WARM AND WELCOMING
By ERICKA SCHENCK SMITH
for the Missoulian
In the early days of the Har Shalom Jewish Community there was no rabbi. Just simple lay services and the opportunity to celebrate with others. These services were small gatherings of friends, coming together for the holidays and collectively teaching their children what it means to be Jewish.
"It's always been a very eclectic community, like the people that get drawn to Missoula," said Ed Brown. Brown has been in town for 27 years, and has watched the congregation grow from a loose little group - "we were lucky if 10 people came to services" - to a more cohesive organization. He was there when the first contract rabbi - a female Israeli grad student at Berkeley - was hired. And the second. The third, our present rabbi, has been coming to town and performing services about six times a year for the past five or six years.
In many ways, not much has changed. Har Shalom, incorporated in 1988, still does not have a permanent rabbi or building of its own. Members gather at other members' homes for a potluck dinner and lay Shabbat services on the second Friday of each month. Not long ago, the community gathered to walk their Torah scroll from its former, temporary location in a church to the home of a member who hosts Torah study every Saturday morning.
It's still a cozy little community, although it has grown substantially over the years. Last year the congregation, which serves people throughout much of western Montana, had 77 dues-paying families and a mailing list of more than 200 people.
"Part of not having the money for a building results in many gatherings taking place in peoples' homes," said congregation president Toba Winston. An upcoming potluck Shabbat lay service will occur in a member's home during Hanukkah, giving the congregation a chance to gather for a dinner, to light candles and pray together. We will rent space for a Hanukkah party on the following Sunday. We are planning a celebration that will include music, dancing, wonderful food and fun.
However, a lot has changed over the years. This year, especially, marks a major turning point, Winston said. The congregation, previously unaffiliated, has recently voted to join the Union For Reform Judaism (URJ). The decision is a big step for a congregation that strives to serve Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist Jewish people in the community, a diverse bunch with an equally diverse set of opinions.
Winston said she hopes joining the URJ will help Har Shalom continue to build its community. The URJ can provide guidance, structure and literature and if the congregation votes to hire a student rabbi, the URJ can send a third or fourth year rabbinical student for more frequent Shabbat services. She's hoping affiliation will help bring Missoula's Jewish community closer together.
She has other wishes: She wants to start a Jewish education program for the children who have completed their Bar and Bat Mitzvah. She dreams of a full-time rabbi, and a synagogue the congregation can call its own.
For now, however, she's very pleased with what the community offers: rabbi led services on the High Holy Days, Passover and some Shabbats, lay Shabbat services the second Friday of each month that the rabbi is not in town, Torah study every Saturday morning, Hebrew classes for children and adults, a Yiddish club, a Rosh Chodesh women's group, and after an absence of many years - Hillel, a student group on the campus of the University of Montana. There is an extensive Jewish library from which you may borrow books*. A Jewish Family Sunday School also meets once a month.
Hillel president Candy Miller started Missoula's Hillel when she realized "there was no Jewish presence on campus." I've had so many people tell me that they're so grateful to have some place that you can be Jewish," Miller said. "You can tell your friends in Montana that, yeah, I'm Jewish, but they don't understand what that means. ... It's not just a religion; it's a culture."
Miller, lives in Hamilton and is on the Har Shalom board of directors as the student representative. She jokes that she had to go to Boston to find Har Shalom. A friend there, a former Missoulian who is Jewish, told her to check it out.
It's not a terribly uncommon situation, and one the Har Shalom board hopes to remedy. Winston said, "It is a sad fact that there are Jewish people in our community who don't know we exist. With a listing in the Missoulian's Saturday Religious Section, a new Web site at www.har-shalom.org, a correct listing in the phone book (the current Yellow Pages listing gives the old phone number), a monthly newsletter, and more community outreach, we hope to serve the entire Jewish community. Har Shalom wants to continue welcoming newcomers. It is a very warm and welcoming community."
To receive a Har Shalom newsletter or if you need more info about any of these events:
- call Har Shalom - 406-549-9595
- check out our web site at www.har-shalom.org.
* The list of books available for loan is on the web site
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