Beth Shalom to Host Bnai Brith Program "Unto Every Person There is a Name" April 30th

Unto Every Person There Is a Name: Public Recitation of Names of Holocaust Victims on Yom Hashoah

On Wednesday evening, April 30th beginning at 7 p.m. those gathered in the sanctuary at Temple Beth Shalom in Palm Coast will begin reading the names of victims of the Holocaust, those who died in the darkness that fell over Europe between 1933 and 1945. All are welcome to this event that is open to the public. Any one who wishes is welcome to join as readers recite and pronounce the names of the dead, 36 names at a time.

"Once a person dies and the mourning period is over, we rarely speak the names of people who have gone on to their reward," noted Temple Beth Shalom's Rabbi Merrill Shapiro. "This is the day set aside by Jews the world over, to remember those who perished, each of them individuals like all of us who had plans, dreams, aspirations and hopes. Instead of thinking about the unthinkable, 6 million dead, let us focus on just individuals and their names, names all too similar to our own!" the Rabbi added.

The worldwide Holocaust memorial project, called "Unto Every Person Is A Name," which was initiated in 1989, is a unique project designed to perpetuate the memory of the Jewish victims of the Shoah as individuals, by the public recitation of their names on Yom Hashoah - the Day of Remembrance. By personalizing the individual tragedy of its victims and survivors, this project seeks to defy dangerous trends of indifference and ignorance of World War II and the Holocaust. Six million Jews, of whom one and a half million were children, perished in the Shoah, while the world remained indifferent and failed to act. Today, while anti-Semitism has virtually been eliminated as a policy of the State, anti-Jewish attitudes and anti-Semitic manifestations still persist. Ceremonies during which names of Holocaust victims are recited, together with such information as age, place of birth and place of death, personalize the tragedy of the Holocaust. Emphasis is thus put on the millions of men, women and children who were lost to the Jewish people and not solely on the cold, intangibility embodied in the term "The Six Million." Through the recitation of individual names of victims of the Nazi genocide, "Unto Every Person There Is A Name" Yom Hashoah ceremonies help to educate and influence young people. Many have not met a survivor of the Holocaust and heard the personal experience of those who choose to share their experience to educate the youth of today. This program is also an effective tool to counter the efforts of Holocaust deniers who seek to convince the world that the Holocaust never occurred. It also serves to perpetuate the memory and respond to those who say that we should close this chapter in history. The Holocaust is a tragedy whose size defies comprehension: Six million Jews were killed. One and half million children. Billions of dollars in property were confiscated. Tens of thousands of books were destroyed. Thousand of Jewish communities were obliterated - forever. We read their names as a tribute to the lives they led and hoped to lead. "Unto Every Person There is a Name" gives names back to those who were stripped of their identities before they were robbed of their lives. By reciting their names, ages and birthplaces, we remember that each victim was an individual, a son or daughter, a sister or brother, a child or a parent. Each had hopes and dreams and, like all people, each clung to life. On Yom Hashoah, B'nai B'rith members throughout the world read some of the names of the six million Jewish men, women and children murdered during the Holocaust. Murdered, systematically and brutally, because they were born Jewish. We also recall non-Jews murdered because they, too, did not fit into Hitler's perverse vision. We, the living, bear witness today - not just at these commemorations but as a united observance in communities around the world. Together we affirm that the innocent lives lost in the Holocaust have not and will not be forgotten. Their names will always be remembered.
Unto Every Person There is a Name
"We were first told to undress - clothes on one side, shoes on other - then we entered the room, naked as the day of our birth. It was here that we were given a number and heard the Konzentrationlagerfuehrer [Concentration Camp Commandant] say: 'Fromthis day forth, you are all numbers. You no longer have names. You have no identities. You have no nationalities. All you haveis your number, and besides your number, you have nothing at all.'
Excerpt from the diary of Jacob, 17
Since 1955, Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes Remembrance Authority has been gathering the names of the victims of the Holocaust. Lists of deportees, inmates of concentration camps, Jews who lived in ghettoes and persons displaced after the war have been collected and stored. But the information contained in these lists was usually limited to name, date and place of origin. It was therefore decided to create "Pages of Testimony", to be filled by family members, friends or acquaintances of persons who had disappeared, or had been murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators. Data about the victim's family, his/her occupation, whereabouts during the war and the circumstances of his/her disappearance or death personalizes the tragedy of the intangible and anonymous "Six Million", says Alexander Avraham, Director of the Hall of Names at Yad Vashem.
By the end of the 1990s, some 800,000 Pages of Testimony had been collected, including tens of thousands of pages filled by immigrants from the former Soviet Union. But Avraham realized that time was running out.
Shortly before Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day in April 1999, Yad Vashem launched an international $1 million campaign entitled "Unto Every Person there is a Name". The aim was to collect the names of every man, woman and child killed during the Holocaust. The Nazis had taken away the names of their victims and replaced them with numbers; the project was to return their identities and commemorate them.
The response was overwhelming. More than 380,000 new testimonies have been submitted to date. Avraham credits much of the response to its timing. In the initial post-war years, he explains, survivors found the topic very difficult to address, or still clung to the belief that their loved ones had somehow survived. Others found the task of giving testimony, often concerning dozens of relatives and friends too daunting; some were simply too involved with rebuilding their shattered lives. As a result, relatively few Pages of Testimony arrived at Yad Vashem.
