Added September 2022
We hope you will join us for all four sessions
Sunday, October 30, 4-5 p.m.
The Lights of Our Sanctuaries–Join in for guided tours of and dialogue about the lights in our sanctuaries by Rev. Lindsay White and Rabbi Barbara Symons. (Only on Zoom.)
Sunday, November 6, 4-5 p.m.
The Light of Christ–Join in dialogue guided by Rev. Lindsay White about the power of light as it emanates from belief in Jesus Christ. This in-person event at Crossroads Presbyterian Church (2310 Haymaker Road) will include questions and answers as well as intentional dialogue with neighbors. (We highly encourage you to be in person for this event.)
Sunday, November 13, 4-5 p.m.
The Light of Torah–Join in dialogue guided by Rabbi Barbara Symons about the power of light as it emanates from the Torah. This in-person event at Temple David (4415 Northern Pike) will include questions and answers as well as intentional dialogue with neighbors. (We highly encourage you to be in person for this event.)
Monday, November 21–Time and Location to be announced
(This optional event is highly recommended.)
Interfaith Thanksgiving Celebration–Our cohort will join together for a special Thanksgiving celebration one hour prior to the Monroeville Interfaith Ministerium Thanksgiving Service. Our time together will be reflective of the power of our shared light.
Please RSVP by October 26 at https://tinyurl.com/2s3ahavk
Please direct your questions to:
Rev. Lindsay White LWhite@CrossRoadsPresbyterian.com or
Rabbi Barbara Symons rabbi@templedavid.org
Added July 2022
Book Discussion
The Last Watchman of Old Cairo
by Michael David Lukas
Online and In-Person Discussion led by Rabbi Barbara Symons
Wednesday, August 17 at 10 a.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Copies are available at the temple.
Online via www.templedavid.org/athome
From amazon.com: Joseph, a literature student at Berkeley, is the son of a Jewish mother and a Muslim father. One day, a mysterious package arrives on his doorstep, pulling him into a mesmerizing adventure to uncover the centuries-old history that binds the two sides of his family.
From the storied Ibn Ezra Synagogue in Old Cairo, where generations of his family served as watchmen, to the lives of British twin sisters Agnes and Margaret, who in 1897 leave Cambridge on a mission to rescue sacred texts that have begun to disappear from the synagogue, this tightly woven multigenerational tale illuminates the tensions that have torn communities apart and the unlikely forces that attempt to bridge that divide.
In this “wonderfully rich” novel from the author of the internationally bestselling The Oracle of Stamboul, a young man journeys from California to Cairo to unravel centuries-old family secrets.—San Francisco Chronicle
“A beautiful, richly textured novel, ambitious and delicately crafted, The Last Watchman of Old Cairo is both a coming-of-age story and a family history, a wide-ranging book about fathers and sons, religion, magic, love, and the essence of storytelling. This book is a joy.”—Rabih Alameddine, author of the National Book Award finalist An Unnecessary Woman.
“Brilliant.”—The Jerusalem Post
“Lyrical, compassionate and illuminating.”—BBC
WINNER OF: THE AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION’S SOPHIE BRODY AWARD; THE NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD IN FICTION; THE SAMI ROHR PRIZE FOR JEWISH LITERATURE; Named One of the Ten Best Books of the Year by the BBC; Longlisted for the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association Fiction Prize; A Penguin Random House International One World, One Book Selection; Honorable Mention for the Middle East Book Award.
Also from amazon.com: About the author: Michael David Lukas has been a Fulbright Scholar in Turkey, a night-shift proofreader in Tel Aviv, and a waiter at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference in Vermont. A graduate of Brown University and the University of Maryland, he is a recipient of scholarships from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Summer Writers’ Institute, Squaw Valley Community of Writers, and Elizabeth George Foundation. His writing has appeared in VQR, Slate, National Geographic Traveler, and Georgia Review. He lives in Oakland, California, less than a mile from where he was born. When he’s not writing he teaches creative writing to third and fourth graders at Thornhill Elementary School.
Over the course of nine months, we will compare religions including Catholicism, Protestantism, Islam, Baha’i Faith, Buddhism, and Hinduism to Judaism using original texts and often hearing directly from representatives of those faiths. Optional articles to read and questions for consideration will be sent in advance of each class.
Register for either Sunday mornings (11:15 a.m.) or Wednesday evenings (7:30 p.m.)
and as long as there are at least 6 people enrolled per day,
if you have a conflict, you can switch to the other date that month.
Fees:
$36 for first person in a Temple-member household
$44 for first person in a non-member household
$11 per each additional person (member on non-member)
Questions? Please contact Rabbi Symons.
Download the registration form:
www.templedavid.org/bulldocs/5782/2022nine.pdf
Added May 2022
Temple David Visits the Biblical Garden at Rodef Shalom
Sunday, July 10 at 11 a.m.
Please join Temple David for a docent-led Biblical Garden Tour at Rodef Shalom Congregation.
Lunch following at a restaurant (TBD) for those who wish to attend.
The exhibit will focus on the multiple meanings of healing, from the spiritual comfort the Garden brings to visitors, to the medicinal qualities of plants mentioned in the Torah, the Quran, and the New Testament.
Please contact Sharon Saltzman at sharon@templedavid.org for more information and to RSVP.
Added April 2022
Another Very Special Book Discussion!
In Two-Parts—Sundays May 22 & 29 at Noon
Via www.templedavid.org/athome
Join us for a two-part book discussion with Israelis from our sister city Karmiel-Misgav. It will be about the book Last Bullet Calls It by Israeli author Amir Gutfreund, z’’l (translated by Yardenne Greenspan and Evan Fallenberg). The discussions, co-led by Rabbi Symons and an Israeli will be on Sundays May 22 and 29 at Noon via Zoom.
Temple David has copies of the book available to be borrowed. The best way to support Israel, of course, is to purchase the book and then share it.
From amazon.com: In this award-winning mystery by one of Israel’s best-loved authors, a plot of vengeance reveals deeper truths about the complexity of being human.
