Please join us on Friday, September 9 at 5pm for the Annual TE BBQ picnic (fun activities for kids open at 4:30 pm), followed by Shabbat Service Under the Stars at 6pm! Invite your family, friends and neighbors – spread the word! This event is open to current and prospective members.
Kosher BBQ will be provided by our great chefs and snacks and sides will be individually packaged.
Due to the increased COVID-19 infection rate in our area, the TE board has decided to change the format of High Holiday services this year. While we would very much like to gather in person, the Jewish value of Pikuach Nefesh, safeguarding life, inspires us toward caution as we strive to protect the health of our community.
High Holiday Services on Erev and Day 1 of Rosh Hashanah and all Yom Kippur services will be held virtually on both Zoom and YouTube, as we did last year. The service on Day 2 of Rosh Hashanah and the TE Rosh Hashanah family celebration, which we expect to be smaller gatherings, will be held in person outside, weather permitting. Family units will be required to maintain social distance during and after the services, and masks will be required. The outdoor services will be live-streamed. We will also meet in person on the first day of Rosh Hashanah at 4pm for Tashlich at Wright’s Pond in Orange. In case of inclement weather, we will notify you of a change to virtual services.
We are of course disappointed that we will miss out on much of our special season of gathering, prayer, music, food, and above all, community. We know that nothing can replace the sense of celebrating our Holy Days together. Yet we can use the available technology to maintain our traditions and our connections with each other. High Holy Days will look different at TE this year, but this will not change the nature of the Holy Days, or of our sacred community.
Our Board of Directors has made a decision to use this opportunity to practice our true hospitality and welcoming spirit. Our High Holy Day services will be open to all this year. If you are not a member of Temple Emanuel, but would like to join us for High Holy Days this year, please use this form to register in advance.
For the 28th consecutive year, T.E. will again be holding its High Holy Days Food Drive, donating much-needed food to the food pantries of both Jewish Family Service and the Town of Orange. Unfortunately, due to Covid restrictions, we will once again be employing a hybrid model, giving congregants a variety of choices or options as to how they would like to participate. 1. For folks who would prefer to donate actual tangible food items, you can give your food donation to the T.E. “Honey Bee” when they come to your house to deliver your honey and calendar. Important: Please make sure that the cans and boxes are labeled, unopened, undamaged, and that the expiration dates are pretty far away. And for transportation safety, no glass jars, please. 2. For folks who would prefer to donate by check to the JFS Food Pantry, you can give your check to the T.E. “Honey Bee” when they come to your house to deliver your honey and calendar. Checks should be made out to JFS Food Pantry and please make sure you write Temple Emanuel on the memo line as that’s how we’ll be credited. If you prefer to mail your check directly to JFS instead, please mail it to: JFS Food Pantry,c/o JFS of Greater New Haven, 1440 Whalley Ave., New Haven, CT 06515. 3. For folks who would prefer to donate by check to the Town of Orange Food Pantry, you can give your check to the T.E. “Honey Bee” when they come to your house to deliver your honey and calendar. Checks should be made out to Treasurer, Town of Orange, and please make sure you write both Food Pantry and Temple Emanuel on the memo line as that’s how we’ll be credited. If you prefer to mail your check directly to Orange instead, please mail it to: Denise Stein, c/o Orange Food Pantry, 525 Orange Center Road, Orange, CT 06477. Please be as generous as you’ve always been in the past. This has certainly been a tough year. Thank you! Will Sherman, Coordinator, Food Drive
The Memorial Torah Scroll #1178 from Horazdovice is now proudly back in Temple Emanuel Ark!
Temple Emanuel houses in our Ark the Holocaust Memorial Scroll #1178, a scroll that belonged to the destroyed Jewish community of Horazdovice, Czechoslovakia, a community that perished in the flames of the Holocaust. This scroll is one of several hundred Czech Torah scrolls that survived the Holocaust, eventually coming to the Westminster Synagogue in London, and from there distributed to Jewish communities around the world. A young Temple Emanuel of Greater New Haven was fortunate to receive the Horazdovice Torah back in 1967.
The Horazdovice Torah at Temple Emanuel
This scroll was part of every Bar and Bat Mitzvah at Temple Emanuel from 1967 – 2007. A deeply meaningful Torah, this Holocaust scroll brought our community into the direct line of European Jews who were murdered by the Nazis and could not themselves perpetuate the Jewish people. As we read from and touched this sacred scroll, we carried out the laws and commandments of our faith, and we remembered and honored the Jews of Horazdovice whose voices were stilled. In 2007, the scroll was retired from service because it was damaged, fragile and deemed non-kosher. We placed the scroll in a case visible to all as we entered the synagogue, to preserve its meaning and connection to our history.
