Inside The Tahara Room
Preparing a body for burial can be a surprisingly moving and uplifting experience.
When the Ark was to set out, Moses would say: Advance, O God! May Your enemies be scattered and may Your foes flee before you…– Numbers 10:35
Each Shabbat this pasuk (verse) is recited as the ark is opened and we anticipate the reading of the Torah. Just as Moses declared these words as the Israelites set out with the Ark of the Covenant, so too we mirror this image as the Torah is taken from the ark and we carry it on its journey through the community. However, this pasuk has never had the same meaning for me ever since I heard it for the first time in a very different context: at the conclusion of a tahara, the ritual washing of the body prior to a funeral and burial. The Jewish Week, Inside The Tahara Room, Felicia L. Sol, August 23, 2011
Houses of Worship Provide Religious and Spiritual Comfort, Coaching for New York City's Job Seekers
Morning prayers. Bible lessons. Job leads.
As the economic downturn drags on, crucial safety nets like unemployment checks and health insurance are running out.
But mosques, synagogues and churches, which were the first in line to help after the recession hit, are stepping up efforts to provide guidance and emotional support to New Yorkers out of work….
When Judy Rosenbaum of the lost her job at a photo agency two and half years ago, she turned to her synagogue, B’nai Jeshurun.
The temple had created a boot camp for would-be entrepreneurs, and provided monthly meetings on résumé preparation and social media networking, seminars on how to market yourself, and other job-seeking skills. The Daily News, Houses of Worship Provide Religious and Spiritual Comfort, Coaching for New York City’s Job Seekers, July 25th 2011
Mazel Tov!
Uptown synagogue celebrates gay marriage
Hundreds of people filled a synagogue on the Upper West Side last Thursday evening, all eyes fixed on the chuppah in front of them. Under the white canopy ornately decorated with bright floral arrangements, the seven Jewish wedding blessings were read. Next came the smashing of a glass, followed by yells of “Mazel tov!” and cheering. Song and dance broke out, as those seated flooded the floor and began moving in a circle, arms around one another.
Though many in attendance had partaken in these traditions numerous times at Jewish weddings, they had never attended a ceremony quite like this before. No one actually got married, but it was a joyous celebration nonetheless, as the community of B’nai Jeshrun came together to commemorate the passage of marriage equality in New York State.
West Side Spirit, Mazel Tov!, July 20, 2011
NY Shul Throws Symbolic Celebration For Gay Marriage
Symbolic Jewish wedding ceremony marks passage of law permitting same-sex couples to marry in New York state.
Gay rights activist Dvorah Stoll raised her foot in the air and then brought it down with a bang, shattering the glass that lay beneath her to pieces.
“Mazal tov!” the crowd shouted, and broke into a celebratory dance.
Despite appearances, none of those who gathered at the B’nai Jeshurun Synagogue on the Upper West Side last Thursday were wed that night. Rather, they came to take part in a symbolic Jewish wedding ceremony marking the passage of state legislation earlier this month that permitted same-sex couples to marry in New York. Jerusalem Post, NY Shul Throws Symbolic Celebration For Gay Marriage, July 19, 2011
Tuesday, The Rabbi Went Out
The largely uncharted (an unspoken-of) territory of being single in the clergy is explored and Rabbi Felicia Sol is quoted. The Jewish Week, Tuesday, The Rabbi Went Out, December 7, 2010
For Holy Days, Rabbis Weigh Words on Islamic Center - NYTimes.com
[I]n synagogues around New York this year, rabbis are confronting an unusual quandary as they prepare their sermons: whether to wade into a local cultural war over plans to build an Islamic center and mosque near ground zero…
J. Rolando Matalon, senior rabbi of B’nai Jeshurun, a nondenominational synagogue on the Upper West Side, caused about as much of a stir this summer as Rabbi Lookstein, by posting on his synagogue’s Web site a copy of an address made by Feisal Abdul Rauf, the imam behind the proposed Islamic center. NYTimes.com, For Holy Days, Rabbis Weigh Words on Islamic Center, September 8, 2010
How Different Is IKAR; Rabbi Sharon Brous Inspires Change ... and Controversy | Community | Jewish Journal
