Jewish in Toledo, Ohio. Is it Pay to Pray?

Good news for retired senior Jewish people in the Greater Toledo Ohio Area. Baruch HaShem! See the following 'copy and paste' email message from Rabbi Yossi Shemtov:

B"H

September 7, 2023 21 Elul, 5783

Dear Friends,

Over the last few years, my eyes have been opened to an underappreciated treasure in our community.

During Covid, we expanded our outreach to seniors and the homebound. We brought food, caring, and a helping hand to many.

Interacting with many who in better times passed under our radar, it really hit us how much we as a society and a community are losing collectively and individually by not accessing this treasure.

This treasure?

A third of our lives!

The lives of our retirees!

The lives of our seniors!

Why are we pushing this treasure aside when it has so much to give?

If all the world is a stage, you are the main actor. In a play, the third act is when everything begins to fall into place and make sense.

In our world today the first act of life is mainly about education and youthful exuberance, the second act is mostly about career and family, and the third act today is retirement and aging.

We are ushering people off the stage of life just when their story is coming together!

This is a travesty! When we have so much to give we are told to golf or are mothballed. We are seen as irrelevant or worst of all not seen at all.

As a society, we are squandering our greatest assets: the experience, wisdom, and life of our people. As individuals many of us are lacking the opportunities and infrastructure to continue our growth.

To live is to grow. Every moment of life should have meaning. As Jews, we understand that every moment of life HAS meaning. There is a purpose in every stage and situation.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe would stress that at a time when the obligations and responsibilities of career are lessening, it is a time to increase our focus on our own spiritual growth and a time to pursue Torah wisdom and selfactualization as an individual and as a Jew.

We discovered that here in Greater Toledo there are at least three different communities among those who were retired: A) the healthy, connected, vibrant members, B) those living independently, with some limitations due to health, mobility, isolation, or finances, and C) residents of assisted living facilities.

Meeting the ever-changing needs of the Toledo Jewish Community is the backbone of our mission. We see it as imperative for us to serve the needs of those in the third act of their life and beyond. We also realized that we needed someone dedicated to this mission.

We’re delighted to announce that Rabbi Dov Ber and Rivka, along with their infant son Levi, have just arrived in Toledo to join Chabad. They have come to expand the work we began: reaching out to seniors in our Jewish community who are isolated or shut in, to bring them a challah, a smile, a sympathetic ear with time to listen and converse, attention to unmet needs and, not least, spiritual inspiration about the dignity of their lives as an integral part of our Jewish community.

Thank G-d most today have the means to live. Our goal is to help others live with meaning. Most importantly, Rabbi and Rivka are determined to create opportunities and programs, to learn, celebrate, and strengthen the bonds of seniors with one another. They hope to create opportunities for seniors to contribute from their vast experience to society, especially teenagers and children.

Chabad is especially grateful to Lenny Rosenberg, alav hasholom, whose generous bequest has been a catalyst in enabling us to bring Rabbi Dov Ber and Rivka to Toledo, as well as to all of our other donors and supporters. Additionally, Chabad received a $100,000 grant, to be used over the course of two years ($50,000 per year), from Jewish Senior Services which will be used for this purpose.

Rabbi Dov Ber and Rivka look forward to meeting each and every one of you. In the meantime, if you have any questions, have any ideas for programs that our Seniors would enjoy or benefit from, or know of someone who would like a visit, please call or email me.

Rabbi Yossi Shemtov 

Chabad House-Lubavitch of Greater Toledo

I was born of a Jewish mother who herself had been born in an area of Eastern Europe known at the time as Podolia Guberniya, an area of the Pale of Settlement in the Russian Empire that in the present day is in Ukraine. From an Orthodox Jewish family, my mother raised me in the Reform movement of Judaism. My three children attended the weekend religious school of Toledo's Reform Jewish synagogue in which they were consecrated and confirmed. I am Jewish and appreciate all Jewish denominations. While I was born an Orthodox Jew, I was raised and confirmed in 1962 in Toledo Ohio's Reform Jewish Congregation and now I identify with transdenominational Judaism as a Jewish Universalist. Over the years, I have attended services of Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform Jewish congregations and also of Chabad. Nowadays, I most regularly cyber attend services of the Jewish Universalist Sim Shalom Online Synagogue, in addition to which I also cyber attend several other Jewish online services of various denominations.

Although I am not Lubavitch, let alone Orthodox, I have much respect for Chabad. I certainly appreciate the services that Chabad has provided to everyone in our community and especially to the elderly population in which I am a part.

Chabad House of Toledo has a beautiful building complete with offices, social room, sanctuary, and mikvah; and yet, Chabad House requires no membership dues for attending religious services, special activities & programs, or for special services to seniors, and more. Compare that to the Toledo area  Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform synagogues that require dues paid membership for all those things. On top of that, the three synagogues require higher membership dues for retired senior citizens than those for younger employed persons. My wife and I are both 75 (76 for me at the end of November) living on fixed retirement pension. According to the local synagogue dues structures for a retired couple our age, the synagogues' annual membership dues range from $2200.00 to $2517.00. The membership dues for an employed couple aged 38 ranges from $1200.00 to $1221.00.

In order to attend religious services for the High Holy Days, i.e. Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the Toledo area Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform Synagogues require local residents to have admission tickets which are free for dues paid members but must be purchased ($100.00+ for each person) by local residents who are not dues paid members. Not so for services at Chabad where all Jews are welcome with open arms with no membership dues or purchased tickets required. Indeed, the following is a 'copy and paste' of an e-mail I received as I was composing this specific Roland Hansen Commentary:

Something for EVERYONE!

From: Rabbi Yossi Shemtov 

Dear Friend,

We are thrilled to invite you and your loved ones to celebrate the High Holidays at Chabad House!

We believe that every Jew deserves a welcoming and meaningful High Holiday experience. That's why we've designed our array of programs and services with you and your family in mind. We are proud to be a home away from home to people of all walks of life, something you will sense as soon as you walk through the door.

From the warm welcome you receive upon entering, to the engaging (sometimes humorous) running commentary, to the soul-stirring tunes, to the acclaimed community wide programs for children of every age, to delicious cuisine, we've created the perfect environment for you to learn a bit, laugh a bit, pray, reflect and grow.

For services information, kids program, seat reservations please click here

For Shofar-On-The-Lawn reservations please click here

We hope to see you to share these special times together! The Toledo Jewish Senior Services agency often, but not always, requires a minimum donation to the Toledo Jewish Federation in addition to an activity fee in order to attend activities, events, and programs.

For the life of me, I do not understand why the elderly are required to pay to be participants in Jewish Synagogue and Community Life!!!

In regards to the Toledo, Ohio area Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform Synagogues, there is a larger question of being Jewish in Toledo, Ohio. Is it Pay to Pray?