THE FOLLOWING IS MOST OF THE
INFORMATION AND ARTICLES FROM THE YEDIDYON, PUBLISHED MARCH 2003
ALMOST READY TO MOVE IN!
By Haim
Watzman
Chair, Planning Committee
The pressure and the
excitement are on. Kehillat Yedidya is making final
preparations to move into our new building. The entire community is involved in
a battery of committees that have been set up in anticipation of the move.
The Capital Campaign
Committee is working to obtain the financing we still need to finish the final
orders from our contractor. A Maintenance Committee is making plans for the
building’s upkeep, a Financial Planning Committee is preparing a budget for the
community’s operation in the building, a Kitchen Committee is planning the uses
and outfitting of that important room. A Children’s Activities Committee is
planning how the building will be used by and for children, and another
committee is planning the dedication ceremony.
The Planning Committee is
working intensively to make a myriad final design decisions. We recently
decided on paint colors and the design of the banisters on the ramp, and we are
now working with artist and Yedidya member Anne Cromer, whom we have
commissioned to design the parochet (donated by the Arbit family), Torah reading
table cover (donated by the Mannheim family), and other fabric elements in the
building. Interior designer Aliza Arens has presented designs for the ark
(donated by the family of Sharon and David Rosen) and the mechitza (donated by
the Heller family) and we are now in the process of finalizing the designs of
these items. As always, there are last-minute problems we are working to
resolve - for example, the city must extend its sewage line to the building,
and the recent rains have revealed some leaks that need to be repaired.
We’re close enough to
finishing that we can extend a warm invitation to all our friends to come visit
us in our building during your next trip to
After
serving as editor of the Yedidyon for over six years, Debbie Weissman is
stepping down. In her place, the new editor is Noomi Stahl. Noomi, her husband
Michael and their children, have been involved with Yedidya for the past ten
years. Noomi’s parents, Salomo and Ruth Berlinger, have also joined the
community and divide their time between
A native of
The Stahl’s have four
children: Netta, who recently celebrated her Bat Mitzvah at Yedidya, is a 7th
grader at the Evelina de Rothschild School; Ella, 10, is a 4th grader at Efrata. The parents and both older children are genuinely
tri-lingual: Hebrew, English and Swedish. Yonatan, 8, a 2nd grader at Efrata, was born in the
In between the children,
Noomi has also worked as an administrator for Kehillat
Kol Haneshama, and lately for a WHO project called Healthy Cities. Presently,
she does some free-lance writing from home. In her free time she is
co-chairperson of the
What initially attracted the
Stahls to Yedidya was the singing, and not the egalitarianism. Seeing women in tallitot,
for example, was jarring at first. "But", says Noomi "I see it
as reeducation in the best sense of the word. It took a long time to get rid of
old habits, but it worked. Hearing my daughter read her Parasha was one of the
highlights of my religious life".
Noomi says that Yedidya is a
"good middle-of-the-road between ‘feel-good Judaism’ and ‘feel-bad
Judaism." Having grown up in a congregation, Noomi also appreciates the
community aspect of Yedidya." I didn’t know such things existed in
When asked about the move to
our new building, Noomi suggested that since the self-image of many Yedidya
members, particularly the older ones, is that of “rebels," some of them
may find it difficult to get used to something that "looks like the
establishment." Nevertheless, "for me," she says, "the
esthetic improvement will bring a spiritual improvement." In addition to
the present lack of esthetics, the Stahls feel that Yedidya could do more in
the way of outreach to newcomers. But rather than complain, they have decided
to become more active
As mentioned above, Noomi
will be taking over the Yedidyon and hopes to
encourage more of the youth to participate in putting out this important
vehicle for community expression. And what developed her excellent English?
"Mostly reading," she says. "In
MOSHE ROSENSCHEIN
"On Shabbat Parshat Va'Era, Moshe Rosenschein gave a Dvar Torah, a short excerpt from which follows. We think it
is appropriate to include it in our Pesach issue, as a thought for the
Seder."
When we read the verses in
Parshat Va'Era: "And I will harden Pharaoh's
heart" and "God hardened Pharaoh's heart," we automatically
leap to the assumption that the verse means that God, in some divine act,
hardened Pharaoh's heart and made sure that he would not send the people of
Israel out of Egypt. However, doesn't this seem a little unfair?