…Within its first year, IKAR had earned a national reputation for tapping into a rich vein of Jewish life, attracting everyone from the unaffiliated to lifelong super-Jews…
This week, IKAR is hosting a conference, “Live, Pray, Learn,” where 55 lay and rabbinic leaders from around the country are gathering to explore how to create more dynamic and meaningful prayer experiences. Brous’ mentor, Rabbi Roly Matalon of B’nai Jeshurun in New York, as well as local rabbis, will join IKAR leadership to teach sessions that include “Texts That Make Your Hands Shake,” “How Traditional Liturgy Can Break Your Heart Open” and sessions on obstacles in prayer and building a spiritual team. Attendees will experience an IKAR Shabbat, along with text study, hiking and yoga. The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, How Different Is IKAR; Rabbi Sharon Brous Inspires Change … and Controversy, June 22, 2010
Raising Children To Embrace Judaism: Authors Discuss Their Own Ambivalent Experiences | The Jewish Week (BETA)
The struggle to raise an emotionally healthy child in a home where one parent is more religiously observant than the other was the subtext of a lively and revealing Jewish Week Forum last night with authors Judith Shulevitz (“The Sabbath World: Glimpses of a Different Order of Time”) and Dani Shapiro (“Devotion: A Memoir”) at Cong. B’nai Jeshurun on the Upper West Side. More than 250 people attended the program. The Jewish Week, Raising Children To Embrace Judaism: Authors Discuss Their Own Ambivalent Experiences | The Jewish Week (BETA), June 2, 2010
AJWS Concludes Global Justice Conference for Rabbis and Rabbinical Students
More than 50 rabbis and rabbinical students, all of whom have traveled to the developing world with AJWS, concluded a three-day leadership training institute yesterday at the Pearlstone Conference and Retreat Center in Reisterstown, Maryland. American Jewish World Service, AJWS Concludes Global Justice Conference for Rabbis and Rabbinical Students, December 24, 2009
Tutoring Trend Tests Jewish Values
Rabbi Felicia Sol’s views on the importance of community in Jewish education. The Jewish Week, Tutoring Trend Tests Jewish Values, December 22, 2009
The Battle Of The Generations
A report on Daniel Sieradski and John Ruskay’s discussion at BJ’s recent Men’s Havurah about the Jewish community’s “next generation” and how to reach it. The Jewish Week, The Battle Of The Generations, December 22, 2009
Faith-Based Networking: Churches and Job Hunting
BJ’s efforts to assist the the under- and unemployed through the Working Knowledge Initiative, the BJ LinkedIn group, and other programs are featured. Newsweek, Faith-Based Networking: Churches and Job Hunting, December 22, 2009
Woman Wearing Talit at Kotel Detained
[Women's Prayer Group including BJ Members Expelled from Kotel Area]Police and Western Wall officials expelled a female prayer group from the Kotel area and arrested one of the women after they attempted Wednesday morning to read from a Torah scroll…Rabbi Felicia Sol of the post-denominational Bnei Jeshrun Synagogue on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, said that the attempt to read from the Torah was an experiment with “pushing the boundaries”. Jerusalem Post, Woman arrested for praying with tallit at Kotel, Nov 18, 2009.
Top Jew: Ari Priven: Achieving New Heights through Innovative and Spiritual Prayer
We honor Ari Priven as he celebrates his 20th year with B’nai Jeshurun. Cantor Priven is this week’s Top Jew. The Jewish Week, Top Jew: Ari Priven: Achieving New Heights through Innovative and Spiritual Prayer, July 22, 2009
No Soup For You!
Channa Camins of B’nai Jeshurun, an Upper West Side synagogue that runs an overnight shelter, testifies at DHS hearing “[We] accomplish all of this work at less than half the cost per person of providing the same services in the general city shelter system.” New York Press, No Soup For You!, March 9, 2009
Secular Israelis forge new ways to connect with Judaism | JTA - Jewish & Israel News
Every spring in the sand dunes along Israel’s southern coast, the story of Exodus comes to life.
Families play in the sand building replicas of pyramids until they are liberated by Moses, usually played by a local teenager, who leads them to the Promised Land.
Along the way there is manna (chicken wings baked in aluminum foil), a spray-painted golden calf and even a presentation of the Ten Commandments.
