Bath Jewish History

November/December 2021
Heshvan / Kislev / Tevet 5782

Rabbi’s Message

Dear Beth Israel Members and Friends,

It’s been a month since the High Holidays and my heart is full. From Elul all the way to Simchat Torah, you joyously joined in our community events, led services, Zoomed from home, danced at the park, sang at the synagogue, crunched apples in the Sukkah and greeted old friends and new, all of which made the New Year a season of reflection and connection. Thank you.

Thank you also to Fred Weinberg who spearheaded the research and implementation of technology which enabled us to gather safely both in-person and online during this sacred time of year. Fred led a team of leaders, including Peggy Brown, Marilyn Weinberg, Anne Schlitt, Robert Gersh, Michelle Lisi-D’Aularo, Howie Cohen-Shaw and Camille Kauffunger who implemented this plan. Thank you all.

After the High Holidays we enter the month of Cheshvan, the Jewish month in our calendar year with no special festivals or holidays. Cheshvan is our month to take a breath, relax and plan.

Speaking of planning, this late fall and winter I’ll be hosting opportunities to meet with me one-on-one. I’ll look forward to learning more about you, about what keeps you in our community and how you envision engaging in our community in the future. Via our weekly email blast, I’ll be sharing a link to sign up for a meeting. Consider yourself officially invited!

As I write this newsletter, I marvel at the hundreds of individual brightly colored leaves blanketing the earth. These leaves, like each of you and your individual contributions, serve to make our community diverse, interesting and beautiful. I am truly blessed to be your rabbi. I look forward to connecting and reconnecting in the weeks and months ahead.

L’Shalom, 
Rabbi Vinikoor

RAC “Protect the Freedom to Vote” Calls Scheduled for November 8–11

by Peggy Brown

In early November, members of Beth Israel Congregation and Reform Jews all across the United States will participate in the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism’s “Protect the Freedom to Vote” calls to the Senate and the White House. The Board of Beth Israel Congregation and Rabbi Vinikoor are calling on all BI members to pick up the phone between November 8 and 11 to let Senator Collins, Senator King, and President Biden know you support national standards for federal elections, making Election Day a federal holiday, restricting what state legislatures can do to overturn election results, restoring the protections of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and creating a transparent election process.

Last summer, nearly 5,000 people participated in virtual conferences with members of their Senate delegations. Here in Maine, more than 80 people met virtually with Senator Collins and members of Senator King’s staff. Now, RAC has planned a four-day event to pressure the Senate and President Biden to pass the Freedom to Vote Act (the successor to the For the People Act) along with the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Nineteen states have already passed 33 pieces of legislation that restrict the ability to exercise the right to vote in free and fair elections. Passing these two pieces of legislation now before Congress is necessary to ensure free and fair elections in our country and elections which provide equal access to the ballot box.

You can learn more about RAC’s initiative in this blogpost. Beth Israel’s Social Action Committee will be reaching out to members to encourage everyone to participate in this essential work to strengthen our democracy. We’ll have more information coming soon.

Adult Learning
A Year of Letting Go

by Rabbi Vinikoor

Did you know that this Jewish year, 5782 is a Shmita year in the Jewish calendar? Shmita, translated as “year of release” or “year of letting go” occurs every seven years and this new Jewish year of 5782 is one such year! Shmita, originally ordained in Torah, and further explicated by the rabbis of old until today carries implications for environmental stewardship, communal life and economic justice. Join Rabbi Vinikoor to explore this topic together and what it means for us today. We’ll gather at the synagogue and on Zoom.

Virtual Maine Jewish Film Festival

by Marilyn Weinberg

November 6–14

 We are so excited to be able to share information about the upcoming 2021 Virtual Maine Jewish Film Festival from November 6–14 

You will have access to 17 feature and documentary films and related programs, all available to view from the comfort (and safety) of your home. All films will be available to watch throughout the entire festival. You just purchase one ticket for each film that works for the whole family.

Many of the films have special conversations with filmmakers that will be held live at

specific times and recorded for later viewing. You’ll find information about these programs with the film information.

