>> good morning and welcome to , i'm rabbi eric weissman. this is is jewish community we're in the the middle of the new year cycle year cycle of the jewish new year and i don't mean kipor. welcome. >> thank you. >> let's just jump in and firstt talk a little bit about the ages

you come from, what they do and we'll jump in and talk about jewish new year. >> we deliver human services. we been doing it for a very long time. we do services in the jewish community, and we do services in the broader multicultural general communitye do a lot of work with early chid mental health. we do a lot of work with older adults and refugees and immigrants. >> and your zone is service is t part? >> the holy spay. >> wonderful. wonderful. and michael, interfaith family bay area. >> we're part of a national orgn connected to a website interfaith family that offers tons of information for families for families that are looking for an entry into jewish life and might not know where to look look for it. i work with familis that have different bounds they're coming from. one partner partner might have a jewish bacd

and someone is coming from a different background and trying to navigate how they're going to to make choice this is their family. i work with local folks in the bay area. >> in some ways you're busy at s time of year with the jewish new new year and how an interfaith works with that. >> absolutely. >> so we have a beautiful rituam on the table. it's a ram's horne going to hear you give it a good good blow later on in the show.e entering into year 5776 accordig to the jewish calendar since creation. talk about where you come from and the ways you grew up celebrating the new year ands changed for you. what you see for yourself in that way. >> so i was raised primarily ina conservative synagogue and was e

to be in a community that celebrated with a lot of warmth and a lot of spirit. i feel like like it provides me a context to to reflect and recommit and to celebrate with the community of people who i really love. >> wonderful. >> i grew up in a very active se as well. a reformed synagogue in in southern california. i loved the high holy days. we went to h nearby because we had so many people we couldn't fit into our sanctuary, which is typical. the were grand organs and pipes and it was a majestic feeling time of year. actually sang in the children's choir. i loved the m. i grew up close to it, even thoh i came from a family that was

marginally connected and a litte bit tentative about jewish involvement. i just was drawn to to it. >> you know, both of you i thiny something that's interesting whn we think about the demographics of the bay area where we tend to to think about how we can bring people back into the community or where people feel comfortable, whatever their parr slant is. whether lgbt or of a particular race or of a particular culture of a particular faith system. whether system. whether they actually are religious or atheist and both of you talked about growing growing up in a jewish community community where you felt connec. what were the elements that yout on now that kept you engaged sort of throughout your growing up years into adulthood? >> i was very connected with oue

community and pretty engaged in the process. i know a lot of kids don't love hebrew school. t a deep connection to it. for most of the people i'm working with, that's not the case. they might not have that foot in the door to even know what's going on within the institution losedh community. i recognize now it was a gift i had that educationr a lot of people they're coming into the jewish community and might not have much of a backgr. there's a lot of assuming that e know what's going on in services in services that they know know. it's a high barrier if you havet had that background. as i reflect on where i came from, i hold that and hold that with the the families i meet with. you're meet with. you're coming from a place where this is very new. hw can i lower the barrier for you? for you?

>> i was lucky, and i think it s unusual that i had a positive experience in my synagogue and the community in general. my mother worked in the jewish com. i had a pretty positive affilia. in my teens and 20s i had my tie of feeling alienated as a politl activist at the time and a young young gay man at the time. i wasn't confident there was a ple for me in the community. it took took me a while to come back and back and find and create my own place within the community. >> fantastic. javi and michael, we'll return in a moment to tale about the jewish new year and listen to the sound of the shof, the ram's horn.

>> welcome back to mosaic, i'm rabbi eric. we're in the middle of a wonderful conversation about the jewish new year. the time between rosh hashanah and yon kippur, the day of atonemen. we have michael and javi, who ie executive director of jewish fay and children services east bay.e back. we have on the table a beautiful ritual object that is used at the jewish new year. tyy thought of as the happy birthday

birthday of the year. the beginning of the new year and the birth of the world. michael, world. michael, let's talk a little bit about it. why don't you tell folks what we have here. >> this shofar comes from an an. many times they come from a ramf they're a shorter version. thers a lot of deep significance for the holidays. one is that the sounds and succession that are made with a shofar during the services are long whole note and and then a series of broken notes. then we come back after that brokenness to wholeness again with a long, steady call.t really mirrors a theme of the hy days. we start whole and we experience brokenness in the world around us and our personal personal lives, but the reminder reminder is that it will become whole again. it might not be

