Welcome to Temple Beth Am

As the Cantor of Temple Beth Am, I am pleased to make available, on-line, my thoughts which are found in Temple Beth Am's monthly newsletter, TEBEAM.

These articles are on-line and are readily available for viewing or downloading and reading at your convenience.

Strengthening our Interfaith Community Relations

Usually on Monday nights, our 9^th and 10^th graders can be found in the kitchen cooking traditional Jewish foods (matza ball soup, kugel, falafel, etc.), but on Monday, October 4^th, they were baking all kinds of delicious goodies with no Jewish associations whatsoever.  What kind of Jewish lesson plan was this?  It was a lesson in living mitzvot.

Our neighbor, St. Anselm Parish in Sudbury, is one of the parishes that the Archdiocese of Boston has chosen to close.  The church, which was formed in 1963 as families from three parishes in North Framingham and South Sudbury were asked to start fresh and build a new community and a new church, has a thriving faith community of around 350 families.  Beginning on September 12^th, members of St. Anselm have been holding a vigil in the church to try and prevent the Archdiocese from closing their doors forever. 

At least three (but usually more) church members remain in the building 24 hours a day.  To put their time in the church to productive use, some of the older members have been teaching the teenagers to knit, and together, they are knitting afghans which will be donated to local nursing homes for their elderly residents.  One young boy, Ian Driscoll, who is only in seventh grade, has spent every night since the vigil began sleeping in the church with one of his parents.

As a neighboring faith community, we wondered what we could do to show our support to the members of St. Anselm.  That is when Gail Constant mentioned to me that we might bring some baked goods over to the church.  I decided to go one step further and have our teens bake the goods themselves so that they would feel even more a part of the process.  They baked chocolate chip pumpkin muffins, cookie-in-a-cookie drops, peanut butter chocolate chunk cookies and brownie pies, which were all beautifully arranged on platters.

On Tuesday, October 5^th, Rachel Finn joined Gene, Madison and myself as we physically brought the freshly baked goods to the church.  We were received so warmly by the members who were amazed by the show of support they have received, most especially from the Jewish community!   We were met by Georgia Vorderer, a choir member, Nancy Carmel, a member of the liturgy commission and Dori Cabral, a singer in the church, each of whom have been members of St. Anselm for 41 years!  They have celebrated their weddings, their children’s baptisms and confirmations, and family funerals all in their church.  We also met Lynn Sand, the children’s liturgy specialist, and three young girls, Madeline Balser, Victoria Frame and Lauren Sand, all busy knitting for the nursing home.

In their young lives, our high schoolers have already shared so many life cycle events here at Temple Beth Am, they were readily able to identify with the pain of losing the spiritual home to which their family belongs.  Whether Jewish or Catholic, Protestant or Muslim, faith communities are a vital element in our society, and our ability to worship in our own faith next door to those worshipping in another faith is a freedom we cherish.  I was not only proud of our young people for their enthusiasm towards helping the members of St. Anselm, but I was especially proud to be an American Jew with the freedom to show support to our Catholic neighbors.  I wish the members of St. Anselm much success in their efforts to keep their community church open, and in this spirit, I encourage all our members to attend the annual Framingham Interfaith Thanksgiving service which will be held on Tuesday, November 23^rd at the Greater Framingham Community Church in downtown Framingham.

Respectfully,

Cantor Jodi Schechtman