How local Jews – some with fresh memories of European pogroms – did their small part to help victims of one of the worst acts of racial violence in US history.
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Oklahoman
TULSA One of the exterior walls of a historic church was dedicated as a sacred place of prayer on Monday during an interfaith ceremony in the Greenwood District.
Numerous local, state and national religious and elected leaders, including civil rights and social justice activists the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Bishop William J. Barber II gathered to dedicate the new Prayer Wall for Racial Healing at Vernon African Methodist Episcopal Church.
The Rev. Robert Turner, Vernon s senior pastor, said when he learned that only the exterior wall of the church s basement survived the massacre, he was inspired by the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem to create a special prayer wall at his historic house of worship, 311 N Greenwood.
Honors
Sen. Scott Wiener
State Sen. Scott Wiener of San Francisco has been named chair of the California Senate Mental Health Caucus, “which focuses on improving California’s resources for mental health and substance abuse disorders,” according to a press release from his office. Wiener has also been named Legislator of the Year by the California Marriage and Family Therapists for his work on Senate Bill 855, which “has made California a nationwide leader in mental health care,” according to the press release.
Zoe Fertik of Palo Alto has been accepted into the Jewish Women Scholars’ Writing Fellowship, a new program of Yeshivat Maharat, which is best known for ordaining women as Orthodox clergy, and Sefaria, the online repository of Jewish texts. “The shelves of the Beit Midrash are overwhelmingly dominated by books and articles written by men we want to change that,” says the fellowship website. “The fellowship aims to elevate Jewish women’s scholarship by b
In 2017, Julie Rubenstein walked into a community-wide meeting at Temple Beth Sholom in San Leandro. Although she had been a member for only one year, she could see clearly that “the synagogue was in big trouble.” The entire eight-member board had resigned recently, the financial situation was bleak and membership was in steady decline.
Julie Rubenstein
“They needed to make some big changes very quickly if they were going to survive,” Rubenstein recalled.
Less than four years later, Beth Sholom has made a comeback. Through the diligence of a new set of synagogue leaders, membership is slowly growing again, finances have been diversified and new programs are being introduced.