LOVELAND HERALD
Your Community Press newspaper serving Loveland, Miami Township and other Northeast Cincinnati neighborhoods
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2019 ❚ BECAUSE COMMUNITY MATTERS ❚ PART OF THE USA TODAY NETWORK
Rabbi Robert Barr refl ects on 40 years with Beth Adam congregation Laura A. Hobson Special to Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK
When Loveland’s Congregation Beth Adam fi rst began, Rabbi Robert Barr was there. The rabbi took a $10,000 salary and began with a group of six that met in area homes. “I wrote my fi rst sermon on my typewriter,” Barr said. He’s had a 40-year run and built a synagogue which now attracts 280 people. When the congregation decided to build its own synagogue, the rabbi had 90% of the $2.3 million pledged before the groundbreaking in Loveland. “We built a bold, dynamic Judaism that diff ers from other synagogues,” Barr said. Beth Adam remains an independent synagogue which draws from many diff erent streams of Jewish thought. “At the end of the day, I think it is everyone’s responsibility to leave the world better than they found it,” the 63year-old rabbi said. As a result, even today, he not just teaches and reads, but keeps on learning. “That is the goal,” Barr said. “There is angst in the world, but it’s hard to keep up. Successful people keep on learning.” But having a history doesn’t mean the synagogue is mired in the past. “Technology has changed the way I communicate,” said Barr. Signifi cant updates include a website called Our Jewish Community.org and a Facebook page with 36,000 followers.“ The congregation also features a unique liturgy written by Barr and Beth Adam’s Ritual/Life Cycle Committee chaired by Harriet Edwards, a 34-year member of the congregation. She said, “The liturgy is what makes the congregation diff erent.” It also off ers a redesigned religious education, Our Village. He noted one can educate children and achieve knowledge. “But how do we instill wisdom? We recognize a sense of shared re-
Rabbi Robert Barr in front of The Reflections Wall. The beautiful stained glass and metal wall sculpture in the Beth Adam lobby was created in honor of Beth Adam’s 25th anniversary. LAURA A. HOBSON FOR THE CINCINNATI ENQUIRER
sponsibility,” Barr said. The congregation attracts people looking for something diff erent. “It’s an important institution; people like each other and become friends,” Barr said. There are four generations of families at Beth Adam. “Work is like the classic pebble in the water; you touch people in it. It changes
and evolves,” said Barr. Barr began to think about running for a candidate of the US House of Representatives in Congress as a Democrat in late 2016 as an extension of his call to the rabbinate. He spent over a year talking to Congress members on Capitol Hill
“We built a bold, dynamic Judaism that differs from other synagogues.” Rabbi Robert Barr
Congregation Beth Adam
See BETH ADAM, Page 2A
Local restaurant goes all pink for Breast Cancer Awareness month Briana Rice Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK
The Silver Spring House in Symmes Township has decided to go all out in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month this October. It started with a paint job, courtesy of a donation by Sherwin-Williams, and now everything is covered in the pink. The restaurant has pink aprons, pink T-shirts, pink napkins, pink straws, special cups with pink writing and pink drink and food specials. Even the parking lines are painted pink.
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It’s part of a month-long fundraiser for the Pink Ribbon Girls and American Cancer Society. “We’ve had family members, several employees and customers who have had (breast cancer) and so we didn’t want to just paint the building, we wanted to give back,” co-owner Joe Kendall said. The original goal was to raise $25,000 for the Pink Ribbon Girls and American Cancer Society in Ohio. Owners Joe Smith and Joe Kendall say the restaurant has already surpassed that goal and they now hope to raise See PINK, Page 2A
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The Silver Spring House restaurant is painted in a pink, breast cancer awareness, theme for October in Symmes Township. SAM GREENE/THE ENQUIRER
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