SHABBAT SHALOM, GESHER SHALOM!


 
June 30th, 2017
 
  [  HOME ] [ MESSENGER ]  [  CONTACT RABBI STERN]
Shabbat Times: 
Candle Lighting
Morning Service
Mincha 
8:13pm
9:30am
8:00pm
 
 
  Forecast: 87/Chance of Rain

IN THIS ISSUE...
Our Minyan Needs Your Help! 
Click here  to find out how you can help. 
KIDDUSH 
Join us for Kiddush on Shabbat. This is the perfect opportunity for us to experience community and get to know each other better
Mazal Tov! 
Birthdays & Anniversaries 
July 1-7 
Faith Dash Guigliano
Marianne Wolff
Karen Reisner
Norman Schaer
Andrew Schulman
Joseph Hyman
Shira Kindler
Paige Alenick
Martha Shemin
Michael Guigliano
Rachel Schulman
Lynda Sussman
 
Michael & Simcha Hausman
Laurie & Ira Smilovitz
Ann & Norman Schaer
 
 

 
   UPCOMING EVENTS

Monday 7/2
Morning Service 7:00 am
Evening Service 7:45 pm
Tuesday 7/4
OFFICE CLOSED
Morning Minyan 9:00 am
Friday 7/7
Bible Study 11:30 am


 
 
Tomorrow morning at 9:30 service...
Neil Dasgupta will share with us impressions from his recent trip to Jewish sites and memorials in Germany and Poland


HAPPY 4TH OF July!
Hate Has No Business Here
   
Over the next few days, you'll see plenty of American flags. 
But among the standard depictions of the Stars and Stripes, you might spot a newcomer. 
Over the next week, small businesses across the City will be putting up a version of the American flag - one stylized with a heart instead of stars and often with the phrase "Hate Has No Business Here" displayed underneath the stripes. 
It's  part of a campaign to fight racism, xenophobia, homophobia and misogyny, particularly as they affect members of the business community. 
It was the idea of Amanda Neville, the owner of the Tipsy wine store in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. 
A business owner in her neighborhood experienced anti-Semitic harassment, Ms. Neville said, "and there was an uptick in general nastiness after the election." 
Ms. Neville said she started the campaign to express solidarity with her fellow small-business people and to advance the idea that kindness and acceptance are patriotic virtues. 
"We want these to be an indicator of a safe space," she said of the flags, and she expressed hope that the sentiment would stick around even when the posters come down.
   
Tomorrow at Minha/ S'uda Sh'lishit/Ma'ariv/Havdala...       
we will read a heartfelt and powerful piece, "I'm Glad the Dyke March Banned Jewish Stars", about the Lesbian March in Chicago in which three Jewish women with Jewish stars on their banners were banned from participating. It's officially called "intersectionality", but Alan Dershowitz is right: it's just a sanitized way of saying Anti-Semitism. Here are some background articles:
Dykes vs. Kikes
Chicago's Dyke March targets LGBTQ Jews with old-fashioned anti-Semitism   
Ban on Jewish Pride Flags at Gay March Called 'Unbridled Hypocrisy'
Jewish and human rights groups want an apology for three women sent away at a Chicago Pride march    
Love-and Learn About-Your Jewish LGBT Neighbor 
 
A reading list for Pride    




 
Another Reason to Join me at AIPAC Next March!
I'll admit, it is a bit perverse, but you can join me at AIPAC, not just to support Israel, but also to protest the shameful, despicable, underhanded, (name your other uncomplimentary adjective) for the double- betrayal voted on by Netanyahu's cabinet last Sunday at the Kotel. It is the cabinet and the Haredim who violated the sanctity of that place, and not Women of the Wall or the liberal streams of Judaism who are often accused of doing so.
So come join me at AIPAC, where we will show our displeasure by booing, walking out, boycotting and/or protesting any Israeli ministers who dares to appear either in person or by video hookup, up-to-and-including the Prime Minister, who voted for or passively allowed these policies.
Don't know what I'm talking about? Read on, become enraged and call me about AIPAC:
Decaying Relations with Diaspora Yield Bold Words in Israel, but Little Action
Israeli politicians recognize the concerns of American Jewry, but rarely make policy based on them
Trust Bibi? Only about as far as I can throw him!
Netanyahu Defends Suspending the Western Wall Agreement
The prime minister believes that construction on a non-Orthodox prayer space at the wall can now proceed. Diaspora groups are dubious. 


\


 
Israel Culture  
A Writer Walks Into a Bar, and Israel Celebrates
Novelist David Grossman
's winning the Man Booker International Prize is a moment of national pride.              
                                                        


 


 
Iran/Hezbollah
British Jewry Feels Left Behind Amid the Election Turmoil
For many U.K. Jews, a London march featuring Hezbollah flags compounded their unease over the recent electoral success of the scandal-ridden Labour Party.                    
The Iranian Intellectual Who Inspired the Islamic Revolution and Admired Israel
 Jalal Al-e Ahmad's astonishing and paradoxical account of his 1963 travels in the Holyland, newly translated and reissued as 'The Israeli Republic' 



 


 


 


 
Odds & Ends
RIP Paddington Bear Author, Michael Bond
No, he wasn't Jewish, but Bond said the Paddington character was partially inspired by Jewish refugee children he had seen arriving at London's Reading train station during World War II. "I remember their labels round their necks...                                                                                                                                   
For Blind Israelis, Every Guide Dog Has Its Day
Use of the animals is growing in Israel, although the lone accredited school training them in Hebrew struggles with lack of funding and awareness
In advance of the Men's Club trip to Yogi Berra field in July 18:
NASCAR's First Israeli Driver Makes History
Alon Day stands out in a sport in which most drivers and fans are Christian  
From a Culture of anti-Semitism to Becoming a Jew
 A Libyan's nomadic journey of self-discovery and understanding                                                                 
 
And finally... If you really want a bona fide exposure to what Kabbalah/Jewish mysticism and its central text, the Zohar, are really about, this article is a great introduction. It focuses on Rabbi Danny Matt, a colleague of mine, who has recently completed a decades'-long enterprise of translating the Zohar into English. His translation is at once scholarly, nuanced and loving.
Zohar's Translation Unlocks the Secrets of Jewish Mysticism in an Age of Extremism


 




















Torah Portion 
 
TORAH Page 880            HAFTARAH Page 909
Hukkat 
The overwhelming emphasis on life that is basic to Judaism can be discerned in the ritual that begins this week's parasha: the use of ashes from a slaughtered red heifer for purification of anyone who has come into contact with the dead.
 
The thirty-eight years of additional wandering in the wilderness (as a punishment for the lack of resolve to conquer Canaan) are passed over with little detail. Miriam dies in the fortieth year of the journey, and shortly thereafter, following Moses' impatience when he strikes a rock to bring forth water from it rather than speaking to it, Aaron dies as well.
 
The Israelites now prepare to conquer the land in earnest. Unable to enter directly from the west, they journey south of Edom to avoid conflict with Esau's descendants; they will enter the land from the east. They successfully repulse an attack from the king of Arad. But spiritual weariness and the recurrent complaint about lack of food and water result in divine punishment: fiery serpents whose stings are lethal. Moses fashions a brass serpent that is carried throughout the camp suspended from a pole; whoever looks upon it will recover from the snake bites.
 
The Israelites journey northward, conquering Emor and Bashan. The Israelites are now in possession of all territory east of the Jordan River from the Arnon to Mount Hermon. They encamp on the east bank of the Jordan, opposite the Moabite town of Jericho.