#BlogElul 16 Pray

I do believe that there is no wrong place to pray and this summer I did a blog post about just that when I was at OSRUI. You can in a small community, in a large community just by yourself,  If you are not feeling well in mind or body you can ask other people to pray with you of for you.  You can sing, play an instrument or listen to other singing.  I know I always feel calmer and happier after praying.  There are many studies which tell us that if you pray regularly it will improve your health.

Being in the month of Elul as we are to prepare for the High Holy Days what a great time to start praying with Religious and Hebrew school beginning this week.  Come and try out our Tfilah, service at the beginning of Religious school and don't forget our Friday night services.  We also have Torah study and t'filah on Shabbat morning!

Praying at camp and getting ready

I love praying with my community whether that be at Lakeside or camp.  I love singing the old tunes I know and more importantly learning new tunes that keep me and I believe everyone on their toes.  I hope to see my Lakeside chevre this week either Friday Night at Pot-Luck Shabbat, Sunday morning at the opening of Religious School or Tuesday for Hebrew school.







We are also praying this week for the safety of our friends in Florida and hope they will be kept out of harms way. As we gathered supplies for Hurricane Harvey I hope we will not have to do the same for Irma but we are prepared.

Photo Credit: Rabbi Phyllis Sommer

Desecrated Graveyard: What would Grandma Hetty say about this?

I am sure by now that you have read/saw on TV/viewed on the Internet about the graveyard in St. Louis which was vandalized this week.  Over 100 grave stones were pushed over and trashed.  My extended family lives in St. Louis; my mother grew up in Madison across the river.  My grandparents, great uncles and cousins are buried in that cemetery it took me a minute to put it all together to realize my family's gravestones were at risk. All at once my sister and my cousins began a flurry of emails:

Are our graves ok?
What can we do?
How can we help?

VP Pence cleaning up

We felt relieved when we heard all of our relatives graves were untouched.  It seems the vandals chose graves close to an inner cemetery road.  Our graves were deep in the cemetery.  My sister sent me pictures of our graves. There was a massive outpouring of help from the Muslim community to the Christian community and even Vice President Pence made a stop there to help clean up and say a few words.

I have been thinking about this event all week and I finally realized what was bothering me.  I was very close with my Grandma Hetty Diamond.  She lived a long time and as you can see from her grave she outlived my Grandfather Wolf, who I never met and for whom I am named.  If she knew what about the events of this week that the graves in this graveyard were vandalized because it was a Jewish graveyard I thought at first she would be incredulous.  She had come to America and became a citizen and she believed  that she lived in a great country.  My mom said I was mistaken and not for the first time corrected me: my grandmother was ahead of her time and she would not be surprised at this latest act of anti-semitism.  She read the newspaper everyday and loved whatever first lady Eleanor Roosevelt had to say; there was a picture of FDR in their house; however she lived in the small town and was aware of anti-semtisim and had probably experienced it as well.

Diamond, my grandparents

Both of my grandparents became citizens in the early forties.  My grandmother came here in 1919 after WWI and my grandfather, Wolf had come earlier and both grandparents were originally from  Manchester, England.  My grandfather died very young and my grandmother was a working mother her whole life.  She supported my mom and her older brother Louis through camp and college with help from some of the Uncle's.  Family helped family. That is the way it was.  They had only been one generation in England as my great grandparents were born in Russia.  My family kept moving from place to place to do the best for their family.

Perhaps I keep thinking about the desecration of the graveyard and my ancestors as we discuss the status of refugees in the United States today.  I am proud that at Lakeside Congregation with the help of HIAS  are sponsoring a refugee family.  We have collected all of the money, furniture, clothes and other items and we are just waiting for the travel ban to be lifted.  It is with a heavy heart I see my country putting up more road blocks for families seeking asylum.

As I talked with my mom today she said we live in troubled times, with a capital T and I agree.  We must continue to work to do what is right.  This may mean calling your representatives, marching to protest the travel ban or cleaning up a cemetery where your grandparents, great grandparents and other relatives are buried.

Grandma Hetty Diamond and me: 1972 at my Bat Mitzvah

Todd Kessler: Someone you should know at Lakeside Congregation!

Sunday Morning T'filah

Many of you have heard Todd Kessler sing at Lakeside Congregation for B'nai Mitzvah, Friday night T'filot or perhaps at our Sunday morning service.  We are so happy to have Todd as a musical presence at Lakeside from his weekly assignments to singing for us at High Holy Days at the Koloteinu Services.  Todd is an integral part of our Sunday morning T'filah as well as teaching music on both Sunday morning and during Hebrew school on Tuesday afternoon's.  If your Hebrew school student could belt out the 4 questions, you have Todd to thank for this.  Todd enjoys creating music and has brought this talent to our Junior Choir. Speaking of Todd's creative abilities, it may interest you to know that he is beginning work on a new solo album.

