Photo by Rachel Schaffer, c. 2006

JUNE 2009 Sivan-Tammuz

5769

The Temple Tablet Congregation Beth Aaron/ 406-248-6412 cbabillings@yahoo.com

Thank you all for a meaningful and exciting year. In between snowstorms, we were able to reach out to our Billings community, learn from a wise, capable student rabbi, view a unique Holocaust exhibit, and share holidays as a community. The talents of our congregation were demonstrated at lay services and programs on politics and the wildlife of Africa. We shared concern for Israel during the Gaza

Sivan 11 (June 3): Louis Harron, namesake of CBA 18 (June 10): Lena Nemer, mother of M.A. Nemer 22 (June 14): Ruth Cohen, mother of Ellen Alweis, grandmother of Sheldon Alweis 24 (June 16): Rhoda Samuels, grandmother of Rachel and Deborah Schaffer Rose Nodler, mother of Marsha Selwyn 25 (June 17): Ann Berg, mother of Perry Berg 29 (June 21): Esther Greenberger, grandmother of Ellen Alweis 30 (June 22): Ollie Schmidt, husband of Ettie Schmidt

Tammuz 6 (June 28 10): Valera Wright, mother of Sally George Wright 7 (June 29): Charles Silver, grandfather of Bob and Jack Sukin

Yahrzeits In Jewish custom, the yahrzeit is the anniversary of a loved one’s death according to the Hebrew calendar. The Hebrew date is the first date listed, with the civil date, which varies from year to year, following in parentheses.

conflict, the delight of a bar mitzvah, and the excitement of a visiting rabbi. We entered the computer age with our improved website and the Tablet by email. As well, we kept within our budget! Pretty remarkable for a congregation of only 50 + households. Thank you all again for making the past year a memorable one. Shalom, Diane

11 (July 3): Ella Macey, aunt of Daloris Lowenthal 13 (July 5): Max Greenberger, grandfather of Ellen Alweis Zolla Miller, father of Heather Rio, grandfather of Jonathan Edward Rio 28 (July 20): Isadore Greenstein, father of Sandy Sukin Sally Noe, member and friend of CBA 29 (July 21): Bernice Landy, mother of Howard Landy

Av 4 (July 25): Rosella Alweis, mother of Don Alweis, grandmother of Sheldon Alweis Freda Letwak, sister-in-law of Yetta Niss 11 (Aug 1): Sol S. Lipman, grandmother of Cendri, Miri, and Jill Hutcherson 15 (Aug 5): Steven Melnick, son of Sam Melnick 16 (Aug 6): Alfred Wagner, father of Marion Meyers

Calendar of Events JUNE Monday, June 8 7:00 p.m.: Annual meeting and elections at CBA Please contact Diane if you have items for the meeting. Saturday, June 20 6:00 p.m.: Barbecue and Havdalah CBA will provide the main course and dessert. Please bring a side dish and lawn chairs. JULY Friday, July 31 6:00 p.m.: Potluck 7:30 p.m.: Brief lay service Details TBA

Summer Hiatus for the Tablet It’s summer! Because there will be fewer events and less news to report for the next couple of months, we will be sending out a joint July-August Tablet somewhere toward the end of July or early August. The deadline of Thursday, July 23, listed on page 2 is pretty flexible. Just contact Rachel Schaffer, the editor, for updated deadline information, or call the CBA number for recorded information on events. And have a great summer!

A Message from the President

The visit of Rabbi Zari Weiss from Seattle, WA, on May 15-17 made a wonderful weekend, and we are

exploring options for return visits. Please let me know your thoughts about her visit. Diane

Rabbi Zari’s Visit

Relay For Life is a community gather-ing where everyone can participate in the fight against cancer. Teams of people camp out at West High track and take turns walking or running around the track. Each team consists of 14 people and is asked to have a representative on the track at all times

during the event—because cancer never sleeps. It’s not too late to sign up. CBA is looking to field a team to participate in Relay for Life to be held on Friday night through Saturday morning July 11-12. Call Lenny Duberstein at 248-4922 to volunteer or for more information.

Participants Still Needed to Fight Cancer Sign Up for the Relay for Life Team

Photo by Rachel Schaffer, c. 2006

The Temple Tablet

The Temple Tablet

The deadline for submitting items for the July-August

Temple Tablet is Thursday, July 23. Send items to the

editor, Rachel Schaffer.

Thanks to all those who made generous donations to CBA. All will go to the Building Fund. *Rondel Smith in honor of Susan Septimus on her bat mitzvah

*L. Brook & Susan Henderson in honor of the marriage of Jody Alweis & Jeff DeWispelaera

*Charlie Melnick in honor & memory of Sam Melnick

*Anonymous in honor & memory of Sam Melnick

Page 2 of 4

Member News

*Best wishes for a speedy recovery to Bette Prestridge * Mazel tov to Susan Septimus on her recent bat mitzvah in Houston, Texas *A warm thank you to Jeff Simkovic for meeting with English classes at Senior High School to discuss Jewish culture. The reviews were exceptional!

Friday, June 5: 8:41 p.m. Friday, June 12: 8:46 p.m. Friday, June 19: 8:49 p.m. Friday, June 26: 8:50 p.m. Friday, July 3: 8:49 p.m. Friday, July 10: 8:46 p.m. Friday, July 17: 8:42 p.m. Friday, July 24: 8:35 p.m. Friday, July 31: 8:27 p.m. Friday, Aug. 7: 8:17 p.m. Friday, Aug. 14: 8:07 p.m. Friday, Aug. 21: 7:55 p.m. Friday, Aug. 28: 7:43 p.m.

iday, Aug. 17: 8:03 p.m.