To get additional information and purchase tickets go to:

 https://mjff.org/2021-virtual-maine-jewish-film-festival/

Kristallnacht Event 

by Rabbi Vinikoor

Tuesday, November 9, 2021
7:00 pm 

Beth Israel Congregation will join Bowdoin College Hillel for a lecture given by Professor Natasha Goldman in commemoration of Kristallnacht. She is research associate in the Department of Art History at Bowdoin College and president of WISSEN, Inc., a higher education consultancy. She is author of Memory Passages: Holocaust Memorials in Germany and the United States (Temple University Press, 2020). Her article on Holocaust memorials will be published in the forthcoming Cambridge History of the Holocaust. In commemoration of Kristallnacht, she will discuss the ways in which artists and architects have wrestled with the past in an interdisciplinary fashion in order to create public memorials to the Holocaust in Germany. 

Zoom link will be provided.

Community Hanukkah Celebration

by Marilyn Weinberg

Sunday, November 28–Sunday December 5

Get your menorah ready becasue Hanukkah is early this year. The first candle will be lit on Sunday, November 28 right after Thanksgiving. 

Beth Israel has decided to celebrate with you with 8 days of holiday fun and activities. We will have story telling, dreidel playing, cooking and of course candlelighting. Many activities will be virtual, but we will have some in-person events as well. 

For the final night we will gather together outside at the gazebo in Bath on the eighth day, Sunday December 5. We will sing songs, light all 8 candles and enjoy community. 

Save the dates and stay tuned for specifics for each day on your Beth Israel weekly email.

Social Action at Beth Israel

by Joanne Rosenthal & Nonny Soifer

We are pleased that the Board has approved a strategic plan for the congregation including social action. The Social Action Coordinating Committee is announcing a call for proposals from congregants interested in social action programming. If you are interested in a project, program or ongoing effort, please contact us for information about how to proceed. In the survey conducted earlier this year, the three priority areas identified were: racial justice, ending hunger and healing the environment. Proposals outside of those priorities will also be considered. We look forward to hearing from many of you! 

Over the summer Beth Israel joined a statewide coalition of congregations working on racial justice who decided to participate in the URJ’s Freedom to Vote campaign which entailed setting up lobby meetings with the two state senators. The next phase of this campaign will involve call in days November 8–11 urging the Senators and the President to pass this important legislation. Stay tuned for more information on this campaign.

The coordinating committee is also looking at DEI, (diversity, equity and inclusion) resources, and continuing to find ways to address antisemitism globally and locally. 

Looking ahead, Beth Israel will once again provide Christmas dinner to the guests of the Tedford Shelter. Watch for the signup in early December.

News from the Hebrew School

by Rabbi Vinikoor

Our Hebrew School year is off to a great start. We are blessed to have use of the gazebo in the library park in Bath, and have been holding our classes there, safely, outside, since the beginning of the year. Our students and teachers thrive being together, hearing each other's voices in song, story and prayer. We’ve enjoyed asking questions, engaging in conversations and many moments of fun too. Throughout the grades our curriculum has focused on the fall Jewish holidays, Torah stories and their meanings for us today, review of Hebrew letters and vowels and learning to recite and lead Jewish prayers. This year we’ve added an elective period at the end of the day. Students choose to participate in either an art elective or a Tikkun Olam club. Thank you to our terrific team of teachers: Susan Horowitz, Anita Lichman-Paul, Michelle Lisi-D’Aularo, Gila Cohen-Shaw, Alina Shumsky and our two Bowdoin student volunteers: Shoshi Gordon and Jacob Rose.

In addition to our fantastic Hebrew School parents who help with set up and clean up each week, the following Beth Israel community members have helped as well, enabling us to meet as a school safely outside: Marilyn Weinberg, Peggy Brown, Deb Smyth, Maurie Libner, Robert Gersh, Howie Cohen-Shaw, Anne Schlitt. Thank you! We couldn’t do this without you.

Rabbis Love Cheshvan

by Joey Glick

We find ourselves in the middle of the month of Cheshvan. Following on the heels of the High Holidays and preceding the season of Hanukkah, Cheshvan is an often a low-key moment for Jewish communities and leaders; you can even buy a t-shirt that reads “Rabbis love Cheshvan.” 

I personally love the quiet of this month and all the subtle senses that emerge from this stillness. I was fortunate to spend this past weekend at my friends’ old farmhouse in northern Vermont. We woke up yesterday morning to the first real frost of the year. My friends’ kitten and puppy explored this glazed landscape, experiencing the snapping sharpness of frozen ground for the first time in their young lives. The yelping cat and dog and the cold earth spoke to me about the holiness of in-between time and the stillness that sits at the heart of transition.