The re-enactment is the work of the appxoximately 100 members of a secular prayer community in the town of Gan Yavneh, an Ashkelon suburb. It’s one of a fast-growing number of secular-oriented spiritual communities that have sprung up around Israel in the past decade or so, tapping into a desire by more and more Israelis to connect, in some cases for the first time, with Jewish culture and heritage…
The founders of the first secular-oriented spiritual community in the country, Nigun Ha’Lev in Nahalal, a town in the Jezreel Valley, say they drew inspiration not just from their Israeli surroundings but from the popular New York City synagogue B’nai Jeshurun, celebrated for attracting younger Jews with energetic and musical services…“They see us as their Israeli branch,” joked Shay Zarchi, a leader of Nigun Ha’Lev. JTA, Secular Israelis forge new ways to connect with Judaism | JTA – Jewish & Israel News, March 3, 2009
N.Y. Synagogue Gets Award for Gay Marriage Activism
Congregation B’nai Jeshurun was given the Star Award from Empire State Pride Agenda in recognition of the synagogue’s leadership on working to obtain passage of marriage equality legislation in New York State. JTA, N.Y. Synagogue Gets Award for Gay Marriage Activism, January 18, 2009
Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in Manhattan
Rabbi J. Rolando Matalon has heard the criticism before. The gentle, soft-spoken senior spiritual leader of B’nai Jeshurun — an unaffiliated synagogue on the Upper West Side considered a national model for Jewish rejuvenation and innovation — doesn’t flinch when hearing that some people criticize his congregation’s services for being geared more toward pulling heartstrings than stimulating intellects…“Prayer is more for the heart than the head,” Rabbi Matalon said. “We don’t stop and reflect on the prayer. That is something that can be done on Wednesday nights in a class. You have to study prayer outside of prayer. You can’t do it during prayer. Prayer is an activity of the soul, not the mind. Study of Torah is for the mind…“We are not an anti-intellectual congregation,” he cautioned. “We have plenty of classes. But Friday night is not an intellectual activity. The service shouldn’t be a learner’s minyan.” The Baltimore Jewish Times, Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in Manhattan, March 14, 2008
Opening The Soul
“B’nai Jeshurun, known by its congregants and admirers simply as “BJ,” has been viewed as a national model for Jewish rebirth and rejuvenation for more than a decade…Synagogues around the country regularly send emissaries to the shul to determine if any of BJ’s practices or elements can fit into their own services. What they find is a congregation reverential toward tradition, while open to experimentation and innovation; committed to inclusiveness, authenticity, universalism and egalitarianism; and devoted to the values of community, worship, social action and study.” The Baltimore Jewish Times, Opening the Soul, March 7, 2008
Muslims, Jews Break Fast Together On Upper West Side
Jews and Muslims came together Saturday night in what might seem an unlikely place, gathering at the Church of Saint Paul and Saint Andrew on the Upper West Side to break their fast and build bonds. NY1, Muslims, Jews Break Fast Together On Upper West Side, September 23, 2007
Despite Controversy, Conference Widens Interfaith Dialogue
The refrain that freedom and democracy are on the march in the Middle East may seem premature, but recent events — like last month’s conference in Qatar on interreligious dialogue — reflect positive and noteworthy changes. The Forward, Despite Controversy, Conference Widens Interfaith Dialogue, July 22, 2005
Helping Hand For Argentina
The financial crisis in Argentina has led B’nai Jeshurun, which has spearheaded activism for the country’s Jewish community because of the Argentine roots of the synagogue’s spiritual leaders, to start a major outreach effort to rabbinic leaders and members of New York’s wider Jewish community. The Jewish Week, Helping Hand For Argentina, June 21, 2002
A Talmudic Quandary for a Shul: Growth or Intimacy
When the wandering Jews of congregation B’nai Jeshurun carry their Torahs from a borrowed church to their renovated synagogue on Sunday, after five and a half years away, they will be returning to a home that is far too small to hold them. New York Times, A Talmudic Quandary for a Shul: Growth or Intimacy, December 6, 1996.
Rabbi Roly Matalon:Creating Eternal Moments
As we approach 5771 we feature Rabbi Matalon (widely known as Roly), who is now in his 25th year at BJ. Here are excerpts from the JInsider interview showcasing Rabbi Matalon’s practical and inspiring wisdom. The Jewish Week, Rabbi Roly Matalon: Creating Eternal Moments, August 25, 2010
