November 24, 2017 | 6 Kislev 5778
The Sanctuary in Song
by Sarina Elenbogen-Siegel

The Ethiopian Community Association of Chicago (ECAC), located in the heart of Rogers Park, serves as a cultural center to Ethiopians in Chicago but their primary goal is aiding refugees. Coming from all over the globe, refugees enter this place and receive help. The ECAC offers housing assistance, English lessons, and manages hundreds of cases per year. The Ethiopian community itself, which has faced and continues to face hardships in America, extends a loving hand and supports the stranger; helping them to have safe and adjusted lives in this new world.

The ECAC also has a day camp for youngsters at which I had the pleasure of working this past summer. Most of the children were Ethiopian and came to America as infants. Some of the kids at this camp were refugees from Afghanistan who had arrived nearly months ago. Regardless of where each child came from and how long they have lived in America, the ECAC was their sanctuary, a colorful place where they were nurtured and felt comfortable. 

Once a week I taught song lessons, and decided to teach the beautiful hymn “Sanctuary” which I had learned and fell in love with at Beth Emet, my sanctuary. This quickly became the kids’ favorite song to sing; they requested it each week. I saw the look in their eyes as the power of music touched them and made them feel connected to each other and to their larger community. Their stories and their voices moved me. At the end of the summer, the youth director and I put on a ceremony for the parents and campers to feel proud of what they learned. I am so grateful to have been a part of this beautiful community. 

If you’d like to share your thoughts with the congregation on what sanctuary means to you - a time in which you felt like a sanctuary dwelled within you, or how we can extend sanctuary to those who need it, feel free to reach out to Ellen Blum Barish and David Barish
Sarina Elenbogen-Siegel is a sophomore at Indiana University studying Jewish Sacred Music who says that Beth Emet is her sanctuary.
Upcoming Events
Indivisible - a film about the fight to reunite families separated by deportation
Saturday, December 2 at 4:00 p.m.
Indivisible is an award-winning, feature-length documentary film about the real people at the heart of our nation's immigration debate. Renata, Evelyn, and Antonio were young children when their parents brought them to the U.S. in search on a better life; they were teenagers when their mothers, fathers, and siblings were deported. Today, they are known as Dreamers. 

Free and open to the community. RSVP appreciated or call 847-869-4230 ext. 300.
In Exodus 25:8, God says to Moses, “Create for me a sanctuary, and I will dwell among them.” These words set the building of the Tabernacle into motion. But the verse’s ending has an interesting grammatical anomaly. Instead of telling the Israelites to create a sanctuary so God can dwell within it, the wording suggests that the dwelling may be amon g the people, or within them, suggesting that God can live within us rather than exclusively in a physical sanctuary. This year at Beth Emet we’ll explore the multiples meanings of sanctuary—as physical space to gather as a community for prayer, as spiritual space where we feel safe and whole, and as an attitude that is welcoming and accepting of everyone.

This weekly e-mail project, curated by David and Ellen Barish, allows congregants to express themselves in any of a variety of media: speechmaking, poetry, essay, story, photography, film, paint, sculpture, printmaking, textile, sound or music. If you'd like to contribute, please email Ellen and/or David .

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Beth Emet The Free Synagogue
1224 Dempster Street
 Evanston, IL 60202
                          847-869-4230                           

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