Bath Jewish History

May/June 2019
Nisan / Iyyar / Sivan 5779

Rabbi’s Message

Dear Beth Israel Friends and Community Members,

As spring has begun to bloom here in Bath, I’ve started reading a couple good books, a pastime that I love. Interestingly, my choice of these books came about thanks to my work with two people in our community who are exploring becoming Jewish. One of the things I love about my work as a rabbi is discovering new books or re-reading ones I’ve read before and seeing them in a new light because of your insights. I would like to share some thoughts about my current reads. This may whet your appetite to read them as well. Be sure to let me know if you do!

The first is a memoir called Inheritance by Dani Shapiro which details the author’s discovery, while in her 50’s, that the person she was raised to think is her biological father, is in fact not her biological father. This fast paced story delves into topics such as: what does it mean be a parent and to be a child, what role do genes play in our nature and how is Jewishness passed down from one generation to the next. I found the book to be quite thought provoking.

The second book is Rabbi Arthur Green’s Radical Judaism: Rethinking God and Tradition published in 2010. Green is the founding dean of Hebrew College’s rabbinical school and a scholar of Neo-Hasidism, theology and Jewish mysticism. This book has been on my bookshelf for a while and I’m so glad I picked it up. The book is Green’s theology and as he describes it, is written by a “Jewish seeker.” I think the book has a lot to teach us about the nature of God and the role of human beings in our world.

What’s on your reading list this spring? Let me know. I’d love your suggestions. Wishing you a joyous Shavuot,
Rabbi Vinikoor

President’s Message

by Marilyn Weinberg

As I sit at my computer to write my article for the newsletter, I am still feeling the joy of participating in our Beth Israel Community Seder. The interest in attending and the involvement of so many people was overwhelming. People who came early happily joined the many volunteers who had come to set up. So many stayed for the cleanup it felt like another celebration. And of course the sound of almost 100 people singing Dayenu was pretty impressive.

I think our Seder is a perfect example illustrating the best elements of our congregation. Members of our congregation joined with interested members of the greater Bath community to share food and common ideals.All felt welcome and included. I thought, once again, how our community has worked together and thrived through the contributions of its members and friends. This is a real community. This congregation isn’t about one or two people; it’s about all of you.

This activity is a reminder of the busy synagogue life we are developing at our little congregation and of all the new and exciting programs and services that have occurred and are coming up in the months ahead. Each one of them involves so many of you who help set up, create and sustain our synagogue community with your attendance, willingness to volunteer and financial support. Thank you.

As we continue our forward momentum there are many decisions to make about our direction and focus. The Annual Meeting is approaching. On June 12 we ask that you come to not only hear about some of our successes, but to clearly state your wishes for our future.

The board has been working very hard in making decisions and listening to your opinions. So the next set of questions and options need your input as well.

We can’t do it without you. Each one of you counts. I hope you will be able to set aside the time to come. It’s important.

Yom HaShoah Service (Holocaust Remembrance Day)

by Marilyn Weinberg

Thursday, May 2
7:00 p.m.
Bowdoin College Multicultural Center
30 College St, Brunswick 

Yom HaShoah commemorates the lives and heroism of Jewish people who died in the Holocaust between 1933 and 1945. On Thursday, May 2, we will gather together with our Bowdoin College friends for a special service led by Rabbi Vinikoor. Join us for this service, candle lighting and special prayers. No RSVP required. Car-pooling is available. Please call Sharon Drake at (207) 751-0581.

Hebrew School Shabbat 

by Camille Kaufunger

Friday, June 7
5:30 p.m service
6:30 p.m pot luck dinner Synagogue

Cast a vote for Jewish education and a vibrant Beth Israel community by attending our last of the season student-led Shabbat service on June 7.

You’ll be impressed by what this joyful group of dedicated learners has accomplished, and your participation will reinforce the feelings of community and connection that are possible when studying and celebrating Judaism. Let's fill the sanctuary!

Note that this will be an earlier service (5:30 p.m.). Hope you can make it.

Dinner Club

by Peggy Brown

For our May Dinner Club meet up, we will be at The Cabin in Bath. It's a local landmark!
If you've never joined us before, come on out! We'd love to have you. Good food and good company!

 Date: Tuesday, May 14
Time: 6:00 pm
Place: The Cabin, 552 Washington Street, Bath
RSVP to Peggy (phone or email) by Friday, May 10. 

If you know of others who would like to receive this email, please forward.

If you would like your name taken off of this email list, please let me know.