fixed, but we'll feel wholeness in our lives. for me it's been a a powerful ritual in the days leading up to rosh hashanah, thh prior were actually asked to do this every day. it's a ritual i do with my children in the morning and when we're rushing around in craziness, it's a reminder to keep your eye on the the big picture of life. >> so in a moment i know you'reg to give it a good blow and have wonderful sound come out. before out. before we hear it, i want to talk about this sort of is spiritual and theological and and historic and on the spiritual level you talked about you talked about the sound of the shofar is a kind of call to wholeness and a kind of spiritual wakeup call. an alarm clock. can you talk about wheret

comes from biblically. why do we do we think it's come to this point in our holiday celebratio? >> well, we actually read abouta ram in the powerful reading at e rosh hashanah services about iss near sacrifice. his father almot sacrifices. it's a power and fel difficult story for many in the hope and the redemption in the story is that rather than sacrifice his son, there's a clear message in the story that we don't do that. that that's not going to happen in this tradition. rather a ram is caught in the thicket nearby and and he's sacrificed instead. so that's an enduring symbol for us for us of hope and redemption over time. historically, the shofar, the ram's horn is actually been used for many, many different things. in the

torah and the jewish sacred scriptures we used about when it it was used as a meeting call fr the community, but it is an enduring symbol over the centur. >> wonderful. so give it a try. quick break and come back in just a moment here on mosaic.

>> good morning and welcome back back to mosaic. we're in the

middle of a wonderful conversation with javi rose and rabbi michael copeland, who is director of interfaith family. e ended the last segment listening segment listening to the beautiful sound of the rams from from the shofar. javi, what do you do during the holidays? how do you approach them? what do you see in the broader communit? >> well, i try to start the pros at the beginning so the holidays the holidays are climaxes and it moments and powerful moments of people coming together. the period of really reflecting andg about the past year and what i want to rededicate myself to and and who i need to seek forgivens from and who do i need to forgive and so on starts early and hopefully carries through yon kippur. with the shofar

call, which is so powerful, i see it with the issue how that's that's not only the call to personal reflection but the call call to justice. we're focusing this year on the integration of the two. on deepening our spiritual practice and connections and deepening and broadening our commitment to pursuing justice in a world that that needs it. >> interesting. so you know, we've talked about the month of aelu. it's thought of as a month month of preparation and we move move from celebrating creation and then move through to a notion of personal and communal,

spiritual forgiveness between g. i'm wondering in your reflectior the years, what do you think of that trajectory? not every faith faith couples those things together. they couple other things together that represent e understanding of how the world s in a basic way. what is the trajectory of internal reflection moving into communal celebration of creation moving towards communal and personal notions of forgiveness of yon kippur? what is that all about? >> i'm always struck by the numr of prayers in the literature that are in the plural. that sometimes we're praying on our n behalf and speaking in the first first person. many more times we're speaking communally. in

one way is interesting. if i haven't done that particular transgression, somebody has herd we're praying together and we work as a community to try and e out what we need to be doing ine world to make the world a better a better place, to make our comy reflect those values. it's an interesting back and forth between them. there's a lot of personal, deep interspecktive work during this time. there's a a such that as a community we need to think about how we help each other and how we lift our community as a whole. >> one thing i've thought abouts ye how it's a powerful and useful framework for anyone. whr or not they're aligned with jewish tradition. i am fortunate fortunate to work in an agency that's multicultural and multir. in advance of the jewish holidas give people some information about what they are. we are closed for some of those days and people should know, and they

and they want to know. i've had people staff who aren't jewish about appreciating that invitatn to learn and to reflect and to rededicate. that they plan to do do some of that this week in their own way. >> that's fantastic. we'll take a quick break and come back in a a moment to continue our convern here on mosaic.

