Shir Hadash Weekly Newsletter -- August 27, 2015

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WHAT’S HAPPENING AT A GLANCE

Membership News and Upcoming Events

• Picnic Brings Community Together
• Annual Kehilla Community Builder Awards
• Shir Hadash Welcomes New Executive Director
• Membership Renewal Forms Now Open
• Update! Solar Capital Campaign Moves Forward

Creative Worship and Ritual

• This Week's Services:Shabbat Morning and Bar Mitzvah, August 30, 9:30am
• High Holidays are Coming -- Register and Help!
• Book of Life Submissions

Volunteer Opportunities

• Help Needed with Audio Set-Up for High Holidays
• Join the Shul Cloud Support Team
• High Holiday Food Baskets, August 30
• Building Operations Committee Seeks New Members

The Rabbi’s Corner

• "A Friend in Need"

Education

• Back to School Kickoff, August 30

Ongoing Fundraisers

• Help Shir Hadash Earn Free Donations with iGive
• Fundraising Opportunity with Amazon Smile
• Samuel I. Andes Scholarship Fund
• Permanent Restaurant Fundraisers: The Continental and Butterfield’s

SHOP Shir Hadash

MEMBERSHIP AND UPCOMING EVENTS  

Picnic Brings SH Community Together

 

Shir Hadash members came out in force on Sunday, August 23, for our annual picnic. Marc Fargotstein manned the grill, cooking dozens of hamburgers, hot dogs, veggie burgers, and veggie hot dogs. The buffet line included a delicious array of salads, dips, chips, vegetables, and more. Rabbi Eitan lead the blessings before members dove into the food. Everyone enjoyed the opportunity to meet our new Executive Director, Geoff Prass, and to get to know our Director of Lifelong Learning, Rabbi Seeg, a little better. Members swapped stories of summer vacations and back to school plans while busily demolishing the mounds of food. Before dessert, members played bocce and other games in the courtyard. Several prospective member families stopped by, were greeted by members of the Membership Committee, and toured the building. If you missed it, we hope you can join us for the picnic next year!

Kehilla Community Builder Presentation

At the picnic on Sunday, Shir Hadash recognized 18 people as winners of our annual Kehilla Community Builder Award for 2014-2015.  Shir Hadash could not operate without the significant help provided by volunteers and this award recognizes those members who made very significant contributions during the year.  Shir Hadash knows that many members volunteer and help the community each year and we want to thank each and every person who has helped in a large or small way during the year.  For 2014-15, Shir Hadash recognizes the following people for their significant contributions and awards them the Kehilla Community Builder Certificate:  Nadine Estes-Goldman, Mehran Farahmandpour, Carolyn Gessner, Mickey Herbin, Stacey & Ken Laner, Billy Matt, Carrie Matt, Lise Schleicher, Rachel Siegel, Burton & Peggy Sharpe, Roy Settler, Marilynn Singer, Brad Steinbeck, Sandy Weiss, Benji Wellisch, Julie Wellisch, Gina Zinbarg, and Lillian Zoloto.

Shir Hadash Welcomes New Executive Director

Shir Hadash has hired Geoffrey Prass to be our Executive Director. Geoff comes with a lifetime of synagogue professional experience, most recently finishing six years as Education Director at Congregation Sol El in Highland Park. While there, Geoff had the opportunity to help in many roles beyond Education Director, which built on his prior experience  as well as his degree in Jewish Studies and a Certificate in Synagogue Management. Geoff brings to us his intelligence, his passion for Judaism, and his ability to dive into work and get things done. Welcome to Shir Hadash, Geoff!

Membership Renewal Forms Now Open

It's time once again to renew your membership to Shir Hadash. All the forms you need for membership, school registration, and more are available online here. Please be sure to complete your renewal promptly. If you have any questions, contact info@shir-hadash.org.

Update! Solar Capital Campaign Moves Forward

The Dream To Be Green is closer to coming true! Permits have been issued by the Village of Wheeling and the solar equipment is on its way. The panels should be installed and the system operating in October.  But we can still use your help on the solar capital campaign. Help us achieve our Dream To Be Green by contributing just click here to learn more.  If you have any questions about the Solar Capital Campaign, please contact Art German at artgerman@comcast.net.

