University City, Mo., is one of the ten best Jewish neighborhoods in North America, according to Jewish Living magazine.
The magazine said University City, with 500 Jewish families within a few square miles, is one of the most visible and highly concentrated Jewish areas. The epicenter is the area around Washington University in St. Louis, a school popular amongst Jews thanks to its kosher kitchen and strong Hillel and Chabad programs, according to Jewish Living.
The article mentions dining options, such as Pumpernickel's Deli and Simon Kohn's, while also pointing out the abundance of Jewish learning centers like Aish HaTorah and Chabad's Jewish Learning Institute that the city offers.
St. Louis has 26 congregations and six Jewish day schools, according to the magazine.
Other neighborhoods mentioned on the top 10 list, which was presented alphabetically, not in order of preference, include Boulder, Colo., North Dallas, Texas, and SoHo/TriBeCa in New York City.
The magazine identified neighborhoods "that are growing, rebuilding, reinventing themselves, unifying their disparate parts, and exploring (Jewish) traditions in unconventional ways."
matthewallen@bizjournals.com
Showing posts with label St. Louis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label St. Louis. Show all posts
Monday, June 16, 2008
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Torah vanishes from Bais Menachem
RABBI SAYS NO SIGNS OF FORCED ENTRY
BY JILL KASSANDER, SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH LIGHT
University City police are investigating the disappearance of one of the Torahs belonging to Congregation Bais Menachem — Chabad on Delmar. Rabbi Yosef Landa and the congregation discovered the Torah was missing during Shabbat services on May 24.
"When we opened the ark for the Torah service I realized one of the Torahs was missing," Landa said. "A big gasp went up throughout the congregation."
The synagogue keeps two Torah scrolls in the ark, said Landa. The congregation does not have a daily minyan so the last time he saw both Torah scrolls was the previous Shabbat.
"The Torah which was stolen is the only Torah we actually own," Landa said. "It is a very beautiful, tall Torah with a red mantle, with large letters in the script style of Rabbi Yitzchak Luria, the Ari Zal. The other Torah we have is on loan to us."
Landa contacted the University City police department after Shabbat and officers arrived within a few minutes. They interviewed Landa, filed a report and told him he would be contacted by a detective during the week.
Further research by the Jewish Light has found three thefts of Torahs from Chabad congregations in other states in the past nine months. Asked about the other thefts, Detective Mike Gage who was assigned to the case said he would be looking into the other incidents.
"We will be contacting the other police departments to compare notes and look for possible connections," Gage said.
One of the Torah thefts occurred around the end of September 2007 from Yeshiva High School in Cottage Grove, Minn.
"A Torah scroll was stolen and a video projector," Rabbi Moshe Weiss, the school's director of development said. "The Torah scroll and projector have not been recovered."
In April, a Chabad House in Miami Beach, Fla., was burned down in an apparent case of arson being investigated by fire officials, the police and the FBI according to an article on MiamiHerald.com. It is believed the congregation's Torah scroll was stolen before the fire was set.
Two scrolls were discovered missing from Congregation Bnai Zedek Chabad in Kenosha, Wis., on April 15. The small congregation has only been around for about nine months, said Rabbi Tzali Wilschanski. The rabbi was giving a class in the social hall downstairs and closed the door to the sanctuary before he left for the evening.
"There was no sign of a break-in," Wilschanski said. "I am concerned somebody might have entered the synagogue and hidden in the sanctuary because the deadbolt lock was open in the morning."
The hazzan's oversize siddur, chumashim and the rabbi's laptop computer were also stolen, though the thief left behind the silver ornaments used to adorn to the Torah.
It is not clear whether any of the thefts are connected although there are similarities in some of the cases, such as the missing books. Landa had noticed a couple of books missing about two weeks before the Torah theft.
"I noticed the large oversized siddur used by the hazzan and a large oversized book of Haftarot were missing," Landa said. "We looked everywhere and thought perhaps someone had borrowed them and forgotten to return them."
Now Landa is wondering if the two incidents are related.
"My mind was racing when I saw the Torah scroll was gone though I don't know if the events are connected," Landa said. "All that was stolen were communal articles. They did not take the pushke which has about $30 to $40 in it."
The Torah scroll is valued at $30,000 to $40,000 according to the police report, though Landa said he would have to do additional research to assess the value of that particular Torah.
Landa said he e-mailed other rabbis to alert them to the theft so they could be more watchful at their own congregations.
