“Being B’ShERT”, Your New Blog!
Welcome to our newly minted B’ShERT blog, “Being B’ShERT”!
I had the pleasure of joining Rabbi Heidi recently on B’Yachad and, over Zoom, I was struck by the amazing camaraderie within our community and the STORIES.
Stories that go back decades.
The same day, I led a Youth Group event about storytelling in the time of COVID. (I love stories, as you can see, and I look for them wherever I go, or in this case, wherever I stay.)
I had the pleasure of brainstorming story ideas with our teen community, hours after hearing from our adult community, and the net result was that, in one day, I heard the stories of a Jewish community spanning 8 decades in age.
I can’t be the only one to have this privilege! We all deserve to share and hear the incredible stories of the B’ShERT community.
This is the space for us to do that.
We’d love to hear from you. This blog can be a place to share your accounts of quarantine life, your memories of Brooklyn, this Temple’s rich history, or things that are making you laugh right now.
What we will end up with is a multi-generational, ongoing account of how we lived before, during, and after this pandemic.
Mike, Adrienne and I are looking forward to your submissions! Please send them to blog@bshert.org.
Till soon,
Emma Tattenbaum-Fine
Digital Media and Youth Outreach Coordinator for B’ShERT
May 27, 2020 @ 10:12 pm
This is so exciting! Can’t wait to see all the contributions coming in
June 6, 2020 @ 10:26 am
My post, The passed two weeks has been so painful. I feel like we are in a civil war. I feel despair because in my role as board member in my neighborhood assoc. I knew the good police, the CPOP officers.and some of them are of color, I can’t imagine what they must be feeling. In my life I have had the unique privilege of knowing personally members of the clergy in many faiths. I’ve known priests and ministers and rabbis. And I have had meaningful talks with them. When we learned of the horrors of the child abuse within the Catholic Church….And can’t imagine the pain of the good priest..Actually I can ….The priest that I new well Father Tom Nohile of St. Rose of Lima Church was rather rebellious and probably ruffled some feathers ..He chose to wear tan jacket and blue collar .He told me , “sometimes I chose to dress like a minister”. He eventually did leave the church…I had a friend a lay person who once was a nun who then married, but she remained active in the church battling on the side of change involving other issues .such as service format, women participation…I know the pain she felt. In future posts I may chose to talk about these persons. Right now I’m feeling that pain as an American ….I have been for the feeling pain for this country for the passed 4 years. I feel betrayed. We as a nation are not the country that we’ve been taught to believe that we are ….I find myself flashing back to 1968 -69 and 70 when I served in the US Army…In the spring of 1970 I was called out on 90 degree day at Ft Benning Georgia to practice riot training. We were spilt up into two groups ..make believe rioters and repellers. This came not long after the Kent State Massacre. We were told that we had to repell but peacefully if possible. The pretend rioters were told to spit at us, curse us use racial and ethnic slurs And we had to move them back with out causing harm
And so i’m thinking about the people on both sides. Yes we need to protest…in fact it’s taken far too long…I just want you to know that I’ve been both sides….AND IT’s hard …And that’s why you do that training Painful and digusting as it is. On a positive note in future posts I will like to talk about 5 or 6 members of the clergy who have inspired me and who’s words I turn to time and again / barry katz
June 7, 2020 @ 10:05 am
Another Saturday night was truly fantastic….It was truly wonderful and uplifting because not only were the performances great UNBELIEVABLY GREAT…..But as a viewer one could see that each performer poured everything in their hearts and souls into it…..The choices of songs were moving as well. Nonie’s choice of “Over The Rainbow” spoke to the moment…it was as powerful as many a prayer..Come to think of it is a prayer, written by two Jewish men Harold Arlen and Yip Harberg,,who gave great thought to yearning for a better place, writing that song in 1939 as dark clouds were gathering. And Rabbi Pinski’s choice of the song “If Not now, When?”..That song spoke to me…I didn’t know that song..But it sure jumped out at me.That song took me back to the 1960’s. It reminded of the songs of social unrest and the folk tradition of Peter Paul and Mary and Joan Baez….Good choice Rabbi Pinski, great rendition. …You know that a song is powerful when you’ve heard a song for the first time….and the words are still echoing in your head……In Deed ” If Not Now When?”