Transdenominational Tefillah Brings Rio Shul to Life
The JTA reports,
Like the Orthodox synagogues in Rio, Bonder’s congregation chants in Hebrew. Congregants wear yarmulkes and prayer shawls, and most keep kosher. Many also attend daily services in the morning and afternoon.
But as is common in the renewal movement, Bonder’s services feature a lively musical accompaniment, in this case a guitarist, flutist and keyboard player. Some congregants occasionally join hands and spontaneously break into a circle dance around seated or standing prayers.
The rabbi’s sermon, which ends the service, often embraces mystical, kabbalistic teachings.
Women also read from the Torah, and men and women sit together, unlike the seating arrangements at the 20 Orthodox synagogues in Rio.
Rabbi Henry Sobel, the head of Congregacao Israelita Paulista, the largest liberal congregation in Latin America with 12,000 members, praised Bonder, as being “a novelty, in the best sense of the word.”
This won’t last – just another twitch in the non-Orthodox’s death thralls.