Passover Matzah Ball Recipe

August 30, 2011 · Filed Under Passover recipes, Recipes · Comment 

Recipe from Carolyn Gilbert

These are the matzah balls that Carolyn’s mother, Phoebe Hymson, made for Congregation Beth Adam for many years.  Guaranteed to be solid, not mushy and not hard.  They come out perfectly every time.  For use with your favorite chicken soup recipe.

Serves 10-12

Ingredients:

2 Manischewitz matzah ball mix recipes (from the box)

2 recipes from the Manechewitz matzah meal box

1 C matzah meal

Juice from one onion.

1. Mix mixture above and refrigerate for half an hour.

2. Boil in WATER (not SOUP!) flavored with onion juice for 40 minutes.

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Online Yom Kippur Memorial Service

August 24, 2011 · Filed Under Baum's Blog · 1 Comment 

One of the most profound things we do at OurJewishCommunity.org each year is our online Yom Kippur Memorial service.

Each year, we ask everyone who is interested to submit photos of deceased loved ones so that we can all honor them during the High Holidays.  We hope you’ll consider participating.

Memory is a central part of the High Holidays.  In particular, Yom Kippur afternoon (when there is traditionally a service called yizkor) provides an important time to remember those who are no longer living.   Recognizing that many people have loved ones they would like to honor, we provide the opportunity for you to share their names and photos.  We include them in a slideshow that is part of a memorial service read by me and Rabbi Barr.

The service will go live at 4 PM on Saturday, October 8th and will also be archived for later viewing any time.

If there is someone special you would like to remember this Yom Kippur by including their photograph in our online memorial service, please submit a photo by email (admin@bethadam.org) or by mail (10001 Loveland-Madeira Rd., Loveland, OH 45140).  Photos need to be received by Monday, October 3.

Please send only one photo for each person you are remembering, and please include his or her name so that we can provide a text caption.  All photos that are mailed to us will be returned if you include your return address.

If you submitted a photo last year, we will not automatically include it this year.  However, if you would like us to use the same photo, simply send an email to admin@bethadam.org indicating that.

This year, you will be able to view the service along with all of our streaming High Holiday service webcasts by going to http://bit.ly/holidayservices.

The archive of last year’s Yom Kippur Memorial service is available for you to view as well.

Part of what was so amazing in previous years when I watched the service online was seeing that there were thousands of others watching with me.  Many who had not submitted photos took the opportunity to type in names of those they were remembering in our Facebook and Twitter chat feeds.  People comforted one another.   Not only was the power of memory strong – so was the power of community.

If you have any questions about the online memorial service, please let me know.  We hope you’ll join us by honoring family members on Yom Kippur afternoon.  May their memories be for a blessing.

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Orthodox Rabbi Helps Gay Men Marry Lesbians

August 17, 2011 · Filed Under Baum's Blog · 7 Comments 

I’m one of those people who checks Facebook multiple times a day, and I often find that my friends have posted interesting news stories.  My jaw dropped today when a colleague posted this article from Time Magazine to his Facebook Page: “The Orthodox Rabbi Helping Gay Men Marry Lesbians.”  It couldn’t be true, I thought.  So I read the article – and it turns out it is true.  True and horrifying.

The story is that Areleh Harel, an Orthodox Rabbi, has been matching Orthodox gay men with Orthodox lesbians so that they can have a “traditional family.”  How troubling.  Dishonest.  Repressive.  Not consistent with my view of Judaism.

Harel will be launching a website and charging $430 per match made.

Gays and lesbians should be able to marry people they love and are attracted to.  Men can marry men, and women can marry women.  A Judaism that does not recognize this and that uses ancient texts to say homosexuality is wrong is not a Judaism for me.  A Judaism that doesn’t realize there are lots of different ways to have families – with or without children btw – is not a Judaism for me.  And, yes, you can be gay and have children.  Welcome to modernity!

One of the gay men featured in the story says he has had an extramarital affair with a man while married to his lesbian Orthodox wife.  Cheating on one’s spouse is generally wrong.  So, to the Orthodox gays and lesbians, I boldly say I think you’re better off marrying the person you want to marry in the first place.  And if the Orthodox community can’t deal with that, then come spend time with us online.  We value all people – regardless of their sexual preference.

 

 

 

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Computer Wedding Minister?

August 8, 2011 · Filed Under Baum's Blog · 5 Comments 

I love using technology in ways that help us achieve the mission and vision of our congregation and community.  I often say that we don’t use technology for its own sake.  We don’t have an online congregation, a Facebook page, or video streamed Shabbat and High Holiday services just because technology exists to make these things possible.  We use technology because it helps us create community and share our contemporary Jewish voice and philosophy – and of course, it allows us to hear from you which we also love.

So, this CNN video caught my attention – a computerized minister officiating at a wedding.

I totally support this couple’s choice to have their wedding the way they want, and I think it is cool that they created a ceremony that is authentically them. That said, I am not convinced that computerized ministers and computerized rabbis are the wave of the future.

I think there’s real value in human interaction – whether that’s face-to-face or mediated by technology. And I think rabbis and other clergy add value to weddings not just because we officiate the ceremony itself, but  because we also meet with and get to know the couple in advance.  It’s nice to participate in weddings as a rabbi and to be able to personalize the ceremony with the couple.  As clergy, we can focus on the people present – and in this area, the computerized minister seemed to fail.

I’m curious to hear all of your thoughts on this.

 

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Questions for Governor Rick Perry about his Prayer Rally

August 6, 2011 · Filed Under Baum's Blog · 4 Comments 

If you’ve been following the news, you probably noticed that Texas Governor Rick Perry held a prayer rally that drew more than 30,000 Christians this morning.  If you missed it, this New York Times article pretty much sums it up – and below I’ll respond to a bunch of points that that NYT article brings up.