Today the climate has changed. In the past few years, the Holocaust has become a topic discussed worldwide, especially in the area of restoration of property. Also, members of the survivors' generation, now very advanced in years, have realized that this may be their last chance to formally record the fate of their relatives and friends.
An interesting phenomenon that has come to light in the course of the campaign is the special relationship between survivors and their grandchildren. Often, Alexander relates, survivors couldn't face telling their children about their experiences and the "second generation" grew up in an atmosphere of silence and grief. This silence was broken many years later, when grandparents told their stories to their grandchildren. An example of third-generation involvement is the case of 14-year-old Ron Haber from New Zealand. Ron was so moved by his visit to Yad Vashem a year ago that he took back home with him Pages of Testimony for his grandfather, a Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor, to fill. Ron's initiative came not a moment too soon, as his grandfather passed away several months later. In his memory, Ron, together with a teacher and some classmates, collected testimonies from all the Holocaust survivors in New Zealand - some 300 Pages of Testimony - and forwarded them to Yad Vashem.
Other private initiatives were taken by: a German priest and teacher who made it a class project to gather the names of Jews from their town who were killed during the Holocaust; and twelve-year-old Ben Wind from Texas, who wrote to Yad Vashem asking for 200 blank Pages of Testimony which he filled completed and returned in person when he came to celebrate his Bar-Mitzvah in Jerusalem later that year. The National Students' Union of Israel has pledged itself to the operation, and recruited dozens of students to help survivors fill out Pages of Testimony. Over 1,000 Pages were collected in this way from survivors now living in retirement homes in Israel. Abroad, Jewish organizations, community centers, newspapers and Israel's embassies have assisted local Yad Vashem societies with the project. However, only ten percent of the testimonies have come from outside of Israel, and Avraham believes that the project is still in need of more publicity abroad.
The Pages are made of special acid-free paper, and are available from Yad Vashem, by mail or e-mail in fourteen languages. Both sections (concerning the victim and the survivor) must be filled out, each form for one victim only (not groups or families) and the information must be about a victim of the Holocaust, not - albeit a tragedy - someone who perished in a pogrom before the war, a survivor who was killed after arrival in Israel, or an allied soldier killed in battle. There is a space on the form for a photograph of the victim; some four to five percent of the testimonies submitted have photos attached. Incomplete or photocopied forms are accepted, but only if they are signed and dated by hand, since they are considered legal documents.
In 1992, a comprehensive computer program was initiated, which facilitated access to the huge reservoir of information already collected. The program can also translate place names and personal names into different languages, which allows for quicker cross-referencing and identification of duplicate entries. This is vital since some 16 million names appear on the thousands of lists that Yad Vashem has obtained, and which contain multiple references to many people, as they were transferred from place to place. The program thus enables relatives to find out where their loved ones spent their last months, and where they died. Alexander hopes that one day this service will be available on the Internet.
A staff of 25 checks the completed pages on arrival at Yad Vashem. After being scanned into the computer, the Pages are placed in alphabetical order in memorial files - symbolic tombstones - in the Hall of Names, which is kept at a temperature and level of humidity necessary for their preservation. Next to the Hall is a room where visitors can use the five computer terminals to search for information about lost relatives and friends.
Searches at times turn up unexpected results. In 1941, Leonid Sheiman was separated from his family - parents, four brothers and a sister - and was drafted into the Soviet army. His efforts after the war to find members of his family were all in vain. In June 2000, five years after he immigrated from Poland, Leonid's daughter encouraged him to write to Yad Vashem. Researchers were able to tell him that in 1991, his brother Lazar, who had arrived in Israel in 1957, had filed Pages of Testimony regarding his family - including Leonid - all of whom he believed to be dead. After 59 years, the two brothers were reunited.
Altogether, the program contains some five million individual references. Avraham does not believe that all six million names will ever be collected: the biggest "hole", he explains, is Central Europe, where people were murdered where they lived - thus their names do not appear on any official lists - and where so few survived to give testimony.
By personalizing the individual tragedy of the victims and the survivors of the Holocaust, the project seeks to counteract trends of indifference and ignorance, and to discredit Holocaust deniers who seek to convince the world that the Holocaust never happened.
"With each name added," Alexander believes, "the memory of a whole life is revived. Every new name recorded in the Hall of Names is a victory against oblivion."
Unto Every Person There is a NameUnto every person there is a namebestowed on him by Godand given to him by his parents.Unto every person there is a nameaccorded him by his statureand type of smileand style of dress.Unto every person there is a nameconferred by the mountainsand the walls which surround him.Unto every person there is a namegranted him by Fortune's wheelor that which neighbors call him.Unto every person there is a nameassigned him by his failingsor contributed by his yearnings.Unto every person there is a namegiven to him by his enemiesor by his love.Unto every person there is a namederived from his celebrationsand his occupation. Unto every person there is a namepresented him by the seasonsand his blindness.Unto every person there is a namewhich he receives from the seaand is given to him by his death.
Zelda

