A Celebration of Light: AKSE Looks to the Future as It Caps a Year of Celebrating the Past

BY DAVID EPSTEIN, Co-President of Adas Kodesch Shel Emeth

For most of the year-long celebration of our 140th anniversary, Adas Kodesch Shel Emeth has reveled in memories and history. Our culminating event, on Sunday, December 21 at the Siegel JCC, will focus on the future. Our featured speaker, Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin, will address the topic “Rebuilding Our People: The Future of American Judaism.” We invite the entire Jewish community to participate.

This is an opportunity to step back, and to step up. American Judaism stands at a moment of reckoning—not a crisis of survival, but of purpose. How can the Jewish community rediscover its calling to be a people of repair? Rabbi Salkin will consider how the Jewish community can become a center of meaning, how learning can lead to conscience, and how Jewish life can once again serve as a light not only to the nations, but to itself. In the language of our time, how do we reboot American Judaism?

Rabbi Salkin, a noted writer, author, and speaker, is one of American Judaism’s most prolific and frequently quoted rabbis. His column, “Martini Judaism: For Those Who Want to Be Shaken and Stirred,” published by the Religion News Service, has won several awards both as a column and as a podcast. He has been a commentator on CNN and the BBC, and his essays have appeared in The Washington Post, Commentary, The Wall Street Journal, Tablet, and Forward.

Widely regarded as one of the most thoughtful and provocative voices in contemporary Jewish life, Rabbi Salkin is the author of 12 books on such diverse topics as b’nai mitzvah, masculinity, Israel, interfaith relations, the spirituality of career, and Judaism as counterculture. His post-October 7 book Tikkun Ha’Am / Repairing Our People: Israel and the Crisis of Liberal Judaism will have special relevance to his talk.

The event program will include a light reception, Hanukkah and Klezmer music by musicians from the Ezekiel’s Wheels Klezmer Band, and a short reminiscence by Dr. Howard Berlin, author of 35 books and many articles and part of a multi-generational AKSE family. A Q&A session will follow Rabbi Salkin’s presentation. The event will culminate with a communal menorah lighting for the eighth day of Hanukkah, delicious desserts, and some more music.

We are honored that Rabbi Albert E. (Abraham) Gabbai will deliver a benediction to close the formal portion of the event. He is the Rabbi Emeritus of Congregation Mikveh Israel, a Sephardic congregation
in Philadelphia founded in 1740. Born in Egypt, he was imprisoned there for three years following the Six Day War. After immigrating to the US, he studied at Yeshiva University in New York City and the Shehebar Sephardic Center in Jerusalem. Rabbi Gabbai served as Rabbi of Mikveh Israel for 35 years.

There is no charge to attend the event, but registration is required. Join us for a fun and meaningful celebration of AKSE, a beacon of light for our Jewish community for the past 140 years, and of the opportunity for a bright Jewish future. We hope to see you there!

EVENT DETAILS:

Sunday, December 21

• 12–1:15 PM  Reception and Music
• 1:15–2:45 PM  Program
• 2:45–3:30 PM  Menorah Lighting, Dessert and Music