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June Yarhzeits

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6/4  Meyer Cohen

6/5  Herman Klausner

6/5  Beth Weinberger

6/6  Rosa Levy

6/7  Jacob Barash

6/7  Sidney Captain

6/8  Gittel Smith

6/8 John R. Steel

6/10 Shalom Baruch

6/12 Louis B. Freedman

6/12 Sarah Robkin

6/14 Jessica M. Horn

6/14 W. Zolley Lerner

6/16  Myron Parsons

6/17  Harry Tanenbaum

6/18  Ernest Acanfora

6/18 Fay Friedberg

6/18 Bella Cohen Karsh

6/18 Richard Packer

6/19 Sidney Anderson

6/22 Abraham Gelburd

6/22 Leah From Reimer

6/22 Milton Vogelstein

6/23 Betty Freed

6/24 Marvin Singer

6/25 Edith Silverman

6/25 David M. Spigel

6/26 Charles Simmons

6/27 Lucy Britanisky

3/29 Maurice Abelsky

6/29 Dorothy Cohen

6/29 Ida Litoff

6/30 Sandor Teszler

From the Heart with Rabbi Liebowitz

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Dear Friends,

In the 1970’s there was a huge number of aspirants for the
rabbinate. For every single applicant to the Hebrew Union College, which
my seminary in Cincinnati accepted, there were three others that were
rejected. Some didn’t make it in because of the difficult psychiatric review
(one such applicant thought the rabbinate was a stepping stone to being the
Messiah), or because their intellectual acumen was deficient; or some
personal skills seemed to be wanting. At our Hebrew Ulpan in Israel it was inevitable that we would err in some embarrassing way as we labored in to converse in Hebrew. The usual quip of derision went; “Boy we would like to meet the other three candidates they re- jected instead of you!”

This of course leads me to think about the idea of being chosen. The academy awards are upon us in a modified Covid form this year. Nevertheless, the usual anticipations remain as to who will be the Best Actor, Best Actress and so forth.

Just a few years back to take away the sting of ruthless competition the new language, ever so politically correct went from Best Actor to Best performance by an Actor. Shel Silverstein (writer of The Giving Tree, and the song A Boy Named Sue) once reflected on winning with this poem:

As Shavuot is upon us this month, the Jewish people celebrate their “closeness!” We stood at Sinai, received the Ten Commandments, or according to one tradition all of the 613 command- ments. We became an “Am Seguah!” a treasured people to God. The book of Deuteronomy poetically concludes with a boast that when God decided the boundaries of nations, He/She began with Israel first. Over the years we have had to walk a narrow path between a triumphal posture of superiority (as in how many disproportionate Nobel prizes Jews win?) and a more modest view that being Jewish meant an embrace of responsibility (as in it hasn’t always been such an honor being chosen – the old jest, “Please God choose someone else for a while!).

We had a modest film night last month about Gefilte fish and Passover. (Thanks to Lorie Edder!) Delightful, poignant and sentimental, it reviewed the multi-generational annual Passover gathering of a rather large Jewish family whose roots went back over a century. The culinary preparations were both fun to watch and cringe worthy. Our cultural disposition seems to foster a relentless competitive urge to assert the best way to do this or to do that! (Especially when it comes to recipes and spices to use or not to use: that is the question!) Do think of that when you enjoy the annual Bible and Blintzes? 

Tamping down the competitive impulse, the Prophet Amos announced:

“Are you not like the Cushites to me, O people of Israel?” declares the Lord. “Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Syrians from Kir? Amos 9:7 All people everywhere have their gifts to celebrate. All of us are winners in one way or another.

Happy Shavuot
Yossi Liebowitz, Rabbi

A Message from our President

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This spring has been incredibly busy for me. Along with helping an adult child move out of a college dorm, plus all the other things I find myself responsible for, much of my time has been allotted to focusing on my aging mother and her increasing need for assistance in daily life and activities.

I have spent many hours of each day this spring managing a move for my mother and her constant care. This has been a tremendous and unexpected change for both of us.

The readjustment of how I am now using my time each day has made me consider the usage and passage of time in a myriad of ways. Am I spending my time productively, is it purposeful, is it satisfying? So many questions.

As I ponder these questions, my mind keeps coming upon the saying “to everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven” and the Pete Seeger’s song from the 1950’s taken from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 called “Turn! Turn! Turn!” The lyrics of the song suggest there is a time for everything life presents, from helping a young adult child move back home from college to helping an aging parent move away from their home. Strangely for me, or maybe not so strangely, both moves are occurring at the same time. This occurring in tandem has also given me pause to consider time and its passage.

I have included the lyrics of the Pete Seeger song in this month’s message. What time is it for you, us, your family? After reading and thinking about the lyrics it is my conclusion that no matter what time it is, it is the right time for the purpose at hand.

