More Great News about RS Building Expansion
Our Beacon on Broad plans were covered again this morning! Check out today’s article here and listen to KYW for more. This transformation belongs to the whole congregation! Please participate by contributing to the to Legacy Campaign. And learn more about the project here.
Building for Profound Connections
Legacy renovation and expansion begins next month! Visionary design ensures this is not just beautiful square footage; it is values-driven space that will enable us to further our vision: to create profound connections.
(architectural rendering by KieranTimberlake, as viewed from Broad Street)
Read more in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer.
“A Place at The Table” Film Screening and Jewish Values about Hunger
Understand how we are “One Nation, Underfed,” at our Sun, Nov. 3, 10am screening of the Jeff Bridges narrated film about hunger in America, A Place at the Table, followed by a discussion led by The Food Trust executive director, Yael Lehman. A part of our What is Your Food Worth partnership with Temple University’s Feinstein Center.
When I was in college, I was introduced for the first time to the extended Jewish Grace After Meals blessing recited by traditional Jews. I thought the Birkat Hamazon version Reform Jews recited was long, but this traditional text at least quadrupled the blessing I had heard in my youth.
As I listened, I noticed that some people at the Brandeis Shabbat dinner, omitted a verse. Instead of reciting the words, they just hummed the tune when it was time to say the line that reads: “I have not seen a righteous person forsaken, or children begging for bread.” Continue reading
Hate Crimes: A Desecration of God’s Name
Rabbi Dr. Ron Kronish has spent decades pursuing reconciliation in Israel. As director of the Interreligious Coordinating Council in Israel, Kronish teaches that Judaism, Christianity and Islam all teach peace. Too often, however, they are corrupted to fuel hatred and violence. Kronish works to harness the teachings and values of the three monotheistic religions and transform them into a source of reconciliation and co-existence. Here is his Huff Post column about this week’s extreme vandalism against Arabs in Israel, and his call to understand such distortion of Judaism as a desecration of God’s name.
A Single Carrot and a Jewish Food Movement
Explore “A New Judaism from the Tabletop: Food and the Transformation of American Jewish Life” in our conversation with Professor Lila Berman at RS on Wed., Oct. 16, 7:00 pm, in a keynote sponsored by the Dr. Bernard & Rose Susan Hirschhorn Behrend Fund, and whet your appetite with these reflections…Last Wednesday evening I walked down to the RS kitchen to pick up my CSA vegetables, and and to say hello to this week’s team of Caring Community congregants mitzvah-cooking for other congregants who are returning from the hospital. There, we also had some congregants cracking garlic. Lots and lots of garlic. It looked like 50 peeled cloves in the pile! Our CSA farmer, Phil, had asked RS to peel cloves so that each could be planted as a bulb and grow garlic for the next season. So even on North Broad Street, Farmer Phil had found a way for us to connect to our food source and in a way, to farm! Continue reading
Support Group for Parents of Addicts and Alcoholics
Learn about our Caring Community’s support for people struggling with addiction and brokenness (congregants, or not; Jewish or not):
Support Group for Parents of Addicts and Alcoholics
*2nd and 4th Tuesdays starting on November 12 from 7-8:30pm
*Rodeph Shalom, parking available, enter on Mt. Vernon Street
Dear Community,
We are members of the Caron Parents Group; parents of children with drug and alcohol addictions and, often, co-occurring mental illness. These diseases affect their mental, physical, and emotional well-being. Their addiction and suffering has made us sick, too. How can a parent not be affected by the behaviors and trauma of an addicted child?Continue reading
Bugs in My Kale: Bringing Intention to Our Tabletop
Week after week I bring home my box of CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) vegetables. Recently, I was putting my veggies away in the refrigerator, and planning my strategies for getting my family to eat so many vegetables in just one week. Kale?: kale chips, kale pie, kale soup. Red, green and purple peppers?: the blindfold-guess-the-color-of-the pepper taste test game.
As I was planning, and storing the vegetables in my kitchen, I noticed a lot of bugs crawling on my vegetables. Continue reading
One in 40 Ashkenazi Jews Carries a BRCA Cancer Gene Mutation! Oct. 6 Community-Wide Symposium
The “Angelina Jolie effect” has quadrupled the number of women seeking genetic counseling regarding hereditary breast and ovarian cancer and learning about rigorous screening and preventative surgery. Join us for the potentially life-saving awareness campaign and spread the word! All are invited to the Hereditary Cancers symposium at RS on Sun, Oct. 6, 10:30 am, where Basser Research Center director Dr. Susan Domchek, facilitated by Philly 57’s health reporter Stephanie Stahl, will speak about the BRCA 1 and 2 cancer gene mutations–carried by men and women– and experts will guide us towards resources. If you cannot attend but want guidance, and especially for testing for a family member with cancer, contact: basserinfo@uphs.upenn.edu. Together we will pursue the mitzvah of pekuach nefesh–to save a life.
This Coming Out Month, Know Thyself
In honor of Coming Out Month we are thrilled to welcome Dr. Dana Beyer on Wed., Oct. 2 at 7:00 pm: “Boychik-Treading Water and Breaking Out-A Life in Two Acts.” Dr. Beyer, a woman of trans history, will inspire us with her message that “Life is to be lived to the fullest, and that can’t be done ensconced in a closet. Know thyself–as hard as it may be, as long as it may take, you can and must break out.” Continue reading