Beth Shalom U.S.Y. Connects Tu B'Shvat and Pesach

Tu B’Shevat Plantings Yield Passover Fruit for Temple Students

Tu B’Shevat, the second full moon after the winter solstice during the third week in December marks the celebration in the Land of Israel of the produce of the trees and plants. In harmony with Israel, Jews throughout the world mark the occasion and celebrate by planting and eating of the produce of the Jewish National Homeland. At Palm Coast’s Temple Beth Shalom, young students planted as well, just as is done in Israel. This year’s crop included parsley plantings under the supervision of Educational Director Robyn Shapiro.

Students watched as the plants grew seed leaves and ultimately an ample crop under the ideal conditions of the grounds of the synagogue in Palm Coast. By Passover, the Festival of Freedom and the Holiday of Spring, the crops were ready for use as the traditional Karpas, or green vegetable used for dipping in salt water at the Seder meal on the first two nights of the eight day Feast.

Karpas is one of the traditional rituals in the Passover Seder. It refers to the vegetable, usually parsley or celery, that is dipped in liquid (usually salt water) and eaten. The liquid may be any of the seven which make food capable of becoming ritually impure, although salt-water or vinegar are usually used. The idea behind the salt water is to symbolize the salty tears that the Jews shed in their slavery in Egypt. The vegetables symbolize the coming of the spring.

Some have explained the dipping of the Karpas to symbolize the Biblical Joseph’s tunic being dipped into blood by his brothers. Karpas is therefore done at the beginning of the seder, just as Joseph's tunic being dipped into blood began, as the Book of Genesis describes, the Israelites descent to Egypt. Indeed, the word Karpas, in some languages, means cloth.

The educational technique connects students ever more closely to the most ancient of rituals, bringing to life in 21st century Palm Coast customs and ceremonies with 3000 year old roots in the biblical Middle East.

Rabbi Shapiro in Tallahassee to Protect Religious Freedoms for All Floridians

Rabbi Merrill Shapiro and Reverend Harry Parrot Consulting on Testimony Before Florida's Taxation and Budget Reform Commission



Rabbi Shapiro in Tallahassee to Protect Religious Freedoms for All Floridians

Rabbi Merrill Shapiro testified before the Florida Taxation and Budget Reform Commission as the group of political appointees was prepared to vote on an amendment to the state’s constitution that would repeal provisions limiting the use of tax dollars to support religious institutions. The commission was considering Constitutional Proposal CP 0020, “A resolution proposing an amendment to Section 3 of Article I of the State Constitution to repeal a limit on the use of public revenues in aid of religious organizations and entities, and to prohibit individuals and entities from being barred from participating in public programs because of their religion.”

The resolution grew out of a Florida Supreme Court decision in the case of Bush v. Holmes in which the justices relied on Florida’s Blaine Amendment, to invalidate the Opportunity Scholarship Program because the state was sending checks to religious schools, colleges and universities rather than to public institutions.

