On Sunday December 11th about 30 religious school children, their parents, teachers, and members of the Education Committee & Social Action Committee participated in a fun and educational morning that ended with a community mitzvah project that was a true success. The kids and parents sang with the Rabbi, then kids learned with their teachers and adults studied with the Rabbi, and then everyone helped to pack about 115 Holiday baskets for kids (and moms) from Jewish Family Services, Fairhaven Clinic, r’ kids, and Life Haven Shelter. It was busy, noisy, and fun. A huge mazel tov to all the volunteers who donated their time, gifts, and energy and who made this such a special TE event.
Category: Uncategorized
Chanukah songs at Barnes and Noble
On Sunday December 4th Rabbi Farbman was invited to sing some Chanukah songs at the Milford B&N as part of a special event organized by the Center for Jewish Life and Learning. There was a lot of young children there, and it was great fun to have chanukah songs blasting through the isles! 🙂 Thank you to all TE members who came to support Rabbi Farbman!
Prayer is for everyone…
There is a wonderful Chasidic story about a boy who did not know how to pray – so the rabbi advised him to recite the letters of the Hebrew alef bet. When someone protested that this would not help, the rabbi suggested that as long as the boy said the letters and put his heart and his soul in it, then God will surely put the letters in the right order… Our tradition constantly reminds us that we have to try and have both the kavannah, the intention to pray, and the keva, the formal liturgy. We struggle to bring both together, realizing that it is not always possible – and yet we try… In today’s world we also struggle with having the right balance of Hebrew and English, of music and readings, of stories and intellectual lessons. Sometimes the balance comes naturally to us, yet so often we have to make an effort to get it right.
Over the last two years I have heard many stories about various services with Rabbi Jerry at Temple Emanuel – especially from those who grew up in the congregation and attended the family services. As is often the case, there were plenty of adults who made sure they came on Friday of the family service – to hear the story, to see the wonder in the eyes of the children, to experience the joy of Shabbat in a slightly different way. As our school welcomes new young children, as we begin to have babies and young children around once again, the ritual committee has asked me to re-institute the Inter-generational Family Services at Temple Emanuel. This innovative service will be child-centered, and not just child-welcoming (as all TE services are, of course). It will be a little shorter, introduce the ‘visual tefilah’ that we have been using at our Hebrew school with much success, and will contain a story in place of a sermon – but it will also retain the full service structure and allow the mourners to say kaddish at the end. It will begin at 6.30pm, to allow more families with young children to come. To make it easier to remember when this special Shabbat service occurs, it will take place on the first Friday of every month, beginning on January 6, 2012 at 6.30 pm. (This will be the new ‘early service’, the second week of the month will return to the regular 8pm time as of January). If you have young children or grandchildren – this service is for you! I look forward to seeing you and your descendants at least once a month J. If you don’t have little children – please don’t feel that you have to stay away – the young children NEED to see adults praying, and the adults NEED to see the children learn their way around the synagogue.
As you may have noticed, our wonderful new prayerbook, MIshkan Tefilah, has arrived! We have used it for Sukkot and Simchat Torah services, as well as for Shabbat between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur – and now we are ready to start using it on a regular basis. As you may remember from my previous columns, the Mishkan Tefilah is not a replacement for TE ‘blue’ prayerbook, but is a wonderful addition that will enhance our prayer experience alongside our current siddur. After a thoughtful discussion at the recent Ritual Committee meeting, a following schedule has been agreed: on the first and the third Shabbat of the month we will use Mishkan Tefilah, on the second and fourth Shabbat we will use the ‘blue’ TE prayerbook. We will also continue to use the loose-leaf prayerbook for the musical Shabbat services! I suggest that to avoid confusion we will keep the Mishkan Tefilah (MT) prayerbooks on the shelf outside the sanctuary and bring them in for the assigned services, while the ‘blue’ books will remain in the usual place inside the chairs. If you are not too sure what book to use – just ask your neighbor! J Just remember – the book is only there to help us along the journey of prayer, so no matter what book you are holding on any given Shabbat, it is your voices and your prayers that matter the most!
I would like to wish you all a happy and joyous Chanukah and I look forward to celebrating it with you on December 23rd with our phenomenal Musical Shabbat Chanukah!
