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Shabbat in Jerusalem
Candle lighting:
7:08p Candle lighting on Friday, 22 June 2012
7:09p Candle lighting on Friday, 29 June 2012
7:08p Candle lighting on Friday, 6 July 2012
1-Click Shabbat Copyright © 2010 Michael J. Radwin. All rights reserved.
Kabbalat Shabbat at Moreshet Yisrael takes place 20 minutes after candle-lighting.
Shabbat Shaharit at Moreshet Yisrael is at 8:30 AM.
Check out this week's Haftarah commentary from the Fuchsberg Jerusalem Center.
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Coming to Israel?
 The Fuchsberg Visitors Center offers
many opportunities
to enrich your Israel trip, including accommodations at the Alan Tichnor Residence Hall and Learning Center.
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Monday Evening Forum
On Monday, June 25:
MATRILINEAL & PATRILINEAL:
SHOULD ANYONE CARE? A LOOK AT THE ISSUES Rabbi Mordecai Silverstein, Sr. lecturer,
Conservative Yeshiva and Project Oded
8 PM at FJC; 20 NIS admission
To learn about upcoming offerings in the Monday Evening Forum series, click here. |
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Donate to the Fuchsberg Jerusalem Center
by clicking here
or
Contact Barry Mael
or call
646-519-9330
Fuchsberg gifts from Canada may be sent to:
USCJ
1000 Finch Avenue West
Suite 508
Toronto, Ontario
M3J 2V5
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Be an Angel!
You can sponsor the FJC eNews - for an issue, a month, a year...
Contact Barry Mael for more information. |
Planning a Trip?
The FJC staff can help you plan your synagogue's trip - to Israel, to Europe...the possibilities are endless! Contact FJC for more information. |
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The Epstein Campaign at FJC
 When Rabbi Jerome Epstein's tenure at USCJ began, the Fuchsberg Jerusalem Center was two buildings: a synagogue and a youth hostel. It was little more than a vision and a dream, the dream of erecting a concrete symbol that would tie Diaspora communities everywhere to Israel. Rabbi Epstein helped put bricks and mortar around that dream and it has become a reality, with a full campus in the heart of Jerusalem. Its beautiful stone buildings house offices, a synagogue, lecture halls, an auditorium, a cafeteria, and a 56-room residence hall.
Now, we honor Rabbi Epstein's passion, effort, and accomplishment by naming a building at the Fuchsberg Jerusalem Center for him.
United Synagogue is proud to offer a number of special dedication opportunities for our Epstein Building. Ranging from mezuzot to dormitory floors to elevators, these are wonderful ways to honor the legacy of Rabbi Epstein and his commitment to the Fuchsberg Jerusalem Center. Any gift over $3,600 will be automatically added to our donor wall (and any gift of $180 or more will be listed on a campaign scroll of honor). Please contact Barry Mael at 649-519-9330 for more information.
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Summer at FJC
We've got a whole summer of events coming up! Here's a list of what we have happening through July...contact Rabbi Ed Romm for more details about (or to register for) any of these programs.
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Learning at FJC
Conservative Yeshiva Summer 2012 Program
The Conservative Yeshiva Summer Program offers the opportunity for intensive Hebrew and Jewish text study in a dynamic learning community. The new Volunteer and Study program offers the opportunity of giving back to the Jerusalem community by volunteering with an Israeli non-profit organization, while also studying at the Yeshiva.
Beginning and advanced students are welcome.
Session I: July 1 - July 19, 2012
Session II: July 22 - August 9, 2012
(Sessions will not be repetitive)
The Conservative Yeshiva Summer Program includes:
*Five levels of Hebrew Ulpan each morning
*Advanced Talmud - intensive each morning
*Classes in Rabbinic Texts, Tanach, Tefillah, & Halacha
*A chance to be part of a diverse learning community
* Four volunteer tracks: education, caring for the community, environment, organizational development
For more information or to apply, click this link or email the Yeshiva office.
