| Looking Ahead |
High Holy Day Services
Begin September 4
Please register to attend services online here or by leaving us a voice message at 215.629.1995.
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Marking Lifecycle Events
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Please remember Congregation Leyv Ha-Ir~Heart of the City when you have any occasion to send a greeting card to someone.
While we are happy to receive contributions in any amount, for a minimum $10 contribution we will gladly send one of Marci Fleet's lovely art cards created for this purpose to the recipient of your choice.
Sue Frank will gladly send along either one of Marci's cards, or one she will customize one based on your suggestions. Sue will also compose a note that carries your thought to the recipient.
Please use the
contribution form on our website, which contains the mailing address for your contribution, PO Box 15836, Philadelphia PA 19103. You can also
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| Contact Leyv Ha-Ir | |
Voice Mail:
215-629-1995
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Dear Friend of Leyv Ha-Ir ~ Heart of the City,
In the summer, we tend to take life easy. However the Jewish calendar interrupts our time of relaxation, first with Tisha B'Av, and next with observance of the month of Elul, which begins on the evening of August 6. Elul is traditionally a time of spiritual preparation for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. In particular, we are asked to seek forgiveness for our sins, particularly against our fellow human beings. We don't have to wait till the day before Kol Nidre to start doing this.
Elul is also a time of logistical preparation for the holidays. Our volunteer organization is gearing up for the annual project of putting on complex services for many hundreds of people, and your help is always appreciated. Please read the article below about our High Holidays preparations and registration. We look forward to seeing you at services in a few weeks. Bobbi, Roby, Myrna Schlanger, Iris N. and Sandy Your Executive Committee |
| LHI CALENDAR AUGUST 2013 | | |
Saturday, August 3, 10:00 AM, Shabbat Morning Service
Join us at Myrna Schlanger's home for a lay-led service and discussion of the Torah portion. Stay and schmooze at our veggie potluck lunch. Contact Myrna at 856.795.6956 or myrna111@aol.com for exact location, or Beverly (215.557.3777 or hayden15@verizon.net) for transportation needs from Philadelphia.
Monday, August 12, 7:00 PM, Council Meeting
All members are invited to our Council meeting at Iris Newman's home. Call 215.561.0228 for exact location.
Friday, August 16, 6:30 PM, Home Shabbat Service and Dinner
Join us for a short (45 minute) lay-led Kabbalat Shabbat service, followed by a veggie/dairy potluck dinner. Our host is Beverly Hayden at 1900 JFK Blvd., Penn Center House, Apartment 1209 in Center City. Please call 215.557.3777 or email hayden15@verizon.net to RSVP and let Bev know what you'll be bringing.
Sunday, August 25, 11:00 AM, Bagels & Books/One Book, One Congregation/Welcome Back Rabbi Julie
Rabbi Julie will return after her sabbatical and lead a discussion of "The Dignity of Difference" by Jonathan Sacks, former Chief Rabbi of the British Commonwealth. Rabbi will also weave High Holy Day personal preparation ideas into the discussion. We'll have a lovely brunch at the Rittenhouse Square home of Laura Jacobs followed by the discussion. For exact address, contact Laura at 215.545.3706 or lfj1119@msn.com. Fee: $10/member, $15/all others
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As part of the Kehillah of Center City we are invited to attend all of the events that are sponsored by the Kehillah and our larger community. To learn more about these events, check out the link to Center City Kehillah.
Take a complete look at Congregation Leyv Ha-Ir upcoming activities.
