Jewish Reconstructionist Federation

Abby & her daughter, HadassahThe Midwest region includes congregations in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio and Wisconsin. Our synagogues and Havurot range in size from 14 to 850 households.

Regional President, Leah Kamionkowski and staff member, Abby Weinberg are eager to stay in contact with Midwest congregations. Please feel free to contact us with questions or concerns at 734-998-1781.

Brant RosenKol hakavod to Rabbi Brant Rosen, rabbi of the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation in Evanston, IL, for being recognized in Newsweek magazine as one of the Top Pulpit Rabbis in America.

With Rosen's leadership, JRC is gaining notoriety as "America's greenest shul" for meeting the highest standards in green building practices in its recent renovation.

Newsweek's criteria were rabbis' inspirational abilities; leadership within the congregation, denomination and the community; and skills in meeting the spiritual and personal needs of congregants.

Alan, Rubin and Isaac SaposnikRegister Online Now

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Please join the JRF Midwest region at M'Dor L'Dor - From Generation to Generation, a special program and dinner honoring Rubin, Alan and Isaac Saposnik. The event will be held at the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation, 303 Dodge Avenue, Evanston, IL.

Rabbi Alan Lew, a leader in the budding Jewish meditation movement, will be visiting Ann Arbor from April 4-6, 2008. All are invited to partake in this weekend of pre-Passover spiritual preparation. The weekend will include several talks, text study, and experiential components to take place at several Jewish venues around Ann Arbor, MI.Alan Lew 2/08

Erev Shabbat will begin with a Shabbat Dinner at 6 pm, followed by Shabbat Services including a sermon by Rabbi Lew. On Shabbat morning services will be based on a traditional model but will include considerably less text, and considerably more chanting and silence. Saturday afternoon themes of discussion will be “The Four Cups of Freedom; Four Aspects of Spiritual Liberation,” and “Leave-Taking; The Biblical Pre-Requisite to Spiritual Liberation.” The afternoon program will conclude at Beth Israel Congregation with a seudah sh’lisheet (third meal).

Sunday morning will be devoted to a meditation workshop based on his most recent book, Be Still And Get Going. "It will be an examination of Yetziat Mitzraim (the Exodus from Egypt)," says Lew, "the seminal moment of Biblical leave-taking, and the extraordinary Five-Step program for transformation that we find there."

New Green JRCMazal tov to Rabbi Brant Rosen and the Jewish Reconstructionist Synagogue (JRC) in Evanston, IL -- boldly going where no synagogue has gone before.

As noted in a JTA Breaking News story, JRC is in the process of applying to receive the highest rating from the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program for the congregation's new building.

JRC's beautiful new arkThe "platinum" rating is being sought for features such as using recycled concrete, sensor-controlled lighting and a parking space reserved for a hybrid car. JRC's energy costs will be about 45 percent less than a typical synagogue of the same size, the report said.

For full teachings from JRC on their process see:

• Presentation by JRC's Julie Dorfman
• Omer Sustainability teaching by Rabbi Brant Rosen and
• Omer Sustainability teaching by JRC's Carole Caplan

Read the article about JRC in Zeek magazine and the blog Champions of Sound.

Please join congregation Kol HaLev and more than 20 congregations and organizations throughout the Cleveland, OH area for a special community-wide event: “Sounds of Justice” Havdalah Concert and Advocacy Event for Darfur, featuring JRF's director of Outreach and Tikkun Olam, Rabbi Shawn Zevit.

Saturday, February 9th at 7:30 pm, B’nai Jeshurun Congregation, 27501 Fairmount Blvd., Pepper Pike, Cleveland, OH.

THIS EVENT IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE COMMUNITY

Help spread the word - download and post the event flyer.

Butzel Conference CenterNeed a break? Want to re-energize your Shabbat practice? Could your family use some time to relax and be playful together? Come celebrate Shabbat with members of Reconstructionist congregations throughout the Midwest at the JRF Midwest Region Shabbaton.

This gathering for singles and families is conveniently located at the Butzel Conference Center in Ortonville, MI, just an hour's drive from Detroit, Ann Arbor, and Lansing.

The Butzel Conference Center is located on 1,300 acres of beautiful woodland overlooking a scenic lake with hiking, basketball, tennis, mini golf and more.

Register before March 28th and get the Early Bird Rate!

Help spread the word - please download and post the two-sided event flyer and schedule.

As part of its North American Leadership Series, JRF is proud to present PEARL: Providing Education and Resources for Leadership. Throughout the coming months, we will offer a series of conference calls on a wide variety of topics important to congregational leaders. Topics range from dues structures and running a successful fundraising event to growth and volunteer development to the rabbi-congregation relationship and using Reconstructionism in synagogue processes, and more. These real-time distance learning sessions will be facilitated by a senior member of the JRF staff and will include best practices from selected congregations.

We are pleased to provide this service free-of-charge to all JRF affiliates. It is our belief that by providing congregational leaders with the resources and experiences needed for growth, each of our communities – and the Reconstructionist movement as a whole – will benefit.

Click here for registration and a full list of offerings.

For more information, please contact Isaac Saposnik at isaposnik@jrf.org

The JRF North American Leadership Series launches this year with a variety of specially designed events to help congregational leaders build strong, dynamic, and growing communities. The first three initiatives are:

• March 2 — Congregational Growth: The Dynamics of Membership, Outreach, and Financial Resources. All JRF affiliates are invited to send representatives to this special one-day leadership workshop. Learn more and register online now. For more info, contact Shoshi Braman at 215.885.5601, ext. 10 or jbraman@jrf.org.
• May 4-6 — The JRF Leadership Institute for Rabbis and Presidents, facilitated by JRF’s Executive Vice President, Dr. Carl Sheingold, and Esther Perel, is designed to help congregational rabbis and their presidents maximize their effectiveness as a leadership team. For more information, e-mail Shoshi Braman at jbraman@jrf.org or call 215.885.5601, ext. 10.
• PEARL: Providing Education and Resources for Leadership is a series of real-time, distance-learning classes (via teleconference) focused on congregational growth and Reconstructionist leadership. JRF is pleased to provide the PEARL series free-of-charge to all JRF affiliates. See a full listing of PEARL offerings. For more information, e-mail Isaac Saposnik at isaposnik@jrf.org or call 215.885.5601, ext. 12.

The Reconstructionist Minyan of St. Louis will be dedicating its newly received Holocaust Survival Torah Scroll on Oct. 28 at 11 am. The public is welcome to the event.

The Minyan received the Torah in August and immediately began to use it for services, including on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. The Torah is on permanent loan to the Minyan from the Westminster Synagogue, London UK.

The Minyan's Scroll was among 1,800 others that had belonged to large and small Czechoslovakian Jewish communities destroyed during World War II. These are desecrated Torahs since they were either purposely damaged by the Nazi occupiers or suffered neglect and were unprotected from the ravages of climate exposure before they were rescued. The survivor Torahs were consolidated at the Prague Michle Synagogue and then brought to England for repair in 1964.

Rabbi Steven Gutow will deliver the keynote address at the event, to be held at the Dorchester Apartments Building, 665 South Skinker Blvd. in Clayton. In addition, the ceremony will include readings from the week's Parsha, Haye Sarah; a 1945 letter written by Richard Feder, rabbi of Kolin, Bohemia and, after World War II, the chief rabbi of Czechoslovakia; and an excerpt from the Holocaust memoir of Hana Greenfield, Fragments of Memory.

For more information, call (314) 725-0361.