Sherith Israel facts
I want to state the facts to assure all that Congregation Sherith Israel is alive, well and growing:
• Only the sanctuary building will be closed by the retrofit project. We have a home. Our Newman Hall, school buildings will be open.
• No programs will be closed. Religious school, parent/toddler groups, Sherith Israel-Marin Day School preschool program, adult programs will continue. Larger services, High Holy Days and Saturday morning worship will be held at nearby spiritual space. Parties/rentals will continue.
• We weathered transition of our clergy retirements well, hiring Rabbi Lawrence W. Raphael, one of our movement’s foremost religious educators. He moves our congregation forward in exciting and spiritually uplifting ways.
• While we have lost members in the past years, we continually add new families. Our programs grow.
• The retrofit project costs $20 million and can be completed in 2-3 years.
• Our clergy, staff, leadership and congregants will not abandon our magnificent building, its memories and history. We will not only financially support the project, but will demonstrate the courage to help our synagogue grow in these challenging times.
All are welcomed to help with this worthy project.
Peter Albert Samuels
San Francisco past president, Congregation Sherith Israel
Another option
To deal with the massive capital requirement for retrofitting their current structure, I’d like to suggest another option to the congregation of Sherith Israel in addition to the ones mentioned in your Feb. 25 editorial.
Sherith Israel might consider entering into an arrangement with a developer for the construction of a mixed-use building, in which the congregation would get sufficient space for its needs and the developer would get commercial space that could partially (or wholly) offset the cost of the new temple.
There are successful precedents for such an arrangement, notably the development of the Citicorp Center in New York, which razed the old St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, and built a new facility for the church in the new Citicorp Center.
This option is probably made feasible by the location of the Sherith Israel property (on a major street, adjacent to a medical complex), which many other religious organizations aren’t so lucky to have.
Steve Marshall | San Francisco
Two identities?
I truly appreciate your Feb. 10 cover story on Asian Jews. Six years ago, I married a wonderful man of Japanese descent. We now have two beautiful Hapa girls.
When we decided to raise our daughters as Jews, we knew we were putting them in a challenging position. Now they are part of several minority groups.
Rather than them feeling like they belong to no group at all, our goal is to give them several communities to call their own. We have become involved with our local synagogue. We are also very active in the Japanese American Citizens League.
Every year we host a large Chanukah party in our home, where we serve both latkes and wonton. Our children have attended Japanese children’s day festivals and family services for Rosh Hashanah.
What it comes down to is this — if you are both Asian and Jewish, you need to actively be both. You cannot choose one identity while ignoring the other. You must be both or you end up being less than half a person.
Robbie Teruya | Livermore
A great silent singer
I was pleased to read the obituary in the Feb. 11 j. on Esther Weintraub, who passed away at the Jewish Home.
Esther became a special friend of mine; she called me an “adopted daughter,” along with about 20 other younger “adopted” people with whom she felt a special bond.
What you may not know is that she was a member of the Palo Alto JCC’s Yiddish Choristers for several years. She loved Yiddish, and the chorus was one place where she heard it all around her.
She often wore purple, her favorite color, and a brightly colored lipstick, and usually sat in the middle of the front row, both when we rehearsed and when we performed.
People who knew her told her how well she sang. The secret that Esther kept for many years was that, due to her opinion that her voice wasn’t up to par with the rest of the chorus members’ voices, she didn’t sing out loud at all. She mouthed all the words.
Karen Bergen | Palo Alto
director, Yiddish Choristers
Seeking survivors
Thank you for the announcement of the Holocaust event, “JCRC seeks survivors for Holocaust event,” in the Feb. 25 j. There are, however, many survivors living isolated, unable to travel alone: Will they be found, and will there be buses to bring them all to San Francisco? Such cooperation would definitely swell the numbers.
Arnoldine Berlin | Oakland
Missed point?
Michael Fox, totally entitled to his opinion about the documentary “Paper Clips,” clearly missed the point in his Feb. 25 review. I found this film not only charming but — in a world where Jews have to constantly defend their right to live in Israel, stand up to antagonistic professors, and walk past weekly protests by the Women in Black — an affirmation of our right to feel proud as a people.
When a small town that did not know what “Jews” looked like took on this task of getting over 6 million paperclips to represent the tragedy of such a loss of life, it grew into something even bigger.
This is a great film for all schools, but is also a lesson to the older child in all of us.
Allyson Rowen Taylor | Valley Glen
Obvious caring
The Feb. 18 cover story was about the impending retirement of nine local synagogue rabbis. Feb. 25’s cover story was on Sherith Israel’s crisis. Two articles matched with two editorials about the importance of synagogues.
You obviously care deeply about the future of these primary institutions in our Jewish community. So it puzzles me why, in j, you have not been able to find a way to print a page that lists the addresses and times when services are held, so that both visitors to our community and locals can share your enthusiasm.
Rabbi Stuart Kelman | Berkeley
Congregation Netivot Shalom
EDITOR’S NOTE: The services are available online at www.sfjcf.org/resource, and anyone can call Jewish Information and Referral Service at (415) 777-4545 for synagogue information. We wish we had the space to publish the material, but we would have to eliminate news to make room for it.
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