anshehesederie.org

The world is based on three things Inspire Torah, avodah, and gemilut chasadim
Acts of loving kindness and compassion CHESED Making the world a better place for all
Repairing the world with good deeds TIKKUN Healing and transforming those in need

LIFELONG LEARNING TORAH תורה

“Moses received Torah at Sinai...”

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WORSHIP AND SERVICE עבודה

Joanna and Kids for Purim Avodah means both service and worship.

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ACTS OF LOVING KINDNESS גמילות חסדים

Anshe Hesed, People of Loving Kindness

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Our Temple Community

Social Action

Take a look at different events, occasions & happenings here at our Temple. Our Mitzvah Day celebrations, Tikkun Olam, simchas and special occasions are captured in our galleries.

Community

Our community is actively involved with coordinating the efforts of the congregation’s activities, fulfilling the mitzvah of Tikkun Olam, repairing the world.

Outreach

We welcome everyone, Jewish or not, Member or not, to attend our classes and programs. Please join us!

Library

The Richard and Janine Dreyfus Library is a real treasure for the Temple family and for the greater Erie community.

Giftshop

The Temple Gift Shop is the place to go for all your Judaica needs.

Adult Education

Jewish learning is lifelong. At Temple Anshe Hesed, we make it fun!

From URJ

The Affordable Care Act and Your Congregation

Upcoming Events

JUN

Jun.18.2013
10th of Tamuz 5773

JUN

Jun.19.2013
11th of Tamuz 5773

JUN

Jun.20.2013
12th of Tamuz 5773

JUN

Jun.21.2013
13th of Tamuz 5773

JUN

Jun.21.2013 6:15pm - 7:15pm
Shabbat Service

From The Desk Of Our President

The Journey Nearly two years ago we met as a congregation and decided after much discussion that we wanted to stay in our current building and renovate it. We had a plan from an architect and we started to work. In the past year, we have Renovated three bathrooms, making two of them more accessible Changed a hard-to-open door to a handicapped accessible door Added security keypads at front and back doors to make us more secure Begun to replace the roof over much of our building (it will be completed this season) Removed the large light from the sanctuary when it was deemed unsafe In addition, we will be fixing all the emergency lights in the building to make us safer. As we continued to meet with the contractors about what to do next, they began to ask questions about the use of the building. They asked about the use of the sanctuary, classroom space, the upper and lower level, how often and during which times of the year is the space most utilized. As we discussed further, they all had the same reaction, “Are you sure you want to do this?” They questioned whether we knew the scope of the work involved and whether we really wanted to start a project this large. The figures that we were given with the original architect report were not hard and fast and the plans were not complete. There are more items that need attention and that will likely make it a more expensive renovation than we had originally approved. The contractors were also questioning how many members we have who actually use our building. We brought these issues to the Executive Board and then to the General Board for discussion and now it is time to bring them to the whole congregation. With all these new questions and new numbers, we couldn’t continue with the renovations that we had approved. At our Annual Meeting on June 4, we will address this major topic. Please plan to be there to share your thoughts on where we are headed as a congregation. We all need to participate in this important discussion and we need to share all that we’ve learned in the last year and a half. The future of our congregation is something we all have a say in and it is in our hands. Rather than approaching this as a problem, I’d like to suggest that we look at it as a very exciting time in the life of our congregation and a time for each of us to get to decide where we are headed! As Yogi Berra said, "If you don't know where you are going, you'll end up someplace else.” Let’s figure out where we want to go and start on the journey together! Lisa Read the Full Story

The Hora Hanging in our family room is a piece of art by Israeli artist David Gerstein, called “The Hora”. We often have to explain to visitors to our home that it is not, in fact, a wreath, but is a depiction of a dance. Our dance. Our circle.
We, as Jewish people celebrate in a circle. We join hands and clap and dance and surround the bride and groom (or the Bar/Bat mitzvah boy/girl) and surround them with joy and love and support. When that music starts playing, we all know what to do! In her book, “Inspired Jewish Leadership”, Dr. Erica Brown talks about the circle dance as a metaphor for community. She says that the circle dance allows entry at every point and can expand and contract to keep its shape and accommodate more or less people. Our Temple circle can do that, too. Everyone who WANTS to be included can be. A circle can change shape and size and still remain connected. A bigger circle isn’t necessarily better or stronger. While our circle of members used to be larger, our goal is that everyone feel connected to each other. And if that means coming closer together, that is what we will do. Our membership numbers are changing. We are getting smaller. That is just a fact of life. But our support and emotional connection doesn’t have to be diminished. When we join together and reach out for one another, we remain strong and united. That is the beauty of our circle. Our horah. Please come join us in our dance. Invite others into the circle. You know it looks like fun! Read the Full Story

