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During this period we also had four b’nai mitzvah, each of them unique, each of them requiring the efforts of a cadre of committed persons. Then our interfaith events relating both to justice and to music had yet other committed persons involved. Meanwhile, our Hebrew School and award-winning adult education programs and our women’s programs continue to grow and flourish, while new initiatives like our mikveh development ready to take off. The kind of activity we see at BAJC flies in the face of the recent national survey of American rabbis indicating that less than half are optimistic about the future of American Jewry and about synagogue membership, citing again and again the battle to keep Judaism relevant.
All of this activity also reinforces the idea I find so compelling - that individuals among us in a congregation like BAJC can make our “home base” in any one of at least four homes (or rooms) within a home: in our Beit T’filah, our “prayer house;” in our Beit Midrash, our “learning house;” in our Beit K’nesset, our “community gathering house;” or in our Beit Tzedek, our “justice house.” Unlike earlier periods of Judaism when one had to begin with the first of these, it’s now possible for us to make our initial, and perhaps our primary connection with Judaism in any of these home bases. But then, once there, it becomes possible, and sometimes inevitable, that we’ll become intrigued also with at least one of the other “home bases.” We might begin with social justice, but then find a community of kindred spirits evolving that leads us to the Beit Knesset. Similarly we might begin in the Beit Knesset, but then become intrigued with the history of our worship, or with the melodies or with the differences between Ashkenazic and Sephardic practices, and then, before we know it, we’re in the Beit Midrash.
Let me conclude by passing on some very special thanks received by Paul Capcara, the Executive Director of Morningside Shelter. Our contributions, he told me, have been manifold and substantial over recent years. He told me that a good number of them were from individuals and families that, while identifying themselves with our congregation, sought to remain anonymous (the highest form of tzedakah.) We may be called upon to help further this winter – with physical as well as financial assistance – given the looming homelessness crisis in our area.
B’Shalom,
Jim
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