Coupon-clipping police superintendent Jonah Merlin thinks he has an open-and-shut case on his hands after the body of a beautiful woman is found discarded in a run-down building in Tel Aviv. All evidence points to two suspects, but finding them will require unorthodox methods to decode the cryptic words sprayed at every crime scene.
As the body count rises, graffiti expert Rai Zitrin and precocious seventeen-year-old Zoe Navon agree to help Merlin uncover the connection between the killing spree and the words of Polish writer Bruno Schulz, who was murdered by Nazis seventy years ago.
Why would a serial killer quote the famous author’s poetic words of unrequited love? The search leads this unlikely trio on a race against the clock to solve the case before the killer has the last laugh…and the last bullet.
Amir Gutfreund, z’’l, was born in Haifa in 1963. After studying applied mathematics at the Technion, he joined the Israeli Air Force, where he worked in the field of mathematical research. The author of five novels and a collection of short stories, he received the Buchman Prize from the Yad Vashem Institute in 2002, the Sapir Prize in 2003, the Sami Rohr Choice Award from the Jewish Book Council in 2007, and the Prime Minister’s Award in 2012. Last Bullet Calls It was awarded the 2015 Ramat-Gan Prize for Literature. Gutfreund lived with his family in the Galilee in northern Israel. In November 2015, at the age of fifty-two, he passed away after a brave battle with cancer.
Thank you to Partnership2Gether from the
Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh
for helping to arrange this.
https://jewishpgh.org/partnership2gether/
Book Discussion in Celebration of Pride Month:
What We Will Become: A Mother, a Son,
and a Journey of Transformation
by Mimi Lemay
Thursday, June 23 at 10 a.m. and 7 p.m.
In-Person and Online
Online via www.templedavid.org/athome
(From amazon.com) A mother’s memoir of her transgender child’s odyssey, and her journey outside the boundaries of the faith and culture that shaped her.
From the age of two-and-a-half, Jacob, born “Em,” adamantly told his family he was a boy. While his mother Mimi struggled to understand and come to terms with the fact that her child may be transgender, she experienced a sense of déjà vu—the journey to uncover the source of her child’s inner turmoil unearthed ghosts from Mimi’s past and her own struggle to live an authentic life.
Mimi was raised in an ultra-Orthodox Jewish family, every aspect of her life dictated by ancient rules and her role as a woman largely preordained from cradle to grave. As a young woman, Mimi wrestled with the demands of her faith and eventually made the painful decision to leave her religious community and the strict gender roles it upheld.
Having risen from the ashes of her former life, Mimi was prepared to help her son forge a new one — at a time when there was little consensus on how best to help young transgender children. Dual narratives of faith and motherhood weave together to form a heartfelt portrait of an unforgettable family. Brimming with love and courage, What We Will Become is a powerful testament to how painful events from the past can be redeemed to give us hope for the future.
Added February 2022
American Antisemitism: An Old Problem Returns
With Professor Pamela Nadell
On-Line on Thursday, March 10 at 7:30 p.m.
Americans were stunned when gunmen murdered Jews in synagogues here in Pittsburgh and Poway, California. American Jews feel threatened; our communal institutions appear under attack. This violence stands atop a long history of American antisemitism that most people do not know. Three years since the attack in our own backyard, we turn to the past to help us grapple with the antisemitism of our own moment in time.
Professor Pamela Nadell holds the Patrick Clendenen Chair in Women’s and Gender History at American University where she directs the Jewish Studies Program and received the university’s highest award, Scholar/Teacher of the Year. Her books include Women Who Would Be Rabbis: A History of Women’s Ordination, 1889-1985. A past president of the Association for Jewish Studies and the recipient of the American Jewish Historical Society’s Lee Max Friedman Award for distinguished service, her consulting work for museums includes the National Museum of American Jewish History and the Library of Congress.
Her recent book, America’s Jewish Women: A History from Colonial Times to Today (W.W. Norton) won the 2019 National Jewish Book Award’s Jewish Book of the Year. She is currently writing a book about the history of American antisemitism. Her articles on the subject have appeared in The Washington Post and The Conversation, and she has appeared on C-SPAN and PBS on the topic.
Co-sponsored by:
Beth El Congregation of the South Hills
Congregation B’nai Abraham
Temple David
Temple Sinai
Tree of Life
Social Justice Book Club
People Love Dead Jews:
Reports From A Haunted Present
by Dara Horn
Wednesday, April 13 at 7 p.m.
“A guided tour of the hypocrisy that serves as the mechanism by which antisemitism rages on unchecked.”—Kirkus
Finding herself increasingly asked to write about Jewish culture in the aftermath of deadly attacks, novelist Dara Horn uses this collection of essays to confront why there might be so much fascination with Jewish deaths, and so little respect for Jewish lives unfolding in the present.
For more information, contact Monroeville Librarian Cory Little at littlec2@einetwork.net.
The Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh will be providing copies which will be available for borrowing from Temple David. Please contact the office at 412-372-1200 for availability and to set up a pick-up time.
Virtual Speaker Event with Isabel Wilkerson
Wednesday, May 11 at 7 p.m.
Viewable Online Until May 18
In her ground-breaking book Caste, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Warmth of Other Suns, Isabel Wilkerson, explores how America—today and throughout its history—is shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings.
The video link for the live-streamed event will be e-mailed to all ticket holders on the day of the lecture.
The captioned video will be available to view until May 18
Registration information will be forthcoming.
Added January 2022
Cook with an Israeli Chef from Your Own Kitchen via Zoom
Sunday, February 6 at Noon (7 p.m. in Karmiel-Misgav, Israel)
Link will be at www.templedavid.org/athome
Galilean Cooking Class with Chef Paul Nirens from Galileat
Galileat (www.galileat.com) specializes in culinary experiences in the Galilee and is owned and operated by Paul Nirens. In his words: I have lived in the Galilee for almost 30 years. In that time, I have cultivated relationships with many people living in the area. These relationships allow me to offer true grassroots cultural experiences, based around food, working in co-operation with those that live in the area. I believe that in order to eat properly in the Galilee, to encounter the authentic, real-life atmosphere of Israel’s green North, it must be done with and by locals. A Galileat adventure allows an in-depth view of the real Israel. If it’s edible and from the Galilee, then I know about it. I want to share that experience with you.