The Restoration of the Horazdovice Torah
In 2019, a Torah scribe inspected our Torah scrolls, those in the Arc and also the Holocaust scroll in its display case. The scribe found that 2 of our scrolls in the ark required some repairs to remain kosher. To our great surprise and delight, he found that the Horazdovice Torah scroll could be repaired and once again be made kosher! Many TE members were excited that this wonderful and important scroll might again be made kosher, and be returned to our ark. TE students researched and presented information about the Horazdovice Torah and its history. Temple Emanuel members rallied support and contributed funds to not only restore and rededicate this scroll but also to repair the other TE Torah scrolls and establish a small fund to support the continued maintenance of our Torah scrolls, and mounted a successful campaign to raise the funds needed to restore and rededicate this important Torah scroll. Each TE family had the opportunity to write a letter in the Torah scroll with the scribe, a meaningful fulfillment of the mitzvah. The now-kosher scroll was re-dedicated and returned to the ark. This scroll, connecting us to the hundreds of years of Jewish life from the lost community of Horazdovice, brings Jewish practice and tradition to new generations of Jews at Temple Emanuel. This rededicated kosher scroll now is once again being used at Temple Emanuel for Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, and for special Torah services.
The Story of our Holocaust Torah Scroll
Our Holocaust Torah was first endangered when the Munich Agreement was signed on 29 September 1938. Britain and France agreed to Hitler’s demand to be given the German-speaking border regions of Czechoslovakia, and the Germans marched in. The Jews from about sixty congregations in the prosperous industrial and commercial towns in the Sudetenland had 2 or 3 days to flee to the interior, which was still a free and sovereign country. They left behind their synagogues, which were in German hands in time for the destruction of the Pogrom of November 1938, when synagogues across the expanded Germany, which now included the Sudetenland, were burned or vandalized and looted. In almost every case the ritual treasures of these Sudetenland synagogues were destroyed or lost.
In the remainder of Czechoslovakia, which included Prague, the synagogues and their swollen congregations were safe for the time being, and there was no program of destruction, even when the Germans invaded the rest of the country in March 1939. In 1940, the congregations were closed down, but the Jewish community administration was used by the Germans to execute their stream of decrees and instructions. In 1941 the first deportations started and the mass deportations of the Jews took place throughout 1942 and into January 1943.
The Nazis decided to liquidate the communal and private Jewish property in the towns, including the contents of the synagogues. In 1942 Dr Stein of the Juedische Kultusgemeinde in Prague wrote to all Jewish communities, instructing them to send the contents of their synagogues to the Jewish Museum in Prague. Thus the Torah Scrolls, gold and silver and ritual textiles were sent, along with thousands of books. The remaining Jews were deported in 1943 and 1944, but quite a number survived.
The inventory of the Prague Jewish Museum expanded by fourteen times as a result, and a large number of Jews were put to work by the Germans to sort, catalogue and put into storage all the items that had come from over one hundred congregations in Bohemia and Moravia. It needed over forty warehouses, many of them deserted Prague synagogues, to store all these treasures. When the task was eventually completed, the Jews who had been put to this work were themselves deported to the Terezin concentration camp and death. There were few survivors.
It was once accepted that the accumulation of this vast hoard of Judaica was intended by the Nazis to become their museum to the extinct Jewish race. There is, however, no evidence that any such museum was ever planned. The Prague Jewish Museum had been in existence since 1906, and was not created in order to house the Judaica collected in 1942. In 2012, the Prague Jewish Museum published “Ark of Memory” by Magda Veselska, a history of the museum that includes a clear explanation of how it was the Jews of Prague that worked before, during and after the war to protect a legacy that was threatened with destruction.
After the defeat of Germany, a free and independent Czechoslovakia emerged, but it was a country largely without Jews. Most of the surviving Jews in Prague and the rest of Bohemia and Moravia were from Slovakia and further east from Subcarpathian Ruthenia. Prague, which had had a Jewish population of 54,000 in 1940, was reduced to under 8,000 by 1947, and many of these were to leave. On 27 February 1948, after less than 3 years of post war freedom, the Communists staged a coup and took over the government of Czechoslovakia. The Prague Jewish Museum came under government control, and was staffed mainly by non-Jewish curators.