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RABBI'S MESSAGE
| |  Dear Chevre, I am so greatly looking forward to stepping into the New Year together. These past ten months of sabbatical have been above and beyond anything I expected. I was able to finish two articles, a chapter and a book, all of which will be published this coming fall, and to plunge more deeply into social justice work in our city. Renewed and reinvigorated, I hope to bring the riches of this year into our community life. Most importantly, I look forward to deepening relationships within our congregation. With the Holy Days coming so early this year, our core leaders are already a-buzz with plans for welcoming the entire community into services. There are roles once again for people to help with registration, to set up and beautify the rooms, to meet and greet people, to coordinate apples and honey and the break fast, and to participate in Hebrew and/or English parts of the service. Once again we will create a magical holy space. The more you co-create the experience the more powerful it will be for you as a passage into your new year. So I invite you to consult with me if you are wondering how you could be involved, or simply reach out to our President and join in. The words we say every day in the month of Elul, leading up to Rosh HaShanah implore, "One thing I ask, I ask of You, I earnestly pray for, is to dwell in Your house all the days of my life." The house of G-d is the house that we build together through life in holy community. We care, we share, we learn and play and pray. In doing all this we give the best of ourselves to God. With joy and delight, I look forward to sharing this endeavor with each one of you. Rabbi Julie |
POWER UPDATE
| |  Our Major Tikkun Olam Project
PHILADELPHIANS ORGANIZED TO
WITNESS, EMPOWER & REBUILD (POWER)
ALLIES (A LIVELY LIBRARY IN EVERY SCHOOL)
Congregation Leyv Ha-Ir's commitment to our Tikkun Olam project, POWER (Philadelphians Organized to Witness, Empower & Rebuild), continues on, along with our interest in helping to rebuild resources at our local K-8 school, Spring Garden School. We successfully raised over $1100 to assist their students, by donating books for them to take home for summer reading. With excess monies in this account, we donated proceeds to purchasing school supplies. School supplies were eliminated from school budgets this year. A recent meeting of the ALLIES committee, Rodeph Shalom and Leyv Ha-Ir, proved to be very productive. Short-term and Long-term project were discussed and are highlighted below: SHORT-TERM PROJECTS - School Supplies Collection/Drive: pencils, highlighters, graph paper, colored copy paper, composition books, pens, folders, binders, glue sticks, notebook paper, etc.
- Clean-Up day - Arrange to be able to clean up rooms; need to find a good date for such.
- Cafeteria beautification/Mural project: requesting help of our in-house artist, Marci Fleet and a member of Rodeph Shalom, an artist, to confer on this project.
- Play equipment - bundle this with school supplies, for equipment for play during recess time.
LONG-TERM PROJECTS - Summer book drive for 2014 - repeat of last spring's book drive with thought to begin the process earlier in the year, perhaps Chanukah. A few large books stores will be approached for donations.
- Whole Foods donation - perhaps donation by customers through purchase of cloth bags or a percentage of the total purchase, directed to Spring Garden school.
It appears that Leyv Ha-Ir has much work to be done in assisting Spring Garden School: helping to clean up, assisting in the mural program, raising funds for summer reading books and playground equipment. Our ALLIES committee will be getting back to you with definitive requests for the above items. WE HELPED OUT BEFORE; WE CAN DO IT AGAIN!! |
HIGH HOLY DAY SERVICES
| |  Beginning September 4
Yes, the holidays are very early this year. As usual, we will be opening our doors to the larger community without a membership or ticket requirement. Please read all of the details and register on our website here.
Rabbi Julie will be back with us for all of the holiday services, and Jessi Roemer and the choir will provide spiritual support with their music.
As a reminder, we ask everyone (members included) to register for the services they will be attending. Others who register after 12:00 noon on Wednesday, September 4 will be asked to show photo ID upon arrival at the Ethical Society.
To volunteer your help with check in, please contact Sandy Brown or Myrna Schlanger. Helpers will be needed for set up and break down as well. Please contact Bobbi Cohen if you can help.
We look forward to seeing you for the holidays.
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HOSPITALITY COMMITTEE FORMING
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Greeters Needed for Friday Services
At our July Council meeting, it was decided that we would like to have someone to serve at a greeter at each Friday night Kabbalat Shabbat service. This person would welcome newcomers to our service, guide people to prayer books and seats, answer questions about Leyv Ha-Ir, etc. The greeter would sit in the back of the auditorium, could still take part in the service, and would provide a measure of security for us. We also have an urgent need for someone to coordinate our Oneg Shabbats. This person would keep a record of Oneg sponsors, make sure that we a nice display of food at each Oneg, and organize volunteers for set-up and clean up. Please consider being a Hospitality Chair or Greeter. You can contact Bobbi Cohen at bobbiscohen@gmail.com or 215.236.0689 if you have questions or if we can add you to our volunteer list. IT'S A MITZVAH TO HELP YOUR LEYV HA-IR COMMUNITY!
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DUES REMINDER
| |  Receive a gift if paid by August 31
It's that time of year again. Membership commitments and dues are needed now. Installment plans are available. However, if you pay in full by August you will receive a gift from Leyv Ha-Ir. Additional information and membership forms are available on our website here. |
MEMBER PROFILE
| |  Enid & David Adler
profiled by John O. Mason
Entrance to the Adlers' center city condo is through a small, Asian style garden complete with waterfall, pond with eight cultivated fish and surrounded by David's bonsai, his hobby for over forty years. I later found out that the garden was designed by David, and that he is a past president of the Pennsylvania Bonsai Society.
David Adler grew up in West Philadelphia at 59th & Washington, and was in the first graduating class of the Philadelphia School of Agriculture. David went on to Temple University, earning a Bachelor of Science and Master's Degree in Education. Over the following years, he attended the University of Pennsylvania and West Chester University on Science Foundation grants plus becoming certified in public school administration.
