Rabbi Selwyn Geller has dedicated his life to teaching the Torah. He was born in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, N.Y. It was a Jewish enclave that supported his membership in the Jewish community with its thoroughly Jewish environment. He attended parochial schools until he began college. And his story would have remained a strictly local Jewish tale if not for military service.
Service to the country broadened his horizons literally and theologically. Rabbi Geller lived overseas in France, Thailand, Germany and England, and stateside in California, Texas, Alabama, and Washington, D.C. Along the way, he learned to work with chaplains of Christian faiths and denominations, as well as with many clergy, Gentile and Jewish alike, and Rabbis of Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform Judaism. Wherever in the world he served as a Rabbi, his job has always been the same: Tap into the cultural heritage of the Jewish people and help them apply it to their lives, places and times.
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Jean Quick
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Jean has definitely become part of the TCP family regardless of the fact that she is related to one of our congregants. She keeps our administrative functions running smoothly with her pleasant presence four days a week. Being both a mother and grandmother, Jean has adopted us as her extended family as well taking very good care of all our needs.
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Jill Pakman
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Shalom,
Temple Covenant of Peace has made it through a trying time, but we have indeed made it and the congregation has emerged determined to not only survive but to thrive.
Through the tireless efforts of our current board members a plan has been devised to take Temple Covenant of Peace through and out to the other side of this difficult period. The rabbinical search committee has been successful in securing Rabbi Selwyn Geller to fill the part-time rabbinical position. Whereas part-time may make some wary, please remember it is in an effort to make TCP financially stable as we rebuild and increase our membership over the next few years.
I am pleased to say I am continuing my cantorial duties with TCP in a now, offically, expanded role. I am now spending two weekends per month in our religious school. For those of you that do not have children in our religiious school, TCP is a beautifully vibrant place on Sunday mornings. Come and visit when religious school is in session and you will witness the potential of our congregation. We are blessed with some very committed young parents with families that are fully aware that the Easton Jewish community needs a Reform synagogue close at hand.
I am continuing to train our B’nei Mitzvah students. Last year’s “Bar Mitvah Boys” rose to the occasion of a much more demanding B’nei Mitzvah program and made themselves, their parents and families along with their Temple family extremely proud. Our future B’nei Mitzvah can look forward to feeling that same sense of accomplishment as they embark on their training with me and Rabbi Geller.
The weekends that I am spending with TCP members are indeed full weekends. The Ritual Committee and I have continued brainstorming and, with the help of Rabbi Geller, will have some wonderful, educational and just plain fun weekends planned. We want you to see TCP as your extended home, but you will have to do your part and BE THERE. The board, your clergy and your religious school leadership and teachers can “Build It”, but YOU must come!
So, consider this your open, almost engraved, invitation to become ACTIVE members in your synagogue -- YOUR synagogue -- not mine, not the rabbi’s, not the board members’ -- YOURS!! Please add or maintain a Jewish calendar in your home and continue to mark the first Friday/Shabbat of each month as a family Shabbat that includes being together with your Temple family at TCP. Keep a sharp eye out for the e-mails that you receive, please open them promptly and plan for your family’s attendance at all of our events both educational and fun and some that will most definitely be both.
Do not hesitate to call on me if you need to do so in the course of the year.
Take care.
Cantor Jill~
Jill Pakman has served as the Cantor of Temple Covenant of Peace in a part-time capacity since September 2003. Although she has been viewed as the Temple’s “Student Cantor” while completing her Masters Degree in Jewish Music/Cantorial Studies, Jill has functioned as a Cantor/Cantorial Soloist since 1989. Her first position after leaving the USAF Band in Omaha, Nebraska was Temple Emanu-El in Wichita, Kansas. Jill then went on to work in South Florida where she resided for more than four years. She returned to her home in the Yardley, Pennsylvania area in1994 and has been engaged in Cantorial work in and around the area for thirteen years.
Jill has trained, literally, hundreds of B’nei Mitzvah students as she began tutoring just after becoming a Bat Mitzvah herself, due to the fact that she was able to learn the trope/cantillation system by chanting her Haftarah portion. Now that Jill has completed her Masters Degree and will have more time to devote to TCP, she looks forward to having the oppotunity to work with/train the B’nei Mitzvah students at the Temple as she brings more than thirty years of experience in preparing students for their Bar/Bat Mitzvah ceremony.
In her expanded capacity at TCP, Jill intends to lay the foundation for B’nei Mitzvah preparation and prayer book literacy along with continuing to expose the religious school students to Jewish music.
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