Tisha B’Av is July 29-30, 2009

Tisha B’Av, the 9th day of the Jewish month of Av, is an ancient day of mourning, commemorating the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem by the Babylonian Empire in 586 BCE, and the second Temple’s destruction by the Roman Empire in 70 CE. Over time, mourning other disasters which have befallen the Jewish people has been added to this day’s ritual. The day is a reflection of the Jewish people’s statelessness and homelessness over many generations, and the vulnerability of that situation.

Jews who live in the Pacific Northwest also annually complain that it is difficult to mourn when the weather is so perfect! So this year we will do something a little different: Join us for an observance of the end of the Fast Day of Tisha B’Av, Thursday July 30 at 8pm at Bridgeport. Instead of sitting on the ground and reading Lamentations, we will watch the sun set on a new horizon, one which calls us both to remember sadness and to balance it with future hope. We’ll pray a bit, sing a bit, and eat a bit. Please bring a dairy dish to share.

Welcome to the new Shir Tikvah web site. We hope that the new site provides a good introduction to first time visitors interested in finding out about Shir Tikvah, and an easy reference for community members seeking meeting times or connections with other members of the community.

In moving to a blog based site (”Wordpress”, if you’d like to know) we hope to make it easier to keep the site up-to-date and neat and tidy.

Our thanks go to community member and graphic designer Tina Rouhoff for her Shir Tikvah header graphic (top of the page), to Anne Whitaker, Kate Farrell and Leslie Dolin for their feedback on site design, content and usability, to Rachel for providing the impetus for change and for her anticipated role in keeping the site up-to-date, and to Rabbi Ariel Stone for moving the process along.

Our heartfelt thanks go out to Tova Peltz who worked on our web site for many years.  The new web site is based on the old one and includes much of its contents.  Thank you, Tova.

If we’ve forgotten anyone, please tell us so we can properly thank you here!