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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.
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"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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