CONTRIBUTED BY STUDENT RABBI MIRIAM FARBER

Two years ago, I had the opportunity to spend Pesach with the Jewish community of Belarus along with another HUC student. By far the most powerful day of the trip was the time I spent in the community of Lida. Igor, a member of the community there, showed us around the city and its Jewish sites. We stood in the parking lot of an apartment complex, as Igor gestured around us and said, “This used to be a Jewish cemetery.” Were it not for the small plaque put up by the Jewish community, no one would know. We drove a little bit out of the city proper, to a monument on the side of the road, across from a forest. This monument, Igor told us, marked the spot where all of Lida’s Jewish children were killed when the Nazis liquidated the ghetto in the spring of 1942. Their parents were marched into the forest across the way. In the forest, we needed no monument. Mounds of earth rose unnaturally from the ground in a clearing, now covered with grass and wildflowers.

At our seders, we pair the salt water of Jewish tears with karpas, the greenery symbolizing springtime, rebirth, and renewal. That night in Lida, the seder was our karpas. We walked into a room bustling with seder preparations. A young girl, Lena, sang the Four Questions beautifully. We applauded the children’s choir, recently returned from a choral competition in Minsk. They proudly sang for their parents and their community, without any hesitation. The pride in their voices and reflected in the faces of the adults around them was a powerful contrast to the sites we had seen earlier that day.

The Gevurot prayer speaks of m’chayeh ha’meitim, the revival of the dead, in its traditional version. While we might not believe literally in this idea, the revival of Jewish life in Europe, in communities like Lida, testifies to the power of imagining a different future than the expected, obvious path. The Jewish community of Lida is finding its own way across the sea, building a vibrant Jewish community for the next generation. Lida’s Jewish presence is not in its monuments and memorial plaques, but in the voices of its children, and in the community’s hope for a better future.

Chag Pesach Sameach!

Compared to some celebrations, our little community Seder is a bargain.  Hope to see you there.

http://blogs.forward.com/the-jew-and-the-carrot/173108/from-coast-to-coast-the-best-seders/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Food&utm_campaign=Food%2520Newsletter%25202013-03-20#ixzz2O7LhLket

Click here to find out.

http://forward.com/articles/173508/how-is-the-white-house-seder-different-from-all-ot/?p=all

We are excited to announce that the new website ReformJudaism.org is out of “beta” mode and now officially launched!

ReformJudaism.org is the first website to provide a wealth of Jewish information through a Reform Jewish lens. Our intended audiences are affiliated Jews, unaffiliated/unengaged Jews, and those who are just curious. Our goal is to provide visitors with engaging content that represents the best that the Reform Movement has to offer. We hope to enrich the site by showcasing the great work from your congregations, so please keep this in mind and send us your suggestions and ideas! Rabbi Dan Levin’s video on what you need for a seder is a great example of this, as well as an article about chametz and kitniyot by Rabbi Eric Berk and Rabbi Paul Kipnes. If we decide to include your contribution, we will include full credit and a link back to your site.

Some easy ways to contribute include:

– Suggest a prayer or blessing to add to the site’s searchable index of prayers and blessings
– Suggest a blog post
– Suggest a recipe
– Suggest an event to add to the calendar
– Send us a link to a video your congregation has produced, or anything else you’d like to share.

Visitors can comment on nearly any page of the site, and can interact with the site in many other ways as well, including:

– Ask Tina Wasserman a question about Jewish cooking
– Ask a rabbi a question about Judaism
– Find a Judaism class near you
– Find a congregation near you
– Find an event near you
– Send a free e-card
– Find information and commentaries on any Torah portion
– Find a Jewish baby name
– Find a mohel/mohelet

And finally, we have launched a new video on the home page of the site that introduces Reform Judaism to visitors. It is also featured on YouTube. We invite you to use this video and embed it on your websites to welcome new visitors. 

As a reminder: if you are on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Pinterest, we encourage you to follow the URJ and share the information that we put out on these social networking channels.

More developments, improvements, and additions are expected in the coming months. Please take some time to explore the site and, as always, we welcome your feedback.

A zissen Pesach, Shabbat Shalom, and a good weekend to all…

Jill Peltzman
Digital Media Director
Communications/PR
Union for Reform Judaism
212-650-4215

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