A Fond Farewell to - Baltimore Hebrew Congregation

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Mishkan T’Filah Prayer Books The Mishkan T’filah prayer books are now available for $50 at the Temple Office. Consider purchasing books for special occasions, “in honor of,” “in memory of,” or for your own use during worship. Welcome New Members! We welcome the following Congregants who have joined BHC since January: Jie-hong and Charles Morrison Cindy Richard Jack Richard Tammy Showalter & Jason Carter Drs. Svetlana & Jacob Tendler Save the Date Passover Seder Sunday, April 20 • 6 PM Reservations Required. Members and Family: Adults • $45 Children 13 and under • $27 Non-members: Adults • $55 Children 13 and under • $30 Deadline for reservations: Friday, April 11. Mail check made payable to BHC, attn: Francie Gill, 7401 Park Heights Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21208 or return form in the Mid-Month Mailing. Simcha TREE of LIFE For those interested in inscribing a leaf for any simcha, contact Sally Palmbaum, 410-764-1587, ext. 225. It’s Easy Being Green! Keep the tires on your car adequately inflated. Check them monthly. Save 250 lbs. of carbon dioxide and $840 per year! Green Team Task Force Baltimore Hebrew Congregation Bulletin • Number 7 • 24 Adar I – 24 Adar I1 5768 • March 2008 From The Clergy A Little Bit of Blessing . . . touched my soul I really don’t feel ready to write this column of farewell, even though this Bulletin has to leave for the printer today! So I won’t. Instead, I will take on another task I’ve put off for too long—that of telling you about my teachers, Rabbi Sidney H. Brooks, of blessed memory, and his wife Jane; and Cantor Manfred F. and Ilse Kuttner, both of blessed memory. Cantor Kuttner was my first true connection to Judaism. My family’s level of involvement in our Temple was pretty significant in terms of leadership (my father), Sisterhood (my mother) and Youth Group (both of my older brothers.) But I, the youngest, was the one who took a stronger interest in the learning and worship activities of synagogue life. And it was largely thanks to the Cantor. Cantor Kuttner was the Hebrew School. He also ran the Sunday School, but he taught every weekday Hebrew class and tutored every Bar and Bat Mitzvah at Temple Israel in Omaha. And he told stories—wonderful stories. And he had a twinkle in his eye. And that twinkle had outlasted the Shoah, of which both he and his wife were survivors. He loved music of all kind and encouraged that love in me. And when he died, six months after I became Bar Mitzvah, Ilse picked up the thread of my education in opera and symphony and filled my soul with companionship in song, even as hers was breaking in loss and loneliness. For too long I have neglected to acknowledge their sacred teaching. I thank God for it and for them today. Rabbi and Mrs. Brooks were more a part of my brothers’ and parents’ lives through their various levels of involvement. But then came 10th grade Confirmation Class, taught exclusively by Rabbi Brooks. It was 1973, and our teacher had been a rabbi since the late ‘40s. Needless to say, the changes in youth and their attitudes toward religion and authority provided him with a new challenge. But he was up to the task. Oh, there were moments of frustration. But most of the time, when my classmates and I would give him a hard time, he’d give it right back—with a ready and dry wit, occasional sternness and everpresent compassion. And through Jane, a beautiful home was provided which was always open to the children of the Congregation. It was in that home that I first studied text in a small post-Confirmation group with my rabbi, and learned to call him counselor and friend. I bless his memory to this day, and Rachel and I have memorialized that memory in Nathaniel’s Hebrew name. Jane, thank God, is still living near her daughter in New England and when occasionally we speak, floods of good memories and teaching flood my heart. These were my first great teachers. They changed my life. I thank God for their teachings today. On the night of my farewell to this Congregation which has given so much to me and my beloved family, I will have the privilege of sharing with you other mentors and colleagues from my career. I know you will enjoy them. But if in any way I have brought a little bit of blessing into the lives of some of you reading these words, please know that it is in large part because I am a vessel trying to transmit some of the holiness with which these, my first teachers, touched my soul. Thank you for giving me that sacred opportunity. –Rabbi Rex D. Perlmeter
