Location is everything, say real estate people; but they are talking about housing, not inter-Jewish cooperation.
Yet a change of location has brought about collaboration between two of Milwaukee’s small synagogues that have different ideological orientations.
One result will be an open-to-the-community Tu B’Shevat seder, scheduled for Jan. 15 and featuring Anita Diamant, nationally renowned author (“The Red Tent”) and Jewish activist.
During the past year, Milwaukee’s only Reconstructionist synagogue, Congregation Shir Hadash, had to leave its previous home, the building in Mequon that had been occupied by Beth El Ner Tamid Synagogue.
It found a location on Milwaukee’s east side, the Plymouth Church located on E. Hampshire Street about a block from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus. (See the August 2013 Chronicle.)
It turned out that this church is also located near the house on N. Hackett Avenue that is headquarters of the modern Orthodox Lake Park Synagogue.
But proximity itself is not enough. Both synagogues have rabbinical leaders eager to reach out to and work with the other congregation.
“I am determined that we see each other as allies and friends,” said Rabbi Shlomo Levin, spiritual leader of LPS, in an interview in his office. “We don’t pray together, but that does not stop us from working with and helping one another.”
“I bet it’s never happened before, a collaboration between synagogues from two very different branches of Judaism,” said Rabbi Tiferet Gordon, associate rabbi of CSH, during an interview at her home. “It’s wonderful.”
The collaboration has already resulted in one event. This past September, the two synagogues celebrated Simchat Torah together.
CSH held its service in the LPS ground floor while LPS held its service in its upstairs sanctuary; then the two went to the Hillel Foundation building at UWM for dinner.
The collaboration will be even closer for the coming Tu B’Shevat seder. In fact, both rabbis said this minor festival is an ideal time for such an event.
This day, the 15th of the Jewish calendar month of Shevat, falling on Jan. 15-16 this year, is considered the “new year for trees.” It is not mentioned in the Torah, but is found in the Talmud in Tractate Rosh HaShanah.
The date occurs during the season when the earliest fruit-bearing trees in the land of Israel emerge from winter hibernation and begin a new cycle.
There is no Jewish law, or halakhah, about this holiday. In the 16th century, Jewish mystics in the city of Safed created a Tu B’Shevat seder service-plus-meal.
Levin explained that his synagogue and CSH were looking to go beyond the “social action stereotype” of synagogue collaborations and do together “something somewhat religious.”
A Tu B’Shevat seder fit the bill, according to the rabbis. “It is one of the holidays in which there are no halakhic issues,” said Gordon. “We can have a religious celebration together.”
But the two congregations also wanted to go beyond the seder and “add content” that would “boost the appeal” of the event, said Levin. So “we looked for a guest that would be of interest to both groups,” he said.
Diamant seems a natural choice. For one, Gordon has connections with her. Diamant’s 1997 book “Choosing a Jewish Life” helped Gordon to do exactly that; and Diamant was the commencement speaker when Gordon graduated from Hebrew College in Boston.
In addition, Diamant is the founding president of Mayyim Hayyim: Living Waters Community Mikveh, established in Newton, Mass., in 2004.
A mikvah is a Jewish ritual bath that is essential to Jewish laws of marital sexual intimacy, or the “laws of family purity.” (See article by Rebbetzin Feige Twerski in the September 2013 Chronicle.)
Largely because this is an obligation that falls upon women, it has become a source of contention for Jewish feminists and between Orthodox Judaism and other denominations.
Mayyim Hayyim, however, seeks to be both a mikvah and an educational and community center, thereby taking “a ritual [often called] archaic and divisive” and making it “something beautiful and modern for all Jews,” said Gordon.
Diamant will be discussing the philosophy behind this project at the Tu B’Shevat seder — that is, “creative ways Jewish communities can work together” and make “new points of entry into Jewish life,” said Levin.
Both rabbis said they and their congregations anticipate this will lead to future collaborations.
The event will take place Wednesday, Jan. 15, 7:30 p.m., at the Urban Ecology Center, 1500 E. Park Pl., Milwaukee. Cost is $18 per person, and advance registration is recommended.
For more information, contact the two synagogues, 414-962-5508 and rabbi@lakeparksynagogue.org, or 414-297-9159 and RTiferet@gmail.com.
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