If I could ask Rick Perry a bunch of questions, here’s what I would want to know:

  • Governor Perry, when you ask Jesus Christ to bless and guide “those who cannot see the light in the midst of all the darkness,” am I one of those people you think is in the dark?
  • Governor Perry, you say “Lord, you are the source of every good.”  And then you go on to list a bunch of bad things: discord, fear, anger, etc.  Is your God also the source of all of that?
  • Governor Perry, why do you bother going to work every day?  If you believe that the problems of our world can be solved through prayer, then why do you do anything else?  Do you do anything else?  Do you honestly not recognize that it is through intentionality and hard-work that progress is made – mere words are not enough?  And, if you believe prayer works so well, why hasn’t it worked for you yet?
  • What exactly do you think this day of fasting you’ve appointed will accomplish?
  • You say that your event was “open to any member of the public who wants to join with us in prayer.”  Do you recognize that there are lots of different ways to pray and that your rally represented a pretty small sliver?  Do you realize that there are people who would like to pray – but not in the way that you do?
  • And Governor Perry, have you heard of this concept called separation of church and state – or were you too busy praying to notice?  Please, Governor Perry, stop spending taxpayer money for religious purposes.

That seems like a good start to the conversation.  What would you like to ask Governor Perry?  Comment away!

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High Holiday Tickets, Video-Streaming, and Mission

August 1, 2011 · Filed Under Baum's Blog · 1 Comment 

Rabbi Barr and I were asked to write a blog post for the Continuing Jewish Learning Blog of Hebrew Union College.  While it was written with rabbis in mind, we thought it might spark some conversation here as well.

 

High Holiday Tickets, Video-Streaming, and Mission
By Rabbi Robert B. Barr and Rabbi Laura Baum

At this time of year it’s not uncommon for boards of congregations to reconsider their policy on High Holiday tickets.  For some congregations, ticket sales are a significant revenue stream.  For other congregations, tickets encourage unaffiliated individuals to join.  Some congregations use tickets to ensure that members have paid their dues in full, while others have dispensed with tickets all together.  Tickets at the High Holidays are used by congregations for a variety of reasons.  While we each may have our particular bias regarding High Holidays tickets, we probably can agree that there is no one “right way” to handle tickets.   Each approach has different outcomes – intended  and not.

Given that the notion of video-streaming services is a relatively new phenomenon it is worthwhile to consider it through the lens of ticket sales.  There is no one answer to whether a congregation should stream, why they should stream, and who their audience will be.  Streaming isn’t “one size fits all.”  There are different approaches that congregations can take which would reflect their values and sense of mission.

At OurJewishCommunity.org, we will stream the High Holidays for the fourth year.  Since our launch, our online services have been viewed by tens of thousands of people in dozens of countries around the world.  When we started streaming, our audio and video quality were not great, but people came online anyway, and they appreciated having the opportunity to “attend” the High Holidays.  Some came because they were homebound, others because they could not afford synagogue membership, others because they appreciated our unique liturgy and philosophy, others because they were geographically isolated.  The reasons were endless.

One woman and her mother attended online and learned the power of online video streaming – all of a sudden a family separated by miles could attend services together.  A woman in DC who had to work watched our streaming services from her office, called her mother in Florida and told her to click on the link, and the two had a very powerful moment listening to the sound of our shofar together.

Over time, we’ve needed to improve our technology and make significant financial and time investments in the technology – as people’s expectations continue to increase and technological change happens in what seems like nanoseconds!  We’ve also had to wrestle with meaningfully connecting to both our bricks-and-mortar congregants and those watching online.   By deciding to video-stream, there is a responsibility to ensure that the online participant has a quality experience.

OurJewishCommunity.org is an initiative of Congregation Beth Adam in Loveland, OH.  Our brick-and-mortar congregation’s vision is to be a spiritual home, a meaningful voice, and a humanistic resource for people worldwide, seeking a contemporary Jewish identity and experience.

With that vision in mind and with funds available after 30 years of fiscal responsibility, our congregation decided to boldly launch an online congregation.

We do not use technology for its own sake.  We use technology because it helps us move our congregation’s mission, vision, and values forward.  Just as philosophy guides our Jewish practice, our philosophy guides our use of technology.

Each year, a few more congregations decide to video-stream.  For some, streaming doesn’t make sense.  After all, if you require tickets for the High Holidays why would you offer ticketless High Holidays online?  Some congregations still want to be able to stream for their members who may be homebound or travelling during the holidays.  Those congregations may offer their streaming on a password-protected basis, essentially requiring a “ticket” to watch.  For others like us, we never had tickets at our bricks-and-mortar congregation, so streaming for everyone made sense.  Beth Adam was so committed to reaching out that it expanded its rabbinic staff specifically to serve the needs of the online community.

Lots of questions arise in congregation’s board rooms about streaming.  Are we encouraging folks not to join?  Are we sending a message to our members that they are footing the bill while others get it free?  Why would someone show up if they can watch it at home?  What does my congregation have to offer online that will be more enticing than showing up?  Can we afford the technology?  How will having video equipment in our sanctuary interfere with the experience of those physically present?  Do we have volunteers and/or employees who can invest the time in this?  How can we protect our members who do not want their attendance to be broadcast on the Internet?  What are the copyright issues if we stream and archive words and songs that others have written?  Will those watching online feel like participants or like voyeurs?  What will the quality look and sound like?

Just like discussions about membership, tickets, and liturgy, there is no one answer when it comes to technology.  What we have found, though, is that a significant investment of time, energy, and resources is important not only in creating the technology – but also in thinking about how the technology fits with the philosophy, mission, vision, and values of the community.

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