Reconstructing Mishkan Transcription
Reconstructing Mishkan Transcript 4-26-26
With words, you even the evening
wisdom opens gates locked around our hearts.
In the family I grew up in with melodies were drawn from European culture and other places, and the mashups were made between things and you know, so that's not just a new phenomenon.
That's what I would say when someone says, Well, how could we have done X? I say it's like Mordecai Kaplan's the reconstructing of Jewish life.It doesn't mean just doing new things. It sometimes means reclaiming the tradition or the old that has been lost over time
Understanding seasons, changing with the times.
The sound may reflect our time and culture, but the process is not an invention of our particular time, it's an extension within our own milieu of culture and expression.
Because mareev means the place between day and night, the dusk. So it's really inviting us to be with that liminal time.
You know the traditional, for example, the Friday night melody that might be go,
So that prayer has that new SOC or melody for centuries now.
This is the story of a Jewish congregation in Philadelphia that was founded in 1988 like many faith-based communities, it's been through ups and downs over its long life, yet it's managed to sustain itself and to create meaning and connection for the people involved. It's also a story of a rabbi who came to the congregation during challenging times and helped the congregation renew itself. And it's a story about Judaism, faith and community at a time of profound change in the world at large.
On person and on Zoom. So I want to welcome you into the sacred space of Mishkan Shalom, where we're going to be celebrating pride Shabbat together. Of course, Shabbat is always a sweet time for gathering, just made extra sweet by some of the extra color you may be seeing around the room as we celebrate renewal, pride and community.
Let us walk together with strength, compassion and love, never
We bless you, wellspring of our lives, may you fill us in Shabbat with joy and sanctity. Amen. Thank you. Surprise, surprise,
The neighborhood that I grew up in at the time was roughly half black, half Jewish, which I think had an impact on me, because my friends were black and my friends were Jewish, and, you know, occasionally I would go to my friend's synagogue for an event, you know, festival, different events, and so I was definitely comfortable and familiar with the Jewish community. My family's house had a mezuzah for years. Still does, yeah, well, and that's because of the, you know, the previous owners.
Well, I always say that we didn't really synagogue shop. We just like, found Mishkan and felt comfortable. Then we joined. We joined in August of 2005 right after we had gotten engaged.
One thing that I think was important to us was having a community where we would feel comfortable, where I would feel comfortable, and where our endless future children would be accepted. It's definitely an issue of giving them a foundation, because you have to have a foundation in something, and if it's going to be centered on, you know, humanity and justice and you know Jewish principles, then why not?
People come to Mishkan Shalom from multiple backgrounds and identities, including gender, race, culture, religious practice and belief. Mishkan was one of the earliest congregations to embrace members of multi faith, multi racial and LGBTQ plus communities. This reflects mish Khan's position within the Reconstructionist movement, an approach to Judaism that balances tradition and innovation history blending with contemporary progressive ideals and communal decision making. This openness was important for me as well. Even though I was brought up in a Jewish family in a Jewish community, I had not been very committed to Judaism for much of my adult life. As I met and married my wife, Carol, who was not Jewish, and as we began to grow our family, we thought about what kind of religious training, if any we wanted them to have Carol generously agreed to connect them to Judaism and knew about Mishkan Shalom and brought us to the synagogue. So if it wasn't for my non Jewish partner and wife, we wouldn't have found Mishkan and been part of this community, and I wouldn't have been moved to make this film.
Mishkan began when Rabbi Brian was not renewed at the congregation he was part of this is an old story because of his stance on, really, at the time, the revolutionary stance of a two state solution for Israel and Palestine. So one of the things that happened was that Brian wanted a synagogue. He wanted an actual place
In the founding of Mishkan, there was a deliberate breaking of a taboo in the Jewish community that was passionately upheld by the mainstream Jewish community, which was there is to be no serious questioning of Zionism and of the State of Israel. Part of Judaism is to swear loyalty to the State of Israel and to Zionism. And breaking that dogma was the particular spark for the creation of Mishkan Shalom, and was what was ultimately unique about it.
