Original Article Published On The Jewish Ledger

HAMDEN — When Marilyn Monroe converted to Judaism and married writer Arthur Miller, she turned to Rabbi Robert Goldburg, the same New Haven rabbi who was labeled a Communist during the McCarthy era, had a 205-page FBI dossier for his vigorous opposition to the Vietnam War, and would later be arrested in Georgia for marching with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Rabbi Goldburg, known for his strong commitment to social justice, served as rabbi of Congregation Mishkan Israel in Hamden from 1948-1982.

The history of Congregation Mishkan Israel, which at 165 years old is the 14th oldest Jewish congregation in the United States, is now on exhibit at the New Haven Colony Historical Society.

“Mishkan Israel 1840-2005: The Story of New England’s Oldest Continuing Congregation,” on display until May 14, features a copy of Monroe’s 1956 “Certificate of Conversion,” photographs of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at Mishkan Israel in 1960, and a 10 x 7.5 foot limited edition Ben Shahn silk tapestry entitled “Menorah.” The exhibit also features other historical photos, documents, artifacts and a video that showcase the rich history of Mishkan Israel.

The congregation was founded in 1840, when a group of Bavarian Jews, fleeing economic and social oppression, settled in New Haven. These families opened drugstores, umbrella and corset factories, cigar companies, and dry goods and tailor shops. The congregants were liberal-minded yet traditional in practice men and women sat separately during services, and would-be members had to prove that they kept the Sabbath and observed the dietary laws. Congregants initially worshiped (on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays) over the Heller and Mandelbaum store on Grand Avenue and State Street. By 1849, services were held in the Brewster Building at State and Chapel Streets.

New Orleans philanthropist Judah Touro, best known for his contribution to the synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island which still bears his name, gave a sizable donation — $5,000 which enabled these Bavarian Jews to purchase a building in New Haven.

In 1856, the congregation purchased the Third Congregational Church building, which served as its home until 1897.

The synagogue’s commitment to local and world issues was evident even in those early years. In 1858, Mishkan Israel joined the international protest against the kidnapping and baptizing of a Jewish child, Edgardo Mortara, in Bologna, Italy.

A letter from Moses Montefiore regarding the case is on display at the Historical Society exhibit. During the Civil War, congregants served in the Union Army, and the synagogue held special services and volunteered at the local military hospital. In the 1870s, Rabbi Judah Wechsler forged Mishkan Israel’s commitment to interfaith activities with his “no unfriendly words” policy; he preached unity and harmony and respect for religious differences. In the 1880s, under Rabbi Leopold Kleeberg, the congregation provided aid to Eastern European Jews arriving in New Haven.

Following Rabbi Kleeberg’s tenure, the congregation was lead by Rabbi Louis Mann and Rabbi Edgar Siskin.

By the mid-1890s, the temple grew to 190 families, and moved to a larger home on Orange Street. They also embraced the more progressive practices of Classical Reform Judaism. By the 1950s, when the congregation grew to more than 700 families, a building was purchased on Ridge Road in Hamden.

During Rabbi Goldburg’s tenure, the temple became known nationally for its commitment to social justice.

After Rabbi Goldburg’s retirement in 1982, Rabbi Mark Panoff and then Rabbi Herbert Brockman have continued his legacy. Under Rabbi Brockman’s leadership, Mishkan Israel has continued its service to the Jewish community and its commitment to the larger world.

In 1989, MIshkan Israel opened its doors to the Urban Youth Center, a program for inner city middle-schoolers and in the early 1990s MIshkan Israel sponsored the settlement of seven Russian Jewish families in New Haven. The congregation’s work with the community continues today with the Pe’ah Project, a congregant-run garden which provides more than a ton of vegetables each year to community soup kitchens.

“Mishkan Israel 1840-2005: The Story of New England’s Oldest Continuing Congregation,” will be on view until May 14 at the New Haven Colony Historical Society 114 Whitney Avenue, New Haven.
Open Tues-Fri 10-5; Sat 12-5. Visit http://www.nhchs.org or call (203) 562-4183.


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Original Article Published On The Jewish Ledger

NEW HAVEN — When Shlomit Daniel set out for school each morning in Ethiopia, she could have never imagined a day when she would be teacher in the United States.

“Many children, especially girls, didn’t go to schoolthey studied at home with the kessim (Ethiopian Jewish priests). My parents understood the importance of education for my four siblings and me,” reports Shlomit. “But it wasn’t easyit was a long walk, and I was usually the only Jew in a class of 40 or 50 children.”

