Congregation Beth Mordecai
Congregation Beth Mordecai
An inclusive congregation affiliated with the Conservative Movement.
Your Jewish Home for the Soul!
An inclusive congregation affiliated with the Conservative Movement.
Your Jewish Home for the Soul!
July 30, 2019 By Beth Mordecai no comments.
As a rabbi and Jewish person, I support and love Israel. Israel is our second home and the Jewish homeland. I want Israel to live up to its own highest ideals and to continue to be a light among the nations. This week an important bipartisan resolution, was passed by the US House of Representatives on an overwhelming vote of 398-17. This puts the House on record opposing the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions movement and its efforts to target U.S. companies that do business with Israel. I hope for a future when these kinds of resolutions will be unnecessary. Join Beth Mordecai for the High Holidays when I will be speaking about the Jewish people's complicated and loving relationship with Israel. Please read the[...]
Category : American Jewish News Israeli News Rabbi Rabbi's Journal Shabbat
July 21, 2016 By bethmordecai no comments.
Dear Hevreh,
Below you'll find a prayer I wrote in honor of the victims of the Dallas shooting which I'll be reading at a vigil today organized by the Perth Amboy Chaplain Corps. I will be speaking on this prayer (and the sources quoted) during my talk tonight.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Ari Saks
Adonai Elohei Haruchot L'khol Basar, God, Source of the breath of all flesh (Numbers 27:15)
You breathed your spirit into the nostrils of the First Human (Genesis 2:7)
Imbuing our earthly bodies with your heavenly spirit (Rashi on Genesis 2:7)
A pure spirit (Talmud Masekhet B'rakhot 60b; Birkhot Hashahar)
So as long as I breathe, I acknowledge Your Presence (Talmud Masekhet B'rakhot 60b; Birkhot Hashahar)
Lord in this moment of hamas, of anger and hostility (Genesis[...]
Category : American Jewish News home Rabbi Rabbi's Journal Tag : #BlackLivesMatter breathe dallas Police prayer rabbi rabbi's journal shooting
May 16, 2016 By bethmordecai no comments.
Got any more? Let us know at ari.saks@gmail.com.
"THESE ARE LITTLE KNOWN JEWISH FACTS THAT YOU SHOULD KNOW EVEN IF YOU ARE
NOT JEWISH"
ENJOY!
1) The Roosevelts were Dutch Jews who arrived in NYC in 1682. Claes
Rosenvelt before he changed his name to Nicholas Roosevelt, was the
first Roosevelt
ancestor to set foot in America, and Sarah Delano, FDR's mother, descended
from Sephardic Jews.
2) Joseph Stalin was originally named Joseph David Djugashvili
(translated as: "son of a Jew".) All 3 of the women that he married were
Jewish. 3) Dwight Eisenhower's father was a Swedish Jew, and listed in West
Point* 's Yearbook of 1915.
4) Lillian Friedman, a Jewish woman, married Cruz Rivera. They named
their baby Geraldo Miguel Rivera (it doesn't[...]
Category : Adult Education American Jewish News Learning videos-archive Tag : facts fun Fun Jewish facts Jewish
July 16, 2015 By bethmordecai no comments.
Dear Hevreh,
Over the past few years, the threats and tumult of tunnels, rockets, bombs, and mayhem has not only terrorized the physical well being of the State of Israel, but the consciousness of the Jewish people worldwide. Our minds are tuned into the latest threat with a kind of tunnel vision that is fueled by black and white images of ghettos and gas chambers. How can we focus on anything else when our existence seems to be in constant peril.
The radicalness of Shabbat is that no matter the gravity of our physical danger, every seventh day a moment of rest beckons us to change our focus from the anxieties of our outer life to the needs of our inner life. Yes,[...]
Category : American Jewish News Ask the Rabbi Israeli News Rabbi Rabbi's Journal Tag : america american jewish news Argument Disagreement Iran israeli news jewish people Politics rabbi rabbi's journal unity
November 11, 2014 By bethmordecai no comments.
(11/11/14),
"The conventions of a number of the States having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declarator and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficient ends of its institution"
- Preamble to the Bill of Rights (1789)
Dear Hevreh,
Today we celebrate Veterans' Day, a day in which we recall the sacrifices made (and to be made) by the men and women of our armed services to guard our nation and protect our freedoms. It has often struck me how the language we use in describing our armed services in America (like in[...]
Category : American Jewish News Perth Amboy News Rabbi Rabbi's Journal Tag : america american jewish news Bill of Rights Constitution constriction egypt freedom God kabbalah military mysticism perth amboy perth amboy news power rabbi rabbi's journal Syria tzimtzum
November 10, 2014 By bethmordecai no comments.
JEWISH CURRENT EVENTS -- The Demise of Liberal Jewry?
Check it out!
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Post by Congregation Beth Mordecai.
For more updates, please check out our Facebook page!
Category : American Jewish News Jewish Culture and History Jewish Current Events Social Media Tag : american jewish news Demise facebook Flourishing jewish culture and history jewish current events Liberal Jewry orthodox Pew Report social media
November 6, 2014 By bethmordecai no comments.
JEWISH CURRENT EVENTS: Re-Analyzing the Pew Survey
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Post by Congregation Beth Mordecai.
Category : American Jewish News Jewish Current Events Social Media Tag : challenges facebook jack wertheimer jewish identity pew survey steven m. cohen
September 9, 2014 By bethmordecai no comments.
Dear Hevreh,
On Sunday afternoon, our beautiful sanctuary was filled with words that were provocative, engaging, timely, and deeply powerful on the challenges of Israeli-Palestinian peace. They are words that many of us are still digesting, and will continue to digest especially through the High Holidays. They are words that teach us that there can be multiple truths to a single reality, and it is possible (albeit painful) to hold those two truths as equally valid.
And as these powerful words were shared by our guests Rabbi Hanan Schlesinger and Ali Abu Awwad, we were there to listen to them. 115 people from far and wide in the Jewish community of Middlesex community were present in our beautiful sanctuary to hear these[...]
Category : American Jewish News Israeli News Perth Amboy News Rabbi Rabbi's Journal Tag : Ali Abu Awaad community israel israel event Palestine Palestinian peace perth amboy Rabbi Hanan Schlesinger speaker success
June 16, 2014 By bethmordecai no comments.
JEWISH CURRENT EVENTS -- Et tu Presbyterians?
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Post by Congregation Beth Mordecai.
Category : American Jewish News Israeli News Jewish Current Events Social Media Tag : america american jewish news BDS boycott facebook interfaith israel israeli news jewish current events presbyterians social media
April 14, 2014 By bethmordecai no comments.
Dear Hevreh,
Every year, Passover affords us an opportunity to remember to not take our freedom for granted, as individuals and especially as Jews. No matter how starkly the haggadah teaches us that our freedom is precious, that if it wasn't for the exodus we "would still be slaves in Egypt," our day-to-day life in a country in which Jews are freer than ever before can make this entreaty by the rabbis sound little hollow.
That is until moments like yesterday.
With gunshots sounding at the JCC and a Jewish retirement home in Kansas City, so too does the warning of the rabbis embedded in the teachings of the haggadah: remember that you were slaves in Egypt because if you're not careful it could happen again. Throughout[...]
Category : American Jewish News Passover Rabbi Rabbi's Journal Tag : american jewish news anti-semitism JCC Kansas City passover rabbi rabbi's journal