Emanu-El, mega-church?
I read your editorial “Church model may not be right for Jews” (Dec. 21) and the article on the Reform biennial and the mega-church movement with frustration and disbelief.
I studied the mega-church movement for Synagogue 2000 and had the pleasure of seeing for myself the success of Saddleback Church.
Shortly thereafter, Temple Emanu-El made significant changes in how we did “business.” We created multiple worship services and programs, which we call Synaplex — an idea that has since been implemented nationwide. We developed small group programming, based on the Saddleback model, within the context of a larger synagogue, so people could connect in comfortable ways.
We expanded our voluntary dues program to everyone with the philosophy that it is better to ask for a gift then demand a dues payment. And we trained staff from maintenance workers to the clergy on service excellence and “going the extra mile” for our members.
We have since grown from 1,600 members to over 2,650.
We are not the only ones to embrace this new vision. Locally, Beth Am in Los Altos Hills, Beth Abraham in Oakland, and Rodef Shalom in Marin have all been successful.
Gary S. Cohn | Executive director, 1991-2007, Congregation Emanu-El
Inspiring story
We were inspired by j.’s story (Dec. 21) about German-born UCSF pathology professor Robert Stern, who leaves his San Francisco comforts to teach eager Palestinian medical students at al Quds University.
“I’m a good teacher. I can turn their despair into something more positive,” he said. “How often in life can you make a real difference?”
Dr. Stern, with plenty of reason to fear the “other,” reminds us how the Holocaust instructed camp survivor Viktor Frankl that dark times still provide surprisingly great purpose in life, with our human freedom to choose daily kindness, generosity, humanizing of others, and faith in a better future. Meaning, he said, comes from “doing a good deed” while “experiencing a value.”
There are both Arabs and Jews who prescribe disengagement, isolation, punishment, even humiliation, imagining the “other” is not quite human or equal. In new medical terminology, this “diagnosis momentum” is the result of an early, terribly wrong diagnosis of “intractable” or “impossible” that is perpetuated, never properly questioned, and tragically gains great momentum like a boulder rolling down a mountain.
We admire Dr. Stern’s diagnosis, and his prescription of more human relationships, acts of goodwill and education between Jews and Palestinians — everyone, everywhere — neighbors forever.
Len and Libby Traubman | San Mateo
Ethical lessons
Thank you for your Dec. 21 piece on the Ethical Start program currently being incorporated into JCC preschool curricula. I couldn’t agree with the program’s creator more in her appreciation of Judaism as a deep tradition of how we behave toward each other and how we live every day.
The day-to-day ethical lessons of Judaism are found throughout Jewish law and tradition. In fact, contrary to the claim of your article, every tractate of the Mishnah and every book in the rabbinic library is ultimately devoted to Jewish morals and ethics.
An earnest embrace of Jewish ethics is accomplished through cultivating a lifestyle of learning Torah and practicing mitzvahs. As Hillel said: Zil gmar. Go out and learn!
Rabbi Adam Rosenthal | Foster City
Thanks to JCEF
I would like to thank you for your wonderful cover story on the JCC Association’s early childhood program, Ethical Start (Dec. 21).
Your writer captured the essence of the program and its potential for positively impacting the lives of today’s children as well as laying the foundation for their lives as Jews in the 21st century. Ethical Start, with its basis in authentic Jewish learning, has become the “culture” of your local JCCs.
Extraordinary programs such as this require huge financial investments to create and to implement.
The success of this program is the direct result of the foresight and commitment of the San Francisco federation’s Jewish Community Endowment Fund. Executive Director Phyllis Cook researched this program, met with me and wanted this program brought to our community.
In making a very generous and unprecedented three-year grant to JCC Association for the JCCs in your area, the JCEF enabled your teachers to participate in training initiatives, and eventually enabled us to offer programs for parents and teachers in the Bay Area. JCEF’s support of Ethical Start has become the benchmark for philanthropic support of this program in communities across North America.