Share Your Thoughts I’m writing this from south Florida, where I am learning more and more. Between visits south and the URJ President’s list serve, I have discovered that many congregations have a “snow bird” membership policy. There are so many of these “snow birds” that want to be part of a Temple down here that they have policies in place to accommodate them. This got me to thinking… Our congregation in Erie has a lot of passionate people. We have people who feel very strongly about our place, as evidenced nearly two years ago when we began to study the idea of moving from our building on 10th and Liberty. People spoke strongly about their connection to this building and we decided, as a congregation, to stay put and to renovate. Those plans are beginning to happen (but that is a story for a whole other Temple Topics column!). We have people passionate about teaching, music, art, and reading. We have people who love to cook and to learn. We have many people interested in many different types of programs. What we don’t have, however, are many people who attend Friday night or Saturday morning Shabbat services.
This puzzles me… There are enough people in Florida who care enough about attending a Temple that there is a category of membership devoted just to them. Why can’t we find that level of interest in Erie? On that same President’s list serve, I learned that many congregations our size don’t have services every Friday night and Saturday morning. Is that where we are headed? I don’t know that it is, but on any “ordinary” Shabbat, you will find less than a dozen people attending our services. We may try to be many things to many people, but at our heart, we are a house of worship. This is despite the fact that so few of us are worshiping. Why is that and what should we do about it? Is it time for us to reduce the number of services we hold? Or is it time for something else? And what is that? Please share your thoughts (and your time and energy) with us. Maybe you can help us find what is missing. Lisa Read the Full Story

Passover is Early This Year Passover is super early this year (I know, I know, it’s always either late or early, but never “on time”). The first night is March 25! No, that’s not a typo; the first Seder is Monday, March 25! I started to think about what that means in our house, and our Temple and realized that it sort of doesn’t matter when it is, because we already know what we are going to do. Every year, we do the same thing. We eat matzah. We dip parsley in salt water. We ask the four questions. We make charosets. Every year, it’s the same. The rituals are so familiar and comforting. Part of what I like best about this holiday is its predictability. For as long as I can remember, that’s what we’ve done. When my kids were younger, Rabbi Elliot Kleinman came to Erie and gave a talk about ways to make the Seder more interesting and since then, we’ve added some of the FUN that my family now associates with Seders. We throw rice or marshmallows at each other simulating “hail”. We put stickies all over us for “boils” and we have tons and tons of frogs on the table. It’s our tradition and we all like knowing what is coming next. For a couple of years, we had some bad news come to us during Passover and so the next year, I tried to skip the holiday. My children would have none of it. On the day of the first Seder, when I normally would be setting tables and cooking, I was doing nothing. “What are you doing?” they asked. “We have to get ready for the Seder!” I couldn’t say no to them, so I quickly ran to Wegman’s and bought a chicken, matzah ball soup mix in a box, apples and walnuts and we threw together a mini Seder. They wanted the familiar traditions that they associated with Passover. I think there is great value in retelling the story and honoring traditions. We do that at Temple all the time. How many of us have heard “Because that’s the way we’ve always done it” repeated here? But, if we never try anything new, we are missing out on the fun. If I had never added the FUN frogs, hail, boils and more, my children might never have insisted that we celebrate Passover. For them, it would have been a routine, boring holiday where we did the same boring things over and over again. “Because we’ve always done it that way” is no way to grow and to adapt and to live. We need to constantly strive to add new things to our routines until they, too, become familiar rituals that we enjoy. Sometimes it’s good to have things so much the same that you can do them without thinking (like when Passover sneaks up on you SOOOO early!) but if you never think about your actions, you are sleepwalking through life and who knows what you may be missing out on. Our challenge, both in our own families and our Temple family is to keep the familiar, while adding new things. We need YOU to help us with that. Without your input we might just end of doing things “because we always have done it that way” and we might miss out on the thing that helps YOU to connect to us. Matzah is fine, but gummy frogs are FUN. What can you do to add something new to the Temple and to help you connect with us? Lisa Read the Full Story

