FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Debra Kolodny, Executive Director, ALEPH

DATE: September 28, 2006

Phone: 301-565-0719

Email: DebraRuth@mac.com

Dear Editor:

Enclosed is the September 2006 ALEPH News Service. We hope you run one or more of the following articles, and look forward to hearing from you if you do. This release contains:

1. The Rodef Shalom School for Peace Joins ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal

2. ALEPH KALLAH 2007: Building Sacred Community in Albuquerque

3. ALEPH Kallah Plants Seeds of Peace, Barbara Rosenberg

4. ALEPH Supports The Shalom Center’s Green Menorah Project, R. Arthur Waskow

About ALEPH: ALEPH acts as the headquarters of the Jewish Renewal movement by organizing and nurturing communities, developing spiritual leadership, ordaining rabbis, cantors and rabbinic pastors, creating liturgical and scholarly resources, holding retreats and festivals and working for social and environmental justice.

ALEPH has attracted and energized thousands of seekers returning to Judaism and just as many who are deeply engaged but looking to elevate their current practice. ALEPH has 40 affiliated communities and its projects include two biennial gatherings: the Kallah and Ruach Ha'Aretz. It also houses as the Sacred Foods Project, C-DEEP: The Center for Devotional, Energy, and Ecstatic Practice, the Bet Midrash (producing siddurim, publications, videos and CDs from our founder Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and other Jewish Renewal teachers) and Kesher (supporting twenty and early thirty year old leaders). In addition to its projects, ALEPH also produces one-day Jewish Renewal festivals in communities around the US and Canada called Caravans. It is home to OHALAH: The Association of Rabbis for Jewish Renewal and a Rabbinic Studies Program, educating future rabbis, cantors and rabbinic pastors.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or would like additional information. ALEPH looks forward to working with you,

Debra Kolodny /s/

The Rodef Shalom School for Peace Joins ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal

ALEPH KALLAH 2007: Building Sacred Community in Albuquerque

The biennial ALEPH Kallah is the cornerstone event of the Jewish Renewal Movement, a trans-denominational phenomenon grounded in the richness of the past that invites Judaism into the future with creativity, relevance, joy and spirituality. The Kallah week excites hundreds of Jews from diverse backgrounds to learn, pray, celebrate and deepen their experience of Judaism. 

The theme this year is "Gathering in Sacred Community -- HaMakom: BaMakom Hazeh".  As in past years, we look forward to participants forming not just community, but sacred community, in joyful connection to one another and the Source of Life.

The Kallah has an eight-year cycle, rotating amongst four regions across the country. This year's gathering will take place July 2-8, 2007 at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. We are excited to be in New Mexico, a magnificent landscape full of spirit and natural beauty.  Ideal for a spiritual gathering, the campus offers practicality and poetry, set in an urban setting, replete with modern conveniences and easy access to the airport, nearby restaurants, shops & galleries, and, of course, the mountains!  It is infused with holiness– its architecture and landscaping reflective of Native American culture and spirituality, with courtyards decorated with native art, a Hopi sacred dance circle and a classroom named and modeled after a Pueblo Kiva (ceremonial room).

Past Kallot have drawn as many as 800 people from all over the world, including hundreds of rabbis, teachers, performers, artists and leaders offering all kinds of courses and programs. 

Highlights from past gatherings have included a star studded Cabaret with world-renowned and award-winning Jewish musicians and cantors. That will be supplemented this year by a second evening of entertainment and musical performances.  Other exciting programs will include the:

• Kesher program – leadership development for young Jews in their 20’s
• Kids Kallah & Teen program – a retreat for kids paralleling that of their parents – making it an experience for the whole family
• Healing Center – offering massage, acupuncture, and other modalities to supplement one’s retreat experience • Spirit Buddies – smaller groups to facilitate integrating the teachings on a personal level
• Variety of daily prayer and Shabbat services – offering participants a wide range of choices regarding style of service…from quiet & contemplative, to rousing and joyful: something for everyone!

To find out more about the Kallah and ALEPH, with its 40 affiliated communities, over 100 rabbis, cantors and rabbinic pastors, prayer books, teleconference courses, retreat programs, social justice activities and work specific to elders (sages), young adults, chant leaders and more visit www.aleph.org.

ALEPH Kallah Plants Seeds of Peace
by Barbara Rosenberg

Miraculous changes have transpired in Johnstown, Pennsylvania since the 2005 ALEPH Kallah.   

A tiny mosque and an equally tiny Jewish congregation existed quite separately in our small town in the Appalachian Mountains, except for one brief interaction in January, 2004. But that all changed with the Kallah.

The story began in July of 2004 when I suggested to Kallah organizer Cindy Gabriel that the conference’s community service project be helping to renovate our local mosque. Our Imam, Fouad ElBayly was delighted. The ripple effects began when participants arrived. A gap in shuttle service meant a four or five hour wait at the airport.  The only van I knew of belonged to the mosque.  I called Pat ElBayly, the Imam’s wife, and asked her if we could rent it. She said “No, you may not rent it, but we will give it to you and Fouad (the Imam) will drive it.” The Altoona Mirror covered the gesture quoting ElBayly, as saying, ‘They thought I was a Jew from Israel’, he said with a chuckle.  ElBayly, who is from Egypt, reminded them that Moses once lived in his native land and maybe there was a connection.”   

