Temple Beth El Blog

By popular demand, Mitzvah Day is coming back on Sunday, April 23, 2023. We'll offer a wide range of projects suitable for all ages and abilities, such as cooking, sewing, painting, and planting. Volunteering will take place both at Temple Beth El and out in the community. The day will include a bone marrow drive and a diaper collection. 
 
Several nonprofits, including Artworking, a community of artists with disabilities, will be selling their crafts as part of a late afternoon fair in the Weinstein Community Court.
 
Food will be available after Religious School so families can nosh and get revved up before their first activity. At 5:00 pm we will gather as a community for a meal to share our experiences. Everyone is welcome, and everyone is needed! 
 
We still need people to lead projects! If you would like to captain a project or help us plan the event in other ways, please contact one of our co-chairs: Lynn Renner, Linda Reivitz, and Staci Rieder. 

Use this form to tell us more about a mitzvah project you would like to lead. 

More details and registration will be available in mid-February on the Temple website.

TBE is entering the third year of our partnership with the Allied Wellness Center's Essentials Pantry. In 2022, generous TBE members contributed $4,700, which purchased thousands of critically needed health and hygiene products, such as toilet paper, paper towels, toothpaste, deodorant, razors, diapers, sanitizing wipes, tampons, shampoo, etc., as well as bus tickets, gas cards, and grocery cards. Allied Wellness Center is incredibly grateful to our community for this support, which especially during these difficult economic times.

Can you or your family help us fulfill this mitzvah now, during this month of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. commemorations? The most efficient way to stock the shelves is to donate money so we can buy in bulk. You can make your tax-deductible donation right on the Temple website (select Allied Wellness Center as the donation type). You can also mail a check to Temple Beth El (2702 Arbor Drive, Madison, WI 53711) with “Allied Wellness Center” in the memo. 

Alternatively, you can drop off any of the following items in the Temple Beth El coatroom, and we’ll make sure they get to the Allied Wellness Center. 

• Bars of soap
• Toothpaste
• Toothbrushes
• Body wash
• Shampoo
• Deodorant
• Razors
• Paper towels
• Toilet paper
• Hand sanitizer
• Diapers (all sizes)
• Diaper wipes
• Tampons
• Menstrual pads
• Laundry detergent 
• Laundry pods
• Surface cleaners
• Sponges
• Dish detergent 

 The Allied Wellness Center also has an ongoing need for regular volunteers. Would you like to help purchase items with the donated funds and deliver them to the Wellness Center, and/or stock the pantry shelves? If interested, contact Betsy Abramson, co-chair of TBE’s Racial Justice Action Team, at betsyabramson@gmail.com or 608-332-7867.

We are grateful for the state and local grants we have received that are helping to support our security and facility needs.

We are currently receiving reimbursements from a 2021 FEMA Nonprofit Security Grant. This grant is supporting:

• A new door code keypad outside the kitchen door.
• Security film for outdoor windows with ground-level access and windows in our classroom doors to make unlawful entrance more difficult.
• Partial funding for our Madison Police Department (MPD) coverage.

We were awarded a 2022 FEMA Nonprofit Security Grant. This grant will support:

• New radios or communication devices for the school.
• New wooden fencing surrounding our parking lot to replace the broken fence, providing a more secure boundary around TBE property.
• New steel doors in the back of our building to replace those that are rusted. 
• Partial funding for our MPD coverage. 

We were awarded a $2,500 security grant from the Jewish Federation of Milwaukee. This grant will:

• Help defray the cost of MPD coverage during the High Holy Days.

We were recently awarded a grant from the Irwin A. and Robert D. Goodman Foundation, enabling us to: 

• Replace the material on one of our oldest roof tops.
• Purchase solar panels that will reduce our utility costs and help the environment.

We will continue to pursue grant funding opportunities to help support our security and facility expenses.

Looking to volunteer? Need a b’nai mitzvah project? Here are ways to help people in our community. 

Costume Drive

October 9–November 6
Donate gently used and outgrown Halloween costumes for TBE to send to Israel for Purim! Collection box will be in the foyer on Sunday mornings and Wednesday afternoons during school or in the Coatroom at other times.