I can remember distinctly. I don't know it was 1987 probably being in my kitchen and Brian Walt calling me, who's close friend, and saying to me, this is what I want to talk about from my high holiday sermons and us having the conversation about Israel-Palestine, about how divisive that was going to be, and the risk he was taking. And then he was about to deliver a sermon that clearly was going to be very divisive in the congregation. So I talked to him as both a friend and as a, you know, director of the movement and you know, and we talked through about what the ramifications might be of doing it. And Brian, of course, being, you know, the brave soul that he is, went ahead and gave the talk. And, you know, as things unwound, you know, the congregation ended up splitting.
Then we came back on Yom Kippur after the service, and it was very clear that something had happened, and because people were whispering to each other, and we found out that Brian had given this sermon that had really, really upset people. And so it was the 20th anniversary of occupation, and he had really spoken from his heart. And this had really upset people.
It ended up, late in that year that there was a referendum on Brian's contract, should he stay, or should he go? He won a bare majority of support for staying, but it was, it was too bare, and he decided he. Needed to leave that congregation that summer, began a whole series of meetings to put together another congregation in
The summer of 1988 when we founded Mishkan Shalom, was an important transformation and crossing of the sea. For many of us, we crossed the sea. The crossing of the sea is not something that just happens. It's a metaphor for something that exists in our lives in different ways, personally, collectively, and I think for many of us, the creation of this community was a crossing of the sea, and that summer was an intense time where we've devoted a lot of time to really debating, exploring, discussing what the core principles of this congregation would be, what would this place stand for in the world? That question, what do you stand for?
There's a quote from Abraham Joshua. It's not in my text, so I'm going to have to remember it, which he says to Jew to be a Jew is not just to be but to stand for something. What do we stand for? That question, what are we called to be? What are we called to become? Is the essential question of any religious searcher and any religious community.
So we started having these meetings at Teya Stepanuk’s house in Swarthmore in the evening to start talking about what to do. And I remember driving down to Swarthmore from Bala Cynwyd to that meeting and talking about, you know, is this going to be it? Is this going to be it? I've been Jewish my whole life, but it's been a search. It's really been a search, a struggle to find the right place for my family. This is better be it. This is going to be it. Regardless, we're going to make it.
It was just this sense of these are people that really want to be here. They really want to be here, they really want to be together, and they really want to live a Judaism that's going to bring forth healing in the world, and that there was like such dedication and devotion to that, and such dedication and devotion to each other when we created Mishkan shalom, just the mere fact of welcoming people into the community with whatever they bring into the community without judgment already put you miles ahead of most Jewish synagogues. There was no the fact that you had a loving presence that said welcome. Oh, I'm not sure I want to be Jewish, or I'm married to a non Jew, and I don't know whether we're a Jewish family or not a Jewish, whatever it was, right? You weren't being checked for it at all. It was. You want to be associated with the with the synagogue. You want to be part of this. You come in and do and I think that already put us way ahead of the game.
Mishkan Shalom's first decades under Rabbi Bryant Walt’s leadership had many peak moments, areas of exploration and challenges during this time, the synagogue occupied several different locations, which ultimately led to a discussion of shifting from wandering to finding a home. The Community spent a long time thinking about and debating where the New Synagogue building should be, and picked a location within the Philadelphia city limits, a commitment reflected in our founding statement of principles.
Historically, this was factories with lots of row house, highly densely populated. But it is that because of our proximity to the Schuylkill River, well, we found a mill, a historic mill, that was perched on the hill in the city. The idea is that we wanted to have a building in the city that was easily accessible by public transportation. There are beautiful places out in the suburbs. We wanted to really follow the mission of providing a place to pray for everyone.
So when we got here, it was an old furniture warehouse and where I'm sitting, this beautiful amphitheater was basically a pile of rubble here in the middle of this urban, densely urban place that we had to create, a place that would give a breath and thinking about the communities that we're in as human beings, right? That we're part of this kind of environment that we've created where we felt it was important to have a site that everybody could come here and feel welcome.