Touring the Touro Synagogue, New Orleans While in New Orleans in early April, Deborah and Rachel Schaffer were able to participate in a private tour of the landmark Touro Synagogue, the oldest temple outside of the original 13 colonies, located near the Garden District on St. Charles Avenue. Named for Judah Touro, the son of the famous Rhode Island Rabbi Isaac Touro and a major philanthropist in his own right, the structure consists of the original main sanctuary, built in 1828, with later additions encompassing a beautiful smaller chapel, school facilities, and offices. The property was fortunately spared significant damage both during Katrina and the flooding that followed, and the congregation continues to flourish and work actively to promote the recovery of the city. Much more information about the synagogue and the congregation, along with photos, is available at their Website: www.tourosynagogue.com.

Photo © Rachel Schaffer, 2009

Photo © Rachel Schaffer, 2009

Al’s Page I would like to bring you up to date concerning some of our separate funds that are managed by CBA. Today, I would like to start with the Building Fund. Since we finished construction of the new building, this fund has had a steady income from donations by members and others in “honor of.” As time goes on, our new building will need some updating, and as we all know, repairs. Starting next year, we will be responsible for all the yard care and snow removal. Lawn care is not a problem as those costs are manageable and set. If we have several bad, snowy winters, as we have had before, there will be an increase in expenditures. We have a beautiful building, and we need to keep it that way for now and for the future of CBA. Your board of directors is working on these issues, and has set some goals that pertain to this fund. There are several small projects that have been discussed, and one has been approved and described below. Remember, all contributions are tax deductible; please consult your tax expert for details. Do you have one room in your house that was never finished? The one you put all your stuff in till Aunt Mary comes to visit and then the rush is on to clean up the room? We all have that room, and so does CBA. That is about to change, as we embark on a small house cleaning and

remodeling project. We are going to finish the back hallway that connects the social hall and the sanctuary. When we are finished, it will become a walkway hall. It will give that room eye appeal and will be more functional than it is now. Gone will be the mess, replaced by finished walls and ceiling. It will also provide us with a safe, secure and clean environment for our Passover dishes. They will now be stored inside. Now the fun part: we are starting a fundraiser for this project. But unlike most contributions, CBA will match dollar for dollar all contributions received. You give a dollar; we give a dollar up to the total cost of the project. No matter how small or large your contribution, it will be matched by CBA. We have already received several contributions in honor/memory of Sam Melnick. You may make your contribution in honor of anybody of your choice. We will call it “The Hall of Honor.” It has been some time since we have undertaken a project like this, but it is long overdue. Help us out on this project and send in a pledge or contribution. Let’s get this cleaned up before Aunt Mary just shows up. See you at the annual meeting for full details.

Donations

Candle-Lighting Times

The Temple Tablet Page 3 of 4

Useful links on the Web:

URJ weekly Torah series http://urj.org/torah/#cprFor%2

0Webmasters

Weekly newsletter of the Reform movement

http://urj.org/enews/jta/

Weekly “Ten Minutes of Torah”

http://urj.org/torah/ten/

Congregation Beth Aaron

PO Box 187 Billings, MT 59103

2031 Broadwater Ave.

PHONE

406-248-6412

EMAIL cbabillings@yahoo.com

President

Diane Kersten mtdiane@bresnan.net

Vice President Jeff Simkovic

Treasurer Al Page Editor

Rachel Schaffer (245-7811 (H), 657-2954

(W), fax 657-2187, rschaffer

@msubillings.edu) Production

Deborah Schaffer, Deborah

Student Rabbi Keren Klein

kklein@huc.edu We’re on the Web!

See us at:

www.cbamt.org

CONGREGATION

BETH AARON PO Box 187

Billings, MT 59103

Mark Your Calendars for MAJCO’s Biennial Shabbaton, Oct. 2-4! Remember to mark your calendars for the upcoming MAJCO biennial Shabbaton, hosted this year by Congregation Har Shalom in Missoula on October 2-4. Our Shabbaton this year will be held during Sukkos. We are in the midst of planning for the event. Some ideas for programming for the event include break-out groups on Jewish cooking, AIPAC, Music, Cevre Kadisha training, Sukkos programming, Missoula area Jewish history, etc. The weekend will include Friday and

Saturday morning services, meals, and lots of great opportunities for fellowship. The event will be held in co-operation and conjunction with Montana Hadassah, and will also feature enhanced programming from the organization. If you are interested in helping out with Shabbaton planning, please contact Laurie Franklin (rossfranklin@msn.com), Bert Chessin (bchessin@aol.com) or Aaron Weissman (aaron@weissman.com).

Jewish and Interfaith Programs at Carroll College during Fall 2009 On October 16-18, Professor Amy-Jill Levine, Professor of New Testament Studies at Vanderbilt University, will be leading a discussion series at St. Paul's United Methodist Church in Helena on two topics, “Seeing Jesus as a Jew” and “Comparing Jewish and Christian Variations in Shared Beliefs.” In addition, Carroll College will be sponsoring a Centennial Interfaith Program November 4-6, entitled "To Each a Key: Unlocking the Door to Interfaith Harmony," at the Carroll College Student Center. The program is a three-day

interfaith quest for those keys that open the beliefs of Christians, Muslims, and Jews to inter-religious harmony. The program is meant to be an attempt to open a doorway to those practices that would ensure the social and cultural conditions that promote a peace divested of inequality and repression, and invested with justice and liberty. More details about both events will be sent later this summer. Montana's Jewish communities are indeed fortunate to have these opportunities for spiritual and intellectual growth.