In a fun online cooking workshop, we will learn to prepare Middle Eastern Style Stuffed Cabbage and Cherry Tomato Tabouli Salad.
In the Galilee, stuffed and rolled cabbage leaves are small and delicate, unlike their European namesakes that are much larger. We will also learn to prepare a modern tabouli salad, which is based on cherry tomatoes and lots of greens, with only a tiny amount of bulgur wheat (which may be omitted, if we want it gluten-free).
The event will be on Zoom in the form of an interactive, online cooking workshop, where the participants receive an ingredient list beforehand and cook along with me, real time. Both dishes are very Israeli Galilean and can be easily reproduced at home in the USA.
Preparing both dishes, will take between 45-60 minutes, including some intro time at the beginning and some Q&A at the end.
Rolled Cabbage Leaves Ingredients
1 large cabbage
4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/2 teaspoon cumin
Rice mixture: 1.5 cups rice, medium-grain rice, soaked in water for half an hour
1 tomato
1 onion
2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons Baharat*
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
I heaping teaspoon salt
½ cup top quality olive oil
*Temple David will supply this Druze spice blend; just stop by beforehand
Cherry Tomato Tabouli Ingredients
1 lb. cherry tomatoes
6 stalks spring onions (scallions)
1/2 bunch fresh parsley
1/4 bunch fresh mint
3 tablespoons fine bulgur wheat
1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika
(1/4 teaspoon hot paprika)
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 cup top quality olive oil
A Very Special Book Discussion!
In Two-Parts—Sundays February 20 & 27 at Noon
Join us for a two-part book discussion with Israelis from our sister city Karmiel-Misgav. It will be about the book More Than I Love My Life by Israeli author David Grossman (translated by Jessica Cohen). The discussions, co-led by Rabbi Symons and an Israeli will be on Sundays February 20 and 27 at Noon via Zoom.
To obtain the book: Temple David has a few copies and others are available by e-mailing our Monroeville Public Library librarian Pam Bodziock at bodziockp@einetwork.net, or by calling the library and asking for Pam. The best way to support Israel, of course, is to purchase the book and then share it.
Because we want to have a good discussion in which we can hear all voices, we are limiting participation, so please either let Rabbi Symons or Beverly know that you would like to join in. Remember: the commitment is for both sessions.
If there is a waiting list, we will do our best to include everyone or to create a second two-part series.
From amazon.com: More Than I Love My Life is the story of three strong women: Vera, age ninety; her daughter, Nina; and her granddaughter, Gili, who at thirty-nine is a filmmaker and a wary consumer of affection. A bitter secret divides each mother and daughter pair, though Gili—abandoned by Nina when she was just three—has always been close to her grandmother.
With Gili making the arrangements, they travel together to Goli Otok, a barren island off the coast of Croatia, where Vera was imprisoned and tortured for three years as a young wife after she refused to betray her husband and denounce him as an enemy of the people. This unlikely journey—filtered through the lens of Gili’s camera, as she seeks to make a film that might help explain her life—lays bare the intertwining of fear, love, and mercy, and the complex overlapping demands of romantic and parental passion.
More Than I Love My Life was inspired by the true story of one of David Grossman’s longtime confidantes, a woman who, in the early 1950s, was held on the notorious Goli Otok (“the Adriatic Alcatraz”). With flashbacks to the stalwart Vera protecting what was most precious on the wretched rock where she was held, and Grossman’s fearless examination of the human heart, this swift novel is a thrilling addition to the oeuvre of one of our greatest living novelists, whose revered moral voice continues to resonate around the world.
DAVID GROSSMAN was born in Jerusalem. He is the author of numerous works of fiction, nonfiction, and children’s literature. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker and has been translated into more than forty languages. He is the recipient of many prizes, including the French Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, the Buxtehuder Bulle in Germany, and the Man Booker International Prize.
He lives in Jerusalem.
Thank you to Partnership2Gether from the
Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh
for helping to arrange this.
https://jewishpgh.org/partnership2gether/
Added November 2021
Online Discussions led by Rabbi Barbara Symons
Thursday, December 9 at 10 a.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Please visit www.templedavid.org/athome for the links
From amazon.com: A young bride shuts herself up in a bedroom on her wedding day, refusing to get married. In this moving and humorous look at contemporary Israel and the chaotic ups and downs of love everywhere, her family gathers outside the locked door, not knowing what to do. The bride’s mother has lost a younger daughter in unclear circumstances. Her grandmother is hard of hearing, yet seems to understand her better than anyone. A male cousin who likes to wear women’s clothes and jewelry clings to his grandmother like a little boy. The family tries an array of unusual tactics to ensure the wedding goes ahead, including calling in a psychologist specializing in brides who change their mind and a ladder truck from the Palestinian Authority electrical company. The only communication they receive from behind the door are scribbled notes, one of them a cryptic poem about a prodigal daughter returning home. The harder they try to reach the defiant woman, the more the despairing groom is convinced that her refusal should be respected. But what, exactly, ought to be respected? Is this merely a case of cold feet? A feminist statement? Or a mourning ritual for a lost sister? This provocative and highly entertaining novel lingers long after its final page.
About the author: Matalon was born in Ganei Tikva, Israel, in 1959 to a family of Egyptian-Jewish descent. She studied literature and philosophy at Tel Aviv University.
Matalon has worked as a journalist for Israel TV and for the daily Haaretz, covering Gaza and the West Bank during the First Intifada. She has also worked as a critic and book reviewer for Haaretz. At present, she is senior lecturer in Hebrew and comparative literature at Haifa University and teaches creative writing there as well as at the Sam Spiegel Film School in Jerusalem. Matalon is a member of the Forum for Mediterranean Culture at the Van Leer Institute. Two of her novels have been bestsellers in Israel, and her children’s story, A Story that Begins with a Snake’s Funeral, has been made into a movie.
