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Rabbi's Corner

Jewish Advocate Past Editorials: 040308 042908 Boston Globe re: 100th Anniversary

Being in two places

An Editorial from the Jewish Advocate website.
http://www.thejewishadvocate.com/

By Mark Sokoll - Friday May 9, 2008

Almost 900 years ago, Yehuda Halevi, a Jew living in Spain wrote with much pain, “my heart is in the East (Jerusalem), I am at the end of the West.” He struggled with being torn between two places at the same time.
On this eve of the 60th anniversary of the birth of the modern State of Israel, let’s be honest with ourselves. For most Jews, for most of Jewish history we have said, “next year in Jerusalem,” without the ability, and more recently, the intention of actually getting there. East, the direction of Jerusalem from here in North America, is simply the direction of our prayers, not the aspiration of our travels. We have become too comfortable with being in two places, one of which we just do not go to very often.
We Jews are experts at remembering the past. Sometimes I think we have limited the experience of being a Jew to having vivid memories of past events at which we were not present. We carry with us memories of an earthly Jerusalem that many have never visited or have not visited for many years. In thinking back to when my grandfather was buried in Fall River, Massachusetts, dirt from Jerusalem’s Mt. of Olives was added to the grave.
It was a symbol of an eternal connection to Israel and of the hope of future redemption. In preparing for his death we focused on the detail of binding his soul to the soul of Israel forever. While it’s an important and meaningful tradition, it is about connecting to Israel after we are gone from life, not while we are experiencing it.
But now is the time that we need to focus on living the struggle of being in two places at the same time. The Birthright Israel program will take tens of thousands of college and post college age kids to Israel on a free 10-day trip. At the JCCs of Greater Boston day and resident camps, more than 3,000 children ages 2 to 18 will live with Isreali counselors in units named for regions in Israel, play in the Maccabiah and develop a love for a second home they have never seen.
Many Jews from Greater Boston have visited Israel. The trend in recent years is that an ever-decreasing percentage has been following their hearts to the east. Eighty years before Israel’s independence Mark Twain visited the Holy Land and wrote an article that first appeared in Harper’s Magazine. He queried, “all things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?”
Being in two places at the same time, physically and spiritually, is one of those secrets. From now on, let’s say “next year in Jerusalem” and really mean it by visiting or connecting spiritually.

Mark Sokoll is President/CEO of the JCCs of Greater Boston and rabbi of Temple B’nai Israel in Revere.

Century-old synagogue keeps the faith
By Steven Rosenberg, Globe Staff  |  June 4, 2006

Reprinted from the Boston Globe

 

If the children and grandchildren of Eastern European Jewish immigrants had listened to demographers, the old brick building near Revere Beach where generations have faced east in prayer might have closed decades ago.

With American Jews experiencing a 50 percent intermarriage rate and synagogues struggling to stay open as memberships decline, Beachmont's Temple B'nai Israel has beaten the odds. It turns 100 years old this month.

``There's a sense of tradition and history here that many other places would be envious of," said Rabbi Mark Sokoll, who has been the congregation's spiritual leader for 20 years.

Beyond its part-time staff, including Sokoll and a cantor, B'nai Israel depends on its members to do everything from ritual observance to building maintenance. These responsibilities, combined with its congregation's desire to connect to Judaism, make social connections, and honor the memory of their relatives through prayer and charity, have allowed the temple not just to survive but to thrive, members say.

They say that Sokoll, who leads Friday night services twice a month and conducts a ``lox and learn" breakfast discussion on Sundays, has brought enthusiasm and made Judaism accessible and understandable through his sermons and classes. Sokoll can quote the lyrics of the Grateful Dead and Bruce Springsteen in his sermons as well as references to traditional Jewish texts and mystical tracts such as Kabbalah.

