As we prepare ourselves for the Holy Days ahead, this wonderful resource, The Jewels of Elul, provides food for thought on each day of Elul.  It is a collection of writings and introspections from well-known and fascinating people, including President Obama, the Dalai Lama, Elie Wiesel and many others.

Another wonderful resource, provided by interfaithfamily.com, is this link to High Holy Day blessings, along with translations, transliterations and even sound.

May this time be filled with introspection, thoughtful conversation, healing and repair, wonderful celebrations and expressions of gratitude.  As the year of 5771 draws to a close, The Open Tent thanks you for your support in our mission of Jewish engagement.  We look forward to sharing a new year of 5772 with our Open Tent friends, near and far.  May it be a year of blessings, renewal, growth and peace.

Arts Inside the Open Tent hosted the third annual Seder As Art program on April 2 and 9. Work in a variety of disciplines was presented by Randy Burman, Arlene Caplan, Grace Sherman, Stuart Sheldon, Ilisa Rosal, Tomas Loewy, Andrea Askowitz, Roger Abramson and Gisel Savdie

Photo courtesy of Diliana Alexander.

Photo courtesy of Diliana Alexander

Being a young Jewish adult in South Florida is not too shabby. There are a lot of amazing things to keep you occupied, but if you wanted to do something Jewish without the overtones of being asked for money or pushed into synagogue membership, there used to be nothing. So, a group of go-getters based out of Miami Beach’s Temple Beth Sholom (TBS) decided to create something special. They sought to create the same type of community that youth group often engenders. With the help of TBS, this group started programming events like wine and food tastings, cooking classes, and Shabbats on the Beach (which remain a Tribe signature event). The lay leaders knew they had something special. They laid an amazing foundation, but something was still missing – it was certainly a young Jewish adult’s group, but it wasn’t yet quite a community of its own. Then, we became a Next Dor pilot site.

One of the things the Tribe did with the grant from Next Dor was to hire me. I wish I could write here that I have a degree in Jewish communal organizing and have spent my career doing just that. But the fact is, I’m a former government officer turned Jewish community activist. Since 2006, I’ve been involved on a volunteer basis in many parts of Jewish community organizing, from Federation to my synagogue. When The Tribe leaders asked if I would like to do the things I enjoy doing anyway on a professional level, I was thrilled. So I started to work with the lay board on the next steps in building on the foundation they had created.

Measuring the impact of becoming a Next Dor site isn’t hard. I know that metrics isn’t everything, but the numbers really do speak for themselves - we went from 7 events annually to 21 last year. Our Constant Contact list grew from 563 to 838 people, our Facebook group grew from 128 to 466 people, and in the first year as a Next Dor project, over 450 people came to Tribe events. Our biggest endeavor was our first ever free High Holy Day Experience – we rented the Jewish Museum of Florida for Erev Rosh Hashanah and Kol Nidrei, hired a three-person orchestra and brought in a rabbinic intern in her late 20s who wrote a mahzor for the occasion. 115 people attended one or both services. 93 of those told us they were not affiliated anywhere else. We created this amazing opportunity for those people who most likely would not have gone to synagogue for the High Holy Days. That is an impact on our community that can’t be overstated. Needless to say, this will be an annual tradition.

How did we transform from a young adults group into a real community? We have amazing events, including Jewish Book Club, an outing to the Miami Jewish Film Festival, Mitzvah Day with Big Brothers & Big Sisters, Poker Night, Havdallah with the Teva Bus, a Purim costume party, group outing to a Matisyahu concert, Jewish Yoga on the Beach, and a Passover cooking class – but The Tribe is about so much more than events. We are about cultivating relationships and connections. We are making connections among young Jewish adults. We are making connections between young Jewish adults and their heritage. And we are making connections between young Jewish adults and Temple Beth Sholom.

We build communities without pretense, by facilitating a wide variety of events and sub-groups, enabling connections to be built between Jews in the context of Jewish spirituality (even our poker events have a tzedakah component!). We keep barriers low by subsidizing events as much as possible, and by looking for venues that are non-threatening to those who aren’t comfortable in traditional religious settings. We build communities in the plural, because this is our goal - creating a community of communities. We aim to create semi-autonomous groups with their own leadership structures, but ultimately tied to one another.

My favorite way of expressing how our community creation works is Facebook – I watch with joy as people who meet at Tribe events “friend” each other on the site. There are plenty of stories of couples who have met, of spin-off groups (like a Jewish women’s club), and of people who have been given the opportunity to become more involved in our community, either through taking on leadership responsibilities with us or re-connecting with Judaism in non-traditional ways like Shabbat on the Beach.

That we’ve been transformed by Next Dor into something bigger than our founders originally imagined cannot be overstated – we’ve evolved from a young adults group that offered unique activities to an organization that strives to have a meaningful impact on our community by building connections. We have a lot we still want to do, but we are really proud of what we have done in the Sunshine State to date!

While we, thankfully, live in a great democracy, there are many ways we are not free. As Pesach approaches, I’m thinking about ways in my life that I constrict my own freedom. The name Mitrayim means “narrow place”. It was the narrow birth canal through which the Israelites had to pass to be born into freedom. My yoga teacher, Rabbi Myriam Klotz, shed new light on this word for me. She pointed out that if we remove the center of the Hebrew word Mitzrayim, the “tzr” (which means narrow), we are left with the word “mayim”, which means water. Water is the clear, buoyant fluid that carries us, moves us and sustains us. Once we remove the narrow places from our lives, we are left with the liberating sensation of floating.