"This is so disappointing," Landa said. "There was no sign of forced entry. We have an open door policy. People who frequent the congregation know the code to get into the building."
Barry Parnas regularly attends Shabbat services at the congregation and was there when the theft was discovered.
"I remember the Aron HaKodesh, the Holy Ark, being opened and only one Torah being in there," Parnas said. "The first person to respond was Rabbi Landa. I think he said, 'Sefer Torah missing.'"
Sometimes the shul will use the Torah someplace else but it is always back by Shabbat, said Parnas. He said the congregation was very shaken and surprised by the theft.
"A Torah doesn't seem like something that someone would steal," Parnas said. "It seems very odd to me that someone would take it."
Landa and members of the congregation checked around the community just in case someone had borrowed the Torah and other items for a shiva house or to study.
"This is very sad for me personally," Landa said. "I'm holding out hope that I will wake up from this nightmare and the Torah will be back. I assure whoever took it total anonymity. We just want the Torah back — no questions asked."
BY JILL KASSANDER, SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH LIGHT
University City police are investigating the disappearance of one of the Torahs belonging to Congregation Bais Menachem — Chabad on Delmar. Rabbi Yosef Landa and the congregation discovered the Torah was missing during Shabbat services on May 24.
"When we opened the ark for the Torah service I realized one of the Torahs was missing," Landa said. "A big gasp went up throughout the congregation."
The synagogue keeps two Torah scrolls in the ark, said Landa. The congregation does not have a daily minyan so the last time he saw both Torah scrolls was the previous Shabbat.
"The Torah which was stolen is the only Torah we actually own," Landa said. "It is a very beautiful, tall Torah with a red mantle, with large letters in the script style of Rabbi Yitzchak Luria, the Ari Zal. The other Torah we have is on loan to us."
Landa contacted the University City police department after Shabbat and officers arrived within a few minutes. They interviewed Landa, filed a report and told him he would be contacted by a detective during the week.
Further research by the Jewish Light has found three thefts of Torahs from Chabad congregations in other states in the past nine months. Asked about the other thefts, Detective Mike Gage who was assigned to the case said he would be looking into the other incidents.
"We will be contacting the other police departments to compare notes and look for possible connections," Gage said.
One of the Torah thefts occurred around the end of September 2007 from Yeshiva High School in Cottage Grove, Minn.
"A Torah scroll was stolen and a video projector," Rabbi Moshe Weiss, the school's director of development said. "The Torah scroll and projector have not been recovered."
In April, a Chabad House in Miami Beach, Fla., was burned down in an apparent case of arson being investigated by fire officials, the police and the FBI according to an article on MiamiHerald.com. It is believed the congregation's Torah scroll was stolen before the fire was set.
Two scrolls were discovered missing from Congregation Bnai Zedek Chabad in Kenosha, Wis., on April 15. The small congregation has only been around for about nine months, said Rabbi Tzali Wilschanski. The rabbi was giving a class in the social hall downstairs and closed the door to the sanctuary before he left for the evening.
"There was no sign of a break-in," Wilschanski said. "I am concerned somebody might have entered the synagogue and hidden in the sanctuary because the deadbolt lock was open in the morning."
The hazzan's oversize siddur, chumashim and the rabbi's laptop computer were also stolen, though the thief left behind the silver ornaments used to adorn to the Torah.
It is not clear whether any of the thefts are connected although there are similarities in some of the cases, such as the missing books. Landa had noticed a couple of books missing about two weeks before the Torah theft.
"I noticed the large oversized siddur used by the hazzan and a large oversized book of Haftarot were missing," Landa said. "We looked everywhere and thought perhaps someone had borrowed them and forgotten to return them."
Now Landa is wondering if the two incidents are related.
"My mind was racing when I saw the Torah scroll was gone though I don't know if the events are connected," Landa said. "All that was stolen were communal articles. They did not take the pushke which has about $30 to $40 in it."
The Torah scroll is valued at $30,000 to $40,000 according to the police report, though Landa said he would have to do additional research to assess the value of that particular Torah.
Landa said he e-mailed other rabbis to alert them to the theft so they could be more watchful at their own congregations.
"This is so disappointing," Landa said. "There was no sign of forced entry. We have an open door policy. People who frequent the congregation know the code to get into the building."
Barry Parnas regularly attends Shabbat services at the congregation and was there when the theft was discovered.
