With approximately forty-five other Shomrei members, Bruce and I attended the Musical Taste of Shabbat hosted by Ken Bannerman and Judy Wildman last Friday evening at their beautiful home.
The Service was glorious and memorable. Judy led the service, while Ken played the bass and Merrill Silver played the piano. We all sang the wonderful Kabbalat Shabbat songs, led by Judy, including Mizmor Shir, Lechu Neranina, etc. The music was so very wonderful! Continue reading
Utilizing a microgrant provided by the Jewish Federation of Greater Metrowest NJ, CSE hosted an “Addressing Antisemitism Today” program on Thursday, June 8.
With antisemitism alarmingly on the rise, it is essential to foster dialogue within and between communities of faith, specifically in this program — the Jewish community and the Christian community. Participants gathered for dinner and a program presented by Rabbi Julie and Pastor Nancy Truscott, Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Nutley. Continue reading
A new social group called Boomers has been formed at Shomrei Emunah whose purpose is to encourage social, supportive and informational opportunities for Shomrei Community Boomer members and their friends. Activities will be aimed at the Baby Boomer generation, and, while membership is intended for fellow Baby Boomers, participation in activities will be fluid and open to all. Subgroups and activities might consist of groups for hiking, lectures, meet-and-greets, theater, and widows/widowers, as well as opportunities to connect/reconnect with people and events at Shomrei. Activities will be determined by the group. Continue reading
We welcome Rabbi Julie Roth as Rabbi of Congregation Shomrei Emunah! She will begin to be at the shul on August 15.
Meeting Rabbi Julie
The Transition Team is planning many and various events to give Rabbi Julie and members of our community a chance to get to know each other. Every event will be a small, intimate get together hosted by a Shomrei member. Whether it’s 2 people or 10 it’s an opportunity for you to spend time with Rabbi Julie.
Signup
Please note many more events will be added to this signup list between now and the High Holy Days
Sign up for one welcome event here: shomrei.org/welcome
More About Rabbi Julie
When Rabbi Julie Roth became a Religious Studies major at Brown University, she didn’t know women could be rabbis. The daughter of a Holocaust survivor and a community organizer, she grew up in Cleveland in a family that sang loudly in synagogue and always invited extra guests to Shabbat dinner. In the summer of 2005, when she was ordained as a rabbi by the Jewish Theological Seminary, she saw two pathways before her, one as a congregational rabbi and one as a Hillel rabbi.
Formerly the Jewish Chaplain at Princeton University, she has extensive experience leading High Holiday services and Passover seders, teaching classes on ethics, social justice, Israel, and theology, officiating at life-cycle events, facilitating interfaith dialogue, addressing controversial topics, and counseling thousands of students and faculty. Rabbi Julie was the rabbi and co-founder of Zamru, a musically innovative, spiritually-engaging, inter-generational Friday night indie minyan based in Princeton that grew to a community of over 300. In addition, she co-founded Shabbat Katan, a creative, interactive, 5 and under service that revitalized young family engagement at her local synagogue.
Yearning to spend more time doing what she loves most – building intentional relationships, leading spiritually-alive services, giving inspirational sermons, officiating at life-cycle events, teaching Torah addressing contemporary issues, and listening with compassion – Rabbi Julie is ready to lead Shomrei. Guided by the central teaching that each and every human being is beloved, infinitely valuable, and unique, her calling as a rabbi is to connect each person with the piece of Torah, Jewish experience, or community that will help them live their lives as a sacred gift. She passionately believes Judaism contains the sparks not only to transform the world, but also to transform how we live our daily lives with greater meaning, joy, gratitude, and wonder.
An avid traveler to Israel and around the world and an extensive reader (she reads the same number of books each year as her age), Rabbi Julie loves to take walks with friends, look at the ocean, and binge-watch television series. A rusty ballroom dancer who loves to eat a delicious meal cooked by someone else, Rabbi Julie is grateful for the love of her family including her husband, Rabbi Justus Baird, and their three children, Ilan, Rafael, and Noa.
The annual Shavuot Tikkun always has interesting and enlightening study sessions. This year was no exception.
The keynote featured Yael Kanerek, one of the driving forces behind Toratah the regendered Torah.
I wrote about this huge project last fall when Genesis was revealed (See Toratah, Sept 30, 2021). Since then there have been weekly study sessions revealing more of the Toratah (her Torah).
Last week, synagogues across America marked the 100-year anniversary of the first official bat mitzvah. The ceremony occurred on March 18, 1922 and was created by Rabbi Mordechai Kaplan, the founder of Reconstructionist Judaism, to welcome his12-year-old daughter, Ruth, into the family of Jewish adults. While that sounds like a long history, it pales alongside the roughly 1,000-year longevity of the bar mitzvah. Moreover, it took almost 60 years for the bat mitzvah ceremony to attain equal stature with the bar mitzvah at synagogues in the U.S.
To explore this evolution — and what it says about the role of women and girls in Judaism — assistant JLC education director Lily Lucey invited Shomrei women of several generations on Sunday, March 19 to recount for the b’nai mitzvah classes what the bat mitzvah represented when they were 12 or 13. Continue reading
On Tuesday evening, four active Shomrei members – all of whom are involved in volunteering at Shomrei – took part in disaster training called Stop the Bleed.
While this training on how to save lives by staunching the flow of blood is intended to be part of emergency training in case of an event at the synagogue, what we learned could be applied to a kitchen knife accident, a fall down the stairs or any situation where extensive bleeding occurs. Continue reading
On Sunday March 6th, twenty Shomrei people went off-Broadway to see a production of Prayer for the French Republic at the Manhattan Theater Company. Our congregant, Lindsey Sag, who is the General Manager of the theater suggested I organize a theater party. I hesitated — it was still Covid after all — were we ready to head into Manhattan? In fact we were! Tickets sold out quickly, COVID is waning, and it was almost a Spring day. Continue reading
Can you match the SOUPERSPREADER with the delicious soup he/she/they made? Continue reading
The building was teeming with people this past Shabbat with JLC, the Henei Mah Tov service, Tot Shabbat, and the regular service in the sanctuary. The social hall was party-like with birthday balloons and colorful tableware.
What a pleasure to have so many young kids and their parents sharing the space and a very special kiddush lunch.
That first double digit birthday is a big deal for any kid. We were able to be a part of Brian Singh’s entry into “tweenhood.” Continue reading