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Religious Life

Religious Life
By Sarina Roffe
Brooklyn has the greatest density of Jews in the world and the faces of Judaism are reflected in its people. From the various sects of Hasidic Jews to progressive and humanistic Judaism, Brooklyn has it all.

Religious life in Brooklyn takes on many different faces during the course of the year. It also varies by neighborhood. From Williamsburg to Borough Park, from Crowne Heights to Brighton Beach, the neighborhood scene changes depending on the group, its ancestry, as well as its adaptations to Brooklyn’s life.

Congregation Mt. Sinai

New program bonds Israeli and American Jews in Brooklyn Heights

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IAC-Shishi Israeli Program to Combine Tradition, Music

By Francesca Norsen Tate, Religion Editor
Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Singing and sharing a meal together is a universal joy. A new program coming to Brooklyn Heights will celebrate song cuisine and togetherness as it is experienced in Israeli culture.

IAC-Shishi Israeli, a new program of the Israeli-American Council (IAC), will bring together Israeli and American Jews in Brooklyn Heights, fusing their distinct cultures and customs to create a shared community around the Shabbat table.

This new family program, which will run every few weeks at Congregation Mount Sinai, will combine traditional Kabbalat Shabbat (welcoming the Sabbath) prayers and Israeli shira betzibur (singalong) as well as a traditional Shabbat dinner with Israeli foods, adding authentic Israeli flavor to the evening. The first event will take place on Friday, evening Sept. 12. Tickets are necessary.

IAC-Shishi Israeli seeks to use music to convene the community and enable participants to create a family-inspired Shabbat experience that is both Jewish and unique, combining time-honored traditions with modern rituals. Accomplished musicians, who will make the perfect accompaniment for this special dinner, include Arlene Gould, Daniel Ori, Hadar Noiberg, Dan Aran and Dan Nadel.

Rabbi Seth Wax of Congregation Mount Sinai said in a trailer video introducing the event, “Congregation Mt. Sinai welcomes people of lots of different backgrounds, and wants people to feel like they have a home.” He added, “Share food, music, culture; and build relationships.”

Read More »New program bonds Israeli and American Jews in Brooklyn Heights

Rabbi Joseph Potasnik Gets Jan Karski Humanitarian Award

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By Masha Leon published in The Forward –  September 20, 2014

Welcoming the overflow crowd at the Jan Karski Humanitarian Award 2014 ceremony at the Polish Consulate honoring Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, Executive Vice President of the New York Board of Rabbis, and Polish rescuer Irena Sendler, was consul general Ewa Junczyk-Ziomecka who thanked members of the Polish-Jewish Dialogue Committee — Polish American Congress, the N.Y. Downstate Division and the Polish-Jewish Dialogue Committee —  for their dedication to their noble mission.”

Addressing an assemblage that included a sizeable number of Polish-Jewish survivors, cantor Joseph Malovany and the Forward’s publisher Samuel Norich, the consul thanked The Committee — whose members are predominantly Catholic priests and rabbis — “for their dedication to their noble mission” and amplified that “the Jan Karski Humanitarian Award ceremony is a perfect example of fruitful cooperation between Polish diaspora organizations on the one hand and American-Jewish organizations on the other.” She noted that “Pope John Paul II, who visited a synagogue in Rome and prayed at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, considered anti-Semitism a sin and called the Jews…’Christians’ brothers-in faith,’ During his papacy he encouraged a very difficult Polish-Jewish dialogue” believing that “this dialogue was necessary to overcome stereotypes and prejudices.”

Polish Children’s Choir, Consul General Ziomecka and Rabbi Potasnik // Photo by Masha Leon

Polish Children’s Choir, Consul General Ziomecka and Rabbi Potasnik // Photo by Masha Leon

Read More »Rabbi Joseph Potasnik Gets Jan Karski Humanitarian Award

Artist Sara Erenthal's portrait of an ultra-orthodox Jewish mother

Artist’s Brooklyn show describes ultra-orthodox Jewish childhood 

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Sara Erenthal grew up in a Neturei Karta community in Borough Park but split with her family after her parents returned to Israel. Her latest works draw on the life she left behind.

