Rabbi Art: Summer Travels

Dear Friends,

I now truly understand what my parents used to say, that as you get a bit older the summer seems to disappear right before your eyes.  While I can offer a detailed list all the programs and activities I enjoyed this summer, it seems that these past weeks have just flown by in a blink of an eye.  It’s just amazing!

I paid some attention to the ongoing Presidential Election campaign as I traveled this summer. However, it wasn’t until the recent mega-event at Pastor Rick Warren’s Saddleback (Mega) Church in Orange County, California that featured Senators McCain and Obama sitting with Pastor Rick (the very successful author of “The Purpose Driven Church”) answering questions one-on-one that I realized that the election is in full swing.  Watching this telecast I struck me that the evangelical movement represented by Pastor Warren and his many colleagues and their millions of members exist in a very, very different world than I, and I suspect, many of you do. 

Imagine, for a moment, if Rabbi Eric Yoffe, the president of our Union for Reform Judaism, and Rabbi David Saperstein, Executive Director of our Religious Action Center in Washington, D.C. (who, by the way, has been invited to offer the invocation at Democratic Convention next week) were able to convene such an encounter with the two presidential candidates.  And instead of a mega-church filled with evangelicals, the rabbis and senators would meet at a synagogue with lots Jews in the pews!

How different an event this would be?  What would be the most important questions?  Would our questions be so religiously parochial focusing upon such key presidential questions as when “life” begins, same-gender civil or religious marriages and the like (yes, Pastor Warren is concerned about poverty and hunger around the world this is where he differs from the likes of Pat Robertson) ?  Of course, we would have our own parochial questions about support for Israel, a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine, separation between church and state, but I would think that many more global issues would be put before the two candidates from our reform leaders.

In the months ahead I am sure that we will hear much more from and about the candidates seeking the White House at this critical time in world history.  Our democracy is a strong one that has allowed our people to thrive and flourish in America like no other country in which we have lived.  The “Jewish” vote has become even more important in key background states (think “butterfly ballots in Florida”).  Our Religious Action Center – http://www.rac.org - is creating an election guide examining the candidates’ positions on important issues and matching their positions side by side with Jewish teachings.  As a people with a long history and an important written tradition let us take the time in the coming months to examine Jewish positions as we decide how we might cast our ballots in November.  Those of us with children at home can teach them an important lesson that Jewish tradition has something important and meaningful to say about just everything under the sun! (Still trying to hold onto the summer).

Let me take a moment to welcome all of our new families who have joined during the summer, I look forward to meeting you and welcoming you into the temple family. 

B’hatz’la’kha (much good wishes and luck) to all of young people going off to college for their freshman year; learn and enjoy and please let us have your email and snail mail addresses so that we may keep in touch with you.

Finally, let me welcome Marci Barnes, our new educator who holds the title of Director of Lifelong Learning.  Marci comes to us with many years of experience as a Jewish educator. Please take a moment to welcome her and if you see a little three year-old red-head running around our Preschool, it’s probably her son, Henry (Welcome also to Marci’s husband, Frank)!  And many thanks to Lisa Wiedman, who chaired the Search Committee and to her committee members who volunteered many hours at an especially busy time of the year to find us Marci!

Shalom,

Rabbi Art Donsky