Matalon has received the Prime Minister’s Prize (1994), the prestigious Bernstein Prize (2009), the Neuman Prize (2010), the Prix Alberto-Benveniste (France, 2013) for The Sound of Our Steps and the EMET prize (2016). In 2010, she received an Honorary Doctorate from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Added October 2021
Online Discussions
led by Rabbi Barbara Symons
NEW DATE: Thursday, November 4 at 10 a.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Please visit www.templedavid.org/athome for the links
From amazon.com: An Amazon Best Book of February 2020: Colum McCann’s 2009 novel, Let the Great World Spin, was a kaleidoscopic tale of New Yorkers in the 1970s that became an instant bestseller, won a National Book Award, and was named an Amazon Best Book of the Year, among many other honors. Ten years later, he has pushed the limits of kaleidoscopic with Apeirogon. The definition of the title is a shape with a countably infinite number of sides, and the book lives up to its meaning. In Apeirogon, McCann unfurls the story of two fathers, one Palestinian and one Israeli, who have both lost their daughters to the violence that surrounds them. Over the course of the day, these two men’s lives intertwine as they attempt to use their grief as a weapon for peace. Told in one thousand and one short vignettes, McCann flashes from the present to the past, sharing the lives of these men, the lives of their daughters, the experience of crossing police checkpoints and surviving jail, meditations on the migration pattern of birds, the making of bullets, and the history of the region. With these bursts, the novel centers on the unlikely friendship of two fathers and takes on a cinematic quality that vibrates with empathy, presenting a sweeping portrait of the complex conflict at the heart of the Holy Land. Apeirogon is a soaring and revelatory reading experience that is at once intimate and vast, heartbreaking and hopeful, and, yes, kaleidoscopic.
—Al Woodworth, Amazon Book Review
About the author: Colum McCann is the internationally bestselling author of the novels Let the Great World Spin and TransAtlantic. Apeirogon, has been acclaimed as a “transformative novel” (Raja Shehadeh). A contributor to The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, and The Paris Review, he teaches in the Hunter College MFA Creative Writing Program. He lives in New York City with his wife and their three children.
Discussions led by Rabbi Barbara Symons
Online & In-Person: Thursday, December 2 at 10 a.m.
In-Person: Sunday, December 12 at 10 a.m.
Please visit www.templedavid.org/athome for the links
From amazon.com: Israel. The small strip of arid land is 5,700 miles away but remains a hot-button issue and a thorny topic of debate. But while everyone seems to have a strong opinion about Israel, how many people actually know the facts.
Offering a fresh, 360-degree view, Tishby brings her “passion, humor, and deep intimacy” (Yossi Klein Halevi, New York Times bestselling author of Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor) to the subject, creating an accessible and dynamic portrait of a tiny country of outsized relevance. Through bite-sized chunks of history and deeply personal stories, Tishby chronicles her homeland’s evolution, beginning in Biblical times and moving forward to cover everything from WWI to Israel’s creation to the disputes dividing the country today. Tackling popular misconceptions with an abundance of facts, Tishby provides critical context around headline-generating controversies and offers a clear, intimate account of the richly cultured country of Israel.
“In a funny, surprising, and straightforward voice, Noa Tishby rolls the entire history of Israel into a blunt and insightful read. The perfect anti-textbook for anyone who slept through class, this is not your Bubbie’s history book.”
—Bill Maher, host of Real Time with Bill Maher
About the author: Actress, producer, writer, and activist Noa Tishby was born and raised in Tel Aviv. She served two and a half years in the Israeli army before she landed a starring role on the nation’s highest-rated prime time drama Ramat Aviv Gimmel. She became a household name, appearing in numerous TV shows, films, theater productions, and national fashion campaigns, before moving to Los Angeles, where she sold the Israeli TV show In Treatment to HBO, making history as the first Israeli television show to become an American series. She coproduced over 150 episodes, which earned a Peabody Award and twelve Emmy and Golden Globe nominations. A passionate political activist, Tishby founded the nonprofit “Act for Israel,” Israel’s first online advocacy organization, and has become widely known as Israel’s unofficial ambassador.
Upcoming Book Discussion
Book Discussion in Two Parts: Thursdays, January 13 and 20, at 7:30 p.m.
Contested Utopia: Jewish Dreams and Israeli Realities
by Rabbi Marc J. Rosenstein
Added September 2021
Online and In-Person Discussion
led by Rabbi Barbara Symons
Wednesday, October 13 at 10 a.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Please visit www.templedavid.org/athome for the links
From amazon.com: An Amazon Best Book of February 2020: Colum McCann’s 2009 novel, Let the Great World Spin, was a kaleidoscopic tale of New Yorkers in the 1970s that became an instant bestseller, won a National Book Award, and was named an Amazon Best Book of the Year, among many other honors. Ten years later, he has pushed the limits of kaleidoscopic with Apeirogon. The definition of the title is a shape with a countably infinite number of sides, and the book lives up to its meaning. In Apeirogon, McCann unfurls the story of two fathers, one Palestinian and one Israeli, who have both lost their daughters to the violence that surrounds them. Over the course of the day, these two men’s lives intertwine as they attempt to use their grief as a weapon for peace. Told in one thousand and one short vignettes, McCann flashes from the present to the past, sharing the lives of these men, the lives of their daughters, the experience of crossing police checkpoints and surviving jail, meditations on the migration pattern of birds, the making of bullets, and the history of the region. With these bursts, the novel centers on the unlikely friendship of two fathers and takes on a cinematic quality that vibrates with empathy, presenting a sweeping portrait of the complex conflict at the heart of the Holy Land. Apeirogon is a soaring and revelatory reading experience that is at once intimate and vast, heartbreaking and hopeful, and, yes, kaleidoscopic.
—Al Woodworth, Amazon Book Review
About the author: Colum McCann is the internationally bestselling author of the novels Let the Great World Spin and TransAtlantic. Apeirogon, has been acclaimed as a “transformative novel” (Raja Shehadeh). A contributor to The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, and The Paris Review, he teaches in the Hunter College MFA Creative Writing Program. He lives in New York City with his wife and their three children.
