Volume xiX, Issue XIV | thejewishvoice.org Serving Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts
10 Elul 5773 | August 16, 2013
Special Issue: Rosh Hashanah
community: one conversation at a time Brown RISD Hillel welcomes new rabbi PROVIDENCE – When Rabbi Michelle Dardashti moves to Providence this month for her new job as associate chaplain for the Jewish community at Brown University and rabbi of Brown RISD Hillel, she adds another city to a long list of residences. Los Angeles, Baltimore, Binghamton (N.Y.), Montevideo (Uruguay), New York City, Jerusalem, Stamford (Conn.) – to name a few.
“My tagline should be “Have Torah, will travel,” she laughed. As someone who’s moved around a lot, Rabbi Dardashti, 33, understands the importance of building a community. In fact, she views her role as a rabbi as enabling a grassroots effort to build a strong community. “My background is in community organizing, in identifying and cultivating leaders,” she said. “My job is to make connections | 6
photos | eddie bruckner
By Susan Youngwood Special to The Jewish Voice
Vadim Kheifets, left, Susan Leach DeBlasio, Eddie Bruckner and Vladimir Levitsky clean a cemetery.
Mission to Minsk … and more Photos | Rabbi Michelle Dardashti
By Susan LEACH DEBLASIO Special to The Jewish Voice
PROVIDENCE – Eddie Bruckner, Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island’s vice president for financial resource development, and I experienced Minsk and Israel on a Jewish Federations of North America mission with 96 other lay and professional leaders from across the United States and Canada. Rabbi Michelle Dardashti is ‘in action’ at a Torah dedication cer- Missions are peripatetic, transformational summer camps for emony at the Orthodox community day school, in Stamford, Conn.
friends. The mid-July mission was no different. In Minsk and Israel, we visited programs sponsored by the American Jewish Joint Distri-
bution Committee (JDC), the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) and World ORT. Each of these organizations, collaborating on a continuum of services with the dollars we (and other donor organizations) raise, ensures the renewal and vibrancy of Jewish life all over the world. Today, about 25,000 Jews live in Minsk, the capital of Belarus (birthplace of Marc Chagall, Shimon Peres and Meyer Lansky), the first country invaded impact | 35
Maccabi Games … Maccabi swimmers Nathan Reed, left, Daniel Rabin, Sandra Gamm, Sela Lutterbeck, Lyndsay Goldstein and Natalie Westrick are the six swimmers from the Alliance JCC who competed in swimming in the Maccabi Games in Orange County, Calif. Be sure to read the Aug. 30 issue of The Jewish Voice for a full story on our community’s athletes and artists who participated in the Aug. 4 – 9 Games and ArtsFest. JCC Staff
Anna Gertsacov, left, Sarah Prag and Lucy Miller gather for a havdalah (end of Shabbat) service on Saturday, Aug. 3, at Camp JORI, in Wakefield. The camp holds a weekly havdalah campfire.
Alliance Annual Campaign
Rachel Hopmayer
Havdalah at Camp JORI
grownups. There’s no sleep, only days and nights filled with inspiration, education, training, and bonding with our counterparts and instant new