Thoreau Food Program

Temple Beth El is again joining with other neighboring congregations and organizations to provide children at Thoreau Elementary School with food to take home over the weekend. Many of the children at Thoreau qualify for free or reduced school lunches and may be without adequate food on weekends. Food comes from Second Harvest Foodbank, but volunteers are needed to pack and distribute the food bags for 40–50 children in the Thoreau Elementary Weekend Food Bag Program. 

Two to four volunteers are needed for a morning each week during December. Dates are Friday, December 2, 9, and 16, and Tuesday, December 20. Packing takes place at Westminster Church on 4100 Nakoma Road. We meet at the church at 8:15 am to pack the weekend bags and then distribute them to the children’s lockers at the school at 9:30 am. You may work any or all of these days. 

Please contact Vic Levy at levy@uwplatt.edu with any questions. The first step for anyone interested in volunteering will be to sign up as a volunteer (Level 2) with the Madison Metropolitan School District (go to the MMSD volunteer website at https://appgarden6.app-garden.com/VolTrackWI3269.nsf). This will activate a background check to enter Thoreau Elementary to distribute the food. Please visit their website now if you wish to help in December. If you are already approved to volunteer at any MMSD school for this year, please revise your Volunteer Tracker profile to include food pantry assistant at Thoreau. 

Please use the following Sign-Up Genius link to join us for a day in December: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E0B44ADAC22AB9-thoreau2 

Volunteer Drivers Needed

The Dane Sanctuary Coalition has provided rides for many immigrants to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) offices in Milwaukee, Waukegan, and Chicago, as well as the United States Immigration Court in Chicago since 2019. While there are 49 individuals currently on the email distribution list, there have been a couple of times in which no one has volunteered to take an individual or a family to their scheduled appointment. We are seeking additional volunteer drivers.
 
The scheduled appointments typically are for:

• Collection of biometrics, which includes a photograph, fingerprinting, and completion of a form providing identifying information (e.g., color of eyes).
• Security checks. Generally, the security checks are done annually. For recently arrived immigrants, they may have an appointment to remove an ankle monitor once the immigrants have a permanent address.
• Asylum interviews.
• Court hearings to determine if the immigrant/family will be given a deportation order.

 
The rides to Milwaukee or Waukegan and back generally are completed within four to six hours. The rides to Chicago and back are full-day events. Dane Sanctuary Coalition is able to provide a $25 reimbursement for rides to Milwaukee or Waukegan and a $65 plus parking reimbursement for rides to Chicago.
 
When one of the referring agencies have an immigrant/family with a scheduled appointment at USCIS offices or Immigration Court, Dan Zimmerman or Dineen Grow, the co-coordinators for the volunteer driver program, will email the distribution list seeking a volunteer driver for the specific ride. Volunteer drivers only commit to a specific ride based on their availability.
 
A virtual training session will provide further explanation about the role and responsibilities of a volunteer driver, USCIS processes, etc. If you are interested in being a volunteer driver and receiving the training, please send Dan Zimmerman an email message at zimmerman_dan@hotmail.com or call him at his home at 608-241-1158.

Nonpartisan Election Observation and Other Voter Support Opportunities

The TBE Civic Engagement Action Team has been working to provide nonpartisan voter support throughout the summer and fall. There are still opportunities to help before and even after the election on November 8. The League of Women Voters of Wisconsin is recruiting people who want to serve as nonpartisan election observers and other volunteers. If you’re interested, see here or contact Marcia Vandercook.

Items Needed for Porchlight Men’s Shelter

In mid-September, during the heavy rains, Porchlight had 188 men in need of shelter. This is the highest number of guests ever, in Porchlight’s 35 years of managing the men’s shelter. Here are the items currently most requested by the men: 

• Umbrellas
• Rain ponchos
• Headphones
• Sweatshirts (big sizes)
• Jackets (big sizes)
• Pants (big sizes)

Can you donate any of these items? New or gently used is fine. Items can be dropped off or mailed to Porchlight admin offices at 306 N. Brooks Street, Madison, WI 53715, or dropped off directly at the shelter at 200 N. First Street (Johnson Street entrance), any day, 4:00 to 8:00 pm. Thank you!