Sara Erenthal grew up in a Neturei Karta community in Borough Park SHE HAS moved on, but she has not forgotten.

Sara Erenthal, who split from her ultra-Orthodox Jewish family as a teen, draws on the painful life she left behind in a series of intimate artworks on display in a Prospect Heights gallery.

“This is nice way to tell my story in a very minimal way,” the 33-year-old artist said.

Erenthal was born in Israel and spent much of her childhood in a small Neturei Karta community in Borough Park.

Her family returned to Israel when she was a teen, but she ran away to escape an arranged marriage, she said.

Erenthal had never really believed in the community’s strict teachings, which called for unwavering modesty for women and an end to the state of Israel.

“It’s not really about being good people,” Erenthal said. “It’s more about being afraid of God.”

Now estranged from her father, Erenthal reimagines her childhood in her show at the SoapBox Gallery on Dean St.

Read More »Artist’s Brooklyn show describes ultra-orthodox Jewish childhood 

Luna Park Set to Host Large Sukkot Spectacle

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By Francesca Norsen-Tate, Religion Editor – Brooklyn Daily Eagle 10/7 Jews around Brooklyn find innovative, fun ways of celebrating the joyful festivals. This year, Brooklyn’s famous amusement park at Coney Island will be transformed into a Sukkot Spectacle. Sukkot is the festival of booths. Taking place in autumn, Sukkot celebrates trust in God and the gathering of community. Luna Park in Coney Island is preparing to host a Sukkot Spectacle… Read More »Luna Park Set to Host Large Sukkot Spectacle

VIDEO: Simchat Torah in Brooklyn Heights

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Brooklyn Daily Eagle – Oct. 17, 2014 Remsen St. became a block party on Thursday night as members of the Brooklyn Heights Synagogue and Congregation B’nai Avraham spilled out onto the street to dance with Torah scrolls. They were celebrating Simchat Torah (or Joy of Torah). Simchat Torah marks the cyclical tradition of reciting the closing verses of Deuteronomy, which is the fifth book of Moses, and then starting over… Read More »VIDEO: Simchat Torah in Brooklyn Heights

IAC KESHET is an after school immersion and dual language program for Hebrew speaking and non-Hebrew speaking children ages 3.5 and older.

IAC Opens New Hebrew Language Program for Toddlers in Brooklyn

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JewishVoiceNY.com WEDNESDAY, 03 SEPTEMBER 2014 06:38 BY: JV STAFF KesheTOT, a new offshoot of the popular after-school community educational Hebrew dual-language program IAC-Keshet for families with infants and toddlers from birth until three-and-a-half years old, has just opened registration for its classes at Congregation Mount Sinai in Brooklyn Heights. The first class will take place Saturday, October 11. The expansion of the Keshet programming has been spearheaded by the support… Read More »IAC Opens New Hebrew Language Program for Toddlers in Brooklyn

Finding Faith and Beauty in the Lives of Orthodox Jewish Women

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Originally published in Time by Olivier Laurent For four years, Italian photographer Federica Valabrega has photographed the everyday lives of Orthodox Jewish women around the world “For some people, if you’re religious, you’re ugly,” says Federica Valabrega, an Italian photographer who for the past four years has been documenting Jewish women across the world. Her fascination with these “Daughters of the King,” as she calls them, comes from her own… Read More »Finding Faith and Beauty in the Lives of Orthodox Jewish Women

Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson

Brooklyn’s Lubavitch Community: A Culture Captured by the Ultimate Outsider

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Originally published on New York Times by Sara Trappler Spielman

The grand rabbi of the Lubavitch-Chabad Hasidim

One day during Hanukkah 26 years ago, the grand rabbi of the Lubavitch-Chabad Hasidim briefly turned away from the hundreds of men gathered before him in synagogue to cast his eye toward the women’s balcony. Then he extended an arm, offering someone there a roll of nickels. That recipient, in turn, was meant to fulfill the rabbi’s design by giving the coins to charity.

