KiDMa - The Southwest Community, Phoenix's new Modern Orthodox congregation, signed a six-month lease Jan. 3 for a storefront at Glendale Avenue and Seventh Street in Phoenix.
The synagogue, founded by Rabbi Darren Kleinberg, will host its first event there Feb. 10-11, featuring Rabbi Avi Weiss, founder and dean of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah in New York.
Kleinberg graduated from the yeshiva in June 2005 and is a Judaic faculty member at the Jess Schwartz Jewish Community High School in Scottsdale.
The 2,200-square-foot facility, at 727 E. Glendale Ave., Suite 2A, was formerly a dance studio.
KiDMa will hold weekly Shabbat evening, morning and afternoon services, Kleinberg said. Future programs will include classes, lectures, and social and cultural events, he said, with the goal of growing into a "full-functioning community."
KiDMa joins a number of other Orthodox congregations in the Central Phoenix neighborhood: Within a three-mile radius are Beth Joseph Congregation, Chabad of Arizona, the Phoenix Buchori Jewish Community-Shaarei Tzion Ohel Bracha, Shaarei Tzedek and Young Israel of Phoenix. Beth El Congregation, affiliated with the Conservative movement, is also in that area.
"It was essential for me to have (the synagogue) in the eruv," Kleinberg said, when asked why he selected that neighborhood. The eruv allows Sabbath-observant Jews to carry items and push strollers on Shabbat.
During services, men and women will be separated by an "unimposing mechitza (partition)," and Kleinberg encourages "an enormous amount of input from the membership."
"We're not creating a top-down community," he said. "This is something where we want the people who come and attend to really be involved in creating."
KiDMa is an acronym for Kehillat Darom Ma'arav, which is Hebrew for The Southwest Community and also means "progress" in Hebrew.
So far, KiDMa has held two Shabbat services in Kleinberg's home and two community lectures in other homes.
Funds for the new facility came mainly from individual donations, in addition to start-up fees from his yeshiva, Kleinberg said. KiDMa is forming an advisory committee, which includes Rabbi Nevo Zuckerman, Judaic studies coordinator at The King David School; Evan Bernstein, executive director of the Barness Family Foundation; Linda Levee Paul; Daniel and Elana Storch; and Weiss, the featured guest at the Feb. 10-11 Shabbat services.
In addition to running the New York yeshiva, Weiss is also the senior rabbi of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale and president of AMCHA: The Coalition for Jewish Concerns, a grass-roots organization that speaks out for Jewish causes and Israel.
The subject of his Shabbat morning lecture is "A Vision for Judaism in the 21st Century." On Shabbat afternoon, his topic is "The Principles of Spiritual Activism." He will also lead Carlebach-style services on Friday night.
"I think that Rabbi Weiss is the model for what a rabbi should stand for and the type of community that a rabbi can make," Kleinberg said. "(His) community in Riverdale is the most vibrant and energizing community I've ever been in."
Details
- What: "Kickoff Shabbat"
- Who: KiDMa-The Southwest Community
- When: 5:45 p.m. Friday, Feb. 10, and 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 11
- Where: 727 E. Glendale Ave., Suite 2A, Phoenix.
- Call: 602-374-8344 or e-mail thesouthwestcommunity@gmail.com
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