June 14 - 15, Shabbat Nasso
Candle lighting 8:08pm
Friday Night Service 6:30pm
Shabbat Morning Service 9:15am
Shabbat ends 9:11pm
Sunday Minyan 9:00am
236 Kane Street /
Brooklyn, NY 11231 /
718 875-1550
Thursday, June 13, 7:00pm
We will hold our Annual Meeting of the Congregation in the Community Room of the Goldman Educational Center. Synagogue members are encouraged to attend this very important event. Per your notification by postal mail several weeks ago, we will be voting on the slate of Officers and Trustees to the Board. If you are unable to attend please participate by returning your executed voting proxy, available as a PDF here, to arrive no later than 5:00pm on Thursday June 13. Please send either by email to [email protected] ; mail or drop off to Kane Street Synagogue, 236 Kane Street, Brooklyn, NY 11231; fax to 718.875.1757.
Saturday, June 22, leaving after Kiddush at approx. 12:45pm (meet in Kane Street Lobby)
Join Kane Street historian and archivist Judy Greenwald on this tour tracing Downtown Brooklyn’s transformation from a ferry hub to a subway metropolis. Our Walkers Spring Season features Shabbat strolls exploring local parks, history, and Jewish sites. Contact Rabbi Jason Gitlin for more information.
Dancing Arabs by Sayed Kashua
Discussion on Wednesday June 19, 7:00pm
A story born out of the tensions between Jewish and Arab Israelis, Sayed Kashua’s debut novel has been praised around the world for its honesty, irony, humor, and its uniquely human portrayal of a young man who moves between two societies, becoming a stranger to both. Discussion facilitated by retired Brooklyn College Professor of English and American Literature, Julia Hirsch. View this year’s selections and discussion dates. Contact [email protected] for more information.
The long held custom of studying Pirkei Avot between Passover and Shavuot offers the perfect time to join one of multiple study groups learning this mishnaic collection of ethical teachings. Groups of community members are meeting on Shabbat afternoons, before work, during Hebrew School, evenings and more. Sign up to join a study group, learn with your family, or ask us to connect you with other learners. Read more about the learning and schedule. Contact Rabbi Jason Gitlin for more information.
Complete Registration here.
Have your children join a stimulating and welcoming atmosphere that makes Judaism come alive for students from all types of Jewish backgrounds. Our Hebrew School encourages open questioning and helps students and their families find their own personal meaning in our rich Jewish traditions. Many parents also find great comfort knowing that their children will maintain friendships with the same group of children over many years at Kane Street, even if they go to different schools during the day. Register now or contact Hebrew School Director Rabbi Valerie Lieber for more information or if you have questions.
Shavuot: The Giving of Torah and the Search for Truth
Recently, I was in the Sanctuary teaching a member how to perform Hagbah, the honor of raising and displaying the Torah at the conclusion of the Torah reading. In the course of the brief tutorial, he told me that he felt that the Torah itself had become an idol to some Jews.
The comment struck me. Although made during a lesson focused on the public adoration of Torah, I felt that my friend had hit on something real. Indeed, the tendency of people to grossly simplify or distort the meaning of Torah has been a concern of Rabbis for centuries.
Maimonides, the greatest Torah scholar of the last thousand years, wrote a lot about this. He composed his monumental Moreh N’vuchim, “The Guide to the Perplexed”, largely to address the literalization of Torah, which he felt entrapped people in primitive and harmful understandings.
Maimonides believed for example that the Torah refers to G-d in corporeal terms because during the time of the giving of Torah the Israelites were still imbued with a mentality which could only conceive of G-d in this way.
“The minds of the multitude were… guided to the belief that G-d exists by imaging that G-d is corporeal.”
While the ultimate goal was to free people from this pagan mindset, in reality people continued to conceive of a G-d with a mouth, nose and fingers.
Let us not be too quick to judge. After all, what is more familiar and comforting than the symbols and stories of one’s early education, the “Torah” of one’s youth? It is threatening to question the sacred stories, the images and teachings, which have guided us, sometimes since infancy. We may fear that if we give up these old beliefs, we will be left with nothing to hold onto.
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Rabbi Weintraub’s Reflections on Social Issues
Confronting American Anti-Semitism
Jacob’s Ladder and the Decline of Conservative Judaism
Solidarity Shabbat sermon following the Pittsburgh Synagogue attack
Response to the Attack on the Pittsburgh Tree of Life Synagogue
Listening around Rosh Hashanah
Restoring a Moral Agenda to America: The Poor People’s Campaign
Me’avdut L’cherut – From Slavery to Freedom
“To Work and to Preserve” Judaism and the Environment
Spirituality and Politics, Social Change, and my Trip to Israel
Michael Brown and Eric Garner – A Jewish Perspective
Torah text, the Tribe of Dan, Ferguson and Baltimore