Rabbi Shapiro spoke in his capacity as Vice-President of the national Board of Trustees of Americans United for Separation of Church and State and was joined by Reverend Harry Parrott, a Baptist Minister from Clay County, Florida and representatives from the Anti-Defamation League, National Council of Jewish Women, People for the American Way and the Florida Education Association. In a letter to the commission, Shapiro argued for the retention of Florida’s Blaine Amendment, the constitutional provision prohibiting the expenditure of taxpayer dollars for religious purposes.

Preparing for Passover, Beth Shalom Promotes Israel Wineries

As the season begins for preparations for the traditional observance of the ancient Passover Festival, Palm Coast’s Temple Beth Shalom Men’s Club and Sisterhood are promoting the purchase of the produce of Israel’s wineries by offering bottles of Galilean wine in response to donations of $18.75 or more! The project is designed to encourage the purchase of products from Israel to strengthen the economy of the Middle East’s only genuine democracy and steadfast American ally.

Wine is an essential ingredient to the celebration of Passover, based upon the promises made to the ancient Hebrews in the sixth chapter of the biblical Book of Exodus. The centrality of the use of wine at Passover is verified by the Gospel accounts of the ritual used by Jesus at the Last Supper.

Temple Beth Shalom has made available in Flagler County, wines from the vineyards of the Galilee or Northern Israel region. This region is most suited for viniculture in Israel due to its high elevation, cool breezes, marked day and night temperature changes and rich, well-drained soils (most suitable for Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay).

Wine has been produced in the Land of Israel since Biblical times. The ancient land of Israel (known at various times as Canaan and Judea) was making wine over two thousand years before Europe. In Biblical times the wine industry was the mainstay of the economy and wine had significant ritual importance.

The city of Gibeon was the center of wine making in ancient Israel. In 1959 and 1960 archaeological expeditions discovered ancient wine cellars saved and preserved at temperatures of 20 degrees Celsius. Furthermore it has been determined that wine was made and stored in ancient Gibeon between 600 C.E and 700 C.E. Great similarities between the wine cellars of Gibeon, Israel and Champagne, France have been noted, as if the same architect was involved in the design and building of the wine cellars despite the fact that the cellars of Gibeon were built 500 years earlier than the cellars of Champagne, France.

Ancient wines lacked the quality that people have become accustomed to in modern times. They were thick and sweet and had to be seasoned just to make them palatable.

Baron Edmond de Rothschild built two wineries in the final decades of the nineteenth century, one in Zikhron Ya'aqov and another in Rishon LeZion. Because of high temperatures the wine of the first vintages went sour, so deep underground cellars were constructed at enormous cost.

In 1906 Rothschild passed the management of the wineries onto the growers who formed the Societe Co-operative Vigneronne des Grandes Caves and in 1957 his son, James Rothschild, donated the wineries to the wine growers cooperative. Their vineyards covered many parts of Israel, but the main concentration was in the coastal regions of Sharon & Samson. The resulting wines were sold under the brand name 'Carmel'.
At the turn of the twentieth century Carmel produced the first Israeli wine to win a medal at a wine show (Carmel No. 1 1900 was a gold medal winner at the Paris World's Fair). It signaled It signaled the rebirth of the Israeli wine industry after 2,000 years.
Well into the 1960s, Israel suffered from a reputation of producing wines too thick and sweet to appeal to true wine connoisseurs. In the 1970s Carmel began to produce Israel's first varietal wines (Cabernet Sauvignon & Sauvignon Blanc).

Today, some Israeli wines are so good that they are compared favorably to the wines of the respected chateaux of France. Starting in the 1990s and continuing in the 2000s there has been an explosion of new boutique wineries throughout Israel. The most famous of these is Domaine du Castel, situated in the Judean Hills, west of Jerusalem. Castel wines were chosen as Decanter Wine of the Month on no less than three occasions.

Israel wins most prizes for its red wines, in particular Cabernet Sauvignon, but awards have been won for traditional method sparkling wines, white wines & dessert wines too. Eleven different Israeli wineries have won gold medals at the very highest level of international blind tasting wine competitions at least once, and some are regular winners.

Temple Beth Shalom is proud to present fine Israeli wines to the sophisticated consumers of Flagler County and to support the produce of the Holy Land. Robert Arkin, President of the synagogue’s Men’s Club is quick to point out that “great festivals like Passover, require great wine from a great and holy land, an ancient land made new again in our own time through the modern State of Israel!”

Flagler Jewish Community Gathers to Celebrate Purim on 75th Anniversary of the Completion of the Death Camp at Dachau!

