Opening a dialogue

Friday evening, members of the community were invited to join the congregants of Temple House of Israel in Staunton to observe a Jewish Sabbath, or Shabbat, religious service.

About 90 observers attended.

“Our sanctuary holds about 125,” said THOI Board President Beth Young. “Normally we have about 15 to 20 people.”

The entire membership consists of 44 families, she said.

Young says the feedback the congregation receives is favorable, with visitors saying that the service was interesting.

“It comes in from different sources,” said Young, “but they often tell us that they learned a lot and that they see similarities between Judaism and their religions.

“We hope that we, in our community, won’t make anti-Semitism grow anymore in the country.”

Recent newspaper accounts show that anti-Jewish sentiment still exists in the U.S. and the world. In just the last month, eight examples of anti-Semitism the U.S. could be viewed on the Web sites of the Chicago Sun-Times, the Boston Herald, the Los Angeles Times and the Portland Press Herald.

The News Virginian also ran a story on Dec. 29 about swastika graffiti showing up in Staunton and Augusta County.

“This is why we hold the Community Awareness Shabbat each year,” Young said.

THOI’s Rabbi Joe Blair, said Young, is intent on creating open doors within the community and fostering an interfaith dialogue.
“We want to give the community a sense of who we are and what we do,” Blair said.

As an introduction, Blair gives the audience a brief history of the building and the congregation, which he says has been an integral, though not well known, part of Staunton’s history since the 1870s. Samuel Collins built the current synagogue in 1925.

Of the various types of Jewish congregations, Blair said that THOI is considered a reform group, meaning that it continues to evolve from generation to generation. Reformists interpret Jewish traditions in a more liberal way than Orthodox or Conservative Jews.

Jewish people don’t believe in sacred space such as a house of worship, but they do believe in a division of time — sacred versus secular. The more often a sacred day is celebrated increases its importance in being celebrated. Sabbath is the most important “holiday” for the Jewish people, according to Blair.
“Worship can be done at a home, a school, even outside,” Blair told the audience. “Sacred time is the time that is marked.”

Worshipping outside is something that appealed to Kate Makrides, 34, of Waynesboro, who said that she communes with her higher power most when she’s able to be with nature.

“I made a connection when he talked about there not being any sacred space,” she said.

Makrides is a member of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Waynesboro. She and a small group from her church youth group made the trip to the temple to learn more about the Jewish religion.

Unitarianism, which is founded in the Protestant tradition, said Makrides, supports a search for truth and meaning, and the group’s visit to the Jewish temple was a natural extension of that search.

“[The service was] beautiful and the explanations were very helpful. The cantor sung beautifully, too,” she said.

Aspects of the Sabbath service that she said were very familiar to her included the idea of employing service work, as that is a highly valued tenet of Unitarianism.

“The rabbi really connected with the audience and showed acceptance of all people, that the religion is all inclusive,” Makrides said. “He’s a very good speaker.”

She said that Unitarians also include people from all religious persuasions, including atheists.

Fran Clark, UUFW’s director of religious education, also saw the similarities.

“Unitarianism is based on the Judeo-Christian tradition,” she said.

Other traditions performed during the Sabbath service that relate to Christian services include a person who leads the congregation in singing responses to prayers or readings, the alternate actions of sitting and standing, symbolic gestures such as bowing during a reading and incorporating the use of a Bible.
The main theme of all the prayers and readings was similar: to praise God and to pray for peace and protection for all — including those who have already died.

A difference between the Jewish and Christian bibles is in topic emphasis and chapters included. The Torah, which is the same as the first five chapters of the Christian Bible, is combined with the Books of the Prophets and Writings to form the Jewish Bible. There is no New Testament in the Jewish Bible. Another difference is in the reading of the text, which is done from right to left instead of what most Americans are familiar with.

Something that was noticeably absent from the service was the idea of going to heaven or hell. Blair made no mention of either and the subjects were not included in the readings, which might have seemed foreign to some in the audience.

As to whether a heaven or hell exists, Makrides said her religion concentrates on the here and now.

“You act in appropriate ways for rewards in this life. It’s human nature to battle selfishness and greediness,” she said.

“It’s about living responsibly and having respect for humanity and the world.”