By Rabbi Eli Freedman

In the spirit of lifting up women’s voices, I want to begin with the words of Rabbi Elaine Zecher of Temple Israel in Boston. She writes, “Women have been wronged.Children have been wronged as well. No one is left untouched in the destructive legislation concerning abortions—especially, of course, women’s bodies, which have been viewed as the property of government.” Rabbi Zecher then goes on to quote this week’s portion, Behar, with the words: “Do not wrong one another, but fear your God; for I the Eternal am your God.”

We consider the specific command “not to wrong another” in light of legislation in Alabama, Missouri, Ohio, Georgia, and elsewhere that has robbed women and those who love them of their own agency and, preemptively, in some states, indicted them as potential murderers. Although these heinous behaviors of lawmakers reflect a sinister strategy to get to the Supreme Court, they have trampled human dignity and decency on the way.

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by Rabbi Jill Maderer

I am so grateful to serve a congregation that cares not only about its immediate needs, but also about the broader Jewish community. All of our clergy work on initiatives beyond our walls. Such work nourishes us in our professional growth, contributes to the greater good of American Judaism, and offers us the opportunity for regional and national impact.

For instance, Cantor Frankel recently shared in the May Bulletin about her upcoming role as an officer on the Board of the American Conference of Cantors. Rabbi Freedman most recently joined the Board of Interfaith Family and continues his involvement in POWER and local and global multi-faith work, and I am concluding my term on the Board of the Jewish Federation and also service on the Board of Interfaith Philadelphia and on the Central Conference of American Rabbis Task Force on the Experience of Women in the Rabbinate.

I have taken on a new short-term role, and I have an idea about how some of you might like to be involved. This December, I will lead the Friday evening Shabbat service at the Biennial convention of the leadership of the Union for Reform Judaism. I am excited for the opportunity, and I enthusiastically invite you to consider joining me in Chicago for the 5,000-person convention of Reform Jews.

The large number of participants means this service is quite a production, so I am already planning the service. Presently, I am studying readings, poetry, and commentary I might like to incorporate into the service. I am focusing on readings that highlight relationships, connection, intimacy, and authenticity. Here is where I would like to invite your involvement. As I collect the commentaries, I would love to study them with you! I am so curious to know what you would find inspiring.

I plan to study the prayers and commentaries that I am considering for the service, along with parts of that week’s Torah portion, at our regular Torah Study session on Saturday, June 8 from 9:15-10:30am. I hope you will join the conversation!

by Rabbi Jill Maderer

I write this having just returned from the annual convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR). There, I moderated a panel about important work that is now taking place to combat anti-Semitism. This work was unknown to most of my colleagues, and I thought it may be unknown to you as well. So I would like to share with you what I learned.

The panel was comprised of Amy Spitalnick and Roberta Kaplan. On Shabbat, August 12, 2017, hundreds of Nazis or White Supremacists descended on Charlottesville. Amy and Roberta are the people who are suing the Nazis.

Amy Spitalnick is the Executive Director of Integrity First for America, an organization which holds accountable those who threaten the principles of our democracy. Integrity First is funding and supporting the Sines v. Kessler lawsuit filed by a coalition of Charlottesville community members against the Nazis responsible for the violence. Previously, Amy served as senior policy advisor and communications director to the New York Attorney General, and as advisor and spokesperson for the New York City mayor.

Roberta Kaplan, or Robbie, the founding partner at Kaplan Hecker & Fink, is a commercial and civil rights litigator, and an expert in cutting-edge areas of law. Robbie’s work is “Where Were You When” kind of work. Where were you when the Supreme Court ruled for Robbie’s client Edie Windsor and for marriage equality? I remember where I was. Where were you when the witness of #MeToo became the fighting words of #TimesUp? When Robbie co-founded the Times Up Legal Defense Fund? I remember where I was. Where were you when… the racists, the anti-Semites, chanted “Blood and soil” and then actually shed blood in Charlottesville? I remember where I was.

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by Rabbi Maderer

This article originally appeared in the March issue of the Rodeph Shalom Bulletin.