Over the years, the congregation has held an increasing numbers of events and become more close-knit. In 1994, 44 members went on a trip to Israel with Sokoll. They've also held movie nights and healing services. Women have begun to meet regularly to celebrate the beginning of the new month. Also, members come together during periods of sadness. Last month, when Miriam d'Amato died, her friends from the synagogue helped arrange food for the period of mourning and were there to pray with d'Amato's son, Julian Lander.

``They prepared the meal after the funeral and provided food for a few days after that. I was really touched," said Lander, who helps lead services at the temple.

Members of B'nai Israel are creating a $125,000 endowment fund, and next weekend they will celebrate the congregation's 100th year. On Friday there will be an evening service at the synagogue, and on Saturday they'll meet at the Peabody Marriott to mark the milestone.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Jews poured into Revere from Lithuania, Poland, Russia, and Ukraine. While kosher butchers and other merchants set up shops on Shirley Avenue, another heavily Jewish neighborhood emerged in Beachmont. There, Jewish-owned variety stores, restaurants, and shops opened. In 1906, B'nai Israel first held services in a Beachmont house, and four years later moved into the temple on Wave Avenue.

 

``I love everything about it," Sumner Freedman, 83, said of B'nai Israel, which he has attended since he was a child. During his youth, the synagogue was Orthodox, and Yiddish could be heard in the streets around the shul. Freedman remembers that much of life in the neighborhood revolved around the synagogue. He said one of the values he learned from the community was giving to others in need. ``The rabbi would make an announcement that there would be a bar mitzvah on Saturday, and one family would make pickled herring and another would bring a bottle of wine. Everyone would chip in," said Freedman.

Unlike modern synagogues that have ornate sanctuaries and arks, B'nai Israel's appearance is modest, in keeping with the spirit of its working-class founders.

At the top of the temple's main entrance, Stars of David sit opposite the Ten Commandments , which are engraved in Hebrew into the concrete.

 

Inside, memories of earlier generations are everywhere: A picture of a former president hangs in the lobby, and inside the off-white sanctuary several plaques line the walls to honor the dead. The names of B'nai Israel's founding members, such as Abraham Shulkin and Morris Sokolove, are recorded on the stained-glass windows. A whole window honors men from the Sugarman family.

Below the simple wooden ark that holds five Torahs is the bimah, or stage, where American and Israeli flags are positioned. On a recent afternoon, Debby Cherry paused at the fourth row of benches where she sits with her mother on Fridays and Sundays -- a tradition she's followed for as long as she can remember.

``It's a time to sit and take a deep breath and just relax for a few minutes, and maybe let more of the world into your life as opposed to just pushing through it every day," said Cherry, 48, a third-generation member who served as the congregation's first female president.

Part of the core group of volunteers who help run the synagogue, Cherry credits the congregation's women in its revival over the last 25 years. In the social hall, she pointed to a plaque honoring a former member, Sally Fein, who insisted that women be allowed to assume responsibilities that had previously been reserved for men.

``She was right, because if women weren't on the bimah for honors, we wouldn't have any women here, and we wouldn't have a temple," said Cherry.

With 200 members ranging in age from 40 to 96, the congregation has found a niche offering services to Jews of every background, whether divorced, married or single, straight or gay. While many of the regulars live in Revere and Winthrop, some travel for holiday services from as far away as Wellesley, Newton, and Lexington.

Margie Apfelbaum comes to synagogue on Sunday mornings even though she lives in Waltham. For Apfelbaum, the synagogue is like a second home. Her father, Paul Chebot, served as the temple's cantor from 1958 to 1999. Apfelbaum, who recently married her partner, Meridith Apfelbaum, said the congregation has been supportive of her marriage.

Apfelbaum still sounds the shofar, or ram's horn, on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, and finds a sense of awe in the temple during prayer.

Said Apfelbaum: ``There's something about this old building that is so simply adorned that you can really focus completely on the task at hand, which is spirituality."

Steven Rosenberg can be reached at rosenberg@globe.com.

 

Temple B'Nai Israel

Established in 1906
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