How could God punish Pharaoh and
My answer to this is
simple. When the Torah says, "And God hardened Pharaoh's heart"
it does not mean that God, using his godly powers, took control of Pharaoh and
hardened his heart. Rather, the way I see it, it means that the idea of
God, the notion of the existence of a being that was more powerful than Pharaoh
himself -- that was what hardened Pharaoh's heart and stopped him from letting
the people of
So this means that God
wasn't doing anything unjust to Pharaoh; he wasn't doing anything at all!
In this case, Pharaoh dug his own grave, and because of his hubris brought
disaster onto
The contrast between Pharaoh
and Moshe, who is known for his humility, is something we can learn from. Moshe
was known as the humblest of all men. As his namesake, I hope I will
learn from his example.
Marla Bennett, z"l
A Few Words About Our Dear Cousin, Marla
By Brian Blum
Our cousin Marla came into
our lives only two years ago when she arrived in
It seems that whenever
someone leaves us in such a sudden and harsh way, everyone says how special and
unique that person was. In Marla’s case, this was really true. She was an
amazing person and her loss is a devastating loss to the entire Jewish people.
She was always up, always full of energy.
Her smile could melt any
sadness. She was smart, tolerant, committed to tradition, and embodied the very
things the Jewish world and the world as a whole need more of. As a teacher,
she would have inspired so many Jewish children towards those values. Her
commitment to Tzedaka and helping people were not
just words, but really were an integral part of who she was.
Marla had a particularly
strong connection with our children who loved her deeply. When the parents
needed to nap on Shabbat, it was Marla who would hang out all afternoon and
play games with them. She made a special effort to come to our daughter’s violin
concert; I think the first time she had been in an Israeli elementary school. I
remember her sitting with us, the proud parents, just as proud of her
8-year-old cousin. Telling our children about her death was one of the hardest
things we’ve had to do.
When we went on vacation
this summer, we gave Marla the keys to our apartment and car. She was so
excited to have a car to use for the month…or maybe it was the access to cable
TV for a while! I came back after four weeks from my part of the vacation; Jody
and the kids were to stay on in
I have so many
wonderful memories of Marla - we would see her almost every Friday when I took
the kids to Pizza Sababa - sometimes she would sit
and join us, sometimes she would just stop for a minute. Just before we left
for vacation, Marla showed us her new apartment; she was so excited. And she
had us over for Shabbat lunch where we met her parents. Now Jody has been
spending every day with them in
Marla’s loss is the first
for our family. Beyond that, a tragedy such as this puts into perspective our
relationship as individuals vs. the national history of the Jewish people. Too
often, in the face of difficult times such as those we are experiencing now in
Indeed, Marla wrote these
very words in May in a column she contributed to a
Marla had her eyes wide
open. She knew why she was here. Maybe that’s why, after such news, my reaction
is not that of seeking to flee, to run away to a place perceived to be somehow
“safer,” but rather, my conviction to continue in
I have tried to find words
of comfort for my children. My message to them over the phone before Shabbat
was that the best way to preserve Marla’s memory is to use who she was and what
made her special to either change yourselves or change the world. To make yourself a better person - more like Marla - or to help make
the world a safer, more giving, more loving place.
As they were falling asleep,
they didn’t understand exactly what that meant, but I think in time they will.
I know that Marla will never be forgotten and that we will cherish our times
with her through the actions we take in the future. We miss her so much and she
will always be in our thoughts.
Ben Blutstein,
z"l
Usually, a congregational
rabbi has a very hard time discerning whether or not anyone is out there
listening. The results of a rabbi's work takes years to bear fruit and often
you don’t even know about your successes, especially if you have moved on to
other things, such as making Aliyah.
Well, if you are really
blessed as a rabbi, as I was, the day comes when you
get a phone call and on the other end is young man who yells out "Hey
rabbi, it's me, Ben. I'm in
How can I describe the
Naches of having Ben over the past two years? Of spending
time with him and getting to know him as an adult and a searching and
continually growing Jew.
It is so ironic that only a
week before he was murdered, Ben and I sat together outside of Yedidya and
promised each other that we would do a better job of being involved in each
other's lives. We so much enjoyed talking and being together. I think that we
gave each other a measure of comfort - reminding each other of a simpler time
living in a place where our big worry was finding the janitor to open up the
synagogue door for Mincha.
The eclectic young man that Ben
was - the pink earrings, the giant Kippa, the shaved
head, the Tzitzit, the hip hop or what ever it is
called, the Zmirot (singing) with the drumming on the
Shabbat table, his intelligence, his warmth - all of this is what made him so
incredibly special and unforgettable.
He loved his music. Despite
his constant invitations, I never did get to see him as a DJ, although my
daughter and I went down to a club to surprise him one Motzei Shabbat, but
unfortunately, he was off that night. I thought that I would have plenty of
time to see him as a DJ.
