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5101 US-42 • LOUISVILLE, KY 40241 • (502) 423-1818
The Temple - Congregation Adath Israel Brith Sholom
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Last Day of Religious School

April 28, 2019/in Featured, News

Last Day of Religious School

Thank you, everyone, for coming to the last day of Religious School! We had a blast celebrating our teachers, learning about Israel, and closing with a BBQ cookout with parents.  Se you next year!

Last Day of Religious School
Last Day of Religious School
Last Day of Religious School

Last Day of Religious School
Last Day of Religious School

Last Day of Religious School

THE CHESTER B. DIAMOND RELIGIOUS SCHOOL
MISSION STATEMENT 

Our learning community strives to create a caring atmosphere of friendship while encouraging meaningful understanding and a dedicated commitment to Jewish life – in school and at home.  The wonderful teaching faculty is diligent that all classroom experiences are valuable and nurture a positive Jewish identity.  In addition, our goal is for each student to participate in enjoyable experiences that are part of Temple life, be exposed to and internalize our biblical stories, and to embrace Jewish culture as well as Reform ethical beliefs and values.

The Religious School curriculum encourages the understanding of:

  • Shabbat, Jewish holidays, and Jewish symbols
  • Blessings, customs, and life cycle events
  • Torah stories and their relevance in our lives today
  • Mitzvot (commandments, values, and good deeds)
  • Connections between Torah, worship, and our lives
  • An appreciation for the people and State of Israel
  • The history of the Jewish people
  • The Holocaust and  anti-Semitism
  • Jewish music, arts & crafts, and children’s literature
  • Tzedakah projects and social action

Components of our Hebrew curriculum:

  • Kindergarten through 3rd grade: reading readiness, basic vocabulary and daily prayers
  • 4th through 7th grade: prayer-based Hebrew, reading fluency and comprehension of liturgy
  • Meets Sunday and Wednesday (4th-7th grade) Weekly student-led services with music

Young Adult Bourbon & Bread

April 27, 2019/in Featured, News

Such a fun time tasting bourbon and enjoy the post-Passover feast with the Young Adult group.  Thank you so much Heaven Hill and for all of the young adults who came out!  We also collected canned goods for the JFCS Food Pantry.

Young Adult Bourbon & Bread
Young Adult Bourbon & Bread
Young Adult Bourbon & Bread
Young Adult Bourbon & Bread

The Temple Young Adult Group offers fun social outings for adults age 22-36. Past events included Evan Williams Bourbon Experience, Pottery Painting, Young Adult Seder, Pumpkin Picking, Hanukkah Party, Axe Throwing, and Painting Event. For more information, please contact Benji Berlow.  Join the Facebook Group to find out about upcoming events!

If you are new to Louisville, we invite you to look around our website and join us for some of our upcoming events, learn more about our Religious School and top-rated Pre-school, meet our rabbis, and worship with us. For more information about The Temple or the Jewish Community in Louisville, please fill out this form.  We hope to see you soon!

From its earliest beginnings in Louisville, The Temple has taken pride in its commitment to instill in each generation of our congregation, the essential values of our Jewish faith, the deeper understanding of our heritage and our future, and the involvement of our people toward the betterment of our community as a whole. For over 175 years, the rabbis and lay leaders of The Temple have brought strength, vision, and insight into the lives of our members, the broader Jewish community and the city of Louisville at large.

Goodbye to Matzah

April 26, 2019/in Torah Tidbit

As we say goodbye to Matzah and hello to bread, we need to remember that this is the Jewish Memorial Holiday. We remember who we truly are and who we ought to be. We begin the holiday by opening the door to our home and holding a Matzah and saying “This is our bread of poverty… let all who are hungry come and eat…”   In this time, we also have the obligation to remember the poor, and share our bread with them. We were slaves and weak, as a nation, at our primal time.

This year let us remember the homeless people in our streets and try and help feed them!

Free-will dues model yields success in local experiment

April 25, 2019/in Featured, News

The Temple’s approach to Free Will dues is earning positive response and positive press – read here from the Community newspaper!

To find out more about Temple Membership, click here!

 