Serving Meals at the Catholic Multicultural Center 

If you are looking for a fun, easy opportunity to help the community and spend quality time as a team or group, you can help serve a meal at the Catholic Multicultural Center (CMC). Our TBE team is signed up to help on the third Tuesday of each month. Our next days will be Tuesday, October 18, and Tuesday, November 15, 3:30–5:30 pm.

CMC provides free meals every day to community members on Madison’s south side and people experiencing homelessness. Our volunteers set out and serve the food, join the meal, and then do the dishes and clean up. The center serves about 80 people daily. The Catholic Multicultural Center is located at 1862 Beld Street, Madison, WI 53713. 

Interested in engaging with other TBE members to meet this critical community need? Click the sign-up link and tell us when you are available. Please contact Sue Levy, slevy51@gmail.com, if you have questions.

Court Observers for Criminal and Eviction Court

Several Temple Beth El members act as court observers under a program run by the Nehemiah Center for Urban Development, watching and reporting on criminal and/or eviction court hearings. Observers make their own schedules and are expected to observe about four hours each month. For more information, you can contact any of those currently involved: Betsy Abramson, Lynn Silverman, or Cari DiTullio.

Helping the Allied Wellness Center Essentials Pantry

Twice each year Temple Beth El members raise funds to purchase critically needed personal hygiene, cleaning supplies, and gas and grocery gift cards for the Nehemiah Allied Wellness Center Essentials Pantry. The first drive is in January around Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and the second is at Juneteenth. Between the two drives, we raised over $4,700 to support our neighbors in the Allied area. 

According to coordinator Betsy Abramson, the Allied Wellness Center staff is now inspired to reach out to other Madison-area congregations to follow our example, giving the Essentials Pantry a reliable source of funding for these items. Rabbi Jonathan Biatch has also made monthly donations from the Rabbi’s Discretionary Fund to help out. If you would like to help with purchasing items, or getting the boxes ready on Mondays or Thursdays from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm, contact Betsy Abramson to explore whether this volunteer gig is a good fit for you. 

Middle School Literacy and Math Tutors

The Racial Justice Action Team is partnering with the Urban League of Greater Madison to recruit adults as literacy or math tutors in Madison’s middle schools. Volunteers complete online training and then select the middle school of their choice to commit to at least one hour each week working with individual students. You can begin to explore this opportunity by completing the volunteer tutor application. To learn more about it from a tutor who participated this spring, please contact Betsy Abramson at 608-332-7867, who tutored in algebra twice a week at O’Keeffe Middle School. She learned a lot of algebra herself and reports great satisfaction in helping a 7th grader catch up in this critical skill from what he lost during the year of online school during the pandemic.

Volunteering through Jewish Social Services 

Jewish Social Services of Madison (JSS) is looking for volunteers to help with Shabbat services for seniors, in-person events this summer, friendly visitors, shopping partners, and other tasks.

JSS is also receiving more refugee families for resettlement, and there are a number of ways you can help: setting up apartments for arriving refugees, driving the JSS bus to transport larger families, and teaching English language and literacy skills. New volunteer opportunities are posted here. If you have time and would like to help, please contact JSS volunteer coordinator Paul Borowsky at 608-442-4083 or paul@jssmadison.org.

JSS is also revamping its refugee mentorship program and hopes to pair many of their refugee clients with individual mentors. Two TBE members recently began mentoring an Afghan woman as a pilot pairing of sorts and have found the experience to be meaningful and enjoyable. Contact Erica Serlin or Lynn Silverman to hear about their experience and learn more about the program.

On October 2, some 30 TBE Sisterhood and Racial Justice Action Team members viewed the UW Public History Project’s exhibit “Sifting and Reckoning,” showing at the Chazen Museum of Art on campus through December 23. The exhibit covers 150 years of UW–Madison history, “sifting through histories of discrimination and resistance on campus and reckoning with that history in order to move toward a better future,” according to the exhibit’s curators. 

The project is a multiyear effort to uncover and give voice to those who were often excluded at UW–Madison. In response to the increased awareness of the Ku Klux Klan’s presence on campus in the 1920s, Chancellor Rebecca Blank created the project to better understand the university’s past. The exhibition uses archival materials, objects, and oral histories to bring to light stories of struggle, perseverance, and resistance on campus.

