The congregation
gathers as an extended family
to celebrate shabbat and
major Jewish holidays.
Members develop services,
take part in readings, sing
and perform Jewish music, the
school children create plays
for Chanukah. Under the
leadership of Harold Londer,
co-founder of Or Emet, and
with the help of adult
mentors,the congregation
creates humanistic life cycle
ceremonies including baby
namings, Bar and Bat Mitzvah
and memorial services. In the
spring of 2006, we celebrated
two bar mitzvoth and 3 bat
mitzvoth. Any student wishing
to pursue bar or bat mitzvah
must be enrolled in the
JCS.
"It was so
nice having all our
family and friends
come and celebrate
our Bat Mitzvot, and
take part in the
service. Guitarist
Amy Stubenhaus led us
in the singing of
traditional shabbat
songs. I talked about
my Torah portion from
the Book of Exodus,
and gave my
interpretation of the
story of Passover
from a humanistic
point of view. I
played a song from
"Ghetto Sketches" by
George Perlman, a
Ukranian Jew, on my
violin. All in all,
it was a great
night."
Julia
Wolfe
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"My torah
portion was from
Deuteronomy. I
explained the rules
which the ancient
rabbis said
traditional Jews were
expected to follow,
and then I questioned
the relevance of
these rules for
today's world. I
played traditional
Hebrew melodies on
the saxophone. These
traditional songs are
part of who we are as
Jews, and are
especially important
to our congregation
because our focus is
not on god but on the
traditions and
culture of
Judaism."
Elana
Dahlager
|
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