_____________________________________________________________________

BY LEE CHOTTINER, COMMUNITY EDITOR April 25, 2019

Facing declining membership, Louisville synagogues are joining others nationwide in modifying their dues models, or at least considering it, to make themselves more appealing to younger members.
The Temple has been experimenting with “free-will” financial commitments, a pay-what-you-want model for families under 40, through which people in that age group simply declare their own dues level without explanation.
The four-year-old model, which the board will review this summer, has brought in 28 new families, according to The Temple.
Across town, Adath Jeshurun has suspended dues altogether for people ages 29 and under. Rabbi Robert Slosberg said the program has also attracted new families.
Other congregations have reviewed their dues models, though all the synagogues welcome worshippers regardless of their ability to pay.
Synagogues everywhere are exploring ways to remain sustainable by tweaking their dues models – for many, their principal source of revenue.
Corey Buckman, membership chair for The Temple, said the free-will model dispenses with the so-called “abatement” process in which families who can’t afford the stated dues meet with synagogue leaders to discuss their finances and what they can afford – a process that turns off many younger families.
“It always felt like an uncomfortable conversation,” the 32-year-old Buckman said. “The expectation was that you had to explain why you couldn’t, or wouldn’t, pay the full amount, which is a deterrent for a lot of people, young and old.”
Abatement also can feel foreign to the non-Jewish spouse in an interfaith marriage.
“We have actually had a lot of non-Jewish spouses ask the question, especially when joining, ‘Why do I have to tell you I’m paying anything,’ because that’s just not the church model,” said Buckman, who is in an interfaith marriage. “They didn’t grow up that way, [so] they’re challenging a system that our tradition has always accepted.”
While the traditional dues model is still used by most congregations, cracks are appearing.
A 2015 story in The New York Times,reported that about 30 Reform, Conservative, and independent synagogues nationwide had eliminated mandatory dues – the backbone of synagogue sustainability for the past century.
Amy Asin, vice president, strengthening congregations for the Union for Reform Judaism, said the vast majority of Reform congregations (she guessed 80 percent), no longer have an abatement process, and she would encourage the rest to do the same.
“There’s a pretty large percentage of congregations that are allowing members a lot more leeway, without [vetting] what they are paying,” she said.
Conservative synagogues also are tweaking their dues systems, said Barry Mael, senior director of kehilla affiliations & operations at the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.
But he offered a couple of caveats for congregations considering tweaks. For one, don’t do it just to draw in young members; Jews of all ages need assistance.
“We tend to ask for the most money when people have the most financial commitments,” he said.
For another, dues-paying members ought to be treated like givers of tzedakah.
“Why don’t you send a thank-you note to members when they complete their dues payments?” he asked. “Simple, isn’t it? We have to appreciate all members and understand that all members are voluntary givers.”
Nationwide, synagogues are test driving several variations of the traditional dues model, including tiered (incorporating a flat standard rate with fundraising requests above and beyond), fair-share (a percentage of annual household income), sustaining (each member pays a portion of the annual operating expenses minus other projected revenue streams) and models geared toward “snowbirds” — retirees who live part of the year in the community.
Labelling these models is tricky since they can vary from synagogue to synagogue. But Asin sees all variations as part of a healthy process.
“What’s fantastic is congregations are really experimenting and trying to understand what their communities need,” she said.
At The Temple, Buckman sees another advantage to free-will: It’s bringing back people who grew up there.
“[They] never really intended on joining before because they saw their parents paying so much money and they just didn’t think that was for them,” she said. “Now they’re able to join for an amount that they feel comfortable with; they don’t have to justify it.”
Free-will has also driven more financial transparency and membership engagement into The Temple’s operation.
“When it comes to giving money, you want to see value from that,” Buckman said. “What we have found with young people, especially the 18-25 crowd, is that they almost don’t even want to give their money if they feel like it is just going to support the building; they really want to see us driving the Jewish mission out in the community.”
The free-will model is hardly a new idea. Rabbi Stephen Wise founded his Free Synagogue in New York City in 1907.
“He believed that only a voluntary giving system would promote the free exchange of ideas he saw as the synagogue’s highest ideal,” according to the writings of Rabbi Dan Judson, dean of Hebrew College Rabbinical School, who has studied the history of synagogues and fundraising.
Prior to that, synagogues supported themselves by selling honors and pews – ways that favored wealthier worshippers.
The dues models became widely used around the 1920s in what appeared to be a more equitable way to support synagogue operations.
Now, as Jews appear to affiliate less, the traditional dues model has become less attractive.
“The perception is that it is now out of step with contemporary Jewish culture and values,” Judson said in an interview with Reform Judaism magazine.
But Buckman rejects the notion that young adults won’t support synagogues. They just want proven value and a financial model that works for them.
One thing they won’t do is join just because that’s what their parents and grandparents did.
“Even as a young Jew, I still recognize the importance of a building, a physical structure to go to,” she said, “a place to call home essentially for your Judaism here in Louisville.”

Happy Passover

April 19, 2019/in Torah Tidbit

Happy Passover Y’all!

Passover night should be the best show in town. We should drive the kids and everyone attending the Seder crazy, so that they ask – why, “MA NISHETANA” – what is it that has changed?

At this night we have a very special duty, to find creative ways to explain the meaning of this holiday and the meaning of who we are and what we ought to be as a people. In the Torah, we are told 36 times to remember that we were slaves / strangers in Egypt so we must, says the Torah time and again, be kind to the stranger in our midst, treat them as we want people to treat us. This is because, as our sages say, in each generation must we feel as we ourselves were there, in Egypt, and were saved. In essence, this holiday makes us experience it ourselves.

5101 Overtures: Walk Down Memory Lane

April 15, 2019/in Featured, News

Thank you to everyone that attended 5101 Overtures: Walk Down Memory Lane. Attendees enjoyed highlights of past 5101 Overtures performances and a reception in the atrium including wine, cheese, desserts, and beverages.

