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
- Annual Meeting, May 17
- Board Candidate Forum, May 3
- Highlights from Mitzvah Day
- Yoga, May 6
- SH Baseball Outing to Schaumburg Boomers, June 7
- Sitter Directory on Shul Cloud
- Book Club
Creative Worship and Ritual
- This Week’s Services: Tot/Family Shabbat, Friday Evening, and Saturday Morning
- Next Week: Shabbat Speaker Series Presents Aaron Freeman
Volunteer Opportunities
- LifeSource Blood Drive at Shir Hadash, May 3
- Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive, May 9
- SHOP Needs You
The Rabbi’s Corner
- “Love Your Neighbor as Yourself”
- Suggested Agencies for Nepal Earthquake Relief Donations
Education
- Religious School, May 3
- End of School Pancake Breakfast and Sports Event, May 31
- Tefillin Needed
Teen News
- Madrichim
- Stress Relief Night, May 4
- Upcoming Ra’am BBYO Events
Adult Education
- Adult Ed Class on American Jewish History, May 3
- Lunch and Learn with the Rabbi, Tuesdays
- Sunday Morning Adult Ed Class
Ongoing Fundraisers
- Help Shir Hadash Earn Free Donations with iGive
- Samuel I. Andes Scholarship Fund
- Permanent Restaurant Fundraisers: The Continental and Butterfield’s
SHOP Shir Hadash
Membership and Upcoming
Events
Annual Meeting, May 17
On Sunday, May 17 at 9:30am, we will have our Shir Hadash
Annual Meeting. At the meeting, you can vote on the election of new Board
members and the approval of the annual budget. You will hear reports on
synagogue activities and plans, and you can ask questions and participate in
the discussion. Please come – we need a quorum!
Board Candidate Forum,
May 3
Since we have multiple candidates this year for open
positions, we will also have a Candidate Forum, on Sunday, May 3 at 9:30 a.m.,
at which you will be able to listen to the candidates and ask questions. The open positions and candidates are:
- President: Glenn Graff, Deborah Newberger/Cindy Salomon (co-Presidents)
- Executive VP: Fred Andes
- Secretary: Dawn Allen, Sandi Schleicher
- Treasurer: Mehran Farahmandpour
- VP Programming: Joanne Litman, Carrie Matt
- At Large Member (four positions) - Melanie Andes, Nat Arons, Alan Bernover, Rhonda Carpenter, Arthur German, Lisa Settler
Highlights from
Mitzvah Day, April 26
Last Sunday, Shir Hadash’s religious school sponsored the 10th
Anniversary of Shir Hadash’s Annual Yom Tikkun Olam (now called Mitzvah Day).
Families gathered to participate in a wide selection of service projects,
including:
- Making and delivering lunch to the Wheeling Fire and Police Departments
- Creating sand-filled stress balls for clients at JCFS
- Writing meaningful letters to Lone Soldiers (men and women in the Israeli military without parents in Israel)
- Making brightly colored tags and notes to attach to recorders that will be sent to children lacking musical instruments in other countries
- Sorting hundreds of small toiletries into decorated bags for distribution to PADS clients
- Baking dog treats and delivering supplies to the Orphans of the Storm animal shelter
- Beautifying the landscape around Shir Hadash
- And More!
Special thanks to our leaders who helped make this outstanding
day possible, including Lisa and Howard Radzely, Lynne Arons, Joanne Litman,
Carole Mostow, Cindy Salomon, Mehran Farahmandpour, Stacy Laner, and Rachel
Siegel. Kol hakavod to all of our wonderful participants!
Yoga, May 6
Yoga at Shir Hadash has moved to Wednesdays! We have a fabulous certified
yoga instructor who modifies the class for all levels, from yoga first-timers
to advanced. Everyone over 12 years of age is welcome: men and women, members
and non-members. Please bring a yoga mat. Weekly classes will continue on
Wednesdays from 6:00 to 7:00pm. For more information, contact Joanne Litman at
jolitman@gmail.com
SH Baseball Outing to Schaumburg
Boomers, June 7
June 7 will be Shir Hadash Day at the Schaumburg Boomers! Beginning at
1:00pm, friends and family of all ages are welcome for a day of fun at the
Schaumburg Boomers minor league baseball stadium. Registration and direct payment on Shul Cloud
will be available shortly. A group discount will be available if we get 20
registrants by May 7.
