To view this
blog in its entirety, go to our website.
For daily
event updates, visit our calendar.
What’s Happening at a Glance
Membership News and Upcoming Events
- Passover Second Night Seder, April 15
- Save the Date: Annual Meeting, May 18
- Be Kind -- Donate In-Kind!
- Book Club
- Permanent Restaurant Fundraisers: The Continental and Butterfield’s
Creative Worship and Ritual
- Shabbat Evening Service with Special Guest Speaker, March 21
- Spring Tot Shabbat and Family Services
Volunteer Opportunities
- Passover Food Baskets
Music Notes
- Lahaka Adult Choir
Education
- Spring Break: No School March 22 and 29
- Visit the Education Director’s Blog
- Thanks for Making the Bake Sale a Success!
- Religious School Open House, April 6
- Yom Tikkun Olam, April 13
Teen News
- Shir Hadash Ra’am BBYO Announcements
- Kol Hakavod to our Purim Team
- Teen Hangout, March 27
The Rabbi’s Corner
- "The Best is Yet to Come"
Adult Ed
- Crash Course in Basic Judaism
- Lunch and Learn with Rabbi Eitan
- Sunday Morning Adult Ed Classes
Wellness Section
- This Week’s Wellness Tip: An Apple a Day
Community Events
- Dr. Amy-Jill Levine at OLB, April 3 & 4
SHOP Shir Hadash
Membership and Upcoming Events
Community Second Passover Seder, April 15
Everyone is
invited to share in the annual Shir Hadash Community Second Seder, to be held
at the synagogue on Tuesday, April 15 beginning at 6:00pm. Watch your emails
and future newsletters for more details. Questions? Contact Melanie Andes,
fmandes@comcast.net.
Save the Date: Annual Meeting, May 18
The Shir
Hadash 2014 annual meeting will be held on Sunday, May 18 at 9:30am at the
synagogue. (Since that is also the last day of Religious School for the year,
the meeting will be followed at 11:30 by the annual School Assembly.) At the
meeting, the Board will share important long-term plans for the synagogue, and
the members will be asked to vote on nominees for open positions on the Board
and to approve the Shir Hadash 2014-15 budget. Please plan to attend this
important meeting of our entire community.
Be Kind – Donate In-Kind!
Did you know
that Shir Hadash has an evolving wish list of items needed around the building?
If you’re doing some spring cleaning, organizing your office, or exploring a
local garage sale, keep an eye out for items that would be useful for the
synagogue. Click here for some ideas of things that we need – and thank you!
Book Club
Our next
book will be Unorthodox: The Scandalous
Rejection of my Hasidic Roots, by Deborah Feldman. Everyone is invited to
our meeting, to be held on April 24 in Deerfield. Watch the newsletter for more
details coming soon.
Hungry Before or After Religious School (or
Anytime)?
The
Continental Restaurant in Buffalo Grove or Butterfields Restaurant in
Northbrook permanently will donate 5% of your total bill to Shir Hadash! No
flyer needed – just mention Shir Hadash when you are paying or fill out the
Shir Hadash book behind the desk. A
great way to start or end Religious school!
Creative Worship and Ritual
Upcoming: Special Guest Speaker for
Shabbat, March 21
On Friday, March
21 at 7:30pm, Shir Hadash welcomes a very special guest speaker for our evening Shabbat
service. Matt Rothschild is the Publisher and Senior Editor of The Progressive magazine and web site. The
Progressive is a prominent liberal publication that has been around for more
than a hundred years, speaking out on many critical issues. Matt happens to be the brother of our member
Katy Zwick, and he has agreed to come and talk with us about a very current
topic: "Our Vanishing Civil Liberties." What better topic as we approach Passover,
our festival of freedom? Bring a friend
to hear what Matt has to say!
Spring Tot Shabbat and Family Services
This Spring,
Shir Hadash will host several early Friday evening services, perfect for
families with younger kids! Tot Shabbat
is for kids up to age 6, Family Services are geared to grades K-3. Each service has stories, songs and special
activities designed for these age groups. Invite your friends! These family
services are a great way to introduce young families to Shir Hadash; all are
welcome.
These special
services are at the kid-friendly times of 6:15 - 7 pm on selected Friday
evenings:
- April 4 Family Service
- May 2 Tot Shabbat
- June 6 Family Service
We also need
families to volunteer as greeters for these services, to welcome guests and let
people know all about the Shir Hadash community. If you can help with this important mitzvah,
please contact Suzanne Wexler, volunteer@shir-hadash.org.
Volunteer Opportunities
Passover Food Baskets
Once again
this year, Shir Hadash will be joining with Maot Chitim of Greater Chicagoland
to help them pack and deliver Passover food baskets for needy Jewish families
all over the Chicago area. There are two
different ways you can help, either packing food boxes or delivering them.
- Packing will take place on Sunday, March 30 from 9:30 a.m. to 10:15 a.m. The address for the packing is 3411 Woodhead Drive, in Northbrook.