And then at the top of this plaza in that should be the willow oak, so that's a horn beam, like there, good, partially, halfway up the hill, maybe, okay,
The decision to buy a building was fraught with very high, passionate opinions on each side, you know, on one side of the bell curve, people are saying, We'll just pray and we're good where we are, and the other side of the bell curve, people are saying we need home so that we can center ourselves and stop running and running and schlepping and dealing with all the problems that occur, especially the financial ones.
When you are somewhat on the edge, especially spiritually and politically, it is important to have a certain amount of power and solidity and a base, and having a building has given us that we do have the challenge of maintaining a building that's an That's an expensive building that has been somewhat of A burden, but I think to the great credit of the leadership of the congregation, the congregation never lost sight of its political, spiritual and religious values.
And this is a spot in the landscape at Mishkan. These rocks form an outdoor atrium that we use for services and gatherings of different kinds. This is a holocaust memorial that one of our members we had a competition a few years ago, and sculptor, who is a member, came up with this piece that is really beloved by many members. And I kind of think of there's a stream over here, and there's an underground stream at Mishkan. Well, this is a place where the water comes up and it's kind of wild on the other side. And in my mind, I kind of see this as, like, the wilderness, you know, like crossing the wilderness in the Bible. I mean, I don't know that anybody else sees it that way, but you know, you cross over the stream, and it's much wilder over there.
January 6, 2002 that is the day that we dedicated this building.
Hi, sweetie. It was exciting day when we carried the Torahs from Chestnut Hill down to our new building.
In a manner that synagogues throughout history have done, and is rarely done today, which is the carrying of the torus from the old location to the new location.
Hundreds of people in that procession, many of our new neighbors from Roxborough, the pastors and some residents coming in, and just as we hit the front door, it started to rain, but we were here.
God bless us with abundant love and with truth and with us being able to witness redemption in the world. And let us say, Amen. This is now a synagogue.
Services will be held here this coming Shabbat morning.
This was such an important moment for Mishkan Shalom, with the community feeling energized and optimistic about the future as it arrived in its own building soon after. CFAR, Rabbi Brian stepped down from his role as he felt called to other work and moved on from Mishkan, the congregation struggled to keep momentum following its founder with a decade of further searching, challenging organizational dynamics and changes in leadership. Rabbi Jeff Sultar led the Congregation for three years, then Rabbi Linda Holtzman guided Mishkan and laid the groundwork for some of what followed in the future. Rabbi Yael Levy was with Mishkan for almost three decades, first as a student rabbi, then in a supporting role as she developed her own alternative practice.
Yet struggles continued around the rabbinic vision for the synagogue, stances towards Israel and Palestine and financial viability. These challenges fractured the community, and after much deliberation, led to a call for new leadership.
Welcome home, my beloved, welcome home.
I thought of this melody to begin our sacred conversations for I wrote this after I arrived here at Mishkan. We sing this Friday night to welcome in Shabbos and welcome all our souls back to who we truly are. Israel Palestine, Philadelphia community, the lyrics of our Statement of Principles, activism, and spirituality of the world, repair, and self-care. All to the home of your soul.
Growing up, I knew three of my great grandparents who were alive until I was around 12 or 13 years old, I was surrounded by, I think, a sense of tradition and music that went with that. It wasn't an academic or intellectual heritage. It was more a religious, cultural, social, creative, artistic, you know, milieu. I remember being one year old and standing in front of the house that my parents bought in a suburb where Jews didn't used to live. And the beginning of that moving out of the kind of mini-shtetl where everyone landed from other parts of the world, primarily Europe, was part of that expanding frontier, and my parents certainly were raised in those traditions, but weren't particularly observant.
