Special Programs

Temple Emeth offers a number of special programs throughout the year, including lectures, arts and film. Check this space throughout the year as we add more programs to our calendar. 

One Book, One Synagogue Shabbaton
Saturday, February 8, 2025, 9:00 a.m.

Our One Book, One Synagogue book this year is Kantika, by Elizabeth Graver. The book offers a portrait of one family’s displacement across four countries. Kantika (“song” in Ladino) follows the joys and losses of Rebecca Cohen, feisty daughter of the Sephardic elite of early 20th-century Istanbul. When the Cohens lose their wealth and are forced to move to Barcelona and start anew, Rebecca fashions a life and self from what comes her way—a failed marriage, the need to earn a living, but also passion, pleasure and motherhood. Moving from Spain to Cuba to New York for an arranged second marriage, she faces her greatest challenge—her disabled stepdaughter, Luna, whose feistiness equals her own and whose challenges pit new family against old. The book explores identity, place, and exile. The Shabbaton is free and open to the public.

Shabbaton Schedule
 9:00 a.m. Thematic text study. Rabbi Steven Sirbu will lead a text study on the work of Maimonides and Yehudah Halevy, prominent figures in Sefardic Judaism who are mentioned in the book.

10:30 a.m. Shabbat Service focusing on the themes of the book

12:00 p.m. Festive Shabbat lunch. Join us in the Social Hall for a Kiddush lunch, including a dish inspired by the book. Lunch is free, but RSVP’s are required by Tuesday, February 4 by clicking here One Book, One Synagogue Shabbaton 2025 - Event - Temple Emeth

12:45 p.m. Following lunch, there will be a special screening of the documentary film Trees Cry for Rain: A Sephardic Journey (1989) about a Turkish-Jewish family whose experience is similar to that of the book's main character, Rebecca.

One Book, One Synagogue Author Presentation
Tuesday, February 25, 2025, 7:45 p.m.

The author of our One Book, One Synagogue book, Kantika, will join us on Zoom only for a special evening. In addition to talking about the book, she will take questions from participants.

Kristallnacht Anniversary Commemoration
Friday, November 15, 2024, 8:00 p.m.

Temple Emeth will commemorate the 86^th anniversary of Kristallnacht at Shabbat Evening Services on Friday, November 15 at 8:00 pm. Our adult choir, Kol Emet, will sing several songs for the occasion. Martin Perl, who grew up at Temple Emeth, will speak about his family’s Holocaust experience and the ways they are memorialized. On October 10 of this year, Martin dedicated memorial brass plaques in memory of his great grandparents, who were forcibly deported from Vienna in June 1942 to Theresienstadt. They died in the ghetto under dire conditions a few days apart in December 1942. These brass plaques, often called Stolpersteine (“Stumbling Stones”) in German, are placed in front of the buildings of where Holocaust victims had once lived. These plaques are a constant reminder to those living in the building, and neighborhood, of lives so cruelly taken. During the Oneg Shabbat, Martin will share photos and stories about his father Otto Perl's relationship to Leonard Bernstein, who was Bernstein's personal tailor.

Rabbi Joshua Trachtenberg Memorial Lecture
Friday, September 20, 2024, 8:00 p.m.

Ora Horn Prouser, PhD, To Speak On
Living in the Image of God: Viewing the Divine Through the Lens of Disability Studies

One of the most important Jewish theological principles is that we are created betzelem Elohim, in God’s image. While this idea has been used to assert value and dignity to each of us as individuals, it has also enabled us to expand our understanding of the Divine. Studying the Bible through the lens of disability studies has made this especially powerful. As she delivers the Rabbi Joshua Trachtenberg Memorial Lecture, Dr. Prouser will speak about the character of God in the Bible and how God, too, can be more deeply appreciated through the perspective of disability studies. A festive Shabbat dinner preceded the service.

Dr. Ora Horn Prouser (she/her) is the CEO and Academic Dean at the Academy for Jewish Religion, a pluralistic rabbinical, cantorial, and graduate school in Yonkers, New York. She received her BA and PhD from the Jewish Theological Seminary, as well as a BA from Columbia University. She has published widely on the Bible, focusing on disability studies, gender issues, and literary analysis. Her book, Esau's Blessing: How the Bible Embraces Those with Special Needs, was recognized as a 2012 National Jewish Book Council Finalist ad as a Gold winner in the 2016 Special Needs Book Awards.

The Kohane Brothers in Concert
Friday, August 30, 2024, 7:30 p.m.

Following Shabbat services on Friday, August 30 at 7:30 pm, join us for “The Kohane Brothers in Concert” during the Oneg Shabbat. For the first time ever, Danny, Josh, and Adam will be together on the bimah, bringing their voices in three-part harmony to Temple Emeth. The concert will feature familiar favorites and original compositions, including a brand-new setting of the Birkat Kohanim (Threefold Blessing).