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Ashkenaz: A Jewish Journey Through CMT!

April 28-May 9, 2013

The German speaking lands were the cradle and center of Ashkenazi Jewish civilization until the 13th and 14th centuries. In the wake of the Crusades, the Black Plague and unrelenting Christian persecution, expulsions and massacres, the center of European Jewish life and creativity shifted eastward to Poland. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, as Jews grappled with the new challenges presented by emancipation and freedom, the German speaking Jewish communities evolved new models of Jewish living, laying the groundwork for the development of the Reform, Conservative and Modern Orthodox movements.

The Nazis and their allies destroyed the Jewish communities of Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic, but their legacies are still alive and relevant in contemporary Jewish life. Together, we will explore and trace the story of Ashkenazi Jewry, using the major centers of Berlin, Vienna and Prague (where miraculously, Jewish life is being resurrected) to remember and learn about the past and ultimately to better understand the complex nature of our own contemporary Jewish identity, belief and practice.

Included below is the trip itinerary; pricing information and registration form.  To pay for your trip online, log onto the Keshet Israel website at http://www.keshetisrael.co.il/ and click on “Online Registration” at the bottom left corner.  Enter “Mishkan Tefila” in the “group/trip name” cell and “Rabbi Gordon” in the “group/trip leader name” cell. You will then be directed to step-by-step payment instructions. Note: the site may only give you the option of signing up for a Keshet Israel trip, but this form will work for our Europe trip as well.

• Itinerary
• Ashkenaz Pricing
• Registration

Calendar of Events

2012- 2013

Saturday, Feb 9 – SH/BH Shabbat

Wednesday, March 13 – Torah Fund Event

Tuesday, March 26 – Passover, Second Seder

Wednesday, April 24 – Night in town to see Book of Mormon

May 9 or 22 – Spring Celebration

May 29 – Wrap up Meeting

**Additional SH/ Board Meetings TBD

Text One:

It will happen sometimes that as you sing, without intending it, you will spontaneously begin to speak words of prayer to God.  If at first these words may be associated with the life and desires of the body, the more you become spiritually aroused, and your soul comes out of its sheath to fly upwards, the more will you leave this world and its concerns, and from depths of your heart you will cry out in pure prayer to God.  And lest you think that such prayers are somehow less important than those written down in the Siddur, you should know that prayers such as these come from the very same quarry from which the soul itself is hewn.

…SO when you are in the company of people who are singing, whether during prayer or at a meal or some other time, sing along with them, and not just on the level of making your voice heard…but also to bring out your soul and lift it up, on the level of what is said about Elisa the prophet, “And it came about, that when the musician played, the hand of God rested on him.”

…And do not be restricted to those times when you are in company of others who are singing.  Also in your home, whenever you feel yourself in the right mood and are able to sing, do as described above.  And you do not have to raise your voice either, for it is possible to sing in the merest whisper and have it heard in the heaven.

-Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapiro, Hakhharrat ha-Abrekhim

Text Two:

But let each of you observe the Sabbath spiritually, by rejoicing in meditation on laws and not in the release of the body, by marveling at the creative work of God, not by eating day-old foods, drinking lukewarm drinks, walking measured distances and rejoicing in dancing and senseless clapping.

-pseudo-Ignatius, To the Magnesians 9

Text Three:

Any act for which people are culpable on the Sabbath because of the requirement of Sabbath rest…people are culpable on its account also on a festival-day.  And what acts are these?  People may not climb a tree or ride on an animal or swim on water or clap (hands) or slap (the thighs) or dance.

-Mishnah Beitzah 5:2

Text Four:

There is a parable of an old man seated on a highway from which there branched two roads, one full of thorns at the beginning but level at the end, and the other level at the beginning but full of thorns at the end.  So he sat at the fork in the road and cautioned passers-by, saying “Even though the beginning of this road is full of thorns, follow it, for it will turn level in the end.”   Whoever sensibly heeded the old man and followed that road did get a bit weary at first, to be sure, but went in peace and arrived in peace.  Those who did not heed the old man set out easily on the other road but stumbled in the end.   So it was with Moses, who explicitly said to Israel, “Behold the way of life and the way of death, the blessing and the curse.  Therefore, choose life that you may live, you and your seed. “

-Midrash Tanhuma Re’eh

Text Five:

Our services are conducted with pomp and precision.  The rendition of the liturgy is smooth.  Everything is present: decorum, voice, ceremony.  But one thing is missing: life.  One knows in advance what will ensue.  There will be no surprise, no adventure of the soul; there will be no sudden burst of devotion.  Nothing is going to happen to the person who prays.  He will attain no insight into the words he reads; he will attain no new perspective for the life he lives.  Our motto is monotony…There is nothing new in the synagogue.  The fire has gone out of our worship.  It is cold, stiff, and dead.  Inorganic Judaism…

Yes, the edifices are growing.  Yet worship is decaying.