I met Ben when he was 9
years old, maybe even younger, when his parents began attending our synagogue.
They became quite active and brought Ben, and later his infant sister, Rivka, to services, functions, lectures.
Everywhere Blut (Ben's father) and Katherine were, Ben was not far away. He was quite a large kid and shy at
first. But as he became more comfortable, Ben became quite a fixture in our Shul. I remember one occasion when he attended a Talmud
class (most of the people there could have been his great-grandparent). In
reaction to one of the arguments we were studying in Masekhet
Brachot, 10 or 11 year old Ben yelled out
"That's stupid." It did not take long to figure out that Ben was the
only one who knew what was going on.
A few years later, I had him
as a student in Hebrew High. Ben would sit himself in the seat on the right
corner of the front row. He would sit there, without a book or pen or notebook,
legs spread wide - wrapped around the outside of the desk, with his arms
stretched out over the top, drumming along with his hands and feet. He was
quite a sight. He would sit there with a devilish smile on his face, which
seemed to say, "You think you can teach me something?" His
participation was always unorthodox and his comments always seemed to come from
left field. I learned that I needed to take a deep breath and listen carefully;
because his words were usually the most worthwhile that anyone would say that
evening.
I found out from Rabbi Daniel
Landes that Ben's mother told him (during Shiva) that
after Ben's high school graduation ceremony, a group of African American girls
took him aside and gave him a special diploma, crowning him "Honorary
Black Chick."
Ben was a special, striving,
open and accepting person, and he came from such a family. I had the great
honor of being with Ben's family on part of their journey through Jewish life.
As their rabbi, his parents constantly challenged me, never letting me sit back
snuggly after uttering clichés or less-than-thoughtful remarks. After
they joined our congregation, I worked harder because they made me. They
actually listened to me and wanted to learn and remembered everything I said.
They were not easy congregants to have as they were constantly on the move,
growing, learning. They taught me that it is easy to
find your Jewish plateau and sit on it for the rest of your life. They did not
look for a plateau on which to rest, but kept striving and stretching and moving
upward and onward. This is the kind of family Ben comes from.
I will never forget that
horrible July afternoon when Ben's father called me looking for Ben.
Together with other friends and former neighbors in Harrisburg (and also good
friends of the Blutstein's), we spent the rest of the
afternoon and evening looking for him, calling the hospitals, leaving him
messages on his cell phone, speaking with teachers from Pardes. We were in
constant touch with Ben's father, keeping him updated on our search, but as the
hours went by, we knew that something was terribly wrong. Eventually, the
police took one of our friends from
I found out that Ben's
father, a pediatrician, was seeing patients when he got the phone call that Ben
had been killed. I was told that he continued seeing the sick children even
after he heard. I was not surprised. Like Bruria, who
kept the death of her sons a secret from Rabbi Meir
until after Shabbat, Ben's father held his enormous pain until after he
finished his work of healing the sick. It is from this
great strength and faith that Ben emerged and blessed us with his short life.
Yehi Zichro Baruch - May his
memory be for a blessing.
Rabbi Ed Snitkoff
(Rabbi Snitkoff
was the Rabbi of Congregation Beth El in
Miscellaneous Items
Overheard on Simchat Torah, I: “You have to let your subscribers know
that Yedidya is on the cutting edge of Orthodoxy. Many of them don’t know that
Orthodoxy has a cutting edge…”
Overheard
on Simchat Torah, II: “I walked in to the shul on Simchat Torah and got six
invitations for lunch!”
From the mailbox: After
visit by group from Tantur Ecumenical Institute, the
Rector of the Institute, Father Michael McGarry
wrote: “You don’t know how important that experience was for our group…the warm
hospitality and their experience of a strong Jewish community at prayer. Thank
you so much.”
“Oops, we goofed…” - Mazel
Tov to Ayelet and Moshe Cohen on their marriage and
not as previously listed.
Our own, Dr. Danny Brom -
featured in several issues of recent Yedidyonim - was invited to speak at the
seminar "Times of Terror, Times of Resilience: A Jewish Response to
Catastrophe and Trauma' which took place in February 2003 in
Edah Conference News - at
the Fall conference, September 2002, Kehillat Yedidya
had three presenters: 1) Gershom Gorenberg spoke on, “Has the Messianic Element
Enhanced or Debased Modern Religious Zionism?”; 2) Debbie Weissman was on a
panel about education; and, 3) Danny Kahn chaired session on Jewish Parenting.