And yet we I was, you know, kind of raised from the ground in a larger family system with, you know, four of my grandparents being active in my life, and three great grandparents, a lot of aunts and uncles and cousins. And, you know, I felt the embrace of and the nurturance of that larger family system in which many of the traditions were upheld, but not in a heavy-handed way. My dad's parents sang in the choir. So you know their voices is what Phil. Me. For me, I often rode the waves of that feeling of just listening to their voices washing over me. And you know, as much as anything in the prayer book, that way.
I felt moved one day, I was just playing with the guitar and thinking of that phrase.
So that became a chant. And then what about the words that come from that?
So, it just became a liturgical piece to write with that new melody. And then I was toying around with and I went, Oh, I know some popular tunes that have those three chords, you know, to them as well.
And as we wind on down the road,
Knock, knock, knocking on heaven's door. And so there's a plaintiveness that comes, especially when we mix the cultures of the time in which we're in with ancient liturgy and new or traditional melodies, that it's like there's almost a time warp happens, and it brings a power to that moment.
I was writing in my diary experiences that I was having about a sense of God's presence in my life, as a felt experience, as a companion, as guide and a place of comfort in being held that way musically, you know, I was in a Bee Gees cover band, and, you know, being Barry Gibb or, you know, the kind of pop rock, independent singer songwriter milieu that was there that was of influence as well.
And many ways, as I look back now, what we were doing Jewishly was very much, you know, in keeping with what I now know is reconstructionism. Or, you know what I learned then through Reb Zalman Schachter Shalomi. So I got these infusions now of a very populous creative balance of tradition and innovation in one's spiritual life, and so God made man in His own image, in his own likeness. You know, in my early 30s, I felt the bug again. Things fell apart with the theater company and the question of, what is my life going to be now.
I had a few friends who were suddenly disappearing to this wonderful city called Philadelphia to go to the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. And a friend of mine was getting married in May of 1992 in Philadelphia, I came to his wedding, and it was unlike anything I'd ever seen before.
There was four or five officiating clergy. There was a klezmer band. There were knit kipput, there were people wearing Birkenstocks. There were like, all these sorts of things that, you know, culturally and Jewishly, I'd not been exposed to that just, you know, lit up my soul that way. Your deep inside your home, I thought I would never know so many years.
Oh, we often like bifurcate these like, oh, that's art, or that's spirituality or activism. Why I feel so home here at Mishkan Shalom is I feel the mission statement resonates with my own soul that way. There's a reason this was the only community I applied to, and I wasn't looking just for a place like it felt to me. This would be the place.
Shawn came to Mishkan like a balm. He is an intuitive human, and I think that he understood that we were in a tender and painful moment and that we couldn't. We in in some ways, see ourselves very clearly, but what he saw in Mishkan was a powerful community in need of healing and in need of acceptance and love, and he kind of exudes that.
I'll never forget. He was playing the guitar in the sanctuary as people were entering, and there was a deep feeling of sadness in the room, because the community had really split over the change, the need for change in rabbinic leadership, and he tuned in to the sadness, he tuned into the pain, and he was he honored it. He just knew he completely honored it, and that's who he is in his heart, but also in his training,
Words that I've completed for tonight that speaks so much to me.
He knows a lot about community organism, right, and community development. And he, he was so honorific, and he the first thing he said to the community is, I know that this has been a time of brokenness and I'm here to honor that. I'm here to be with you in that, and I want to learn from you about what kind of leader you need me to be or
Reverend Noonan wrote, we were made for these times. As soon as I heard that said, “Can you come to Mishkan and you do your prayer? Don't just show up to our service we do.”
He's incredible at connecting with people, and he's really he's hungry. He's hungry in the best way. He's hungry to learn. He's hungry to know. And then he allows that to touch deeply. You know what his core is, what his foundation of belief and spirituality is, and he has this wonderful ability to bring that into a situation that is not defined or confined by any kind of smallness. He really believes the Jewish communal experience, that we exist only in relationship.
Because I looked around and I felt overwhelmed by the aspect of people being our allies.
He brings the power of His presence and a powerful acceptance that I think we not only craved, but actually brings us more into being. You know, I think it's generative
To raise the sweetness and the sweetness of being here this evening together.