Has the synagogue become the graveyard where prayer is buried?

-Abraham Joshua Heschel, Man’s Quest for God.

Text Six:

The challenge of davening is to move beyond performance and beyond impersonal, mechanical expression, to experience an elevated state of mind and a sense of intimacy and connectedness with God and community.  Davening is difficult.  Like any real spiritual discipline, it’s not instantly gratifying.

-From An Introduction to Davening at Ikar

Text Seven:

To be perfectly honest, we are all shipwrecked, and ultimately it has little to do with Hebrew or English, or Esperanto for that matter.  Start thinking of the mess we so frequently make of our lives, and words fail: no words seem to express exactly the deep regrets we want to feel and all the heartache we must learn to put up with.  Suddenly we envy the originality of that brilliant countryman who, lost in the woods on Yom Kippur, without a prayer book to his name, recites the alphabet and directs it skyward; it’s beyond me, God;  You combine these letters into the right words and sentences, for You know what I want to say.

-Judah Goldin in Shai Agnon’s Days of Awe, xxxiii

Text Eight:

There need be no prayerful mood in us when we begin to pray.  It is through our reading and feeling the words of the prayers, through the imaginative projection of our consciousness into the meaning of the words, and through empathy for the ideas with which the words are pregnant, that this type of prayer comes to pass.  The word comes first, the feeling follows.  (Heschel, Quest p. 28)

Text Nine:

The Psalms says that the greatest way to praise God is through silence (Ps. 65:2).  It is unusual for us to engage one another in silence – our instinct is to paper over our deepest vulnerabilities, filling the space with words.  But “silence can come from a breakdown in communication, or from an intimacy that makes other forms of communication temporarily unnecessary” (Seth Reimer, Kol HaNeshama p. 739).  Our work is to allow for the possibility that sometimes the depth of our experience is simply beyond words.

Text Ten:

To pray is to take notice of the wonder, to regain a sense of the mystery that animates all beings, the divine margin or attainments.  Prayer is our humble answer to the inconceivable surprise of living, an insight into the mystery of reality.

The way to prayer leads through acts of wonder and radical amazement.  The illusion of total intelligibility, the indifference to the mystery that is everywhere, the foolishness of ultimate self reliance, are seriouis obstacles on the way.  It is in the moment of our being faced with the mystery of living and dying, of knowing and not knowing of loving and the inability to love that we pray, that that we address ourselves to the One who is beyond the mystery.

-Abraham Joshua Heschel, Quest for God

I am excited to welcome and introduce you to our new Associate Rabbi, Religious School Director, Director of Youth and Family Programs, Makor Teacher, and 5^th Grade Teacher.

Below are bios of our new hires, along with descriptions of their roles.  These individuals are being hired as part-time employees and they will be executing an agreement which will provide that their employment is for the period of July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2013.

Biographies and Job Descriptions of New Staff Members

Rabbi Marcia Plumb, Associate Rabbi

Most recently from London England, Rabbi Marcia Plumb’s vibrancy is the perfect match for Rabbi Gordon’s verve.  Rabbi Plumb was the Rabbi for London’s Akiva School and the Southgate and District Reform Synagogue.  For 15 years, she was the Director of Spiritual Formation at Leo Baeck, the rabbinic seminary in London.  She has also served as the Rabbi at the North London Progressive Synagogue, and Deep River, Connecticut’s Congregation Beth Shalom. Hoping to lead others on a path towards spiritual enlightenment, she founded Neshama: For Spiritual Wellbeing, a center for spiritual reflection, meditation and the study of Mussar literature.  Plumb was ordained a Rabbi at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, New York.  She holds a Masters in Hebrew Literature from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Los Angeles and a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Texas.

