Community Bulletin Board

Article

Rav Shai contributed an article entitled "Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness" to the organization, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. You can read it here.

Webinar

On Wednesday, August 28 at 8:00 PM EST, join an important and timely conversation featuring two of ADL's top leaders as they bring their deep expertise in combating antisemitism and addressing global threats. Facing a surge in global antisemitism and the potential escalation of conflicts surrounding Israel, this webinar comes at a critical time. We will focus on the strategic responses ADL has developed over the past year, addressing the alarming rise of antisemitism both globally and within the USA. As we enter a new academic year, which will likely see a surge in on-campus antisemitism, we’ll explore how our enemies are weaponizing social media to spread anti-Zionism and antisemitism, making the battle against these threats even more challenging. The speakers will be George Selim: Executive Vice President & Chief Engagement Officer at ADL, and Marina Rosenberg, Senior Vice President for International Affairs at ADL. The moderators will be Andrew Goretsky: Regional Director of ADL for Eastern Pennsylvania, Southern New Jersey, and Delaware, and Yair Lev, an activist in the Greater Philadelphia area, focused on combating antisemitism, supporting Israel, and advocating for the Jewish community. Register here. Space is limited!

Event

On Sunday, August 4 at 1:00 PM, the Hope for Israel Alliance will present a very timely webinar featuring one of the most brilliant thought leaders in Israel, who will comment on the current situation in Israel and the global Jewish community. Dr. Tomer Persico will present: "Ten Months Since October 7: Israel's War and the Global Jewish Response." As a distinguished scholar at the Shalom Hartman Institute and an authority on Jewish thought, Dr. Persico will lead an important discussion on the ongoing war in Israel and its profound impact on both Israeli and global Jewry, as we near the 10-month mark of this conflict. Please register here. Sponsored by the Hope for Israel Alliance.

Tikkun Olam

Summer is in full swing and Cradles to Crayons^® is busy making sure kids have the clothing they need to stay cool all across the state. We're also looking ahead to the 2024-2025 school year, and through our annual Ready for Learning initiative we're preparing to provide 55,000 kids in Greater Philadelphia with the back-to-school essentials they need to thrive. Cradles to Crayons needs your support to help get thousands of local kids prepared to learn and dressed for success! Your donation of any amount will help us provide young students with packages full of head-to-toe essentials: clothing, shoes, a lightweight jacket, books, and a backpack full of new school supplies. Click here to learn more or to donate!

New Tutoring Program for Cheltenham Township

The Cheltenham School District is looking for tutors to help students with basic skills in all subjects. Over the pandemic, many students lost a good amount of academics and are in need of additional support. Tutors should be 16 years and older. If you are interested or need more information, contact Tutoring Coordinator Toby Grubman at tobgru@aol.com or 215.663.0657. Sponsored by Champions for Cheltenham.

Event/Class

Antisemitism: Its Nature, Development, Evolution, and Present Stage, and How to Defeat it Through the Teachings of Theodore Herzl and Ahad Ha’am with Rabbi Matthew Abelson, Executive Director of Rabbis United

Since 2001, antisemitism entered its third phase. The singular Jewish state is now the target of those who hate Jews and Judaism. I will explore the events in and around that year - including the Second Intifada, the Al Durah Affair, and the UN Conference Against Racism in South Africa. How did Herzl envision Zionism defeating antisemitism? How was he right or wrong? How did Herzl’s greatest theoretical opponent, Ahad Ha’am view the same issue? I will explain how a synthesis of the two makes Zionism the most effective means of defeating antisemitism. At Gratz on Thursday, June 20 from 12:00 PM to 1:30 PM. In-person only. $25/person. Register here.

Tikkun Olam

Currently, there are no federal programs that support families purchasing diapers and sadly, nearly half of U.S. families struggle to provide enough diapers for their children. To provide some relief, Cradles to Crayons Philadelphia intends to distribute more than three million diapers to local families this year. Our Gear Up for Baby program supplies diapers plus clothing, onesies, bibs, hygiene kits, baby books, and more! When you support Gear Up for Baby, you're helping a local family provide the essentials their child needs to thrive.

We are very grateful to a generous local family who has offered a $25,000 Gear Up for Baby Challenge Match in support of this urgent program. With this Challenge, your gift right now means we can provide double the number of diapers to help keep babies and toddlers clean, dry, and healthy. Click here to donate.

Tikkun Olam

Sharing Light for Remembrance
(A project of the Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs)

Candles are available now at AJ on the counter in the lobby outside the sanctuary (one candle per family please). Funds raised will go to KAVOD, an organization that provides immediate relief to Holocaust survivors in the Philadelphia area. KAVOD partners with the Jewish Family Service. You can pick up a candle at AJ today until 5:00 PM, tomorrow until 3:00 PM or, if you are attending Sunday's Shoah Seder, you can pick one up then. Forms for donations to KAVOD will be on the Sanctuary lobby counter or you can download one here. Alternatively, you can donate online (any amount is deeply appreciated) here.

