Shul News & Notes

The response from members and friends to this year’s High Holiday Matching Gift Campaign has been robust, and gifts continue to arrive daily. Many contributors were moved by remarks made by Judith Weiner at Yom Kippur services, particularly this year, when Israel is a war with its regional enemies and antisemitism is on the rise throughout the world.

With permission, The Shofar is pleased to reprint excerpts from Judith Weiner’s Yom Kippur statement. Readers wanting to be a part of this year’s High Holiday Matching Gift Campaign are invited to send a check made out to Congregation Tifereth Israel, and mail it to P.O. Box 659, Greenport, NY, 11944. Or you can pay online with a credit card by visiting the shul’s website: www.tiferethisraelgreenport.org and clicking on the donations tab.

“This is the fifth year I have been on this bimah, asking you for your support of our High Holiday Matching Gift Campaign. The annual campaign raises leadership gifts from our congregants, contributions that create a pool of funds that makes it possible for us to match all other gifts 2:1 through 2024.

“This year, I am not going to tell you about all the wonderful programs and services our shul has delivered for our community. Or the advances in technology and security that have changed the way we do business. Or the ideas and planning for growth and physical plant enhancement that we have imagined and discussed.

“I am going to talk about the need for all of us to be engaged. I am borrowing Scott Galloway’s word that we heard over and again during the excellent interview with Debbie Epstein Henry: That word is engage. Engage in our shul services. Engage in our shul programs and events. Engage in our shul community. Engage friends, relatives, neighbors in conversation about the fearsome and frightening antisemitism and anti-Zionism that grow daily. We need to talk about it. We need to counteract the lies and the untruths about the horrors inflicted on Israeli women and men and babies on Oct. 7, and the ongoing nightmare in all of the Middle East.

“We need to speak out and speak up.

“When we consider the justifiable level of fear among Jewish young people and students, when Holocaust survivors warn us that this is just like the 1930s, then history shows us that keeping quiet, keeping a low profile, results in unspeakable outcomes. We need to speak up and speak out.

Antisemitism and anti-Zionism are no longer swimming around below the surface, politely invisible. They threaten us on all levels. In the most prestigious universities. In neighborhood communities. In the voting booth.

“And that is why we need to support our shul. We need the safety and support of our Jewish community. We need the camaraderie of friends and neighbors in an environment where we can talk, and worry, and even cry. We need it now. Not tomorrow. Not next month, or next year. Not when we think we may have more time or more band width.

“I say that because my family is under the constant barrage of missiles in Israel. They go into safe rooms, and they stop the car on the highway and crawl into a ditch on the side of the road to stay safe from the shrapnel of the missiles that escape the Iron Dome. Two of my grandchildren are serving in the IDF. Relatives are fighting in Lebanon. I know a daughter and father who were murdered by terrorists while serving as police officers.

“We must strengthen and sustain our infrastructure at home, in the U.S., right here in Greenport. Your gifts help support our shul community when community is more important than ever. We need the comfort, support and safety of our community. It’s not only about giving money. It’s also about giving time. When you do, the payback is worth it. I know that from my own experience at Tifereth Israel.

“I close with the words of David Ben Gurion: ‘In Israel, in order to be a realist, you must believe in miracles.’ And I also believe…so goes Israel, so goes the Jewish community around the world, which is why we need a strong Jewish presence and a strong Jewish community right here on the North Fork. And we need you and your support to make that happen. Thank you.”