Photo by Ira Dorfman


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>Latest Newsletter with the President's and Rabbi's Letters

>Temple Officers 2009-2010

 

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Ongoing Events


Sunday Breakfast
$5 members/$6 non-members

NEW! Please RSVP:
 

 


Photo by Ron Lamkin

 

Minyan Schedule

Please consider attending a Minyan service. Our Sunday morning Minyan services are at 8:30 AM and Thursdays at 8 AM.  Your attendance is very much appreciated.

TBI Upcoming

Friday, March 5, 8:00 PM

Shabbat Services and Oneg

Special guest, Ellen Messer

Sunday, March 7, 9:30 AM

Board of Directors meeting

Friday, March 12, 8:00 PM

Shabbat Services and Healing Service led by Rabbi Sokoll, Cantor Welber and Marjie Sokoll.

Sunday, March 14, 9:00 AM

Breakfast with Guest Speaker
Rabbi Jeffrey Foust

Please RSVP:
 

Friday, March 19, 8:00 PM

Shabbat Services and Oneg

Friday, March 26, 8:00 PM

Shabbat Services with guest Rabbi and Oneg Shabbat.

Tuesday, March 30, 9:00 AM

Passover Services. Kiddush sponsored by Julian Lander in memory of his beloved father, Marvin (Frank) Lander.

Tuesday, March 30, 6:30 PM

Second Passover Seder led by Rabbi Sokoll and Cantor Welber

Please RSVP:
 

Friday, April 2, 8:00 PM

Shabbat Services and Oneg

Sunday, April 4, 9:30 AM

Board of Directors meeting

Tuesday, April 6, 9:00 AM

Passover Services and Yiskor.

Friday, April 9, 8:00 PM

Shabbat Services and Oneg sponsered by Julian Lander in memory of his beloved mother, Miriam Feingold D'Amato.

Sunday, April 11, 9:00 AM

Breakfast - Guest Speaker TBD
Please RSVP:
 

Friday, April 16, 8:00 PM

Shabbat Services and Oneg

Monday, April 19

Yom Ha-Atzmaut - Israel Independence Day

Friday, April 23, 8:00 PM

Musical Shabbat Services and Oneg sponsored by the Chebot family.

Sunday, April 25, 9:00 AM

Breakfast - Guest Speaker TBD
Please RSVP:
 

Friday, April 30, 8:00 PM

Shabbat Services and Oneg

 

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Member of the Synagogue Council of Massachusetts

Office Hours: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday 11AM to 4PM

Susan Mason, Secretary - 781-284-8388

Note! The office will be closed from February 8 to March 10.
Leave a message and your call will be returned ASAP or email
templebnaiisrael@tbirevere.org

WANTED

Temple B'Nai Israel Newsletter Editor

After over 5 years doing a fantastic job as editor of the Temple Newsletter, Hanna Strowman is moving on.  She did not do it alone.  She had the help of Assistant Editor, Esther Wegman, the proofreading and other skills of Dorothy Aronson and others.  You will have their help also.  The job is really fulfilling - you get to interface with our President and Rabbi and many other Temple members and your resulting work is available to all to enjoy.

 

If you have an interest please call Jane Wiseman.

Become a Member of Temple B'Nai Israel

Click here:  Member Outreach

Upcoming Events

Friday, March 12, 8:30 PM Annual Healing Service

On this special evening led by Rabbi and Marjie Sokoll and Cantor Lois Welber, we always enjoy a particularly moving service which stimulates our awareness of those around us and of our connections to the richness of Judaism.

Tuesday, March 30, 6:30 PM Second Seder
with Rabbi Sokoll and Cantor Welber

Click here for details

Sunday, March 14, 9 AM Breakfast
with Guest Speaker Rabbi Jeffrey Foust

Rabbi Foust is a candidate for our rabbi position and this is an opportunity to meet him.  He is a member of the Spiritual Life Center and a Hillel Jewish Life Adviser at Bentley University and currently the rabbi for Waltham's Temple Beth Israel.  In addition, he is a well known teacher of Jewish spirituality and master of kavvanah, making Jewish spiritual practice meaningful.