We also packed 200 meals for the homeless in our city! What a mitzvah opportunity.

5101 Overtures
5101 Overtures
5101 Overtures
5101 Overtures
5101 Overtures
5101 Overtures
5101 Overtures
5101 Overtures-1
5101 Overtures-2

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5101 Overtures: Walk Down Memory Lane

In 1977, starting as an iconic icebreaker with Adath Israel and Brith Sholom resulted in two magnificent musical performances not easily forgotten and came to be known as the 5101 Overtures. Resurrected VHS tapes have been recently digitized to DVD.

Guest Speaker: Rabbi Daniel Freelander – Scholar In Residence

April 15, 2019/in Featured, News

The Temple along with Temple Shalom welcomed guest speaker Rabbi Daniel Freelander. Scholar In Residence was a wonderful weekend event.  Rabbi Daniel Freelander (president of the World Union for Progressive Judaism – WUPJ) was amazing! Therefore, we look forward to many more shared events.  These events are made possible thanks to a generous grant from the Jewish Heritage Fund for Excellence.

Guest Speaker Rabbi Daniel Freelander
Rabbi Daniel Freelander
Guest Speaker Rabbi Daniel Freelander
Rabbi Daniel Freelander
Rabbi Daniel Freelander
Rabbi Daniel Freelander
Guest Speaker Rabbi Daniel Freelander
Guest Speaker Rabbi Daniel Freelander
Rabbi Daniel Freelander

Guest Speaker Rabbi Daniel Freelander

Rabbi Daniel Hillel Freelander serves as president of the World Union for Progressive Judaism. With offices in New York and Jerusalem, Rabbi Freelander leads the coordinating body of over 1.8 million Jews, representing almost 1000 congregations and seven regional bodies.

Metzorah (Leviticus 14:1-15:33)

April 12, 2019/in Torah Tidbit

This Week’s Torah Portion: Metzorah (Leviticus 14:1-15:33) (someone who suffers from leprosy).

How do we treat members of our community who suffer from diseases that disgust us? In the Torah, we sent them outside of our camp; however, we also attempted to cure them. There was an entire process in order to bring them back to our midst.

What do we do today? How do we treat the people who are marginalized by us? Do we try and reenter them to our midst? Should we learn from our ancestors?

Tazria (Leviticus 12:1−13:59)

April 5, 2019/in Torah Tidbit

This Week’s Torah Portion: Tazria (Leviticus 12:1−13:59)

The Baal Shem Tov, the mystical founder of Hasidic Judaism, once said:

“We must always bear in mind that God is always with us… When we look at any material thing, we are really gazing at the image of God which is present in all things.”

This week’s Torah Portion, Tazria, puts that grandest conception of Hasidic mysticism, that the presence of God infuses all things, to what might be its greatest test. Leprosy, Acne, and Afterbirth – these are the topics of Tazria. A Biblical collection of all that slimes and oozes, it is hard see the purpose of these ancient rites and rituals, much less the Divine spark of God which resides within them all. And yet, beneath Tazria’s slime and ooze lies a message of the holiness of life. From the moment of our birth, through the awkward acne of our adolescence, and even in the face of life threatening illness, God is there. We are never alone, neither in times of light nor times of darkness, because “God is always with us.”

Tzaria Summary:

God describes the rituals of purification for a woman after childbirth. (12:1-8)
God sets forth the methods for diagnosing and treating a variety of skin diseases, including tzara-at (a leprous affection), as well as those for purifying clothing. (13:1-59)

CCAR Celebrating 200th Birthday of Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise

April 1, 2019/in Featured, News

Our very own Rabbi Joe Rooks Rapport and Rabbi Gaylia R. Rooks joined 500+ Reform rabbis to celebrate the 130th birthday of the CCAR and the 200th birthday of its founder, Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise at the 2019 Convention, in Cincinnati, Ohio.

In addition to this major milestone, CCAR also celebrated the selection of its first female Chief Executive, Rabbi Hara Person and honored Rabbi Steve Fox, outgoing Chief Executive, for his 13 years of leadership.

What a wonderful celebration some of our rabbinic staff were able to be a part of as they show their continuing support for the Jewish community.

The Central Conference of American Rabbis is the Reform Rabbinic leadership organization. The CCAR enriches and strengthens the Jewish community by fostering excellence in the Reform Rabbis who lead it, in whatever setting they serve, and through the resources and publications we provide the Jewish community. CCAR members lead the Reform Movement on important spiritual, social, cultural and human rights issues, at the same time the CCAR creates and sustains the Judaism of tomorrow.

The CCAR enriches and strengthens the Jewish community by empowering Reform Rabbis to provide religious, spiritual, and organizational leadership as it:

  • Fosters excellence in Reform Rabbis
  • Enhances Reform Rabbis’ professional and personal lives
  • Amplifies the voice of the Reform Rabbinate in the Reform Movement, the Jewish community, and the world in which we live.
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