You Are Not Alone

Dear Bet Shalom,

I write to you today mainly to remind you that you are not alone. As part of our Bet Shalom community, this sacred and supportive congregation, you never need to be alone. In this dark time, both seasonably dark and the darkness of the atrocities against Israel and increased antisemitism around the globe, we are here for each other. Bet Shalom is one place where you do not have to explain yourself. You can just come and be present with others who are having similar experiences. Bet Shalom brings light to dark times.

During Erev Rosh Hashanah this year, I announced that we were going to begin celebrating joyous occasions in the lives of fellow Bet Shalomians during Shabbat services. We have always celebrated wedding anniversaries on the third Friday night each month. While it doesn’t feel like a very celebratory moment in our history, I still believe marking special moments in each others’ lives will help deepen our sense of community with one another, even now.  

Beginning this Friday night, on the first Friday night of every month, we will offer a blessing of mazal tov - good luck and congratulations for anyone in the Bet Shalom community who has a birthday to celebrate (recently or in the month ahead), a new job, a new grandchild, a new home or anything you’d like to share with our community. May we join together and strengthen each other with these simcha blessings - blessings of joy as we experience life together.  

In an effort to help people remain informed about what is happening in Israel, we created a jumppage with helpful resources and information. We will update it as more information and resources become available. You can access the page here and I suggest that you bookmark it so you can easily find it again.    

We know that college campuses are particularly tense at this time. We are sending love and support to our college students. We also wanted to share this important statement of support front the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), 𝐂𝐂𝐀𝐑 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐂𝐄𝐑𝐍 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐒𝐔𝐏𝐏𝐎𝐑𝐓 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐉𝐄𝐖𝐈𝐒𝐇 𝐒𝐓𝐔𝐃𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐒 𝐎𝐍 𝐍𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐇 𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐍 𝐂𝐎𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐆𝐄 𝐂𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐔𝐒𝐄𝐒. We are here for you and are available to anyone who wants to talk or is looking for support. We are also grateful to Hillel, who is working around the clock to ensure our students have a safe environment for their studies. Please fill this form out for your college student so we can keep in touch with them.  

We continue to suggest that all our tzedakah to support Israel goes through the Minneapolis Jewish Federation Tikvatenu (Our hope) fund. 100 percent of the donations raised through the Tikvatenu Emergency Fund goes directly to people in need.

To learn more about this campaign go to: https://jewishminneapolis.org/israelemergencycampaign.

As I said at the beginning of this note, we need not feel alone. We are all here for each other. Join us Friday night for services at 6pm (food at 5:30) in our joyful, supportive, Bet Shalom community.  

I’ll look forward to seeing you soon.

All my best,

Rabbi David Locketz