Flagler Jewish Community Gathers to Celebrate Purim on 75th Anniversary of the Completion of the Death Camp at Dachau!

Flagler County’s Jews will gather at Temple Beth Shalom on Palm Coast’s Wellington Drive on Thursday evening, March 20th to celebrate the events described in the Biblical Book of Esther. On this day of the full moon in March, Jews the world over gather in synagogues to mark the salvation of the Jews from their annihilation planned by the wicked Haman in the fifth pre-Christian century in ancient Persia. An additional dimension comes into play this year as the synchronization of the Jewish lunar-solar calendar with the solar calendar now in more general use, brings Purim to fall on the 75th anniversary of the completion of the construction of the Nazi death camp at Dachau. As is the case some 24 centuries earlier, those who came to destroy Jews and Judaism have been defeated, but not without the payment of a terrible price.

Purim is one of the most joyous and fun holidays on the Jewish calendar. It commemorates a time when the Jewish people living in Persia were saved from extermination. The story of Purim is told in the Biblical Book of Esther. The heroes of the story are Esther, a beautiful young Jewish woman living in Persia, and her cousin Mordecai, who raised her as if she were his daughter. Esther was taken to the house of Ahasuerus, King of Persia, to become part of his harem. King Ahasuerus loved Esther more than his other women and made Esther queen, but the king did not know that Esther was a Jew, because Mordecai told her not to reveal her identity.

The villain of the story is Haman, an arrogant, egotistical advisor to the king. Haman hated Mordecai because Mordecai refused to bow down to Haman, so Haman plotted to destroy the Jewish People. In a speech that is all too familiar to Jews, Haman told the king, "There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your realm. Their laws are different from those of every other people's, and they do not observe the king's laws; therefore it is not befitting the king to tolerate them." Esther 3:8. The king gave the fate of the Jewish people to Haman, to do as he pleased to them. Haman planned to exterminate all of the Jews.

Mordecai persuaded Esther to speak to the king on behalf of the Jewish people. This was a dangerous thing for Esther to do, because anyone who came into the king's presence without being summoned could be put to death, and she had not been summoned. Esther fasted for three days to prepare herself, then went into the king. He welcomed her. Later, she told him of Haman's plot against her people. The Jewish people were saved, and Haman was hanged on the gallows that had been prepared for Mordecai.

The book of Esther is unusual in that it is the only book of the Bible that does not contain the name of G-d. In fact, it includes virtually no reference to G-d. Mordecai makes a vague reference to the fact that the Jews will be saved by someone else, if not by Esther, but that is the closest the book comes to mentioning G-d. Thus, one important message that can be gained from the story is that G-d often works in ways that are not apparent, in ways that appear to be chance, coincidence or ordinary good luck.

Purim is celebrated on the 14th day of Adar, which is usually in March. The 13th of Adar is the day that Haman chose for the extermination of the Jews, and the day that the Jews battled their enemies for their lives. On the day afterwards, the 14th, they celebrated their survival. In cities that were walled in the time of Joshua, Purim is celebrated on the 15th of the month, because the book of Esther says that in Shushan (a walled city), deliverance from the massacre was not complete until the next day. The 15th is referred to as Shushan Purim.

The word "Purim" means "lots" and refers to the lottery that Haman used to choose the date for the massacre.

The Purim holiday is preceded by a minor fast, the Fast of Esther, which commemorates Esther's three days of fasting in preparation for her meeting with the king.

The primary commandment related to Purim is to hear the reading of the book of Esther. The book of Esther is commonly known as the Megillah, which means scroll. Although there are five books of Jewish scripture that are properly referred to as megillahs (Esther, Ruth, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, and Lamentations), this is the one people usually mean when they speak of The Megillah. It is customary to boo, hiss, stamp feet and rattle gragers (noisemakers) whenever the name of Haman is mentioned in the service. The purpose of this custom is to "blot out the name of Haman."

Dachau was a Nazi German concentration camp, and the first one opened in Germany, located on the grounds of an abandoned munitions factory near the medieval town of Dachau, about 16 km (10 miles) northwest of Munich . Completed on March 20, 1933, the camp opened in June and became the first regular concentration camp established by the coalition government of National Socialist (Nazi) NSDAP party Heinrich Himmler, Chief of Police of Munich, officially described the camp as "the first concentration camp for political prisoners."
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Dachau served as a prototype and model for the other Nazi concentration camps that followed. Its basic organization, camp layout as well as the plan for the buildings were developed by Kommandant Theodor Eicke and were applied to all later camps. He had a separate secure camp near the command center, which consisted of living quarters, administration, and army camps. Eicke himself became the chief inspector for all concentration camps, responsible for molding the others according to his model.

