Latter-day Saint volunteers help xeriscape Salt Lake City Jewish synagogue in interfaith project
08/06/2020 01:26:11 PM
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Early this year, the Highland Utah South Stake, a group of Utah County congregations of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was looking for a service project.
In chatting with a member of Congregation Kol Ami in Salt Lake City, they came up with a plan: Xeriscape the Jewish synagogue’s six-acre site.
They spent months planning, budgeting and calling businesses to provide goods and services for free or at a deep discount.
This week, about 50 members of the stake met up with about a dozen synagogue members every day at 7 a.m. to help rip out the lawn and bushes and replace them with rocks, succulent plants and trees hooked up to a drip system. They created pathways and patios with concrete.
“With all the volunteer hours and items that were donated or purchased at a reduced price,” said Rabbi Sam Spector, overcome with gratitude, “we probably saved hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
See all the pictures here.
Utah Jazz rookie calls Jewish fan to apologize for Twitter blunder
07/20/2020 05:41:24 PM
SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — Jill Spector is Jewish and a Jazz fan.
So when Jazz rookie guard Justin Wright-Foreman retweeted a message of support Wednesday for TV entertainer Nick Cannon after Cannon was fired for anti-Semitic comments, she just couldn’t let it go.
She tapped out a message to the rising star on his Facebook page.
“I told him how much it really hurt as a Utahn and as a Jew,” she said. “I didn’t necessarily expect a response, to be honest.”
But a day later, she got one. Wright-Foreman called her on the Facebook Messenger app.
“Which caught me very much off guard so I took the phone call and we spoke for about 15-20 minutes just about how apologetic he was,” she said.
By the end of 20 minutes, Spector was ready to forgive.
“I think in today’s day in age, people are very quick to say this person needs to be gone, this person needs to be fired and I don’t think that’s the right way to go about it,” she said.
He was contrite, Spector said. And wanted to educate himself about the Jewish culture.
Unbeknownst to Wright-Foreman, Spector’s husband, Sam, is the rabbi for Utah’s largest Jewish synagogue, Kol Ami.
“It’s human to make mistakes, but that’s what people do,” Sam Spector said.
The rabbi says he was impressed that Wright-Foreman would call his wife. There was no sure-fire PR splash in making a private apology to a complete stranger.
“That says a lot about his character,” he said.
The Spectors say Wright-Foreman intends to visit Kol Ami and play basketball with the kids. Their congregation will welcome him with open arms.
“It went from a story where Jewish people were kind of hurt, to saying this is a great guy who wants to understand our community better,” Sam Spector said.
Utah Jazz guard apologizes for retweeting message supporting anti-semitism
07/20/2020 05:38:29 PM
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Jazz reserve guard Justin Wright-Foreman apologized for retweeting a message that was in support of Nick Cannon’s anti-Semitism comments.
In a video call with media on Friday, Wright-Foreman said he wasn’t fully educated on the topic and that he didn’t mean to offend anyone.
Wright-Foreman had retweeted a message that stated, "Nick Cannon said nothing wrong. Everyone just sensitive and hates the truth."
Rabbi Sam Spector of Congregation Kol Ami in Salt Lake City even offered an invitation for Wright-Foreman to have a conversation with Jewish leaders to become educated on the topic.
“As a child, professional athletes were my heroes, models and exemplars. I can only imagine the pain I’d feel if one of the people I admired so greatly retweeted something that made me feel badly about myself for being Jewish,” said Rabbi Spector in a social media post. “Also as an impressionable kid, I wonder if hearing an athlete on my favorite team say something hateful would make me prejudiced against that group. Sadly, I think many of our religious school students who are huge Jazz fans will learn a painful lesson about anti-Semitism from this incident.”
A rural commissioner called Gov. Gary Herbert a Nazi for approving a face mask mandate in urban areas
06/26/2020 02:06:23 PM
A Piute County commissioner compared Utah’s governor to Nazis, suggesting that Utahns will soon be required to offer a “Heil Herbert” salute.
“Hang on friends, it won’t be long before you are required to do a Sieg Heil Salute to Herbert,” tweeted Darin Bushman in response to news that Gov. Gary Herbert approved a mask mandate in Salt Lake and Summit counties that’s set to take effect Saturday. “Welcome to Utah now extend your right arm straight at 45 degrees keeping your hand parallel to your arm and offer your ‘Heil Herbert.’”
Rabbi Sam Spector of Salt Lake City’s Congregation Kol Ami invited Bushman to “come discuss his tweet with me.”
“Taking measures to protect civilians from a pandemic and save lives is not equivalent to Nazism in the least bit,” Spector said, “and we need to educate our public officials.”
Bushman has not replied to Spector’s invitation.
Faith Leaders Across State Encourage Utahns To Wear Face Coverings
06/26/2020 02:03:24 PM
In a news conference Wednesday, Governor Gary Herbert quoted a letter from a group of interfaith leaders in Utah. The faith leaders are encouraging Utahns to wear face coverings to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19.
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