As participants in the TBE event took self-guided tours, we shared our thoughts and recollections, remembering things we observed or experienced personally at UW–Madison or at other colleges. The exhibit focuses on several themes to help us understand the university’s history, including the many ways racism and exclusion permeated campus life, and how the community responded, organized, and resisted. Themes such as student organizations, housing, academic life, and protest provided insight into the various experiences of marginalized students as they navigated the whole of student life. Objects and pictures bring these themes to life: the Pipe of Peace, a ceremonial object used by white students in a popular mock Native ceremony; protest flyers created by students fighting against racism; buttons and athletic memorabilia; and yearbooks and photographs illustrating the culture of exclusion on campus. 

After viewing the exhibit, the TBE group met at the Memorial Union to process what we had seen. Reactions ranged from sadness to shock at the events that had taken place at UW–Madison. One participant’s dormitory roommate told her she really did think that Jews had actual horns. There were stories of segregated dorms, parents who could not get hired as professors because they were Jewish, and more. Participants hoped that the university would take steps after this exhibit to be more proactive about ensuring that all felt a true sense of belonging at UW–Madison.

The project also includes a digital exhibition website, a lecture series, and curricular materials. The exhibit was curated by Kacie Lucchini Butcher, the director of the Public History Project; Taylor Bailey, assistant director; Adriana Arthur, graduate student researcher and curatorial assistant; the Public History Project Steering Committee; and collaborative partnerships with student groups, community partners, and campus stakeholders.

Like other higher-education institutions, UW–Madison is recognizing the importance of examining its history. The TBE event provided a unique opportunity for us to reflect on our past and work toward creating a more equitable future.

Successful Juneteenth Drive for Allied Wellness Center Essentials Pantry

Twice each year Temple Beth El members raise funds to purchase critically needed personal hygiene and cleaning supplies, and gas and grocery gift cards for the Nehemiah Allied Wellness Center Essentials Pantry. The first drive is in January around Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and the second is at Juneteenth. Between the two drives, we raised over $4,700 to support our neighbors in the Allied area. 

According to coordinator Betsy Abramson, the Allied Wellness Center staff is now inspired to reach out to other Madison-area congregations to follow our example, giving the Essentials Pantry a reliable source of funding for these items. Rabbi Jonathan Biatch has also made monthly donations from the Rabbi’s Discretionary Fund to help out. If you would like to help with purchasing items, or getting the boxes ready on Mondays or Thursdays from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm, contact Betsy Abramson to explore whether this volunteer gig is a good fit for you. 

Six Weeks of Sandwiches for Youth Program at Mount Zion Baptist Church

As part of Temple Beth El's ongoing goal of partnering with African American churches in the Madison area, we are working with Mt. Zion Baptist Church, on Madison’s south side, to provide lunches for students in their summer youth program, which introduces the kids to all kinds of new skills and careers and includes leadership training. For six Wednesdays, TBE volunteers made sandwiches and provided fruit, veggies, and cookies for 25 youth ages 12–18. Thanks to everyone who helped out, including Temple staff who volunteered to take a week!
 

On Sunday, July 24, twenty TBE members met for a sunny summer bike ride around Lake Wingra. Before the ride, we heard from Phil Gaebler, water resources engineer for the City of Madison, who talked about how the Lake Wingra watershed is impacted by runoff from different sources and what we can do to promote the health of the watershed. 

Mr. Gaebler gave us a great hands-on demonstration of how rainwater filters through various surfaces, by pouring water through small samples of turf grass, mulch, permeable and impermeable pavement, and native plants. He was ably assisted in this task by a small frog from the Lake Wingra area. The demonstration showed that we can greatly improve the health of the lakes by reducing turf grass, installing rain gardens, adding compost to the soil or covering it with mulch, and diverting downspouts so the water doesn’t run onto sidewalks and driveways. It’s also important to keep leaves out of the street so the added nutrients don’t end up in our lakes, increasing phosphorous content and algae growth.

Mr. Gaebler noted that a lot of good things are happening locally with lake management. Lake Wingra is heavily managed and is doing pretty well. The county is making progress in addressing agricultural runoff. Residents can also help the lakes in winter by reducing the amount of salt used on driveways and sidewalks, using shovels and push brooms more than salt. For more information about reducing residential salt use, see Saltwise. https://www.wisaltwise.com
 

The Senior Havdalah program on August 27 took TBE members on a journey through the history of Jewish life in Ukraine and the challenges the country faces today in its fight to preserve its independence. 