I think what he brought us was someone we could trust, and that's no small thing. I mean, you can have visionary people who challenge you and make you grow and energize you. You can have storytellers, and you can have all of that, but to have someone who sees you, just sees you. First of all, that's a profound experience, and it's the one I think that we long for, as humans, to be seen. But he didn't just see us. He said, I see you, and I've got something for you.
Being the Rabbi of a congregation the size of Mishkan, which is a couple of 100 families at this point, it's a very challenging and stressful job. You know, there are many aspects to the job, and it's impossible for any one person to do all of them well. And in a small congregation, the rabbi needs to be able to do all the jobs. Still does many things, so it's challenging to be able to hold all of that Shawn does have that deep spiritual commitment to a Jewish life, to really having a direct and immediate relationship with God through a Jewish lens, good gathering.
Okay, we're on to The Rock.
When Shawn came, about a half a dozen of us, not all rabbis, but about a half a dozen of us who are very close personal friends with both Sean and Yael. We sat down with them and said, We love both of you. We know there might be challenges in working together, and we are here for you to come to us, but we're going to hold you accountable to us as well.
So it's still much earlier that way, they have been a model of two strong leaders working together and praising each other and building each other the strengths. That was just a good reminder like Shawn came in with the intention to heal and the intention to include. He just came in with so much warmth and humor and support and appreciation, and with this, this really deep, deep, deep sense that there is room enough for everybody here, there is room enough for everybody here, and the more the better. And let's really appreciate each other's offerings and raise each other's offerings up.
And it's just been a really beautiful partnership and collaboration to lead a service with somebody you know, especially the High Holidays, and to lead that service where it's so vulnerable and tender and real, you have to trust somebody. And I really trust Rabbi Shawn, I really do in those deep places, and I honor Him and really deeply appreciate him, and so happy that he's here, and so I was like, Oh, give thanks. Give thanks.
So this is a community meeting. So I thought I would do a poem that I think one of the things it does is call us deeply into community.
Be perfect. Become ripe as the bearer of all fruit ripens.
Be full and shapely. Come into your colors.
Come into your colors in your own time as the source of all hues shimmers through you.
Celebrate. Celebrate the company of others from different vines.
Be food with them. The meal you make together, the meal we make together, far surpasses what we'd be alone.
Fear not the knife and the mingling of your oils. Be perfect.
How great it is, how lovely it is to be together this evening, to be able to share food and have dinner together, and to come together with all the honor of our community and our shared values and vision.
I was always encouraged by the community to do what was true for me and to explore, you know, my passions and my spiritual and religious path, and to share that, to share that, and that's a that's another unique thing.
There's not many rabbis that I you know, colleagues, that really feel like they can be true and authentic in their own expression and share that with the community. And I feel like, not only was I encouraged to I was like, Really, that's what we want you to do. After, you know, I spent, you know, lots of years actually, in my own practice, with the mindfulness and learning and studying, I began to bring it into my service, leading and teaching, because that's what was growing in me. The words that we say plant, what we want to have grow. And there was something about the deep listening, really, it felt so Jewish, the Shema, the deep, deep listening into relationship with the mystery. And there was something about that that spoke to me so deeply, to my heart, my soul and became my practice.
I'm going to ask you guys to come over so I can explain about the haroseth. I would love you to come when I'm cooking with the teens. Barry, it is the most hilarious thing. I can't wait to see how they react, because they act as if I am not an adult who's present
Symbolizes mortar, and what is the deal with mortar? Well, that's where Frodo brought the ring. No, come on. What they built the stuff with the pyramids and stuff, yeah, because we were slaves, yeah.
And we have Passover every year to remember we are free, and to remember also, in our Reconstructionist seders, we remember that there are people in the world who still aren't free, and they're solving the world's problems while I'm teaching them to make challah or whatever, and they totally ignore me once I get them going. So I would love to see what happens if they would just forget that a camera is there, you know?