Last month, I expressed here, and in a sermon, my gratitude about my extended family’s trip to Israel. Several things made it deeply meaningful. I have an almost life-long relationship with Israel, having begun my visits as a child. In preparation, I read from Rabbi Larry Hoffman’s book about spiritual pilgrimage to Israel. My children were moved to journal every night we were there, and for a progressive lens, my family traveled with the Association of Reform Zionists of America (ARZA). The ARZA-led experience was important to me because it meant a critically thinking guide whose approach would feed my passion for Reform Zionism. Last month, I shared with you one critical aspect of Reform Zionism– that we need to own our place in Israel, our place at the Western Wall/Kotel, and our authentic place in Judaism.

This month, I would like to share another critical aspect of Reform Zionism. Much like Reform Judaism is devoted to cultivating a meaningful Jewish community and also caring for the other, Reform Zionism is devoted to the love for and support of the Jewish homeland and also caring for the other. Support for a Two-State Solution indicates the commitment to a home for two different peoples–both Jews and Palestinians. Too often, leadership voices and the media express polarizing views, as if we may only advocate for the Jews or for the Palestinians, as if human beings may care either for our own or for the other. I believe this is the false choice of those on the right who won’t speak of hard truths about the occupied territories to be spoken, and of those on the left who neglect to be transparent that Boycott Divestment Sanctions does not seek to make Israel a fairer place, it seeks to eliminate Israel. In a state established in the wake of the Holocaust and where over a million Jewish refugees expelled from Arab countries landed, in a state where security is so different that my hotels had bomb shelters but no chain locks on the room doors, and in a state that has occupied territories of other peoples, I cannot see how either the far right or the far left can alone lift up the truth.

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This article is an update from our Visioning Team, co-chaired by Aaron Weiss and Hank Bernstein, since the initial October meeting. Working with synagogue expert Rabbi Larry Hoffman, we are embarked on what we hope will usher in a brilliant new chapter in the history of Rodeph Shalom.

The Team held its second meeting in November and, inspired by Rabbi Hoffman, we followed his meeting sequence (or protocol), which includes welcoming the group; giving each team member the opportunity to express a thought or experience that has occurred since our last meeting; sharing a meal; studying a text; engaging in group work; distilling what we have learned; and ending in grateful prayer.

In expressing our reactions to the recent killing of eleven Jews at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, we spoke of a feeling of numbness and vulnerability, and then moved to a spirit of hope and positive action that is possible in the wake of the horrific event.

Our study was centered around a contemporary midrashic monologue by our biblical matriarch Sarah, in which Sarah fills in the blanks of the story of The Binding of Isaac told only from Abraham’s perspective in the Torah. Our reflections on the midrash included that each of us may be at times “unsung” and each person has stories that if told, could be important in informing the understanding of others; and that we need to act with intention, as if the very survival of the Jewish people depends on us and our actions.

Our exercise was centered around discussion in small groups designed to elicit reflections about our personal relations with our sacred community in order to develop powerful language and statements that describe Rodeph Shalom’s vision. By articulating our own experiences, perceptions, and feelings, we sought to identify a set of unifying words and themes that might resonate with our stakeholders as part of the statement we’re developing to communicate “who we are, or who we want to be” and a corresponding statement to express “how we show it, or how we would show it,” as described by Rabbi Hoffman.

Within the small groups each team member responded to these three questions:

• Why did you begin coming to Rodeph Shalom?
• What is the current impact of Rodeph Shalom on your life?
• What is one aspiration that you’d love to see or grow at Rodeph Shalom in the future?

Given our diversity, it was no surprise how many unique accounts of RS were shared. Yet, across those reflections, a number of familiar themes emerged including: feeling welcomed, guiding life cycles, offering meaning and inspiring clergy.

We would love to hear your reponses to the three questions above, and invite you to submit them to Hank Bernstein  or Aaron Weiss. You can also leave a comment on this blog entry.

If you would like to help underwrite this important Visioning Task Force with Rabbi Larry Hoffman, please contact Catherine Fischer. Thank you to Carol and Horace Barsh for making the first gift towards underwriting this vital project.