"I got my baptismal as a teacher in some of Philadelphia's most difficult junior highs," although my first teaching job was at Oak Lane Country Day School, the demonstration school for Temple University. A few years later, his sister who had married into one of the old guard Jewish families in Norristown, set up a blind date for him with Enid. The rest is history as they just celebrated their 56th wedding anniversary on August 25. They were married at Tiferet Israel (nowTBI in Blue Bell), the synagogue and Jewish Community of which Enid's grandfather Hurwitz was a founding member at the turn of the last century. Now living in Norristown, David taught science in the Norristown School District before becoming the Principal of Lincoln Elementary School. He then moved on to the Wissahickon School District for the rest of his career, serving as school principal, Administrative Assistant to the Superintendent and Acting Curriculum Coordinator (K-12). The Adlers moved to Lower Gwynedd around the same time. "Later, once I retired, I became Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Coalition for Arts in Education, went back to school at the Barnes Foundation for three years of study and am a docent at Barnes."
In his own religious background, David said, "I became a Bar Mitzvah in an orthodox shul at 60th & Chestnut. My parents, as did Enid's, kept kosher homes; so it was natural that we continued this tradition in our home. My parents were born in Austria and came to the U.S. around WWI; so my sister & I were first generation Americans. She will be 90 in November and lives in a retirement community in Blue Bell. We always teased my mother about her maiden name, Freudenheim, since it means 'friendly house'."
Enid Adler, nee Hurwitz, was born in Norristown as was her father. She recall, "There were about 300 Jewish families; so it was a tightly knit community. Most of them were in business/had stores there, including my grandfather and father in wholesale automotive supplies. Although my father was a graduate accountant from Temple University, it was depression time, and he joined the business. Her Hurwitz grandparents, she said, "came in the 1890s from somewhere near Minsk (now Belarus)." Her mother, whose maiden name was Kaplan, was born in Reading, and her father was a cantor and rabbi at then orthodox shul there. "Unfortunately, my grandfather Kaplan died at age 39, leaving my Bubbie with seven children, my mother being the youngest at only 15 months". The community set her Bubbie up in a small grocery store. "I understand from my aunts that my grandfather had a beautiful voice, played violin and composed music. My mother, too, had a sweet voice; so I suppose singing is in my blood." Enid proudly showed me the picture of her grandfather and his choir.
Having a Bat Mitzvah in 1948 was unusual; however, the rabbi at the Norristown shul, which was Conservative, believed greatly in the teachings of Mordecai Kaplan (founder of the Reconstructionist movement). "I was an early one, and studied for many years, the same as the boys. I conducted the full Friday night and Saturday morning services with one difference. I could chant Haftorah, but the congregation was not yet ready for a girl to read from Torah. Wow, this November will be the 65th Anniversary of my Bat Mitzvah. That said, I continued chanting and leading prayers in the synagogue. This truly is my soul music."
At Temple University, Enid began as a music, major switched to Secondary Education, and was president of Xi Chapter of Phi Sigma Sigma. "I sang with the Temple University Choirs and, as the choir of choice of Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra, we also performed at New York's Carnegie Hall. In my freshman year, this was my first trip to New York City. Today, that wouldn't seem so unusual."
"David & I were married at the Norristown synagogue. By that time, it had moved to a new location, that now was across the street from my parents' house. This from the small stone building downtown with onegs in the basement, and the one in which I had celebrated my Bat Mitzvah. Both of us taught Sunday school." Enid continued, "In Norristown, I taught junior high English, social studies, dramatics and music, and continued to substitute after the birth of our daughter." She continued to be active in the Norristown Community. Both Adlers, along with another couple, organized a non-profit Montessori School in 1964, one of the first in the Philadelphia area. "This was a new concept; so I was in charge of getting the word out to the community - enlisting parents/students through seminars, media development and more. At the same time, I was vice-president of Norristown Area Community Concerts, bringing through New York's Columbia Artists Management world renowned musical artists to our community. I also was a free lance writer for area newspapers." She was PR Director for the Women's Committee of the Temple University Music Festival, participated in voice master classes and sang in the Festival Chorus. Their children also were in the operas, and David was a great backstage father.
By 1973, David qualified for a sabbatical. So, with three children in tow (ages 8, 6 & 3), the Adlers went off to Europe and Israel for a year that included seven months living in Jerusalem, all on a shoestring budget.