Food for Thought has sort of brought, especially me, a place where, after we have our B'nai Mitzvah, so we can come back to the synagogue and participate in activity. We make food. Sometimes we give it to charities or events at the synagogue, and sometimes it's just for us to eat. I've been here since I was a kid. I've been at Mishcon since we were learning our Aleph Bet, you know, the alphabet, and I always loved it here, because it was like a second home to me, like I would, I still show up early, like two hours before everyone gets here, just so I can Be in the building, and it's just another home.
Part of the idea of doing a doing a walk on Shabbat is it can be a way to develop your Shabbat practice, which, for some people would be to say, you know, the created world is like, it's what it today. It's what it is, and I'm not going to focus on, you know, the thing that I have to do to change it. I find that, on the one hand, really valuable, but on the other hand, really, really challenging to me.
It's just really important that there's this tiny, little, beautiful stream that is so small that sometimes it's here and sometimes it's not here. Other people say that the closest food, the most ineffable food, is chocolate. So I don't know which I don't know which branch of that Kabbalistic practice you belong to. But I did bring hot chocolate. I don't know how hot it is at this point.
A song that we often sing when we're gathering, which is Hine matov, it's how wonderful it is to gather together with friends, or to gather together in community.
A time to weep, a time to mourn, a time to laugh, a time to dance, a time for casting stones and a time to gather them together, a time for embracing and a time for holding back, a time to seek, a time to lose, a time to keep and a time to throw away.
Tikkun olam is a central part of the Jewish belief and commitment. And this, the whole idea of Tikkun Olam, the repair of the world, is the kind of thing that a lot of Jews, I think, really relate to and look for religious support justification, a context in which to exercise that, that activity of helping the world be a better place and so, and it's also one.
Of the three pillars in Mishkan’s statement of principles, so it's always been central to Mishkan in particular. The. I'd been unaffiliated from any organized religion since my Bar Mitzvah, until we had a child. And that's a very typical kind of story.
You know, you have a young child, and you think more about religious upbringing, and we did a little bit of synagogue shopping, and I was pretty turned off to almost any place we looked at. It just felt alienating, intimidating. I'd been away so long I didn't feel like I knew how to behave correctly, and places just were hard to relate to.
And we were recommended to someone recommended checking out Mishkan, and we did, and the first time we went there, just felt amazingly different. Just felt right. We just felt at home right away. And as soon as I learned more about the mission and the values and the tikkun olam emphasis, you know, it felt, it felt so, so appropriate and so comfortable that we've been there ever since and happy with that.
Non-violence, joint community and action.
The civil religion of American Jews continued, really, until very recently, to be Israel, Israel, Israel, Israel, Israel, for most American Jews. And when Mishkan was founded, we were highly counter-cultural, and I would say still counter-cultural in that we don't make Israel the center of everything. We don't have Israeli bonds dinners. We don't do the flag on the bima kind of thing.
You know, we see the prisoners at that time as heroes, like they sacrifice their lives for the homeland, for the good, and they used to be a minority. That's very important to mention.
I would say that we are definitely more engaged, more willing to ask the questions now, but our legacy is so connected to having had the willingness to have an alternative point of view about Israel at that time.
And I understand the double edge of that, on one hand to say Black lives matter, means somehow to think, well, we're separating out of our Jewish community, those of our members of color, but I want to say that every Black life matters in this country, that we can say those others matter too, but not until that moment.
Everybody. Stay strong together. I'm
You worship, and the spirit of prophecy within him, despite Joshua's complaint about them, Moses defends their right to act as prophets.
So just a taste of some of the big events, like, there's a lot of really core things that are there. And it was that whole piece we talked about last time, too, about the clouds.
It means being respected in my synagogue, because I've grown older, I've gone through this process that everybody, almost everyone in our synagogue has gone through, if not twice.