Just last night at Rodeph Shalom, we experienced the remarkable performance of Broadway and TV star Tovah Feldshuh in Dancing With Giants. What is striking about the play is the friendship of the characters, crossing racial and religious barriers to come together, particularly during the 1930’s and the rise of Nazi Germany, a time of disinformation and political upheaval.

With this perspective, we are writing regarding our view, articulated in the press release below, on how we respond to the Alt-Right rally by the “Proud Boys,” an organization with anti-Semitic, white supremacist, and anti-immigrant views, to be held near Independence Mall on Shabbat, November 17.

It is vital for our congregation to teach our Jewish values, to be aware of bigotry, and to stand against hate.  But it is also important to avoid bringing extra attention to hate groups and to avoid allowing them to hijack our community’s practice of Judaism, especially on Shabbat.

How powerful it is when we are together on Shabbat, teaching Torah, caring for others in our community, and living our Jewish values.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Philadelphia, PA- November 15, 2018

In anticipation of the upcoming Alt-Right rally in Philadelphia, Congregation Rodeph Shalom is encouraging its community to join together in worship at our congregation, as we do each week. We believe that we resist hate when we more deeply and joyfully engage in our Jewish lives.  Our Jewish tradition teaches us to come together, to pray, to perform acts of justice, and to study Jewish values such as this one taught by the Talmud: “The first person was created alone, for the sake of peace among people, so that no one could say to another, ‘My ancestor was greater than yours.”

It is the goal of those holding extreme right wing anti-Semitic, white supremacist, and anti-immigrant views, to create conflict. To avoid helping them to create a newsworthy counter-protest, we have chosen to ignore them, to live our Jewish lives, and on our own terms, to make clear our Jewish values.

We remain grateful to the multi-faith community in Philadelphia who, in the wake of tragedies such as Charlottesville and Pittsburgh, has stood with us in solidarity and whose steadfast presence in our lives reminds us the bigots remain on the fringe and cannot be normalized.  When those from other religions and groups feel vulnerable, we stand with them as well.  The bonds of love that we share cannot be broken.

I imagine many of you are feeling a lot of emotions right now. Sadness, anger, fear, comfort, faith, hope… I pray that we all continue to feel, and that we have the strength to share our pain with our fellow congregants who surround us now.

I imagine many of you came here tonight looking for an answer. How do we respond to the horrific murder of 11 congregants at the Tree of Life synagogue in our sister city of Pittsburgh?

I don’t have the answers. However, in times of sorrow and pain, I look to our tradition. To our Tree of Life, our Torah. In this week’s parsha, Chayei Sarah, the Life of Sarah, we are confronted with the deaths of Abraham and Sarah, the matriarch and patriarch of our people, and we learn how to mourn, how to honor the dead, how to comfort the bereaved and perhaps most importantly how to carry on; how to keep living proud Jewish lives.

First, we mourn:

Sarah died in Kiryat-Arba—now Hebron—in the land of Canaan; and Abraham proceeded to mourn for Sarah and to bewail her. (Genesis 23:2)

ויבא אברהם לספד לשרה

Although often translated as mourn, the Hebrew לספד is translated by the commentator Sforno as eulogize. This week, our community buried 11 righteous martyrs who died while worshiping. We remember them and we eulogize them. The very name of our portion tonight, the Life of Sarah, reminds us, that at a time of mourning, we focus not on how someone died, but in how they lived. I encourage all of you to go online and read about these amazing 11 Jews who brought so much light into this world.

In Judaism, after burial, our tradition teaches that we then turn our attention to the mourner. There are a few prayers in our tradition, most notably, the mourner’s kaddish, that are only said in the presence of a minyan – a group of 10 Jewish adults. Our tradition forces us to be in community at this time. Thank you all for being here tonight.

In comforting our community, we deal with the very real trauma that hangs over our people. The rabbis, in a commentary connecting this week’s portion with last week’s story of the Binding of Isaac, the akeida, when Abraham almost sacrificed his son Isaac, illustrates how trauma can have drastic effects on all of us. Rashi writes, “The death of Sarah follows the Binding of Isaac, because through the announcement of the Binding  she received a great shock (literally, her soul flew from her) and she died.”

