By Janet Strassman Perlmutter, VP for Tikkun Olam, TikkunOlamBE@gmail.com
As long as this report is, it’s just the tip of the iceberg regarding the tikkun olam work at Beth El. I notice these days how much tikkun olam, literally meaning “repair of the world” is folded into so much of what we do, both within and outside of committee work.I’m grateful for the tikkun which was inherent in Beth El’s celebration of Yom Ha’atzmaut (Israel Independence Day) at which we celebrated, as a community, 77 years of the State of Israel. And, in doing so we also acknowledged these times of grief, distress, and heartache. Click here to see photos from the well-attended event.
This month I helped launch the two clergy committees to enhance communication between both Rabbi Josh and Cantor Vera and our Beth El community. More details will be shared with the congregation very soon. While this was not a specific task of the TO committee, it does feel like these are entities which help to promote support, clarity, and kind communication between our community and our professional leadership. If we aren’t actively nourishing those values in-house, how can we presume to do so in the larger world?
The topics of how we communicate, even how we simply show up, in our community and in the larger world, is the focus of a series of workshops likely to run next fall. We identified a need for leadership from the Antiracism Committee and CAST (Combating Antisemitism Task Force) to meet together and clarify what each is working on. We are looking at how we want to help those in our Beth El community struggling with the many threats arising both in and beyond our Jewish community. Gratitude to all who participated in that recent meeting with our rabbi and cantor.
Communication and collaboration seem to be the leading themes for the month, or maybe always. Tremendous gratitude to Rabbi Josh and Cantor Vera for their interfaith work, which led to a small group dialogue between members of our lay and professional leadership and that of the Islamic Center of Boston (ICB) of Wayland.
With so much in the works, I am grateful for the encouragement and support of the Nominating Committee to continue in the role of VP Tikkun Olam in the coming year.
Contacts: Judy Goldberg and Karen Blumenfeld (antiracism@bethelsudbury.org)
Antiracism Working Group members and others in the Beth El community continued to participate in a biweekly service opportunity at Greater Framingham Community Church, the largest predominantly African-American church in the Metrowest area. Every other Friday, we work alongside members of the church and others to pack grocery bags for low-income families in the area — folks who might be on food stamps or who need a little extra assistance.
In partnership with Jewish Learning Opportunities for Teens (J-LOFT) and First Parish of Sudbury, we are organizing an educational program at Beth El featuring Jane Sciacca, author of Enslavement in the Puritan Village: The Untold History of Sudbury and Wayland, Massachusetts. Sciacca’s groundbreaking research sheds light on the presence of slavery in New England, and challenges the common misconception that it was solely a Southern institution. Program details here.
We are in the early stages of planning a workshop series on showing up in multicultural/multifaith/multiethnic spaces. We are seeking a consultant to help us deepen our abilities to hear, respect, and understand those with perspectives different from our own.
Contact: Shirley Hui
The next blood drive is scheduled for July 16 from 2:00-7:00pm.
Contacts: Martin Brauer and Roberta Unger
We are working on an FAQ document on antisemitism in higher education. This is intended for all audiences — not only Jewish — as a reference and resource. We’re thinking beyond Beth El and shuls with whom we have connections, such as the Sudbury Select Board and religious organizations, and we’re open to your suggestions. We’re also looking for congregational feedback and are available to schedule a Zoom meeting to discuss.
American Heritage Museum docents: Ann Kramer and Martin Brauer have now been Holocaust tour guides for three shul school groups and one public middle school group. The feedback has been very positive. Apparently the school groups season is now upon us, and there are groups coming in on a series of upcoming Wednesday, Thursday and Friday mornings.
Contact John Harper to connect with a Green Team member. Join their listserv by emailing greenteam-subscribe@members.bethelsudbury.org.
The midpoint of the Shmita cycle causes us to reflect that no one person or group can solve any of the enormous climate problems facing us alone: it will take collaboration to meet our goals. This is not the time for divisiveness, this is the time to come together.
