Keeping Connected  May 2025

Dear Friends,

This month, for our Keeping Connected, I have two things I would like to write about.

First, in January, our Board of Trustees and committee chairs met for a full-day retreat. Our hope was to engage in strategic thinking about the state of our congregation, as well as to envision ideas that we hoped would strengthen the functionality of our synagogue systems, as well as the sense of community that we cherish. Many positive ideas came out of that day, but one issue in particular seemed particularly resonant. Congregation Shalom, at its inception, was envisioned by our founding members, to be a place where people would find not only a place for Jewish learning, spirituality and religious practice, but also a place where our members would have a true sense of community. For many, the synagogue felt like an “extended family”, so much so that this became the guest password at our congregation.

Over time, however, as the synagogue has grown, many of our members have come to feel that there is a gap between the longer-term members and our newer members and younger synagogue families. I have heard many times the sentiment that I don’t recognize anyone anymore. This sense of not knowing one another was something that was highlighted at our board retreat and we set a goal to create programming and experiences that would begin to build bridges between one another. One of the ideas that was raised was to offer more opportunities for synagogue-wide, intergenerational learning. Together, our adult education, school and beautification committee are sponsoring such an event on the morning of May 18^th.  A special e-mail has already been sent out to all our members; you can find it here. I hope you will come and participate in this experience of learning, sharing and creating. We will have the opportunity to dedicate the Tree of Life arbor during the High Holidays in the fall.

The second thing I would like to highlight is that May is Mental Health Awareness month. I have written about mental health many times in the past, but I continue to feel that this is a critical issue that needs to remain in the forefront on our consciousness. Too many of us and our loved ones are impacted by the challenges and pain when one’s emotional well-being is fragile or shattered. There is no member of our community who either they themselves or a loved one has not been impacted by depression, anxiety, addiction, and other serious mental health struggles.

The National Council for Mental Well-being records that “Despite progress in mental health initiatives, more than 30 million people in the U.S. still lack access to comprehensive, high-quality care. These statistics highlight the ongoing need for Mental Health Awareness Month and the importance of bringing attention to this disparity:

• 1 in 5 U.S. adults experience mental illness each year.
• 1 in 20 U.S. adults experience serious mental illness each year.
• 1 in 6 U.S. youth have a mental health condition, but only half receive treatment.
• 50% of all lifetime mental illness begins by age 14, and 75% by age 24.
• In 2023, 20% of all high school students seriously considered suicide.”

https://www.thenationalcouncil.org/mental-health-awareness-month/

There are many ways to be involved this month, many of which are talked about in the above website. Another is to learn more about how one can help others. Locally, in Westford, there will be an adult mental health first aid training program that is open to the public. Please see the flyer below that details how to sign-up. Most importantly, if you or a loved one need support or help, please reach out to me, your doctor, a mental health professional, a friend and in an emergency the 988 suicide and crisis lifeline.

It is important for all of us to remember that mental health is as important as physical health and that we need to work together to break down stigma.

Warm regards,

Rabbi Shoshana Perry

Keeping Connected April 2025

Dear Friends,

I would like to invite you to learn more about the World Zionist Congress and your ability to participate in an important election. The WZC elections are the ONLY way for American Jews to democratically participate in issues about Israel. Please watch the following video to understand the significance of your vote. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32fxLn_nuM4

You can also find important information from ARZA (the American Reform Zionist Association) which is a branch of the Union for Reform Judaism that promotes religious freedom and pluralism in Israel. You can learn more are ARZA and the work that they do at their website: ARZA https://arza.org. Additionally, below is information from the Union for Reform Judaism that I think can be helpful in understanding the significance of this vote. Please take the time to read the information as well as to look at additional information at the links below.