Job Description: Rabbi Plumb’s experience will serve her well in her role as Associate Rabbi.  She will lead a monthly Friday night family service, and Saturday morning family services.  She will alternate with Rabbi Gordon in teaching adult education courses.  She will also rotate with other clergy members to lead our miniature shul-goers in our Nursery School Havdalah and Shabbat services.  Finally, Rabbi Plumb will lead portions of the High Holiday services, as well as give a sermon on the second day of Rosh Hashanah.

Wendy Handler, Director of Youth and Family Programs

You can reach Wendy at wendyhandlercmt@gmail.com.

If synagogues had b’sherets (soulmates), ours would be Wendy Handler.  A longtime member of Mishkan, Wendy has made a career out of touching lives, both within our congregation, and elsewhere. She has served on the Mishkan staff as Me’ah Coordinator, Family Educator, and Youth Director and has volunteered for our Family Table and Youth Department.  Before her Mishkan days, Wendy was heavily involved in Jewish academic outreach, directing student activities at the Boston University Hillel.  Wendy earned both a Bachelors and Masters of Law from York University in Toronto.  She then went onto receive a second Masters in Jewish Communal Service at Brandeis University and her Certificate in Jewish Family Education from Hebrew College.

Job Description: Wendy’s new role is wide-ranging.  She will manage all youth and family education programs, including USY.  She will organize High Holiday preschool and family services, as well as Shabbat experiences.  In addition, she will add kid-friendly flourishes to services and programs, such as kid tables and books.  Wendy will coordinate our B’nei Mitzvah program and develop family events to enhance the experience for the entire family.  She will be involved with our ever-growing teen initiatives: Gateways, social action programs and teen mentoring. She will also be there to lend a hand to the members of our nursery school and religious school PTO.

Erin Gubert, Religious School Director

You can reach Erin at erin.mishkantefila@gmail.com.

A much-loved and respected religious school teacher, Erin Gubert will be stepping up to become our new Religious School Director this Summer.  Previously, Erin has held Pre-K, Religious school, and Junior Congregation teaching positions at Mishkan.  She has also worked as a Head Teacher at Gan Shelanu Preschool at Solomon Schechter of Greater Boston, and as a Junior Congregation Teacher at Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in Staten Island.  Erin received her B.A. from Brandeis University; holds a certificate in Jewish Education for Early Childhood from Hebrew College; and is currently working toward an M.A. in Jewish Education.

Job Description: Erin will use her extensive Jewish educational training and background to help reshape Mishkan’s school experience.  She will be charged with a wide range of responsibilities, including designing the curriculum for each grade level and setting clear benchmarks.  She will also manage teacher training, and support dynamic classroom experiences.   Erin will continue to teach second grade and, as appropriate based on coverage, visit other classrooms. She will have the support of other senior staff members so that there is always coverage in the school office during school hours on Sunday and Tuesday.  Finally, working collaboratively with Dr. Wolok, she will deepen the training of the B’nei Mitzvah students and will enhance communication with parents.

Rachel Amy Putterman, 5^th Grade Teacher

A family attorney for 11 years, Rachel Amy Putterman will be joining us this fall as a 5^th grade Hebrew teacher.  Rachel earned her B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, San Diego and her J.D. from Washington College of Law, American University.   Our school is delighted to welcome such a warm, engaging teacher to our team!

Cindy Yanofsky, Makor Teacher

Exciting news for the Makor community! Veteran teacher Cindy Yunofsky will be returning to Mishkan Tefila this fall to teach in our Makor program.  She will also be leading our students on their annual visit to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in the spring.  Cindy earned her B.A. in Biomedical Ethics from Brown University; her J.D from Boston College School of Law; and her M.A.T. in Elementary Education from Brandeis University, where she received a certificate in Jewish Day Schools.  Formerly an insurance attorney, Cindy has held various teaching roles, including a preschool and religious school position at Mishkan Teifla.

Warmest regards,

Sol Nasisi, Chair, CMT Youth and Education Committee

Rabbi Leonard Gordon

We hope that your summer is going well and that you are keeping cool during these heat waves!  We are writing to you with several significant updates regarding the CMT Religious School.  Please take a moment to read through them as there is important information regarding staffing, registration, and tuition rates for the coming year.

Staffing Update:

We are very excited to report that, after an extensive and thoughtful search process, we have a very strong team in place for the coming year.