Family and Adult Learning Sessions

by Rabbi Vinikoor

Sunday, June 2
Family Education Program
11:00 am–1:00 pm
Minnie Brown Center
Join us for the final in our 3-part learning series for children and their parents. We have been exploring the home blessings and rituals for Shabbat: challah, candles and now wine/grape juice. This session will be an opportunity for parents and children to learn together as well as separately. RSVP to Rabbi Vinikoor at rabbivinikoor@gmail.com

Sunday, June 2
Thank you celebration for our student-Rabbi Lily Solochek
1:00 pm
Minnie Brown Center
Whether you’ve studied with Student Rabbi Solocheck or met them over a meal or at services, come say todah rabba (thank you), hear about their next adventures and enjoy some snacks! 

Sunday, June 2
Adult Learning Session: Water: Part 3
2:00 pm
Minnie Brown Center
Join Student Rabbi Lily Solochek for this second session about the mikveh (Jewish ritual bath) and water in Jewish tradition. 

Shavuot Service

by Marilyn Weinberg

Sunday, June 9
Synagogue
10:00 am         
ShavuotService with Yizkor
Dairy Brunch and Discussion led by Rabbi Vinikoor

Shavuot is the Hebrew word for “weeks” and refers to the Jewish festival marking the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, which occurs seven weeks after Passover. Shavuot, like many other Jewish holidays, began as an ancient agricultural festival that marked the end of the spring barley harvest and the beginning of the summer wheat harvest. Over the years many customs have been attached to this holiday. Participating in a service with a Torah discussion and saying Yizkor are some of these rituals. 

It also is a customary to eat dairy foods on Shavuot because Jewish tradition compares the words of Torah to the sweetness of milk and honey. Blintzes and cheesecake are among the popular foods to make and enjoy for the holiday. So of course we will be having a special potluck dairy brunch following our service.

Annual Meeting and Celebration

Please join us on
Wednesday, June 12
at the Synagogue
6:30 p.m. – Dessert & Annual Meeting

Lets gather and talk about the wonderful progress our synagogue has made this year. We will begin our meeting sharing successes we have made this year and then focus on our future goals and financial decisions. We will also elect new board members for the upcoming year.

We will then take some time to connect with each other, celebrate our second year with Rabbi Vinikoor and applaud all of you who have contributed so much to the welfare and growth of Beth Israel.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Shalom Maine

by Deena Schoenfeld

Jewish Voices in Russian Literature with Alyssa Gillespie
Sundays: June 16, 30; July 7, 14 (skip June 23)
10:00 – 11:30 AM
Location: Beth Israel Congregation – 862 Washington St., Bath
Suggested tuition: $54 for 4 sessions
Enrollment: Minimum 14 /Maximum 22
Registration deadline: June 12

An introduction to several major Jewish-Russian poets and writers from the pre-Revolutionary era to the present. This course will focus on short works by Osip Mandelstam (1891-1938), Boris Pasternak (1890-1960), Isaac Babel (1894-1940), Joseph Brodsky (1940-1996),and Ludmila Ulitskaya (1943-). We will explore how these great Russian-language writers express their ambiguous identities as both Russian and Jew, both insider and outsider, thereby claiming their rightful place in the Russian literary canon.

The listing and registration link for this course, along with all the other courses, is posted on both shalomme.comand www.mainejewish.org/programs/adult-jewish-learning/

Max Ergas Bar Mitzvah

by Rosa Ergas

Max Ergas will become a Bar Mitzvah at Beth Israel on Saturday morning June 29. All are welcome to join Max and his family in celebration at lunch following Shabbat services. Max is currently a 7th grade student at the Adams School in Castine, where he is active in team sports, band, and the Calvineers, an after school club dedicated to research into protecting the endangered North Atlantic Right Whale. Throughout the past year Max has continued his study of Hebrew with his grandmother, Sarina Ergas, as well as working with Rabbi Vinikoor to learn his parsha and prepare to lead Shabbat service for his Bar Mitzvah. Max is interested and concerned with protection of the environment; he chose a theme of Tikkun Olam to inspire his service this year including a local spring clean-up and helping build window inserts to reduce heating oil usage.

Shabbat Under The Stars

by Marilyn Weinberg

By popular request we will be resuming our Shabbat Under the Stars program this summer. Liza and Aaron Greenwald have offered their home for our first outdoor service of the season. If you have attended one of these services you know how wonderful they are. If you have not yet had an opportunity to attend in previous years, then make this your first of many. Bring your lawn chair.

We are still looking for additional homes for these services, so let us know if you are interested.

Maine Conference for Jewish Life

June 21–23, 2019
Thomas College • Waterville, Maine

Join Jews from around the state to experience the best of Jewish learning, culture and life.

