Beth Jacob Congregation

This Shabbat marks the end of Shabbat Enrichment for another year. I want to salute the tremendous effort that has gone into making this year one of the best in recent memory.

We have been blessed with the addition of Rabbi Liberman to our professional team. Even as we pray for her continued return to good health, we salute her oversight of the entire educational programming in the shul and the work she has done to help re-invigorate our wonderful Shabbat morning programming.

We also thank Susan Cobin who has chaired the Congregational Learning Committee, and overseen its work with Shabbat Enrichment.

Kudos are extremely appropriate and well deserved for Mark Usem has done a tremendous job as the Shabbat morning Coordinator. He has been a tremendous addition to the program in this new position and we are fortunate that he will be returning again next year.

Our teachers have stepped up and worked with Mark and Rabbi Liberman and have contributed mightily to our success. Parents also deserve our thanks. We know there is still room for even greater renewal in this program but the growth from last year to this year has been terrific.

The kids have been great and we look forward to their continued presence in shul during the summer months. The smiles are their faces at the end of shul, as the make their way onto the bimah, make my day week in and week out.

And there is another group we need to take note—all of us with no kids in Shabbat Enrichment– who understand that the shul is not about providing a service but rather about creating community.

Each of us benefits from this community in different ways and each of us contributes in different ways. A hallmark of this shul has been our ability to swim against the tide of shul life across the country–where the onus falls on the shul “to meet my needs” and there is never a sense that we are joining together to help foster a real sense of community. I hope this upstream swimming never stops.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Morris J. Allen

Monday marks the “official start” of the summer season. Memorial Day serves as the benchmark for its beginning, just as Labor Day signals its end. Sadly, while the days in-between are fully appreciated, often times neither bookend is understood for the significance it holds.

On Monday we honor those who served their country, defended its values and who are no longer with us in the land of the living. Their service and their small, and sometimes large, acts of heroism is something that all of us continue to benefit from and which all of us need to honor. At 10:15 on Memorial Day itself, a brief but moving service will be held at the Sons of Jacob Cemetery. It is a fitting way to honor these individuals who collectively have insured our ability to live freely.

While Labor day is an important day in and of itself, the events the last several weeks remind us that human labor is not to be exploited and that the dignity of the laborer should not be trampled in the service of God’s demands. The continuing allegations of abhorrent labor practices in the production of kosher food led the leadership of the USCJ/RA to issue the following statement yesterday. In the coming week, i will be meeting with our shul leadership in addressing how we will fulfill this call. It might mean that we need to scramble to find alternative sources for our kosher meat, but I cannot in good conscience continue to ignore the very real human abuses that seem to be occurring and allow such meat to be served in our shul. This of course demands further discussion with the leadership of the shul and the shul community itself. I look forward to doing just that with you. In the meantime, I hope each of you will read Hekhsher Tzedek Al Pi Din.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Morris J. Allen