In an effort to bring our community together and to share some news about Todd, I welcome our Lakeside Family to take a look at Todd's latest project which he worked on when he was in LA over Spring break.  Click here to learn all about how he is developing and promoting his project

Todd with our Junior Choir

If you have never heard Todd this weekend Todd and his band will be playing at our Thank God It's Shabbat, 7:30 pm Friday May 6.  It is a fun service and one the whole family will enjoy! Our next one will not be until next fall so c'mon on down.

 Come on our Family Night Friday night (the 3rd week of every month) and hear some of the new songs our Jr. Choir has composed.  Todd's love of music will also be highlighted next year in our Lakeside Academy (more details to be forthcoming soon!)

Todd and his family, wife Lauren and his boys, Benjamin and Ezra have been a part of our community for the past two years and Benjamin and Ezra are enrolled in our Children's Center and love to come to our Tot Shabbat. We look forward working with Todd at Lakeside and say Todah Rabah for brining his love of music, his expertise and his spirituality to our congregational family.

At our Children's Center Model Seder earlier this month

Why I wear a tallit

I did not grow up wearing a tallit or a kippah.  In fact at my  home synagogue we had black kippot for the men and little doilies for the women to put on their heads.  Neither ritual item was really explained to us and why or why not we should wear one.  As I got older and then married Arthur, who always wore both kippah and tallit but I didn't think much of it.

When my kids were at Solomon Schechter Day school it was required that boys wear kippot all the time and girls were allowed to wear them.  Lital, my oldest and my daughter never wore a kippah at school but she decided to wear tallit and kippah when becoming a Bat Mitzvah.  I hope I had something to do with her wearing a tallit as I had begun to wear one when she was much younger than 13.  It was a Lakeside student who made me decide to wear a tallit.

When I was first Educational director I taught all of our Hebrew classes.  In Dalet one day as I was talking about the mitzvah (commandment) of wearing tallit and kippah and explaining to my students that my boys at school had to wear these items every day, a student (a madrich actually) asked: "Mrs. Ehrlich why don't you wear a tallit?  You told us it's a mitzvah, you have told us men and women are equal certainly in Reform Judaism, why don't you wear one?"  I remember being taken off guard.  It was many years ago and I replied that I had not grown up wearing a tallit and then deflected the question in my answer.  This madrich's question got me to think about my own mitzvot, about taking on a new ritual.  I had not grown up with women wearing tallit or kippah; I had seen some women read from the Torah but during the 1970's really just for B'not Mitzvah.

I also started thinking that if I did not start to wear a tallit how could I expect Lital to wear one when she became a Bat Mitzvah in September 2001?  That summer when I was on faculty at OSRUI where we lead t'filot every morning and help our campers lead in the evening, I started wearing a tallit.  No one said anything. At camp it was acceptable to wear a tallit or not.  No one said anything to me.  When I got back to Lakeside I started to wear a tallit for the High Holy days and slowly I added this new custom to whenever I pray.  I especially wear a tallit when I know there will be a Torah service. I don't always wear a tallit but I do have a small collection in my office.  At confirmation I always offer some of my tallitot to our girls and if you look at the pictures on the wall outside of my office you will see some of my tallitot. Enjoy and have a Shabbat Shalom.

New Year's Resolutions

I am not big on New Year's resolutions but it is hard not to think about them at this time of year.  I take stock at the Jewish New year on Rosh Hashanah but New Year's resolutions seem to fit into lists at least in my head.  I would also love to influence other people as they make their New Year's resolution for 2016.  Here are a few:

Continue to spend more time with family.  Last year my family was on a great trip to Cuba.  We had planned the trip long before the United States decided to open up relations. It was a wonderful trip and because in Cuba there is no easy or plentiful access to the internet no one on the trip was on their phones, computer or any other devices.  We talked and didn't worry about people trying to contact us.  We just had fun. This is the best way to spend time with family.

Jewish Camp is good for you and here are the numbers to prove it!

Lakeside at OSRUI 2014

I have been involved in Jewish camping for many years and I know it's good for you.  Now I have the numbers to prove it.

The impact of overnight Jewish camp is immediate and lasting. (Data via JVillage)

"Studies show that children who go to Jewish camp are more likely to become adults who value their heritage, support Israel, are engaged in their communities, support more causes, and take on leadership roles throughout their lives.  The influence of summer camp on the ways in which adult Jews choose to engage with the community and the degree to which they associate with other Jews can be felt long after the last sunset of the summer. The impact is striking, especially when compared to their peers who did not spend their summer months at Jewish camp."

OSRUI is our Jewish camp of choice! We have scholarships at Lakeside and you can visit OneHappyCamper.org to find out how new campers can save up to $1,000 or 40-60% off their first summer through BunkConnect™, FJC's newest program designed to make camp more affordable for more families. 

We want as many of our students at OSRUI as possible.  Both Rabbi Serotta and I spend time their every summer and have sent all of our children.  We know how valuable and meaningful the summer was for our personal children and the children we send from Lakeside.  

This Sunday October 19, Max Weinberg, Assistant Director at OSRUI will be here at 10:00 am to talk to us and answer questions about OSRUI.  Please join us in the sanctuary and wear your camp T-shirts.