Ukraine and Jewish History

Folklorist, amateur historian, and TBE member Carole Kantor described early migration routes from Asia to Europe. Antisemitism was a constant threat, and yet, Jews continued to make important religious and cultural contributions in the region. Expelled from their homes during the Crusades and after the Spanish Inquisition, Jews migrated from the Rhineland in western Europe to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, where leaders tolerated religious diversity. In the 16th century, princes and landowners hired Jews to manage estates and collect taxes, and bankers and doctors followed them into the region. 

Then, in the 17th century, Eastern Orthodox Ukrainians and Cossacks allied themselves with Russia and led an uprising that targeted Jews along with Catholic Poles. Despite a massacre in 1648–49 that killed 20,000 Jews, Jews continued to come to Ukraine and contributed to economic recovery there. When Tsar Alexander II was killed in 1881 by socialist revolutionaries, violent anti-Jewish attacks followed. 

The Pale of Settlement, from which many of our families emigrated, was established by Catherine the Great in 1791. While Jews didn’t need permission to live there, they did need permission to live outside of it. The birth of Hasidism followed in the 18th century, and the Zionist movement and growth of Jewish literature came next in the 19th century. The city of Odesa, a city today’s Ukrainians are fighting to preserve after Russia’s invasion, is just outside of what was the Pale of Settlement. This unique city, founded in 1794, was considered nontraditional and had no restrictions on Jews moving there. It was a major hub for “highbrow” synagogues, secular music, and Yiddish folk music, as well as jazz and tango. Many noted cantors and Jewish poets hailed from this city, according to Cantor Jacob Niemi.

Between 1917 and 1920, Ukrainians tried to establish a state independent from Russia. When their efforts failed, some 100,000 Jews were killed in pogroms. Later during World War II, the Jewish population fell from 870,000 to only 17,000. Antisemitism continued unabated, and in the 1980s, Jews were finally allowed to leave Ukraine, many finding new homes in Israel.

Present Day: Boris’s story

TBE member Boris Nenide was born in Chernivtsky, Ukraine, and studied in St. Petersburg, Russia, before coming to UW–Madison in 1991 with his family. He described how 92% of Ukrainians supported Ukraine’s referendum on independence after the USSR dissolved that year. A new president and territorial guarantees followed, and later came economic challenges, corruption, and protests against the pro-Russian president Yanukowich. Some 14,000 people have been killed in a separatist war that began in 2014 in the Donbas, a region in eastern Ukraine.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a Ukrainian with a Jewish background, was elected in 2019. He has rallied the world for support after Russia invaded the country in February. 

Called to act, Boris began by helping a childhood friend whose son needed medical help, rallying local friends and students in Middleton schools, where his family lives and his children attend school. He soon helped with drives for needed supplies, and support flowed in after he appeared on a local TV news show. Later he went to Ukraine and worked with a volunteer group of Russian dissidents and other immigrants helping Ukrainians, staffing 12-hour shifts on the Polish-Ukrainian border. Dozens of countries were represented, and Boris spoke of the compassion and solidarity among the volunteers.

Boris described how antisemitism has diminished in Ukraine and Poland, noting Ukraine’s commemoration of the victims of Babyn Yar, the positive reception for a French play about the Holocaust produced in a Russian-language theater, and the respect he saw among Poles toward the memory of that country’s once vibrant Jewish culture. 

He was also inspired by the dedication displayed by his fellow volunteers, some of whom had protested Russia’s invasion and had to flee. “They submerged themselves in helping others, despite enduring harsh conditions and hearing heartbreaking stories told by the people they were helping,” he said. Boris is now assembling humanitarian and military care packages and welcomes contributions to support these efforts. He is also working with others to register a new charitable organization based in the United States. 

Here are other organizations Boris suggested to help support Ukraine: Russians for Ukraine and Grain of Solace. “Helping Ukraine is immensely important,” Boris said, “not just from a humanitarian standpoint, but also for preserving and furthering liberal democracy around the world.”
 

