Jewish Congregation

The Columbia Jewish Congregation has lost one of its distinctions -- and officials say its members are rather pleased.The 350-family congregation was the county's oldest unaffiliated Jewish congregation -- meaning it was not associated officially with the four main branches of American Jewry: Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist.But with a two-thirds majority vote, the 25-year-old congregation Sunday agreed to join the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation.After Sunday night's secret balloting by about 250 members, "there was a good feeling," said Joel Barry Brown, congregation vice president and member of the executive board.

In announcing her congregation's decision this year to have a public menorah lighting celebration to mark the Hanukkah season, Rabbi Gila Ruskin made a key observation that is a painful reminder of the not-so-distant past. "Some of the old-timers in the congregation said there was a time when they were trying to keep their identity not secret but very low-profile, because there just weren't a lot of Jews in Harford County," the rabbi from Temple Adas Shalom in Havre de Grace told an Aegis reporter, adding, "I think it's a real step for them to feel comfortable having a public menorah like other synagogues do. " An unfortunate reality of American culture is the fear of minority groups by so-called majorities.

Years after facing destruction during the Holocaust, a Torah parchment scroll inscribed with Hebrew scripture has been saved once again - this time from the perils of mold and moisture in a musty basement in Poland. The restored Torah will return to use at Columbia Jewish Congregation, which will celebrate its arrival Sunday at a dedication ceremony called a siyyum. "This is one way that Jewish community life lives on," said Rabbi Menachem Youlus, co-founder of the Wheaton-based Save a Torah Foundation.

Concerts Karaoke and more Karaoke and DJ Dean will be featured Fri., Nov. 25, 9 p.m., at the Second Chance Saloon (Columbia, 410-545-5844). An acoustic showdown featuring a variety of local guitarists will take place at the Second Chance Sat., Nov. 26, 9:30 p.m. On screen Jewish films The Columbia Jewish Congregation is now accepting subscriptions for its 20th season, which starts in late January 2012. The series opens Jan. 21, 8 p.m., with a screening of the 2008 Israeli drama "For My Father," which examines the subject of suicide bombers.

The book of Exodus says that seven weeks after Passover, God delivered the first five books of the Bible, the Torah, to Moses, who gave them to the Israelites. From Thursday through June 10, Columbia Jewish Congregation, with Jews around the world, will celebrate this event during the multifaceted holiday of Shavuot. "Shavuot absorbs three streams of meaning: the giving of the Torah, the first fruits of the harvest and, in the non-Orthodox tradition, graduation from Hebrew school and post-Hebrew school studies," says Rabbi George Driesenof the Columbia Jewish Congregation.

Making matzo The start of Passover on Saturday means lots of matzo. The Columbia Jewish Congregation is selling the classic cookbook "Matza 101" by Jenny Kdoshim and Debbie Blevans. It features more than 100 matzo recipes. To get a copy, send a check or money order for $18.95 to the Columbia Jewish Congregation, 5885 Robert Oliver Place, Columbia, MD 21045. Kitchen of the past Ever fantasize about cooking over an open hearth? The Riversdale House Museum in Prince George's County could make your fantasy come true.

At lunchtime on Mondays, a fundamentalist Christian, local attorney and feminist psychologist gather in Columbia's Town Center to discuss the Torah, the ancient text central to Judaism.Discussions are enlightening and invigorating, they say. The group bonds each week. But the uncommon mix of people likely would never have met if not for the class and, more importantly, its teacher.He is Rabbi Martin Siegel. And he has spent his life mixing people and ideas.His family is multiracial, and some of his best friends are Catholics and Protestants.

The Columbia Jewish Congregation will sponsor its seventh Jewish film series next month in Columbia.The series, beginning Jan. 30 at the Meeting House, 5885 Robert Oliver Place, includes four films and a short documentary. "The Summer of Aviya," a 1988 Israeli film about a 10-year-old girl who emigrates to Israel with her mother in 1951, opens the series."Black to the Promised Land," a 1991 documentary about 11 African-American teens from Brooklyn, N.Y., who are taken to an Israeli kibbutz for 10 weeks, will be shown Feb. 27.The classic 1920 German expressionist film "The Golem," about the creation of a monster by a cabalist in the Jewish ghetto of medieval Prague, will be shown March 20. Directed by Paul Wegener and Carl Boese, the film features silent film star Pola Negri.

A congregation with varied needs sets out to search for an acceptable rabbi. Young families want a rabbi who is good with children. Empty-nesters want a rabbi who can lead intellectually stimulating discussions. People of diverse beliefs, from observant Jews to secular Jews, want a rabbi who will accept them as they are. Whom do members find? Rabbi Sonya Starr, rabbi educator at Congregation Mishkan Israel in Hamden, Conn. Starr, who officially joined the Columbia Jewish Congregation (CJC)

Groundbreaking to be held tomorrow at interfaith center The Rev. Margaret Odell will celebrate her 90th birthday by participating in groundbreaking ceremonies at 4:30 p.m. tomorrow for a $1.4 million renovation and addition to Owen Brown Interfaith Center in Columbia. As the first part-time minister of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Columbia (UUCC), Odell was an advocate for the building's construction 20 years ago. (The building was first occupied in October 1984.) She is an active member of the congregation as its minister emerita.

On a typical summer Sunday, the doors of Temple Oheb Shalom are locked tight. With observances of the Jewish Sabbath taking place on Friday night and Saturday and religious school out until fall, the Park Heights Avenue building sits empty. Not yesterday. Hundreds of congregants of a different faith poured into the sanctuary, bringing along their love of God, their upbeat music and their fervent prayer to the otherwise quiet house of worship. A fire July 1 damaged the historic Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Upton and left its flock with no place to come together.

If any member of the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation at first appeared to be subdued during the joint service with First Mount Olive Free Will Baptist Church, Senior Rabbi Rex D. Perlmeter offered an explanation. "You lift your hands in prayer, and by tradition we have sat on our hands in worship," Perlmeter said of his Reform congregation's custom of relatively reserved services. But the stillness was short-lived yesterday as both the Baptist and Jewish congregations in Baltimore took to their feet with cheers praising God at the sprawling Park Heights Avenue temple.

Ensemble to perform at interfaith center The Prometheus Chamber Ensemble will perform at Owen Brown Interfaith Center at 8 p.m. Nov. 3. Tickets are $20; $10 for youths to age 18. Proceeds will benefit the mission and outreach programs of Christ United Methodist Church, an interfaith center congregation. The ensemble will perform during worship services Sunday at the interfaith center. Services begin at 10 a.m. Information: the Rev. Marilyn Newhouse, 410-381-6329 or www.gbgm-umc.org/christcolumbia.

Bon Secours concert Sunday will celebrate Celtic New Year Bon Secours Spiritual Center, 1525 Marriottsville Road, Marriottsville, will sponsor a Concert for the Celtic New Year from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Castlebay, a duo from Maine, will present music reflecting the physical and spiritual cycles of the year. Singer Grace Griffith, harpist Sue Richards and Susan Maule, who plays Native American flute, will also perform. The audience will be invited to join the musicians in celebrating the year's turning into the winter season of quiet and reflection.