CREATIVE WORSHIP AND RITUAL

This Week's Service:
Shabbat Morning Bar Mitzvah, August 29, 9:30am
We will welcome Heath Yatvin to the bima as Bar Mitzvah. All are welcome to participate in the service.

High Holidays – Don't Forget to Sign in and Register on Shul Cloud!

The High Holidays are just around the corner - only 3 weeks away!  If you have not yet registered to attend, please do so now.  It really helps us to know how many people are coming.  (Plus, to be admitted into services, you need to be registered - our ushers are pretty strict.)  Just as a reminder: The easiest way to get in and do your registration is to click here for the Shul Cloud page. Once you get there, you will need to be signed in in order to register.  Look up at the upper right-hand corner of the page, and it will show your name if you are signed in.  If it doesn't show your name, then you need to sign in.  Once you do that, you should be able to register.  Just go to where it says: "Click here to register for our 2015 High Holiday services!"

As always, if you have any questions about the Holidays, just send a note to cwr@shir-hadash.org. We will look forward to seeing you all soon!

Book of Life Registration

When you register for the High Holidays on Shul Cloud, please remember to add the names of your departed loved ones to our Book of Life, which will be printed and distributed on Yom Kippur for the Yizkor service.  If you have already registered for the Holidays, but forgotten to go onto the Book of Life page to include your names, just click here. If you have any questions, please send a note to cwr@shir-hadash.org.

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES

Help Set Up Audio Equipment for the Holidays
To prepare for the High Holidays, we need some volunteers to help set up audio equipment for our services at Our Lady of the Brook, 3700 Dundee Road in Northbrook. We need one to three people on the following dates:

• Sunday, September 9 – 6:00pm
• Sunday, September 20 – 4:00pm

Set up should take about two to four hours. If you have experience with audio equipment, that is a definite plus! Please contact Joe McArdle at 847 322 1531 if you are free on either (or both!) of these dates. The more people we have, the faster it will go. Thanks for your help!

Join the Shul Cloud Support Team
Want to help out, but hate going to meetings? Read on! We are looking for a few good people to help on the Shul Cloud team. If you have been looking for a way to get involved with helping the synagogue and have some knowledge in technology -- we want you! We are looking for people who:

• Enjoy teaching and coaching
• Have experience with computers other than word processing
• Have experience with web or graphic design

After initial training, there are no regular meetings. You get to help out the shul in a very needed way, and everything can be done from home! Everything thing we do is task based -- assuming we have a full team, we will be able to flex the work around different schedules and skill sets easily.
Interested? Please contact Lise Schleicher at info@shir-hadash.org as soon as possible. We hope to get the team trained and running in early August.


High Holiday Food Baskets, August 30

Once again this year, Shir Hadash will be joining with Maot Chitim of Greater Chicagoland to help them deliver High Holiday food baskets for needy Jewish families all over the Chicago area.

Delivery of food packages will take place on Sunday, August 30 from 9:30 to 11:30 am 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.  I will provide the address of where to meet for those interested in helping deliver boxes.       

To make this a smooth operation, we need about 10 - 15 people for delivery on the August 30. If you are interested in helping on one or both of these dates, please Mark Lenhart, mjlenhart@comcast.net as soon as possible.

Building Operations Committee Seeks New Members

The Building Operations Committee is looking for new committee members. Specifically, the committee needs a person with interior/exterior experience and someone with general building supervisory experience. The BOC meets once a month on the third Wednesday of the month. We are also looking for people with project management skills to work on some specific projects. Please contact Marc Fargotstein at 847-612-6579.