Yom Kippur involves fasting for one day, yet millions of Americans feel this hunger regularly. Every year at this time, we ask the congregation to honor our fast by making a monetary contribution to hunger relief. If you have already made your contribution, we thank you! If not, there’s still time—please do so by Wednesday, October 19.

Last year Temple Beth El was recognized as a bronze level sponsor of Second Harvest Foodbank, which distributes millions of pounds of food each year in southern Wisconsin, and our goal is to reach that level again this year with a $10,000 contribution. The funds will also support our hunger relief efforts through our ongoing partnerships with food pantries, community centers, and schools. 

We hope you will be able to give generously to support these hunger relief initiatives. Any amount you can give will be greatly appreciated. 

You can donate online at tbemadison.org/donate by choosing “High Holy Day Food Drive” as the payment type, or you can send a check to the Temple office. Please make checks payable to Temple Beth El and include “Food Drive” on the memo line. 

A big thank you goes to Julia Katz, baker extraordinaire, who offered to make challah for people’s holiday tables in exchange for donations to the High Holy Day Food Drive. This year she made 21 delicious loaves for TBE members and others!
 

On October 2, a group of 25 Temple members visited the Chazen Museum’s free exhibit, Sifting and Reckoning: UW–Madison’s History of Exclusion and Resistance, and learned about the treatment of many marginalized communities in UW’s history. The group uniformly felt it was a very informative and valuable experience. Learn more about the exhibit and the university’s Public History Project.

Go with a friend or family member, and then consider these discussion questions that the Temple group discussed after their visit. 

1. What was your reaction to the exhibit? How do you feel about what you saw and read?
2. How do you think you were affected differently than if you had read about this history in a written report to the chancellor?
3. What were some new things that you learned from the exhibit?
4. What surprised you about the exhibit?
5. How do you think the UW administration has balanced the requirements of the First Amendment with their goal of making the campus a welcoming and safe place for everyone?
6. What did the exhibit tell us about the greatest barriers to change and the greatest facilitators of change?
7. In pursuing its goals of diversity, equity, and inclusivity, what do you see as the pros and cons of creating UW-sponsored and UW-funded cultural centers for specific groups?
8. Based on this exhibit (or not), what could/should the UW administration do to continue to work toward a more inclusive campus?
9. Based on this exhibit (or not) what could each of us do to work toward a more inclusive campus? Temple? Workplace? Neighborhood?
10. What might be good next steps for this exhibit to expand its potential to be a positive force for both reckoning and change?
     

Temple Beth El’s fiscal year runs from July 1 through June 30. Our report to the Board of Trustees on FY 2022 included these details.

• Membership contributions increased by 1% in FY 2022 over FY 2021. We always appreciate any increase in contributions, and we will continue to emphasize the need for increases each year. Annual membership contributions are our biggest source of revenue.
• Our total revenue decreased by 13% in FY 2022 from FY 2021. This was due to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan of $180,000 which was 100% forgiven in 2021.
• Our total revenue for FY 2022 was $1.16M.
• Personnel compensation, our largest expense, increased by 1%, or $11,000, over FY 2021.
• Our total expenditures increased by 5% over FY 2021. Most of these increased expenses came from program expenses now that we have resumed in-person events, and we are incurring other building-related expenses as well.
• Our total expenses for FY 2022 were $1.25M.

Our fiscal year ended with a deficit of $96,249. The board voted to close the year with a deficit and not fund it, at this time, from any of our endowments.

As expenses continue to rise, increasing our revenue is the only way to combat our deficit. For this fiscal year, FY 2023, we are working to find new streams of revenue. New income sources, along with increased annual contributions and a successful Endowment for Spiritual Leadership campaign, will create a secure financial future that allows Temple Beth El to thrive.

If you have any questions about our financials, please contact Stefanie Kushner at exec@tbemadison.org.

The second year of Temple Beth El’s summer internship partnership with the Boys & Girls Club interns came to a successful close at the end of July. Through this project, 11 high school and college students were placed in summer internships with employers from Temple Beth El and the broader Jewish community, up from six students last summer. 

