In May of 1986, in one of the classrooms of Conversa, David and Anita Kaufman's Language School, I met for the first time with the members of what was then called The International Jewish Community. It was a time when Rachel, Joshua, and David were growing up and in need of a formal religious education, and I myself was searching for a Jewish identity. The years have passed ; B'nei Israel was established as a Reform Congregation and I have experienced the joy of seeing my three children read from the Torah, and of immersing myself in the ongoing process of becoming an educated Jew.
A few weeks ago I was elected President of B'nei Israel to succeeding Marvin Sossin. Marvin is a tough act to follow. He has been our leader for close to ten years. If our Congregation not only survived but became a serious established concern is in great measure due to Marvin's efforts. He gave us his guidance, direction, and a sense of pride in what we have accomplished. He made us work hard, but what a treat it has been to see the results of our many hours of planning, discussing, considering, organizing, and doing. Marvin has been my mentor and by following his example I will try to keep B'nei Israel in the course he set for us, and do all I can to continue the improvement of our services, while keeping the warmth and care we love in our Congregation.
So, Marvin got us to this point. Where are we now ? Where are we going ? First of all I want to mention that the new Board of Directors already held its first meeting. I couldn't have a better team of co-workers. They are all dedicated people, who have the best interest of B'nei Israel at heart.
The Ritual Committee, led by Marty Feigen, and with the enthusiasm of Gonzalo Vega and a group of lay leaders, has kept the observance of Shabbats and festivities. In the Jennifer Sossin Hebrew School, Jody Bonilla directs a hard working group of teachers who work with our children from kindergarten age on. Our chain of B'nei Mitzvah keeps growing and this year's new rings will be added when Diana Tarcica, Jason Marin, Julian Nachtigal, Julian Rodriguez, Erika Keibel, and Motti Benzaquen accept their responsibilities as adult Jews. For the adults "A Taste of Judaism" class was offered for the first time this year. The Introduction to Judaism Class, led by Gonzalo Vega, introduced an Outreach Program that helps create Jewish memories for those becoming familiar with our faith. Thursdays are Hebrew nights in the synagogue under the guidance of new teachers : Max Berman teaches Hebrew for beginners and Abraham Waltersdorfer helps us understand intermediate Hebrew. A Torah study group will start soon. A mixed marriages group meets once a month to provide support for families who wish to relate to Judaism.
The Damas Voluntarias (Sisterhood), with Sarita Waltersdorfer as head, continued the famous garage sales and donated us important sums. The dance lesson at the Familier's was a happy occasion which many of us hope will be repeated. Jenny Rodriguez is getting the Youth Group under way. David Sossin and the Glubermans have helped in programs that are attracting our youth. A scholarship program will be set up so that our teenagers can attend camps in other countries and eventually visit Israel. Ines Baum has never failed us with the Bulletin. Even if her computer breaks, somehow she finds a way to keep our source of information alive and well. Roberta Haynes is very excited about a cultural program she is organizing for next March 13. "Life in the Shtetl" promises to be a night of nostalgia and music that will bring us close to worlds gone by.
These and many others are ongoing programs. Let us now talk about the challenges. Our membership has been stable for the past years and we need to grow. We have not been able to surpass 63 members. David Feingold is in charge of the Membership Committee and I know he will welcome names of perspective members and ideas on how to attract more people to our ranks.
The Union of Liberal Congregations in Central America and the Caribbean was formed last year. All those who can should go to the conference in Panama next month. Reaching out and getting to know the world of Liberal Judaism is a priority for us.
The Cemetery Committee is working hard to make cemetery plots available to all our members at reasonable prices and various payment schedules have been established. The maintenance and continuos improvement of our facilities is a must for us.
