October 21, 2011 KI is one of two L.A. synagogues in the Jewish Federation pilot program to help congregants in need by adding a social worker to synagogue staff. Click here to read the full online article - in which KI is featured - in the Forward, the leading national Jewish weekly newspaper.
Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association (RRA) issued the statement below regarding the August 1, 2009, attach at a Tel Aviv Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual and Transgender youth center. Statement of the RRA Board, August 11, 2009 / 21 Av 5769
The Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association joins with the many voices that have condemned the August 1st attack at a Tel-Aviv Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual and Transgender youth center. This attack not only strikes at the lives and families of those killed and wounded, but at all who cherish diversity, pluralism, democracy and respect for difference. As Martin Peled-Flax, the Israeli Embassy minister-counselor for domestic political affairs has stated, this is an attack “on Israel’s civil society as a whole.”
Incendiary language, especially when wrapped in religious rhetoric can not but help to create a climate of mistrust, anger and hatred against those who are gay, lesbian, bi-sexual or transgender. We therefore condemn as well those who exploit positions of civil, political and religious leadership to deny the acceptance and human rights of LGBT people.
During these weeks prior to the Jewish New Year when biblical passages of consolation are read, we extend our condolences to the families of the victims of this attack. We stand with the people and government of Israel as they work to bring the perpetrator of this crime to justice. And we pray that the holiness implicit in the biblical teaching that each person is created in the image of God will embrace all people.
As seen in The Palisadian Post's September 11, 2008 edition by Libby Motika, Senior Editor, Kehillat Israel has taken the lead among religious institutions in moving toward becoming a carbon-neutral synagogue. The action means that the synagogue will offset all climate-changing emissions through Car-gonfund.org. One of the nation's leading carbon offset organizations.
Click here to read the article.
By Jason Lipeles, Contributing Writer, Jewish Journal, 2009
When Mara Elena Arenson rolled her plastic crate of matzah, horseradish, tambourines and rhythm sticks into the preschool classroom at the Reconstructionist synagogue Kehillat Israel in Pacific Palisades, the 3-, 4- and 5- year-olds excitedly called out her name. They knew that the lesson would be interactive: They’d be able to sing, sway and play instruments to the music of her guitar. What they didn’t know is that Arenson, a cantorial student at the Academy of Jewish Religion in Los Angeles, uses the principles of the Suzuki rhythm method with the hope that these songs will stick with them for the rest of their lives.
more...
Click here to see what's going on in Pacific Palisades this week.