The project is a five-way partnership: 

• Temple Beth El conceived of the project, found willing employers, and applied for a grant to fund stipends for the interns, led by Betsy Abramson of the Racial Justice Action Team. 
• The Boys & Girls Clubs of Dane County (BGCDC) selected the interns, matched them with employers, and worked with employers on job expectations. 
• The Jewish Federation of Madison provided a $10,000 grant from the Cheryl Rosen Weston Fund to pay for some of the stipends. 
• The host employers provided meaningful work, supervision, and encouragement. In addition, most of the employers generously donated between half and the full $1,800 stipend to support the students’ work. 
• Last but not least, the 11 students worked hard and came away with valuable job experience.

The 11 TBE-initiated sites and the supervising employers from the Jewish community were Books4School (Amy, Marty, Molly, and Randy Fields), Community Justice Inc. (Carousel Bayrd), Frank Beverage Group (Elizabeth Frank Friedman), Frank Productions (Marla and Larry Frank and Jesse Sherman), General Beverage Group (the Minkoff family), Jewish Social Services (Jim Mackman), LIFT Wisconsin (Marsha Mansfield), Madison Youth Arts (Mike Ross), Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra (Joe Loehnis), Wisconsin Faith Voices for Justice (Rabbi Bonnie Margulis), and Wisconsin Primary Health Care Association (Aleksandr Kladnitsky).

The employers provided a combined $11,000 toward the stipends. The full $1,800 stipend was donated by Books4School, Frank Beverage Group, General Beverage Group, and Wisconsin Primary Health Care Association. Partial stipends were paid by Jewish Social Services, Madison Youth Arts, Frank Productions, and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra.

On July 29, TBE hosted a Shabbat dinner celebration for the interns, their families, employers, and staff from the partner organizations. While enjoying their first tastes of challah and kugel, the interns spoke about what they learned and enjoyed about their experiences, and what they hoped to do in the future:

• Abae Fobate, who interned at Books4School, noted that she learned a lot during her internship in the book warehouse. She realized that even the routine job of packing books is really exciting when you see how important these books are for the schools and children receiving them.
• Peyton Barber, who interned at Frank Productions, thought it was amazing that she got to learn so much of the nuts and bolts of running performances at four different Madison venues.
• Claudia Salgado, who interned with LIFT Wisconsin, said she felt pretty overwhelmed at first, jumping into two direct service clinics for clients, but her supervisor’s assistance and support helped her get up to speed and learn a great deal.
• Olga Gatesi, who interned with Jewish Social Services, initially thought she wouldn’t be interested in learning about social services. But having been born in Rwanda, she became especially interested in the work when she discovered that JSS helped resettle and support refugees. The experience strengthened her interest in becoming an immigration attorney.

Similarly, the employers uniformly noted that the students were delightful, added new perspectives to their work sites, and demonstrated impressive focus and commitment.

According to TBE’s Betsy Abramson, “At this point, the sites TBE has recruited represent over 20% of the sites that BGCDC matches interns with. We are totally delighted at the success and growth of the program, and we are confident that the model we have created has great potential for expansion. We are enormously grateful to the Jewish Federation of Madison for providing the seed money and to our most generous employers in the Jewish community for their donation of time and funds to support these impressive young people in gaining valuable job skills and knowledge.”
 

Within the Jewish calendar we find a variety of “cycles,” periods of time that have layers of meaning and opportunities for spiritual growth and reflection associated with them. The two largest cycles in our calendar are the one that culminates in Shavuot in the late spring and the one that culminates with Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur in the early fall (arguably extending through Sukkot and Simchat Torah). In the second of these cycles, three major observances frame the seven weeks leading to Rosh Hashanah. 

Tishah B’Av

The first of these observances, Tishah B’Av, the ninth day of the month of Av, marks a spiritual low point in our year, when we recall a variety of tragedies that have befallen the Jewish people, including the destruction of the First Temple (circa 586 BCE), the destruction of the Second Temple (70 CE), the expulsion of the Jews from England (1290 CE), the expulsion of the Jews from Spain (circa 1490 CE), the beginning of World War I in 1914, and the beginning of operations at the Treblinka death camp and the start of deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto in 1942. 

