Temple Beth El in Riverside, California with a musical service

Part 2 of the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ4lC7T9q1k

What is Temple Beth El? A little history provided by them: The earliest Temple Beth El families in Riverside date from the early 1900’s. Riverside Jewish Welfare, the first enduring Jewish organization in Riverside was founded in 1931. The second Jewish organization, B’nai B’rith Lodge 1221 was formed in 1936. Services and religious school were held in congregants’ homes until 1945 when the first building on 3559 Twelfth Street was acquired. Temple Beth El received the charter from the State of California in 1947. The first Confirmation service at TBE was held by Rabbi Zieggler in 1949. TBE became a member of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations in 1949. Membership was 52 families. Groundbreaking for the present Temple was held Sept. 15, 1963 and our first Friday Night services were conducted on June 12, 1964. Soon thereafter the Temple Beth El Preschool opened in the new education building. Renamed the TBE Child Development Center in 1998 it is one of only two accredited day care centers in Riverside. Today membership is some 217 families and Temple Beth El continues to be a vibrant Jewish presence in the City of Riverside. “

View slideshow: A Musical Friday Night at Temple Beth El in Riverside, California

At the invitation of Rabbi Suzanne Singer I attended Temple Beth El in Riverside, California on the evening of January 27, 2012. Temple Beth El is at 2675 Central Ave and after talking to Cantor Bob Sirotnik began to talk to people (what a strange thing for a writer to do) on an evening service to be filled with music. Cantor Bob, as he is known, has been the cantor at Temple Beth El since 1971 and has practiced as a cantor since 1969. He received his training from famed cantors Philip Moddel and William Sharlin. Rabbi Singer (the subject of a previous article) has been associated with Temple Beth El since 2005. She was ordained at Hebrew Union College (HUC) in May 2003 and served at Temple Sinai in Oakland, CA from 2003-06. During her years at HUC she won a number of awards for academic excellence including prizes in Bible, Midrash, Ethics, and liturgy. She also served as Student Rabbi for the Reform congregation of Victoria, Canada; held an internship at the American Jewish Committee; taught adult education courses in Judacia and numerous other positions. Rabbi Singer was a television producer before becoming a rabbi and the executive producer of POV on PBS. As the producer she received two national Emmy awards. She is married to actor Jordan Lund and is the aunt of seven nieces and nephews with whom she is very close.

In a message she writes, “We know that people come through our doors for many reasons, and we strive to make sure that a variety of needs are met. We invite you to come explore Judaism with us. Please come to a service or a class, or come to my office to chat. My door is always open and I would be happy to discuss Temple Beth El community with you.”

In the video to the left of Cantor Bob is the outgoing Temple president Jory Yarmoff who in a message he has printed out says, “Welcome to Temple Beth El – a synagogue that combines the warmth of an extended family with a wealth of opportunities for spiritual growth, learning and community. Small enough to ensure that every member is integral to the congregation, we are also big enough to offer a full range of religious, social, and education programs.” As you can see in the video this man can really jam. Also up there hidden by the others is Adam Perlskin on the drums, Jim Orens third from the left in grey and Morris Maduro at the end who is now the Temple President.

Genesis 32:24-32

24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 26 then the man said, “let me go, for it is daybreak.”

But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

27 the man asked him, “what is your name?”

“Jacob,” he answered.

28 then the man said, “your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel,[a] because you have struggled with god and with humans and have overcome.”

29 Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.”

But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.

30 so Jacob called the place Peniel,[b] saying, “it is because i saw god face to face, and yet my life was spared.” Asking questions or wrestling with god about life in general is part of this tradition and as usual I had questions to ask.

Setting up for the service cantor Bob was busy connecting guitars to speakers and other attachments and obviously distracted. Probably not the best time to start a philosophical discussion but I asked him about the service that was about to take place and other questions in general. I asked him about this particular service and he replied,” basically a service with joyous music. Music but something that is being done amongst some reform and conservative congregations. It is meant to be joyous and fun and but somewhat reflective. There is a lot of music in the Jewish repertoire, just tons of it and sometimes it isn’t done at a service but it connects a lot of different prayers. So you are an agnostic.