TE’s SACS Supports Youth Literacy in our Sister City, León, Nicaragua
Following on the 2009 Temple Emanuel delegation to New Haven’s Sister City of León, Nicaragua, TE members continue to support our Sister City and its youth reading group. This project involves teenagers in the rural village of Goyena, a community that was created on the outskirts of León for people who lost their homes due to the destruction of Hurricane Mitch in 1998. Reading is not a common activity in this community, but this group of youth has become enthusiastic readers!
Thanksgiving, the Jewish Way
The entire congregation is invited to an intergenerational educational program on Sunday, November 20th, 9:30 – 12:00 noon. A morning of learning, music, fun, food and community.
The program will include one hour adult study session from 10:00-11:00amwith Rabbi Farbman in the swing space.
Building the community…
If God does not build the house, the workers labor in vain… (Psalm 127).
There is an ancient Jewish tradition: when building a house, to leave one corner, one tiny bit unfinished. To let a little bit of brick show through plaster in the corner, to have something left not fully painted. Our ancestors did so in order to remind ourselves that the world is not complete, that there is far too much suffering and destruction in the world for us to sit comfortably in our home and think that all is good…
Over the course of this summer there was a lot of renovation activity at Temple Emanuel – the new floors were laid in the social hall and the entrance, ceiling was painted in the swing space, a new layer of shingles was added to the Sanctuary building roof, new gutters are being added to both buildings – wonderful, exciting, much needed actions to upkeep the TE physical ‘body’. This is perhaps the biggest number of projects undertaken in quick succession over the last few years – much of it delayed or scheduled maintenance. There are still things that need fixing – the social hall ceiling and acoustics, the board room in the ‘house’ that suffered major water damage and will need to be almost fully re-built to name but a few – but many of the things we did, like the floor and the roof, allow us to ‘tick it off’ as completed – a great feeling of accomplishment for TE leadership – and for all of us! There’s still plenty of ‘unfinished corners’ around TE, of course, but at least the projects that have been completed give us a sense of – well, completion!
The buildings are important, no doubt about that. Yet they are merely the tools in our real efforts: the building of a community! The relationships that are forged, the learning that takes place, the prayers that are offered, the traditions observed, the caring and the deeds of loving kindness performed daily by members of Temple Emanuel… That’s what we are REALLY building – the fabric of our Jewish present and the foundations for our Jewish future. Thanks to the generous vision of the Second Half Century fund we are also supporting our school and educational programs through new curricula and exciting initiatives, the school building is buzzing with excitement! New members join and past members are coming back – what better testament can there be to our community-building efforts?
This kind of building is at times harder to see, unlike the bricks and mortar – but it can be felt and experienced at so many things we do throughout the year! Above all, this is not the kind of ‘building’ that can ever be finished – just as relationships, the community needs what was built in the past as a foundation, but needs continued efforts to keep it alive and well.
I hope you get to see for yourself all the wonderful renovations that took place over the summer and take pride in them. I also hope that you will take an active role in being a part of the community-building that we do and find a way to engage and lend a hand. I look forward to seeing many of you as we build the sukkah on October 9th, a temporary structure that reminds us of the fragility of our lives and our buildings, and of the strength of our human bond with each other and with God. I also look forward to continued celebrations of Sukkot and Simchat Torah, (Oct 12th and Oct 19th), extending the special season of High Holy Days with the joyful celebration of our heritage and our Torah!
Wishing you all a shanah tovah u’metukkah, a sweet, happy and fulfilling new year 5772!
IT'S HERE!
It’s here. Finally. 5772. For once the event, or should I say events, will live up to the hype. No disappointment here like Geraldo Rivera
had when he opened Al Capone’s vault; no trace of John Lackey, A.J. Burnett or Jason Bay here; likewise no needless worry about a YT2k Bug. Temple Emanuel’s 50th Anniversary
(or if your prefer our Second Half Century) will not only meet expectations, but will exceed them. We have had the kickoff pre-50th celebration—the TE barbeque in September.
Over 160 people came to pray and also to play, eat and socialize, all things we do well. And now 5772 is here…and excitement is in the air.
The reason why our events will meet the hype while the others didn’t is that we have a solid foundation. We are not inventing the wheel here, but rather we are building upon
the hard work that others did for 50 years now. While your current Temple leadership is working hard, we are merely following the lead of our predecessors who had a vision for
Temple Emanuel. From Temple Emanuel’s initial creation, our spiritual leaders and membership have through the years worked hard to make Temple Emanuel what it is today.
Our spiritual leaders, Rabbi Winer to Rabbi Brieger to Rabbi Farbman, while they may have gone about things differently, have all shared a common goal and have worked
hard to make the TE experience a meaningful one.
