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			Temple Israel's 6th rabbi calls for renewal in time of change By CHARLES ELMORE Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Friday, November 07, 2008 Palm Beach County's oldest organized Jewish congregation welcomed its sixth rabbi in 85 years Friday, choosing a man who says he wants to build on its legacy as it looks forward to rebuilding its synagogue. Rabbi Richard Chapin, 58, replaces the retiring Howard Shapiro after 27 years at Temple Israel, founded by half a dozen young families in West Palm Beach in 1923. At the time, an estimated 200 of the city's 10,000 residents were Jewish. The Reform congregation plans to rebuild its synagogue on North Flagler Drive after years of wear and hurricane damage and hopes to see it completed by 2010. Chapin greeted several hundred members in a consecration ceremony Friday evening at temporary quarters at the Jewish Community Center on Military Trail. Before the service, Chapin talked about renewal in a time of historic change in the nation at large. "People have a lot of choices in their lives, and they're only getting more," Chapin said. "As the world increasingly does its own thing and becomes more and more virtual, the question is how we get people involved in a sense of community." Chapin was born in Newark, N.J., grew up near Buffalo and spent the past eight years as a rabbi in Greenwich, Conn. By 2006, Palm Beach County became the nation's fourth-largest Jewish community with more than 255,000 people, trailing only New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Temple Israel broke ground by having the county's first female president of a Jewish congregation in the 1960s, and its membership has remained stable at about 500 families in recent years as other synagogues have been added in surrounding areas, past President Barbara Ackerman said. One thing has not changed: Rabbis tend to stay a long time, often decades. "We've been very fortunate with our choices," Ackerman said. West Palm Beach Mayor Lois Frankel, who said she attends "another temple down the block," welcomed Chapin with a book about the pioneers who helped build the city. "You're going to be our new pioneer," Frankel said.

	Join us for Shabbat Torah study with Rabbi Chapin Saturday mornings at the JCC 9:15am – 10:15am A different way of studying Torah... We start with Prayer and then delve into a bit of Hebrew study Then we immerse ourselves in Torah with the help of James Kugel’s How to Read the Bible

		Night of 100 Menorahs Shabbat Around the Table December 26th

	Temporary Administrative Offices While Building A New Temple Israel 4 Harvard Circle, Suite 600 West Palm Beach, FL  33409 Phone 561.833.8421 . . .  Fax 561.833.0571

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