The Volunteer and Study Program is in cooperation with Skilled Volunteers for Israel.
The Conservative Yeshiva is a project of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, under the academic auspices of the Jewish Theological Seminary.
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| Check out our guest d'var Torah below! |
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We Love Visitors!
As the summer kicks into high gear, visitors are on the way! We've gotten visits from...
 ...the Rapaport family.
...a group from Or Ami Congregation in Houston, TX.
And if you're interested in spending time at FJC for an overnight visit, contact Shai Vilner, the Reservations Manager, for details and availability. Several of the guest rooms have recently been renovated - check them out!
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Leadership Scholarships for the Conservative Yeshiva
The Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem offers Jews of all backgrounds the opportunity to study classic Jewish texts in a vibrant, open-minded, egalitarian community. The Conservative Yeshiva welcomes students of all ages to study full-time or part-time, on a short or long-term basis.
The Conservative Yeshiva has a number of Leadership Scholarships for the coming year (September 2012 - May 2013), providing free tuition and generous living stipends. Applications are being accepted right now. The Conservative Yeshiva is also approved for MASA scholarships from the Jewish Agency.
For further information, contact Rabbi Gail Diamond, Associate Director, yeshiva@uscj.org or visit the CY website.
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D'var Torah from Rabbi Joel Levy
Korach's revolt, which eventually draws the whole congregation into a show-down with Moses and Aharon, concludes in a welter of blood. Unnumbered members of Korach's immediate group are swallowed by the earth. Two hundred and fifty others are burned to death and then a plague sees off 14,700 more. The rebels' original contention that having a priestly caste is unnecessary or unjust because, "...all the congregation are holy, every one of them..." (Numbers 16:3) ends with the people whimpering,"Look, we die, we perish, we all perish. Anyone who comes at all near to the tabernacle of YHVH dies; shall we totally perish?" (17:27-8).
David Hartman lists a series of cases in which God bursts out and strikes people down and suggests that "These are not stories that mediate a covenantal God Who invites human beings to join Him in building a just kingdom. They rather suggest that people who dare to have dealings with God should realize that are entering a minefield where at any moment they may be blown up."
It is this terrifying God that the People of Israel now come to fear. And precisely at the moment when they are scared out of their wits, believing that any approach to God is inevitably accompanied by mortal danger, the role of the priesthood is completely reframed, "And YHVH said to Aharon, 'You and your sons and your father's house with you shall bear the iniquity of the sanctuary...'" (18:1). Korach had lambasted the priesthood as a bastion of unjustified, unearned privilege; so now the people are led to believe that far from occupying positions of status and luxury the priests are in fact brave representatives of the community who take on the burdensome and dangerous operation of the sanctuary. Israel can now sleep peacefully in their beds, because the priests will henceforth carry the burden of approaching God's presence.
A not dissimilar shift is often heard in the UK in discussions about the monarchy. Republicans will claim that the royal family is a parasitic, unjustifiable, unearned elite. They will be met by the monarchist response that the queen is actually a wholehearted servant of the community who works tirelessly for the common good out of a sense of love and responsibility. The apologetic reframing of the role of priesthood in our parasha indicates that the bible hears Korach's critique, "...all the congregation are holy, every one of them..." loud and clear and must respond to it in order to justify the existence of the priesthood as a separate caste.
In the liberal world women generally view the traditionalist legislation exempting and excluding them from full participation in Jewish ritual life as a source of grievance. I have often heard the position espoused in the non-liberal world that their women are relieved to be spared the full burden of obedience to God's will; being a fully active member of the ritual life of the community is thus presented as a burden from which any right-minded woman should feel lucky to be relieved. Such an apologetic re-reading indicates that the moral argument has already been won and that change is already well on the way.
Rabbi Joel Levy teaches Talmud and Halacha at the Conservative Yeshiva. He is rabbi of Kol Nefesh Masorti synagogue in London and co-teaches at Rav Siach, a cross denominational program for rabbinical students.
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