Rabbi Foust will speak on How to Make Passover a Real Journey to Freedom and Joy.  Come learn and discuss ways to bring our Passover experience alive.  We'll start with original questions in the Talmud that challenge us to make Passover a continuing journey to freedom in every generation.  Then we'll look at practical spiritual tools, old and new, that we can use to make our own Passover experiences meaningful and real. 

Please RSVP:
 

Rabbi Talya Weisbard Shalem

Sunday February 14, 9 AM
Lox and Learn with guest speaker Rabbi Talya Weisbard Shalem

Costumes, Leadership, and Identity

Rabbi Talya spoke of Purim costumes:
Queen Esther and Bella Abzug

In honor of the holiday of Purim, this study session with Rabbi Talya Weisbard Shalem focused on Queen Esther and Bella Abzug.  On Purim we dress in costume to create a new persona.  In life, people often choose different costumes and personas as a strategic tool. In this session, we will explore two remarkable Jewish women: The biblical figure, Esther, and the historical figure, Bella Abzug. Both women fought for justice and liberation, adopting personas that helped them to achieve their goals. What lessons do Esther and Bella Abzug each have to teach us about leadership? What messages do their “costumes” send?  How have we, as men and women, responded to similar issues in our lives?  When does our dress exemplify freedom and when does it distract people from hearing our important messages? How do we alter our appearances to conform to society’s expectations? These are some questions that Purim and these two inspiring women pose to us today. 

 

Rabbi TalyaJewish Ethical Wills with Rabbi Talya

At our Sunday, January 24, Lox and Learning Breakfast, Guest speaker, Rabbi Talya Weisbard Shalem taught us about Jewish ethical wills.  What many of us thought might be a dry subject turned out to be not only interesting, but enlightening and even amusing.

Ethical wills are writings of one's life wisdom and advice for one's children and others.  There is a proud Jewish tradition of ethical wills from the Torah to today.

In this program, we studied and discussed wills from the Bible, Talmud, medieval and contemporary time periods, and began writing our own ethical wills with a writing prompt or two. 

This was a special opportunity to consider our own life values in relation to those of Jews who have lived throughout history.

The Power of the Invisible Sun

October 27, 2009 - Temple member and photographer Bobby Sager who has spent the last decade photographing kids in some of the world's war-torn countries and Sting, who has used his images on tour, talk to Ann Curry on the Today Show about the power of the pictures.

 

Check out Bobby's website: http://www.poweroftheinvisiblesun.com/

 

"Thank You Brenda Berkeley"

August 2009 - We just completed a terrific Hebrew Class at the Temple taught by Brenda Berkeley.  Several of us who thought it was beyond our capabilities learned to read Hebrew thanks to Brenda. - Reisa Bunick

 

Brenda Berkeley Teaching Hebrew Class at TBI

 

Photo by Harriet San Fournier

Back in May, Temple B'nai Israel offered a free 5-week beginner’s Hebrew Reading Crash Course sponsored by the *National Jewish Outreach Program and taught by our own Temple member, Brenda Nyman Berkeley. It was a tremendous success. 10 of our Temple members successfully completed the Level 1 course which focused on the Hebrew Aleph-Bet and Hebrew reading. These members now are fully equipped with the skills needed to participate completely and joyfully in all of our Temple services.

For those who wish to advance their Hebrew reading and comprehension skills, the Level 2 program begins with a Level 1 review on Monday, October 12th, then moves into the first class on Monday, October 19th. The classes will be held in the vestry on Mondays from 1:00-2:00pm. Everyone is welcome to join us, learn and have fun. For more information and to register, please contact Brenda at 781-485-1374.

Thanks Brenda

A special thank you to Brenda from her students: "Thank you Brenda Berkeley from all your students in the Hebrew Reading Crash Course Brenda has been a wonderful and patient teacher to all of us. We finished the course August 31 and celebrated with a luncheon at The Wharf".

*These programs are being sponsored by the National Jewish Outreach Program. They are the NJOP's most popular programs, designed for Jews with little or no background in Hebrew and have already taught thousands of North American Jews to read and comprehend Hebrew. To learn more about the NJOP visit their website at www.njop.org.

 

Go Green - Save a Tree!

To Temple B’Nai Israel Members: For those of you who have email…in an effort to reduce costs for the Temple, we would like your permission to email your Temple Newsletter to you instead of mailing it.  There is absolutely no obligation to make this switch, however we would appreciate your consideration for this cost saving effort. 

