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December 2004
Demystifying the Mikvah: Taking the Plunge
By Jane Soloman
It was as scary as anything I’d ever done, and I wasn’t sure why. As a Reform Jew, my sense of being commanded by God does not come with a set of 613 unambiguous instructions, yet something had drawn me to the mikvah – the ritual bath – and to begin observing its laws, something about
Federation celebrates 75 years with dinner event
In honor of its 75th anniversary, the Jewish Federation of Silicon Valley
invites Jewish residents of the Silicon Valley to celebrate at a special
dinner January 30, 2005, at The Hyatt San Jose on North First Street.
The theme of this celebration is “Honoring the Past; Building the
Future.”
Rabbis grapple with interfaith inclusion
By Debra Nussbaum Cohen
(The New York Jewish Week)
Like every Conservative rabbi, David Lincoln, who is spiritual leader
of Manhattan’s Park Avenue Synagogue, occasionally finds himself
faced with the need to involve a non-Jewish parent in a child’s
bar or bat mitzvah.
He sets strict guidelines for their involvement: non-Jewish parents are
allowed to stand on the bima while the Jewish parent says a Hebrew blessing
of thanksgiving. But they are not permitted to open the ark holding the
Torah scrolls, or to wear a tallit, or take on any of the other roles
that they might be allowed in a Reform or Reconstructionist setting.
Local synagogues bring Uganda Jews to San Jose
By Shelley Leveson
Alisa Israel Goldberg, a San Jose resident and long-time member of Congregation
Sinai, vividly recalls the first time she heard the familiar “Song
of the Sea,” from the Shabbat Shira service, set to the traditional
rhythms of the Abayudaya tribe in Uganda last winter.
The place was Nabugoye Hill, a small village outside of the city of Mbale.
Goldberg, her daughter Anna, 14, her mother, her sister and five other
Jewish American women were on a tour put together by Kulanu, an organization
dedicated to helping far-flung Jewish communities. The setting was a far
cry from home. No running water, mud huts, no electricity. Yet some things
were intensely familiar: the prayers, the rituals, the sense of community.
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