Too Heavy to Carry Alone My favorite book of all time is “The Book Thief”. If you haven’t read it, you don’t know what you’re missing. The one thing that sticks with me the most is something the narrator (and it’s narrated by Death) says about good people. “Those souls are always light because more of them have been put out. More of them have already found their way to other places.” Death carried souls away in this book and the bad people were very heavy but the good people had left so much of themselves behind along the way that they were weightless. I like to think about people that way. That if we are good enough, and we DO “good” enough we use up all of ourselves while we are alive. It’s actually been quite a comfort to me many times during my life. I get a weekly email entitled “Weekly Wisdom” from Erica Brown (I also highly recommend that!). This week, she quoted Deuteronomy Rabba 1:10. “ A community is too heavy to carry alone.” She went on to talk about Moses carrying the HEAVY Ten Commandments with ease, but dropping them when he saw the people with the golden calf and he was so disappointed. They were light when he was inspired and he didn’t mind carrying them, but when he felt alone, all of a sudden they were a burden. This is no less true here at Anshe Hesed. When we work together, whatever we choose to do is easy and becomes more fun, less work. When we feel alone, however, while doing something, however “right” it is, it becomes a burden and a chore. This has been the goal behind getting committees together to work on programs, worship, caring, education and more here at Temple. For those of us who are part of these groups, we know the “work” is easier and hardly seems like work when we are inspiring each other. Every week someone tells me of an idea that they have for something we can do here. There are endless possibilities. But to ask someone to do it alone is a burden. Only when we act together is it lighter and easy to carry. As we move forward, I hope that we can each share some of the weight because only by doing that will we each be able to share some of the joy. Lisa
Read the Full Story

People of Loving Kindness There is a discussion on twitter right now about doing random acts of kindness. People are being challenged to do 26 acts of kindness in memory of the people who died at Sandy Hook Elementary School (actually I think there were 28 people who died, but the number of acts of kindness doesn’t matter). I can’t stop thinking about those little children and I know I’m not alone. I think people are looking for what they can do to help make sense of this (nothing can) and what they can do to help themselves feel better. Helping someone else, doing a random act of kindness, always helps. At our Temple, we see this sort of kindness often, but not enough. It will never be enough. In December, the Caring Committee (headed by Bobbi Pollock) delivered numerous gifts to people in our congregation who have had a tough year. We sent 27 holiday care packages to college students from Erie. We collected enough hats, scarves, mittens and gloves to overflow the big box to be donated to the Caring Beyond the Holidays organization. And we send boxes of Hanukkah “stuff” to congregations less fortunate than ours. Maybe you knew about these things that we do, maybe not. But we do them. Every year. Every month. Every week. Still, it’s not enough. In the New Year, I am challenging all of us to do more random acts of kindness. Maimonides, a famous Jewish scholar and physician listed different levels of Tzedakah…of giving. Whatever level you choose to give (and I’m not just talking about finance here), the point is to give. Your time. Your knowledge. Your love. Your friendship. Remember the movie “Pay it Forward”? Let’s challenge our congregation, Anshe Hesed, people of lovingkindness, to pay it forward with more random acts of kindness in 2013. Let’s make it our goal…do one extra kind thing each week. Just one. There are over 300 of us in our Temple family. That’s 300 people each week that will be touched in a good way. Maybe you will even be on the receiving end sometimes. But I know this….it will make us a better congregation and it will make us feel great. Happy New Year…can’t wait to be kind to you! LIsa Read the Full Story

Happy Chanukah! This is the month we celebrate Chanukah/Hanukkah (there is no ONE way to spell it!). The “official” translation of Chanukah is “dedication”. The Temple was rededicated after the Maccabees regained control of Jerusalem. But what else can the English word “dedication” mean to us? We, here at Anshe Hesed, have an amazing group of dedicated people. When Mary Scutella became ill, unexpectedly, the congregation rallied to do whatever we could: first, to support Mary and Pat in her recovery, and second, to try to keep things rolling in the office. No small task. Luckily for us, we have some pretty dedicated people. The phone in the office usually rings off the hook (it’s amazing Mary could get anything done!) but for the last couple of weeks, it’s definitely slowed down as you have given us room to figure out how to do things that Mary usually does. Thank you for that. Our dedication to the Temple has come through loud and clear. Whatever we need to do, we will do. And we have. In the past month, there have been meetings of Gesher, Worship, Investment, Gift Shop and Special Events Committees. We held super successful Adult Ed programs and the Rabbi’s classes are great! All this comes from a congregation of dedication and if you still haven’t found your spot, maybe this month you will. We start with a FULL Sunday morning on December 2. Book group, Gift Shop Open House, December Dilemma discussion, kids making Latkes, and of course, food…bagels and lox for all (adults). Kids have their own snack. We have Wi-Fi in the building so you could just come and hang out. It’s a good day to try something out. The best way for our Temple to work and grow is for everyone to find something that interests them and be part of it. I hope that you can chose this season to dedicate yourself to finding that something. Lisa Read the Full Story