In total, over 200,000 prisoners from more than 30 countries were housed in Dachau of which nearly one-third were Jews.. Some 25,613 prisoners are believed to have died in the camp and almost another 10,000 in its subcamps, primarily from disease, malnutrition and suicide. In early 1945, there was a typhus epidemic in the camp followed by an evacuation, in which large numbers of the weaker prisoners died.

Together withthe much larger Auschwitz, Dachau has come to symbolize the Nazi concentration camps to many people. Konzentrationslager (KZ) Dachau holds a significant place in public memory because it was the second camp to be liberated by British or American forces. Therefore, it was one of the first places where the West was exposed to the reality of Nazi brutality through firsthand journalist accounts and through newsreels.

Among the goals of Nazism and the Holocaust that descended upon Europe from 1933 to 1945 was the destruction of the Jews and the event is foreshadowed by the story of Purim and the designs of the wicked Haman. Much is even made of the similarity between the names Hitler, Himmler and the biblical Haman.

But no matter the source of the destructive powers arrayed against the Jews, they remain and will gather in their synagogues, including Temple Beth Shalom of Palm Coast, on the eve of Purim, Thursday evening, March 20th. All are welcome to the celebration at Temple Beth Shalom on March 20th at 7 p.m. Costumes and noisemakers are a traditional part of the festivities. Noisemakers will be provided, costumes are optional. The hourlong service will be followed by traditional refreshements. There is no charge and no advance arrangements need be made.

Ancient Ritual Revived at Palm Coast Temple Beth Shalom

Four times in the Five Books of Moses, in Exodus, twice in the Book of Exodus and twice in the Book of Deuteronomy, the Children of Israel are commanded to bind the words of God “as a sign upon your arm, and they shall be a symbol between your eyes!” The ritual of binding and becoming tightly connected with God is also mentioned in the 23rd chapter of the Gospel According to Matthew.

In some quarters of Judaism, the ritual of binding oneself, each weekday morning, to the words of God through the use of Tefillin, sometimes called Phylacteries, is being lost as Jews assimilate into 21st century America. Tefillin, two black leather boxes containing scrolls of parchment inscribed with biblical verses the arm-tefillin, or shel yad, worn on the upper arm, while the head-tefillin, or shel rosh, is placed above the forehead, serve as a "sign" and "remembrance" that God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt.

Participating in an international program organized by the world-wide Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs, Palm Coast’s Temple Beth Shalom Men’s Club led the Flagler congregation in a practice session to encourage adherence to this Biblically-ordained ritual. More than 50 men, women and children assembled in the synagogue’s sanctuary and practice the wrapping and binding, some using Tefillin handed down from parent to child over the course of more than a century.

After viewing an instructional and motivational film, mentors helped each and every participant don the ancient boxes, straps and scrolls that were worn for a 20 minute prayer service. The event was followed by a breakfast for all participants, some as young as 5 years old, others approaching their 90s. All agreed, that beginning one’s day on a note of spirituality and sanctity was akin to having breakfast with God! “It really has had a remarkably positive impact on me, on my behavior and my outlook,” said one participant. His wife added, “This has been a traditionally male-oriented ritual that we have now liberated and taken as our own. What a wonderful way to educate and set an example for our own daughters and granddaughters!”

Tu B'Shvat Plantings Beautify Synagogue

During the discussion on the importance of Tu B'Shvat with the students of the Temple Beth Shalom Religious School, young people spoke of how painfully aware they are of the issues relating to global warming. In the next few years, the United States will make, or fail to make, critical decisions regarding global warming pollution and clean technology investments. These decisions will have far-reaching and irreversible impacts on the lives of today’s students and the lives of their children. At this moment in time.

Students were asked to calculate, by inspecting nearby vacant lots and counting the trees and shrubs, how many such plants were destroyed to create their homes and yards. Realizing that they had a lot of work to make up for the loss, the students, in honor of Tu B'Shvat, began a process of planting shrubs, bushes and trees around the Temple Beth Shalom synagogue both for beauty and to reduce the amount of carbon while increasing the oxygen in our atmosphere.

The effort is part of the hands on philosophy of Temple Beth Shalom's Religious school that takes learning from the classroom into the surrounding world, making ancient customs and traditions relevant and meaningful to young Americans in the 21st century.