"I remember the Aron HaKodesh, the Holy Ark, being opened and only one Torah being in there," Parnas said. "The first person to respond was Rabbi Landa. I think he said, 'Sefer Torah missing.'"
Sometimes the shul will use the Torah someplace else but it is always back by Shabbat, said Parnas. He said the congregation was very shaken and surprised by the theft.
"A Torah doesn't seem like something that someone would steal," Parnas said. "It seems very odd to me that someone would take it."
Landa and members of the congregation checked around the community just in case someone had borrowed the Torah and other items for a shiva house or to study.
"This is very sad for me personally," Landa said. "I'm holding out hope that I will wake up from this nightmare and the Torah will be back. I assure whoever took it total anonymity. We just want the Torah back — no questions asked."
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Higher yearning
by Sue Fishkoff and Johanna Ginsberg
JTA and NJJN Staff Writer
May 22, 2008
For Hillel and other campus groups, outreach to Jewish students begins even before orientation week. When Arielle Walzer, a Livingston High School senior, was applying to colleges last fall, she was thinking not only about academics; she was also thinking about Jewish life on campus.
She pored over a Web-site set up by Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, particularly its on-line guide to Jewish life on campus, which provides data on more than 500 North American colleges and universities.
Walzer is one of an estimated 75,000 Jewish graduating seniors who in recent weeks have made their final decisions about where to attend college. This fall, they will be part of the largest incoming freshman class in American history.
Many of them will not consider their Jewish needs on campus until their first Jewish holiday rolls around or a friend drags them to a Shabbat dinner at Chabad or a Purim party at Hillel.
But that’s too late, said Jeff Rubin, Hillel’s associate vice president for communications, and many of the campus newcomers recognize that. “Jewish students often make decisions about what they’ll be involved in during the first week or two on campus,” he said.
To aid such students in this process, Jewish student organizations are now reaching out to incoming Jewish freshmen even before they hit campus after having spent much time and money in the past decade beefing up their campus programs, Rubin said.
“By reaching out to them ahead of time, we increase the likelihood of their being involved,” he said.
Do high school students care? It’s a “significant criteria” for kids at the Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex and Union, according to head of school Dr. Joyce Raynor. “For different kids, the emphasis can be on different things, but most are looking at the number of Jewish kids on campus, whether or not Hebrew or Jewish studies classes are offered, and whether or not there is a Hillel or other extracurricular Jewish activities center. Some are looking at more than one criterion. And for some, the ability to eat kosher food on campus matters. But it is very important for students in this school,” she said.
Walzer, who was an elementary school student at Solomon Schechter in West Orange and attended Jewish summer camp, said, “I feel very culturally connected to Judaism. That, combined with the fact that I live in Livingston, means I’m used to being with Jewish people. I have non-Jewish friends, and I look forward to making new ones, but it’s important to me to stay connected to the Jewish community.”
Walzer will attend Emory University in Atlanta, which has a Jewish enrollment of 33 percent.
Her mother, she said, encouraged her to look for schools with Jewish populations of over 10 percent, “so I wouldn’t feel awkward being Jewish and would be able to find people to celebrate holidays with.”
“As long as the community was active enough to have events for holidays,” Walzer said, “I didn’t need a huge population.”
Not all Jewish high school students are as motivated to stay connected, educators say. And not all of them go to colleges that have a strong Jewish student life.
“There are 12 to 15 universities where the most active Jewish students go, and after that it’s hit or miss,” said Richard Moline, the director of Koach, the Conservative movement’s campus organization.
Two years ago, Hillel launched a major effort to bridge the gap between high school and college in partnership with the B’nai B’rith Youth Organization; the Jewish Educational Service of North America; and the Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox Jewish youth movements.
In 2006 Hillel began publishing an Internet e-zine, Chai Wire, filled with information about Jewish life on campus, which it sends quarterly to 50,000 high school juniors and seniors. Last year it held focus groups and sent out a survey to 20,000 Chai Wire readers to find out what those teens wanted.
Six hundred readers responded, Rubin said. Three-quarters said Jewish life on campus was an important factor in their college choice. Nearly 40 percent said they had consulted Hillel’s on-line guide to Jewish student life during the application process.
Last summer, Hillel began to collect names of Jewish high school seniors and pass them to Hillel directors at the schools they would be attending, so those directors could communicate with the students over the summer.
By the fall of 2007, Hillel had 5,000 names. This year it hopes to collect even more.