- Delivery of food packages will take place on Sunday, April 6 from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. in the Buffalo Grove/Wheeling area. We will be delivering 105 food packages, which will be in large boxes weighing approximately 20 lbs. each. We deliver to several large complexes and use a rental truck to transport the boxes.
If you are
interested in helping on one or both of these dates, please contact Mark
Lenhart, mjlenhart@comcast.net for details.
Music Notes – News and Ideas from our Music Director
Lahaka (Adult Choir)
Our adult
choir, Lahaka is meeting regularly on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of every month
at 7:30pm. If you like to sing and be part of a warm, friendly, fun-loving
group come join us. For more information contact Mr. D.
music.director@shir-hadash.org
Education
Spring Break: No School March 23 and 30
Enjoy your
break and we’ll see you back at school on April 6!
Visit the Education Director’s Blog
Education
Director Emily Ascher’s blog has loads of pictures and news about everything
happening at Religious School, including our fabulous Purim festivities! Click here to see it all.
A Purim to Remember!
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Thank you to
everyone involved in making this day a special, festive, and fun Purim for our
families. Teachers, students (and even some parents) dressed for the occasion.
Students spent the first hour learning about Purim in class (you can imagine
how excited they were), then moved into the Sanctuary to hear a Purim shpiel,
including readings from the Megillah. Thank you to Mr. D., Melanie, Bev, Doug,
Marilyn, and Rabbi Eitan for making the morning extra entertaining. After the
shpiel, the children enjoyed the spirited carnival organized by the Shir Hadash
teens (guided by our youthful Youth Director Carole Mostow).
Bake Sale Success
Thank you to
all of you who purchased the delicious sweets at Sunday’s bake sale. We raised
just under $300.00 to support our school!
Thank you to Katy Zwick, Margie Skora, helper Lisa Radzely, and everyone
who contributed those delicious treats.
Please
support your Shir Hadash family by helping with the next bake sale. Email
Education Director Emily Ascher at eddirector@shir-hadash.org or Margie Skora at
margiepromopro1@aol.com, and we’ll fill you in on upcoming events.
Religious School Open House, April 6
Make sure to
tell your friends about our Religious School Open House on Sunday, April 6,
from 10:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m. We want to share our school with more children and
more families! Email eddirector@shir-hadash.org for more information.
Yom Tikkun Olam--Sunday, April 13th
Shir Hadash will hold our Annual Day to Repair the World
(Yom Tikkun Olam) on Sunday, April 13. This day is our day to give back and
make a difference in the world. Our religious school students and their
families, along with members of the congregation will participate in activities
that will inspire all of us to continue to make a difference. The Education
Committee is in the process of organizing the day, but we want to make sure you save the date and that you invite your friends to participate. YTO (Yom Tikkun
Olam) is a meaningful day of fun!
Teen News
Shir Hadash Ra’am BBYO Announcements
Four things
to note on your calendar, BBYO members and friends:
- NEW: BBYO Spring Convention for Great Midwest Region: April 25-27 at the Westin in Wheeling. Click here to register on-line. Register before April 1 for $260; after that, the fee increases to $290. Scholarships are available - apply directly to gmr@bbyo.org.
- Important!! Our Board meeting has been rescheduled to April 10 at 7:00pm. If you are in charge of an April event, please be sure to submit your outline at least three weeks prior to the event date.
- Save the Date, Part I -- Connect event for 6th-8th graders, April 13. We’ll be doing some baking for Passover. Watch for more details to come.
- Save the Date, Part II – Ra’am BBYO Teen Seder, April 17. Again, details coming soon!
Kol Hakavod to our Purim Carnival Team.
Led by Joel
Schleicher and Adam Weiss, our teens planned and implemented our Purim Carnival
which was a huge success. The full day was amazing - starting with Purim
studies in the classrooms, following with the super Purim spiel and concluding
with a fantastically fun Purim carnival.
Great job, everyone!
New: Teen Hangout, March 27
All teens invited!
Come to the Shir Hadash Teen Lounge to hang out, play games, talk, and spend time with your friends. See you
Thursday, March 27 from 7:00 to 8:30pm.
The Rabbi’s Corner
March 21-22, 2014 / 20 Adar II 5774
Shabbat Shemini – Parah
Torah: Leviticus 9:1 - 11:47 / Maftir: Numbers 19:1 - 19:22
(Parah)
Haftarah: Ezekiel 36:16 - 36:38 (Parah)
“The Best is
Yet to Come”
Dear
Friends,
Now that we
have moved from reading Exodus to Leviticus, there is a break in telling the
story of leaving Egypt and moving towards the Promised Land. There’s a break in all the complaining, too…
“Where is the water? Where is the food? Where is Moses? How will we live out
here? Shouldn’t we pack it in and return to Egypt?” There is so much fear,
anxiety, struggle, fracturing of our people in the book of Exodus.
