News from Middle Tennessee's Jewish Community |
Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024
Moran Rosenblatt (Wedding Doll, Fauda) stars in this delightfully subversive comedy that mines interfaith and cross-cultural relationships against a specifically Israeli backdrop.
We are excited to announce that Moon Bishop will be the next Director of The Temple Preschool. Since agreeing to serve as our Interim Director last December, Moon has provided steady leadership, skillfully guiding our school through an unexpected transition and ongoing COVID-19 challenges. We are grateful for her unwavering dedication to the TPS mission, staff, families, and children. We are proud of Moon’s commitment to the school and the strides she and her team have taken this year. She has strengthened the staff by implementing a professional development program, increased enrollment, and created several new policies and procedures essential to the daily operations of our school. Moon also was a critical part of the recent TPS assessment and will be working to communicate her plans to implement recommendations from that process. We are excited about the passion, energy, and vision that Moon brings to this role and are thrilled that TPS will be under her skilled leadership moving forward. Moon says she is excited to be chosen for this position and looks forward to bringing her unique experiences to continue building a solid foundation for the youngest learners, “Although I’ve been an educator for thirty years, there is still nothing more exciting to me than watching a child’s eyes light up when they “get” something for the first time; it is what feeds my soul. My passion for learning and educating, along with my belief in children’s innate capabilities and strengths, inform everything I do and provide the guiding light for my work with children, families, and educators. I am excited to lead this already amazing preschool and can’t wait to see how we continue to grow and thrive.”
For many Jews, the idea of text study evokes memories of long afternoons spent in Hebrew School classrooms reciting the aleph bet and rote learning the Shabbat prayers. Upon completion of Bar or Bat Mitzvah, Jewish learning often falls off the schedules of busy teens and young adults. Keeping the connection to organized Jewish life and study is even more challenging during the college and post-college years. Nearly 50 years ago, a young immigrant to Israel, Michael Swirsky, conceived an idea of an institute of Jewish learning designed to be accessible, inspiring and inclusive of all denominations. The goal was merely to study and learn with no agenda and provided the foundation for today’s Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies. Rabbi Mark Schiftan of The Temple says it is the straight forward nature of the approach that is unique. “The Pardes rubric is to start with the simple meaning of the text and gradually peel back the layers. It is concise enough that the average person, with an average Jewish background, can come away with an understanding of how a page of Torah works.” The appeal of Pardes led Rabbi Schiftan to partner with the institute and bring a class to the Nashville Jewish Community. “Pardes is good at taking other than Orthodox Jews and helping them see the gift of their own tradition,” he says.
National and international headlines continue to report far too many stories about antisemitic incidents and attacks. Locally we have been relatively fortunate so far, but we are not immune from these concerns. The inherent danger of this Jew hating monster cannot be underestimated as it can rear itself suddenly and without warning. Current statistics reveal a disturbing climb in the problem, but the hatred itself is as old as time. The Community Relations Committee of the Jewish Federation and Jewish Foundation of Nashville and Middle Tennessee has been active in providing education, resources, and programming to create productive response to the growing problem. We are now joined in the work to address the current crisis by the Task Force on Israel and Domestic Antisemitism chaired by Leslie Kirby.
It has been several weeks since the East Champlain Tower collapsed in Surfside, Florida. It has been several weeks of anxiety, heartfelt prayers, and an unending wait hoping to finally hear some good news. Families have been waiting to hear the outcome of the search and recovery effort. I personally know a family that lost both of their parents, in this most horrific building collapse in Surfside, Florida. There was a young couple who signed a lease for a condo in that very building on Wednesday, the day before the building collapsed. Thankfully they hadn’t yet moved in, although tragically his parents are still among the missing.
Chabad of Nashville will be offering a new B’nai Mitzvah program this fall, with a wide variety of options to prepare Jewish children for this auspicious day.
Have out of town guest coming to visit you? Not up to cooking dinner? Need a kosher meal to go? Not to worry.
I’ll never forget the day my mom was diagnosed with inoperable cancer. From her hospital bed in NYC she called and told me the dreadful news. I quietly and quickly bought a ticket and flew up to the city the next morning. I went straight from the airport to her hospital room. I remember walking in and seeing my mom sitting up in bed in her silk Donna Karan robe, make up, and hair all combed and in place. What struck me most though, and has never left me, was the absolute way her eyes lit up when I surprisingly walked in the room. To this day, I realized there are few people, if any, whose eyes light up, the way my mom’s did that day, when I walk in a room. To tell you the truth, I noticed, most times people don’t even bother to look up at all. Which lead me to think about unconditional love and Aunt Tootsie.
Daniel Hoffman welcomed as new Head of Judaic Studies at Jewish Middle School of Nashville
