BRATTLEBORO — Thank you for the great article you ran regarding my upcoming ordination and concert, and the community I have the honor to serve [Town & Village, March 18]. The Brattleboro Area Jewish Community is a warm and welcoming group, who I hope will embrace my having characterized them (and myself, it must be said) as “Jews in the woods.”
Wendy M. Levy writes well and is a delight to talk with. However, there are couple of startling things in her article that I feel I should correct.
Although the word goyim in Hebrew simply means “nations” (plural), in Yiddish it has acquired a connotation as a slur. Jews tend to avoid it in polite conversation. Members of my congregation were a bit startled to see it in the headline!
And speaking of congregations, I'm pretty sure that when I was interviewed before my Installation back in 2013, what I said was, “Many congregations have cantors in place of rabbis” - meaning, of course, synagogue congregations (not “churches” as the article said). You will find me in a church only if invited as a matter of interfaith dialog and sharing (for instance, at the Brattleboro Area Interfaith Clergy Association's observance of Holocaust Remembrance Day, which will take place at the First Congregational Church in West Brattleboro on April 15.)
Thanks to you and the lively Ms. Levy for an otherwise wonderful piece. We hope she will come check out our synagogue sometime soon!