Rabbi Dov Goldberg addressing the at Congregation B’Nai Israel Monday night. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Pain and insecurity were in the air as hundreds of Jews and non-Jewish supporters packed temples in Rumson and Tinton Falls Monday night to mourn the killing of 11 worshippers in a Pittsburgh synagogue two days earlier.
Mitzvah day participants adorned blankets for special recipients from infants to the elderly thorugh Jewish and Family Services. James Sabo of Matawan, below, was one of many volunteers who donated blood.
Press release from the Monmouth Reform Temple
Premature babies born at Riverview Medical Center will have cozy homemade knit caps to wear, thanks to a set of volunteers who knitted them during the annual Mitzvah Day held at Monmouth Reform Temple (MRT), Tinton Falls, on Sunday October 29.
Mitzvah Day is a day to “make a difference” in the community, says Rabbi Marc Kline. “The work of Mitzvah Day is not a one and done set of projects. Our congregation is committed to many projects of Tikkun Olam (healing the world) throughout the year.
Reverend Terrence K. Porter of Red Bank’s Pilgrim Baptist Church (above), and Rabbi Marc Kline (below) of Monmouth Reform Temple in Tinton Falls are among the area clergy participating in a free public panel on the Brookdale campus.
Press release from Brookdale Community College
On the evening of Thursday, April 20, all members of the community are invited to a special presentation by seven area religious leaders, entitled “The Golden Rule: A Multi-Faith Dialogue.”
Hosted inside the Warner Student Life Center on the Lincroft campus of Brookdale Community College, the free 7 p.m. program will center on the “Golden Rule,” which encourages individuals to treat others as they wish to be treated, and how it is articulated across various faith traditions.
Press release from Monmouth Reform Temple
We bear witness to the vandalism of Jewish Cemeteries and the bomb and terroristic threats on Jewish institutions. We bear witness to the burning of mosques and the harassment of Muslims in America.
We bear witness to the violence inflicted upon our minority populations. We bear witness to the community-destroying finger pointing that accuses innocent and guilty alike, for the pain felt because of the growing and unanswered violence that plagues our nation.
Torah mandates that we respond and bring people together in prayer and support of our common dream for peace and equality. And on Monday night, March 13, Monmouth Reform Temple invites the community to come together to pray and share grace and support as people of faith from a spectrum of religious traditions.
Beginning this Wednesday, November 2, Monmouth Reform Temple will be offering an 8 week “Introduction to Judaism” course at the temple, located at 332 Hance Avenue in Tinton Falls.
Conducted by Rabbi Marc Kline of MRT (pictured), the course continues weekly (with no class scheduled on November 23) through December 21. Classes will run from 7 to 8:30 p.m. and will be offered free of charge to all members of the community.
Press release from Monmouth Reform Temple
In the words of Rabbi Marc Kline of Monmouth Reform Temple, Rabbi Uri Regev commands respect from Jews (and non-Jews) from all walks of the spectrum.
“As one of the founding strong voices of the Israeli Religious Action Center, now past President of the World Union for Progressive Judaism, and now as founder and executive director of Hiddush (a multi-cultural activist think tank), Uri’s name has become synonymous with progressive egalitarian change,” Rabbi Kline explains.
On Saturday, May 7, the internationally renowned Rabbi Regev will give a series of free talks at MRT, 332 Hance Avenue in Tinton Falls. The public is invited to the special event, scheduled from 3 to 8 p.m., and a buffet dinner will be served.
Press release from Monmouth Reform Temple
In an announcement earlier this week, Monmouth Reform Temple announced that social activist and motivational speaker Keshia Thomas will be the special guest speaker at the Shabbat evening service on Friday, March 11. During the service that begins at 7 p.m., Ms. Thomas will speak on the topic of “The Power of One.”
Keshia Thomas gained national prominence as a teenager in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In 1996, in an incident pictured here, she threw herself on a white man to protect him from the beatings of an angry mob who believed he was a supporter of the Ku Klux Klan. A high school student at the time, she chose to become a human shield for a man she did not know. That moment propelled her on a path of social justice that reverberates through her to this day. Last summer, she participated in America’s March for Justice, walking the entire 1000 mile path from Selma, AL, to Washington, DC.
A free screening of a documentary on Rabbi Joachim Prinz (left, with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.) is among the events scheduled during a weekend-long MLK Day observance, presented jointly by Monmouth Reform Temple (Tinton Falls) and Pilgrim Baptist Church (Red Bank).