As we prepare for Pesach, let’s think about what’s confining and constraining us. What relationships are keeping us in a narrow place? Are we a prisoner to our iphone or blackberry? Are we staying where we are because it’s comfortable/safe or because it’s life affirming?

Moreover, if we parse the word “mayim” (water) further, we create the words “ma im?” – which translate as “what if?” Once we remove the narrow place from Mitzrayim, we are left with infinite possibilities….what if? This is the opportunity to reflect on the life we are leading and imagine the life we wish to lead. What if? What if anything was possible?

As we examine our homes for those morsels of hametz, let us examine our souls as well. Pesach affords us the chance to liberate ourselves from that which is holding us back and become champions of our own lives.

Pesach is known as Z’man Simchateynu – the Season of our Joy. May each of you rejoice in the infinite possibilities of being alive and find new ways to bring freedom to yourself and others this Passover.

Jam with us at a local studio hotspot for a Passover sing-a-long led by Vanessa Ressler – tot mom extraordinaire and certified Music Together instructor.  Hum and drum along to popular Jewish songs and fun Passover tunes to get ready and celebrate the upcoming festival.

Sunday, April 3rd, 2011 at 10:00am
Location: Miami Children’s Music Inc in Midtown

I admit it: I allow my 16-month old to use my iPhone.  I figure if she’s going to use my tech gadgets, I should at least have some apps that are age appropriate or educational.  Here’s my top 5 list:

5. Shofar : a blast of high holiday trumpeting at your fingertips (note: fun in moderation!)  Free.
4. Jewish & Me Matching : a matching and memory game with Jewish themed cards.  Best for older tots.  99 cents.
3. Signing Time Lite : playful illustrations and videos of fun words in sign language.  Free.
2. Dreidel Tap: race to clear the flying dreidel toys by tapping each one.  Hard to master, but entertaining. Free.
1. Sing-a-ma-jigs: just like the popular toy, it provides one musical note at a time by touch.  Free.

Bonus: Wonder how much time until Passover? The Jewish Days app lists the date of (and countdown to) upcoming Jewish holidays.  Quick and easy!  99 cents.

Intimate Grammar is noted Jewish-themed entrant in this year's Miami International Film Festival.

My best suggestion is Intimate Grammar, airing on Tuesday, March 8th. The film’s larger themes are about Israel’s “adolescence” – as it worked to figure out its identity in its 2nd decade after creation – the foregrounded story is of a young boy going through his own adolescent changes – and both the director and one of the stars will be here, I know it will be a lively q&a.

Ticketbuyers to Intimate Grammar are invited to a meet and greet with the director and star of the film prior to the Tuesday screening. Here’s more info…

Tuesday, March 8;  6:30pm-8:30pm; The Catalina Hotel and Beach Club, Rooftop Pool Deck
Join us as we celebrate Israeli Cinema and the Festival’s 2 award-winning Israeli titles – Intimate Grammar, winner of the Best Full-Length Feature Film at the 27th Jerusalem Film Festival, and Precious Life, winner of the Best Documentary award at the 2010 Israeli Film Academy’s Ophir Awards.  Intimate Grammar director Nir Bergman and actress Orly Zilbershatz will be in attendance. Sponsored by the Consulate General of Israel to Florida and Puerto Rico

Other great films with Jewish themes are Precious Life and The Names of Love (the Jewish theme is more secondary here and about supporting characters) – also this latter film is selling out fast.

Tickets to the Miami International Film Festival range from $7-$25, depending on the film & attendee age. Click here to purchase & get more information.

It turns our parenting is a hot button issue of the first order!  Parenting is the toughest job a person will ever have, and yet most of us receive no formal training, no manuals, no mentors – other than our own parents.

In Chua’s book, she refers (occasionally) to her Jewish husband who was raised in a permissive Jewish home.  In a WSJ article entitled:  “In Defense of the Guilty, Ambivalent, Preoccupied Western Mom,” (1/15) Jewish mother, Ayelet Waldman, responds to Chua.  She admits to allowing everything that’s forbidden to Chua’s children:  sleepovers, playing on the computer, quitting music lessons, etc.

So who’s right?

Perhaps the thing which most offended people across America who read the article, was Chua’s self righteousness tone.  For most of us, parenting is a most humbling task.  Each of my 3 daughters has tested me, taught me, and humbled me.  Parenting is a series of best intentions, trial and error, triumphs and heartache.  It’s doing things we swore we would never do because we didn’t know any better when we swore it.

As for me, I still don’t have it right but I keep trying.  I bought Chua’s book to see if I could learn a thing or two.  If there’s anyone else out there who wants to talk about this, I’m hosting a discussion on Monday, March 7^th at 7:30 p.m.  You can rsvp to share@theopentent.org and I’ll tell you where we’re meeting.  I think there’s a lot we can learn from each other — as long as we realize there’s no one “right” way.  Indulgent vs. Militant?  How about somewhere in the middle?