Then there is the building. When considering our facilities many of you have asked why we don't look for another site ; why we don't buy another building. All these questions, the previous Board asked, and the reality is that the only viable option was the one taken. Last June, we bought our Synagogue for $60,000. We still owe about $33,000 which will be paid in the next eight years with moneys coming from the member dues. Karin Nagel and Eduardo Keibel have generously given their time and efforts to design the remodeling strategy for us. Stage A will involve the construction of three floors in which the housekeeper apartment, storage rooms, offices, bathrooms, library, and much needed classroom space will be accommodated. The cost of remodeling : $60,000. Right now we have $48,000 ($36,000 on hand and $12,000 more in pledges). Afterwards it will be time to design and build Stage B, which will involve the enlargement of the sanctuary. Tomas Nagel and Roberto Davidovich are leading the Building Committee, and I am confident we can raise the balance necessary to go ahead with our plans. We will have to engage in fund raising activities. We will have Bonnie Fischer to help us with that, and much work will be needed. But we can do it. We have to do it !
Marvin Sossin, who incidentally is our President for Life, left us a beautiful legacy and a well structured congregation. Let's take the path he pointed out for us. Let's take up the challenges, meet them, and develop B'nei Israel into an even better Congregation. I hope to have the help of all of you in this noble pursuit.
Sincerely,
Hilda ten Brink
President
December 29, 1999 - 10 Teveth 5759
To the Board of Directors and all the people of Congregation B'nei
Israel:
Lillian and I extend a most heartfelt MAZAL-TOV to the newly elected
Board of Directors of Congregation B'nei Israel. Though we are sorry to
see Marvin Sossin step aside, we are most happy to see Hilda ten Brink
assume the position of the Presidency of the Congregation. To all the incoming
officers we bid a sincere "welcome and good luck" for a very successful
year of growth and fulfillment. Especially do we wish well to our Pilar
, who will always be "our lovely Pilar," for many years of good health
and continued strength to work for the welfare and advancement of the San
Jose Jewish Community and the B'nei Israel Congregation.
We send our love and best wishes to one and all.
Lillian and Rabbi Harry A. Roth
RABBI CLIFFORD KULWIN RESIGNS FROM POSITION WITH WORLD UNION FOR PROGRESSIVE JUDAISM
Dear Friends :
We are writing to let you know that Rabbi Clifford Kulwin, Director
of International Development, has tendered his resignation effective December
31, 1998. Cliff has been part of the New York based and international operations
for more than a decade....
Cliff is a special individual in that he was one of the rare North American rabbinical graduates to take an overseas posting at the onset of his career. He is fluent in several languages, and he undertook considerable international travel to accomplish his responsibilities. Cliff served the WUPJ with great distinction and devotion and will be missed by all of us. He has assured us that he will continue to be available for advice and counsel and we are most grateful. We wish him and his dear wife, Robin, success in all their future undertakings....
Austin C. Beutel
President
Ruth Cohen
Senior Vice President
Richard G. Hirsch
Executive Director
The New Year for Trees falls on the fifteenth of Shevat and is celebrated as a minor festival. By this date the main part of the rainy season has passed, and fruit trees are just beginning to bud. Tithes cannot be taken from the fruit of one year for the fruit of another, and the Fifteenth of Shevat represents the beginning of a new tithing year.
It is customary to eat fruit on tu bi-shevat, particularly those fruits which grow in the Holy Land. There is a Kabbalistic ritual, held during the night before tu bi-shevat, of studying relevant selections from the Bible and the Zohar between the eating of different fruits and of singing songs of praise associated with God's gift of fruit. For the mystics, fruit represents the inner divine light in the world, surrounded by the peel or husk which symbolizes evil masking the divine. In some communities, individuals offer special prayers on this day, requesting God to grant them a beautiful etrog fruit for the festival of sukkot.
In modern Israel children plant young saplings on tu bi-shevat.
"So many children," says the UN Secretary-General, "have asked me this wonderful, encouraging question."
When I was a little boy, seeing an airplane was a big event. So was getting a phone call from the city only a few miles away. We didn't have television, and we hadn't even heard of computers. That was only 50 years ago.
The world you are growing up in is so different. With only a click on a mouse, people from different continents can talk to each other. An e-mail message can get from me to you in seconds, whether you live in the United States, Japan, Africa or South America.
That is a wonderful thing, in part because it makes it easier for you to learn, at a young age, an important truth : There is only one world - our world - and in that world we all grow by learning from each other.
