Public invited to ‘Taste of the Diaspora’

The congregation at Temple Kol Ami in Fort Mill will open its doors to a “Rabbi on the Road” next weekend.

With an Impact and Innovation grant from the Jewish Federation of Greater Charlotte, the local temple, which does not have a full-time rabbi of its own, will welcome Rabbi Bruce Aft of Virginia.

The special “Shabbaton” weekend will consist of a Friday night service at 7 p.m. Jan. 22 at Unity Presbyterian Church, 303 Tom Hall St., in downtown Fort Mill, where the temple holds its regular services. The service will be led by Aft.

At 11 a.m. Jan. 23, Aft will lead Torah study at Z Bakery on Confederate Street. At 5:30 p.m., the congregation will hold “Taste of the Diaspora,” a sampling of foods from Jewish communities around the world, including Israel, Russia and the United States, said congregation Secretary Shari Baum.

Aft will also give a talk on little known Jewish communities around the world.

“People probably don’t know there are Jewish communities in India and China,” Baum said.

The events are free and open to the public. The grant will enable the temple to hold these community events once a quarter, with the next one scheduled for the last weekend in April.

Aft has visited Temple Kol Ami before. He comes from the Institute of Southern Jewish Life through a program called “Rabbi on the Road,” which Baum said is a throwback to the circuit-riding rabbis that served the small and scattered Jewish populations of the southern U.S. in the past.

“He visited with us last year and we loved him,” Baum said.

“Having a rabbi is special” for the congregation, which has about 30 families and holds services usually conducted by lay people, she said.

For details about next weekend’s Shabbaton, call 803-701-0149 or email York synagogue@gmail.com. For more about Temple Kol Ami, visit templekolamisc.org.

This story was originally published January 15, 2016 at 2:09 PM with the headline "Public invited to ‘Taste of the Diaspora’."