. Neighbor is not a geographic term. It is a moral concept. It means our collective responsibility for the preservation of man's dignity and integrity. From our Jewish historic experience of three and a half thousand years we say: Our ancient history began with slavery and the yearning for freedom. During the Middle Ages my people lived for a thousand years in the ghettos of Europe . Our modern history begins with a proclamation of emancipation. It is for these reasons that it is not merely sympathy and compassion for the black people of America that motivates us. It is above all and beyond all such sympathies and emotions a sense of complete identification and solidarity born of our own painful historic experience. When I was the rabbi of the Jewish community in Berlin under the Hitler regime, I learned many things. The most important thing that I learned under those tragic circumstances was that bigotry and hatred are not the most urgent problem. The most urgent, the most disgraceful, the most shameful and the most tragic problem is silence. A great people which had created a great civilization had become a nation of silent onlookers. They remained silent in the face of hate, in the face of brutality and in the face of mass murder. America must not become a nation of onlookers. America must not remain silent. Not merely black America , but all of America . It must speak up and act,. from the President down to the humblest of us, and not for the sake of the Negro, not for the sake of the black community but for the sake of the image, the idea and the aspiration of America itself. Our children, yours and mine in every school across the land, each morning pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States and to the republic for which it stands. They, the children, speak fervently and innocently of this land as the land of "liberty and justice for all." The time, I believe, has come to work together — for it is not enough to hope together, and it is not enough to pray together — to work together that this children's oath, pronounced every morning from Maine to California, from North to South, may become. a glorious, unshakeable reality in a morally renewed and united America. Conservative Judaism revisits driving on Shabbat Spoiler: It's still OK...or not But what if the car has no driver????? Last Shabbat we had an interesting discussion about the Conservative movement's two new responsa on the question of whether it is halachically feasible to drive to a synagogue on Shabbat using an electric car. As has become a hallmark of our movement, the two rulings supported either side of the argument, resulting in a Tevye-like "You're right, you're right and you're also right." Aside from the EV car issue, the major (and practically speaking, only) difference between this and the prior rulings in this issue back in the 1950s was that there was a concerted effort to empathize with the the other side, making it easier to support both of these diametrically opposing positions. As is stated in one of the op-eds included in the discussion packet (below on the left), the decision can be seen as being out of touch with the current, shrunken movement, where there are many questions that are far more relevant to congregants than this one. As we were discussing these rulings last Shabbat, it did not escape me that all but one or two of those in the room had driven to get here. Now that the Jewish people have established a firm beachhead in Doral Farms, more congregants may be walking here on Shabbat, but it's doubtful that anyone will confuse Roxbury Rd. for Borough Park very soon. Still, these rulings highlight the need to take Jewish practice seriously, especially regarding Shabbat - and also that we should be respectful of those who both more observant and less observant than we might be. That point was emphasized especially by the authors of the teshuvah who concluded that driving an electric car is still not allowed, though it's halachically less problematic than driving an old fashioned combustion-propelled vehicle. You can see some of this outreach to the other side in the summary on pages 3 and 4 of the packet below on the left. The approach is both sympathetic and a little condescending. I do agree that there are more important items on our plate and one of them is whether the Conservative Movement is still relevant at all. It was created a century ago in order to help Jews become more American and it succeeded beyond its founders' wildest dreams. But now the key question is just the opposite: how do we assist acculturated Americans to become more Jewish. Synagogues remain the center of Jewish community life and it makes sense to keep as many as possible in that orbit, even if they have to drive to get there. "Stay home next Shabbat!" should not be our motto. Should Conservative shuls build high-rise Shabbat apartments in their parking lots? Should Shabbos Goys be hired to turn on every electric car in the congregation? Elvis Presley was once a Shabbos Goy; he turned on lights at a local synagogue. Imagine him revving your electric car, which would undoubtedly be "all shook up" by the time you get into it. Those who ruled against using EV cars on Shabbat are, predictably, urban dwellers and not pulpit rabbis. And perhaps there could be different practices in places like NYC, where synagogues are within walking distance of just about anywhere. But out here in the burbs the question seems like an exercise in Torah for its own sake, and laughably out of touch with issues that really matter, at a time when Hawaii is burning up, California is under water and burning up simultaneously (and "all-shook-up" by an earthquake), and women's bodies are being violated by the most repugnant laws imaginable. People need to hop into their EVs to get guidance on these matters - and they need to hop here, to their synagogues on Shabbat. Or, in some places like San Francisco, they can hop into a driverless car (yes, it's permitted on Shabbat) Click here for a fascinating overview on self driving cars and Shabbat. Are self driving cars kosher? San Francisco rabbis weigh in - Can they be compared to a Shabbat elevator, only sideways? And finally, while the fact that there are multiple "right" answers highlights the pluralistic nature of Conservative Judaism, there are limits to pluralism. Many of us can recall how divisive it was to have two legitimate options on opposite sides of the issue of LGBTQ marriage in the mid 2000's. Our cantor, a lesbian, was denied the opportunity to lead services on the pulpit of a neighboring Conservative congregation, one that adopted the negative ruling on that issue, which led to much consternation and confusion. It's unlikely