Shabbat Under the Stars

by Marilyn Weinberg

A good crowd gathered together on August 27 for the concluding Shabbat Under the Stars service this year. We began in early May and continued throughout the summer with only one Friday with rain. Our final outside Shabbat service allowed us to meet Joey Glick, our Rabbi “Fellow” for this year. We look forward to seeing him again in November as we transition to our “hybrid” services for the coming year.

2021 High Holiday Coincidence

by Robert Gersh

You never know who you will meet at the Beth Israel Congregation in Bath, Maine. On the first day of Rosh Hashanah on Tuesday, September 7, 2021, Robert Gersh (56) and his daughter Shira (24) chanted from the Torah. 

A man they did not recognize read the English translation of the Torah portion during the same Torah service. That man was Theodore (Ted) Stainman. He recently joined Beth Israel Congregation after moving to Maine from Colorado. 

After Ted got home from the Rosh Hashanah service, he went on the Beth Israel Congregation’s website to learn more about the Synagogue community that he had just joined. Ted was reading the stories that some members had posted as part 

of the recent Beth Israel Storytelling Project (https://www.bethisraelbath.org/our-stories). When Ted read the story from Robert Gersh (https://www.bethisraelbath.org/robert-gersh) about Robert’s Bar Mitzvah ceremony at the Rashi Synagogue in Worms, Germany on October 15, 1977, Ted was surprised and excited to recognize himself in Robert’s story. It turns out that Ted was the U.S. Air Force Rabbi and Chaplain that had prepared Robert for his Bar Mitzvah and led the ceremony. 

After Ted recognized himself in Robert’s story, Ted emailed Beth Israel’s Marilyn Weinberg and asked to be put in touch with Robert. Marilyn promptly forwarded Ted’s email to Robert, who called Ted right away. 

They caught up on each other’s lives over the phone for the next hour, marveling at the coincidence that 44 years later they would again belong to the same Jewish community! Robert and Ted finally met in person at the Congregation’s Yom Kippur service on September 16, 2021, one month shy of the 44th anniversary of Robert’s Bar Mitzvah. Here is a photo of their happy reunion!

Rosh Hashanah

by Marilyn Weinberg

Our Holiday celebrations were a bit different this year, but we found a way to be together. With our technology team in action those who joined the services virtually were able to participate and be seen on the big screen inside the sanctuary.  

When services ended inside, we gathered at the library park to share a meal and chat. We then walked to the waterfront park to hear the sound of the shofar and participate in the Tashlicht service. May the New Year bring peace and health for all.

High Holiday Family Services

by Anita Lichman

Each year we know it is fall when the High Holidays arrive, this year the holidays arrived early. Actually, it was still technically summer and it felt like it too! The warm weather did allow us to meet outside in the Library Park to celebrate Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.  

For Rosh Hashana we started on the lawn near the Gazebo in front of the Patten Free Library. We sang and prayed and reflected as families. Then we walked, as a group, down to the Bath Waterfront and participated in a Taslich ritual. We celebrated with homemade goodies from a very talented baker - Susan Horowitz.  

For Yom Kippur we met in the gazebo in the library park and we were treated to a play about Jonah and the Whale and the sweetest crew of actors that brought smiles to all our faces. For both services we were lucky enough to have musical accompaniment provided by Andrew Lardie. It was especially lovely to gather together as families after such a hard year for so many. Wishing everyone a happy new year with better times on the horizon.

Sukkot

by Marilyn Weinberg

It had rained the night before, but that didn’t stop us from celebrating our wonderful Sukkot holiday. We gathered at the home of Rabbi Vinikoor and helped complete the Sukkah decorations with materials made by our Hebrew School students. We all had an opportunity to shake the Lulav and Etrog and enjoy a beautiful fall day. This is a holiday meant to be outside and we were so glad to be able to do that. 

Simchat Torah

by Marilyn Weinberg

What could be more perfect than a beautiful fall day to celebrate our Torah, our traditions and our community. Thanks to Ben Crystal for inviting some fellow band members to provide music for the occasion. The music was perfect and made it difficult to stand still. Just about everyone was dancing or clapping their hands and often singing along. 

And thanks to all the members who turned out to help carry the Torahs and assist in the recitation of the blessings. Joyous is the perfect word to describe the evening.

REMEMBRANCES FOR MONTH–MONTH YEAR

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.