 Click here to make your choice!

An lively night of music and dance was enjoyed by those attending our
Annual TBI Musical Shabbat

This year's musical Shabbat on Friday evening, May 22 was sponsored by the Chebot family in memory of their father and grandfather, Paul Chebot, who was the Cantor of Temple B'Nai Israel for over forty years, a cherished member of our Temple community and a music lover.  Joining Rabbi Sokoll and Cantor Welber on the bima again this year were the highly talented ensemble of Beth Bahia Cohen on fiddle, Glenn Dickson on clarinet  and David Sparr on keyboard.  From the opening with the heavenly sounds of L'Cha Dodi to their jazzed up version of Yigdal, ending the service, with dancing around the sanctuary in between led by Rabbi Sokoll the large congregation attending, was energized and enlivened. 

The evening concluded with a delicious Oneg in the vestry.

After anti-Semitic graffiti, a quiet lesson on love

(Re-Printed from the Boston Globe)

The congregation of Temple B'Nai Israel in Revere has a hero, although no one knows his name.

On Sunday, members arrived at the temple for a morning service and breakfast to discover two of the building's walls covered in anti-Semitic graffiti.

"To me, this is not vandalism," said Rabbi Mark Sokol. "When you take a can of spray paint and put a swastika on a temple, that's a hate crime."

After police received a call at 5:45 a.m., they found a vulgar, anti-Semitic expression written in red spray paint at the front of the temple and a side area marked with two swastikas, said Revere Police Lieutenant John Goodwin.

"It's a very sensitive subject, so we will most certainly take a look into it," Goodwin said.

Nearby on Wave Avenue, three cars were vandalized, with windows broken and what appeared to be the same paint, but there were no anti-Semitic slurs, Goodwin said, adding that local youths were probably responsible.

© Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

 

Marilyn Dorfman, a temple vice president and one of the first to see the graffiti, said she was filled with "shock and horror and pain and disgust."

Police had already arrived at the temple when Dorfman got there at 7.

"The police could not have been nicer," she said. "One of the cops said he would paint it over at 4:30 when he got off work."

But there was no need.

While the congregation went inside to have the meeting, a man pulled up to the building and began painting over the graffiti, Dorfman said. Her husband, Ira, was outside the temple when the man started painting.

Dorfman said her husband asked the man's name, but he wouldn't give it and would not let her husband photograph him.

"The guy said, 'I just live in the neighborhood,' " Dorfman said.

Sokoll said the group was studying texts on honesty when the stranger painted over the graffiti. The man took some care with his paint job, Sokoll said.  "The guy tried very hard to mix paint and match it to the color of the temple," Sokoll said. "To me, that feels like a very loving act." 

Temple Sanctuary Rededicated

Chanukat Beit Haknesset
 

Our sanctuary at Temple B'Nai Israel was rededicated on June 6, 2008.

A storm on February 14, 2007 caused extensive water damage to the Temple and a complete restoration project began soon after.  A talented crew of contractors and artisans led by our President, Jane Wiseman and Treasurer, Harvey Maibor and many other temple members created an outstanding result.

The Ceremony

The rededication ceremony began in our downstairs vestry with Margie Apfelbaum in a rousing shofar blowing initiating the candle lighting ceremony and processional to replace our Torahs to the newly restored Oren Kodesh. 

J

Julian Lander, Dorothy Aronson, Margie Apfelbaum, Rabbi Mark Sokoll, Cantor Lois Welber, President Jane Wiseman

Processional at the Oren Kodesh

The children present dressed the Torahs with their silver ornaments before being returned to the Ark.

Lights Out

The Eternal Lamp was then re-lit and new lighting turned on to dramatically display the newly discovered vaulted ceiling above the ark now restored as originally designed.  See photo at the top.

Oneg Shabbat

 

 

 

[Home] [Rabbi's Corner] [Cantor's Corner] [The TBI "Windows"] [Recent Events] [Jewish Links] [Contact Us] [Member Outreach] [Passover Seder]

Temple B'Nai Israel

Established in 1906
1 Wave Avenue- Revere, MA 02151 - 781-284-8388

 

Summer Office Hours: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 11AM to 4PM

Susan Mason, Secretary

 

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