L’shalom,

Rabbi Shoshana M. PerryMore

Keeping Connected – March 2025

Dear Friends,

Our Jewish values teach that all people are created “B’tselem Elohim” in the Divine image, that each person is precious and deserves kindness and safety. These values have always been a guiding light for Congregation Shalom. Our mission statement is:

Congregation Shalom is a Reform Jewish community committed toВ education, spiritual growth, and Tikkun Olam (healing the world). We are proud to be an extended family of equals, “ welcoming, caring and inclusive. Together, we engage in religious observance, enjoy social activities, and pursue life-long learning.

Today, more than ever, it feels important for us to affirm the commitment to being welcoming, caring and inclusive. That every person, regardless of who they love and how they identify, is a valued member of our congregation. We aspire for our synagogue to be a sanctuary and safe place for every person, child or adult, and we are also committed through our actions to make this mission a reality. As it says in our siddur:

May the door of this synagogue be wide enough
To receive all who hunger for love, all who are lonely for friendship.

May it welcome all who have cares to unburden,
Thanks to express, hopes to nurture.

Recently, in our nation, there have been significant efforts on the national and state level, to diminish the rights of people who identify as members of the LGBTQ+ community. This has included legislation that would take away the right to gay marriage, the elimination of gender-affirming care for children who are trans and nonbinary, restrictions on receiving passports, etc. We understand that this has caused tremendous emotional and spiritual distress for some members of our congregation, both young and old. We want to reiterate that we are present with you on this challenging journey and that we will always be here to offer our support and guidance. We are committed to being a caring and inclusive community. We may not always know who is in need of support, so please reach out to us so we can be there for you.

As mentioned earlier, it is important to not only believe in these values, but to live these values. Towards these ends, as a congregation, we have incorporated Seven Jewish Values for an Inclusive Jewish Community into our daily practice. You can see the entire framework of principles below, but they include: Respect, Peace in the Home, In God’s Image, Communal Responsibility, Guarding One’s Use of Language, Love Your Neighbor as Yourself, and Solidarity. Along with the Union for Reform Judaism, the RAC (Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism), and hundreds of other synagogues and Jewish organizations, Congregation Shalom has joined the Thrive Coalition, which is a group of Jewish community institutions that want to protect and advance LGBTQ+ civil rights on both the state and federal levels. If you are interested in becoming a part of Congregation Shalom’s engagement with these efforts or would like to be a part of our Inclusion Committee, please reach out to Tina Kempner, Caryn Navy, or Rabbi Perry. Please see our e-mails below.

With deep care and concern for each and every one of you,

Rabbi Perry
Rob Berkovitz, President Congregation Shalom on behalf of the Board of Trustees
Tina Kempner, Chair Social Action/Social Justice
Caryn Navy, Chair of the Inclusion Committee

Resources:

https://www.keshetonline.org

https://www.keshetonline.org/thrive

Seven Jewish Values

Seven Jewish Values for Littles

Keeping Connected –  February  2025

Dear Friends,

The Torah is filled with passages about the responsibility of helping others in one’s community, in Hebrew, the kehillah. Through history, the Jewish people, whether religious or secular, have taken these responsibilities seriously, especially in times and situations when they were marginalized by the non-Jewish community. Furthermore, the Torah emphasized that the imperative to help others is meant to be applied to those both within and outside the Jewish kehillah. For example, in Deuteronomy 15:7 we read a mitzvah that is an overarching articulation of the duty to help others; “If there be among you a needy person, you shall not harden your heart, but you shall surely open your hand.” The Torah set the foundation for these moral principles of Jewish life; we are responsible for helping the poor, the stranger, the widow, the orphan, the sick, the marginalized in our society and we are responsible for setting up institutions of learning and Jewish ritual life. This commitment was expanded upon through time in every period of Jewish history. Jews have taken it upon themselves to set up schools, orphanages, hospitals, social service agencies, mikvaot (Jewish ritual baths), synagogues and more.