For reservations to the dinner and to make a donation to the Rabbi Rex D. Perlmeter Lifelong Learning Fund, call 410-764-1587, ext. 403. Create a Lasting Gift for Rabbi Perlmeter BHC is coordinating a scrapbook of memories for Rabbi Perlmeter’s Farewell Service and Dinner on Friday, March 28. Be sure to pick up your scrapbook page at the Temple Office and return your completed page by March 17. A $1 donation is requested for each page and we ask a limit of one page per family. Your memories will help make a lasting gift for Rabbi Perlmeter. 48th Annual Interfaith Institute Monday, March 10 • 9:30 AM – 2:15 PM 9:30 AM • Registration and Refreshments 10 AM • Keynote Address and Panel Responses NOON • Lunch and Discussion Sessions 1 PM • Responses Keynote speaker and panel respond to questions and comments generated during the lunchtime sessions. Please extend an invitation to friends! $10 per person registration, includes lunch. For more information call 410-764-1587, ext. 270. Carol J. Caplan, Chair • Alice Dolle Trosch, Co-Chair Lynda S. Weinstein, Sisterhood President Karan Engerman, Vice President-in-Charge A Letter to the Congregation I am happy to announce that Rabbi Andrew Busch is officially our new Senior Rabbi effective July 1, 2008. His contract with BHC is signed and everyone involved is extremely satisfied. Our thanks to our congregant and attorney Carl S. Silverman for representing BHC and helping to expedite the process with ease. As chair of the Rabbinic Search Committee, I am thrilled with our selection and am truly confident that Rabbi Busch will be a fabulous leader as we energetically engage our current members, our future members and our community. This is a wonderful time in the history of BHC, and as we sadly bid farewell to Rabbi Perlmeter and Cantor Rowland, the foundation that they have developed and the strength of our enthusiastic Congregation has created a wonderful environment for our new rabbi. We are fortunate to have Rabbi Busch as our Senior Rabbi, and many thanks to the Search Committee and all of the Congregants who helped facilitate such a successful rabbinic search. Let’s keep the momentum going as we reach out to Rabbi Busch, his wife, Rabbi Debbie Pine, and his children, Johanna, Ben and Ethan—we welcome them to our Congregation and their new home. A Warm Welcome to Rabbi Andrew Busch Rabbi Andrew Busch is currently the senior rabbi at New Orleans’ Touro Synagogue, the sixth oldest Reform congregation in the United States. He spent the last three years at Touro, succeeding Rabbi David Goldstein, a former BHC spiritual leader. Within two months of his arrival in New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina hit and Rabbi Busch spent the following months ministering to his scattered congregation. Rabbi Busch is a native of New Brunswick, NJ. He graduated cum laude from Brandeis University in 1987 and from Hebrew Union College in 1994. He served as the assistant rabbi, and then as the associate rabbi, at Rodef Shalom in Pittsburgh before becoming the rabbi at Beth David in Philadelphia where he served prior to becoming senior rabbi at Touro. Adult B’nai Mitzvah, Shabbat Shelanu Worship, Saturday, March 29, 10 AM Back row (left to right): Cantor Rowland, Cantor Sacks, Marc Plisko, Jane Marion, Claudia Cameron, Maria Lambros Kannen, Rabbi Sachs-Kohen, Rabbi Perlmeter, Front row: Suzanne Strutt, Amy Juskowitz Sponseller, Michele Short, Sylvia Beser, Gina Barr (not pictured Lee Smothers) Baltimore Hebrew Congregation Bulletin • Number 7 • 24 Adar I – 24 Adar I1 5768 • March 2008 3
Page 1: Number 7 March 2008 24 Adar I - 24
Page 5 and 6: Blurring the Division Between East
Page 7 and 8: BHCDS Day School Doings Renaming is
Page 9 and 10: SH Sisterhood in Session Nominating
Page 11 and 12: Abraham B. Lowenstein Rudolph May L
Page 13 and 14: ADS 13 Baltimore Hebrew Congregatio
Page 15 and 16: Events March 2008 Saturday, March 1
Page 17: Purim Events Sunday, March 16 All W

A Fond Farewell to - Baltimore Hebrew Congregation

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?