Shabbat Candlelighting 6:18 p.m.                                             Friday, October 8, 2010/30 Tishrei 5771
 

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Dershowitz Segment Available
We continue to receive positive feedback from the community for last month’s Annual Campaign opening event, An evening with Alan Dershowitz, and have had several requests for copies of the hour long dialogue between Professor Dershowitz and moderator Dr. Art Hister. We now have an audio file available for download and are making DVD copies in video format for $12 each. To order your copy click here or call 604.257.5100.

Beth Tikvah Hosts Honest Reporting Expert

Lack of balanced and fair coverage of events in Israel and the Middle East by local and national media is an ongoing concern for many in our community. Over 100 people attended a community event sponsored by Congregation Beth Tikvah this past week featuring Michael Fegelman, executive director of Honest Reporting Canada. With the assistance of their over 23,000 members from coast to coast, the group monitors the media, recognizes excellence and exposes inaccuracy and bias in Canadian reporting on the region. Fegelman presented compelling evidence that a grass roots response by informed community members is highly effective in ensuring accurate reporting.

Federation Campaign Continues Strong Pace
Our Annual Campaign moved past $3.5 million this week, still posting a very strong 15% average increase on gifts closed to date. With the Jewish holidays (and short work weeks) behind us, our campaign volunteers have been in full swing this week focusing on personal and telethon canvassing, and preparations for upcoming events for our women’s and men’s philanthropy divisions.

Parashat Noach
This week’s parasha focuses on the famous flood story, with the preservation of human and animal species on the ark. After the flood story, we find a detailed lineage of the families of Noah’s progeny, who will repopulate the world, but that story is interrupted with the story of the Tower of Babel. The Babel story is the Jewish tradition’s answer to the question of how people ended up scattered around the world with so many different languages and cultures.

The Babel story and its insertion into the midst of the genealogy serves as a bridge between the more general and universal story of creation, which all humankind shares, and the more specific history of the Jewish people. Our Jewish history really begins with Abraham, who is mentioned at the very end of the parasha as the son of Terah, of the line of Shem.

Shabbat Shalom!

 
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