But Shlomit continued her studies and began a long journey that included making aliyah to Israel, serving in the Israeli Defense Forces, going to college, and finally, moving to the U.S.

Today, she lives in New Haven and works with students at Ezra Academy in Woodbridge, the Southern Connecticut Hebrew Academy (formerly the New Haven Hebrew Day School) and at New Haven’s Talmud Torah Meyuchad (TTM).

At the day schools, students are referred to Daniel by classroom teachers, and she works with them on academic and social issues. At TTM, Daniel helps instruct nearly 40 children with a range of developmental, learning and social difficulties. And she still finds time to teach Hebrew language at the Slifka Center at Yale University.

“Shlomit has highly specialized skills in the area of special education — something Ezra needs. She has a gentle nature with kids and they respond to her very positively,” said Shelley Kreiger, principal of Ezra Academy. “She is here because the DJE and the Jewish Foundation see this need in the community and have financially supported this position so that Ezra and Hebrew Day can benefit.”

A Success Story

Shlomit grew up knowing her family would one day move to Israel.

“My grandmother’s father was the rabbi of Gondar,” reports Daniel. “We were always learning and thinking about Israel. We didn’t feel ownership of our place in Ethiopia. We knew one day we would make aliyah.”

The Daniel family did move to Israel, spending one year in an absorption center in the north of Israel before moving to a home in Yavneh.

Shlomit learned Hebrew quickly, excelled in the sciences, and received her first choice of jobs in the Israel Defense Forces. Daniel was accepted to an educational corps known as Naarei Rafael (Raphael’s Youth.) In this division, Daniel worked with soldiers who she notes were “impoverished in every way.”

In addition to her military training responsibilities, Daniel also developed curriculum and training material, and she dealt with complex behavioral and emotional problems of soldiers in her division.

“What I loved most is that the Army worries most about chevrah — community,” observes Daniel. “The Army spends money and manpower on chevrahto make a better society. And you become part of that society.”

After serving in the army, she enrolled at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and took courses in the two areas she lovedsciences and education.

“When I was at Hebrew University, I couldn’t stop thinking about my soldiers from their impoverished backgrounds. Why did society wait for the Army to do the job of teaching and helping them? Why didn’t we do that in the schools?” wondered Daniel.

She decided that that was something she wanted to change. She transfered to the David Yellin Teachers College in Jerusalem and received her Bachelor of Education degree in regular and special education.

In Israel she taught Hebrew language to Russian, Indian and Ethiopian immigrants at the Mevasseret Absorption Center outside of Jerusalem and worked with children with emotional difficulties.

In Israel, Shlomit met her husband, Canadian-born, Charles Small, a professor of urban development. Small taught at various Israeli universities before accepting a teaching position at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven.

While Daniel notes that her transition to America and New Haven was difficult at first, she has settled in and acclimated well both professionally and socially.

“I like to try new things and have new experiences,” she said. “And I’m not afraid to fail.”

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Original Article Published On The Jewish Ledger

NEW HAVEN — When David Gelernter writes, “A painting is a form of trapped energy, like a compressed spring or a rock at the top of a hill,” he sounds more like a professor than an artist.

In fact, Gelernter is both.

A professor of computer science at Yale University, best known for his “Linda System,” the basis for many computer communication systems worldwide, and chief scientist at Mirror Worlds Technologies, Gelernter also has artistic talent.

His exhibit, “Recent Works: Greek and Hebrew Paintings” is now on display in the Allan and Leah Rabinowitz Gallery of the Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale through April 15.

With the exception of one lithograph, all of Gelernter’s pieces are mixed media works, which include pastels, acrylics, metal (gold, copper and aluminum) leaf, liquid iron and watercolors.

The 25 pieces in the exhibit, all constructed in the past four years, are inspired by the Bible and Greek mythology, nature, Jewish tradition and the Hebrew alphabet.

Most of the Greek pieces- six paintings and one lithograph – are loosely based on Attic red-figure vases. There are scenes from the Iliad, including Odysseus, Agamemnon and Briseus, and a painting which uses a meaningless Byzantine alphabet. The three males with Hebrew inscriptions are three views of biblical David in battle with Goliath.