The names are organized east west, in this direction by the traditional month of death. Currently, we're in Tevet. It's now Rosh Chodesh, that and the current month is illuminated with a beam of light from the light box in the front of the memorial. It's like we revealed more about the person, and so we can share and hold each other's memories and lift up their spirits and their names, as our tradition invites us to offer at moments like this, to see them enveloped in the unfolding of human history and the power of creation and of telling each other's stories.
To your wisdom, oh, teach us to treasure each teach us to treasure each day. That we may open our hearts to your wisdom, oh teach us to treasure each day.
I've always admired and somewhat struggled myself with, you know, am I fiery enough or and I hang around a lot of Christian pastors now as well. But you know where I'm, you know, I can get into my less confident mode around that so, so I think that's the piece that I don't feel the weight of that legacy.
I feel there's no place else I wanted to be so this as to be able to serve a spiritually activist community like this, in alignment and then, you know, so it's more where I may personally feel a little bit shy or my ideas aren't necessarily as formed as someone like Brian or others.
And then, you know, I think about each of us serves in a way, so you keep growing and changing, and some of the things that are strengths in one are for others considered challenges or weaknesses. And then, you know, so to get into that game is to undermine yourself. And then for me, it's, as Reb Zalman would say, I remember when he was still alive and I had started at Mishkan. He would say, the last time I saw him face to face in person, he said nuu, so what's happening at Mishkan? And I listed all the programs he was doing. He said, That's all wonderful how online are you with purpose and with God? That's what I'm asking you at Mishkan, not all the things that you're doing, and what amazing community is, etc.
And so for me, that's been helpful to remember. It's like a shviti, like a, you know, something you put up on the wall to remind you. And so as you bring this light towards yourself, just bring that little aspect of maybe there's a highlight of this fall, a particular memory that you have, and let that go.
He's very caring. And in a pastoral situation, he's wonderful. He is, of course, very musical and, and he has a background in performance and, and so that has brought, has brought music to our to our services, which is wonderful.
We'll be gentle, and then all people will be strong.
You know, when we first started in Mishkan, the price that Rabbi Brian and others of us paid to take a stand, you know, for Palestinian people to have their own self determination and safety and security, as well as Jews as you know, not to the exclusion of either, but to end occupation and so on. We were one of the only, if not the only, address in the Jewish community. We're now, 30 years later, and there are other synagogues, you know, and a variety of different organizational responses to issues in Israel and Palestine that we were the holders of and feeling isolated with, and now we can be involved in this whole spectrum of issues as well as figure out for ourselves, where do we stand?
Yeah, go ahead and add hackathon
I think it's the future of what Mishkan has always has been, this ever changing and ever growing place. And I mean, like definitely watching the screening and understanding that its roots were from this kind of like place of social acceptance and understanding. I think that the general idea is where it's going to continue going, and that Judaism should be something that everyone should be able to like, participate and find value in. And I think that kind of idea is where Mishkan is going to go in the future.
We gather as family to keep ourselves warm, and they start to get longer in light as we head into winter,
And this moment in time in which we are in the history of the planet, the challenges to the planet, war that's erupted, you know, in multiple places, some that get more attention than others. You know refugees, you know racial equity, the fight for that. I mean, these are all they're not necessarily the newest issues, but they're very intense right now. And I think the fact that we're still around and that we've not dissolved or disappeared, and that, you know, this film also documents a period of time that continues to evolve. You know, will we always be Mishkan Shalom this way, in this building? Who knows. But I think the seeds that we're planting, whatever we become in the future, you know, I think are powerful ones. CFAR.
There's like, tikkun olam, when you help people, and like, it's a Jewish value, and that's what Mishkan is all about. It's like, caring about people like this is just like, a mitzvah, no? And now we're going to, like, do some work.
Welcome everybody and thank you for coming. The goal for our evening is to really have a chance to reflect on the statement of principles and to consider, to what extent does it continue to reflect, however Mishkan’s future unfolds, I believe it has been good and important that this congregation has continued for this long and has evolved to meet the changing times while keeping its core identity. It has, for sure, been a source of energy, meaning and connection for me and many others.
