Purim Spiel 3-26-16 From Temple Israel Long Beach, California

I love how technology took our family to California from Colorado to watch this live on Saturday, March 26, 2016! It was a clever musical play with talented performers and I recognized some of the people in the performance which made it more fun than ever!

 

Shabbat Hanefesh - From Temple Israel in Long Beach, California 3-25-16

Our family is snowed in this Shabbat in Colorado, so it was wonderful to be able to see this wonderful meditative Shabbat service live tonight from Temple Israel in Long Beach, California. I felt I was there! Cantor Sara Hass is wonderful!

Shunning

verb (used with object), shunned, shunning.

1.

to keep away from (a place, person, object, etc.), from motives ofdislike, caution, etc.; take pains to avoid.

Recently I watched part of a movie on Netflix that talked about shunning in the Amish community.  

It got me thinking about certain people from my past who I feel might avoid contact with me.  It also makes me think how my entire family was shunned from The Colorado Springs Conservatory.  No matter how much I try to forget and move on, there is a bit of an "ache" there just knowing we are not welcome in the lives of certain people who we once considered close friends and almost family.

The thing is, we don't have much in common anymore...just memories...

Ruach Shabbat - Temple Israel Long Beach, California 3-11-16

Even though I'm not in California, I was able to enjoy this wonderful Shabbat service!

 

Kindergarten Wall - What a Great Message!

Kindergarten Wall is one of my most favorite songs in the whole world!

 

The words of this song have the greatest message! It is one of my favorite songs.

Kindergarten Wall 

Song credits: Words and Music by John McCutcheon 

When I was a little kid not so long ago
I had to learn a lot of stuff I didn't even know
How to dress myself, tie my shoes, how to jump a rope
How to smile for a picture without looking like a dope
But of all the things I learned my favorite of them all
Was a little poem hanging on the kindergarten wall

CHORUS: 
Of all you learn here remember this the best:
Don't hurt each other and clean up your mess
Take a nap everyday, wash before you eat
Hold hands, stick together, look before you cross the street
And remember the seed in the little paper cup:
First the root goes down and then the plant grows up!

Well, it was first, second, third grade, fourth grade, too
Where I had to learn the big things the big kids do
To add, subtract, and multiply, read and write and play
How to sit in a little uncomfortable desk for nearly half a day
But of all they taught me my favorite of them all
Was the little poem hanging on the kindergarten wall

Chorus 

But lately I've been worried as I look around and see
An awful lot of grown-ups acting foolish as can be
Now I know there's lots of things to know I haven't mastered yet
But it seems there's real important stuff that grown-ups soon forget
So I'm sure we'd all be better off if we would just recall
That little poem hanging on the kindergarten wall

Chorus 

©1988 by John McCutcheon. Published by Appalsongs (ASCAP).

My Response to Letter Sent to Entire Colorado Springs Jewish Community

Just a few days ago, a letter appeared in the email boxes of many of the members of the Jewish community in Colorado Springs.  The letter addressed a very sensitive issue.

The person who wrote the letter is a person I have met and discussed issues of Judaism with every year (for about seven or eight years) in the mountains when my family celebrates Rosh Hashanah.  I have enjoyed the discussions I've had with him very much and know that even if his letter may have seemed to have a goal of creating dissension, that that individual enjoys discussing "just about anything" and did not mean to directly hurt, he just wanted to start a "hot" discussion among Jews because he believes discussion promotes the continous learning that has been encouraged in the Jewish community throughout time.

Now, let me talk about the letter that was sent to almost the entire Colorado Springs Jewish community:

The letter was actually sent to one particular individual who is a recent convert to Judaism and then a copy of that four-page letter was sent to a list of people who had allowed their email addresses to be posted in a temple directory.

The person who received the original letter had allowed his name and email address to be posted on the temple website and newsletters that announced that if anyone was interested, that a Chavurah group for the gay and lesbian community in our city was available.

I believe most people who saw the announcement of that group didn't give it much thought since it is known that most modern Jewish people of today are supportive of what may be considered a "non-conservative line of thinking."  For example, for several years, members of the Colorado Springs Jewish community have shown their support for gay rights by taking part in the Colorado Springs Gay Pride Parade.

The letter sent to the new convert to Judaism (with copies to the entire Colorado Springs Jewish community) made it very clear that there are people in the Colorado Springs Jewish community that do not believe that supporting gay rights is okay.  The letter is four pages long.

I have read the letter over and over again.  My concern is that the person who this letter was sent to will now no longer feel welcome in the Colorado Springs Jewish community, so below is a text message I sent to the young man who received the letter:

"The letter sent to you has caused discussion in my house. I was disturbed since you are new to Judaism and the letter did not seem like a welcoming letter. I know you have grown up in a city that is so very conservative and I want you to know the letter caused me to wonder how I have survived in this city for so long. It seems at times that there are people here who believe they have the right to tell others how to live, but I felt, until now, that most Jews here had liberal thoughts and believed in diversity and were accepting of just about anyone.  Anyway,  I just want you to know that my family and others in the Colorado Springs Jewish community do welcome you!"   

What Jacob's Blessing of His Children and Grandchildren Meant to Me

Two weeks ago I attended the Torah study at Temple Israel in Long Beach.  Temple Israel is the synagogue my father's family help start in Long Beach.  The names of some of my relatives including my great-grandparents names, great-uncles, and some cousins names are on a wall of memories in the temple's entrance.

The parsha we read that Saturday was about Jacob blessing Joseph and Joseph's sons.  There was discussion about how important family is, and how Jacob, at the time, had no idea about how much his sons and their children and grandchildren, and their descendents would impact the world.

As I sat there, it hit me that my great-grandmother, Esther Feingold, had eight children.  My dad only knew her as his "sweet grandma," when he grew up in Belmont Shore, but she and her husband Eli Simon Schneider, came to America with their eight children, and some of them were a significant part of Temple Israel after they arrived in Long Beach in the late 1920s.   I've heard that especially Irving Schneider, my dad's uncle, made significant contributions to the Jewish community in Long Beach.

Anyway, how would my great-grandmother Esther know that on December 26, 2015, that her son Max Schneider's son, my dad, Arthur Schneider, would be at the Torah study at Temple Israel, with me, my husband, and my two daughters?

It hit me that Esther and Eli Simon succeeded in passing something special to us.  Our family has somehow continued to love being Jewish.  They perhaps may have blessed their children and the children of their children and then their grandchildren and great-grandchildren just as Jacob did!

Also, it hit me that I truly feel part of Temple Israel and have Jewish family is Long Beach because so many of the people there have been so welcoming to me, my dad, my husband, and my children!