Sitter Directory on Shul Cloud
We are creating a new member-to-member directory for baby sitters, pet
sitters, and house sitters. This list will only be available to logged-in
members, so your information will be secure. To be part of the listings, click
here to visit the Shir
Hadash Shul Cloud page, log in, and enter your information.
Book Club
Our next book club selection will be What
We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank by Nathan Englander. Our
meeting date and location will be announced soon. For more information, contact
Meryl Abensohn, abenkras@aol.com.
Creative Worship and Ritual
This Week’s Services
This week features three services
– something for everyone!
Friday Evening Tot/Family
Shabbat, May 1: Dinner at 5:30, Program at 6:00pm
This special event is for families with young kids (any ages up through
third grade – and of course, older siblings are welcome too). We’ll start with
pizza at 5:30, followed by a fun program at 6:00 led by Rabbi Eitan and
Lauren Shook. When that’s done, there will be treats – please bring something
to share at the oneg! If you plan to come, please RSVP to fandes@btlaw.com as
soon as possible to help us get a headcount.
Shabbat Evening Service, May 1 at
7:30pm
At 7:30 we will start our second service for the evening, which anyone
and everyone is welcome to attend. We have a special theme for this service:
Jerusalem! Ww will focus on the central role of Jerusalem in the life and
vision of the Jewish People throughout the millennia. We will read poems, sing
songs, and tell stories of our eternal city. And we will celebrate a very
special event: the presentation by Gerry and Dick Freibrun of a fabulous
360-degree art photograph of the Western Wall and Plaza for our sanctuary.
Don’t miss this special evening, and please remember to bring treats for the
oneg.
Shabbat Morning Service, May 2 at
9:30am
We will come together Saturday morning to celebrate Daniel Mesirow as
Bar Mitzvah. All are welcome to the service.
Next Week’s Services
Shabbat Evening Service and Guest
Speaker, May 8 at 7:30pm
Our “Second Shabbat” speaker service continues with a truly unique
presentation. We will welcome Aaron Freeman, a science satirist and artist in
residence at the Chicago Council for Science and Technology. Aaron has authored
numerous books, including The Comic Torah
which he co-created with his wife, comics artist Sharon Rosenzweig. He is a
certified meturgeman, a translator of Biblical Hebrew into entertaining
vernacular English. Aaron will present his off-center take on the intersection
of comedy, neuroscience, and Judaism. Don’t miss this engaging evening!
Shabbat Morning Service and Bar
Mitzvah, May 9 at 9:30am
Volunteer Opportunities
LifeSource Blood Drive at Shir Hadash, May 3
Shir Hadash will be hosting a
blood drive with LifeSource on Sunday, May 3 from 8:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at our building located at
200 W. Dundee Rd, Wheeling. This drive
is very important because the recent weather conditions have prompted a
significant drop in donations at all of LifeSource’s 18 donor centers. Remember
that each pint of blood donated helps save three lives!
To schedule your appointment with
LifeSource, go to www.lifesource.org; Donate Blood; Make an Appointment (scroll
down) and search by group code 528B. If you need assistance, you can email Mark
Lenhart at mjlenhart@comcast.net. There will also be a sign up sheet in the
lobby of the building during Sunday School hours the morning of the drive.
Appointments are every 15 minutes starting at 8:30 a.m. until 1:00, and we can
accommodate up to three people per 15 minute slot.
Donors need to be 16 or older to
donate. 16 year olds will need a signed
parent consent form which will be available on site.
If you have any specific medical
questions, please call LifeSource at 877-543-3768 or 800-486-0680.
“Stamp Out Hunger” Food Drive
Have you received a post card from
your letter carrier about the Postal Service’s “Stamp Out Hunger” food drive on
May 9? The Northwest Suburban Interfaith Council, which includes Shir Hadash,
will be distributing the food collected in Buffalo Grove, Deerfield, Wheeling,
Lincolnshire, Northbrook, Highwood, and Skokie to local food pantries. Please
support this effort by leaving non-perishable food donations in your mailbox on
May 9 for your letter carrier to pick up. For more information about Interfaith
Council community programs, contact Marla Callistein at marlandan@yahoo.com.
