Synagogues unite for Shabbat

It’s a weekly event that comes once a year. Shabbat Across America, now in its 15th year, puts Sabbath services and meals on the calendar for more than 600 synagogues of all denominations across the country and beyond.

The March 4 event is being celebrated in at least 10 area synagogues in a variety of ways, including a “Tot Shabbat” for children 5 and under (and their parents) at Temple Sinai of Bergen County in Tenafly, a potluck dinner at Temple Beth Or in Washington Township, and a catered dinner for 175 at the Jewish Community Center of Paramus.

Shabbat Across America is project of the National Jewish Outreach Project, founded by Orthodox Rabbi Ephraim Buchwald in 1987.

“The first time we had 5,000 people participating in 50 locations. It’s grown by leaps and bounds. This year we expect 40,000 people to participate, in more than 40 states,” he said.

The program has spread to Canada, and this year to Liverpool, Germany, and even Cuba, where Drew University professor and Hillel adviser Jonathan Golden is taking 15 students to visit the Jewish community and celebrate Shabbat.

“Shabbat Across America underscores the importance of creating sacred time,” said Buchwald.

“We didn’t actually create Shabbat,” said Buchwald. “The Almighty created Shabbat. We’ve been proud to help market it for the Almighty.”

The Glen Rock Jewish Center will offer a special service starting at 6 p.m. for “people looking to learn a little about what goes on at a Shabbat evening service, with English, Hebrew, and transliteration,” said Rabbi Neil Tow. At 6:30 p.m., there will be a traditional Sabbath dinner, with more than 100 people expected to attend. Each table will hold materials for a discussion of teachings about Shabbat over the centuries. Full services will begin at 8 p.m., followed by an oneg and dessert.

“My hope is that this shorter service will give everyone a taste of what it’s like to be together in prayer on Shabbat, and hopefully people will choose to come back and be with us,” said Tow.

At Temple Sinai, Shabbat Across America coincides with the synagogue’s monthly Tot Shabbat program, which regularly features a Shabbat meal, a short service that includes songs and a story, and a craft project.

To mark Shabbat Across America, “We asked our families to invite a guest,” said Risa Tannenbaum, director of the synagogue’s early childhood center. The children will be making “Shabbat bags” to take home the texts of blessings for the candles, challah, and kiddush, as well as two candles and grape juice, “so they can celebrate Shabbat in their own home the following Shabbat.”

At the JCCP, Shabbat Across America “is more of an inreach event than an outreach event,” said Rabbi Arthur Weiner. Most participants will be congregants, some regular Shabbat attendees, some not.

Weiner expects 175 people to attend the synagogue for the program, which begins with candlelighting at 5:30 p.m followed by services and then a catered dinner. The services “will have more of an emphasis on teaching as well as a big emphasis on participation” compared to the center’s standard Friday night services.

“Shabbat Across America is a very important program, one of the few outreach initiatives out there that really cuts across denominational lines,” said Weiner. “Every synagogue does it their own way, which is wonderful, but encouraging synagogues to do programming on such and such a date is tremendous,” he said.

Other participating synagogues in the area include Temple Emanu-El in Bayonne; Clifton Jewish Center; Cong. B’nai Israel in Emerson; Temple Beth Sholom in Fair Lawn; Temple Emanuel in Franklin Lakes; Cong. Adas Emuno in Leonia; Reconstructionist Temple Beth Israel in Maywood; New Milford Jewish Center; Temple Israel and Jewish Community Center in Ridgewood; Temple Avodat Shalom in River Edge; and the Jewish Learning Experience in Teaneck. For an up-to-date list, go to www.njop.org.

Shabbat Across America celebrated March 4 locally and globally

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