(Dave) there are fundamentalists who believe one thing and atheists who believe absolutely not and the agnostic who just asks, “What does all this mean? This universe? What’s going on?” I studied anthropology in college and that gives me a basis for going around and talking to people and asking questions. We both know that Israel means he who wrestles with God.

(Bob) absolutely. I guess we all have a quest for meaning. I think that the fact that we ask those questions reflects back that there is probably some sort of order in the universe that is so amazing. The idea that there was an exceptional blast from nothingness but hydrogen. I mean just a blast of hydrogen into this universe and that’s it and it leads to us talking to each other. Now that to me is something amazing. Is it improbability or is it inevitability? It probably can’t be either one or maybe a combination of both.”

Going back to set up my camera I talk to several people coming into the temple as music is being played in the background. “Hi. I’m Alan. What do I think is important about the service? The important part about the service is to separate the week that has been from the Sabbath. The Sabbath is a time for relaxation and study of Torah and of being with family and not working and things like that. The importance of the service tonight is that for Judaism the day end at sundown and the next day begins. When we light the candles we separate the week from the Sabbath. So that is really the importance of the erv Shabbat service and the erv stands for eve in English but of course it’s a Hebrew word which we transliterate into erv. So what do I derive from being Jewish and observing the law? A lot of it is tradition and it is a comfortable tradition for me. That is mainly what I derive from it. Do I run my life by trying to follow the precepts? I think the precepts of most religions are similar. I don’t think that the differences are that great. The rituals that may be attached to them may be different but the basic concept in term of running your life is pretty much the same. We have been at temple Beth el for about twenty years. Originally I’m from back east in the Washington dc area. We have moved around quite a bit. My wife is from West Virginia and we spent a lot of time in Washington dc area. We lived in Wyoming before coming here. On Saturday we will generally read the torah from the torah scrolls and every congregation in the world reads the same portion saturday morning which is when most congregations read the torah. One of the things that is important is that most religions are developed at a certain place and a certain point of time with certain external pressure that causes people to do and say and feel certain things that changes with time. There is a book called “who wrote the bible” which is really related to the Torah and it goes into an analysis of how it is put together and that it was probably written at a certain point of time and reflecting back there were all sorts of things like that. There is another one that is called “the natural history of the bible” which was written by a professor by the name of Daniel Hillel who occasionally taught here in riverside at UCR. He is an Israeli and it discusses the way people lived at that time. They were nomadic peoples and he explains why things developed the way they did in terms of their beliefs. I believe like you do that the word is not necessarily it and there is no one truth because even in the Christian bible it was a developmental process and the winners in the church got to choose how to write “the word” and other beliefs were discounted. (I mention a book called “how Jesus became Christian”) that would be interesting to read. Christianity is not the religion of Jesus it is a religion about him. It’s all developmental and we see today how many forms of Christianity there are and it’s still developing and still changing. You’ll find that our sermons are relating to a Torah portion of the week ethical principles and deriving from that.

(Dave-hello I’m doing an article on the temple), “ My name is Florence Sussman and I’m from riverside but originally Manhattan. I’ve been here ten years and I’ve been coming to this temple since I moved out here ever since. What do I like about this temple? I like the rabbi and the people are very congenial. It’s very nice and they do different things as you can see today. This is such an interesting temple we even had a Native American convert to Judaism. The people are warm and friendly and very social. It’s a good thing. I belong to a group at the university and we go on trips so we went to a Buddhist temple in Hacienda Heights that was beautiful and was one that the Dalai Llama stayed at. They are really very good people. The cantor is a dentist and his wife is a professor in San Bernardino. There are cardiologist’s lawyers and all sorts of people and they are all very nice. I have to confess I’m not used to going to a temple like this and I really like it.”