For more information and to register:
www.colby.edu/jewishlife/conference

Prayer Book Committee

by Rabbi Vinikoor

There has been some discussion over the last few years about what might be the best Shabbat prayer book for our congregation. We went through a comprehensive process fifteen years ago when we purchased the present book we use. Time has come again to examine whether it is still serving the needs of most of our members or if there are other books out there that might work better for us. 

A generous donor has stepped forward with the offer to purchase copies of the Reform Prayer book Mishkan Tefillah for our community. In order to assess the fit of this prayer book for our congregation, we will offer several Shabbat weekends starting in May and June to pray with this siddur and then offer feedback.  

We would like you to be part of this process. As soon as dates are set we will get them out to you so you can come and participate in the process.

Hebrew School

by Rabbi Vinikoor and Anita Lichman

Our students continue to blossom at Hebrew School. Each week they improve in Hebrew—both their spoken vocabulary as well as familiarity with the prayer service.

Purim and Passover were certainly highlights of our springtime together. In addition to their learning, our students enjoy spending time together and working across the grades and ages to share their knowledge and pride in being Jewish. We are thrilled to lead our next Hebrew School Shabbat service on June 7. This Shabbat evening service will feature our oldest students sharing their learnings and reflections with our community.

As we approach our final six weeks of Hebrew school for the year we are preparing to wrap up Hebrew Through Movement (HTM) with one last foundational unit on parts of the body (eyes, arms, head etc.), a review of all the vocabulary acquired this year, and individual assessments for each student so they (and parents/caregivers) can track their progress.

If you have not seen the Facebook posts the students worked on to demonstrate their growing knowledge and to help teach HTM vocabulary to others check those posts out and ask your student to teach you what they know!

Tot Shabbat

by Rachel Connelly

In March, our Tot Shabbaters joined other local Jewish families to make noisemakers and produce mishloach manot bags for Purim. Each bag included some delicious hamantashen made by Susan Horowitz, some hamantashen made by the children themselves, and several other edible treats. The children decorated the bags and included invitations to attend the Beth Israel megillah reading later in the month. Thanks to Arrowsic residents Anita Lichman and Camille Kauffunger for organizing this fun PJ Library sponsored event and all the participants who delivered mIshloach manot to Jewish families and Beth Israel friends all over our mid-coast area. 

In April, our monthly Tot Shabbat session fell the weekend before Passover, so like the rest of the Jewish world, we spent our time cooking. The Tot Shabbaters made their own matzah, completed within the requisite 18 minutes, and then some apple charosets to eat with the matzah. They enjoyed themselves thoroughly and we made be able to get the flour out of the rug before our next baking adventure.

Our last two Tot Shabbat sessions of the school year are May 11 and June 1. We would love to see you there!

Cultural Programs at Beth Israel 

by Nonny Soifer

We are taking steps to enhance the “cultural” programming being offered by Beth Israel Congregation. Current ideas include a film about Jewish identity, a presentation about a Jewish labor activist (who was a relative of someone in our community), a proposal to address climate change, a book group, additional educational opportunities and more. Please contact Nonny Soifer if any of these ideas appeal to you or if you have ideas for other programs you would like to see.

Security Committee Update

by Peggy Brown

What’s Beth Israel Congregation Doing About Security?

For many years the Beth Israel Congregation has protected both of its buildings with smoke alarm systems. We have also had an intrusion alarm at the synagogue. This year, in the weeks following the attacks on the Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburgh, our Board, like synagogue boards everywhere, created a committee to see what could be done to better protect our congregation.

We called it the Security Committee and the members included Fred and Marilyn Weinberg, Rabbi Lisa Vinikoor, Steve Singer, Marty Fox, Stan Lane, Sharon Drake, John Martell and me. This was our challenge: How do we maintain the open and welcoming feeling of our community while at the same time fortifying ourselves against harm? We are still a small congregation with no full time employees at our buildings on a regular basis. With this in mind, we have done quite a bit over the last few months to shore up our safety and security.

Here is a list of the things we have done:

Installed:

• Motion activated lighting over all entrances to both buildings (except the synagogue, whose front door lights are on a timer)

• So-called “panic buttons” at both buildings, which are hand held devices that send a silent alarm to Cunningham Security and to the police.

• Intrusion alarm at the Minnie Brown Center (one existed at 862 Washington already)

• Call boxes at both buildings which will serve as an intercom from which someone outside the front door of either building can call into the building to be let in when the doors are locked. These will also serve as communication links between the two buildings in the case of an emergency.

Installing technology and hardware was the starting point. Then there were protocols and routines that we put into place.

• Paid police protection during Passover, High Holy Day, and other high attendance events and services. (You would have seen a Bath Police officer at the Minnie Brown Center if you attended the Community Seder.)

• Locking the door at the synagogue after the Shabbat service as congregants head downstairs for Oneg on Friday nights and Torah Study on Saturday mornings.

