Re: the cost....

[TTova <TTova...>]

Judith I will try and check out the BOMBAY service... It sounds very 
welcoming.

FYI....The Toronto Danforth Jewish circle also has an ostensibly open 
door policy..
They have no shule as such and rent a church for the high holidays.
Sounds odd, I know, but the services are so beautiful and inclusive 
that the numbers have grown every
year to where it is hard to find a seat if you get there late.

One can but tickets in advance (not expensive) or one can give a 
donation at the door.
They have a small women's choir and invite artists from the community 
to get up every year and add their voices...
I have added a yiddishn "tam" to the proceedings in the past
The last two years they flew up a cantor from Bolder Colorado named 
Jack Kuper...A delightful man who picks up a guitar at various points 
to accompany himself, and who's very presence had my 18 year old son 
say he wanted to attend more then the one service he usually would 
deign to go to..


The JCC downtown is also a place those who cannot afford the higher 
costs of attending formal ticketed services can go...
At least here in Toronto one can choose and be welcomed at shul many 
different ways.

Tova




On Wednesday, September 10, 2003, at 06:52 AM, Judith R Cohen wrote:

> The Bene Israel (Bombay) congregation here in Toronto has always
> welcomed everyone from inside and outside the community to their High
> Holiday services. One has the OPTION,. very gently presented, of
> contributing to their education fund, which is used to keep their
> traditions alive in optional classes for youth. They also seem to keep
> the service costs down. They also have no rabbi or cantor as just about
> any man in the community is capable of leading services, so they share
> this, and usually pool resources to bring one older community member
> over from Israel, whose knowledge of the liturgy and its melodies is
> even stronger. It's a rented hall because they are a small group (500 
> or
> so) and haven't their own synagogue, just rent space for the High
> Holidays. Folding chairs, no carpets, no stained glass, nothing fancy -
> juse the people and the service. If kids act up, whoever is closest
> quietly deals with it. Those who want to sit in unmoxed gender seating
> do so in unmarked, tacitly observed sections; those men and women who
> prefer to sit together do so (compromise worked out years ago).Women
> happier in their saris (white on Kippur) wear saris, women happier in
> western clothes wear them.
>
> Basically, they just get on with it.
> Great melodies, too.
> Oh, and no one fusses about whether women's voices are part of the
> sound. I haven't seen any men looking uncomfortable =  they seem to be
> too busy actually being an active part of the service to worry about
> whether they are being tempted to whatever it is the voice of women is
> supposed to be tempting them to.
>
> On the very rare occasion I go to any services, that's where I go. I'm
> happy to give something to their well-used education fund, and happy 
> not
> to have to go begging to some synagogue for a reduction in unaffordable
> ticket prices.
>
> Ah - and breaking the fast with the vegetarian samosas and pakoras they
> bring in from Toronto's Indian neighbourhood and distribute to
> everyone.....
> Judith
>
>
>
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