Friday night services at Rue de Copernic, a liberal congregation, began at 6:00 and ended at 7:00. We were allowed to enter after the security guard asked us a number of questions in Hebrew, including what we were doing there and were we carrying anything sharp. The Bat Mitzvah girl led Kabbalat Shabbat but that was it. She was not expected to do anything on Shabbat morning. Once again it was easy to follow the service though the baritone Cantor's melodies were slightly different from ours. Apparently this synagogue has closer ties to the Orthodox, is more in the halachic mode with regard to much, including the role of women (though there was no mechitzah).
At Gesher, the next morning, we had met a couple of families who joined because they could not have a Bat Mitzvah at Rue de Copernic or they did not like the status of women there.
We arrived at Kehilat Gesher, the World Union for Progressive Judaism, Anglophone congregation in Paris led by Oregon born Rabbi Tom Cohen. Though we had email contact with him, we did not meet him as he attended the Hanover WUPJ conference that Shabbat.
Rabbi Tom Cohen had suggested that since he would be away and his lay people would be running the service, they might need help. We were indeed curious and not sure what they might need. We arrived early and were warmly welcomed by Jennifer, American born from Maryland, (now) international editor for the Red Herring. Her husband was at the Hanover conference as well. We visited a bit, said hello to some of the other folks, met a woman whose mother lives in Coronado (San Diego) and another whose route to join Kehillat Gesher was via our classmate and colleague, Rabbi Jeff Summit, the Hillel Rabbi at Tufts. It seems that they have things under control, though we hear them juggling something, actually. checking to see who's handling which aliyah and Torah reading. In the end we lead the davenning, as they don't quite feel comfortable doing it. Despite the slight differences in their minhag/custom i.e., they have a little chant when taking out and returning the Torah to the ark, standing at the beginning of the service, sitting between Barchu and Shema,; however several of the melodies we shared ( such as Avot, Gevurot, V'shamru, Aleinu). They read a few things in French, we all read a little in English. Mark and I did try to give them a taste of Mi chamocha, Adonai Sfatai and Modim a la Debbie Friedman and Craig Taubman. We even sang Jhosh Friedmand's Rtzei. They were a happy bunch with good humor about their responsibility to lead the service and to support each other. Their enthusiastic participation made us feel very welcome and appreciated. We all exchanged business cards, visited cordially and shared a significant amount of Israeli Kiddush wine. By the way, we learned that the congregation recently celebrated its 13th anniversary and this was the first time the lay people had responsibility for leading services...and we showed up to help out.
We wish we had taken a group photo, but we were too busy enjoying each others' company! You can imagine the group photo here.