Trauma is powerful and should not be minimized. Please know that we are here if you want to talk. Our clergy is available and we have therapists in the congregation ready to listen.

It has been almost a week since the deadly attack. We have been sitting shiva this week. We have sat and mourned. We have received condolences calls from so many in our greater community. However, tradition teaches that shabbat takes precedence over shiva. We end shiva tonight to come together as proud Jews and allies, to worship and celebrate Shabbat.

After mourning for his beloved, our Torah portion continues:

ויקם אברהם מעל פני מתו וידבר

Abraham rose from beside his dead, and spoke… (Genesis 23:3)

Tonight, we rise and speak. Everyone one of you that showed up tonight, everyone of you that said fear will not define us, everyone of you that said, “I am proud to be Jewish,” and everyone of you that stands with your Jewish neighbors has affirmed this central message.

The Reform rabbi and post-Holocaust theologian Emil Fackenheim proposed adding a 614th commandment, “Thou shalt not let Hitler have a posthumous victory.” For Fackenheim this meant living proud Jewish lives in the wake of the Holocaust. This meant not being defined by victimhood. In honor of the martyrs and survivors, on whose shoulders we stand, we proudly stand and say, I am a Jew.

After Sarah’s death, her son Isaac gets married. We read, “Isaac loved [Rebekah], and thus found comfort after his mother’s death.” (Genesis 25:67) Although we lose the father and mother of our people, our text reminds us that our people will survive – there is going to be the next generation. Abraham and Sarah’s legacy will continue on after their death. We will survive, we have always survived. And we will not only survive, we will flourish.

This week we saw record numbers of people reaching out to the congregation about membership. Yesterday, a young woman completed her conversion to Judaism. And I, inspired by my friend Len Lipkin, have felt compelled to wear my kippah while out on the street – something I never did before this week. The 11 victims in Pittsburgh died while practicing their Judaism. To honor their memory, let us boldly practice our Judaism.

Living proud Jewish lives also means standing up for our Jewish values of multi-faith dialogue, of protecting the vulnerable in our society, of working to end gun violence, and getting out the vote.

When Abraham dies at the end of this week’s Torah portion, he is laid to rest by his two sons, Isaac and Ishmael. Isaac, the son who is tasked with carrying forward our Jewish tradition, and Ishmael, the progenitor of the Muslim people. In times of sorrow, our tradition teaches, we need each other.

The Muslim website Launchgood has raised over $200,000 to cover the costs of the funerals. And last Sunday’s vigil brought over 1500 community members from all walks of life into our sanctuary to stand as one, united against hate.

This attack was antisemitic. It was an attack on Jews. And it was also an attack on all the vulnerable communities in our country. This attack did not occur in a vacuum. I remember sitting with many of you at Mother Bethel AME church 3 years ago after another white supremacist attacked an AME church in Charleston. And even last week, Maurice Stallard and Vicki Lee Jones, two black Americans, were murdered in a Kentucky grocery store after a white supremacist failed to get into a black church down the road.

Boldly practicing our Judaism in the public square means standing up for the vulnerable in our midst. We are commanded no less than 36 times in the Torah to love the stranger for we were strangers in the land of Egypt. Abraham is a stranger in the land Canaan when Sarah died. When seeking her burial plot, Ephron, of the native Hittites offers the land for free. (Genesis 23:11)

Tree of Life synagogue was targeted because they support immigrants. Specifically, HIAS, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. The recent attacks on immigrants are directly related to antisemitism – both seek to demonize the ‘Other.’ Our country’s leadership needs to stop calling the Central Americans approaching the US border a “migrant caravan”- they are asylum seekers escaping conflicts partly caused by the US. They are us. I remember being at a shiva a couple years ago for a Holocaust survivor and refugee. His son showed me a notebook that his father had brought with him on his journey from Europe to South America and ultimately to the United States. At the back of the notebook was the word HIAS, with a phone number written next to it. That man was named Andres ‘Bandi’ Weisz. His son Philippe is the managing attorney of HIAS PA and will be speaking alongside a panel of other immigration experts here on the evening of November 28th.