The Ring on the Roof Last month a ring was found up on the roof of our Temple. The man who found it gave it to me, and said, “I don’t think it’s probably worth much but I wanted you to have it”. With dreams of grandeur and thoughts that surely it was real and its value would pay for a new roof, I cleaned it up and took it to a jeweler to see what it was worth. The very nice jeweler assured me that it was worth perhaps a dollar or two. I was so disappointed. I had worn it all day, just to make sure that I didn’t lose it, and by then it had some value to ME. I was imagining all sorts of stories of how it got on the roof. And then, I began to think…. It might not have any value monetarily, but if there was a STORY attached to it, it could become legend and part of our Temple history. Things aren’t always worth something without a STORY, so this month we are introducing our first ever writing contest…. “THE TALE OF THE RING ON THE ROOF” Everyone is encouraged to think up a story to go with this ring. Let your imagination go crazy. Write it up and either mail it to the Temple or email it to the office. Impartial judges will judge all the stories and the winner will be read at the Annual Latke Party and the author will receive a prize! The deadline for submission of “stories” is November 30. Like the ring, each of us has value, but our value increases when we tell our story. I hope that you will all share your life stories with us and become part of the history of Anshe Hesed. Our stories are invaluable and best when shared. Last Sunday, for instance, we had a wonderful adult education program where Terri Libenson told us how she writes her stories…in the form of the comic strip, The Pajama Diaries. We had a great crowd, lots of laughs, and of course…food! We also collected a lot of pajamas that were donated to Safenet. It was a great new chapter in our Temple Story. We are continually writing new chapters and we never know what is going to be written until you help us write it! I can’t wait to hear your “Tale of the Ring on the Roof” and I look forward to many more stories at Anshe Hesed. Lisa Read the Full Story

The Day is Short "The day is short the work is much…” said Rabbi Tarfon. Our days have begun to feel shorter with the sun setting earlier, but that hasn’t stopped our spirits or our activity from soaring. Rabbi Tarfon went on to call the workers “slothful”, but that is the furthest thing from the truth about the people at Anshe Hesed. We have so many people working in so many different areas of the Temple, there is always something going on. If you haven’t been part of the activity lately, it’s time to jump in, find what makes you happy and do it! It sure makes ME happy to see so many of you here! Friday night, October 5, we have our first TGIS of the New Year to celebrate Sukkot. If you haven’t made your reservation, please do and come see the fabulous sukkah that has been set up and decorated by many of our congregants (hopefully YOU got to help with that). Later in the month, on October 21, Terri Libenson, creator of the Pajama Diaries comic strip, will be at Anshe Hesed to talk to us about how she does what she does. If you haven’t already seen her work, check it out in the “Erie Times News” and come see her in person. It will be an entertaining and FUN morning. More information on that to follow…pay attention! If you haven’t been by Temple lately, you haven’t seen some of the recent changes. We have a new door and updated restrooms, making our building more accessible to all. We have a new coffee station in the lobby for you to enjoy. Come by sometime (Sunday morning would be a good start) to drink coffee, use the WIFI, read your paper and shmooze a bit. What better way to start the year?? There are so many things to do here at Temple that if you haven’t found the “thing” that makes you happy, keep looking. You will. We’ve received tons of suggestions and are already fast at work at making some of them reality. It’s up to you to help us find the next thing! . Our new website is up and running and, although it does look fabulous, it, like everything, is constantly evolving and changing, so keep checking us out online at www.anshehesederie.org Rabbi Tarfon finished that quote with the following, “Lo alecha ham lachah ligmore, lo alecha ligmore It is not up to you to finish the job, neither are you free from doing all you can to complete it.” We aren’t finished yet (not by a long shot) but boy are we busy! Lisa Read the Full Story

