| News From Your Temple President On a beautiful warm summer day in 2000, I went for the first time to Temple Beth David. A friend of Rabbi Skopitz, z”l, who knew that I was looking for a synagogue with a sense of community kept telling me about Beth David.For a long time I resisted. I had no idea where the synagogue was. When I looked at the map, it was in unfamiliar territory. When I finally called Temple Beth David, I was told that a congregant would return my call. No one in any of the other synagogues ever returned my call. I was no longer holding my breath. But that same evening I got a call. And two days later, on Saturday morning I was in a sanctuary filled with bright light, a spirited Hazzan leading a participatory service and women on the Bima reading Torah. After services, I was surrounded by people who greeted me and asked me questions. Some told me how they built the synagogue. And right there and then I understood the meaning of the word, Hamakom, the Place. The word that Jacob had used in Genesis took on a modern meaning. Hamakom is not any place. It is that special Place of Torah and community. Ever since my first Shabbat, I believe that Beth David is the place for you if you are looking for a vibrant, egalitarian, and multi-generational community. Inspired by the Rabbi and the Hazzan, it is a place to pray together, learn together and celebrate Shabbat and Holy Days together. After services it is a place that offers a Kiddush where young and old share food and the latest news. Beth David is the place you want to be if you are looking for a synagogue that comes together to share life-cycle events, births, marriages, birthdays, and deaths. It comes together when our members face losses and offer support during the Shiva mourning as well as visit and assist the sick. Temple Beth David honors what we read in Ethics of the Sages, “Be among the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving people and bringing them closer to Torah.” As the newly elected President, I will do my best to help the synagogue be a place that brings people closer to Torah in a caring synagogue community, a place that grows and thrives. With your help we will also face the challenges that are part of synagogue life, and in the words of our sages, we will do it in a spirit of peace and of loving people.
Ayala Emmett aemt@mail.rochester.edu |