During 5772 we will have many events to commemorate what has been accomplished—we will have visits from Rabbi Winer,
as well as from Jeff Klepper and Rabbi Dan Freelander; a gala party will be held on May 12. We are lucky to have our
Rabbi Emeritus, Jerry Brieger, remain an active participant at TE. TE is indeed a special place to us, as it was to its founders.
I wish all of you a happy and healthy new year.
L’shanah tovah.
Rabbi Michael Farbman
Born in Vitebsk, Belarus, Rabbi Farbman received his semicha (rabbinic ordination) at the Leo Baeck College, Reform Rabbinical Seminary in London. From 2001 to 2004, Rabbi Farbman served West London Synagogue of British Jews in London, UK as Assistant Rabbi. Serendipitously, Rabbi Farbman’s friend and mentor in London was Rabbi Mark Winer, the former Rabbi of Temple Emanuel in its early, formative years! Rabbi Farbman holds a B.A. and M.A. in Hebrew and Jewish Studies.
From 2004 to 2007 Rabbi Michael Farbman returned to Russia and helped build Sha’arei Shalom Progressive Jewish Community in St. Petersburg, Russia. The story of Sha’arei Shalom and its success is the subject of the film, To Russia with Love, made by the respected Israeli documentary film maker, Asher Tlalim. In 2007 Rabbi Farbman moved to Washington, DC where he served as Rabbi-in Residence at the Washington Hebrew Congregation.
In 2009 Rabbi Farbman became the rabbi of Temple Emanuel, succeeding the much beloved Rabbi Gerald Brieger z’l.
Rabbi Farbman serves on the board of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven, on the Board of Columbus House and on the Board of Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choices (RCRC-CT), and is an active member of the Orange Interfaith Clergy group. Rabbi is a faculty member at URJ Camp Eisner.
Rabbi Farbman, his wife, Olga Markus and their two sons live in Woodbridge, CT.
High Holy Day Cantorial Soloists Laurel Shader and Anna Zonderman
Laurel Shader, a member of Temple Emanuel since 1985, has been a High Holy Day cantorial soloist at TE since 1996. She has also been the music director/arranger for the Temple Emanuel house band since its debut in the fall of 2009. By day, Laurel is the chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the Fair Haven Community Health Center. She lives in Orange with her husband, Jon Zonderman, and is the mother of two musical young adults, Anna and Jacob Zonderman.
Anna Zonderman has been a cantorial soloist at Temple Emanuel since 2004. She also leads the children’s High Holy Day services at TE. She was a member of the Elm City Girls’ Choir from 1994-2006 when she graduated and became a member and section leader of the Clark University Choirs as well as a founding member and director of FOURtissimo, a women’s acappella quartet.
Getting better…
I’ve got to admit it’s getting better…
If you were around Temple Emanuel this August, you couldn’t have missed all the renovations. Floors in the Social Hall and swing space were being removed and then replaced with very attractive tiles. The ceilings of those rooms were being painted and a new roof was put on the Sanctuary building. In addition, the building’s duct work was cleaned, and arrangements were made to fix the gutters.
Outdoor lights were also installed so that we can have evening events on the TE grounds (Hopefully you will be at our September 9th barbeque to kick off the celebration of our second half century.) The improvements are not only visual. As membership grows, members are sitting further back in the Sanctuary. On the High Holy Days we expect that people will be sitting deeper into the Social Hall. And those members will now be able to hear. We have purchased a new speaker system that will be utilized in the Social Hall. Arrangements are also being made to improve the acoustics of the room now as well.
The improvements are not limited to the Sanctuary building. The TE House is also being renovated. Though the TE Board had planned on making changes to the House, we were forced to make the changes sooner than intended as a leak from below had caused a flood in the step-down room. As a result the carpet had to be removed and the walls opened up to both remove soggy materials and locate the leak.
The educational system at TE has also been revamped. New teachers have been hired to replace those who have retired, and a new curriculum has been put in place. Exciting programming for all members is also on the way.
Some of this work is being paid for by insurance proceeds (I’ve discussed this in a previous column), some by our operating budget, and much of it is funded by the Second Half-Century Fund. By now you have undoubtedly figured out what comes next—a very gentle reminder that if you haven’t already made a commitment to the Second Half-Century Fund, please do so now. While I would prefer that the commitments be large, you are hereby reminded that commitments of any amount are appreciated.
Getting so much better all the time.