Added August 2021
October 7 – What can “blessing” mean to me? Our dialogue will be inspired by a short interview with a United Church of Christ pastor
October 14 – What can “blessing” mean to me when I face personal challenge? Our dialogue will be inspired by a short interview with a Bahá’í leader
October 21 – What can “blessing” mean to me when the world around us is challenging? Our dialogue will be inspired by a short interview with a Jewish cantor
October 27 – How can “blessings” affect the way I live an active faith-full life? Our dialogue will be inspired by a short interview with a Hindu leader
The simple format of Sofa Spirituality strengthens participants’ knowledge about diverse spiritual traditions, builds confidence in navigating interfaith encounters, and nurtures trust and cohesion among participants. The format is simple:
Watch an Interview with diverse interfaith leaders from across the country and the world discussing distinctive ideas, objects, rituals, and practices. The interview is a window into the spiritual life of a neighbor.
Engage in Dialogue. Participate in a real-time small group Zoom conversation to explore the themes of each interview. The dialogue is a mirror in which you can reflect on our own spirituality.
Discover Shared Values. Each dialogue is filled with curiosity, openness, respect and self-reflection. The discovery affirms the particularities of our diverse faith traditions while celebrating all we hold in common.
Dialogues will be led by Rev. Liddy Barlow, Christian Associates of Southwest PA, and Rabbi Ron Symons, The Center for Loving Kindness of The JCC PGH. Find out more at sofaspirituality.org, where you can watch other interviews. Those above interview will debut during the series.
Please Register at: https://is.gd/R0GsZJ
More Information:
Mehry Safaeian
412-609-5543 mehry819@gmail.com
Added July 2021
Please visit www.templedavid.org/athome for the links
“Horn does not hedge her bets, whipping up a Jewish telenovela of ancient-world drama and present-day complications. It’ll put you off immortality for good.”―Marion Winik, Newsday
From amazon.com: What would it really mean to live forever? Rachel is a woman with a problem: she can’t die. Her recent troubles―widowhood, a failing business, an unemployed middle-aged son―are only the latest in a litany spanning dozens of countries, scores of marriages, and hundreds of children. In the 2,000 years since she made a spiritual bargain to save the life of her first son back in Roman-occupied Jerusalem, she’s tried everything to free herself, and only one other person in the world understands: a man she once loved passionately, who has been stalking her through the centuries, convinced they belong together forever.
But as the twenty-first century begins and her children and grandchildren―consumed with immortality in their own ways, from the frontiers of digital currency to genetic engineering―develop new technologies that could change her fate and theirs, Rachel knows she must find a way out.
Gripping, hilarious, and profoundly moving, Eternal Life celebrates the bonds between generations, the power of faith, the purpose of death, and the reasons for being alive.
About the author: Dara Horn is the author of five novels and one of Granta’s Best Young American Novelists. She has taught Jewish literature at Harvard, Sarah Lawrence College, and Yeshiva University. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and four children.
Over the course of nine months, we will look at watershed moments in Jewish history—moments that were a turning point. Using texts, first-hand documentation, archeology, and poetry, our interactive sessions will include: Abraham’s Call, First and Second Temples, Dark Ages and the Light of Mystics, and Shoah to Statehood. Join us!
Register for either Sunday mornings (11:15 a.m.) or Wednesday evenings (7:30 p.m.)
and as long as there are at least 6 people enrolled per day,
if you have a conflict, you can switch to the other date that month.
In-Person and On Zoom
Fees: $36 for first person in a Temple-member household
$44 for first person in a non-member household
$11 per each additional person (member on non-member)
Questions? Please contact Rabbi Symons.
Click here for registration form:
www.templedavid.org/bulldocs/5782/2021watershed.pdf
Added June 2021
Online Discussion led by Rabbi Barbara Symons
Thursday, July 15 at 10 a.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Please visit www.templedavid.org/athome for the links
Please call Monroeville Public Library to hold a copy (412-372-0500)
From amazon.com: In this brilliant book, Isabel Wilkerson gives us a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings.
Beyond race, class, or other factors, there is a powerful caste system that influences people’s lives and behavior and the nation’s fate. Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines, stigma, and more. Using riveting stories about people—including Martin Luther King, Jr., baseball’s Satchel Paige, a single father and his toddler son, Wilkerson herself, and many others—she shows the ways that the insidious undertow of caste is experienced every day. She documents how the Nazis studied the racial systems in America to plan their out-cast of the Jews; she discusses why the cruel logic of caste requires that there be a bottom rung for those in the middle to measure themselves against; she writes about the surprising health costs of caste, in depression and life expectancy, and the effects of this hierarchy on our culture and politics. Finally, she points forward to ways America can move beyond the artificial and destructive separations of human divisions, toward hope in our common humanity.
Beautifully written, original, and revealing, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents is an eye-opening story of people and history, and a reexamination of what lies under the surface of ordinary lives and of American life today.
About the author: Isabel Wilkerson, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Humanities Medal, is the author the critically acclaimed New York Times bestsellers The Warmth of Other Suns, and Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.
Wilkerson won the Pulitzer Prize for her work as Chicago Bureau Chief of The New York Times in 1994, making her the first black woman in the history of American journalism to win a Pulitzer and the first African-American to win for individual reporting. In 2016, President Barack Obama awarded her the National Humanities Medal for “championing the stories of an unsung history.”
Published May 2021
Online Discussion led by Mindy Norman
Wednesday, June 16 at 10 a.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Please visit www.templedavid.org/athome for the links
Books are available for pickup at the temple
(Mon., Wed., Fri. 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.)
“A rare blessing…a smart and witty novel…infused with delight.”—The Washington Post
“Satirical, inventive, and brimming with gallows humor, this novel’s whip-smart look at the clash of religious and secular worlds showcases Englander at his best.”—Esquire
“Ingenious.”—Houston Chronicle
From amazon.com: When his father dies, it falls to Larry—the secular son in a family of Orthodox Brooklyn Jews—to recite the Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead, every day for eleven months. But to the horror and dismay of his sister, Larry refuses, imperiling the fate of his father’s soul.