Rubin said the process is arduous. Some names are provided by high school youth groups or, less often, by synagogues. Some can be accessed through lists of incoming freshmen at private universities; public universities don’t collect such data.
Hillel also solicits names through Chai Wire, asking students to e-mail their contact information and where they are attending college.
Andrew Getraer, Hillel director at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, with 5,400 Jewish undergraduates, said the project really just started last year.
“There’s a bigger, more aggressive push this year, but we’re not relying on that for our efforts,” he said. “About 1,250 Jewish freshmen will come to Rutgers this year. Until we have all of them, we need to increase our efforts.”
He uses Facebook, e-mail, flyers distributed on campus, students trained as peer recruiters, staff recruiters, and massive efforts during the first few weeks of school, “when students are the most open to checking everything out and getting involved,” Getraer said.
He said he wishes local communities were more involved in identifying Jewish students coming to campus. “Synagogues don’t send names. Youth groups don’t send names. Camps don’t. I wish they did, but most are understaffed and underfunded. It’s a difficult thing for them to do, on top of their own work, although it makes sense.”
Orthodox connections
Tova Diamond, right, studies with Shoshana Porath of the Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus program at Rutgers
Tova Diamond, right, studies with Shoshana Porath of the Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus program at Rutgers.
Outreach efforts have intensified in the past two years with the introduction of Chai Wire and with JESNA asking the heads of its 55 community Hebrew high schools to send the names of graduating seniors to the Hillel directors on the campuses to which they were headed.
Devorah Silverman, who heads that project at JESNA, said the Hebrew high schools sent about 350 names last year.
Also last year, the Orthodox Union launched an internal effort to funnel Orthodox high school students to appropriate Jewish groups on campus.
“For 15 years I’ve been telling the OU they need to do this,” said David Felsenthal, who heads the OU’s new alumni department of the National Conference of Synagogue Youth.
Some 6,000 high school seniors are involved either in NCSY or in Jewish Student Unions, the OU-sponsored Jewish clubs in public schools. Felsenthal said he had gathered 300 names by May 1; his goal is 1,000 by the end of the month.
Chabad does its own outreach to incoming freshmen, said Rabbi Hershey Novack, the codirector of Chabad at Washington University in St. Louis. Community Chabad emissaries tell campus emissaries about incoming freshmen via an internal Chabad on-line system, and the 125 Chabad college representatives do personal outreach to the new students when they reach campus.
Collecting and passing on names is only part of the overall effort to involve Jewish students in Jewish life on campus, however.
“Honestly, even if a Hillel director follows up, that doesn’t mean the kids will be meaningfully engaged,” Silverman of JESNA admitted. “But it’s a start.
JTA and NJJN Staff Writer
May 22, 2008
For Hillel and other campus groups, outreach to Jewish students begins even before orientation week. When Arielle Walzer, a Livingston High School senior, was applying to colleges last fall, she was thinking not only about academics; she was also thinking about Jewish life on campus.
She pored over a Web-site set up by Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, particularly its on-line guide to Jewish life on campus, which provides data on more than 500 North American colleges and universities.
Walzer is one of an estimated 75,000 Jewish graduating seniors who in recent weeks have made their final decisions about where to attend college. This fall, they will be part of the largest incoming freshman class in American history.
Many of them will not consider their Jewish needs on campus until their first Jewish holiday rolls around or a friend drags them to a Shabbat dinner at Chabad or a Purim party at Hillel.
But that’s too late, said Jeff Rubin, Hillel’s associate vice president for communications, and many of the campus newcomers recognize that. “Jewish students often make decisions about what they’ll be involved in during the first week or two on campus,” he said.
To aid such students in this process, Jewish student organizations are now reaching out to incoming Jewish freshmen even before they hit campus after having spent much time and money in the past decade beefing up their campus programs, Rubin said.
“By reaching out to them ahead of time, we increase the likelihood of their being involved,” he said.
Do high school students care? It’s a “significant criteria” for kids at the Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex and Union, according to head of school Dr. Joyce Raynor. “For different kids, the emphasis can be on different things, but most are looking at the number of Jewish kids on campus, whether or not Hebrew or Jewish studies classes are offered, and whether or not there is a Hillel or other extracurricular Jewish activities center. Some are looking at more than one criterion. And for some, the ability to eat kosher food on campus matters. But it is very important for students in this school,” she said.
