blogs/brentspodek

BHA is a community that "strives to bring together piety and audacity, gravity and humor. We are a community that hopes to never stop seeking more meaningful ways to serve each other, our world and the Holy One."

This past Sunday, it seemed as if we were doing all of them at once!

In the span of a few hours, we hosted our grand-friends at Hebrew school, elected a new board, co-facilitated a city-wide discussion on police/community relations, and helped a family through the unveiling of the tombstone for a loved one. The previous Sunday was the same thing - Hebrew school, a guest talk at a Baptist church, a blood drive, a wedding and an unveiling. As our community grows, the number of things we are doing simultaneously grows as well, which is a real blessing!

Some highlights from this Sunday:

• Grandfriends Day: From Cantor Ellen Gesh: For the second year in a row, we hosted more than 80 grandparents and other grandfriends for a day of inter-generational discussion, study and song, as as well as delicious Israeli food, thanks to Debbie Broshi. Rabbi Brent taught about mitzvah as instructions for attempting to connect to the Holy One and Paul Davidovits told a hasidic tale from his childhood in Europe. Our students sang songs they had been learning and presented their grand friends with certificates and  pictures of them. A special thanks to Rachel Zollner and Beth Pearson who helped prepare the food and washed dishes.
• Board Elections: From President Joan Pirie: Congratulations to our new Board members, who will take office on July 1:  Joan Pirie (President); Aaron Pincus (1st VP); Eli Harary (2nd VP); Deana Morenoff (Corresponding Sec.); Simon Slater (Financial Sec.); Deb Davidovits (Recording Sec.); Jodi McCredo (Treasurer). Thank you to our outgoing Board members Alison Chi, Howard Davis, and Jeff Gross for their service to BHA this past board term.
• Police/Community Relations: In light of the national tensions between police and the communities they serve, Mayor Randy Casale invited civic and police leaders to a meeting in January. As a result of that meeting, Better Together, the Beacon Interfaith clergy group moderated by Rabbi Brent and I Am Beacon, a broad based community group, have organized a process to improve police/community relations here in Beacon. On Sunday, more than 100 people came out for the first large step in that process, which was an opportunity to share their thoughts, fears, hopes, and dreams about policing in Beacon. You can see more on the process here, and if you want to share your thoughts about policing in Beacon, you can do that here.

Judaism has always had many portals through which people could walk and (try to) connect to the Holy One - prayer, to be sure, and study, and service, and connection and simply running a synagogue (there is even a Shabbat morning prayer for "those who unite to establish synagogues"!)

Indeed, may we never never stop seeking more meaningful ways to serve each other, our world and the Holy One!