On the second day of Kallah, the Imam’s family joined the Kallah for dinner and the evening program, where 700 people attended a Prayers for Peace assembly. A thoroughly spur of the moment invitation landed Imam ElBayly on the stage where he sat amongst the rabbis. I remember his opening words to the audience, “I feel like I’m here with my brothers and sisters.” At the end of the program, Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, the founder of the Jewish renewal movement, walked down the aisle to the very back row where we were sitting to greet Pat ElBayly personally.

The next day we had to arrange for a van and more cars as the sign-up sheet for the day of service was filled with additional names squeezed into the margins. When we arrived at the mosque to help finish its playground, we found a huge pile of lumber and a dizzying assortment of nuts, bolts and unfamiliar hardware. Anyone who has assembled a do-it-yourself project of this magnitude will understand the challenge we faced interpreting the assembly instructions. However, Andreas Wittenstein, a volunteer from California, had put a similar set together and, as if that was not miracle enough, was also a skilled carpenter.

In The Tribune-Democrat, Johnstown’s newspaper, a reporter covered the event in the article, “Local Jews and Muslims Share Goodwill Gestures.” It said: “Rosenberg said… ´We were euphoric, gratified and proud for what we accomplished there. If we can do this in Johnstown on a small scale, we can only hope that such efforts could solve world problems.” Rosenberg said before delegates left the conference, she was approached by people, including some from Philadelphia and Boston, who want to take the same initiative when they return home. ElBayly said the symbol of cooperation serves as a good example to all: I think we have showed that good people in a community of all faiths can work through differences and find common ground of peace, love and harmony.” At the end of the work day, the project was about 60 percent complete.

The next wonderful development in Johnstown Islamic-Jewish relations came in the fall of 2005.   At Kallah, Rabbi Arthur Waskow pointed out that the upcoming fall would provide an opportunity for Muslims and Jews to “break the fast”; together on Yom Kippur since Muslims were also fasting for Ramadan. I followed Rabbi Waskow’s suggestion and invited the Islamic community to our congregational Yom Kipper Break-the-Fast dinner. Towards sundown eight members of the Islamic Mosque arrived and prayed in our small chapel while Yom Kippur services were being concluded in our sanctuary. After sundown about 30 congregants joined the Muslims in our Sisterhood room to break the fast. The Rabbi warmly welcomed our guests and the Imam responded in-kind. Fouad reminisced about the Prayers for Peace evening and the playground project and he wondered out loud where all this might lead. I did not hesitate and replied “to the most natural of destinations, Israel...?” I proposed a joint trip of Muslims, Christians and Jews from Johnstown. Another guest, my dear friend, Sister Dorothy Kline, a nun as well as a Chaplain, said in a not too soft voice, “Sign me up!”

Imam ElBayly was later quoted in The Jewish Chronicle of Pittsburgh saying, ”Both of us have our own holy places in that land and we come together and join hands in peace. That’s what we’re trying to do for our community to live in peace instead of war.” Rabbi Brandwein said. “We are motivated by the desire to realize the prayer that people should live together and people should make an effort to establish bridges. There is the concern that this little tiny Muslim community could be a target of negative press or persecution or threats and we want them to know they’re not alone and we welcome their friendship.”

Our relationship continues to flourish with shared dinners and planning for our trip to Israel in 2008. During these various events, I was often reminded of a quote from Roger Kaementz´ book Stalking Elijah: “Only by listening carefully to what we want can we begin to hear what is wanted of us.”

ALEPH Supports The Shalom Center’s Green Menorah Project Rabbi Arthur Waskow

The Green Menorah is the symbol of a covenant among Jewish communities and congregations to renew the miracle of Hanukkah in our own generation. Together we hope to bring US oil consumption down by seven-eights by 2020, so as a nation can be using one day’s oil to meet eight day’s needs.

Why talk about Hanukkah now, with Rosh Hashanah barely over? Because it is even harder and takes more time for a whole country to turn itself around – to do Tshuvah – than for a single person.

Congregations and organizations are invited to join this covenant to heal our planet and our human race from the worst danger we have ever faced: global scorching. Just as the menorah was rooted in the image of a tree, its branches and its buds, so we need to renew the sense that our earth calls on us to light the Planetary Menorah by reducing our use of oil.

This Hanukkah, The Shalom Center will be presenting the Green Menorah Award to congregations that have already pioneered this work, which asks communities to achieve goals by next Rosh Hashonah in each of the following areas:

Safe, Renewable Energy
Transportation
Public Policy Festival and Life-Cycle Observance

To find out more about the covenant visit www.shalomctr.org.

If your community wishes to join in this covenantal commitment, please write Rabbi Arthur Waskow and Russ Agdern, National Organizer of the Beyond Oil campaign, at Ragdern@gmail.com and Awaskow@aol.com