“Hi I’m Rusty Russell. Nice to meet you. Is this your first time with us or have you been coming? (I admit that I am writing an article) oh cool! I think the rabbi told us you were going to be here. She asked how did we feel about it and we said yes~ let him write us up. I want you to know that it is our custom that we have the service and then we have refreshments in the room next door so if you can stick around …”

“Hi I’m Miriam Farber. I’m a rabbinic student and rabbi singer is my mentor. Times have changed. For example, we were talking about synagogue architecture reflects these changes. In the 1800’s if there wasn’t a woman’s section it didn’t mean that the men and women sat together it meant that the women stayed home. The school I’m going to is in Los Angeles right by the USC campus. It’s a great area and I really like it.” (I remark that this is not an orthodox temple and earlier bob had mentioned that if it was they would have to seal the rabbi in a bottle up at the pulpit) well the drums are one indication of that.

Time for me to be back up with my camera

aside from the songs rabbi singer took advantage of her sermon (which is also in the video) to discuss the problems we are facing us today which I thought I a very important issue to pass on both in the video and the writing.

“We are fully in the book of Shermot – Exodus - the story of the Israelites bondage in Egypt and their liberation.

“Aside from its historical significance what can this story about slavery tell us about our world today? After all slavery is a thing of the past isn’t it? The truth is that slavery is still with us today in a variety of different guises. You probably remember that at Rosh Hashanah I told about a little boy in Ghana who was sold at the age of 4 to fishermen. Well another example of form modern day slavery is all of the wonderful electronic devices that we use. I-phones and i-pads and i-pods and things like that all contain small chips that are you guessed it manufactured in china. A week or so ago on john Stewart’s daily show he presented a profile of a company which makes those chips and is in china and makes all of those chips. This company employees several hundred thousand workers. They all live in a community where they don’t have to leave to buy food or to do any of their errands and they live in dormitories 8 to 10 to a room. They make about 35 cents an hour and they don’t get paid overtime. If they try to unionize they can get 12 years in prison. Some workers have committed suicide because of these conditions so the company has taken to installing netting under the windows in case anybody decides to jump. Stewart concluded that Fox Conn’s business practices saved American consumers about 23% on their electronics.

But we don’t need to go all the way to Africa or Asia to see modern day slavery.

In September I traveled to Immokalee, Florida to visit with tomato pickers and learn about their plight. I traveled with a group called rabbis for human rights. In Florida the tomato industry has been called ground zero for modern slavery by one federal prosecutor.

Some workers have become debt slaves charged so much by their employer for things like transportation to the work site and for living accommodations that they cannot pay off their debt for many, many years. In the meantime they are forced to remain in the employer’s fields under armed guard. Actual slavery is the extreme end of the continuum work in this tomato fields. Like textile workers at the turn of century Florida tomato harvesters are paid by the piece and the average piece rate today is 50 cents for every 32 pounds of tomatoes they pick. A rate that has remained virtually unchanged since 1980. I don’t know if you have ever tried to lift 32 pounds of tomatoes but it is really heavy. As a result a worker today has to pick more than 2 ¼ tons of tomatoes to earn minimum wage in a typical 10 hour day. That is more than double the amount that a worker had to pick to maintain minimum wage 30 years ago. Most farm worker’s pay is less than $12,000 a year. Under payment of wages, sexual harassment, and exposure to pesticides are further indignities preventing workers living in a decent, dignified, and independent way.

So what do all of these different forms of slavery have in common and what do they have to do with us? Well we are all part of a global economic system that maximizes profits for corporations and for the very wealthy few while leaving the rest of us, the 99%, to survive as best we can and fewer and fewer of us are surviving. We have been hearing and reading about the great disparities in wealth and that are growing by leaps and bounds in the last 30 years. Members of the middle class have been thrown into poverty unable to afford their homes, health insurance, and food. The term “working poor” has become a fairly common description of folks who just a few years ago were making ends meet and then some. According to the New York Times 1 in 3 or 100 million Americans are either poor or very close to it. Over 49 million Americans are below the poverty line which is $24,343 for a family of 4. Another 51 million are in the near poor category meaning they have incomes of less than $33,000 a year. According to the census bureau nearly half of those have dropped from higher income levels because of medical bills, taxes, and other unavoidable outlays.