In the modern period, Jewish federations took on the role of helping to establish and fund these institutions. Federations, which are non-profit, secular organizations have helped to provide support and human services to members of the community, through philanthropy, grants, humanitarian aid and more, and although Jewish federations were created to help the Jewish community, they also provide for other communities as well. The earliest burial societies, credit unions, youth societies, immigration support organizations and more were all funded by early versions of Jewish federations. Perhaps you have heard of organizations like Jewish Children and Family Services, The Jewish Vocational Institution, Jewish Big Brothers and Big Sisters, YMHAs, YWHAs, JCCs, and more. These were or are all partially funded by Jewish Federations.

I share this information with you because our community has undergone a change in the way we are connected to the larger federation system and it has real life implications for our congregation and members. Since 1988, our synagogue was in the catchment area of the Merrimack Valley Jewish Federation, but beginning in January 2025, the Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston (CJP) has expanded their borders to include servicing the Merrimack Valley. Now, our local community members and congregations will have equal access to programs and resources as all others within the current CJP catchment area. This change can have an enormous impact for our congregation and members. It would be hard to briefly review all the new resources available to our members, but I wanted to encourage you all to look at the CJP website (https://ma.cjp.org) to familiarize yourselves with these new programs and resources.

Although it may take time for us to all access these opportunities, both for our synagogue and members, since some of these new resources are time sensitive, I wanted to highlight them in this letter. CJP has wonderful resources to benefit Jewish youth in terms of camping and trips to Israel. In terms of attending Jewish camps, CJP offers both 1^st Time Camper scholarships as well as affordability scholarships. These funds are distributed on a rolling basis and have strict application deadlines. If you are at all interested in learning more about these scholarships I would encourage you to access the links below and to be aware that the funds are limited. The sooner you are to apply, the better.

CJP has also made a significant commitment to helping members of the Jewish community who are faced with mental health challenges. If you or any member of your family needs support I encourage you to explore their mental health programs at

https://www.cjp.org/path-to-well-being

I look forward to this new stage of connection with the larger Boston Jewish community and I am confident that our engagement with CJP will be beneficial to all of us.

L’shalom,

Rabbi Shoshana M. Perry

https://www.cjp.org/our-work/future-generations/campers-and-teens/jewish-overnight-camp?_gl=1*1o3h2i*_gcl_au*ODc4MDQ5MzM2LjE3MzgxMDU3MjA.*_ga*MTg5NTc3NjEwOS4xNzM4MTA1NzIw*_ga_9Q6WWN4GK8*MTczODE2ODc4Mi4yLjEuMTczODE3MDA0OS41My4wLjA

https://www.cjp.org/our-work/future-generations/campers-and-teens/jewish-overnight-camp?_gl=1*1o3h2i*_gcl_au*ODc4MDQ5MzM2LjE3MzgxMDU3MjA.*_ga*MTg5NTc3NjEwOS4xNzM4MTA1NzIw*_ga_9Q6WWN4GK8*MTczODE2ODc4Mi4yLjEuMTczODE3MDA0OS41My4wLjA

Keeping Connected –  January  2025

Dear Friends,

Over the last few weeks my news feed has been filled with an inordinate number of lists: Dave Barry’s Year in Review, the New York Times Best Books/Movies/TV Shows/Music/Podcasts/etc. of the Year. There are even lists of the best inventions, the best memes, the best Tik Tok videos! I am sure you have also been exposed to and perhaps read, many of these lists. Inspired by these lists, on this erev New Year 2025, I spent some time reflecting not on the past but the year ahead. What if I had a top ten list of Jewish wisdom and quotes that I would inspire and guide me in this new year? Would having what I call a “purpose framework” make an impact on my sense of hope and well-being and would I able to manifest them in my actions and perspective over the course of new next year? If so, one year from now, how would I feel about the year that had just passed?

I decided to give it a chance and spent some time reading and thinking about the challenges and opportunities we will be facing in 2025.  Then, I whittled down a list to ten insights from Jewish wisdom that I hope will enrich my life in 2025 and more importantly, help me to be a better person. I invite you to do the same or to borrow a few of mine. I plan on printing mine out and hanging it up so that throughout the year I will be reminded of the sense of purpose I hoped to integrate in my life. I invite you to take such an opportunity for yourself. Come up with your own list, print it out, put it in your phone, write it in a journal, live it! In doing so I believe that in some small way, we will bring more light, kindness and goodness into the New Year.