SHOP Needs You!
Our ongoing, and vital, SHOP Shir Hadash fundraiser needs
volunteers to staff our table at Sunday School. It’s an easy job and a great
chance to schmooze with other Shir Hadashniks! Can you spare one Sunday morning
to help – just one – from 9:00 to 12:30? Click here to sign up for a day of your choice on Shul Cloud, or contact Gina
Zinbarg, gzinbarg@sbcglobal.net, for more info.
The Rabbi’s Corner
May 1-2, 2015 / 13 Iyar 5775
Day 28 of the Omer
Shabbat Aharei Mot-Kedoshim
Torah: Leviticus 16:1 - 20:27 / Haftarah: Amos 9:7 - 9:15
“Love Your Neighbor as Yourself”
Dear Friends,
My son, Ayal, rode out the earthquake in Nepal last
weekend. He was in a building in
Bhaktapur when the ground shook violently and he ran for the exit to safety.
Bhaktapur is known for its beautiful medieval buildings going back to the early
days of the Nepali royal court, many of them flimsy wooden intricately carved
structures that are now damaged and destroyed. The devastation is immense.
How glad Dawn and I were to know immediately that Ayal was
safe and well as he somehow found a wifi signal and sent a whatsapp message to
us at home. Now he is in Kathmandu
working with the Israeli relief and medical teams as a translator in the
hospitals and at the airport speaking English, Hebrew, and Nepali. Dawn and I
are so proud of him and his decision to stay in Nepal and help in any way that
he can. And we are so proud of Israel for sending the largest relief delegation
so far of 260 members. According to CNN,
the next largest delegation is from the United Kingdom with 68 members.
It just so happens that this week’s Torah portion is the one
that Ayal read at his bar mitzvah. Kedoshim, the Holiness Code, lays out a list
of rules of right behavior for creating the most civil and caring society in
both the best and worst of times. Many
of its teachings apply to the situation in Nepal today. “Do not curse the deaf
or put a stumbling block before the blind.”
“Do not hate your neighbor in your heart and do not stand by while your
neighbor is bleeding.” Finally, “Love
your neighbor as yourself.”
We can never know what life will throw at us. We can never know if we might find ourselves
in the middle of a world disaster event as Ayal has. Yet, when we are called upon to act in any
situation, both the known and familiar and the completely unfamiliar and
challenging beyond anything we could have imagined, our Jewish values and
teachings will pull us through. They
will guide us to act as our highest selves and with awesome righteousness. Who could have imagined that so many years
after his bar mitzvah, to the very week, Ayal would be called upon to put his
Torah portion into action?
Actually, the truth is that each one of us is called every
moment and every minute to put our Jewish values into action regardless of
where we are and who we are with. Every
day presents numerous opportunities to reach out and make the world a better
place. Start with, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Rabbi Eitan Weiner-Kaplow
*I encourage you to make contributions to Nepali Earthquake Relief through the following organizations:
*I encourage you to make contributions to Nepali Earthquake Relief through the following organizations:
To read past installments of the Rabbi’s blog, please visit our website.
Education
Religious School, May 3
We’re looking forward to seeing
all our students ready to learn at 9:15am.
End of School
Parent-Child Pancake Sports Breakfast
Save the date for a special celebration to end the Shir
Hadash school year! We will come together for a delicious pancake breakfast,
followed by a presentation with former Illini basketball star and current UIC
Assistant Coach Deon Thomas. He will speak about his career as a professional
basketball player, including time in Israel with Maccabi Tel Aviv, and will
sign autographs and take photos with students. More details coming soon!
Tefillin Needed
Rabbi Eitan is collecting sets of tefillin for his teaching
of traditional Judaism to our students. If you have an unused and
unwanted set to donate, please contact him at rabbi@shir-hadash.org or call the
office.
Teen News
Madrichim
Remember, the
May schedule has been updated. We now have Sunday school on May 3, May 17, and
May 31. Please be sure to let Carole or Emily know if you will be absent. If
you have not yet filled out an evaluation/information card, please see Carole
on Sunday.
