April 2025

Letter from the Rabbi

Dear Temple Israel Community,

In the traditional Passover Haggadah we read each year at the Seder, we declare: “In each and every generation, a person is required to see yourself as if you yourself had come out of Egypt,as it is said: “And you shall tell your child on that day, ‘Because of this the LORD acted for me when I came out of Egypt.’” (Exodus 13:8).

Each year, our experience of celebrating Passover is meant to help us to see ourselves as becoming free. As we lean to the side and linger over a long, elaborate meal, we embody what it feels like to be free and, through telling the story of our people’s ancient redemption, we pray for increasing freedom in our lives and in the world at large.

For some of us, this will be a particularly challenging experience this year for one reason or another. As I write, I am keenly aware that events in our local community, in the land of Israel, in Albany, Washington, and around the world are of significant and urgent concern to many members of our community.

With all of this in the air and more, we may be tempted to not give Passover the attention it is due. However, our foundational festival of freedom offers us precisely the spiritual sustenance we need in these times. On Passover, even as we eat simple bread (Matzah that is called the bread of affliction), we taste the feeling of redemption. On Passover, we are commanded to hold two poles together at once: the reality of our unredeemed world and the reality of our freedom.

This Passover, there will be several special meaningful opportunities to celebrate in community! Over the first days of Passover, we will welcome a visiting Rabbi Deborah Anstandig to read Torah and offer sermons while I am celebrating the first days of Pesach with Rav Talia in Ithaca. During the intermediate days of Passover, we will gather in-person and online to pray, sing, and study together. During the final days of Passover, we will put to use new melodies we learned from our Artist in Residence Zach Mayer as we sing Hallel and then we will remember our loved ones passed on as we recite Yizkor on April 20th.

Please, join us for as many of these opportunities to come together in community over Passover, to celebrate our liberation and to pray for complete freedom for all! If you need a place to go for Seder or have an open seat at your seder, please be in touch with me so I can make pairings. Finally, if you are unable to physically remove all the Chametz from your home, please authorize me to sell your Chametz to a non-Jew on your behalf.

May this Pesach bring the beginning of our Geulah Shleimah, our complete redemption, may we each see ourselves as becoming more free together, and may we make room in our hearts for the abiding brokenness of our world even as we prepare for our great festival!

Chag Pesach Sameach v’Kasher! Wishing you a happy and kosher Passover

L’shalom,

Rabbi Micah R. Friedman

הרב מיכה שמחה פרידמן 

April 2025

Letter from the President

Dear Members and Friends of Temple Israel,

First, I want to acknowledge each of you who expressed your condolences to Suzanne and me and our family on the loss of my father, George H. Siegel. Dad was a wonderful mentor and friend, and he and my mother were generous supporters of Temple Israel and active members of our community. Dad was very much at home in Temple Israel services, connected often via zoom, and used our accessible bimah to good effect whenever he visited in recent years. He chanted his Bar Mitzvah haftorah on the 80th anniversary of that event, and was honored with an aliyah just last Pesach at age 97. We were most gratified by the warmth of community support that we felt at the shivah in our home. We truly are a community that cares for one another, and we all benefit.

Sadly, our synagogue family and the greater community has also been rocked by several other losses of stalwart pillars in the past few weeks. Former leaders of Temple Israel – Hersh S. Rozen and Jeffrey B. Shapiro – passed away, and their strong voices and diverse perspectives will be sorely missed. May their memories, along with those of others we have recently lost, be for a blessing, and an inspiration to the rest of us to do our part to support the institution we hold dear.

Kudos to Rabbi Friedman and all the volunteers who made our first Artist-in-Residence Weekend a joyous musical and spiritual event. Backed by local musicians, Zach Mayer demonstrated virtuosity and versatility, leading us in vibrant song and inspirational prayer throughout the weekend. The Megillah Reading and Kabbalat Shabbat service were the most entertaining and meaningful Purim celebration we have held at our synagogue in many years, and the full house of costumed participants really enjoyed it. The rest of the weekend activities were each special and rewarding – Shabbat Morning Services with special Kiddush, Havdallah service and Participatory Concert Saturday Evening, and the Sunday Morning Harmony Workshop were all well-attended and well-appreciated. We are already thinking about how we can follow that act – your ideas are welcome!

Passover is coming soon, and we need your support. Several of our regulars will be traveling and unavailable at our Shabbat and Holiday services. If you will be in town and can participate in our services, please make every effort to attend, and so indicate by responding to our on-line survey. It will be very helpful to our hard-working Ritual Committee, who are organizing the services. Please watch email closely for schedule changes around these services in case we need to adapt. Whether you are traveling or at home, whether your seder is a big boisterous banquet or a quiet reflective repast, I wish each of you a zissen Pesach – a sweet holiday celebration.

In stunning contrast, we note with sadness that the conflicts in Europe and the Middle East continue to boil, with loss of life and humanitarian crises worsening by the day. Strife and polarization at home and abroad are equally distressing. It is my hope that our synagogue may serve as a refuge for all, a safe space for members to seek and share comfort.

Spring finally seems to have broken through the chill, so come on out and join us at Temple Israel services soon!

Zissen Pesach to all,
Art

Arthur B. Siegel
President – Temple Israel