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October 2006

Dear Friends,

This column is dedicated to dedications, and to the dedicated people who bring us dedications. It also reflects upon a happy and important time in the history of BAJC.

We have just celebrated, in our 36th year, the dedication of our Synagogue. In a wonderful two-day event, we opened our doors, our mouths, our hearts and we formally established the home for our Jewish community. Everyone who was there – and hundreds attended – carried away special moments of joy and pride, of reflection and re-dedication. It would be too limiting for me to try to summarize the comments and feelings of so many, so I will simply suggest one of many thoughts that I carry with me of the Shabbat Dedication prayer service. Like many of you, I have attended many prayer services in many places and different times. Many have been “ordinary” and have provided, at least for me, a place and time for quiet and reflection. Others have been occasioned by important events and have carried a different content and emotion. Yet, to me and others, there was something unique about this particular service. At times I stood back and watched the faces under the tent and listened to the voices united in prayer and community. I know I will never forget the sense of unity and the specialness of joyful prayer that was exhibited at our dedication service.

President Paul Berch at the 2006 Greenleaf Dedication Open House

Our next dedication will be on the holiday of Simchat Torah ( October 14th, 6;30 PM) when we dedicate our new Torah – a special event in the life of any Jewish community. We have been gifted and blessed with a Torah that is no longer needed by a congregation that has recently closed. The Tree of Life Synagogue in Clarksburg, West Virginia (formed by a merger in 1939 of an Orthodox Shul dating from 1922 and a Reform Temple founded in 1914) closed its doors in 2004 and was willing to donate its four Torahs to synagogues in need. The Tree of Life Synagogue of Uniontown, PA has acted as recipient for these Torahs, keeping them safe until they could be distributed. Our own Bill Grossman has been an active leader in the Uniontown shul and he maintains a current membership and warm relationship with his former congregation. With the dedicated efforts of Bill , and of Harold Cohen, Rosalie and Mort Opall of the Uniontown synagogue and President Rusty Mall of the Clarksburg synagogue , and a twenty-hour round-trip drive by Johnny Lee Lenhart and Marty Cohn, we are now the grateful and honored recipients of a beautiful Torah.

As we use this Torah, we will be reminded of our link to two wonderful congregations and well as our links to all communities of good will. A final dedication – a thank you to all who have brought us to, and helped us celebrate, these two wonderful events. Some thanks go to friends in West Virginia and Pennsylvania that we will never meet; some go to our own members, neighbors, and friends who have so ably moved us forward; some are no longer with us to hear our thanks. We note the efforts and dedication of each person and are grateful.

B’Shalom,
Paul