It was rare enough for Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson to direct his attention to the women’s section, which was kept separate in accordance with Orthodox practice. Rarer still was the rabbi’s target: a female photographer who was not Lubavitch, not Hasidic, not Jewish, not religious, not even American.
That photographer, Chie Nishio, stood in the lobby gallery of the Brooklyn Public Library one morning last week, regarding the picture she took of Rabbi Schneerson’s long-ago gesture. She is 84 now, a widow, living by preference without a cellphone or email account. Yet an extraordinary collection of her visual art is now receiving its belated recognition.Read More »Brooklyn’s Lubavitch Community: A Culture Captured by the Ultimate Outsider

Judith Clurman

Faith In Brooklyn for Nov. 26

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Originally published on Brooklyn Daily Eagle by Francesca Norsen Tate, Religion Editor

Judith Clurman.

“Testimony” by Stephen Schwartz
(Recording released BroadwayRecords.com
with
Essential Voices USA); rehearsal photographed: Tuesday, June 20, 2017; 11:45 AM at Manhattan School of Music; Room 707; NYC; Photograph: © 2017 Richard Termine
PHOTO CREDIT – Richard Termine

Prominent Conductor from Brooklyn Releases New Album on Jewish Song

Acclaimed choral conductor Judith Clurman has released a new compact disc, “Cherished Moments: Songs of the Jewish Spirit,” on Sono Luminus (DSL-92182). Clurman, whose Brooklyn roots have stayed with her, now lives here in the borough with her husband, Cantor Bruce Ruben.

“Cherished Moments” features Essential Voices USA, with Clurman conducting, along with soloists Ron Raines, Bruce Ruben and Michael Slattery.

This new CD combines the expertise born of Clurman’s 30 years as a prominent conductor with memories of her own childhood in synagogue and an intimate knowledge of this poignant repertoire to create a unique recording. The recording introduces exciting arrangements of traditional songs that represent the Jewish holidays and life cycle events — from the centerpiece “Songs of Freedom: A Celebration of Chanukah,” a cycle for chorus, soloists and orchestra that premiered at Carnegie Hall, to the 19th-century lyrical classicism of Louis Lewandowski and Emanuel Kirschner, to works by folk artist Debbie Friedman, cantor-composer Bruce Ruben and Canadian composer Ben Steinberg.

The recording also features important new works, among them a minimalist setting of “Set Me as a Seal” by Nico Muhly, Larry Hochman’s “Shomeir Yisrael” and Paul Schoenfield’s “Al Hanisim,” all written for Clurman. The recording features the singers of Essential Voices USA and renowned guest instrumentalists, including composers Hochman and Schoenfield accompanying their own works.

Clurman’s Essential Voices USA (EVUSA) is widely regarded as one of New York’s preeminent choral ensembles. It is composed of a highly talented roster of both seasoned professionals and auditioned volunteers. Within this group, Clurman has created a dynamic choral model in which the size of the ensemble is dictated by the unique needs of each project. EVUSA performs regularly on the Carnegie Hall subscription series with the New York Pops and at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music. For more information, visit www.essentialvoicesusa.com.

 

Read More »Faith In Brooklyn for Nov. 26
Chabad Gala Banquet

PHOTOS: 5,200 Rabbis and guests attend largest dinner in NYC

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Originally published on the Brooklyn Daily Eagle Rabbis are seen in this photo among their colleagues at a banquet at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal in the Brooklyn borough of New York on November 23, 2014. They are among 5,200 rabbis and guests from over 80 countries in New York for the International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries, an annual event aimed at reviving Jewish awareness and practice around the world.… Read More »PHOTOS: 5,200 Rabbis and guests attend largest dinner in NYC