- The Shabazi shul in LA has “no sign and no front door.…The Shema prayer … is … not a melody. It’s a tribal chant. You feel like you’re walking through the desert, exhausted, and you’re pleading with God to give you strength…Even the Hebrew sounds different: emet is pronounced amat, kadosh is gothosh, chalom is cholem…When they read from the Torah, they do a duet with an Aramaic translationâ€?, and 6 year olds are called up to their own aliyah.
- Given that the Reform movement has “recognized and supported the need for women’s space,â€? why is the idea of doing the same for men seen as problematic, especially in view of “the increasing absence of men actively participating in temple lifeâ€??
- Says Rob Eshman, Editor-in-Chief at the Jewish Journal of LA, “If studios have focus groups and politicians have tracking polls, Jewish editors have Kiddush.� (Jewish Journal)
- In what was once the very WASPy Southampton, Long Island, Rabbi Marc Schneier, says “I’m an Orthodox rabbi with a Conservative congregation and a Reform membership.� And the Reform-affiliated Jewish Center of the Hamptons, in East Hampton is being led, for the moment, by a graduate of Yeshiva College. (Forward)
- At the oldest African-American congregation in the U.S. a battle over the congregation’s leadership is resolved after more than 30 years, but a new legal battle over proposed sale of the building has roiled matters even further, and the membership slips perilously close to none at all. (The Jewish Week)
- Rabbi Toni Shy is the new Rabbi at what will then be the largest Conservative congregation in the world to be served by a woman rabbi, replacing the former rabbi who is off to prison for three years. (NJ Jewish News)
- A struggle between those that want to keep a synagogue Conservative, those who want to switch to Orthodox, and those who want it to become “a Russian Jewish cultural center� now heads into court, hinging on the results of a long delayed, and disputed, election. (The Jewish Advocate)
- An Orthodox Jew visits LA’s eclectic Shtibl Minyan, finding an agreeable minyan mixing heart-felt and highly participatory davening and social action. (Jewish Journal)
minyan
Pronounced: MIN-yun, meen-YAHN, Origin: Hebrew, quorum of 10 adult Jews (traditionally Jewish men) necessary for reciting many prayers.
Shema
Pronounced: shuh-MAH or SHMAH, Alternate Spellings: Sh’ma, Shma, Origin: Hebrew, the central prayer of Judaism, proclaiming God is one.
shul
Pronounced: shool (oo as in cool), Origin: Yiddish, synagogue.