In 1958 the 18th century Michle Synagogue became the warehouse which housed hundreds of Torah Scrolls from the large Prague Jewish community and what was left from the smaller communities of Bohemia and Moravia. The collection did not include scrolls from Slovakia, which the Germans had put under a separate administration. Eric Estorick, an American living in London, was an art dealer who paid many visits to Prague in the early 1960’s. He got to know many Prague artists, whose work he exhibited at his Grosvenor Gallery. Being a frequent visitor to Prague, he came to the attention of the authorities. He was approached by officials from Artia, the state corporation that had responsibility for trade in works of art, and was asked if he would be interested in buying some Torah Scrolls. Unknown to him, the Israelis had been approached previously with a similar offer, but the negotiations had come to nothing. Estorick was taken to the Michle Synagogue where he was faced with wooden racks holding anything up to 2000 Scrolls. He was asked if he wanted to make an offer, and replied that he knew certain parties in London who might be interested.
Rabbi Farbman carrying the MST#1178 scroll at a historic gathering of Holocaust Memorial Torah scrolls in New York
On his return to London, he contacted Ralph Yablon, a well-known philanthropist with a great interest in Jewish art, history and culture. Yablon became the benefactor who put up the money to buy the Scrolls. First, Chimen Abramsky, who was to become Professor of Hebrew Studies at the University of London, was asked to go to Prague for twelve days in November 1963 to examine the Scrolls and to report on their authenticity and condition. On his return to London, it was decided that Estorick should go to Prague and negotiate a deal, which he did. Two lorries laden with 1564 Scrolls arrived at the Westminster Synagogue on 7 February 1964. After months of sorting, examining and cataloguing each Scroll, the task of distributing them began, with the aim of getting the Scrolls back into the life of Jewish congregations across the world. The Memorial Scrolls Trust was established to carry out this task.
Each Memorial Scroll is a messenger from a community that was lost, but does not deserve to be forgotten. Temple Emanuel’s restored Horazdovice Scroll carries that message to our congregants and to our future.
As part of TE’s social action program, Nancy Weber and Max Case have (in the past) organized a group of TE members to serve dinner one night each month at The Beth-El Center soup kitchen in Milford.
While this program has been temporarily suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic, The Beth-El Center is still on our minds. The need for food assistance is more evident now, with greater numbers of food-insecure individuals, families and veterans.
Hopefully in Spring of 2021, we will get the all-clear, and we can resume our monthly dinner service. Until then, you can help by donating directly to The Beth-El Center by visiting their website:
In 2015, Temple Emanuel joined with four other area synagogues and the Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven to form the Jewish Community Alliance for Refugee Resettlement (JCARR).
Welcoming refugees is intrinsically connected to our Jewish tradition. The Torah instructs us 36 times to care for the stranger — far more than it commands us to observe the Sabbath or any other law. For those involved in JCARR, the core Jewish value of Tikkun Olam, “repair the world,” compels us to take responsibility, to address social injustice, and to care for the other.
In partnership with Temple Emanuel in JCARR are Congregation Beth El-Keser Israel (Conservative), Congregation B’nai Jacob (Conservative), Congregation Mishkan Israel (Reform), and Congregation Or Shalom (Conservative). Our work is a unique opportunity for Jews from different congregations and denominations to unite around a common goal: to help new refugee and immigrant families resettle in our community.
Family 2 – from Syria
JCARR will sponsor families from any country and any religion. JCARR has now resettled five families: one from the Democratic Republic of Congo, two from Syria, one from Iraq, and an asylum-seeking family from Angola. JCARR serves as a co-sponsor through IRIS, Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services of New Haven. Our efforts have been recognized as a model both of community co-sponsorship and of collaboration among synagogues.
Family 3 – from Syria
JCARR has scores of volunteers who work with task forces to find affordable housing, furnish and supply the home, and collect clothing. JCARR volunteers meet the new families, offer them a warm welcome, and provide a warm, culturally appropriate meal in their new home upon their arrival. We help them enroll in English classes, organize tutors, register children for school, learn to use public transportation, navigate the American health-care system, and find jobs. Volunteers have taught them to drive and helped them get drivers licenses, for some of the women, for the first time in their lives! In some cases, JCARR obtained a donated car for new families.
Family 4 – from Iraq
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected JCARR families significantly. Parents’ work hours have diminished and so has their income. Children are attending school online and unable to participate in extra-curricular activities. JCARR families may be suffering trauma anew, and JCARR is working to respond to their exceptional needs during this crisis. The situation has called for us to dig deep and become our best selves, and do more than we thought possible. JCARR models how a community can turn concern into action. JCARR demonstrates how people can form partnerships, and turn sad stories into success stories.
Family 5 – from Angola
The COVID pandemic shines a spotlight on those who are too easily left behind, and makes refugee resettlement efforts around the world even more imperative. Helping refugees in our community gives us a feeling of HOPE and a meaningful way to participate in Repair of the World.
