Shabbat Shalom ~ Re’eh 2025

Shalom WJC Family,

I hope you’ve seen the exciting news that Dr. Mijal Bitton will be our guest speaker at our Pre-High Holidays “Selichot” program on Saturday night, September 13th! Dr. Bitton is an incredible public voice, spiritual leader, academic, and sociologist, and she just made headlines again overseeing the first ever Demographic Study of Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews in the United States. The findings are fascinating and important for understanding the diversity of the Jewish community here in the US and worldwide. You can register for “A Spiritual Start to the High Holidays with Mijal Bitton and Musical Selichot Services” here. It promises to be an inspirational and entertaining evening!

You may have noticed that all of my weekly messages since returning from my summer break have been about how we think about ‘community’ at WJC. Diversity of all kinds is an important part of that picture. There is diversity of Jews from different regional and ethnic backgrounds, like the focus of Dr. Bitton’s recent study, but as a neighborhood synagogue we focus on diversity in so many more ways. 

At WJC we are seeking to create meaningful, spiritual opportunities and Jewish encounters for people with varied Jewish childhood experiences, different Jewish educational backgrounds, and divergent liminal Jewish moments. We are creating experiences for people seeking spiritual services of varying kinds, engaging educational experiences, and opportunities to live their Jewish values in the world. We are building a community dedicated to its adults of all ages, as to our children at all stages, and to families of all make-ups. That is a dynamic equation and we are constantly tweaking the balance and looking for ways to further meet the needs of our beautiful, diverse WJC community.

Along those lines,we have some exciting news. An induction loop has been installed in the sanctuary (all the way back to the reception room and the gym) and the chapel. That means that anyone with a modern assistive device for hearing (like a hearing aid or cochlear implant) can set it to ‘T’ mode and have our microphones piped right into their device. For anyone who needs assistance hearing and does not have such a device, there are new portable listening devices with cutting edge technology specially designed for this system that will be available to all (you can find them right outside the sanctuary.). I tested one of these devices in the chapel this morning and it was incredible – I could hear the pages rustling in the prayer book on the bimah and hear every word of the leader’s whispering. 

This major investment in inclusive technology, made with a gift from the proceeds of the WJC endowment, is another example of how we are investing in the engagement of so many different facets of our WJC family. If you’ve been staying away because you’ve been disappointed in your ability to hear what’s going on in the service, I am sorry – I can imagine how frustrating it must be not to be able to hear what page we are on or follow the speeches being made. I hope you will come in and give this new technology a try. It really makes an extraordinary difference and much thanks to Neil Schwartzreich who led the effort to make this new system a reality.

Another great way we showcase the extraordinary diversity and talent of our WJC family are these summer Shabbats. This is the last week of services in the chapel and we, the clergy, are so grateful to Cindy Heller and Amy Bennett for their extraordinary efforts arranging all of the parts for Summer Saturday morning services. We also want to thank everyone who has spoken, chanted, and led prayers over the summer. Not only are we grateful for the opportunities it gives us to have a break in the summer, but when we are home, we love learning from and praying with you. You really are amazing. I hope you will join us for one more time to be dazzled by our talented lay leaders this Saturday.

See you in shul,

RJA