Tina Lyon
Board President, Congregation B’nai Israel

May Birthdays

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5/1 Olivia Russell

5/1 Brian Hendrickson

5/1  Rick Tanenbaum

5/2  Marilyn Litoff

5/3  Benjamin Brough

5/3 Susan Goldman

5/3 Sylvia Rex

5/7  David Blumenfeld

5/8  Jay Kaplan

5/9 Andrew Poliakoff

5/9 Alane Russell

5/13 Steve Garrell

5/18 Rebecca Greenfield

5/19 Norma Mortge

5/23 Lianne Wood

5/25 Rex Russell

5/31 Robert Lyon

May Yahrtzeits

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5/1  Elizabeth Reemes

5/2  Sara Hecklin

5/2 Marthe Heymann

5/2 Fishel Steinbrock

5/4  Stephen Werner

5/5  Edith From

5/7 Harry Price

5/7 Abel Simon

5/7  Joel Spigel

5/8  Gussy Levy

5/9  David Packer

5/10  Minnie Perlman

5/11  Ernest Emory

5/11 Dr. Simon H. Smith

5/11 Pauline L. Smith

5/11  Samuel Weiner

5/12  Hyman Greenfield

5/12 Jerry N. Hyder

5/12 Susan R. Wise

5/12  Rabbi Max S. Stauber

5/13  Jides Koser

5/15 Dorothy Brett

5/15 Barry Goldman

5/15 Elizabeth Nabow

5/17 Mildred P. Gelburd

5/18 Hazel Abelsky

5/18 Ethel Silnutzer

5/18 Morris Unger

5/19 Samuel Shapiro

5/19 Rose H. Smiley

5/20 Nathan W. Blumberg

5/24 Charles Rabiner

5/25 William G. Smith

5/26 Samuel Robinson

5/26 Pauline Unger

5/27 Rose Cohen

5/27 Jake Lurey

5/28 Marsha Poliakoff

5/28 Minnye Weinberger

5/29 Barney Gelburd

5/29 Rhoda Koshak

5/30 Marvin Frank

5/31 Norman Bornstein

April 2021 Service Schedule

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Until further notice, services will be at 6:00 via Facebook Live on the Congregation B’nai Israel Facebook page. If you cannot make the “live” service, it will be available to watch any time at your convenience. 

 

Click Here to Reach our Temple Facebook Page

Simply go to the page at 6:00 and click on the live video to view.

Saturday morning Torah studies will be held via Skype at 10:00 am. Ask to join by becoming a contact by looking up Yossi Liebowitz on Skype. He will include you as a contact.

 

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Dear friends,

My first year in rabbinical school was in Jerusalem, one year after the Yom Kippur war had ended. It was a sobering moment when on the anniversary of its conclusion the nation came to a standstill. As is done every year on Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Memorial Day, a siren was sounded for two minutes. Everything stops! Traffic, pedestrians at corners, shopkeepers! The weeks leading to that day were filled with re-burials for those who died in the Sinai and were interred in temporary settings. Nearly three thousand casualties in a small nation which proportionately in America would have meant millions!

A woman standing next to me spoke after the sirens went silent. She told me she had been a nurse on the Egyptian front, had witnessed the carnage. Despondently, she spoke of a soldier who was on life support lingering between life and death and how she wanted to withdraw the sustaining IV and let him die. “I feel that about the Jewish people,” she then remarked. “I had a family that was all but destroyed in the Holocaust. As with the Jewish people I sometimes think after this latest carnage that we need to pull the plug and end our existence. Let us at long last give up!” What response could you offer at such a moment? Who can judge that woman’s despair? Not I then or now!

April each year is filled with small observances that follow Passover but which are large in meaning: Holocaust day, Yom Hazikaron (Israel Memorial Day) and then Yom Ha’atsmaut (Israel Independence Day).

An Israeli member of the Knesset remarked: “That is how we do it: first a sad day of remembrance followed by the jubilance of independence. “ Somehow we find a way to persist. The news out of Israel is often dire. Newspapers tend to focus on the bad news, the injustices and excesses of the Jewish nation state, disproportionately so! One of the antidotes that I prescribe is a website Israel 21C. It is filled with happy reviews of Israel’s technological prowess, efforts for reconciliation and steps for peace. Such newsworthy items are eclipsed by the ugly realities of the Middle East. It provides us with some balance. Not to ignore any of the concerns that arise when we consider the poor machinations that befall any nation state which are by definition endemic! Hopefully not epidemic!

I will celebrate Israel’s Independence Day this year as I do every year. On page
8 you can review that which I review every year; Israel’s Independence day declaration. It too, is an antidote to despair and a reminder never to pull the plug!

Rabbi Yossi Liebowitz D.D.

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