At a time when millions of Americans are trying to hang onto their homes and their jobs corporate executives are often being paid more now than they were getting before the recession. The median pay for top executives at 200 major corporations was $9.6 million ($9,600,000) last year. That is a 12% increase from 2009. Profits at American businesses are increasing at a rate of nearly 30% which is the fastest growth in 60 years. Tax and economic policies are largely to blame for this gross disparity and for the fact that basic necessities such as health and child care, housing and education are increasingly out of reach for the poor and the near poor. For example capital gains on investments are only taxed at 15% and capital gain is the source of half of the income of the top .1% in our society. Additionally fund managers are paid a chunk of their incomes that is also taxed at 15%. The results according to economist Paul Krugman is that the middle class income has risen by 21% between 1979 and 2005 but the income of the richest 1% Americans has risen by 400%. Middle class 21% top 1% 400%. The result of the impoverishment of most Americans is a constant scramble to keep up with the bills in order to barely survive.

What does that mean for our children? The sight of poor nutrition, lousy housing conditions, limited opportunities for advancement and here is a shocking example from last week’s New York Times about how many of our children are living. Daycare centers are beginning to stay open around the clock because parents are now working two or three jobs in addition to working late hours and off hours. Today up to 40% of the labor force works more standard hours and that number is growing as the service industry expands. Though overnight daycare is still pretty rare evening hours are no longer unusual in daycare. According to the publisher of “exchange magazine” this is the wave of the future. In Ohio the number of centers offering night time hours was up more than 50% in the last decade. Centers with overnight hours have doubled. Here are some examples provided by the New York Times. On a recent day a grandmother dropped off a first grader at 4:30 am on the way to her early morning shift at burger king. A mother picked up her 3 year old at 11:30 pm after getting off work at a nursing home. Another mother came for two year old twins at 1:30 am after her shift as a cleaner in a gym. For some children the center’s staff members are almost surrogate parents feeding them dinner, helping them with homework, brushing their teeth and putting them to sleep at night until their parents come to fetch them. Is this the kind of society we want to leave to our children? I believe that one of the biggest problems is campaign financing.

It costs so much money to run a campaign these days that politicians are indebted to contributors with the deepest pockets. Those are corporations and the super wealthy. As a result there are those with money who set the agenda for the nation. The Talmud tells us anyone who can protest against something that is wrong that members of his family are doing and does not protest is seized on account of the wrong doing by members of his family. Anyone who is possible to protest against something that is wrong that the people of the city are doing and does not protest is seized on account of the wrong doing of the people of the city. For anyone for whom it is possible to protest against wrong doing in the whole world and does not protest is seized on account of the wrong doing of the whole world.

So it is not only our duty to protest what is going on in our country it is also in our self-interest because we are all vulnerable and we are leaving our children an appalling state of affairs. We are going to have to really think about what kind of society that we want to live in and what kind of society we want to bequeath to our children and our grandchildren. We cannot throw up hands and say that we are powerless to do anything. We need to support legislation and legislators who do the right thing to limit power in the money area who wants to limit the power that money has become in our political process. We need to speak up and organize and we need to put our own money where our mouth is. For example if you have investments in the stock market and your money is going to multi-nationals who exploit their workers or destroy our environment you can take your money out and put it in a socially responsible fund. That is what I am going to do. If you have an account with a bank that will not work with homeowners to modify their loans but would rather foreclose not only on homes but on the synagogue in Corona. You can take your money out of that bank and open an account with a community bank or a credit union. I’ve just sent a letter to Chase asking them to close my account and I also sent a letter to the CEO of JP Morgan Chase protesting that bank’s choice profits over commitment to our community. I would be happy to discuss all of this further with you later or you can e-mail me, call, or come to my office.

For final inspiration I would like to read the prayer “Social Action” by Jack Reimer.

‘We cannot merely pray to God to end war.

For the world is made in such a way

That we must find our own path to peace

Within ourselves and in our neighbors.

We cannot merely pray to God to uproot our prejudices

For we already have eyes

With which to see the good in all people

If we would only use them rightly.

We cannot really pray to God to end starvation

For we already have the resources

With which to feed the entire world