Press release from Monmouth Reform Temple
Continuing a recently established tradition, Monmouth Reform Temple of Tinton Falls and Pilgrim Baptist Church of Red Bank join forces for a weekend-long slate of activities honoring the memory and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The observance begins on Friday night, January 15 with MRT Shabbat services at 7 pm, featuring special guest Dr. Everett McCorvey, chair of the Opera Department at the University of Kentucky and Director of the National Chorale. Dr. McCorvey grew up in segregated Montgomery, AL alongside Dr. King’s children, and has risen to national prominence as a soloist, conductor, and educator.
The weekend will culminate with a noon MLK service at Pilgrim Baptist Church led by Pastor Terrence Porter on Monday, January 17 at noon. Rabbi Mark Kline and Cantor Gabrielle Clissold of MRT will participate in the service, along with a joint performance by the PBC and MRT choirs. All events are free and open to the public.
Rabbi Marc Kline of Monmouth Reform Temple (at left, with torah) recently joined 150 Reform Rabbis and the national NAACP in a 40 day, 860 mile march from Selma, AL to Washington, DC. Tracing the route of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1965 march on its 50th anniversary, “America’s Journey For Justice” was designed to “take a stand against the bigotry that proliferates” and “the segregation that…currently rears its ugly head unabashed in our country.” Rabbi Kline, who led the 2000 march that resulted in the Confederate flag’s removal from the South Carolina Statehouse dome, will lead a special “visual Shabbat” service at MRT on the anniversary of the 9-11 attacks.
Press release from Monmouth Reform Temple
In remembrance of the events of September 11, 2001, invites all members of the community to a special visual Shabbat service on the fourteenth anniversary of that day — an opportunity to “come to reflect, come to remember, come for feeling and wholeness.”
Scheduled for 7 pm inside the Temple at 332 Hance Avenue, the contemplative service (which “may not be appropriate for children under 13”) is part of MRT’s “Seeds of Spirituality: A Visual Approach to Prayer” series; a ritual offering that “allows the worshipper to experience beautiful visual imagery directly connected to Shabbat prayers, enhanced by evocative musical settings of our prayer text,” in the words of Cantor Gabrielle Clissold.
Zach Gilstein, Holmdel, was recently installed as the new President of Monmouth Reform Temple in Tinton Falls. He is pictured (center) with former MRT President Jay Wiesenfeld, Lincroft, (left) and MRT Rabbi Marc Kline (right).
Press release from Monmouth Reform Temple
Ever wonder how it is that so many different religions all expect to heal the world on only their own terms? Every religious denomination has published studies demonstrating how modern America is running from organized religion. There is a reason for this phenomenon: organized religion spends more time perpetuating itself than offering relevant paths for the expression of faith. Whatever your denomination, there are core values that we share and which should lead us into a better respect for one another.
Every Sunday afternoon at 4 pm, Rabbi Marc Kline of Monmouth Reform Temple is inviting all members of the public, of all faiths (and even “ye of little faith”) to do just that — during a series of free, “no holds barred,” non-denominational open conversations presented (not at a house of worship, but in the neutral territory of a favorite neighborhood coffeehouse) under the name “This Is About Faith!”
Pictured left to right are Monmouth Reform Temple’s new Rabbi Marc Kline (center) with his wife Lori Bernard and the MRT President Jay Wiesenfeld of Lincroft.
Press release from Monmouth Reform Temple
After a year-long search, the Monmouth Reform Temple selected Rabbi Marc Kline to lead the Tinton Falls congregation. Rabbi Kline, who most recently served as the Rabbi at Temple Adath Israel in Lexington, Kentucky, began his tenure at MRT on July 1. Rabbi Bob Ourach served as MRT’s interim spiritual leader for over a year during this search.
A native of Las Vegas, NV, the graduate of the University of Arkansas law school became re-immersed in his faith at a Reform Temple while working at a Little Rock law firm. He began to take on a more involved role in the congregation and was encouraged to become, what he terms, “a second career rabbi.”
Rabbi Kline graduated from the Hebrew Union College — Jewish Institute of Religion in 1994 with a Masters of Arts in Hebrew Letters, and was ordained as a Rabbi the following year. His first major service in a Jewish Congregation brought him to South Carolina, where he forged a close alliance with interfaith clergy and even co-led the 2000 march on the South Carolina Capital to remove the controversial Confederate flag.
The event was described as the largest march on a Southern capital (with over 40,000 people) since the Civil Rights era. He states of that experience, “I remain deeply indebted to the ministers who became my dear friends and teachers. They taught me what it meant to serve a congregation and a community in a meaningful and relevant way.”