Message From The Rabbi

Rabbi Spike Anderson

You may remember me telling you earlier in the year about the conversation I had with my son, Moses, as we drove by Cornerstone Church and saw them proudly flying the American AND Israeli flag from their front door.   This is the little brick church on the corner of Roberts and Spalding, across from the fire station.  At the time, Israel was (as it still is) in the news due to the war with Hamas, and anti-Israel college protests were raging out of control.

Moses said to me, “Dad, that church has an Israeli flag where everyone can see it, why don’t we have something like that at Temple Emanu-El?”  He was right to ask this question, to which I replied, “I don’t know…but we should.”   Symbols are important, and to fly this symbol would state that we are proud Zionists. 

It took a minute to implement, but now, when you drive into our parking lot, you will see both the American and Israeli flags flying from the newly erected flagpole.

You may have been part of the ceremony we held at Temple Emanu-El just days after October 7^th in our Sanctuary, where hundreds of our congregants gathered to mourn.   It was so needed…and it was intense. To conclude what can only be described as a mass-shiva, every congregant came up to the ark with a smooth black stone in hand, each stone to represent the Israeli life that was taken in the pogrom by Hamas.  Together, as our traditional liturgy dirged, we piled over 1200 stones on our bima, reminiscent of the stones we would place on the tombstone of a beloved.   Today, these same stones have been placed around the base of our new flagpole, adding the memory of that day, and of how our community came together to grieve our brothers and sisters in Israel.

Surrounding the black stones are the bricks that were previously in front of our synagogue entrance, some of which have names inscribed on them.  These names belong to families of Temple Emanu-El congregants, may their memory be a blessing.  Z’l.  

I love that each year our Diamond Family Religious School 7th-grade class picks something to dedicate their collective tzedakah to support.   This year’s class chose to help pay for our new flagpole, and the two flags that symbolize our two homes, we Jews who live in America.  We will place a small plaque near the flagpole to commemorate their dedication.  M’dor L’dor…

We have other plans for this evolving site of symbolism, but for now, we can be satisfied that our Temple Emanu-El campus, and our congregational identity have been enhanced, uplifted, and unfurled. 

May the light that shines from Zion continue to shine upon us, and onto the whole world...