October 2008
Tishri/Heshvan 5769
SHIR HAYAM EVENTS
See member’s calendar
or call 206-855-7924 for event details.
HIGH HOLIDAYS
Yom Kippur
10/8/08 Kol Nidre 7:00 pm at the Fil-Am Hall
10/9/08
- Morning service 10:30 am at Fil-Am Hall
- Meditation 3:00 pm at the Goldens
- Yitzkor 4:00 at the Goldens
- Neilah 6:10 pm at Fil-Am Hall
- Break the Fast Potluck (bring lots) 7:00 pm at Fil-am Hall
Sukkot/ Simchat Torah Celebration
10/19/08 – Note corrected date
FOUND AT ROSH HASHANAH SERVICES
The following items were found after Rosh Hashanah services at the Fil-Am Hall. Please contact Sharon at 842.8453 before Kol Nidre. If we have not heard from you about several of the items, we will assume they belong to the Fil-Am kitchen and return them there.
—a serrated bread knife
—an Oneida triangular stainless steel cake/pie server (perhaps came with the lemon meringue pie?)
—a goldish-silverish 12 inch round engraved serving platter
TIKKUN OLAM CORNER
WORK PARTY AT FURRY TALE FARM
We will be scheduling the work party in November to build two pig feeding areas and probably a later project to build a horse-proof fence. If you are interested in volunteering please contact Paul Kerbrat at kerbfam1@comcast.net.
If you have lumber you can donate – we need:
4 – 8’ 4×4 cedar
4 – 10’ 4×4 treated
16 – 8’ 2×4 cedar
20 – 8’ 2×4 treated
We will also be needing corrugated metal roofing and misc hardware.
ADOPT-A-ROAD
The more folks we have the less work it is! We will meet at the Rotary Welcome Park at Seabold Road and Komedal (the north end of Komedal) at 10:00 am on Sunday, November 9th . Please put it on your calendars now. We can park there, don our vests, grab some bags and split up into teams. DON’T FORGET YOUR GLOVES. If you have any questions, please call Denise, 780-0931. See you there!
JLC NEWS
JLC Session – 1 10/12/08
JLC Session – 2 10/26/08
COMMUNITY NEWS
A gliklekhe rayze to our own Eve Rutzick off to make a difference in the presidential campaign in Colorado.
INTERESTING ARTICLE IN THE FORWARD
Jewish World / Meet Michelle Obama’s cousin, the Rabbi
By Anthony Weiss, The Forward
While Barack Obama has struggled to capture the Jewish vote, it turns out that one of his wife’s cousins is the country’s most prominent black rabbi – a fact that has gone largely unnoticed.
Michelle Obama, wife of the Democratic presidential nominee, and Rabbi Capers Funnye, spiritual leader of a mostly black synagogue on Chicago’s South Side, are first cousins once removed. Funnye’s mother, Verdelle Robinson Funnye (born Verdelle Robinson) and Michelle Obama’s paternal grandfather, Frasier Robinson Jr., were brother and sister.
Funnye (pronounced fuh-NAY) is chief rabbi at the Beth Shalom B’nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation in southwest Chicago. He is well-known in Jewish circles for acting as a bridge between mainstream Jewry and the much smaller, and largely separate, world of black Jewish congregations, sometimes known as black Hebrews or Israelites. He has often urged the larger Jewish community to be more accepting of Jews who are not white.
Funnye’s famous relative gives an unexpected twist to the much-analyzed relationship between Barack Obama and Jews in this presidential campaign. On the one hand, Jewish political organizers, voters and donors played an essential role in Obama’s rise to power in Chicago, including some of the city’s wealthiest and most prominent families. But the Illinois senator has struggled to overcome suspicions in some parts of the Jewish community, including skepticism about his stance on Israel and discredited but persistent rumors that he is secretly a Muslim.
Funnye, who described himself as an independent, said he has not been involved with the Obama campaign but that he has donated money and was cheering it on.
“I know that her grandfather and her father and my mom and all of our relatives that are now deceased would be so very, very proud of both of them,” Funnye told the Forward.
Michelle Obama and the Obama campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
Funnye told the Forward that he has known Michelle Obama (born Michelle Robinson) all her life. His mother and her father, Frasier Robinson III, enjoyed a close relationship, and Funnye said he saw Michelle several times a year when they were growing up, mostly at family functions and on occasional visits to her house.
“Her father was like the glue of our family,” Funnye said. “He always wanted to keep the family very connected and to stay in touch with each other.”
Funnye, 56, said he and Michelle, 44, were not especially close growing up, but he remembers her as “energetic and smart and very caring.”
The two fell out of touch when they grew older and went their separate ways but then reconnected years later when Michelle Obama was working for the University of Chicago and Funnye was leading a local social service organization called Blue Gargoyle. Funnye also worked with Barack Obama, then a state senator, who came and spoke at events for the organization. When Barack and Michelle Obama married, Funnye and his family attended the wedding.
Although Funnye’s congregation describes itself as Ethiopian Hebrew, it is not connected to the Ethiopian Jews, commonly called Beta Israel, who have immigrated to Israel en masse in recent decades. It is also separate from the Black Hebrews in Dimona, Israel, and the Hebrew Israelite black supremacist group whose incendiary street harangues have become familiar spectacles in a number of American cities.
Funnye converted to Judaism and was ordained as a rabbi under the supervision of black Israelite rabbis, then went through another conversion supervised by Orthodox and Conservative rabbis. He serves on the Chicago Board of Rabbis.
Funnye’s relationship with the Obama family was reported in the Chicago Jewish News in an article dated August 22. A Wall Street Journal article in April reported that the aspiring first lady had a cousin (whom the paper mistakenly referred to as a second cousin) who is a prominent black rabbi but did not mention Funnye by name.
The rabbi’s familial connection with the Democratic presidential nominee is also a matter of common knowledge in Funnye’s synagogue.
“He really jumped on everyone’s radar after the 2004 convention,” Funnye said. “That’s when some people said, ‘Isn’t he related to you or something?’ I said, ‘Yeah, he’s married to my cousin, and she’s making him everything that he is.’”
HAPPENING IN SEATTLE
MUSIC OF REMEMBRANCE FALL 2008 CONCERT: “Before the Ark” by Simon Sargon, “Found in a Train Station” by Lior Navok, and “The Golem” by Betty Olivero
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 4:00 PM AND MONDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 7:00 PM
NORDSTROM RECITAL, BENAROYA HALL, 3rd Ave. & Union Street, in downtown Seattle
For info: 206.365.7770 or order online at www.musicofremembrance.org
Music of Remembrance is a Seattle-based nonprofit organization dedicated to remembering Holocaust musicians and their art through musical performances, educational activities, musical recordings, and commissions of new works. Its mission is not religious, nor is its scope limited to Jewish music. Musicians’ resistance during World War II took many forms, and crossed many national and religious boundaries. The concerts represent the diversity of the Holocaust’s victims through the voices of women, men, children, political dissidents, gypsies, and homosexuals. This season’s music brings a focus on complex questions of Jewish identity – through moving music and voices, memory is carried forward, and the transformative power of music moves from the depths of human suffering to the healing beauty of hope and renewal.
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