I love the opportunity we have as Jews to have two New Years! May 2025 be a year of health, joy, love and peace to you and to all of us.

Rabbi Shoshana Perry

1. “Whatever you choose to do, leave tracks. That means don’t do it just for yourself. You will want to leave the world a little better for your having lived .-  Ruth Bader Ginsberg
2. “Let the Good in me connect with the good in others, until the world is transformed through the compelling power of love.” — Rabbi Nachman of Breslov
3. “The highest form of wisdom is kindness.” –  from the Talmud
4. “If I am not for me, who is for me; and if I am (only) for myself, what am I. And if not now, when?” – Hillel, Ethics of the Fathers, 1:14
5. Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning. – Albert Einstein
6. If you are not a better person tomorrow than you are today, what need have you for a tomorrow? – Rabbi Nachman of Breslov
7. “It is not incumbent on you to finish the task, but neither are you free to absolve yourself from it.” – Ethics of the Fathers, 2:21
8. “It was said of Reb Simcha Bunem of Pershyscha that he carried two slips of paper, one in each pocket. On one he wrote: Bishvili nivra ha-olamв “for my sake the world was created.” On the other he wrote: “I am but dust and ashes.” Reb Simcha would take out each slip of paper as necessary, as a reminder to himself.
9. You have been told what is good and what the Lord requires of you: to act justly, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God. – Micah 6:8
10. “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” – Anne Frank

Keeping Connected В  December В 2024

Dear Friends,

As Rob mentioned in his newsletter article, Chanukkah is a time when we recall the dedication of our ancestors who fought against forces of hate and prejudice in order to live, believe and worship freely. The dedication required a commitment to stand up against idolatry, discriminating laws and forces of assimilation. At the same time it required the will to standup to those in their own community who were willing to conform by sacrificing the ethics, rituals and traditions that were central to Judaism.

There has never been a time in my life when I have not been able to find a relevancy in the themes of our holidays, but this year, I feel a particular resonance with the history and message of Chanukkah. Perhaps it is because I feel the Jewish community is especially vulnerable right now to discrimination and prejudice. Perhaps it is because I know that many Jews feel this fear so acutely that they are even afraid to wear identifying clothing or jewelry in public. Perhaps it is because as a community we need to remain viligent to maintain safety and security. Perhaps it is because I see the rapid erosion of the separation of church and state in America, as indicated by such things as the  posting of Christian interpretations of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms in states like Oklahoma as well as the approval of a bible-based curriculum in Texas for grades K-5. Almost all of the stories and translations are from the Christian tradition. It is true that school districts are not “required” to integrate this curriculum, but if they don’t they will probably lose state educational funding. Perhaps it is because white nationalist hate groups have started to feel more emboldened.

In light of these trends, what can we do to rededicate ourselves to Jewish life in a meaningful way? I do not have one answer, because there are so many ways for us to express our Judaism; culturally, spiritually, ethically and more.В  I do believe, however, that it is essential for us to support and preserve the Jewish institutions in our lives, whether they be the synagogue, the Federation, Jewish schools, Jewish social service agencies, Jewish human rights organizations, and more. In the time of the Maccabees, King Antiochus realized that in order to assimilate the Israelite population, he had to undermine the institutions of Jewish life; the Temple, the schools, the rabbinic centers, Jewish charities of that time period. So too with us, without these communities and organizations, we lose the supports and community we need to insure a vibrant, secure Jewish life for all of us.

This year, as we all think about how we might give tzedakah before the end of the year, I urge you to consider including some of the institutions of Jewish life.

Wishing you and your loved ones light in the winter darkness and may you always remember that you have the power to bring light into the world.

Chag Chanukkah Sameach,

Rabbi Shoshana M. Perry