Among the dramatic new developments this year at Beth Jacob Congregation, we have founded a new Sephardic Minyan prayer service. Begun by Michel Hassan, Aaron Kohen and Ofer Ben-Menachem last autumn, in the course of discussions with our Rav, Rabbi Fischer, the Beth Jacob Sephardic Minyan has emerged as a dynamic and spirited prayer service that brings together people hailing from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds, including Morocco, Tunisia, Iran, India, South Africa, and Israel.

Every Shabbat morning, the Beth Jacob Sephardic Minyan gathers in its setting and worships according to the traditional customs and nusach of Edot HaMizrach. The Sephardic Minyan typically begins their Shabbat services at 8:45 a.m., marked by a beautiful prayer style that includes singing beautiful traditional melodies (piyutim). The atmosphere is charged with energy from the beginning of the service through the repetition of the Amidah, when the Kohanim bless the congregants in accordance with the Sephardic nusach.

When it was founded last year, the Beth Jacob Sephardi Minyan received a beautiful Sefer Torah as a remarkable gift loan from Rabbi Pinto of Los Angeles. Everyone benefits from the gift because the congregants alternate Torah-reading responsibilities among themselves. Since their forming, the group has blossomed into a dynamic and well respected community within Beth Jacob Congregation, adding panache and an important element of cultural diversity within Beth Jacob’s quilt work of melodies, cultures, and histories.

Virtually every week of the year, the Beth Jacob Sephardic Minyan welcomes guests visiting the community from places like Los Angeles, New Jersey, and overseas sites like France and Israel. And the guests praise the energy in the prayers as among the most spirited Sephardic Minyanim at which they have prayed. One of our newer Beth Jacob family members, David Abookasis, is a post-doctoral researcher at Beckman Laser Institute of UCI. He and his family arrived here from Israel last Fall. He now serves as one of the Chazanim of the Beth Jacob Sephardic Minyan. Mr. Abookasis believes that, in the future, more families will move into homes near Beth Jacob Congregation because they will be attracted by our new Orthodox option to pray in the melodies and nusach of Edot HaMizrach. “We welcome all Jews to join us,” he says, “Sephardim and Ashkenazim alike.” And he adds that “Our first several months indicate that we have great reason to anticipate continuing to grow in numbers and in spirit.” For example, the Beth Jacob Sephardic Minyan was jampacked during Yom Kippur, particularly at the Kol Nidrei and Ne’ilah services.

At the same time, Rav Fischer has augmented his role in serving the expanded community. During weekday services, the Rav now includes Sephardic halakha as a core element of his halakhic shiurim after Mincha. Utilizing the teachings of the Ben Ish Chai, the great and revered Iraqi Torah sage who arranged halakhic discourses and study based on a weekly format tied to the weekly Torah portions, Rav Fischer integrates Sephardic halakha into his shiurim, also utilizing Sh’ailot and Teshuvot response published by the Chacham HaRav Ovadia Yosef in his sefarim, Yechaveh Da’at and Yabi’a Omer. Last year at the Yamim Nora’im, Rav Fischer and Rabbanit Ellen attended parts of the tefillah at the Beth Jacob Sephardic Minyan, and they are planning to maintain an even closer bond in the coming year.

Even as the Beth Jacob Sephardic Minyan provides unique opportunities for worshipping in a unique way, the members of the Sephardic Minyan otherwise participate with all other elements of Beth Jacob Congregation’s panoply of cultures and families in Beth Jacob activities, with the children attending Junior NCSY and NCSY social activities, participating at the Sunday morning Youth Programs and Rav Fischer’s Tuesday afternoon class in Chumash and Halakha. Sephardic Minyan members attend Beth Jacob Shabbat afternoon services and services on Sunday and throughout the week, as well as other synagogue cultural and social activities, ranging from the Lag B’Omer barbecue to the Yom HaShoah Commemoration and the Shavuot Torah Dedication.

As such, we celebrate the Beth Jacob Sephardic Minyan’s wonderful initial success and pray that it zocheh l’shanim rabot (merit many years of success). Chazak U-Barukh!