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Pardes Levavot

Pardes Levavot, “Orchard of Hearts,” was formed in the spirit of creating conscious holy community. Our name expresses the spiritual blossoming of each individual heart within an inspiring and nurturing orchard.

For information on our congregation please call (303) 530-4422 and leave a message or send email to info@pardeslevavot.org. To join our congregation, please print a copy of our membership form, fill it out, and send it to our Synagogue.


Pardes Levavot gratefully acknowledges Allied Jewish Federation of Colorado for their support of our Circle of Family Education program. Thank you!

Dear All:

Below is the April 2008 ALEPH News Service. We hope you run one or more of the following articles in your paper or electronic newsletter and look forward to hearing from you if you do. This release contains:

1.         ALEPH Joins Breakthrough: The Women, Faith, and Development
            Summit to End Global Poverty
2.         ALEPH Rabbinical Students Participate in Panim Retreat
3.         ALEPH Rabbinic Student Rachel Barenblat Named One of Time
            Magazine’s Top Bloggers

Happy Omer Counting!
Deb Kolodny

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ALEPH Joins Breakthrough: The Women, Faith, and Development Summit to End Global Poverty

On April 13, ALEPH Executive Director Debra Kolodny represented ALEPH as an institutional partner and a member of the Leadership Circle at the Summit to End Global Poverty.

She participated in a gathering at the Washington Cathedral where a collaborative campaign was launched to highlight the urgent needs of women around the world and increase investment in their advancement by governments, multilateral institutions, and private entities.

The Honorable Madeleine Albright, former US Secretary of State, the Right Honorable Kim Campbell, the former Prime Minister of Canada and Her Excellency Mary Robinson, the former President of Ireland all addressed the packed sanctuary and celebrated the over 1 billion dollars in new investments from over 70 different organizations already pledged to the campaign.

Ms. Kolodny said of the effort, “The Women, Faith, and Development Alliance has done a remarkable job activating relief and advocacy organizations in the critical task of eliminating world poverty by empowering women and investing in their health, their basic human rights and their capacity to embark on small entrepreneurial ventures. Although ALEPH is not an economic development organization, we are proud to add our faith voice to this work and we encourage our members and affiliates to support the organizations that are giving millions to this cause. As one of the speakers at the summit said, poverty is not a force of nature. It results from our choices and so it can be ended. May we all do what we can to make that so!”

For more information about the WFDA, visit: www.wfd-alliance.org/

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ALEPH Rabbinical Students Participate in Panim Retreat
 
>From April 10-13, ALEPH rabbinical students Mark Novak and Abbey Michaeleski participated in a trans-denominational retreat sponsored by PANIM, the Institute for Jewish Leadership and Values. Held at Isabella Freedman, the retreat brought together students from eight different seminaries representing the entire spectrum of Jewish practice.

The event, entitled “Spirituality, Social Justice, and the Rabbinate", was led by Rabbi Sid Schwartz, founder of PANIM, Rabbi Melissa Weintraub, co-founder of ENCORE, and Rabbi Jonah Pesner, the founding director of JUST Congregations.

Students were given opportunities to delve into practical and theoretical issues concerning a rabbi's responsibility to both congregation and community. Workshops addressed social justice and the rabbi's responsibility as activist and prophet, and included text study, role playing, and multiple opportunities for one on one discussions.

Mark Novak said of the experience: "What a joy to davven, study, and play with students from the Academy for Jewish Religion (AJR), the Ziegler School of Rabbinical Studies, RRC, HUC, Chovevei Torah, JTS, and Hebrew College. And what a privilege it was to represent ALEPH. If I had only met students from other rabbinical programs, learned about their studies and shared what ALEPH is all about, dayenu.  But better still, the experience re-affirmed that I am in the rabbinical program that is right for me. Many students were curious about ALEPH, and in the end, we might have even won a few "converts" to our program!"

The program was co-sponsored by the Lasko Foundation.

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ALEPH Rabbinic Student Rachel Barenblat Named One of Time Magazine’s Top Bloggers

Time Magazine recently named Velveteen Rabbi, the blog of ALEPH rabbinic student Rachel Barenblat, one of its top 25 blogs in its first-ever annual blog index. Velveteen Rabbi is the only religion blog on the list, which includes The Huffington Post, Daily Kos, and Boing Boing, among others.

Rachel started blogging in 2003. "I wanted to write about Judaism," she says, "and to share both my love of Judaism and my learning about Judaism with a wider audience than I figured I could find in my small Massachusetts town." The blog's name is a reference to the children's book by Margery Williams, as is its tagline, "When can I run and play with the real rabbis?"

"Writing Velveteen Rabbi helped strengthen my relationship with Judaism," she says now. "I blogged about the process of applying to rabbinic school, and my readers rejoiced with me when I was accepted into the ALEPH rabbinic smicha program."

Torah, poetry, and creative festival observances are among the blog's most frequent subjects. Rachel's favorite posts include "Facing impermanence," an essay about her first experience serving on her shul's chevra kadisha, and "Being visible," an essay about wearing a kippah (or not.)

Rachel's background is in poetry. After completing ALEPH's Davenen Leadership Training Institute she began writing and posting d'var Torah poems (one poem each week, arising out of the parashat hashavua). But she's best known, on the internet, for her Velveteen Rabbi's Haggadah for Pesach, "a creative and joyful haggadah" which is used by families around the world. This year (2008) she released version 6.0 -- naturally, free for all, available on the blog.