July 04, 2008   1 Tamuz 5768
Temple Beth Israel - Pomona, CA
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Worship at TBI  
From the Rabbi

Temple Beth Israel is a wonderful, diverse community. Within our community we have Jews by Birth, Jews by Choice, non-Jews who participate in our community as part of a Jewish family, and those who are exploring the possibility of becoming Jews. Too often we act as if everyone in our temple community grew up as a Jew. The variety of Jewish experiences within TBI has grown more diverse over time. Our community reflects the changes that are taking place within the American family. There is not one model for a family. All we have to do is look around—single-parent families, blended families, adults with no children, gay and lesbian parents, growing numbers of adopted children, and interfaith marriages are all part of the face of the changing Jewish American family.

Everybody who brings with them to TBI a commitment to Jewish life for themselves or their families adds to the rich tapestry that is our temple community.

On Shavuot falls on May 22nd this year. On Shavuot we celebrate the giving of Torah at Mount Sinai, and we also read from the Book of Ruth. The sages see Ruth as a paradigmatic Jew by Choice—someone who decides to connect her life and her fate to that of the Jewish people. She says, “your people shall be my people, your God shall be my God.”

As we celebrate Shavuot and symbolically stand at Mount Sinai once again to receive Torah, it is also a time to give thanks to those who have connected their lives to the Jewish people. For many in our community, this means supporting the raising of Jewish children and participating with their family in Jewish holiday and lifecycle celebrations. For others, it has meant becoming a Jew through learning about Judaism and a formal embrace of the Jewish tradition and the Jewish people. Our community has been so deeply enriched by those who have chosen Judaism as their spiritual home.

Our tradition teaches that King David is a descendant of Ruth, and that the Messiah will also come from King David’s line. We are taught that the redemption of the world begins with Ruth embracing the Jewish people.

Each of us must reach out and embrace all who chose to be a part of our community—in all of our diversity. In this way we can truly work to become a holy community.

For more information on learning more about Judaism or exploring the possibility of becoming a Jew, please contact Rabbi Kupetz.

Music at TBI  
Musical Notes

In the fall of 1997, not long after the High Holydays concluded, I noticed an advertisement in the classifieds of the Jewish Journal seeking singers who might be interested in auditioning for a new Jewish choral group that was forming in Los Angeles. I responded to the phone number listed, and in early January I was invited to the first rehearsal of what became the Los Angeles Zimriyah Chorale.

My participation in the Chorale for the next several years was the centerpiece of my musical life. There were opportunities to perform in Israel and at venues all over Southern California, along with a tour of Europe which included performances in Nuremberg, Germany and Prague, and the opportunity to sing the songs of Jewish composers martyred in the Holocaust in the courtyard of one of the main buildings of internment camp of the now Czech town of Terezin, know more widely by its German name- Theresienstadt.

Though presented by the Nazis as a model Jewish settlement, the true function of Theresienstadt was to provide a front for the extermination operation of Jews. Theresienstadt was also used as a transit camp for European Jews en route to >Auschwitz and other concentration camps. Approximately 144,000 Jews were sent to Theresienstadt. About a quarter of the inmates died there due mostly to the horrid conditions, About two-thirds were deported to Auschwitz and other death camps. When the war finished, there were a mere 17,247 survivors. There were 15,000 children living in the children's home inside the camp; less than 100 of those children survived. (One of those is TBI member Gabriele Silten.)

Many educated Jews were inmates of Theresienstadt, and the camp was known for its rich cultural life. At least four concert orchestras operated in the camp, as well as chamber groups and jazz ensembles. Several stage performances were produced and attended by camp inmates. There were also operas, choral and chamber music concerts there and in recent years there has been a concentrated effort to raise public consciousness to the significance of works of composers whose lives and compositions were affected by the Holocaust, many of whom were imprisoned in Terezin. Conductors such as the Zimriyah Chorale's director Nick Strimple and LA Opera's James Conlon have devoted themselves to extensive programming of this music which includes the works of such composers as Alexander von Zemlinsky, Viktor Ullmann, Pavel Haas, Karl-Amadeus Hartmann, Erwin Schulhoff, and Ernest Krenek.

A cornerstone of this effort is the Recovered Voices concerts developed by Mr. Conlon which will be presented at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on March 7th and 10th. Further information is available at losangelesopera.com. At TBI we'll also be including examples of this music in our Yom HaShoah community commemoration the evening of April 15th.

Cantor Paul Buch
Blessings  

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