To make an online donation, go to: https://jewishnewhaven.org/refugee-resettlement/give Or, send checks payable to The Jewish Federation, with JCARR in the memo line, to The Jewish Federation, Attention Amy Holtz, 360 Amity Road, Woodbridge 06525. We greatly appreciate your generous donations!
Jean Silk, a member of Temple Emanuel, serves as Coordinator of JCARR. For information, contact her at jsilk@jewishnewhaven.org
High Holy Days 5781 (2020) will be the most unprecedented – not just in recent history, but perhaps in the entire Jewish history. Yes, pandemics and wars have happened before, preventing Jews from celebrating the Chagim in the traditional manner, but they have never affected all the Jews all over the world at the same time, and, most importantly, we didn’t have the technology that would allow us to successfully celebrate the chagim as a community despite being unable to gather in person!
Yes, this year’s High Holy Days at Temple Emanuel will be celebrated online. Yes, it will be quite different. Yes, we don’t like this either! But if these last few months have taught us anything, we know we yearn to be together, and we CAN be together online! In the coming weeks you will be receiving emails with links for the services and instructions on how to prepare. In the meantime, here are the times and dates of all the services that will take place this year, please make a note of the times, some of which may be a little different than usual. Please note that in place of our wonderful Children’s services we will have Family services in the afternoon of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. We also hope, weather and pandemic permitting, to gather outside for Tashlich on the second day of Rosh Hashanah.
The High Holy Days will be different, that much we know. But we also know that they will be special, as always. I can’t wait to see you all and celebrate these most special and sacred days – together, while being apart.
Shanah Tovah!
Joint URJ Selichot service (online) Saturday, Sept 12 @ 7.00pm
Erev Rosh Hashanah Friday, Sept 18 @ 7:00 PM
Rosh Hashanah I day Saturday, Sept 19 @ 10 am Rosh Hashanah Family Service @ 3:00 PM
Rosh Hashanah II day Sunday, Sep 20 @ 10 am Tashlich Sunday, Sep 20 3:00 PM
Kol Nidrei (Erev Yom Kippur) Sunday, Sep 27 @ 8pm
Yom Kippur Morning Monday, Sep 28 @ 10 am Yom Kippur Family Service @ 3:00 PM YK Study Session: with Bennett Graff @ 1:00 PM Yom Kippur Mincha @ 4:30 PM Yizkor, Neila and Havdalah Monday, Sep 28 @ 6:00 PM
Erev Sukkot Friday, Oct 2 @ 6:30 PM
Erev Simchat Torah Friday, Oct 9 @ 6:00 PM
Throughout the Festival services we will be using the visual tefilah, the words of the prayers will appear right on your screen. In addition, our movement has created a flip-book of the Machzor which you can access for free from any internet-enabled device.
As summer days begin to grow shorter, it is time to start thinking about the upcoming High Holy Days. The COVID pandemic has been a great disrupter for all of us, as we try to figure out how to live our lives while staying safe. Over the past few months I pulled together a task force to consider the best option for observing the High Holy Days at Temple Emanuel this year. We spent time considering multiple scenarios and made the difficult decision that the safest, most responsible choice is to hold all our services online. While we are sad to be making this choice, the health and safety of our members and clergy is our number one priority. There are many things we will miss this year – gathering with the entire congregation in one space, greeting those we see only once a year, watching the children as they show us what they created in their children’s services, joining together for a festive meal. But we are lucky to have technology available to allow us to pray together yet separate, to maintain many of our traditions and perhaps to create some new ones. The Rabbi is working hard with a dedicated High Holy Days preparation team to make these holiday services as meaningful as always. During this time of uncertainty, stress and isolation for many, it is even more important that we gather together as a community and support each other, as we examine the year that has passed and imagine how we can recreate ourselves and the world around us. We want to make sure that every member of Temple Emanuel can access our services this year. If you have any concerns about accessing our festival services online or know anyone else who might have a problem doing so, please contact me, the Rabbi or Ruth in the office. As the holidays approach we will send out further information about each service, including the children’s services. This year, while we can’t gather in person with friends or family, we can use technology to join with those dear to our hearts, whether they live in our community or are many miles away. The TE Board of Directors has decided to open our virtual doors to welcome all guests, near or far, to join in our services this year. Further information will be coming soon on how guests can register for our online High Holy Day services. I hope all of you stay safe and healthy and enjoy the rest of the summer.
Hopefully in Spring of 2021, we will get the all-clear, and we can resume our monthly dinner service. Until then, you can help by donating directly to The Beth-El Center by visiting their website:
