 |
December 2007
Regional News
North Bay Chanukah at Congregation Shomrei Torah in Santa Rosa will be especially festive this year. The congregation, which moved into its new home last April, will combine a dedication of its sanctuary with a Chanukah celebration on Sunday, Dec. 9, 4:30 p.m. The word Chanukah means “dedication,” so the blending of the two occasions is particularly appropriate. The Reform congregation is exceptionally welcoming to interfaith families. Some 60 percent of the membership is intermarried and 90 percent of the students in the religious school are children of interfaith families. Pathways to Jewish Life and Community, a program funded in part by the San Francisco-based Jewish Community Federation, was implemented recently to provide interfaith families with meaningful and compelling ways to engage in Jewish life, build Jewish identity and connect to Jewish traditions. The Temple’s spiritual leader Rabbi George Gittleman’s wife is a Jew-by-Choice, but as he writes on the congregation’s website, his then-wife-to-be had not made the decision to convert when he entered rabbinical school. “Rabbinical school was my introduction to the question of intermarriage, but serving Shomrei Torah was my education,” he says. “The first thing I realized was that, while institutional Judaism was still arguing about how to stop, slow down or in some way confront intermarriage, the Jews in the real world were simply marrying people they loved, with little concern about whether they were Jewish or not. In other words, the train had already left the station and many folks from the Jewish community were on it.” Visit Congregation Shomrei Torah’s website to read the full text of Rabbi Gittleman’s statement as well as helpful information on Jewish rituals and details about the congregation’s Chanukah event. Congregation Shomrei Torah
« Previous Article |
Back to Newsletter | Next Article »  |
 |