By Dahlia Bernstein, Bellmore Jewish Center, Bellmore, New York
When the High Holidays begin right after Labor Day and you’re brand new in thepulpit, how do you introduce yourself to the community? For Rabbi Dahlia Bernstein, ordained at JTS last May, the answer was – a Shana Tova video! “I wanted people to know my face and see me before they saw me for the first time on the High Holidays,” says the new rabbi at Long Island’s Bellmore Jewish Center. That video is part of a growing series called “Bringing it Home” with a second installment for Hanukkah that involved students and taught viewers how to place the candles and say the blessings in the traditional way.
Dahlia’s video project drew intense interest when she spoke about it at the recent Lean In Conference for women members of the RA during a conversation about getting ourselves “out there." Here’s what she has to say:
“One of my jobs is to help my congregants live Jewish lives at home. We live in a technological age and I wanted to meet my community where they are, which, for a lot of them and especially kids, is in front of screens. Jewish identity is reinforced by strong institutions and by families who create memories in the home, but not everyone has the resources or knowledge to do Shabbat dinner or light Hanukkah candles. I see my congregants at different times throughout the week. Some people come on Shabbat. Some come during the week for meetings and Hebrew School, but a great deal of people do not have time to commit to coming to shul and doing a workshop on a ritual, so we decided to take the ritual to them.”
The Hanukkah video got 1,500 hits: “Congregants forwarded them to friends who forwarded them to family and they reached well beyond our membership.” Given the success of the first two videos Dahlia reports on future plans for the Bellmore video project: “We are planning on doing a Shabbat video on how to do kiddush, hamotzi, and netilat yadayim. We may even have some families plan a Shabbat dinner and take a picture of the set table and the family around it before Shabbat.”
Dahlia has shared these videos which you can view below. Enjoy! And yasher koach to the new rabbi – and now a familiar face! - at the Bellmore Jewish Center!!