To appease her, he hires a stranger through a website called kaddish.com to say the prayer instead—a decision that will have profound, and very personal, repercussions. Irreverent, hilarious, and wholly irresistible, Nathan Englander’s tale of a son who makes a diabolical compromise brilliantly captures the tensions between tradition and modernity.
About the author: Nathan Englander is the author of the story collections What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank and the internationally bestselling story collection For the Relief of Unbearable Urges, as well as the novel The Ministry of Special Cases (all published by Knopf/Vintage).
His short fiction and essays have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, and The Washington Post, as well as The O. Henry Prize Stories and numerous editions of The Best American Short Stories.
And in July….
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
Thursday, July 15 at 10 a.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Please call Monroeville Public Library to hold a copy (412-372-0500).
Published April 2021
Online Discussion led by Rabbi Symons
Thursday, May 20 at 10 a.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Please visit www.templedavid.org/athome for the links
Books are available for pickup at the temple
(Mon., Wed., Fri. 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.)
“A deeply human book, suffused with desire and melancholy.”—Jerusalem Post
“Nevo has created an engrossing work…This is a compelling novel which I never wanted to end.”—Julia Pascal/The Independent)
“The novel’s heartfelt bass note is the beauty and difficulty of human relationships, evoked with sympathy and an ear for the nuances of different voices which is as playful as it is precise.”—Times Literary Supplement
“A warm, wise and sophisticated novel. I read it with much pleasure.”—Amos Oz, author of A Tale of Love and Darkness
From amazon.com: Shifting characters and perspectives, this multilayered novel looks at the lives of a handful of neighbors in the small Israeli town of Mevasseret. It’s 1995 and Amir, a college student studying psychology in Tel Aviv, and Noa, a photography student attending classes in Jerusalem, move together into a small apartment. A passionate couple, they nonetheless find themselves struggling to adjust to their new life in the same room. Their landlords, Sima and Moshe, share the thin walls in the apartment next door, and their marriage is tested when they disagree on the religious upbringing of their two young children. A few houses away, a family is devastated over the death of their eldest son. The neglected brother, Yotam, finds solace in a budding friendship with the introspective Amir. And there is the mysterious Arab construction worker determined to return to his childhood home after being displaced along with the village’s other Arab inhabitants in 1948. Nevo’s characters are diverse, yet their desires, histories, and interactions blend seamlessly to create an engrossing portrait of a restless community.
—Leah Strauss/Booklist
About the author: Eshkol Nevo was born in Jerusalem in 1971 and spent his childhood years in Israel and Detroit. He teaches creative writing at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Tel Aviv University, Sapir College, and the Open University.
He has published a collection of short stories, a book of nonfiction, and two novels, both of which have been bestsellers in Israel.
Published March 2021
Come to One, Some, or All!
On Zoom at www.templedavid.org/athome
- April 1 – Enthusiasm: cultivating and applying positive energy
- April 8 – Equanimity: how to bring calmness to the soul
- April 15 – Patience: the tools we need to stay the course
- April 22 – Gratitude/Moderation: recognizing our abundant blessings
- April 29 – Integrity/Truth: being authentic in our thoughts and actions
- May 6 – Responsibility/Humility: being proactive yet remaining humble
- May 13 – Awe: allowing ourselves to experience wonder
1. Mussar is the study of middot–fine tuning our character traits
2. The period of the Omer refers to an ancient grain offering between Pesach and Shavuot
TEMPLE DAVID
SCHOLAR-IN-YOUR-RESIDENCE
WEEKEND
APRIL 23-25
Featuring Rabbi Stephen A. Karol
On Zoom; find the links at
www.templedavid.org/athome
Rabbi Karol, Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Isaiah in Stony Brook, New York, was ordained at Hebrew Union College in 1977 and has served at Temple Beth Zion (Buffalo, NY), Congregation Sha’aray Shalom (Hingham, MA), and Temple Isaiah. He currently teaches at Temple Isaiah and at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Stony Brook University. Rabbi Karol is the author of Finding Hope and Faith In The Face Of Death, which is about giving faith, comfort, and inspiration when a death occurs. It is relevant for Jews and Christians as well as those who don’t identify themselves as believers.
A signed copy of Rabbi Karol’s book will be available for purchase by contacting him directly or by contacting Elaine Wolfe at elainew@templedavid.org.
EVENTS
FRIDAY, APRIL 23 at 10 a.m.
Rabbi Barbara Symons will host a private event at which Rabbi Karol will speak to a joint session of the Monroeville Interfaith Ministerium and the Greater Pittsburgh Rabbinic Association. Rabbi Karol’s topic will be The David And Bathsheba Story – #Me Too or A Forgivable Sin?
FRIDAY, APRIL 23 at 7:30 p.m.
Rabbi Karol will speak during the Erev Shabbat service. His topic will be Turn, Turn, Turn: What We Can Learn From The Book Of Ecclesiastes through which we will discover profound and meaningful messages about wisdom, values, and perspectives. There will be time for questions after the service.
SATURDAY, APRIL 24 at 7 p.m.
Rabbi Karol’s topic will be How Women Are Treated In the Hebrew Bible – Our Four Foremothers: Sarah, Rebekah, Leah, and Rachel. The Hebrew Bible was the product of a patriarchal society. Although the Four Matriarchs are sometimes overshadowed by the Three Patriarchs – Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – each woman has her own distinctive story. This session will be followed by Havdalah.
SUNDAY, APRIL 25 at 10 a.m.
Rabbi Karol’s topic will be Why David Is Still Important 3,000 Years After He Lived. David is one of the most fascinating characters in the Hebrew Bible – shepherd, warrior, outlaw, lover, husband, father, king, and ancestor of the Messiah. In this presentation, you will discover how he was so flawed and so loved, so criticized and so admired, but is still so important.
Please join us on Zoom for a very exciting and uplifting weekend.
There is no charge for this weekend; however, donations are always appreciated.
We look forward to learning with all of you.
Published February 2021
The Synagogue Architecture of Eric Mendelsohn
Sunday, March 7 at Noon
On Zoom at www.templedavid.org/athome
Join us for a virtual, socially distanced lunch as we listen to Michael Palmer discuss his book Eric Mendelsohn’s Synagogues in America.
