I’ve been reading about Col. Anne McClain, one of the astronauts picked for the Artemis project, aiming for a return to the moon over the next few years. Like several family members of mine, she’s a decorated combat veteran. Like only a few of my acquaintances, she has thousands of hours in the cockpit, mostly flying helicopters before becoming an astronaut. Like my eldest son, she’s trained in aerospace engineering. Like me, she’s experienced divorce. Like some, she got unwanted and ...
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Its been my pleasure and honor to work with Rabbi Kurland, not only here at Federation, but as co-clergy at Congregation Shir Shalom. I met Rabbi Kurland in 2004 when I first interviewed with the then Nanuet Hebrew Center. When I came to the congregation in 2005, I found a colleague who was 100% supportive of my role. As the dean of my cantorial school said when he learned who my rabbi was, “you’ve got a honey”. He was right; in Rabbi Kurland I have found a great colleague and a true fr...
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One of his missions in life is to make people smile.
Not a quick, polite smile. An ear to ear grin, perhaps accompanied by an eyeroll, but always aimed to lighten the heart and the burdens it carries, both seen and unseen.
I am grateful for the almost five years I’ve known him.
Who am I talking about? The Rabbi with the twinkle in his eye and oldest, corniest, and funniest stories in Rockland. Of course, I could only be writing about one person. Rabbi Paul Kurland has spent the last 29 y...
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Growing up in a Conservative Jewish environment offered many opportunities to find expressions of Judaism beyond simply attending services. I am a second generation American and forever generation Jew. The sense of spirituality and belonging was reinforced through my younger years of youth group and later on adult roles in volunteering at my synagogue or community at large. These experiences allowed me to find an outlet for extending the meaning of believing, observing traditions, giving back...
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Growing up Jewish in America meant straddling two societies, living among two cultures. My childhood experiences vacillated between Jewish pride and respectful reticence. The Pennsylvania city where I spent my youth was home to a significant number of Jewish families, mostly professionals and merchants, who supported four synagogues and three kosher butchers. I was raised in a conservative kosher home, attended after-school Talmud Torah for eight years, and was active in youth groups like B�...
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Yesterday, I read (with the kind of resigned, predictable anger tempered with fatalism that we’ve all come to know) of the British Museum’s decision to postpone a lecture on “Ancient Israel and Judah in the British Museum” set for this week. It came as a part of the Museum’s participation in Britain’s first ever ‘Jewish Culture Month’, but the Museum determined that they had to postpone because of a flood of registrants who were known agitators, intent on disrupting and endang...
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One of the most important values in all of Jewish life is unity (achdut in Hebrew). And one of the supreme institutions that strives in the finest ways to insure unity in our Jewish community and b...
Kfar Silver
The connection between Rockland’s Jewish Federation and Kfar Silver Youth Village is a recent one when a group of Rockland County residents visited the school, which is supported by ORT. The agricultural/residential school located just eight miles from Gaza is part of the Zionist dream to make the Negev bloom.
Students come from all over to Kfar Silver, some born in many parts of the FSU…former Soviet Union, as well as students from Ethiopia who were airlifted to Israel with their parents. One third of the student body—750 students—live on the campus. Many come from low socio-economic and single parent families, the disadvantaged part of Israeli society. By the time these kids graduate and move on to the IDF and further educational opportunities, Kfar Silver will have given these kids a leg up they might otherwise not have had.
Rockland County’s Jewish community supports Israel in many ways. Federation’s direct support of Kfar Silver is as much about supporting Israel as it is about supporting a special project we feel a connection with…one we have grown to love.
Adult Jewish Education
- For those who stopped learning about what it means to be Jewish during their last Sunday school session before their bar/bat mitzvah…
- For those who have studied Jewish customs, religion, and culture on their own, but are hungry for more…
- For those who want to be educated about who they are and where they came from, but know little or nothing of what it means to be Jewish…
- For those who aren’t Jewish but are fascinated with Judaism in all its many forms and want to learn about it…
Rockland’s Adult Jewish Education classes are for you. Background doesn’t matter. Level of education doesn’t matter. A desire to learn and participate in riveting, fascinating classes is all you need. Join our classes taught by fascinating, articulate teachers and enjoy!
Got questions? We have answers.
PJ Library
For young moms and dads, reading stories to their children is something many do every night at bedtime…or even in the middle of the afternoon! PJ Library, which is a program of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, is underwritten in Rockland County by Rockland’s Jewish Federation. It provides Jewish-themed books for children, ages 2-8 every month and gives those moms and dads a wonderful way to help them understand and appreciate what it means to be Jewish…even at a young age.
PJ Library books are wonderful additions to every Jewish family’s library. It doesn’t matter what the family’s background, knowledge or family make-up or observance is. There are PJ Library books for every kind of Jewish family.
But PJ is not only about books. It’s also about Jewish-themed activities…like Zoom classes on cooking for the holidays. And outings where young Jewish families can meet and make friendships with other young Jewish families.
Leket Israel
Leket Israel is the largest food bank and food rescue organization in Israel. Rockland’s Federation has had a long-standing relationship with Leket because we know how important it is to take care of the most basic need of making sure people who struggle to feed themselves and their families have food to put on the table each and every day.
During the year of the pandemic, Leket Israel had to change the way it feeds people in need. It went from rescuing good, nutritious food from restaurants, hotels, and even the IDF, and feeding more than 200,000 Israelis per week, to buying 12,000 meals a day because just like here in Rockland County, the need for food increased tangentially as the Pandemic worsened and people lost their jobs.
Here in Rockland County’s Jewish community, we have a strong relationship with Leket Israel. It’s a special project we support directly and that has come to mean a lot to us. Through donations to Jewish Federation, we can see the difference those donations make in the lives of those who are helped by Leket Israel.
Community Relations Council
If you see something…
The Community Relations Council is Federation’s advocacy arm. One of its prime roles is as the Rockland Jewish community’s voice with elected officials at every level from national to local. The CRC has developed relationships with many of these people and will contact them when there’s an issue that is of concern, and must be addressed. From gatherings the were highly visible, such as the one that occurred after the Monsey stabbings, to those that are strictly behind-the-scenes, the CRC takes a strong and active role in combatting antisemitism no matter where it occurs.
The CRC makes sure our elected officials understand the pernicious effects the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) has on the State of Israel, and the hateful rhetoric that is too pervasive on certain social media channels and group pages in and around Rockland County. When the CRC becomes aware of such hate speech or any violent threats against the Jewish community, it makes sure our local officials are aware of them so they can be dealt with.
Community Weaving
The most important role Jewish Federation plays in the community is in community weaving. Federation has built a platform where all organizations and individuals can come together to share common concerns. Through Community Weaving, Federation brings synagogues and organizations together to work for the common good of Rockland’s Jewish community.
Whether it’s to learn how to apply for security grants, or the PPP during the pandemic, or learning how to set up endowment funds for the financial security of an organization through Life and Legacy, Federation has made Community Weaving the important initiative it is for the community.