that that will happen with these two decisions, but it will test the movement's live-and-let-live approach when it comes to the wide disparity of observance levels. Of course, this is just a dress rehearsal for the next big hurdle - interfaith marriage, coming soon to a Conservative pulpit near you. Stay tuned. Click for discussion materials ------ Click for the two responsa Creatures, Great and Small As we look back at some of my favorite moments over the past 37 years, this commentary on this week's portion of Ki Tetze from 2018 is one of my all-timers. Not only did I write about a topic near and dear to me - kindness to animals, but I got to share some of the photos of animals that I had recently taken while visiting Israel and Asia. That orangutan above is from Borneo. Click here for the full "Creatures Great and Small" album from those travels in 2018. James Herriot wrote in All Creatures Great and Small:   If having a soul means being able to feel love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals are better off than a lot of humans. Judaism has a rich tradition emphasizing kindness to animals, a mitzvah known in Hebrew as "Tza'ar ba'alay chayim," literally "feeling the pain of living things." We should feel their pain - and we can be inspired by them too.                       Among the highlights of my recent excursion to Israel and Southeast Asia were the opportunities to interact with God's creatures, great and small, living in their habitat. We got up-close to elephants and tigers in Thailand, ibex and hyrax in Israel and monkeys and orangutan in Indonesia. Below is a sampling of the photos I took.  We read in this week's portion of Ki Tetze: If, along the road, you chance upon a bird's nest, in any tree or on the ground, with fledglings or eggs and the mother sitting over the fledglings or on the eggs, do not take the mother together with her young. Let the mother go, and take only the young, in order that you may fare well and have a long life. In Midrash Tanhuma, we read that Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai taught: The Holy One has revealed the reward for heeding two precepts in the Torah: one of these precepts is the least onerous, and the other is the most onerous. The least onerous concerns letting the mother go when chancing on a bird's nest - with regard to it, the Torah promises, "that you may have a long life." The most onerous concerns honoring one's father and mother - with regard to it, also, the Torah promises, "that your days may be long." This midrash is teaching us that all the mitzvot are equal, from sending away the mother bird - which is spontaneous and easy, involving no expense or preparation - to honoring one's parents - which may require extraordinary effort and significant financial and emotional investment. It also calls attention to two texts, and when you compare them, there's a fascinating discrepancy. In the Ten Commandments, the Torah says, "Honor your father and your mother in order that your days - yamekha - may be prolonged." However, in this week's portion of Ki Tetze, the text says, "let the mother bird go . . . in order that you may fare well and have a long life [literally, prolonged days] - yamim." While the plain meaning of the second text is that by fulfilling this mitzvah you will prolong your life, that's not what the words actually say. It says, "so that you will prolong (all) life." Perhaps the commandment to send away the mother bird is not about preserving the life of the person who finds the nest, but about preventing the destruction of species, great and small. Ramban (Nachmanides), the 13th century Spanish commentator, hints at this. He writes, "The Torah will not permit a destructive act that would uproot a species even though it does permit the ritual slaughter of members of that species." In other words, if people routinely took mother birds along with their nests, in time there would be no more nests and no more birds. If this concerned Ramban in the 13th century, how much more should we be concerned today, when we know of thousands of extinct or endangered species. Take a look at this list of recently extinct creatures. See another take on the mitzvah to shoo away the mother bird, and an incident that happened to me involving lion cubs in Africa. Why should we worry about the possible extinction of plant and animal species when so many human beings around the world are in desperate need? Some would argue that it's a matter of enlightened self-interest - perhaps we'll destroy a plant that might be used to cure cancer or an animal whose DNA might one day protect us against Alzheimer's disease. But the Torah teaches us that there is more to life than self-interest. At the very beginning of the Genesis, we read: "And God said, let us make the human being in our image, after our likeness. They shall rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the cattle, the whole earth, and all the creeping things that creep on earth." After God does so, the Torah says, "The Lord God took the human being and placed them in the garden of Eden, to till it and tend it." As the Psalmist proclaims, "The world and everything in it belongs to God." We human beings didn't create it - and we have no right to destroy what we did not make. God gave human beings the specific task of tending, guarding, and preserving the world. So we can take the nest, but chase the mother bird away to ensure that the world will always be full of birds. When the Torah exhorts us "u'v'harta b'hayyim," choose life, there are no limits placed on the forms of life we celebrate. You can read more about Animals and Judaism in this article. See below my photo essay of some of the remarkable creatures I encountered - and click here to see more of them. Elephant Siblings - Thailand Elephant, Thailand Tiger, Thailand Ibex, En Gedi, Israel Hyrax, En Gedi Warthog, Indonesia Monkey on Borneo, Indonesia Recommended Reading  Today's Israeli Front Pages Yediot Achronot Ha'aretz (English) Jerusalem Post See this provocative piece from Ha'aretz. I don't necessarily agree - i would think this precisely when Israel could use a significant influx or rational people who believe in democracy - but it is important for us to hear the desperation in the voices of Israelis right now. And we need to get beyond our old, stereotypical views of the relationship between the diaspora and Israel. We are no longer on the sidelines, looking on. We are right at the center of the action. The ten best introduction to Judaism books (MJL) Temple Beth El 350 Roxbury Road Stamford, Connecticut 06902 203-322-6901 | www.tbe.org    A Conservative, Inclusive, Spiritual Community

Temple Beth El | 350 Roxbury Road, Stamford, CT 06902