The Fourth Jewish Climate Action Conference on June 8, 2025 at Temple Beth Elohim in Wellesley (a hybrid event) will focus on how we can work together. Our goal is to inspire participants by the ongoing successful collaborative efforts underway and offer strategies for living a resilient and hopeful life in these troubled times. Learn more here.
Contact: Maxine Haron or Carrie Fuchs
Consulting was provided to clergy, board and members of the ritual committee, administrative staff regarding closed caption issues for zoom services and other concerns for zoom users for better access to reading Hebrew online during zoom sessions.
Preliminary research was such as sending out an email on Bboards, discussions with other congregants and a google online search. We learned that Zoom might provide closed captioning for Hebrew on some computers by trial and error. Here’s a YouTube video on opening up closed captions on Zoom. There is also an app called Wordly that offers closed captioning and interpretation if this is what the board is interested in purchasing.
Regarding auditory and visual accommodations, the Inclusion Committee has already provided in the sanctuary large-print books, magnifiers, ear plugs for sound sensitivity, and individual headphones to enhance sound. The bimah can be raised for closer viewing. Click here for more information on accessibility and inclusion at Beth El.
Contact: Carl Offner
There are two kinds of activities we are undertaking:
Most of this work amounts to supporting immigrants and refugees as individuals. But just by itself, this is not enough. We wake up each morning and read the paper and are appalled at what we read, so…
Why do we think this is good, and useful? A widely reported historical survey covering resistance to autocratic governments (one example was the Pinochet regime in Chile) from 1900–2006 indicated that in cases where at least 3.5% of the population demonstrated peacefully and persistently against the autocratic regime, that government could not stand. This is a remarkable finding, and many people find it hard to believe. But the data backs it up.
Our stand-out fits into that category, and we find it to be tremendously popular. We get large numbers of people driving by and honking, waving, giving us thumbs-up, and so on. Very few people disagree with us. There’s nothing at all frightening about what we are doing; people really like it, and thank us. One person stopped his car at the light, rolled down his window, and told us, “You probably don’t like me. But I’m starting to agree with you.” So we urge everyone to join us.
Maybe you’re afraid. Maybe you have this image in your mind of people yelling and getting yelled at. Well, we don’t yell at anyone. We just talk, and we wave at cars going by. We’re well received. And we’re changing the way people look at things. We’re changing what people see as the limits of acceptable discourse. We’re letting people know they are not alone. We’re giving people courage to go home and talk with their family and friends about what they saw, and how they agree with us. We’re giving people the confidence that things can indeed change, and that there are lots of us who want to be part of that change. We’re giving people hope.
So join us. Help us be part of that 3.5%. Help us give people hope.
Contact: Janet Buchwald
The Beth El Tzedek Scholarship Fund is proud to announce our eleventh grantee: Joan Kigotho! Joan came here with her family from Kenya when she was 10 and went to high school at the Pioneer Charter School of Science II in Saugus. Now a junior at Framingham State University, she is pursuing a degree in fashion with a particular interest in sustainability and countering the influence of “fast fashion” and greenwashing.
Tzedek Scholarship recipient Joan Kigotho (center) with committee members Joel Moskowitz and Marilyn Rand. Click image to enlarge.
The Beth El Tzedek Scholarship Fund was established in 2015 in recognition of our Jewish history as immigrants and the Biblical injunction to welcome the stranger. The committee uses donations to the fund to award a scholarship to an immigrant student at Framingham State University each year and has awarded an estimated $50,000 to the 10 students they’ve supported since 2015. Members are grateful for their good fortune and place a heavy value on the role education can play in giving immigrants a leg up in this society. Especially now, when immigrants are being demonized and supports are being removed, we feel a deep responsibility to support and defend our immigrant neighbors.
Your donation to the Tzedek Scholarship Fund can help change lives and enable others like Joan to lift communities. To make a donation online, please click here and select “Tzedek Scholarship Fund” from the dropdown menu, or send a check made out to Congregation Beth El, 105 Hudson Road, Sudbury MA 01776, with “Tzedek Scholarship Fund” in the memo line.
105 Hudson Road, Sudbury, MA 01776
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