Spontaneous Songfest at the Center

Rabbi Rabbi Jim Lebeau

In September 2004, United Synagogue celebrated the opening of its new Guest House, Beit Tichnor, at the Fuchsberg Jerusalem Center. It is a facility that will serve the youth of the Conservative/Masorti Movement, its congregations in Israel and around the world, and hopefully, in cooperation with the Masorti Movement in Israel and Marom, it's young adult organization, will attract Israelis for cultural programs.

The value of this facility was demonstrated to me on a Shabbat morning several months ago. I came to speak to a congregation visiting from New York which had scheduled its Shabbat lunch in the beautiful dining rooms of the Center. I arrived a bit early and met about eighty teens from three of our community Jewish High Schools who were touring Israel and staying at the Center. Before they concluded their lunch, the sixty-five Nativers from our pre-college leadership program arrived for their Shabbat lunch. The two groups got involved in a song-fest to see which group could sing with more ruach. They went on for nearly one hour and the building rocked with their enthusiasm.

We were never able to provide this type of gathering because we never had a facility that could accommodate over 200 residents. This exciting encounter proved to me that we have not simply built a spectacular building, but we have created a living institution that will enable us to meet the needs of our members who live in Israel as well as those who visit from abroad.

For more information about the services we provide, please feel free to contact me at:
Rabbi James Lebeau
Director, United Synagogue Fuchsberg Jerusalem Center
POBox 7456
Jerusalem 94265 Israel
Tel: 972-2-625-6386, Ext 1
Fax 972-2-623-4127
lebeau@uscj.org

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