November 23, 2024 -

Voices

In anticipation of fall at the ECC…

Posted on July 26, 2012

Summer camp has come to an end.  And a happy summer we had.  The heat was sometimes a bit difficult to deal with.  But, beyond that, everyone had a wonderful time.  The campers were full of smiles, the volunteers made new friends and the teachers all taught, water-played, laughed and sweat! The flowers are calling Continue Reading »

Group of Religious School Teachers Attends Summer Conference – very worthwhile!

Posted on July 23, 2012

This annual “Teacher-to-Teacher” conference drew more than 300 educators from Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Detroit, and some from all over the country! It was held in Detroit this year, with the theme “Reaching for Heaven, Standing on Earth.” So many workshops were offered over the four days that it was hard to choose! I most enjoyed Continue Reading »

Our Spirits Shaken by Senseless Violence, We Pray for Peace to Commence

Posted on July 20, 2012

Rabbi Nosanchuk offered this prayer tonight at Anshe Chesed Fairmount Temple to introduce a prayer for healing and peace, in light of the terror attack which murdered Israeli tourists in Bulgaria this week, and the horrible gun violence which erupted in a movie theatre in Aurora, Colorado, just before the beginning of Shabbat on Friday, Continue Reading »

Can Society Have All of a Woman? – Guest Post by Amy Schiller, Young Adult from Fairmount Temple

Posted on July 17, 2012

Our congregant Amy Schiller, who lives in New York and grew up at Anshe Chesed Fairmount Temple shared this teaching as a d’var Torah at Congregation Shir HaMaalot (Prospect and Crown Heights Minyan) at Shabbat Services, Friday, July 13, 2012. We post it here to continue to grow our dialogue on Parshat Pinchas in the Continue Reading »

Women’s Rights and Equality – in the Torah and in the Modern World

Posted on July 13, 2012

This blog post is excerpted from remarks prepared by one of our religious school students, Lauren Gillinov, for Shabbat morning services on July 14, 2012, at Anshe Chesed Fairmount Temple, during which Lauren will become Bat Mitzvah. As she articulates several compelling issues which apply the Torah’s lessons to women’s rights today, we share it with you here on Continue Reading »

Meeting the needs of all learners

Posted on July 12, 2012

Some people ask what in the world we do all summer in the Religious School office!  As many of you have seen when you’ve been here, we’re busy processing registrations, ordering supplies, writing grants, planning programs, aligning outcomes with goals, studying curriculum, and creating calendars and schedules, just to name a few things.  An article came Continue Reading »

“The Power of the Particular”: David Brooks, Bruce Springsteen . . . and Torah?

Posted on July 5, 2012

A recent Opinion piece by New York Times columnist, David Brooks, caught my attention. Entitled “The Power of the Particular”, the author used his observations attending Bruce Springsteen concerts in Europe to lift up an important point about holding close to one’s core orientation and history.  One particular moment caught Brooks’ attention. Along with 56,000 Continue Reading »

The power of Jewish Music – A post by Fairmount Temple guest musician Doug Cotler

Posted on July 5, 2012

Why did I pursue life in Jewish music and the Cantorate? Like so many others, my grandmother’s first step in America was on Ellis Island. It was 1905. She was 15. She had left her parents in Russia, in a shelter just outside Slutsk, now a major industrial city, but then a small community not too far Continue Reading »

Building Ladders in our Prayer – An Introduction to Hitbodedut

Posted on July 1, 2012

During this week, Rabbi Nosanchuk is serving as visiting faculty of the URJ Kutz Camp, our Reform movement’s teen leadership camp in Warwick, NY, where he annually attends with one or two of our Fairmount Temple youth group leaders. The words offered below helped introduce an extended private meditation in nature that he offered at Continue Reading »

Grandma’s Seder Plate: It’s Not the Story You Think It Is

Posted on June 26, 2012

The plate came into my possession along with many artifacts from my late Grandmother when my Dad was moving to a new house years ago. Several things were set aside for me: a hand-crocheted blanket of many colors, delicate lace pieces, faded photos and the plate that my Dad described as a “brass souvenir from Continue Reading »