E-mail discussion since last committee meeting

A suggestion was raised to sign the community on an on-line petition to Nir Barkat, Jerusalem Mayor, objecting to his firing Rahel Azaria from his coalition in response to her appeal to the High Court against the segregation of men & women in public places. The majority of the committee members were in favor of signing.

Minutes of the steering committee meeting of 1.11.2011

Present: J Rosenberg (chair) Gary Ginsberg (treasurer), Michael Stahl*, Josh Schoffman (Audit Committee), Daniel Rohrlich, David Gleicher, Penina Arbit, Donna Goldberg, Danielle Bernstein, Debora Greniman (Audit Committee), Esther Edell, Gary Heller, Danny Gottlieb, Dov Rabinowitz,  Eudice Weiner-Harris*, Bruce Rosen*, Moshe Bar-Zeev* (clerk) (*denotes non-members of the committee)

Apologies: Deborah Kalker

Meeting opened by J Rosenberg; the minutes of the previous meeting were ratified.

It was mentioned that copies of the minutes, once ratified by the committee, should be sent to Eudice to post on the website. July and September minutes are currently missing. It was also pointed out that occasionally there is a need for editing certain details from the minutes before posting on the internet site due to sensitive issues and personal privacy.  

Language of committee meetings; a long discussion ensued. The majority of the participants accepted that ideally, Hebrew should be used for meetings, but due to the language abilities of certain members English would also be used to an extent, at least until the coming AGM and the appointment of new members to the committee. A suggestion was made to use simultaneous translation (typing on a computer) for those who had problems following the discussion in Hebrew.

A decision was made that the minutes be published in both Hebrew and English.

Coming Events: J informed the committee that the Rabin Memorial Evening would take place as planned, a four-way discussion with speakers including Rabbi Rontzky (publicity had already been placed). Daniel Rohrlich expressed his unhappiness with the decision to include Rontzky and the format of a panel discussion and took upon himself to organize the following year’s program. Esther Edell asked how come the chairpeople decided on such an issue without consulting the committee?

Noomi Stahl pointed out that there were no general rules as to procedure in real time, ie in cases when a decision needed to be made at short notice. Josh Schoffman added that seeing as the committee had already approved the program at least in outline, there was no need for further approval; if a decision to “un-invite” Rontzky had been made, then it might require the committee’s consent, but as long as the original program fell within the overall pattern presented to and approved by the committee, this was not necessary.

Rahel Azaria: A decision was taken (by e-mail) to sign the petition to Nir Barkat. Donna Goldberg was unfortunately not aware of the discussion on this issue, as her e-mail had been omitted from the original message in the thread, and no one noticed. Daniel Rohrlich suggested that the community send a letter of support to Rahel Azaria.

Solar Panels: Gary Ginsberg gave a general round-up of the current situation in respect of placing a solar array on the building roof, but as a function of the relatively large investment required and due to reduction in the tariffs to be paid by the Electric Company, and the possibility of incurring VAT and tax liabities on the part of the community, this is no longer worthwhile from an economic point of view.

Past events:

Daniel Rohrlich pointed out the lack of space during parts of Roshe Hashana and  Yom Kippur and suggested that we hold more parallel services to solve the problem.

Donna Goldberg reported that the children’s Torah reading on Simchat Torah had been very successful, but pointed out that it would have been easier to get all the children together if the Kiddush had not been put out before the reading.

Eudice pointed out that the behavior of some of the children who had not been fasting at the “break-fast” after Yom Kippur was horrific, while the burden of an extra Toranut to set out the food was superfluous, and suggested that in future we simply put out cold water after the fast.

Misc: “Talk” want to run their Arabic course once again, and possibly add a Yiddish course if there is suitable demand. They are willing to give a 10% discount to members if they don’t have to pay for use of the building. Alternatively, they will pay 1350 NIS (the price of participation for one person) for the building use.

Expenditure of up to 1,500 NIS was approved for purchase of a new office printer, scanner, fax machine.

The issue of carrying arms in the shul was raised and the previous compromise – that they should be concealed – was approved. (See Appendix)

DONM = Tuesday 6.12.2011

Appendix:  Recommendations of the Minhag/Halacha Committee: 

                    i. We recommend not to bring weapons into the synagogue [on

Shabbat] unless one is ordered to do so.

                    ii. This applies especially to one who expects to fulfill a

public role, such as cantor, a reader from the Torah, or even a cohen making

the priestly blessing.

                    iii. Yet if such a person is required to ascend the stage,

s/he should conceal the weapon.

                    iv. Guests unaware of our policy should be politely asked to

conceal their weapons if possible. 

                    All this applies with to revolvers and even more so to

rifles.  In sum, no one should carry a weapon in shul on Shabbat unless

security considerations require it.