Walzer, who was an elementary school student at Solomon Schechter in West Orange and attended Jewish summer camp, said, “I feel very culturally connected to Judaism. That, combined with the fact that I live in Livingston, means I’m used to being with Jewish people. I have non-Jewish friends, and I look forward to making new ones, but it’s important to me to stay connected to the Jewish community.”
Walzer will attend Emory University in Atlanta, which has a Jewish enrollment of 33 percent.
Her mother, she said, encouraged her to look for schools with Jewish populations of over 10 percent, “so I wouldn’t feel awkward being Jewish and would be able to find people to celebrate holidays with.”
“As long as the community was active enough to have events for holidays,” Walzer said, “I didn’t need a huge population.”
Not all Jewish high school students are as motivated to stay connected, educators say. And not all of them go to colleges that have a strong Jewish student life.
“There are 12 to 15 universities where the most active Jewish students go, and after that it’s hit or miss,” said Richard Moline, the director of Koach, the Conservative movement’s campus organization.
Two years ago, Hillel launched a major effort to bridge the gap between high school and college in partnership with the B’nai B’rith Youth Organization; the Jewish Educational Service of North America; and the Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox Jewish youth movements.
In 2006 Hillel began publishing an Internet e-zine, Chai Wire, filled with information about Jewish life on campus, which it sends quarterly to 50,000 high school juniors and seniors. Last year it held focus groups and sent out a survey to 20,000 Chai Wire readers to find out what those teens wanted.
Six hundred readers responded, Rubin said. Three-quarters said Jewish life on campus was an important factor in their college choice. Nearly 40 percent said they had consulted Hillel’s on-line guide to Jewish student life during the application process.
Last summer, Hillel began to collect names of Jewish high school seniors and pass them to Hillel directors at the schools they would be attending, so those directors could communicate with the students over the summer.
By the fall of 2007, Hillel had 5,000 names. This year it hopes to collect even more.
Rubin said the process is arduous. Some names are provided by high school youth groups or, less often, by synagogues. Some can be accessed through lists of incoming freshmen at private universities; public universities don’t collect such data.
Hillel also solicits names through Chai Wire, asking students to e-mail their contact information and where they are attending college.
Andrew Getraer, Hillel director at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, with 5,400 Jewish undergraduates, said the project really just started last year.
“There’s a bigger, more aggressive push this year, but we’re not relying on that for our efforts,” he said. “About 1,250 Jewish freshmen will come to Rutgers this year. Until we have all of them, we need to increase our efforts.”
He uses Facebook, e-mail, flyers distributed on campus, students trained as peer recruiters, staff recruiters, and massive efforts during the first few weeks of school, “when students are the most open to checking everything out and getting involved,” Getraer said.
He said he wishes local communities were more involved in identifying Jewish students coming to campus. “Synagogues don’t send names. Youth groups don’t send names. Camps don’t. I wish they did, but most are understaffed and underfunded. It’s a difficult thing for them to do, on top of their own work, although it makes sense.”
Orthodox connections
Tova Diamond, right, studies with Shoshana Porath of the Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus program at Rutgers
Tova Diamond, right, studies with Shoshana Porath of the Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus program at Rutgers.
Outreach efforts have intensified in the past two years with the introduction of Chai Wire and with JESNA asking the heads of its 55 community Hebrew high schools to send the names of graduating seniors to the Hillel directors on the campuses to which they were headed.
Devorah Silverman, who heads that project at JESNA, said the Hebrew high schools sent about 350 names last year.
Also last year, the Orthodox Union launched an internal effort to funnel Orthodox high school students to appropriate Jewish groups on campus.
“For 15 years I’ve been telling the OU they need to do this,” said David Felsenthal, who heads the OU’s new alumni department of the National Conference of Synagogue Youth.
Some 6,000 high school seniors are involved either in NCSY or in Jewish Student Unions, the OU-sponsored Jewish clubs in public schools. Felsenthal said he had gathered 300 names by May 1; his goal is 1,000 by the end of the month.
Chabad does its own outreach to incoming freshmen, said Rabbi Hershey Novack, the codirector of Chabad at Washington University in St. Louis. Community Chabad emissaries tell campus emissaries about incoming freshmen via an internal Chabad on-line system, and the 125 Chabad college representatives do personal outreach to the new students when they reach campus.
Collecting and passing on names is only part of the overall effort to involve Jewish students in Jewish life on campus, however.
“Honestly, even if a Hillel director follows up, that doesn’t mean the kids will be meaningfully engaged,” Silverman of JESNA admitted. “But it’s a start.
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