Dr. Ruth Pinkenson Feldman | New York, Director of Early Childhood Services, JCC Association
Christmas blues
Liz Harris’ article (“Coming to terms with ‘Merry Christmas,’” Dec. 21) was interesting because I have gone through the opposite experience. I grew up as the only Jewish family in the neighborhood and I could count on one hand all the Jewish kids at my high school. I didn’t mind Christmas. I helped friends decorate their trees, we caroled in the neighborhood. I grew up not really thinking much about Christmas.
Then in my mid-20’s, I lived in Israel for a while. When I came back to the States, I had culture shock that lasted for years, indeed has still lasted. Having a child helped me synthesize my Jewishness and the anti-Xmas feelings. As I get older, it’s gotten more intense. I hate the bombardment in the media and stores. All the lights and the cutting down of trees are such a colossal waste of energy. I resent when people assume that I’m Christian when they say “Merry Christmas.”
It’s hard to be a minority. It’s even harder to be an invisible minority. Lately, I’m starting to have an attitude and yes, it shows. I’m not sure that people are really trying to spread the cheer. I think they’re just spreading their ignorance in assuming everyone here is Christian.
Lauren Helfand | Alameda
Return to English
At the URJ biennial, the attendees carefully examined and experienced the style of the success of some church megaservices. Would those church services be as successful if they were performed in Aramaic instead of English?
Perhaps we would be more successful if our Reform services were performed in English as they were during the first 75 years of the previous century during which time Reform Judaism grew to become the most numerous of the major Jewish groups in America.
William L. Schwartz | Hillsborough
Proud to be a Zionist
In 1938, Hannah Szenes wrote in her diary, “I’ve become a Zionist. This word Zionist conveys so much, but to me it means this: I have developed a stronger consciousness and pride in being Jewish.”
While Zionism is more often described as a secular political movement, the returning the Jewish people to their ancient homeland is a reoccurring theme throughout our liturgy.
Since May, a group of pro-Israel activists has been holding a vigil in support of Israel by the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland. Some time ago, a community member invited the entire group to Shabbat lunch. She couldn’t stand with us, she explained, because she was shomer Shabbat, but she wanted to express her appreciation to the group. We were treated to a lovely, traditional Shabbat lunch, and for many of us, it was a time to reflect, as Hannah Szenes did, on the deep connections between our Zionism and our Judaism. For some of us, our Zionism was a natural outgrowth of our Judaism, but for others, the opposite was true.
“How can we sing of Zion in a strange land?” the psalm asks us. As proud Jews and as proud Zionists, we must.
Faith Meltzer | El Cerrito
Acknowledging activists
Your moving Dec. 7 article celebrating the local movement to free Soviet Jews failed to mention many hard-working stalwart activists who gave many hours to the cause without seeking publicity. These include Selma Light, Lillian Foreman, Sanford Weinberg, Morey Shapira, Sheldon Wolfe, Terence Flynn, Linda Kurtz, Frank Kurtz, Jerry Westin, Charles Caviness, Natasha Katz, Rev. Doug Huneke, Armin Katz, Sy Frumkin and Zev Yaroslovsky and many others.
The articles fail to mention the struggle for survival the Bay Area Council for Soviet Jews had in its early years with the local Jewish establishment.
Pnina Levermore, the present capable executive director of the Climate of Trust Council (née Bay Area Council for Soviet Jews) mistakenly wrote in her op-ed that Doug Kahn and John Rothmann were among the founders of the BACSJ. They both did a great deal for the movement but they were not among the group of the four founders.
Edward Tamler | San Mateo
No support
Do we hate all haters or pick the haters we hate? So a radical Muslim group says Michael Savage uses hate speech. Even a broken clock is right twice a day. Savage (another Jew who won’t use his own name) should be ashamed of his calls for jingoism and prejudice and does not deserve support in any fair-minded journal. Which begs the question, is j. fair minded? Shame.
Alan Fibish | Portland, Ore.
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