תברר תקוה

Chevrei Tikva

The Cleveland Religious and Social Organisation for Gay and Lesbian Jews

This space has been donated to Chevrei Tikva by the Chronicle, and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Chronicle staff or management.

Over the past few years, Chevrei Tikva has been fortunate to host several local and out of town rabbis. These guests have done everything from conduct a full Shabbat service to guest speaking. Three of them have been women, one ordained in the Reconstructionist movement and the others in Reform Judaism.

On Friday, July 19 at 8:30 p.m., another highlight will take place. Rabbi David Gelfand and Cantor Sarah Segar will conduct our Shabbat evening service. The rabbi and cantor are from Fairmount Temple, one of the largest Reform temples in the country and the largest synagogue in Cleveland. What is particularly nice about this event is that Rabbi Gelfand and Cantor Segar asked us if they could attend our 'service; we did not have to ask them. Please join us at the Unitarian Society in Cleveland Heights, Friday, July 19 at 8:30. It promises to be a spiritually, educationally and socially wonderful evening.

Another important event took place for gay and lesbian Jews over the recent Memorial Day weekend. The 12th International Conference of Gay and Lesbian Jews took place in San Francisco, hosted by that city's gay and lesbian Congregation Sha'ar Zahav. These conferences take place every two years in a major city around the world. This year's event was probably the biggest in history with 570 attendees from the United States (including several Chevrei Tikva members), Israel, Hungary, New Zealand, and the Soviet Union, just to name a few.

The conference is broken up into three major portions, Religious events, educational workshops and social. Actually there is a fourth part-camaraderie. Being in attendance at a group of your peers, gay, lesbian, Jewish, has a bonding effect that is impossible to describe.

The highlight of the religious events took place on Friday evening when almost 1,000 people attended Shabbat services. They were held at S.F.'s Reform temple, Sherith-Israel. Rabbi Yoel Kahn, spiritual leader of Sha'ar Zahav, along with lay members of that synagogue conducted services, and their own choir. Guest speaker was Rabbi Sharon Klienbaum, director of congregation relations for the Union of American Hebrew Congrega-

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NORTH COAST MEN'S CHORUS This space has been donated to the North Coast Men's Chorus by the Chronicle, and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Chronicle staff or management.

Summer pleasures us all and we recap our spring events; we have had a lot of fun. As many of you know, we had our first "road trip" in April, and that went well for us-for our egos, for our performance skills and for our hosts as well. Detroit was fun, and we look forward to the Great Lakes Men's Chorus repaying the compliment in February 1992.

Spring certainly treated us well, as our "Hooray for Hollywood" concert on May 19 went off in high style. Cleveland State University proved to be grand place to hold a concert. The main classroom building auditorium has excellent acoustics and seating for concerts.

Snicker's Eatery and Drinkery played host to our annual business meeting and banquet. Our thanks to Jack and his staff for a job well done, particularly Jeff, who didn't allow himself to be overwhelmed by our craziness.

Our new "mini-chorus," the Gang of

tions (Reform). Her most interesting sermon profiled Jewish biblical events of liberation and how they relate to gay and lesbian liberation.

Five, count 'em-five Saturday morning Shabbat services were held. These were a Contemporary Reform; Celebrating Shabbat with writings and teaching of Jewish Women; Celebrating Shabbat with Conservative Jewish liturgy; Shabbat of Music, Meditation and Movement; and finally, Celebrating Shabbat in the traditional Jewish Mysticism.

The educational part of the conference were workshops divided into four types or groups: Arts and Ritual, Family and Health, Organizing Lifes cycles and the World around us. Some of the specific workshops were, To affiliate or not? (with a national Jewish movement). At this workshop representatives form Reform, Reconstructionist and Conservative movements attended. The Rabbi from the Conservative movement, a women, stated the "company" policy that Homosexuals cannot be ordained in their Synagogues. However, her private feeling (expressed out loud) that 5 years ago the Conservatives would not accept a Woman Rabbi. Times eventually do change. Other workshops included Life threatening illnesses and caregiver support; Community involvement either into the Jewish Community or the community around us; a film on the Quilt tour of Israel; Need for a Community Center for Gays and Lesbians in Israel (the usual meeting places that we are accustomed to in the U.S. do not exist in Israel) Gay Parenting; Reaching out to Gay-Lesbian Jews unaffiliated with a Synagogue; How to obtain a Rabbi and many more.

Friday evening after services a gigantic Oneg (coffee hour) was sponsored by Sha'ar Zahav. Saturday night a dinner dance and Sunday night a Music and Comedy Night.

The Mayor of S.F. was out of town, however, his official greetings were conveyed by two women on his staff who are also members of the Synagogue. A surprise visit for S.F.'s Israeli Consulate General announced the air lifting of Ethiopian Jews as it was happening and proclamations from a State Senator and a U.S. Congressman on the contributions that Lesbian and Gays have made to Society.

The members of Chevrei Tikva who attended felt this was the best conference that any city has organized. The 13th (Bar Mitzvah) conference will be held in London in 1993 and New York City for the 14th in 1995. ▼

Eight, performed for the G.I.F.T. banquet on Sunday, June 16. New to our organization, the small group specializes in performances at just this type of affair where the full chorus would not be appropriate, due to size, time or other considerations.

Bookings may be arranged by contacting the chorus at P.O. Box 15181, Cleveland 44115, or by calling 486-5201.

Off for the summer, the chorus will be starting rehearsals for the fall season on Sunday, August 25, at Judson Manor.

Rehearsals start at 7:30 p.m., though new members are asked to arrive early for section placing. You don't have to be an experienced, well-trained singer to joinremember that a chorus is a blending of voices, not a bunch of individual superstars in competition.

Other than Labor Day weekend and the Sunday of NOCI's "We Are Family” picnic, we rehearse every Sunday for about two hours in preparation for our holiday concert. Come join the chorus and see what fun you can have!

We would like to thank James Wallace for his dedicated efforts as our accompanist and assistant director for the last three years. With the chorus since its inception, ames has always been there for us, devoting his time, energy and talents to our betterment. We wish you well, James, in pursuit of your doctorate. Harry back! ▼

July, 1991

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