Giving notice to another Slingshot honoree
As a follow-up to your article about the Slingshot honorees (“Slingshot list confirms Jewish innovation in Bay Area,” Nov. 1), I’d like to mention another Slingshot honoree, Kavod v’Nichum (“Honor and Comfort”), which has a very strong Bay Area connection.
Kavod v’Nichum (www.jewish-funerals.org) is the North American umbrella organization for chevra kadisha groups, or Jewish burial societies.
Its teaching arm, the Gamliel Institute, is developing leadership in the field through a program of online courses, and Gamliel’s academic dean and co-founder is Rabbi Stuart Kelman, founding rabbi of Berkeley’s Congregation Netivot Shalom.
My own study with Gamliel and ongoing involvement with Kavod v’Nichum have inspired me to start a chevra kadisha at Temple Sinai in Oakland and to organize (with Rabbi Kelman) the East Bay Chevra Kadisha Consortium, which you highlighted in your article “In East Bay, a rising tide to reclaim rituals surrounding death” (April 11, 2013).
The consortium brings together nearly a dozen chevra kadisha groups to provide logistical support to each other and educational opportunities to the East Bay Jewish community.
Dan Fendel | Piedmont
What Jewishness is all about
There is plenty of handwringing following the publication of the Pew study, which aims to measure the Jewishness of American Jews (“Pew survey of U.S. Jews: Soaring intermarriage, humor more important than Jewish law,” Oct. 4).
It happens that on Oct. 13, Peninsula Sinai Congregation held an event dedicated to the great Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem. All of his writings were about Jewish traditions, prayers and way of life that have been carried on from generation to generation and that kept the Jewish nation alive despite millennia of persecution. That is what Jewishness is all about.
Dan Bodner (“ ‘Repellent’ rituals explain Pew results,” Oct. 18) wondered why Jews go to synagogue in the modern age, and Marilyn Boxer (“New voice, new rituals,” Oct. 25) responded to him, suggesting that they join Humanistic Judaism with its universal appeal.
Nobody forces Jews to go to synagogue. Those who are there are just happy to keep up the customs of their ancestors, learn about our past and connect it with the present. It is not submission, but acceptance of Jewish history, a wonderful mixture of miracles and reality.
As for the seculars of the world, I only can say: You readily accept the all-destroying black hole. Why not accept the opposite: an all-creative force?
Vladimir Kaplan | San Mateo
Meditation brings us closer
I quite enjoyed your cover story last week on Jewish meditation (“A new way to pray,” Nov. 1), since it has been a core practice of mine for a decade, and am glad to read about its more widespread acceptance.
We have a regular Shabbat meditation group at Congregation Kol Shofar in Tiburon and have learned an interesting lesson. Jewish meditation supports both those who have a traditional Jewish practice as well as those who have very little practice.
In both cases, sitting in our library, surrounded by 3,000 years of Jewish wisdom, brings us all closer to each other and to Judaism.
Thanks for the story.
Larry Yermack | San Rafael