Rosh Hashanah Newsletter 2015 -...

Anshe Sfard Synagogue Rosh Hashanah 5776/2015

ROSH HASHANAH NEWSLETTER

A Message from Dr. Gary Remer, President of Anshe Sfard

Dear Friends,

As Rosh Hashanah 5776 quickly approaches, we are able to reflect on the many accomplishments of our synagogue over the past year. Anshe Sfard has continued to attract new members and visitors to our Shabbat morning services. In an effort to expand our membership and serve the wider, particularly “under-forty” segment of, the Jewish community, we have held Young Jieux-ish Professionals’ Friday night services and dinners.

To broaden the knowledge of our members, we have expanded our guest speakers program to include a diverse range of speakers and topics. In the past year, our speakers were comprised of congregants and non-congregants; Jewish professional and lay leaders; academics; rabbis and ministers; and a retired family court judge. The broad spectrum of fascinating topics on which they spoke included the genetics of Jews; Maimonides and Spinoza and their conceptions of God; rights vs. responsibilities in Jewish law;

Jewish prophecy and classical oratory; Jewish journalism; Jewish chaplaincy; prejudice and hate, particularly racism and anti-Semitism; and the relevance of Psalms for today. In addition, Anshe Sfard runs an educational program outside our synagogue and directed toward the general Jewish community, the Bertha Smith Memorial Talmud Study, taught by Rabbi Polsky and hosted and sponsored by the shul’s vice president, Jeffrey Smith, in the main conference room of Jeffrey’s 700 Camp Street law office.

Rosh Hashanah Newsletter �1

Table of Contents President’s Message………..Our New Chazzan…………..Page 4High Holiday Schedule……..Page 5Study with a Buddy Night….Page 6Sukkot Schedule……………Page 7Kol Nidre Campaign………..Page 8Rabbi’s Message…………..Page 10


As in past years, after services we have continued our successful Kiddush-Lunch program, in which locals and out-of-towners enjoy both delicious meals and the opportunity to socialize. We celebrated Purim with the reading of the Megillah, followed by a party and second line—co-sponsored by Krew du Jeiux in memory of Louis Lederman—in which we danced to the music of a live jazz and klezmer band. We were fortunate to be able to host a first-night Community Seder thanks to a few generous donations. We participated in a Martin Luther King weekend panel and service project. We celebrated a Tu B’Shevat seder, which is to be aired on BBC America, and a Tu B’Av party. These were only several of the events and celebrations that took place at Anshe Sfard in 5775.

It is now time to look toward the upcoming year. We are committed to carrying on our Kiddush-lunches. During the past year, with the help of many generous donors, large and small, we were able to buy a new gas range and stove (to replace its very antiquated predecessor), thus enabling us to continue to prepare food for Kiddush-Lunches and holiday meals. But we cannot continue to offer these meals without help from our members and visitors. Therefore, we are renewing our appeal for sponsors. Sponsoring—or helping

to prepare—our Shabbat lunches would be an excellent way of ensuring the continuity of this special time as well as expressing gratitude for what we so often taken for granted. In addition, we will be seeking donations to replace our outdated and unreliable air conditioning. Although we have been able to maintain climate control for our sanctuary and social hall through temporary fixes, we need to buy a new heating and air-conditioning system. Such a system is not inexpensive. As anyone who has spent a summer in New Orleans realizes, however, we have no alternative.

Our chazan for the new year, Dr. Moshe Kornfeld, will be joining us this year for the High Holidays. Dr. Kornfeld is currently a post-doctoral fellow in the Jewish Studies Program at the University Colorado, Boulder. Although new to our congregation as a cantor, he is not a newcomer to New Orleans; he spent two years doing research for his dissertation on Jewish philanthropy


“Anshe Sfard is unique among congregations in the Crescent City”

Child Care Provided Anshe Sfard is pleased to announce that child care

will be available for High Holiday services in our social hall from 10:30 AM until the end of Musaf.

Please feel free to call the synagogue office (504-522-4714) with any questions.


and young Jewish activists. (His dissertation will be published as a book entitled Jewish Problems: Philanthropy, Privilege, and Protest in Post-Katrina New Orleans.) As an academic myself, perhaps I am more interested in his research than the average congregant. Moshe, however, is also a young, dynamic, and proficient chazan and ba’al toke’ah (shofar blower), who is devoted to leading a service in which the congregation is not a passive audience, but also participates in the chanting and singing of the davening. I am certain that he will help vest our holiday services with joy and meaning.

