By Bruce F. Lowitt
The Jewish Press of Tampa Bay
What once was something of a novelty – the televising of services from a synagogue into the homes of congregants – has become, with COVID-19, a widespread practice. And for two in Florida, including Temple Ahavat Shalom in Palm Harbor, it has made the leap to an international event.
On October 1, Ahavat Shalom participated along with Temple Shalom in Naples, in a virtual Kabbalat Shabbat service Zoomed from Kyiv, Ukraine, with the progressive Hatikvah Congregation.
And, truth be told, what was so remarkable about the Shabbat of Unity was, in one sense, how unremarkable it was because the Hebrew spoken in Florida is no different from the Hebrew spoken on the other side of the world. But in another sense it was remarkable because Ukrainians could speak it openly.
“For me,” Ahavat Shalom’s Rabbi Matt Berger said, “it was amazing seeing people who are that far away all being connected by the Hebrew language. For instance, when we all did things in Hebrew together, like the candle blessings, that was a really moving and touching moment, especially when you consider that in various places in Ukraine prior to 1992 (when it declared its independence from the Soviet Union) you couldn’t be Jewish publicly.”
Ahavat Shalom President Ed Marks was instrumental in putting together the virtual service. He first visited Ukraine in 1998 “and met Alex (Dukhovny), the young – well, middle-aged – rabbi who had just been ordained and had come back to his native Ukraine.”
“He was Jewish by birth but had no real sense of what Judaism was until he was about 40, and it inspired him and he went to Leo Baeck College (the rabbinical institute in London), from which he was ordained in the early 2000s.”
When he returned to Ukraine he created Hatikvah Congregation in Kyiv and ultimately was elected the chief rabbi of the progressive community, “which is still very small but growing rapidly,” Marks said. He and Rabbi Dukhovny became fast friends and began discussing ways they could collaborate.
Rabbi Dukhovny came up with a project to help feed children. “During the week they get their one hot meal a day at school, but on the weekends there’s no school. Families over there are in bad financial shape. This was an opportunity to help out,” Marks said. With donations from the two Florida temples, Rabbi Dukhovny is able to feed about a dozen schoolchildren annually for about $1,200.
“The last time I was over there, two and a half years ago, we talked about other things we might do and we said something about a joint service,” Marks said. “A year ago we set up a (video) meeting with Rabbi Berger, but the morning it was supposed to take place I got an e-mail (from Rabbi Dukhovny) saying we were going to have to postpone it because he’d just been taken to the hospital with a heart attack.”
After heart surgery and three months of recuperation, video conferences about a joint service resumed “and the first question,” Marks said, “was ‘When do it? As part of your service or part of ours?’ Our service is 7 in the evening here, which is 2 in the morning there. So we figured it was better to do it at 7 o’clock (p.m.) their time,” which is why the Shabbat service began at noon in Florida.
Each of the rabbis wrote a short sermon. Rabbi Berger’s and Rabbi Adam Miller’s from the Naples temple were sent to Rabbi Dukhovny, who translated them into Ukranian so they could be projected onto a screen for his congregants, and he translated his into English to be read on the Zoom screen by the Florida congregants participating in the service.
An estimated 40-50 Ahavat Shalom congregants participated in the international exchange.
“Hearing the different melodies was incredible – ‘Adon Olam,’ the ‘Hashkieveinu’,” Rabbi Berger said. “And the messages of the three rabbis were all positive. To a certain extent they were about trying to find the good in a challenging situation. And even without the three of us not seeing each other’s sermons beforehand … it was interesting to see the commonalities and the different ways they were expressed.”
Rabbi Berger’s sermon included this passage: “After many months of living with a pandemic and all of its challenges, it has become clear that we need to embrace the silver linings of our new normal. … To be sure, there are many situations when it is difficult to find a silver lining. There are tragedies and personal losses where emotions run deep and painful. But perhaps after some time has passed and we have reflected on our experiences, we can choose to see things in a new light. Hopefully, with a change in perspective, that allows us to respond positively to life’s challenges.”
Rabbi Miller, connecting his sermon to the week’s Torah portion in which God said that we’re all created B’tselem Elohim, in the image of God, observed: “Having Shabbat services across technology, something our ancestors would never have dreamed of being able to do, a service across two continents, we all feel that divine spark, we all feel that connection, people who all have that Jewish soul. Having this moment together is really beautiful for us, to be able to share Shabbat after we’ve all been distanced and apart from each other. It’s a special blessing for all of us.”
And a portion of Rabbi Dukhovny’s noted: “The Torah and Jewish Sages of old and present days are teaching us to be optimistic and urge us to know the magnificence of actions within which we live. Judaism is about actions. And Judaism is about love, support and friendship. Our Shabbat of Unity proves this essence of Judaism.”
Marks said Ahavat Shalom would like to make the virtual service with Hatikvah Congregation a semi-annual event. “We’d like to do it with their bar and bat mitzvah students and ours although that’s a little tougher to do because kids have their own projects, but we think it’ll happen.”
Marks began visiting Ukraine as part of a 10-year sister city project with Kharkiv starting in the early 1990s when he lived in Cincinnati. Rabbi Berger also was involved in a sister city program with Kerch, on Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula, earlier in his career.
And Marks, as current chairman of the Leavitt Institute for International Development, dedicated to spreading democracy, ethics and the rule of law in developing nations, has been visiting regularly to teach courses in Ukraine law schools.
“Under their constitution, Ukrainian law is very similar to law in the United States, Marks said, “but in reality they haven’t made the switch from the Soviet system. We’ve got probably 7,500 students who have taken this course over the past 14 years and now they’re reaching positions of influence. They’re the ones who are going to make the switch.”
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A version of this story appeared in The Jewish Press of Tampa Bay. Bruce F. Lowitt is a freelance writer based in southwestern Florida.