San Antonio Express News
High Holy Day Articles
Yom Kippur observance begins at sundown
today
Web Posted: 10/12/2005 12:00 AM CDT
J. Michael Parker
Express-News Religion Writer
God's love demands judgment, but it also offers
forgiveness.
That's why Jews will pack synagogues at sundown
today for the opening services marking Yom
Kippur: the Day of Atonement and the final day
of the High Holy Day period.
The High Holy Days began Oct. 3 with Rosh
Hashanah, the Jewish New Year and the
anniversary of the world's creation. Yom Kippur
commemorates Moses' receiving the second set of
tablets of the Ten Commandments after God had
forgiven the Israelites for worshipping a golden
calf.
"Rosh Hashanah was our opportunity to begin life
anew," said Cantor David Silverstein of Temple
Chai, a new congregation that meets in the
Jewish Community Center's Holzman Auditorium.
"Now we've had 10 days to align ourselves with
our community and with God. It's been a period
of intense evaluation of our lives to focus on
what's really important."
That evaluation period culminates tonight and
Thursday in 25 hours of fasting and self-denial,
which Silverstein characterized as a symbolic
imitation of death.
The chanting of the Kol Nidre, an ancient prayer
for the annulment of vows between people and
God, captures both the awe of God's judgment and
the joy derived from the knowledge that God
forgives those who sincerely repent.
"We publicly confess our sins — both sins of
commission and of omission. Even if we are not
personally guilty of a particular sin, we're all
guilty in a collective sense, since we're
stewards each for the other," Silverstein said.
Temple members growing together
Web Posted: 10/22/2005 12:00 AM CDT
J. Michael Parker
Express-News Religion Writer
Orthodox and Conservative Jews in San Antonio
built new synagogues in the heart of their own
neighborhood in the early and mid-1990s.
Now, for the first time, a Reform congregation
meets on the city's far North Side, which in
recent years has become the heart of the Jewish
community.
Temple Chai was launched in February by 12
couples who had been longtime lay leaders at
Temple Beth-El, the city's first Reform
congregation. Cantor David Silverstein, formerly
of Congregation Agudas Achim, the city's
Conservative synagogue, became the new temple's
full-time spiritual leader July 1.
After initially meeting at Golden Manor Nursing
Home for its 6:30 p.m. Friday Shabbat services,
the congregation now worships in the Jewish
Campus' Holzman Auditorium, 12500 N.W. Military
Highway. It also has a 10:30 a.m. Saturday
service.
About 100 people attend weekly. Its first-ever
Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services brought
together about 200.
Temple Beth-El — the city's oldest and easily
its largest Jewish congregation with about 1,250
members — remains downtown because of its
historic commitment to serving the wider
community and interfaith leadership, Jewish
leaders say.
But most of San Antonio's estimated 10,000 Jews
live outside Interstate Loop 410 and between
U.S. 281 and Interstate 10, they say.
"There's been no Reform expression on the North
Side up to now. We saw an opportunity to move in
a new direction with a smaller congregation. We
welcome whoever wants to come," temple President
Mel Cohen said.
"But we're not in competition with any of the
established synagogues. We're looking at those
Jews who aren't affiliated with any synagogue."
That's nearly half the city's Jewish population,
Jewish leaders say. In its first eight months,
the outreach has been enormously successful,
said Harry Mazal, a member of that majority who
jumped at the invitation to join Temple Chai.
"I've never been remotely religious," Mazal
said. "But I joined because of David
Silverstein. I've discovered a very strong sense
of community and friendship with people I never
knew before.
"There are people who are very religious and
some who aren't. We talk about everything under
the sun. These people have such warmth, and they
accept us for who we are."
Mazal's non-Jewish wife, Jerry, said she feels
very much at home attending services with him.
"The people are so kind and understanding,"
Jerry said. "That's one of the nicest things it
has to offer."
They don't just talk about community service,
either, she said. She was impressed that many
members volunteered at the San Antonio Food Bank
in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
"That's putting your money where your mouth is,"
she said.
Wendy Drezek said she has found much to like at
all San Antonio's synagogues, but now she's
finally found everything she wanted in one
congregation.
Because it's small, it's more like a real
community than an institution.
"Everybody knows each other, everybody matters,
and everybody has the opportunity to contribute.
There's no sense of 'in people' and 'out
people,'" Drezek said.
Along with its emphasis on traditional learning
comes an active component of community service
and working to make the world better.
For 16 years, High Holy Days were the only time
she and her husband, Stan, attended. Not
anymore.
"Temple Chai has become the center of our whole
life," Drezek said. "That shocked us. We came
only to find a place to attend the High Holy
Days, but since our first service, we haven't
missed a single week."
Drezek leans toward the more traditional Shabbat
service on Saturday with more Hebrew,
traditional music melodies and Torah study; her
husband, Stan, likes the Friday evening service,
which is more like a typical Reform service.
"The Saturday service was actually supposed to
be a shorter service, but there's such an
emphasis on learning that it's become the longer
service. I've been encouraged to speak out, lead
prayers and read Torah portions — things I'm
usually shy about doing," she said.
"It's not a drag or a chore. It's something we
hate to be away from."
Monroe Miller of New Braunfels said he followed
Silverstein from Agudas Achim to Temple Chai
because he considers Silverstein not only an
excellent cantor but a gifted spiritual leader.
But he found much more at the new congregation.
"It's far exceeded my expectations," Miller
said. "I never dreamed I'd become so involved,
but now I'm committed to doing everything I can
to help it succeed."
The quality of worship services has so impressed
him that Miller remained all day during Yom
Kippur, whereas he usually leaves after two or
three hours. And he decided to attend Sukkot on
Monday night — a first for him.
"Temple Chai has given me a whole new group of
friends," he declared. "I'm on an emotional
high, which is unusual for someone 80 years
old."
In fact, he said, the enthusiasm in the
congregation is hard to miss. Various members
have donated prayer books, an ark to hold the
Torah scroll (which is on loan from Dallas'
Temple Beth El Binah), a podium, office
equipment and computer equipment and even a
shofar, or ram's horn, for the High Holy Days.
That's not all. Children typically are the most
difficult members of the congregation to engage.
But Miller said that's another strong point of
Temple Chai.
"We had a special service for children on Yom
Kippur. It was crowded, and the kids loved it,"
he said.
"I don't know if you believe in bashert (a
Hebrew term meaning "it was meant to be"),"
Cohen told congregants on Yom Kippur, "but I do.
All these wonderful things that have happened in
our short history can't be a coincidence."
