A few years ago, Aish HaTorah Rabbi Yaacov Deyo (of SpeedDating fame) presented me with a book before Rosh Hashana. With this simple, gracious gesture he changed forever the way I relate to what can be the most daunting time on the Jewish calendar.
When Joseph Dabby arrived in America from Iraq in 1972, and found his way to Kahal Joseph Congregation in Los Angeles, he was shocked. \”It was like being back in the Old Country,\” he said.
\”It was full of people who didn\’t even speak the same language; they were very far removed [from their roots] but they maintained everything the same — the same melodies and the same traditions,\” said Dabby, now 56 and president of the congregation.
Looking around the room at the recent tikkun leyl Shavuot held at Shomrei Torah in West Hills, it was hard to believe this synagogue was ever doomed to failure.
Jews in more than 100 communities across the nation gathered on Sunday, March 24, to show their support for Israel — a welcome, if hastily organized, expression of solidarity as the Jewish state faces continuing terrorism and an increasingly treacherous diplomatic climate.
The case exposes a danger for nonprofit organizations like synagogues, which may rely on volunteer lay leadership for much of their financial management and oversight.
When Rabbi Judith HaLevy of the Malibu Jewish Center and Synagogue exchanged rings with Edward Toppel of Chicago last Sunday, hope, like the late afternoon winter sun, burned brightly. If remarriage, as the saying goes, is the triumph of optimism over experience, how much more so when the rabbi herself carries white calla lilies?
There, a steady stream of vehicles arrived, disgorging clusters of teenagers at Orange County\’s Jewish Community Center. Instead of movies, sleepovers and football games, the typical high school student\’s Friday night pursuits, about 60 teens gathered to participate in the center\’s \”Teen Shabbat\” program, now in its second year.
What will become of five Jccs? The question has still not been answered, but by next week, a resolution will be definitively closer.\n\n
Lindsey Vuolo, Playboy bunny, met her match last month: Rabbi Shmuley Boteach.
The High Holy Days are a time for contemplation, a time to give thanks, to repent for the wrongs of the past year and seek forgiveness from those you may have hurt and especially from God.
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