Anshe Sfard is unique among congregations in the Crescent City as the last remaining shul in the old Dryades Street Jewish neighborhood. It is also at the center of a burgeoning Jewish population of young professionals who have decided to make New Orleans their home. With the help of Rabbi Polsky, our culture of hospitality, and the addition of new programs, like Friday-night dinners, we foresee Anshe Sfard becoming the Jewish home for this growing population.

On behalf of my family and the Board of Directors, I extend to you and your family our best wishes for a very happy and healthy New Year.

Sincerely, Gary Remer President


A generous donation for Anshe Sfard has been made by the estate of Gabriela Lehmann through the

Kurt J., Molly S. and Gabriela Lehmann Yahrzeit Designated Fund at the

Jewish Endowment Foundation of Louisiana in memory of

Kurt J. LehmannMolly S. LehmannWilliam G. HelisCassandra HelisVanessa Helis

Venus Helis PigmanGabriela Lehmann

and all those who have passed away and no longer have friends or family to remember them at this sacred moment.

Still need a meal for one of the first two nights of Rosh

Hashanah? Contact Rabbi Polsky through e-mail ([email protected]) or the synagogue office (504-522-4714) to RSVP or for more information.

mailto:[email protected]



A Message from our New Chazzan for the High Holidays,

Dr. Moshe Kornfeld I am honored to be joining Anshe Sfard for the high holidays. I received my Ph.D. in anthropology and Jewish studies from the University of Michigan in January, and will be a postdoctoral fellow in Jewish Studies at the University of Colorado this fall. My dissertation research focused on Jewish community responses to Hurricane Katrina and I am thrilled to be returning to New Orleans, where I lived for two years while

completing my degree. I am passionate about social justice and ecological sustainability, and about living and analyzing Jewish life and culture. In addition to my Ph.D., I have a bachelor's degree in anthropology from the University of Rochester and I have studied Torah at the Pardes Institute for Jewish Studies, Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, the Jewish Theological Seminary, Yeshivat Maaleh Gilboa, and Yeshivat Hamivtar. I live with my wife in Boulder, Colorado and we are expecting our first child this upcoming November.


Join us at Anshe Sfard for our Simchat Torah Second Line

Monday, October 5th Evening Services 7:15 PM

Second Line-style Hakafot 7:30 PM Pre-paid intermission at The Avenue Pub for those with

wrist-bands Dinner featuring local craft beer following services.


High Holiday Schedule

Saturday, September 5th First night of Selichot, 10 PM

Erev Rosh HaShanah: Sunday, September 13th Candle lighting: 6:50 Minchah/Ma’ariv: 7:00 PM

First Day Rosh HaShanah: Monday, September 14th Shacharit: 8:45 AM Barkhu: 9:15 AM Child Care: 10:30 AM Sermon (approximately): 10:45 AM Shofar: 11:00 AM Communal Lunch following services Minchah following lunch Tashlikh: 6:00 PM at the Port of New Orleans Ma’ariv at 7:40 PM Candle lighting: AFTER 7:49 PM

Second Day Rosh HaShanah: Tuesday, September 15th Shacharit 8:45 AM Barukhu 9:15 AM Child Care: 10:30 AM Sermon (approximately): 10:45 AM Shofar: 11:00 AM Communal Lunch after services, Minchah following lunch Rosh Hashanah ends: 7:48 PM

Fast of Gedaliah: Wednesday, September 16th

Fast Begins: 5:34 AM Fast Ends 7:35 PM

Friday, September 18th

Candle Lighting: 6:44 PM

Shabbat Shuvah (Sabbath of Repentance): Saturday, September 19th Shacharit: 9:15 AM Rabbi Polsky will deliver his Shabbat Shuvah Discourse (in lieu of his normal sermon) following services Communal Lunch following Discourse

Shabbat Ends: 7:44 PM

Sunday, September 20th Memorial Service at the Anshe Sfard Cemetary, 4400 Elysian Fields: 11:00 AM

Erev Yom Kippur: Tuesday, September 22nd Candle lighting: 6:39 PM Fast begins: 6:57 PM Kol Nidrei, sermon, and Ma'ariv: 6:45 PM

Yom Kippur: Wednesday, September 23rd Shacharit: 8:45 AM

Barkhu 9:30 AM Child Care: 10:30 AM Sermon (approximately): 11:15 AM Yizkor (approximately): 11:30 AM Minchah: 5:00 PM followed by sermon delivered by Rabbi Polsky Neilah: 6:20 PM Shofar and Ma’ariv: 7:30 PM Fast Ends: 7:38 PM Break-fast meal with bagels and lox following the conclusion of services



Why DO we sit in the Sukkah? Join us in the Anshe Sfard Sukkah from 7:30-9:00 PM on Wednesday, September 30th for our first Study with a Buddy Night. We’ll examine the talmudic sources debating the meaning of the Sukkah and come out with a deeper understanding of this mitzvah. Nosh on snacks and drinks while studying the with a buddy with a brief wrap-up at the end. All sources will be studied in English.