So, along
comes Leviticus to advance the topic of holiness, asking - How will we become a
holy people? How will we bring our holy
sacrifices of thanksgiving to God? How
will our actions in fact become a statement of the holiness that we hope to
bring to the world of tomorrow?
With the
break in the narrative, the Torah is making a point. It says, now that we are
out of Egypt, now that we have received the Torah at Mt. Sinai, now that we
have a taste of freedom and independence – we are never going back!....
Click here
to read the rest of The Rabbi’s Corner on the Shir Hadash website.
Adult Education
NEW! Crash Course in Basic Judaism
Monday evenings (3/31. 4/28, 5/26, and 6/9), 8:00 to 9:30 p.m.
Taught by
Rabbi Eitan Weiner-Kaplow
In this
free crash course, Rabbi Weiner-Kaplow will explore: Belief in God,
Prayer, The Shabbat, Jewish Observance and Sexuality. Participants will learn
the basics of Judaism and receive a free copy of the Companion Guide chock-full
of thought-provoking, extra-curricular reading to enhance their understanding
and appreciation of the depth and breadth of Judaism. This program is presented
in conjunction with the National Jewish Outreach Project. All are welcome:
members and non-members, Jews and non-Jews, family and friends. Click here to
view our program flyer.
Lunch & Learn with Rabbi Eitan
Weiner-Kaplow
Join Shir
Hadash members and friends for a refreshing and contemporary exploration of the
weekly Torah portion. This informal
group meets on Thursdays from noon to 1:00pm in the Shir Hadash Kitchen/Café. All
are welcome.
Sunday Morning Adult Ed
Sunday
morning classes will be on break March 23 and 30, along with the rest of the
Religious School. We hope you will join us in April for Torah and Philosophy at
9:45 with Fred Andes, followed by Hebrew Reading at 10:45 with Steve Lewin. For
more information, contact Fred Andes, frederic.andes@btlaw.com.
Wellness Section
This Week’s Wellness Tip – An Apple a
Day…
“An apple a
day keeps the doctor away?” It’s pretty accurate. Apples strengthen your
ability to fight infection and disease, and aid in digestion. Apples contain
natural sugars and are way better for you than an energy drink or a candy bar.
Plus, apples contain much-needed vitamins and minerals. Enjoy!
Many thanks to SH member Jennifer Dumrauf
for her wellness tips. Watch future issues for more great ideas!
Community Events
Dr. Amy-Jill Levine at OLB, April 3 & 4
Our Lady of
the Brook parish invites Shir Hadash members for a special “scholar in
residence” program featuring Dr. Amy-Jill Levine, Professor of Jewish Studies
at Vanderbilt Divinity School. Dr. Levine will make two presentations at OLB,
3300 Dundee Road in Northbrook:
- Thursday, April 3 at 7:00pm: “Jesus the Jewish Storyteller: Hearing the Parables in Historical Context" – revealing the surprising ways that Jesus’s first followers might have understood his teachings
- Friday, April 4 at 9:00am: “Understanding Jesus Requires Understanding Judaism” – analyzing first-century Jewish views of Torah, Messiah, Temple, gender, and more.
Dr. Levine’s
presentations are free of charge and open to all. To ensure enough materials,
please register at Levine@olbparish.org or call the OLB office at 847 272 5686.
SHOP Shir Hadash
SHOP for Spring Break!
SHOP is our
congregation’s ongoing fundraiser – and the easiest way to support the shul
without spending an extra dime! Purchase gift cards through SHOP and the vendors
pay a percentage back to Shir Hadash. SHOP orders of at least $400 are now payable by
credit card, as well as annual SHOP orders. Orders can be picked up at the
synagogue office or at Sunday school. For more information, visit our SHOP page
http://shir-hadash.org/SHOP on the website.
New ScripNow
retailers: Lowe’s and Dairy Queen
Celebrate NCAA®
March Madness® with B-Dubs®
B-Dubs will be
planning a couple of very special offers to take place throughout the
tournament. For a limited time, a
special edition NCAA March Madness faceplate will be available for B-Dubs
eCards.
Bonus Contributions:
Available Now:
- AMC Theatres – 5% March 15 through 28
- Applebee’s—2% through March 21
- Bed Bath & Beyond—1% through March 21
- Cabela’s—1% through March 21
- iTunes – 10% on ScripNow eCards, 5% on physical cards, through March 28
- Journeys—3% through April 4
Bonus
Contributions beginning March 22:
- Athleta – 2% through April 4
- Banana Republic – 2% through April 4
- Gap – 2% through April 4
- JoAnn Fabrics – 2% through April 4
- Legal Sea Foods – 2% through April 4
- Old Navy – 2% through April 4
- Piperlime -- 2% through April 4
- See’s Candies – 1% on $25 card ONLY through April 4
- Shutterfly – 2% through April 4
- The Children’s Place – 1% through April 18
Thanks to the
following families for participating in SHOP this week:
- Zinbarg
- Schleicher
- Fisher-Rohde
- Anes
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