Stress Relief Night, May 4
Next Monday
we will be having a Teen Stress Relief Night at Shir Hadash. It will be a night
of yoga, fun activities, and general stress relief to get you ready for the end
of the year. It’ll be so much fun and… very relaxing! Learn some great
relaxation techniques and hang out with your friends.
Ra’am BBYO Events – Mark Your
Calendars!
Board Meeting, May 18
Fall Term Elections, June 4
Chapter Sleepover, June 11-12 – More details coming soon!
Please sign
up for Ra’am’s Remind 101 group! It’s a super easy way for you to get quick
updates about chapter events. All you have to do is text @raambbyo to 81010 and
you’re good!
Adult Education
Winter Adult Ed Class on American Jewish History – Final
Meeting May 3
The final session of our
survey course on the fascinating story of the Jewish community in America will
meet on Sunday, May 3 from 11:15am to 12:25pm. Our study is divided into eight
periods spanning colonial times to the present. Each class session will include
lecture, discussion, and reading through historical source documents and
artifacts. We will also touch on Jewish genealogy and tracing our families’
roots. Students are encouraged to bring online/web resources to class.
Instructor: Rabbi Eitan Weiner-Kaplow assisted by Shir Hadash members. Everyone
is welcome to participate.
Lunch & Learn with Rabbi Eitan Weiner-Kaplow
All are invited to join Shir Hadash members and friends for
a refreshing and contemporary exploration of the weekly Torah portion. We
meet at noon on Tuesdays in the conference room.
Sunday Morning Adult Ed
Each Sunday when Religious School is in session, Fred Andes
leads a casual group as we meet at the synagogue from 9:45 to 10:45 for coffee
and engaging discussion topics. All are welcome.
Ongoing Fundraisers
Help Shir Hadash Earn Free Donations with iGive
You can help Shir Hadash every time you shop online – the
iGive Button makes it simple! iGive is a free and easy way to support the shul.
Average shoppers using iGive raise between $30 and $100 a year for their
causes. There are 1480 online retailers helping to make donations happen
through iGive.
Click here to learn more and join iGive. If you have
questions, contact Sandi Schleicher, finance@shir-hadash.org.
Scholarship Fund
To help families in financial need pay for their children’s
Jewish education at Shir Hadash, Melanie and Fred Andes created the Samuel I
Andes Scholarship Fund in memory of Fred’s great-uncle have graciously offered
to match all donations to the fund up to $11,000.00. Click
here to donate online or mail in your
check made out to Shir Hadash with “Scholarship” written in the memo line.
Don’t Forget Our Permanent Restaurant Fundraisers!
The Continental Restaurant in Buffalo Grove and
Butterfield’s Restaurant in Northbrook 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.
SHOP Shir Hadash
SHOP for Spring!
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.
SHOP Needs Your Help!
Please sign up to staff the SHOP table for a Sunday
morning. Full details in the “Volunteer Opportunities” section, above.
Low Denomination Gift Cards are Coming Back
Soon!
We have a limited number of special small
denomination gift cards available, perfect for teacher gifts and graduation
parties! The following cards will be
available:
• Albertsons
and Supervalu $10
• Amazon.com
Gift Cards $10
• AMC
Theatres® $10
• Applebee's
$10
• CVS/pharmacy
$10
• Groupon
$10
• IHOP
$10
• Meijer
$10
• Outback
$10
• Panera
Bread® $5
• Pizza
Hut $5
• Regal
Entertainment Group $10
• Starbucks
$5 Teacher Card
• Target
$10
Bonus Offers:
- Bath and Body Works – 5% until May 1
- Express – 2% until May 1
- BonTon – 2% until May 1
- Landry’s – 1% until May 1
- Lane Bryant – 1% until May 8
- Home Depot – 1% until May 1
- Restaurant.com – 5% until May 8
- TGI Friday’s – 3% until May 1
- LL Bean – 1% until May 1
- Bed Bath & Beyond – 1% until May 8
- Buca di Beppo – 2% until May 8
- Regis Salons – 1% until May 1
- SpaFinder – 2% until May 8
- Spa & Wellness Giftcard by Spa Week – 4% until May 1
Thanks to the following families for participating in SHOP this
week:
- Zinbarg
- Schleicher
- Idelman
- Rice
- G. Graff
- Estes-Goldman
- Sanders
- Singer
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