Light candle at sundown on Sunday, May 5, 2024.

Retail Therapy

Are you looking for a Mothers Day gift? The students at the AJ Early Learning Center prepared "seed bombs" with the help of parent Lauren O’Hara. Each “bomb” can be planted in the ground or into a pot with soil. Time and love will result in a wildflower mini garden. Each seed bomb is $3, and you can purchase one with a small plastic bucket for $7. You can purchase them with cash or check made payable to Adath Jeshurun to the ELC office.

Event

For six decades, Greater Philadelphia has shown up each year to say Never Again at the Holocaust Remembrance Day Ceremony to observe Yom HaShoah.  The Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia invites you to join their 60th annual ceremony as part of this vital tradition to ensure that we Never Forget about the six million Jews who perished in the Shoah and that we continue to honor the survivors living in our communities. The ceremony on Sunday, May 5, from 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM will include candle lighting, music and prayers. Advance registration is required. For security purposes, they are not able to accept walk-ins. Location: Horwitz-Wasserman Holocaust Memorial Plaza, 16th Street and Ben Franklin Parkway. Click here to register. RSVP by Friday, May 3 at 11:59 AM.

Jewish Life

There’s an exciting, new national research opportunity on Jewish teen mental health that just went live that we want you to take part in. It's the first-ever national study of Jewish teen well-being. It asks about the biggest stressors teens face and the support you find most helpful. We know the Jewish community is diverse and want to be sure the data captures this.

Your voice and experience are so important! The survey is brief, mobile-friendly and anonymous. You can click here to take the survey when you have a few minutes. The survey is open through May 17, 2024.

Not a teen? We hope you that you will raise awareness about this survey and share this information with your networks and the teens in your life.

Torah

There is a common misconception that the reason why Moses was not allowed over the Jordan River into the Promised Land involved hitting a rock with his staff for water.

The Torah does use the rock incident as the occasion to inform Moses that he won’t make it into the Promised Land, but the Torah does not actually say that’s the reason why Moses can’t lead the Israelites there. As so often happens, it is only the crash of current events that has allowed me to understand the Torah’s deep intention.

There is one other great figure of the Bible who was unable to complete his vision and mission, King David. He was the founder of the messianic line who purchased the land for the Temple in Jerusalem, but was not allowed to build the Temple. Why? Here the Bible is explicit: He spilled too much blood. He fought too many wars (I Chron. 22:8).

But he fought those wars with God’s blessing for the safety and security of Israel. Why would he be punished for that?

Our rabbinic commentators admit what the Torah text omits: King David spilled innocent blood, blood that was unnecessary to spill to secure the victories necessary for Israel to be secure in its land (RaDaK and Malbim). He founded the messianic line, but you can’t build a Temple for God by shedding innocent blood.

Could the TaNaKH have revealed about King David what it was unwilling to disclose about Moses? Consider the final plague: God tells Moses that every first born in Egypt will be killed. Unlike Abraham, Moses does not argue with God that it would be unjust to murder the innocents with the guilty. (I owe this insight to Rabbi David Seidenberg.) The Rabbis made a big deal comparing Abraham, who argued for justice in Sodom and Gomorrah, with Noah, who just, sheepishly, complied. God said all the first born in Egypt were to be slain, and Moses complied, without pushing back, at all.

Our Rabbis were bothered by Moses’ docile compliance, so the midrash assures us that all the firstborns were guilty of rejoicing in the pain and distress of the Israelites. They got what was coming to them. They weren’t innocent! That’s what the midrash says. Our Rabbinic sages had a stake in preserving a sense of divine justice. They couldn’t accept such collateral damage as the price for redeeming the Israelites from bondage.

Why didn’t Moses make it into the promised land? Because like King David, Moses had innocent blood on his hands. He could have challenged God about the need to kill every firstborn. He could have asked if all that bloodshed was necessary to redeem Israel.

Too many Israelites died in bondage, and too many Egyptians died securing our freedom. Moses is remembered as our redeemer—although, curiously, not in the Haggadah where he is not even mentioned. But Moses can’t lead us across the river into the Promised Land because the river flows, in part, with the blood of innocent Egyptians.

At this year’s Pesach seder, we should use all our fingers, not just our pinkies, to dip into the red and diminish our joy. God willing, like the Israelites, we will prevail, but our joy will be diminished.

This essay was published with many others in the Conservative Movement’s Passover reader: Passover Reader 5784: Not A Haggadah on The Digital Home for Conservative Judaism (exploringjudaism.org).