the newsletter of woodlands community temple
September 2018 Elul 5778 - Tishrei 5779
Adult B’nai The Woodlands Community Temple Board of Trustees and the WCT Staff extend our sincerest Binah Celebration Sunday, September 30 wishes for a sweet, healthy and fulfilling Rosh Hashanah 5779... to you, your family and friends, at 7:00 pm or two years now, 21 (!) and all humankind. stalwart members of our
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Here They Come! by Rabbi Billy Dreskin
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here’s a reason so many of us fall in love with Woodlands. This place takes care of us! Our spirits are nurtured here. Our brains are challenged here. Our sense of moral living is modeled and augmented here. And our Board leadership brings us professionals who continually show us the way, journey alongside us, and become part of our extended family. Which is why we’re utterly delighted to introduce and to welcome the two newest members of our staff and temple family: Lily Mandell and Zach Plesent. Lily Mandell has just arrived as our Director of Youth Engagement. She just completed a double major in Media Analytics and Arts
Lily Mandell and Zach Plesent
Administration, with a minor in Theatre. She’s a veteran of our Reform Jewish summer camps and, in college, was active in the Delta Delta Delta sorority. As Woodlands’ Director of Youth Engagement, Lily will be watching over our pre-teens and teens in grades 5 through 12. She asked that we share the following note: Continued on page 2
How To Be A Reform Jew – Part 2
by Rabbi Mara Young
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ack in June, Rabbi Billy wrote an article for Makom called “How to be a Reform Jew.” He quoted the most recent Statement of Principles of Reform Judaism and then helped us to understand how this plays out at Woodlands: “The great contribution of Reform Judaism is that it has enabled the Jewish people to introduce innovation while preserving tradition, to embrace diversity while asserting commonality, to affirm beliefs without rejecting those who
doubt, and to bring faith to sacred texts without sacrificing critical scholarship.” Certainly this sentiment holds true today. Our movement is more inclusive than ever – not just of particular groups, but also of individual ideologies. Our critical engagement with God and sacred text has led to innovative worship and learning styles. An eternal idea, new pathways to living it. This is the Reform Jewish bottom line. I can't help but wonder, with the most recent Reform
Jewish principle platform having been written in 1999, what are the new pathways we’ve forged in the last twenty years? When it comes to inclusion, Reform Judaism has exploded Continued on page 11
congregation have been deeply immersed in Jewish learning with our rabbis, cantor, and Hebrew staff Margot Serwer, Harriet Levine, and Rabbi Joan Farber, preparing for this seminal event: becoming B’nai Binah. Now, having attained a level of Jewish understanding (binah), our students are ready to share their knowledge, and their love of Jewish learning, with you, their temple family. Kol hakavod ... a job well done to: Mona Albala, Marion Asnes, Susan Axelrod, Elizabeth Barnhard, Lesli Cattan, Pam Chernoff, Tiffany Chesterson, Jedd Chesterson, Miriam Dierssen, Pamela Goldstein, Joy Gralnick, Gail Hacker, Liz Knobler, Jennie Kramer-Rawson, Leslie Litsky, Andy Loose, Alejandro Luciano, Rebecca Mazin, Jeffrey Richter, Leigh Smith and Jill Strick. Their ceremony of affirmation will occur during our annual Simkhat Torah congregational celebration. With song and prayer, we will honor our Torah as tradition dictates. But with our B'nai Binah, each of whom will read from a Torah scroll unrolled in its entirety, we will soar to dizzying heights of delight and enthusiastic pursuit of our Jewish way of life. Accompanied by our usual highspirited singing and dancing, you and your family are most cordially encouraged to attend.
Some of our B'nai Binah students with other Hebrew students and faculty, and is that Enes Kanter?