• Keeping doors locked during Hebrew school on Thursday and Tot Shabbat on Saturdays.

• Signing up volunteer Greeters for services and other holiday events. These Greeters help Rabbi Vinikoor and take care of locking the doors and letting in people once the doors are locked.

• Developing fire drill and evacuation protocols for Hebrew School students and staff

Members of the Security Committee are still working with the Bath Police on providing ALICE Training < https://www.alicetraining.com> for the congregation. That is a work in progress and will be shared with members in the future.

Social Action Committee

by Joanne Rosenthal

At a meeting on April 9, 2019, the Beth Israel Congregation Social Action Committee decided to pursue the greening of our community. Some of the identified action steps include taking steps to work to eliminate the use of paper and plastic products and other non-renewable items during synagogue events. Thyle Shartar offered to take the lead on this effort. Improving car-pooling for synagogue members was also identified and Sharon Drake offered to serve as the car-pool coordinator. And to inform members of the congregation about national efforts to address climate change issues, Jill Paperno-Standish offered to provide information about the Citizen's Climate Lobby's local and national efforts.

Several members of the committee are continuing to engage with immigrant justice actions, partnering with the Midcoast New Mainers Group and other local organizations. At a recent Friday night service, Phyllis Wolfe and Thyle Shartar spoke about becoming mentors to New Mainers living in Bath.In the upcoming months, HIAS, (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) will be helping us develop congregational strategies around the issues of refugees and asylum seekers. 

On a recent trip that Josh and I took through the south, we visited several stops on the Civil Rights Trail. All of the sites bore the historical truths about the horrors of slavery, the brief period of reconstruction, Jim Crow, lynchings, segregation and the civil rights movement. In Memphis, we visited "Slavehaven" a museum in a house on the Underground Railroad, I was struck by the parallels of a righteous few, hiding slaves and hiding Jews. The "I AM A MAN" monument powerfully tells the story of the sanitation workers strike and MLK's role in organized labor. An empty pedestal where a confederate statue had been removed spoke for itself. In Mississippi at the Civil Rights Museum the enormity of African Americans killed by lynching was told in stories, photographs and memorials. A few displays were about Jews who actively stood up for civil rights. One such panel was about Julius Rosenwald, who in the late 1800's started a fund when the state refused to adequately fund black education. In 1911 he was quoted saying, “The horrors that are due to race prejudice come home to the Jew more forcefully than to others of the white race, on account of the centuries of persecution which they have suffered and still suffer.” Let us continue marching in solidarity to repair the world. 

Maine + Jewish: Behind the Scenes Museum Tour

by Marilyn Weinberg

Augusta for a lovely Shabbat service and Torah discussion followed by a delicious luncheon. We had a wonderful turnout from both congregations. It was a great opportunity to meet and chat with each other.  

Following the luncheon we walked (or drove) to the Maine State Museum where we had a very special behind the scenes museum tour of the Maine + Jewishexhibit with curator Amy Waterman. The children had their own private tour with the museum educator.  

Maine + Jewish: Two Centurieswill remain on view through October 25, 2019. Its a must see. And when you are there see if you can find all the stories, photos and artifacts that are from the Bath-Brunswick area Jewish community.

We appreciate the Center for Small Town Jewish Life for supporting this endeavor and plan to invite the Augusta congregation to Bath sometime soon.

A Purim Celebration

by Marilyn Weinberg

What a wonderful time we all had during our creative Megilla Reading and Purim Celebration. Everybody got to dress up even if it was just a funny hat and a mustache. All of our Beth Israel members and friends were stars! Haman’s name didn’t have a chance to be heard with all of our noisemakers and loud voices filling up our sanctuary.

A Passover Not to be Missed!

by Lynn Frank

Wow! What a beautiful and inspiring Passover Seder we had led by Rabbi Vinikoor at the Minnie Brown Center. Every year the Seder gets bigger and better. Almost 100 members and guests attended our annual Seder organized by Marilyn Weinberg, with the help of the Chai Committee and many volunteers.

Everyone got a chance to be a leader/reader and share in telling the story of the Jewish people’s exodus from Egypt. The children sang the four questions and celebrated finding the Afikoman with special prizes. There was no shortage of food thanks to the many chefs who contributed their culinary skills. One thing you definitely don’t want to pass over and that’s the dessert table all prepared by Susan Horowtiz. If you weren’t able to attend, please mark your calendar for next year!

REMEMBRANCES FOR May - june 2019

May their memories be for a blessing.

BIRTHDAYS AND ANNIVERSARIES

Listing the birthdays and anniversaries of those in our immediate family creates a wonderful opportunity for our community/shul family to have an excuse to celebrate with each other.