Trained in Germany, Eric Mendelsohn received international acclaim for his designs, and four synagogues he designed between 1946 and 1953 were built in the U.S.
Michael Palmer is a photographer whose work has explored the architectural legacy and relevance of the German Jewish exodus from Germany in the 1920s and 1930s. Mr. Palmer began his photography career in 2015 with the Tel Aviv White City project.
Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Passover…
(But Were Afraid to Ask)*
Sunday, March 14 at 9:15 a.m.
www.templedavid.org/athome
There are no dumb questions. Really. Together we will look at the texts, history, rituals, and creative celebrations of our holidays. For this session about Passover, let’s learn:
- Why do some Jews celebrate for 7 days and others for 8?
- If leaven is forbidden, why can’t I eat rice or tofu?
- Why do some seder plates have 5 spaces and others have 6?
- What is the difference between various Haggadot (plural of Haggadah)?
- Why is there a focus on Elijah during the seder?
* With apologies to David Reuben, M.D.
Online Discussion led by Rabbi Symons
Thursday, March 18 at 10 a.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Please visit www.templedavid.org/athome for the link
“I was blown away…The Lost Shtetl is a Jewish fantasy in the vein of Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policemen’s Union and Steve Stern’s Jewish magical realism novels. There are even echoes of Simon Rich’s New Yorker story, Sell Out, about a time-travelling Orthodox Jewish immigrant, soon to be the major motion picture An American Pickle starring, yes, Seth Rogen…The novel’s narrator, a kind of first-person collective, sounds both contemporary and folkloric, as if one of the great Yiddish writers had somehow survived, like Kreskol, to tell its story. The Lost Shtetl stands on its own.”—Jewish Week
From amazon.com: A remarkable debut novel—written with the fearless imagination of Michael Chabon and the piercing humor of Gary Shteyngart—about a small Jewish village in the Polish forest that is so secluded no one knows it exists…until now.
What if there was a town that history missed?
For decades, the tiny Jewish shtetl of Kreskol existed in happy isolation, virtually untouched and unchanged. Spared by the Holocaust and the Cold War, its residents enjoyed remarkable peace. It missed out on cars, and electricity, and the internet, and indoor plumbing. But when a marriage dispute spins out of control, the whole town comes crashing into the twenty-first century.
Pesha Lindauer, who has just suffered an ugly, acrimonious divorce, suddenly disappears. A day later, her husband goes after her, setting off a panic among the town elders. They send a woefully unprepared outcast named Yankel Lewinkopf out into the wider world to alert the Polish authorities.
Venturing beyond the remote safety of Kreskol, Yankel is confronted by the beauty and the ravages of the modern-day outside world–and his reception is met with a confusing mix of disbelief, condescension, and unexpected kindness. When the truth eventually surfaces, his story and the existence of Kreskol make headlines nationwide.
Returning Yankel to Kreskol, the Polish government plans to reintegrate the town that time forgot. Yet in doing so, the devious origins of its disappearance come to the light. And what has become of the mystery of Pesha and her former husband? Divided between those embracing change and those clinging to its old world ways, the people of Kreskol will have to find a way to come together…or risk their village disappearing for good.
About the author: Max Gross was born in New York City and graduated from Dartmouth College. He wrote from the Forward newspaper and the New York Post and is currently the editor of the Commercial Observer.
His first book was a memoir called From Schlub to Stud. He lives in New York with his wife and son. The Lost Shtetl is his first novel.
Save the Dates
April 23-25
Rabbi Stephen A. Karol, originally scheduled as Temple David’s Scholar-In-Residence for May, 2020, will be joining us via Zoom for an informative and noteworthy weekend as our Scholar-Not-In-Residence. Rabbi Karol is the author of Finding Hope and Faith In The Face Of Death.
Additional information, including times and topics, will be in included in upcoming issues of TD Now! and Next Ten Days.
Published November 2020
Online Discussion led by Rabbi Symons
Thursday, December 17 at 10 a.m.
Please visit www.templedavid.org/athome for the link
“Highly relatable…Nevaeh learns that identity is as beautiful as it is complicated, and readers will cheer her on as she gradually becomes empowered to stand up for herself and others.”–Jewish Book Council
From amazon.com: A powerful coming-of-age novel, pulled from personal experience, about the meaning of friendship, the joyful beginnings of romance, and the racism and religious intolerance that can both strain a family to the breaking point and strengthen its bonds.
Growing up in an affluent suburb of New York City, sixteen-year-old Nevaeh Levitz never thought much about her biracial roots. When her Black mom and Jewish dad split up, she relocates to her mom’s family home in Harlem and is forced to confront her identity for the first time.
Nevaeh wants to get to know her extended family, but because she inadvertently passes as white, her cousin thinks she’s too privileged, pampered, and selfish to relate to the injustices African Americans face on a daily basis. In the meantime, Nevaeh’s dad decides that she should have a belated bat mitzvah instead of a sweet sixteen, which guarantees social humiliation at her posh private school. But rather than take a stand, Nevaeh does what she’s always done when life gets complicated: she stays silent.
Only when Nevaeh stumbles upon a secret from her mom’s past, finds herself falling in love, and sees firsthand the prejudice her family faces does she begin to realize she has her own voice. And choices. Will she continue to let circumstances dictate her path? Or will she decide once for all who and where she is meant to be?
About the author: Natasha Díaz is a born and raised New Yorker, currently residing in Brooklyn with her tall husband. Natasha is both an author and screenwriter. Her scripts have placed as a quarterfinalist in the Austin Film Festival and a finalist for both the NALIP Diverse Women in Media Fellowship and the Sundance Episodic Story Lab. Her essays can be found in The Establishment and Huffington Post.
Published September 2020
Discussion led by Rabbi Symons
Thursdays, October 29 and November 5, 12, and 19,
at 10 a.m. and 7 p.m.
Times and venue will be finalized next month
“One of the best one-volume introductions to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians”—The Atlantic
“A clarion call, not to arms but to empathy”—The Wall Street Journal
This is a must-read. And a must-discuss. We will discuss 1-2 chapters per session.