A friend recently sent me an article about a gun shop owner in Colorado offering free AR15s to rabbis. Although perhaps coming from a place of love, I am not interested. Our tradition is one of peace, and assault style rifles are partially to blame for the murder of those 11 Jews. Instead of AR15s, another way we can respond to the Pittsburgh shooting is through our continued advocacy for gun safety. Our congregation is part of a national coalition called Do Not Stand Idly By, and I encourage anyone who wants to respond to this tragedy through gun violence prevention advocacy to join us.

Lastly, vote. VOTE. VOTE. It is no coincidence that anti-semitic incidents have been on the rise over the past two years. In 2017, we saw a nearly 60 percent increase in anti-Semitic incidents over the previous year. Even this week, after the attack in Pittsburgh, synagogues and cemeteries were vandalized. Antisemitism is real.

In a recent interview, George Selim of the Anti-Defamation League said:

There has been a normalization of hate and extremism both online and offline. The normalization of rhetoric – from the highest levels of retweets of individuals like David Duke, from posts and restatements that are associated with white nationalists in this country – has almost become normal or part of a global discourse.

Words matter. Voting can make a difference.

So how do we respond? Although our mourning may never truly end, with Shabbat, our period of shiva comes to a close and we begin to emerge back into the world. Find your path – but don’t remain seated. Stand up. Speak out. Our Torah commands us, “Do not remain indifferent.” (Deuteronomy 22:3)

They say a ship is safest in its harbor but that’s not what ships were built to do.

Shabbat Shalom

As we sang at the Interfaith Vigil on Sunday night, Rabbi Emeritus and past Pittsburgh rabbi Alan Fuchs asks “If not now, tell me when,” in this reflection– Rabbi Maderer

This past week should be a wake-up call for all of us. It is clear, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that we now have an atmosphere of hate in this country.  The threat of violence (bombs and tweets) and the murders that have occurred, in the African American community and in the Jewish community, were completely predictable.  I alluded to it all in my sermons of the past three years.

So here we are – a major congregation in Philadelphia and in the Reform movement, and what do we do?.  I write this as a rabbi-emeritus of Rodeph Shalom, so you may agree or disagree, but I do not speak for the congregation or its clergy or leadership.

It is my firm belief that we are living through a period that closely resembles Germany in the 1930’s. Tragically, the Jews of Germany and the world believed this was just another blip in the arc of history. We know it was not. When I see the Trump rallies and the people behind him reveling in the language of violence that is a part of every such gathering, my heart and mind tell me that all that is missing is the sig heil salute of Nazi Germany. It is a frightening scene.Continue reading

“Naamah’s Voice”: Cantor Erin Frankel’s sermon from Friday, October 12

I went to the movies recently. I went to see A Star is Born, because I felt an overwhelming compulsion to see it. I last saw a movie, two actually, over the summer, while my children were at overnight camp and I had time to do things like see adult movies. I saw Won’t You Be My Neighbor, a beautiful tribute to Fred Rogers that, while honoring the beauty of his soul I must admit depressed me just a bit because it seems we don’t have too many souls of pure goodness leading us in this moment of history. I cried at the end of that one, tears of loss and of admiration. The other movie I saw was BlackkKlansman, the Spike Lee movie about the black man who infiltrated the KKK in the 1970s. What a brilliant movie that was, what powerful images, and in my opinion one of the best responses to the current administration that I have seen. Wow, did I cry at the end of that one, tears of bewilderment and of a new sense of understanding.

So why the compulsion to see A Star is Born? The reviews told me I would cry, and I felt an overwhelming need for that emotional release again. And this movie was a good cry. The story rides on deeply passionate feelings about love, the passage of time, personal demons, and loyalty. It’s easy to understand why this story has been remade three times, it still lands. But this current remake arrives at a moment in our society when one aspect of the story lands more powerfully than all the others. For this is a movie about a woman finding her voice.

Yes, the men around her guide her, lead her, make things possible for her, and manipulate her, and that is part of the story. They do that because they see that she has the ability to say something in her music that people want to hear. The movie keeps returning to this message as the ultimate power of music making and the key to success: the power to make people stop and listen. Everyone around her believes this woman can do that and she should be propelled forward so she will do that.Continue reading