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CHARLOTTE, NC
The Charlotte
JEWISH
Vol. 30, No. 6
lyar-Sivan-Tamuz 5768
June-July 2008
An Affiliate of the Jewish Federation of Greater Charlotte
Rabbi Shields to Lead Lake Norman Jewish Congregation
In a historic and joyful first, a
full time Rabbi will lead the thriv
ing congregation in the Lake
Norman area.
Beginning June 1, Michael
Shields will become rabbi of
the Lake Norman Jewish
Congregation (Reform) in the
Lake Norman area. Rabbi Shields
and the LNJC were brought
together by a lengthy but mean
ingful matching process that
included initial interviews in Los
Angeles, CA, followed by a week
end-long interview in Davidson,
NC. Rabbi Shields and the LNJC
congregation had an opportunity
to get acquainted and discuss the
bright future of the growing
Jewish community in the Lake
area. “The congregational leader
ship has already created a commu
nity that welcomes all, and is com
mitted to the education of children
and adults,” says Shields.
LNJC is a spiritual home for
Jews in the North Charlotte and
the Lake Norman area. “We wel
come all who seek a spiritual
home, wish to engage in learning,
or desire a community that wants
to rejoice with them in times of
happiness and be a loving pres
ence in times of hardship,” says
Shields. “We are excited about the
opportunity the congregation has
to build a meaningful community
for all from its genesis.”
“This is a huge milestone in the
growth of LNJC,” says Slade
Rabbi Michael Shields
Goldstein, president. “We can now
offer our congregation the many
benefits of full-time rabbinic lead
ership. We couldn’t have found a
better rabbi to lead us into the
future. These are very exciting
times for LNJC.”
As Rabbi Joshua Davidson, one
mentor of Rabbi Shields says:
“The synagogue is a kehilah
kedoshah- a sacred community.
Like a Sukkah, it is constructed of
many different branches woven
together: the young, the old, the
rich and the poor, the married and
the unmarried, single parents,
grandparents, gays and heterosex
uals, non-Jewish spouses. The
broader the Sukkah’s reach, the
more tightly its branches are
woven, the stronger it stands.”
Rabbi Shields and the LNJC
believe in this holy conception of
community and invite all to come
join in fashioning the future of the
community.
Rabbi Shields will have office
space in Davidson and at
Davidson College. He received his
M.A. in Hebrew Literature, M.A.
in Religious Education, and
Rabbinical Ordination at Hebrew
Union College - Jewish Institute
of Religion. His interests include
social action, connecting Judaism
with the outdoors, music, and the
search for meaning in the modem
world.
For more information, visit
www.LakeNormanjc.org. ^
Temple Beth El Campaign
Surpasses $9 Million Mark
By Larry Polsky
Believe it or not,
Temple Beth ETs
capital and endow
ment campaign has
generated $9.28 mil
lion in pledges and,
equally impressive,
more than 550
donors have con
tributed to the effort.
So how did we come
so far?
Any meaningful
goal that stretches an
organization to perform the
unlikely takes ideas, dedication,
passion, understanding, and hard
work of a large and unified group
of people who feel the commit
ment.
We have such a group, led by
Rabbi Schindler, our Executive
Director, Sara Schreibman and a
highly dedicated staff We’ve been
blessed to have Jonathan Howard
serve so very capably at the helm
together with an outstanding
Board of Directors. And the cam
paign cabinet whose donor
re,sponsibilities were skillfully
shared by Fred Dumas, Rich
Gilbert, Rich Osborne, and Mitch
Rifkin. Other key cabinet posi
tions included an impressive com
munications effort headed by
Adam Bernstein and a financial
oversight function led by Mickey
Aberman and Kathy Rosenfeld. In
addition, there were approximate
ly 65 other volunteers (ages 33 to
90) who among other things par
ticipated in phonathons and culti
vation events; engaged tirelessly
in face-to-face and over-the-phone
solicitations; manned tables at vir
tually every Friday night service;
Lany Polsky
and the list of
fundraising activities
goes on and on.
And what about
the congregants who
financially supported
this huge undertak
ing?
Every single dona
tion has made a dif
ference. Each of us
on the campaign cab
inet can cite many
instances of congre
gants who dug deep
into their pockets to pledge.
Widows and widowers, single par
ents, teenagers, recent newcomers,
and even some unemployed recog
nized the need and said “We want
to help; we want to be part of this
effort.”
Jack Welch, former Chainnan
and CEO of the General Electric
Company, said that “the best
organizations create a vision,
articulate the vision, passionately
own the vision, arid relentlessly
drive it to completion.” That’s
exactly what this organization has
done over the last seventeen
months and that’s exactly what we
will do until we reach our $10 mil
lion goal. Thank you to the clergy,
staff, volunteers and donors who
are helping to make Temple Beth
El a very special place. >>
Saving the Children
Henry Gorelick Raises Awareness of Tragedy in Rwanda
and the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village
More than a million children
were displaced after the ethnic
cleansing in Rwanda in the early
1990s.
“My first thought was of ...
orphan survivors of the
Holocaust,” said Anne Heyman,
founder of the Agahozo Shalom
Youth Village. ASYV, a special
project of the non-sectarian seg
ment of the American Jewish Joint
Distribution Committee (JDC),
provides a protected residential
environment and a high school for
500 Rwandan orphans. The
Village offers innovative educa
tional programs, sports, a health
clinic, and psychological
services.
Here in Charlotte,
Henry Gorelick was look
ing for special project for
the community service
portion of his Bar
Mitzvah. At about the
same time his grandmoth
er, Debby Miller, who
serves on the board of the
JDC, mentioned to him
the Agahozo Shalom
Youth Village. “I was
awestruck,” says Henry, in
Also inside....
Henry Gorelick
Agahozo Shalom Youth Village
a manner that belies his youth,
“and knew I wanted to help.”
In conjunction with his Bar
Mitzvah, Henry showed the movie
Hotel Rwanda to the community
and invited speaker Tina Wyatt,
one of the founders of the project,
to Charlotte.
ASYV is based on Yemin Orde,
a similar village in Israel, that has
housed and educated a generation
of Ethiopian Jews. In their effort
to pay back what they have
received, a team of Ethiopian-
Israelis will serve as mentors for
the educators and role models for
ASYV students.
The Village is expected
to become operational in
2009. Henry hopes that our
local community will
research, become familiar
with, and support the
Village. “What really touch
es me is that JDC is provid
ing a safe loving place for
these kids,” Henry con
cludes. “The staff of
Agahozo-Shalom will be
like the children’s parents,
which will be a dream come
true for them.”
The community celebrates Israel at 60. S''-
Visits New York
The Barbara & Jerry I r---
City, See pa'’- See pageVz. ' ^
TEmPLE BETH f