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!
April 10, 2016 By bethmordecai no comments.
Reflecting on Friday's Disaster of Spiritual Care Training & Previewing Today's Workshops forInterfaith families
Dear Hevreh,
"Everybody is a living document." This is one of the key teachings from my training on Disaster Spiritual Care with the American Red Cross on Friday. In essence, this teaching emphasizes how everyone's unique story is a something important to listen to, how it is a "document" worthy of being "read." This is especially the case when working with someone who has just experienced trauma from a hurricane or a terrorist attack. While there is the story of the tragedy that we hear in the news, there are the stories we don't hear from survivors who collectively add their[...]
Category : Interfaith Families Perth Amboy Chaplain Corps Rabbi Rabbi's Journal Tag : Chaplain Corps Faithful Families Grandparents Circle interfaith families Living Document perth amboy chaplain corps rabbi rabbi's journal unique torah
November 20, 2015 By bethmordecai no comments.
Reflection on working last weekend with interfaith families in Faithful Families & Grandparents Circle
Dear Hevreh,
"Discomfort." If I had to name the single most intractable challenge for interfaith families to overcome, it would be "discomfort." In particular, it's the discomfort of Jewish parents in knowing their kids and especially their grandkids are being exposed to the traditions of other faiths, and it's the discomfort of those intermarried kids (many of whom are now parents) in engaging with a potentially contentious topic without the unilateral support of their family and clergy. The result of the discomfort for the former is that in order to remain in relationship with their families, the Jewish parents tread very carefully on the[...]
Category : Rabbi Rabbi's Journal Tag : Faithful Families Grandparents Circle interfaith interfaith families rabbi rabbi's journal
March 25, 2014 By bethmordecai no comments.
Dear Hevreh,
There we were on Sunday afternoon, four Jewish-Christian couples, a minister, and a rabbi, sitting in the chapel at Beth Mordecai sharing meaningful objects from our respective traditions. Kippot, crosses, bibles, prayer books, necklaces, candles were brought forward, each one with a story to tell about how its "owner" found meaning in their existence. Through these wonderful objects, we shared more than just stories -- we shared ourselves, how each one of us finds deep and powerful meaning in being faithful to our religious traditions and how there is so much for us to learn from one another.
These are not the stories you normally hear in the media about interfaith couples and families. What you normally hear is how if you[...]
Category : Interfaith Families Rabbi Rabbi's Journal Tag : interfaith families Jewish-Christian meaningful objects rabbi rabbi's journal Reverend Anne-Marie Jeffery St. Peter's Episcopilian Church
March 23, 2014 By bethmordecai no comments.
Dear Hevreh,
This past Shabbat, I spoke about the importance of innovation, in our programming and in our mission building, to not only keep the content of our community fresh but to build excitement in our community for trying new and innovative ways of engaging Judaism. Today, is a day devoted to fulfilling that promise of being innovative.
This morning, I will join our esteemed executive director Elliot Rubin at a half-day conference run by United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism to bring small congregations together to talk about best practices and share ideas on how to run our organizations more effectively. As small congregations we share many of the same challenges, like membership growth and retention, programming breadth, and depth of[...]
Category : Rabbi Rabbi's Journal Tag : elliot rubin faith traditions innovation interfaith families small congregations united synagogue wisdom
November 10, 2013 By bethmordecai no comments.
Dear Hevreh, After God created Adam in the second chapter of Genesis, the process of creation seemed to be complete. Yet as God looked around at all the beauty that was created, God turned to Adam and realized that creation was not complete: "Lo tov heyot adam l'vado -- it is not good for man to be alone" (Genesis 2:18). And thus God created Adam's partner, Eve. It's as if God realized that the only way for humanity to fully enjoy and take advantage of all the potential imbued in creation is when we have partners to work with us because it's not fun to do things alone. Today is all about partners. From 1-5 pm today at JFK hospital in Edison, our community[...]
Category : Rabbi's Journal Tag : genesis health fair interfaith interfaith families MEAICA Metuchen-Edison Area Interfaith Clergy Association partners potential st. peter's