This fast day, on which we read from the book of Lamentations, teaches us about the importance of making space for grief and brokenness. Yet even by its end, there is already a suggestion of the possibility of rebuilding and renewal. In the final service on Tishah B’Av afternoon, the Torah reading includes verses about forgiveness that are included in the High Holy Day liturgy. When chanting those verses, the Torah reader customarily switches to the melodies used when chanting Torah on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

Rosh Chodesh Elul

The second major milestone in this seven-week period is Rosh Chodesh Elul, the beginning of the month of Elul. While the few rituals for this day are similar to those marking the beginning of other months in the Jewish calendar, the day does introduce certain customs that continue throughout the month, the most notable of which may be the sounding of the shofar. The shofar, a ram’s horn that is sounded during Rosh Hashanah services, every day during Elul (with some communities excluding Shabbat), and at the end of Yom Kippur, reminds many people of a crying voice. 

Hearing the shofar’s call reminds us to look inward and to engage in the spiritual process of cheshbon hanefesh (literally “accounting of the soul”), as we take stock of the last year and think about ways that we might want to improve ourselves, our lives, and our relationships in the year to come. 

S’lichot

The third major moment preceding Rosh Hashanah is S’lichot, a service of penitential prayers that occurs in many Jewish communities on the Saturday evening immediately preceding Rosh Hashanah (or, if Rosh Hashanah falls on a Monday or a Tuesday, the Saturday evening the week before). Many Jewish communities continue to recite S’lichot prayers in the days leading up to Rosh Hashanah. Sephardi and Mizrachi Jewish communities observe S’lichot on the second of the month of Elul and continue reciting these prayers throughout the month. Regardless of when it occurs, this ritual combines prayers connected to the liturgy of Yom Kippur with additional poetic writings and meditations, as well as a beautiful focus and midrashic expansion on the 13 attributes of God’s mercy. 

In addition to introducing prayers and melodies that are carried throughout the High Holy Days, it is also customary to use S’lichot as an opportunity to change the mantles on the Torah scrolls to those specifically designed for the holiday season (often white). This is thought to be in reference to the prophet Isaiah (1:18): “If your offenses be like scarlet, like snow shall they turn white. If they be red as dyed cloth, they shall become like pure wool.”

Summer is a time for TBE staff and leaders to evaluate last year and look to plans for the coming year. We welcome the new trustees who were installed at our annual meeting on June 8. The combination of new leaders coming together with continuing ones gives us consistent leadership with fresh eyes on governing for our future.

Summer also means the start of a new fiscal year and budget cycle starting on July 1. Staff and leaders, once again, stepped up to create a tight budget. We looked at all our expenses carefully to be fiscally responsible, especially in a time of rising costs. Approximately 80% of our expenses come from personnel and building costs. The only way to a balanced budget, especially at a time of continued rising costs, is to increase revenue. With about 70% of our revenue coming from membership renewals, we ask each household to do what is possible to increase your 2023 membership contribution. 

Membership renewal packets will be mailed to you later this year. As always, automatic renewals will continue for members who do not actively renew by the start of the calendar year. In January 2023, however, we will include a 10% increase in contribution when automatically renewing members’ contributions. If you want to choose how much to increase your contribution, it’s important that you actively renew your membership when those materials are mailed to you. As always, you’ll have the options of returning the renewal card in the mail, managing your renewal online, or calling Executive Director Stefanie Kushner to discuss the amount you are comfortable giving. 

We understand that not everyone is able to increase their contribution by 10%, and we will continue to remind you of this change as we approach the renewal period later this year.

To ensure our long-term spiritual vitality, Temple leadership has taken the bold step of establishing the Temple Beth El Endowment for Spiritual Leadership. Our aspiration is an $8 million endowment to fully fund the costs of providing spiritual leadership for the foreseeable future. We have successfully secured just over $4.1 million in pledges in the foundation-building phase of the campaign.
 
This endowment campaign was established in early 2022 out of our tremendous admiration and appreciation for our clergy and a strong desire to continue to ensure outstanding spiritual leadership for the foreseeable future. The purpose of the endowment is to fully fund the costs of our spiritual leaders, which will provide financial stability for them and the congregation. While this is a tremendous undertaking, we know that this community is very forward-looking and committed to the success and financial health of the congregation. 

To reach our goal of $8 million, we are seeking the active and generous participation of every member of the congregation. Please look in your “snail mail” mailboxes in August for an invitation to participate in this transformational opportunity to secure the financial future for clergy at Temple Beth El.