>> good morning and welcome back back to mosaic, i'm rabbi eric weiss. we're in the middle of al conversation with michael copeland and javi rose, who is the executive director of jewish of jewish children and family ss east bay. welcome back. it seems seems that in every religious cy or any community when we come to to a holiday, whether it's a national holiday like thanksgivg or something particular like christmas and in this case the jewish high holy day. you see what makes up a community. the communal becomes apparent. it exposes a kind of spiritual, eml

kind of a vulnerability about wt it means to be in the world to world. i'm wondering about those those two things from your pers. michael you work with interfaits and michael you work with the jewish community and the entire community of the east bay. i'm wondering, what do you see commy in the jewish community and otherwise at this particular time of year? >> it's interesting that there'a model many in the jewish communy hold on to. what the jewish family looks like is two parents, a man and a woman, never been divorced, children who are biologically connected to them. this is no longer the picture. that fits 5% of the american jewish profile. >> 5%? >> if we look at what the jewisy really looks like and what it has for a while, we're all sorts sorts of different pieces and b.

we come from different ethnici. adoption, lbgt families. it's much more diverse and intermarre is a key part of that as well. t this point we're hitting very hh rates of intermarriage within the community, and some are very very panicked about this and wht the jewish future might look like, instead of seeing this is an incredible diversity. an incredible vibrancy changing the changing the jewish community from within. people coming from different bounds that are enliving what judaism is today. >> if folks who are in an interh family, which comprises them a portion of the 95% of the jewish jewish community, then how do they actually use the high holy days as an opportunity for their their own family development and and answering whatever questions questions they have in family decision making about what they do as a family? how do they

reach you? >> on the one hand, what we tryo do is connect people as much as possible. if folks have an idea in their minds that i'm not the one who is welcomed. that's for other folks. i don't know enoug. my family isn't going to be wel. we're here to show them the wayo connect them with existing comm. we provide a list of all the pls in the bay area where there are high holy day services that are open and excited to have new folks, perhaps even for free. tt want to bring people into the communities themselves. it's about connecting and working with families. i meet with families individually to talk about how to best navigate the questions together. on the other other hand i encourage people to encourage people to do their own within their families. as you were saying before, it's univer. the themes are universal. if a y can walk out in the woods or to a creek and think about what

this past year was, what they want their lives to be about, to to be appreciative of every precious moment they have toget, it's a great time to do that. wr or not you're sitting in synagoe or somewhere else. >> fantastic. javi, what's your perspective? >> i would echo what michael isg about the diversity about jewish about jewish families. it's wonderful and complicated and there are degrees of affiliation of affiliation and disaffiliation and alienation and really the whole range is there. for some people, this time of year is a time where thy really feel deeply that this is an opportunity for new beginnings and a time for healig and so on. honestly, for some people it's a painful time. bece it's a time when people are aware of the sense of family or communal connection that is not in their lives. so it's mixed. r

role and our agency is to be of service to all that. to be open to all that and help people from from where they are to where they want to go. it's not, it's not singular. it's not linear, it's very multilayered and complicated. i think a lot of us us have had to learn to not bring a lot of assumptions to i. and to learn how to be with peoe from where they are. but to offer when it's appropriate that that framework of being new beginnings and a time for people people to do something which eve is interested in doing, which is is look at how their life and their actions are aligned with the values that they confess. >> i'm wondering on the kind ofr social communal level, jewish family and children services is

an agency in a technical sense is secular. it helps everybody, but it is informed by a particular understanding of the world that we call jewish values. i'm just wondering what that is for you sort of being a jew in the world and a jewish agency in the world. >> right. we live in that intersection and it's fantasticg in that place and it's complicad and it has its challenges. but we really are speaking, interacg with so many people. maybe a good example is we do refugee resettlement work. to me, that speaks to directly to my understanding of jewish history and jewish values. that we are in a very concrete daily way

welcoming the stranger. right now mostly people from afghanisn and iraq. lgbt from african countries. >> it's so wonderful. believe it it or not, we have come to the end of our time together. we kind of put a comma in the convn and say to you thank you so much much for joining us here on mosaic. have a wonderful day.

>> from the cbs bay area studios, this is kpix 5 news. >> >> of bay area couple says that they were burglarized not just once or twice but three times in in a single day. >> they did not have a fear of getting caught. they came back three times. they looked directy into the camera. even that, they they looked at it and they kept doing what they were doing. > >> also the fallout from the san

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