I didn't discover that until I was 21, when I came to the U.S. to study at Macalester College in St. Paul. I came from a tropical country, and I found it very clumsy to put on those layers of clothing for the Minnesota winter. Of course I accepted it, because I could feel the cold, but I was determined not to wear earmuffs. I thought they were ugly. Then one day I went out to get something to eat, and my ears nearly froze. I can tell you, I got the biggest earmuffs I could find !
I learned from that experience that you don't walk into a situation and pretend to know better than the natives. Always look around you and listen.
Computers and modems help us talk and listen to each other across the world. But that wouldn't do us much good if we didn't already have a lot in common. And we do. We may have different religions, different languages, different colored skins, but we all belong to one human race. We all share the same basic values.
Imagine for a moment that you saw a smaller child run in front of a bus approaching at full speed. What would you do ? You wouldn't stop and think. You'd rush to save the child - even though that meant putting yourself in danger. You'd be a hero. Except that you don't have to be a hero to act like that. It's human instinct. That's why, when people treat each other decently, we say they're being "human," and when people do horrible things to each other, we call it "inhuman." We know there is a nasty side to human nature, but we also know that human beings can rise above that. We like to think the good side is the truly human side, and that's why we talk about "human rights." It's what each of us has the right to expect from our fellow human beings, the people we share the world with.
More than 50 years ago, there was a woman, Eleanor Roosevelt, who helped us understand that. Her husband, Franklin D. Roosevelt, was President of the United States. He led the Allied nations in World War II, when they had to defend themselves against evil leaders who enslaved and killed millions of people and wanted to dominate others.
President Roosevelt wanted to make sure such a thing could never happen again, so he helped set up an organization where nations could come together and solve their problems peacefully.
That organization is the United Nations. My job today is to make sure it continues that vital work.
Sadly, Franklin Roosevelt died before his work was finished. But Eleanor wanted to carry it on. And she realized that it isn't enough just to bring national leaders together ; it is also important to make sure that ordinary people are treated properly by their governments.
So Eleanor and people from many different countries developed an important document : the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Declaration has 30 articles, but the gist of it is that human beings should be free to live their own way so long as they don't hurt each other.
The leaders of the world signed the declaration 50 years ago. In fact, we celebrated its anniversary on Dec. 10.
You might ask me, "Has it worked ? Do people treat each other the way the declaration says they should ?" And I'd have to be honest and say, "No." For many people in this world right now, things are not as they should be : Some people are wealthy, while their neighbors don't have enough to eat. Many communities live in peace, while war claims innocent lives close by. Some children can communicate with each other across the oceans through e-mail, while others are not even able to go to school. And, I'm sorry to say, children are still being brought up to hate or fear their neighbors just because they speak a different language or go to a different church.
Some people might say, "If so little has changed, what's the point of having a declaration at all ?" Because things get better when enough people decide that they should get better....
... Things can change when ordinary people come together in a common purpose. Which brings me to that wonderful, encouraging question : "What can I do to make things better ?"
To all the children, my answer is this : Look around you. Get to know people whose lives look different from yours. Find what you have in common with them. When you see something that's wrong, no matter how big the problem is, think : "Who else would like to change this ? How can we work together ?" Because of computer technology, you can now find like-minded people around the world.
It was said of Eleanor Roosevelt many years ago : "She would rather
light a candle that curse the darkness." One day, I hope, the same will
be said about you.
MAKE AN EFFORT : Get to know people whose lives are different from yours. Find what you have in common with them.
GET TOGETHER : When you see something wrong, join with others who feel the same way.
TAKE ACTION : Work to solve the problem. Small steps count. Don't forget, if something hasn't been done before, that only means you can do it.
ARTICLE 1.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They
are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another
in a spirit of brotherhood.
ARTICLE 3.
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
ARTICLE 5.
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment or punishment.
ARTICLE 9.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
ARTICLE 18.
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.
ARTICLE 19 .
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression.
ARTICLE 21.
Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country.
Bulletin - B'nei Israel Congregation
Editor: Inés Baum
January 1999