“I don’t believe that peace without at least some attempt at mutual understanding can endure.” So writes Yossi Klein Halevi, a wonderful Israeli author and my friend, in his new book, Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor.
From the Back Cover: “Lyrical and evocative, Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor is one Israeli’s powerful attempt to reach beyond the wall that separates Israelis and Palestinians. In a series of letters, Yossi Klein Halevi endeavors to untangle the ideological and emotional knot that has defined the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for nearly a century. Using history and personal experience as his guides, he unravels the complex strands of faith, pride, anger, and anguish he feels as a Jew living in Israel.
In an unprecedented effort to share both sides of this terrible struggle, this new edition includes an extensive Epilogue of Palestinian letters to Halevi. Some angry, some empathetic, but all respectful, these responses break open the conversation between Israelis and Palestinians, laying bare the heartfelt emotion on both sides and showing that peace may be possible if one is only willing to listen.
Speaking to all concerned global citizens, this provocative collection of letters from each side of the conflict models the kind of passionate, respectful discourse that is sorely missing in the world today, and helps us understand the painful choices confronting Israelis and Palestinians that will ultimately determine the fate of the region.”
About the Author (amazon.com): “Yossi Klein Halevi is an American-born writer who has lived in Jerusalem since 1982. He is a senior fellow of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem and the author of At the Entrance to the Garden of Eden: A Jew’s Search for God with Christians and Muslims in the Holy Land and Like Dreamers: The Story of the Israeli Paratroopers Who Reunited Jerusalem and Divided a Nation, which won the Jewish Book Council’s Everett Family Book of the Year Award for Best Jewish Book in 2013. Together with Imam Abdullah Antelpi of Duke University, he co-directs the Hartman Institute’s Muslim Leadership Initiative. He and his wife, Sarah, have three children.”
Published July and August 2020
Reform Judaism has long called itself “Prophetic Judaism” yet the haftarah is the primary place we encounter the prophets other than a well known phrase such as “What is it that G-d desires of you but to do justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your G-d” (Micah 6:8). The Haftarah is ten or more verses from the Prophets (N’vi-im) section of the Hebrew Bible that links either with the Torah portion or with the holiday cycle. Yet if you are not at Shabbat or Festival worship, or even if you are and no context is given, the prophets remain a mystery to us. As Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel writes in his book The Prophets, “The prophet is not only a prophet. He is also poet, preacher, patriot, statesman, social critic, moralist.”
Join this class and together we will get to meet the prophets.
Register for either Sunday mornings (11:30 a.m.) or Wednesday evenings (7 p.m.)
and as long as there are at least 6 people enrolled per day,
if you have a conflict, you can switch to the other date that month.
Sundays at 11:30 a.m.:
09/13, 10/18, 11/08, 12/13, 01/10/2021, 02/14, 03/14, 04/11, 05/02
Wednesdays at 7 p.m.:
09/16, 10/21, 11/11, 12/16, 01/13/2021, 02/17, 03/10, 04/14, 05/05
Fee: $36 for first person in a household; $11 per each additional person.
Questions? Please contact Rabbi Symons.
Published July 2020
Everything You Always Wanted to Know about The High Holy Days…
(But Were Afraid to Ask)*
Sunday, August 23 at 10 a.m.
There are no dumb questions. Really. Together we will look at the texts, history, rituals, and creative celebrations of our holidays. For this session about the High Holy Days, let’s learn:
- What is the difference between The Ten Days of Awe and The Ten Days of Repentance?
- How is a machzor (High Holy Day prayer book) different from a regular prayer book?
- Why is the shofar sounded on Rosh HaShanah? When else is it sounded?
- Why do some Jews wear white on the High Holy Days?
- Why does the evening Yom Kippur service have the name Kol Nidre?
- Why do some Jews wear a tallit on Kol Nidre given that they are only worn in the morning?
- Why don’t some Jews wear leather shoes or belts on Yom Kippur?
- What is Selichot?
* With apologies to David Reuben, M.D.
Click here for the sign-up form
Published March 2020
Rabbi Karol, Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Isaiah in Stony Brook, New York, was ordained at Hebrew Union College in 1977. He currently teaches at Temple Isaiah and at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Stony Brook University. Rabbi Karol is the author of Finding Hope and Faith In The Face Of Death. His book is about giving faith, comfort, and inspiration when a death occurs, and is relevant for Jews and Christians as well as those who don’t identify themselves as believers. Rabbi Karol’s book is available from Amazon and he will be available for a book signing.
SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
Please consider becoming a Scholar-In-Residence sponsor. The Scholar-In-Residence weekend is an important part of Temple David’s Adult Education program and brings a high degree of visibility both within the Temple and in the greater Jewish community. The cost of becoming a sponsor is $100 per person and includes Shabbat dinner, an autographed copy of Rabbi Karol’s book, and recognition in the program brochure.
Please click for RSVP Form
Published February 2020
Added in February
Friday Evening, May 1
What Reform Judaism and Orthodox Mysticism Have In Common
Rabbi Karol will discuss his views of “Believing you can make a positive difference in the world every day of your life is the most important message taught by Orthodox Mysticism and Reform Judaism.”
Saturday Evening, May 2
Bob Dylan’s Jewish Music
We will listen to and discuss some of Dylan’s lyrics that contain Biblical and Jewish references.
Sunday Morning, May 3
Why Is David Still Important 3000 Years Later
A text study followed by a lively discussion on whether King David is really relevant in today’s world.
Sponsorship letters have been mailed; additional information will be included in the March and April issues of TDNow!.
Published January 2020
You are invited to be part of a Scholar In Residence weekend featuring Rabbi Stephen Karol, Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Isaiah in Stony Brook, New York, and author of Finding Hope and Faith in the Face of Death: Insights of a Rabbi and Mourner.
Rabbi Karol will speak on a variety of interesting and informative topics during the weekend. Additional information will be in future bulletin articles. We look forward to seeing you.
Elaine Wolfe,
Scholar In Residence Chair
Temple David ALLEC