The Fun Theory There is a website called thefuntheory.com. Seriously. Although it’s “an initiative of Volkswagen” I think the entire idea is great. Their theory is that “something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behavior for the better. Be it for yourself, for the environment, or for something entirely different, the only thing that matters is that it’s change for the better”. I hope that we can do this at Anshe Hesed. We do some wonderful things here and we are good…but I’d like to think that we can be great. But we all have to share in the responsibility. It’s up to each of us individually to get what we are looking for and what we need from Anshe Hesed. Whatever that is, and it’s different for each of us, we have to start somewhere and it’s not up to “them” to do it. It’s up to US…WE are “them”. I would like to ask each of you to think outside the box. Think about what you are looking for at Temple. Are you getting it? Think about if Anshe Hesed makes you feel happy, fulfilled, joyful. And then realize that you are responsible for getting there. Our temple is made up of people like you. WE are the ones who can make it what we want it to be. What are you hoping for? Share your ideas….I can’t wait to hear them! (and hope to see you at the Lighthouse Shabbat AND Shabbat at our home later this month!) Lisa Read the Full Story

Lo Alecha Wow. My first article as President…I hope I get it right! For those of you who were not at the annual meeting (we missed you!), here’s a brief recap of what I said. I’m honored and a bit nervous to be the next president of TAH. I grew up here at Anshe Hesed but it has changed a lot since I first arrived in the early 70’s. For one thing, it was much larger, but although we are small, we can still do great things! What are those great things? Whatever YOU want them to be. Our temple belongs to us all. If there is one thing that I’ve learned already, it’s how passionate people feel about Anshe Hesed. Our congregation can’t be all things to all people…at the same time, but we CAN and we should have a variety of ways for people to get involved. Through worship and study, through education and social action, but also through social events and FUN. Our congregation will continue to change, but what we do with that change is what matters. We are prepared to try new things…and hope that you participate. If you want something to happen, suggest it. If might not happen right away, and maybe it never will, but I can promise you that if you never suggest it, there’s even less of a chance of it happening. There are many new people who have asked to be involved and they are becoming active in different areas of the temple. Now, it’s your turn. Find what interests you and let’s try it. Some of the ideas that we have heard (and plan to try) include a book group, a bowling night, study lunches, and the worship committee has already begun to meet and talk about innovative ideas for Shabbat worship (stayed tuned...) At the annual meeting, I had people try on different hats. We all must wear different hats in our congregation to make it work. You can’t be JUST a parent, or JUST a high holiday congregant and expect the rest to fall in place. It will take all of us, working together, to make this a place where we want to be. To make this a place where we can learn, share, connect and have FUN! Where we can feel like a big Jewish family. I closed then, as I will close now, with one of my favorite sayings from Pirkei Avot…LO ALECHA…. It is not your responsibility to finish the work but you are not free to desist from it either.” (2:16) It’s not our job to do everything, but we have to do something! Hold onto your hats and let’s get started! Lisa Read the Full Story

More Chances to Do Better As I begin to write this, it’s the night before the first day of school. A new year. We, as Jews, get extra chances at “new years”…January 1, new school years, and Rosh Hashanah. More chances to reflect on the past and look forward to the future. More chances for fresh starts… more chances at resolutions…more chances to do better. I’ve been thinking about the future of our Temple a lot. You know that I’ve suggested that we look outside the box and think of new ways to have fun together. I’m also thinking of what my resolutions might be…what can I do to make things better. First and foremost, I want to connect with more people. I think we’ve all been told that we are a warm and welcoming congregation, and there are those in our congregation who embody that. I also know that I am not always one of those people Until I became president, whenever I would see a new person at Temple, I knew I SHOULD go up to that person and introduce myself and welcome him or her, but I often held back, feeling rather awkward and wondering if it wasn’t presumptuous of me to walk up to a stranger and begin to talk. Maybe he or she didn’t want to talk to ME. It was even harder when I would see someone I already knew. Something changed, however, when I became president…I feel braver…more willing to put myself out there and talk to others, not just the usual family and friends with whomI feel familiar with. I know many of you won’t believe that this is true, but it is. And if you think that you’re the only one who feels that way, you are wrong. We all hesitate to reach out sometimes to others. But what are we missing out on when we don’t reach out? Maybe we are missing the chance to talk to someone who will make an impact on our lives. Maybe we are missing out on the chance to BE that person who will make a difference in someone else’s life, even if that impact is just to make a day a little more interesting and brighter for someone. I know that we all SAY we should make an effort and meet new people and talk to different people, but do we really do that? My resolution is that I will reach out to more and more people this coming year. And I hope that you will join me in that resolution. Think about choosing someone to talk to that you wouldn’t normally reach out to. Can you imagine the impact that could have on us a congregation? Who knows who you can talk to and learn from or teach? And have fun with. L’shana Tova…Happy, Healthy New Year… Can’t wait to talk to YOU! Lisa, Kenny, Andrew, Daniel and Sara Read the Full Story