From Our Rabbi

Dear friends,

Welcome to the Israel Center of Conservative Judaism - a newly established congregation devoted to meeting the needs of its members and by providing a rich variety of spiritual, religious, social and educational services and programs.

Although we are a new congregation we are not new to the community and our members hail from several of Queens' great congregations of the past. But our eyes are on the future as we work together to chart the path that the ICCJ will take in order to accomplish its mission.

In case you are still wondering whether or not you should join our shul, allow me to share the following tale with you.

The story is told of a Jew who had distanced himself from the community much to the concern of many of his friends. Day after day they would gather at his doorstep, knocking on the door, hoping that he would open the door and let them in. But it was to no avail and he continued to sit inside by himself.

One cold and snowy winder day the rabbi came to the home of this despondent Jew, and after threatening not to leave even if he froze to death, the door opened and without saying a word to each other the two men went and sat by the fireplace.

After some additional silence the rabbi began to speak. "Watch what happens to the embers when I separate them and then I push them back together."

The rabbi poked at the embers with a stick, separating them, and the fire quickly died down. Then he pushed some of the coals together and the fire began to grow strong once again.

After a while he spoke again. In a hushed voice he said, "People are a lot like the embers in the fireplace. When they separate from each other they lose energy and their zest for life. But when pushed together they glow brightly gaining strength from each other. You need to return to the community and grow strong."

The ICCJ is our fireplace and we are its embers. Those who join will always feel the warmth and enjoy the glow of this special place their spiritual home.

We invite you to become part of our new young family and participate in any of the many services and programs we provide. Join us at our daily minyan each morning at 6:30 a.m. (Sundays at 8:30 a.m.) and each weekday evening at 7:30 p.m.

Check out our adult education classes and lectures help regularly during the week, or join Cantor Levy's choir which practices on Thursday evenings.

If you have children at home then you should register them for our afternoon religious school or bi-weekly Hebrew high school. Of course we offer an exciting youth program and have junior congregation services for children and youth as well.

Help keep the flames strong not only by keeping your embers close to ours, but by designing the fireplace with us. I look forward to meeting you and welcoming you into our family.

With best wishes and love of Israel,
Rabbi Matthew Futterman