We are delighted to announce that Erin Gubert, who has been teaching grade bet at CMT since 2008, has accepted the position of Religious School Director. In her new role, Erin will design the curriculum for each grade level with clear benchmarks, manage teacher training, and support dynamic classroom experiences.  Erin will continue to teach second grade and, as appropriate based on coverage, visit other classrooms.  She will have the support of other senior staff members so that there is always coverage in the school office during school hours on Sunday and Tuesday.  Erin will also work collaboratively with Dr. Wolok, to deepen the training of the B’nei Mitzvah students and enhance communication with parents. You can reach Erin at erin.mishkantefila@gmail.com.

We are equally excited to share that Wendy Handler has stepped into the newly created position of Director of Youth and Family Programs.  Wendy is not only a longstanding and devoted member of the synagogue, but also served as the Family Educator and Youth Director at CMT during the 1990′s.  In this new role, Wendy will manage all youth and family education programs, including USY, organize High Holiday preschool and family services, as well as Shabbat experiences, coordinate our B’nei Mitzvah program, and develop family events to enhance the experience for the entire family.  She will also be involved with our ever-growing teen initiatives: Gateways, social action programs, and teen mentoring. You can reach Wendy at wendyhandlercmt@gmail.com.

In addition to Erin and Wendy, we are happy to welcome Rabbi Marcia Plumb as Associate Rabbi.  Rabbi Plum will lead a monthly Friday night family service, and Saturday morning family services.  She will alternate with Rabbi Gordon in teaching adult education courses, rotate with other clergy members to lead our miniature shul-goers in our Nursery School Havdalah and Shabbat services, and lead portions of the High Holiday services, as well as give a sermon on the second day of Rosh Hashanah.

In addition to the new leadership team, we have two new teachers joining the teaching staff this fall: Rachel Amy Putterman will be the new 5th Grade Teacher and Cindy Yanofsky will be a Makor Teacher.  Cindy is returning to CMT as a teacher and will also be leading our students on their annual visit to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in the spring.  Those of you whose older children may have had the privilege of having Cindy, know what a wonderful and engaging teacher she is and we are delighted to welcome her back!  Rachel and Cindy round out a dedicated and talented team of teachers.

We are excited to work with this staff to strengthen the religious school and to build a rich family and youth program at CMT.

Religious School Registration

Registration for the 2012-2013 school year is now live on the CMT Website.  Please be sure to register ASAP, as the first day of school is September 9th!

Religious School Tuition Discount

We are excited to announce that, through the generosity of the Robert Boyer Scholarship Fund, all new and continuing member families will be able to enjoy a substantial subsidy on tuition for the coming year: 50% off of Religious school tuition for grades Gan through 5!*

*Terms and conditions do apply, please contact Tony Daniels in the temple office for additional details.

First Day of Hebrew School and Open House

To kick off the school year with our new staff, we will be holding a Hebrew School open house during the first day of classes on Sunday, September 9th. We look forward to meeting with students and parents, answering your questions, and receiving your feedback. If you have any questions before then, please do not hesitate to contact Erin Gubert at 617-332-7770, erin.mishkantefila@gmail.com or Sol Nasisi at 617-916-5707.

We look forward to seeing you in September.  Have a wonderful remainder of the summer.

Warmest regards,

Rabbi Leonard Gordon

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

7:00 p.m.

Congregation Mishkan Tefila

Todd Patkin is a motivational speaker, lifestyle coach and philanthropist who makes frequent appearances on major TV and radio programs. He is the author of Finding Happiness: One Man’s Quest to Beat Depression and Anxiety and-Finally-Let the Sunshine In.

In a one-of-a-kind seminar, Todd is bringing the best of his programs home to his friends and community. Todd is passionate about happiness, and he is most passionate about you finding yours. For more information on Todd, visit www.toddpatkin.com.

RSVP to Heather Prestwood at heather@dehartandcompany.com or (828) 325-4967. Please leave your name and number of people attending.

A historic congregation with a bright future, Mishkan Tefila continues in its rich tradition of nurturing engaged Jewish life. Together, we hope to impart the core Jewish values of chesed (loving kindness), tzedakah (righteous giving) and tikkun olam (improving the world). As a united community of people exploring Judaism through diverse pathways, we seek to nurture our individual paths as we grow together and work to heal and enrich our world.

Steve Kurzman, President

Our Hebrew School Welcomes You!

At Congregation Mishkan Tefila, we teach your children more than Hebrew.

We give them the gift of understanding their Jewish identity.

The CMT Difference!

• Revamped, friendly and professional staff
• Stimulating curriculum
• Strong student-teacher ratio
• Creative and diverse programming
• Spacious facility