Interfaith Rabbi NYC - Rabbi David Schaefer

12/31/2023

Rev. Ella Gregory helped develop spiritual programming with the late Interfaith Rabbi NYC - Rabbi David Schaefer for the First Interfaith Synagogue of New York for a number of years. The temple is currently on 'pause" for now, but Rev Ella is keeping this legacy alive with memories and sermons from David to help guide us as we face our daily lives. Thank you Ella. G_d bless and let 2024 be filled with love, faith, friends, family, and fewer challenges to face, as Rabbi David keeps an eye out for us.
Happy New Year! 🎊
Cantor Debbi

POSTING FROM ELLA GREGORY
Rabbi David Schaefer continues to minister to us through his rich, enormous musical legacy, his rabbinic service through the First Interfaith Synagogue of New York, and his exemplary, inspiring, loving way of being. Here is one of his sermons for the New Year:

[Rabbi David:

I have chosen the Torah portion Vayera for a more or less personal reason. It is the Parsha I read for my Bar Mitzvah on November 9th, 1968, fifty-three years ago. (All right...do the math.) But more important, this passage in Genesis serves to illustrate a point I wish to make.

We all know the story of how the patriarch Abraham was visited by three messengers of God, appearing as men. (Some of our Christian brothers and sisters believe that they were the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.) It is also said that they were sent to fulfill one of the most sacred obligations of every faith: Visiting the sick. You see, Abraham had just been circumcised.

Despite the pain he must have felt, Abraham ran to greet the three travelers without knowing them or what their purpose was. He begged them to stop and rest, wash their feet, and have a morsel of bread and some water. Meanwhile, he hurried to prepare an elaborate feast for them: Milk curds and the prime meant of three animals. (Remember, the laws of Kashruth had not yet been codified.) He pressed into service his son Ishmael, to teach the young boy the ways of hospitality.

Abraham taught us in that precious moment what our sages would teach us later: Promise little but do much. He did not know that the three messengers were to give him a gift of greatest importance: Announcing to him that his wife, Sarah, would in the coming year bear him a son, Isaac.

How many times do we "promise little, but do much", especially if it's not in our own self-interest? Or when there's no chance of reward? So many of us go through life content to "pass", not excel. Isn't it our obligation to be members of "The 110% Club"? History teaches us that these are the people who make a great contribution to the world, and the Torah and the Talmud are filled with examples of men and women who have done such.

Let this be our resolution as we count off the days to the New Year. Let us strive to do more than we promise. Let this be our contribution to Tikkun Olam, healing the world, in which we not only exist, but give our all, so we may truly live. ]

WISHING YOU ALL ABUNDANT BLESSINGS OF FAITH, HOPE, LOVE, PEACE, JOY, AND INSPIRATION IN THE NEW YEAR! MAY WE, LIKE RABBI DAVID, STRIVE TO GIVE OUR 110% TOWARD THE HEALING OF THE WORLD!

Ella Gregory
Thank-you, Debbi - and also to you! I'm here for you, to support you from one widow to another, to carry on Rabbi David's inspiring work in whatever way I can, and to help get his extraordinary music out into the world in new venues. 🩷

09/14/2022

07/11/2022

For years, American Jewish leaders have been wringing their hands over the future of the Jewish community. It’s fully understandable. Studies show that compared to previous generations, Jews under 40 are less likely to belong to a synagogue, express less attachment to the State of Israel and donate less to Jewish organizations.

But as Yiddish editor Rukhl Schaechter has argued in the past, part of the problem is that the definition of a positive Jewish identity is simply too narrow.

"In almost all the studies and surveys conducted by Jewish federations, little attention is given to secular Jews who display their commitment to the Jewish people through cultural channels," Schaechter writes.

Read here about four Jews who embody the ideals of secular Yiddishkeit, and learn what you can do to study your heritage ➤ http://ow.ly/wxi950JRK9K

📸 The Faust Family Klezmorim of Rohatyn, then Galicia, 1912. (Courtesy of the Faust Family)

09/27/2020

REMINDER - Tonight is Yom Kippur. See you on ZOOM at 7:30PM

Send email to [email protected]
for ID and Passcode.

09/27/2020

REMINDER - See You Tonight at 7:30 for Yom Kippor

2020 - HIGH HOLIDAY SCHEDULE

First Interfaith Synagogue of New York,
We are pleased to announce that the First Interfaith Synagogue
of New York will be holding its first High Holiday services
via ZOOM this year:

YOM KIPPUR eve (KOL NIDRE)
Sunday, September 27 at 7:30 PM

YOM KIPPUR morning
Monday, September 28 at 10:00 AM

YISKOR (memorial service)
Monday, September 28 at 4:00 PM

NEILAH (concluding service)
Monday, September 28 at 5:00 PM

The services will be conducted by Rabbi David Schaefer,
with Cantor Debbi Burdett assisting.

If you would like to attend, please send an Email to [email protected]

Please feel free to attend any or all of the services,
(which should last 30-45 minutes each), or any part of each one.

L’ Shanna Tovah to you and to all of your families!

Rabbi David Schaefer
Senior Rabbi,
The First Interfaith Synagogue of New York
www.interfaithrabbinyc.com

I became an Interfaith Rabbi because of the difficulties that couples of different faiths often encounterin trying to find clergy who will perform an interfaith ceremony, which may incorporatedifferent religious traditions.