BIRTHS
Alan and Sheryl Abbey, on
the birth of their daughter
Dina Weiner and Dani Kahn,
on the birth of a daughter
BNEI MITZVAH
Devora Deitch, daughter of Sharon
Greenblat-Deitch and Dani Deitch
Yoni Harris, son of Yehudit Weiner and Tom Harris
Naomi Goldgraber,
daughter of Cheri Fox and Haim Goldgraber
Moshe Rosenschein,
son of Jeffrey and Shira
Meital Katz, daughter of Andrea and Hersh
Katz
Raviv Finer, son of Maya and Eliezer
Finer
Einav Klein, daughter of Menachem
and Rivka Klein
Mati Baer, son of Aharon and Mikol Baer
Ephraim Fine, son of Miriam
and Jonathan Fine
David Greniman,
son of Debbie and Yechiel Greniman
Netta Stahl, daughter of
Noomi and Michael Stahl
Michael Amzallag, son of Ellen Berkman-Amzallag
and Sami Amzallag
(z"l)
Racheli (Greenwald) Silver, daughter of Randi
Greenwald and Eli Silver
Elisheva Gorenberg, daughter of Gershom Gorenberg and Myra Noveck
MARRIAGES
Jessica Brice to Gil Gambash
Keren Dorit Wilensky to
Gideon Mais
SPECIAL OCCASSIONS
Sylvia Hollander, mother of
Ben, on 95th birthday
Shira Chadasha
on their first anniversary
CONDOLENCES
Myra Noveck,
on the loss of her father
Rafi Rothman, on the loss of
his father
Jonathan (Buzzy) Levin, on the loss of his father
To the family of Marla
Bennett
To the family of Ben Blutstein
To Blu and Rabbi Yitz Greenberg, on
the loss of their son, J.J.
Alan Rosen, on the loss of
his father
בפרשת "כי תצא",
חגג נועם אביחי-קרמר את בר המצווה שלו. אמו טובה, מנהלת ב"ס "קשת",
בירכה במסיבה. אנחנו מביאים בזאת חלק
מדבריה:
כל
ילד מביא עמו את הברכה שלו. אני לא אמנה
את כל הטוב שהתברכת בו, רק אומר שהנאה ונחת רב
גרמת לנו בתקופה הזאת באופן שלמדת את הפרשה וההפטרה שלך. הזמן שהקדשת ללמוד עם אבא, המוטיבציה והנחישות שלך
להבין את הטעמים ולכבוש אותם, וההנאה הגלויה שלך, הסבו לנו ספוק רב.
בימים
הראשונים אחרי הפיגוע בהר הצופים היה קשה
לי להתמקד בשמחה הקרבה ובאה. אבל כוח
החיים והחיות חזק ובהתמסרות סוחפת ניגשנו
אבא ואני לטפל בחלקים השונים של השמחה הזאת .
היינו
רוצים לגדל אותך במציאות אחרת. מציאות שיכולה להעניק בטחון בקיום היום יומי שלך ושל הלל, כליל
ומישאל. קשה מאוד לקבל ולהשלים עם היעדר הביטחון
שאנחנו יכולים לתת לכם, ואני כואבת את העובדה שאתם גדלים במציאות כל כך
קשה, מורכבת, וללא מוצא נראה לעין. אני לא
רוצה שתגדל שונא, או צודק באופן בלעדי, בטח שלא
מוכה, אלא שתוכל לראות את החיים
בממדיהם המורכבים, הלא- חד משמעיים. אולי מתוך האהבה המיוחדת שלך להיסטוריה שלנו
תוכל להבין זאת.
יחד
עם הכאב בקיום שלנו בארץ אני רוצה למנות
את השמחה, ולברך על הקיים, להוקיר את האהבה והתמיכה שאתה ואנחנו מקבלים מן הסביבה הקרובה שלנו: החברים
והמשפחה המורחבת הנמצאת אתנו היום. כל אחת ואחד מכם נותן לחיים שלנו נופך וממד
מיוחד שממלא את הקיום שלנו במשמעות ובאתגרים.
בפרט
בימי אלול אלה ,בהם אנו משתדלים לעשות חשבון נפש, לבדוק את עצמנו ומעשינו לקראת
התחלה של שנה חדשה ,אתגר זה של לחיות מתוך
מודעות שהאדם נברא בצלם אלקים, הוא
רלוונטי ומשמעותי. אני מקווה שתוכל לחיות
לאורו ולהיות דוגמה מעצבת למישאל, לחברים שלך, ולנו.