Our second Study with a Buddy Night will take place at 7:30 PM on Wednesday, November 4th and facilitated by Liba Kornfeld, Director of Jewish Family Life at the JCC.


SO YOU’RE TELLING ME YOU HAVE THIS FESTIVAL

WHEN YOU SIT IN A HUT BY CHOICE?


Sukkot Schedule

Erev Sukkot: Sunday, September 27th Candle lighting 6:32 PM

First Day Sukkot: Monday, September 28th Shacharit: 9:15 AM Communal Kiddush Lunch in the Sukkah following services Candle lighting: AFTER 7:32 PM

Second Day Sukkot: Tuesday September 29th Shacharit: 9:15 AM Communal Kiddush Lunch in the Sukkah following services Yom Tov Ends: 7:31

Wednesday, September 30th Study with a Buddy Night “Why do we Celebrate Sukkot? A Talmudic Approach”: 7:00 PM Drinks and snacks will be served

Friday, October 2nd Candle lighting: 6:26 PM

Shabbat Chol Ha-Moed (intermediate Sabbath): Saturday, October 3rd Shacharit: 9:15 AM

Communal Kiddush Lunch in the Sukkah following services Shabbat ends: 7:26 PM

Hoshana Rabba and Erev Yom Tov: Wednesday, October 4th Musical Hoshanah Rabbah Service at Beth Israel (4004 West Esplanade Avenue): 10:00 AM Candle lighting: 6:24 PM

Sh'mini Atzeret: Monday, October 5th Shacharit: 9:15 AM Sermon, followed by Yizkor (approximately): 10:45 AM Communal Kiddush Lunch in the Sukkah following services

Candle lighting: AFTER 7:24 PM Ma’ariv, followed by Acapella Second Line Hakafot (dancing with the Torah) 7:15 PM to The Avenue Pub and back. Communal buffet dinner following Hakafot featuring jambalaya and craft beer

Simchat Torah: Tuesday, October 6th Shacharit: 9:15 AM Hakafot: 10:00 AM Communal Kiddush lunch after services Festival ends: 7:22 PM


Need a Lulav set?

Please contact Rabbi Polsky ([email protected]) by Monday, September 21st




Anshe Sfard 5776/2015 Kol Nidre Campaign Dear friend of Anshe Sfard,

We are writing to urge you to consider participating in Congregation Anshe Sfard’s 5776/2015 Kol Nidre Campaign.

In the past year, Anshe Sfard has made many investments in itself and the New Orleans Jewish community as a whole.

We have held Friday night services at least once a month, the first time in decades that we have done such. We began hosting monthly Friday night dinners for young Jewish professionals, which has praised for creating a community for many young Jews while also drawing them to Anshe Sfard. This is in additional to our exceptional yet typical hospitality for tourists, conventioneers, and other visitors to New Orleans.

We purchased a new commercial grade stove-oven, which has enabled us to cook our own Kiddush-Lunches more easily and keep our costs down when offering Friday Night meals. It will also be helpful in accommodating visiting groups.

Rabbi Polsky continues to build our sense of community by making himself available for tutoring, pastoral counseling, learning, and hospitality. His lunch and learns through the Bertha Smith Memorial Talmud Study have brought advanced Jewish learning to those working in the Central Business District.

Through these and other efforts, Anshe Sfard has provided more services to its congregants and made itself more visible in the New Orleans Jewish community. Thanks to the many Jews moving into the neighborhood and our enhanced communal presence we have been able to attract more regulars to our services each week.

Over the coming year, we hope to increase the frequency of Friday night services. We also hope to make badly needed repairs to our air conditioning system to prevent future breakdowns and make Anshe Sfard more hospitable during the late spring and summer. We are introducing a learning program called “Study with a Buddy Night,” which will make our weeknight learning programs more empowering and fun.

Enabling these and other services has required and will require a significant investment on our part. We hope that you will join us in investing in our congregation’s goals of enhancing Jewish life in Greater New Orleans.

Your generous gift will also help us to maintain and renovate our unique and historic synagogue.

Thank you in advance for your gift, which expresses your desire to join us in connecting our historic past with our exciting future.