Gelernter’s exhibition begins in the stairwell of the Slifka Center with light shining through translucent squares of glass. The first portrait, entitled, “Ha’azinu” (the name of the Torah portion in Deuteronomy) features the word “Ha’azinu,” written in Hebrew letters, against a painted orange background, with a blue butterfly at the center. As viewers ascend the stairs and enter the gallery, they experience portraits which seem to alternate between Hebrew works and Greek works. After “Ha’azinu,” visitors view “Sailing to Byzantium,” followed by “Achein” (“Surely the Lord is in this place,” Genesis 28:16), Study (Greek Warrior), and Leikh L’kha (“Get yourself moving!” Genesis 12:1).

Gelernter notes, “Jewish art is intimately connected to sacred texts. Many of my ‘Hebrew’ pieces are based on the mezuzah, which holds a small parchment sheet inscribed with verses from Deuteronomy; others are based on different Biblical texts–several on the extraordinary, nearly untranslatable passage in which the Israelites are told “you have been shown [in order] to know that the Lord is God”-in other words: you know because you have been shown, not merely told.’ Judaism has always preferred first-hand showing to second-hand telling.”

“Recent Works: Greek and Hebrew Paintings” by David Gelernter is on display in the Allan and Leah Rabinowitz Gallery of the Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale, 80 Wall Street, New Haven, through April 15.

Gallery Hours: Mon-Thurs: 10 am-7 pm; Fri-Sun: 10 am- 3 pm; 203-432-1134; www.yale.edu/slifka).

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Original Article Published on The Connecticut Jewish Ledger

New Haven residents received an interesting postcard in the mail recentlya photograph of a girl with wide eyes, a curious look on her faceand a long black beard.

The caption, for Southern Connecticut Hebrew Academy reads, “You don’t need a beard to attend the Academy. Just a need for great education!”

Yet, most New Haven residents have never even heard of the Southern Connecticut Hebrew Academy.

The school, located at 261 Derby Avenue in Orange, is actually the school formerly known as New Haven Hebrew Day School.

At a recent meeting for parents, headmaster Rabbi Sheya Hecht announced the name change and shared the school’s vision for the future.

The school, which has 3,500 alumni and serves 180 students in its day care, preschool, elementary, middle school, and girls’ high school divisions, recently purchased a 3 1/2 acre property with a pond and nature area. The new property adjoins the current campus, which was built in 1970 on a 5-1/2 acre tract of land.

New Haven Hebrew Day School was founded by Rabbi Sheya Hecht’s father, Rabbi Moshe Hecht, in 1946. The four-student school grew to 120 within two years, and a building was purchased on Dwight Street in New Haven.

Hecht’s vision for the future includes increasing the school’s regional area of focus and presenting the school to a new market and clientele.

Cutting-Edge

Inside the Southern Connecticut Hebrew Academy, colorful, framed photographs on the walls and newly color-coded books in the library give a hint of the school’s ambitious goals in the areas of technology, reading, math and language instruction.

“We are trying to become cutting age, and we are building a virtual community,” reports Dr. Jeanne Rice, director of admissions.

“The mission of our technology program is to empower our students with the technological skills they need. And we are involved in a three stage plan.”

The school is newly wired, email accounts and servers have been created for all staff, and Finalsite, a web-based software, has been used to create a new, frequently updated website,www.schacademy.org.

In later stages, extensive technology training will continue and laptops will be purchased for all teachers and for students in grades 5-12.

“We are living in a world where technology is taking over,” observed Hecht, “and we have to meld and merge the two.”

Other uses for technology include teaching historical timelines through Excel, comparing changes in climate through a database, using softwar

to simulate archaeological digs and chemical experiments, and creating student websites as part of the Israel’s Biomes study.

And the school has embarked on an “alphabet soup” of initiatives. The Renaissance Learning Program, using a program called “Accelerated Reader,” seeks to individualize reading and math programs and will soon include downloadable textbooks with text geared to individual reading levels.

Both Spanish and Hebrew are being taught using TPR, Total Physical Response, a very active method of teaching which, according to Hecht, “requires students to perform actions to show they understand what they are being asked to do.”

While the school strives to incorporate the latest developments in technology, reading and math education into its curriculum, Jewish education and character development also continue to be central.

Students in the third grade are studying Chumash with Rashi and nursery students are setting up their Jonah and the Whale exhibit for an upcoming Torah Science Fair. The daily Mshna program and “character counts” program are ongoing, and all students stood to greet Rabbi Hecht, their headmaster of 25 years, as he gave a tour of each classroom.

Why the changes now?

“After about 60 years, it is a good time to look back and make it happen,” said Hecht.

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