The plan was for David to visit schools in the various countries in which they traveled. That went awry when three days after their arrival in Jerusalem, the Yom Kippur War began. Enid had a press letter of introduction from her editor, and was credentialed by the Israeli Press Office. She covered many aspects of the war & its aftermath. "I knew over the year I would have many stories to tell and articles to write; but I never expected a 'war' to become the backbone of a significant portfolio of published articles in local Philadelphia area newspapers." This led to further career possibilities once Enid had returned to the U.S. In 1977, she wrote and prepared the press kit and advised top management on media presentations for the opening of Gimbel's new Market East flagship store. She then worked as PR and Development Director of the American Lung Association of Philadelphia and Montgomery County and finally had her own PR/Corporate Communications Firm. By then, it was the mid 1980s, and Enid took a giant career leap and went to law school. "People ask me why I decided at that late time in my life to go to law school. I already had experience preparing contracts, lobbying, and international human rights. Going to this next level would give me the credentials to do more in these and other areas. More women were going back to law school, so why not. Of course, preparing to do this was complex, since I had been out of school for 27 years. It worked. I can't say enough about David's support in this venture. He became chief cook and bottle washer."
Active in Soviet Jewry, both talked about their 25th Anniversary trip to the Soviet Union in 1983. They visited 21 Refusenik families in 9 days and held an illegal Passover seder with the Mendeleev family. They came with a full suitcase of Passover food and, if questioned, were prepared to state that they were on a special diet and received approval from "Intourist" in New York. In Leningrad, they visited the child with whom their daughter would share her Bat Mitzvah that May. The picture Enid took was enlarged and on the bima. "This trip was a big push in my decision to go to law school."
Graduating from Villanova Law School in 1988 and passing the Bar Exam, Enid practiced in various areas of law, including spending several months in a law firm in Brussels. In June, 1993, events would lead her to open a solo practice in Immigration, Family Reunification and International Human Rights. On June 6, 1993, the ship Golden Venture, with over 300 Chinese, went ashore illegally off Long Island. The U.S. Immigration Service incarcerated these illegals, mostly in Allentown and York, PA. "I was informed that those detained needed pro bono lawyers. I remembered that in 1939, it was over 900 Jewish women, men & children on the ship, St Louis, who were refused entry to the U.S. and were sent back to Europe, many murdered in German concentration camps. Did it matter, Jews or Chinese? Both were fleeing persecution. Now that I was a lawyer, I could help. One of the men, for whom I got asylum, took as his American name "David" in honor of my David, who would assist me in my interviews with him at the prison".
Enid continues her pro bono commitment to international human rights and rule of law through her work with the non-governmental coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC). She has been an active participant since the creation of the Court at the 1998 Treaty Conference in Rome. "The Court sits in The Hague, and I attend, annually, the meeting there of the ICC's Assembly of States Parties and other related meetings.
Enid & David were a host family for the five Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competitions, hosting finalists from Argentina, Germany, Romania and the U.S. "We continue to follow Nadia Michael's career, attending her performances when in Europe and as her guest at her U.S. debuts with the San Francisco, Chicago & Metropolitan Operas. She is very special to us. In between performances at the Met in 2012, she was at our home for the Passover seder, her first, along with her two girls, the ages of our granddaughter. What a heartwarming evening!" The Adlers' seders over the years were always 30+people - family, extended family, friends of various religions. "How special it was when two of our now free Refusenik families joined us for seder - one coming from Israel."
Enid concluded, "I look at life not in years but in passages. David & I work well together. We have our individual interests and share many others; but we are interested in what the other is doing, and supportive and proud of each one's endeavors and achievements. We enjoy traveling, theater, music, reaching out to people of other cultures, going to auctions, collecting Asian antiques. We are very proud of our three children and four grandchildren, the oldest who just graduated from Temple University".
So, as Enid and David noted, there are many, many stories, but it would take a book to recount them all. Both remain upbeat and noted, despite health problems in recent years, there are more adventures to come.
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AUGUST MEMBER BIRTHDAYS
| |  Please join us in extending birthday wishes to these members: August 1 - Joe Fishman August 1 - John Mason August 6 - Ron Collman August 13 - Ron Erenhouse |
AUGUST YAHRZEITS
| | May These Souls be Bound in the Book of Eternal Light: 
Haim Klimoff
Gregory Triestman
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LEYV HA-IR LISTSERV REMINDERS
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To Post a Message - just send an email to leyvhair@npogroups.org.
Leyv Ha-Ir Event Postings - will be posted by Beverly Hayden using the information on our web calendar.
Other Event Postings - You can post information about other events or information of interest by sending an email to leyvhair@npogroups.org.
Contact Beverly or Bobbi if there are questions about the listserv.
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