With best wishes for much success over the coming Jewish year, Gary Remer Dr. Gary Remer President



Our next Young Jieux-ish Professionals Friday Night Dinner will be on October

16th.

Inspirational and transformative Shabbat services begin at 7:00 PM.

Dinner immediately following services.

E-mail us at [email protected] to RSVP, sponsor, or help us cook.


Meet us at the Port of New Orleans at 6 PM on the First Day of Rosh Hashanah, Monday, September 14th, as we recite Tashlikh and cast our

sins into the Mississippi River.

We’ll have snacks, drinks, and Tashlikh sheets.

Just bring yourself and your sins.



A Message from Rabbi David Polsky To the Anshe Sfard Community,

So many elements of Jewish thought, and practice are subject to debate that we take comfort in those ideas that seem indisputable. One of those is the notion that Rosh Hashanah commemorates the creation of the world.

One glance at the Talmud shows that even this belief—that many of us were taught when we were young—is also a matter of debate. Babylonian Talmud Rosh Hashanah 10b-11a records a disagreement regarding when the world was created. Rabbi Eliezer believes that the world was created in the Hebrew month of Tishrei-- meaning that what we had been taught about Rosh Hashanah is correct. Rabbi Joshua, on the other hand, believes that the world was actually created in the Hebrew month of Nissan, the month during which we celebrate Passover.

We’d think that there is no way to find truth in both views that are so

diametrically opposed to each other. That doesn’t keep the great medieval scholar Rabbi Jacob b. Meir (otherwise known as Rabbeinu Tam) from trying (Rosh Hashanah 27a “k’man”). He teaches that God decided to create the world on the day we know of as Rosh Hashanah, but that He did not actually create the world until the first of Nissan. According to this reading, Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Joshua are focusing on different points of creation. R. Eliezer believes that we can therefore say that the world was created in Tishrei, while R. Joshua believes that we view the world as having been created in Nissan.

Rabbeinu Tam further explains that, according to Rabbi Joshua, the statement in our Rosh Hashanah liturgy, “Hayom harat olam” (ostensibly, “today is the birthday of the world”) really means, “today is the day the world was conceived.” Rosh Hashanah is

called “techilat ma’asekha” (“the beginning of Your deeds”) in our liturgy because it is the day that God first judged that the world should come into existence.

This more refined understanding of creation helps us to better appreciate why we are judged on Rosh Hashanah. God judged on Rosh Hashanah that the world should come into being, and thus judges us that same day of the year.


“This more refined understanding… helps us to better appreciate why we are judged on Rosh Hashanah.”


We can also better understand the nature of God’s judgment on Rosh Hashanah. God’s decision on Rosh Hashanah to create the world was based on His ideals for how its inhabitants should conduct themselves. For us this means that God is judging us on the degree to which we live our lives as well as He had intended.

This does not mean that God expects us to be perfect or angelic. God’s expectation for our lives—and His judgment based on this ideal—recognizes that He created each of us with different abilities and inclinations, and challenges. Rather, God is judging whether we have served Him as well as we can within the constraints He had given us.

This notion is best expressed by a famous story about the hasidic rebbe Reb Zusha of Anipoli. Reb Zusha was crying on his deathbed. His disciples accompanying him were surprised that their saintly rebbe should be so afraid of death. One asked him why he should be so afraid of the Heavenly Judgment when he was as wise as Moses and as kind as Abraham.

Reb Zusha replied: “When I go up to heaven, I won’t be judged on why I wasn’t like Moses or Abraham. I’ll be asked, “Zusha, why weren’t you as great as Zusha?—Why didn’t you fulfill your potential in life to the best of your abilities?” To such a strong question I will have no answer, and that is why I am so afraid.

Rosh Hashanah thus becomes a time for self-introspection. We are called to ask ourselves whether we have lived our lives and served God as well as we reasonably could have over the past year. If we have not, we are called upon to think about how we can come closer to our potential.

On that note, to whatever degree I have not reached my potential in serving your needs over the past year, I hope that you will let me know what I could have done better as a rabbi. To anyone I may have hurt (even unintentionally) or failed to serve

to my potential, I ask your forgiveness and hope that, over the coming year, I can become a better “David Polsky.”

I also hope that, over the coming year, we as a synagogue and community can become the best “Anshe Sfard” possible.

On behalf of Mindy and Toby Charlotte, I wish you a sweet New Year,David [email protected]


“We are called upon to think about how we can come closer to our potential”


!


Congregation Anshe Sfard 2230 Carondelet StreetNew Orleans, LA 70130Phone: (504) 522-4714

Web: www.anshesfard.orgE-mail: [email protected]

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