THE RABBI’S CORNER

August 28-29, 2015 / 14 Elul 5775

Shabbat Ki Teitzei

Torah: Deuteronomy 21:10 - 25:19 / Haftarah: Isaiah 54:1 - 54:10

“A Friend in Need”

Dear Friends,

As ISIS spread across Syria and threatened to spill into neighboring Jordan, the Hashemite Kingdom turned to Israel for help. Last month, Israel quietly agreed to help its neighbor as it, “donated retired American-made Cobra attack helicopters to Jordan’s air force in order to help the country defend itself against the Islamic State terror group,” the Algemeiner Journal reported. The helicopters, which had been decommissioned by the Jewish state in favor of modern Apache helicopters, will go a long way toward helping Jordan secure its border against an influx of Islamic extremists.

While Israel is certainly interested in combatting the spread of ISIS, the desire to help a neighbor is also firmly rooted in two commandments in this week’s Torah portion, Ki Teitzei. In the commandment to return lost objects Moses teaches, “You shall not see your brother’s ox or his sheep driven away and hide yourself from them; you shall surely bring them back to your brother…” (22:1) Moses also relays a similar commandment to assist an animal failing under a crushing burden. “You shall not see your brother’s donkey or his ox fallen down by the way, and hide yourself from them; you shall surely help him to lift them up again.” (22:4) Both commandments obligate us to help a neighbor in need, who either has suffered, or is in danger of suffering a loss.

Recently, Israel’s assistance to Jordan has expanded beyond the transfer of the Cobra helicopters, and seems to indicate a new level of partnership and cooperation between the two countries....

To read the rest of The Rabbi's Corner, or past entries of the Rabbi's blog, please visit our website.

EDUCATION

Back to School Kickoff, August 30
We are launching the academic year with an exciting Kickoff Event this week! On Sunday, August 30, Rabbi Seeg and the entire school staff will open the doors to give our families a preview of all we have in store. Beginning at 9:00am, the day will include classroom time with teachers for both kids and adults, our new chugim (elective) program, a taste of adult ed programming, and time to come together with other families and friends. Plan to spend the whole morning -- 9:00am to noon! If you haven’t registered your children yet, click here.

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.

Amazon Smile Fundraising Option

Shir Hadash is now registered with the Amazon Smile fundraising program. Just go to smile.amazon.com, search for Shir Hadash (be sure to select the one in Wheeling), and from then on 0.5% of your purchases will automatically be donated to Shir Hadash at no cost to you! Note that this works in conjunction with iGive (see below) and allows for double-dipping: if you go to Amazon through iGive.com or the iGive button, SH will get money from both Amazon and iGive. And to triple-dip, just pay for your purchases with a SHOP Amazon gift card! Happy Shopping!

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. 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 Over the Summer!

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.

Bonus Offers

Meijer Illinois Grand Opening Bonus: 4% on physical cards until August 28.
Auto Zone: 1% Bonus August 15-28
IHOP: 5% Bonus August 15-28

New ScripNow Retailer - Carnival Cruise Lines Carnival Cruise Lines ScripNow eCards are now 

Six Flags Tickets Available

Please note, Six Flags® tickets are once again available to order. Tickets cost $44.25 and award a 7% rebate. Tickets ordered now are valid through the 2015 season only, expiring on 12/31/15.

Now Available: $25 spa and wellness gift cards by Spa Week.

Summer hours for Customer Support at Great Lakes Scrip, one of our Shop vendors: 8:00am - 4:00pm Eastern Monday through Thursday, and 8:00am - 12:00pm Eastern on Fridays. They will resume their normal schedule on Tuesday, September 8.

Current Bonus Offers:
AutoZone -- 1% through August 28
IHOP -- 5% throught August 28

New Bonuses Starting August 29:
American Express -- 1% August 29 to September 4
Athleta -- 2% August 29 to September 4
Banana Republic -- 2% August 29 to September 4
Gap -- 2% August 29 to September 4
Old Navy -- 2% August 29 to September 4

Ship FREE When You Shop Bath & Body Works When your organization orders Bath & Body Works gift cards, ScripNow®, or ReloadNow®! From August 29 - September 4, if your organization order includes at least $150 combined in Bath & Body Works physical cards, ScripNow, or ReloadNow* 

New ScripNow Retailer - eBay eBay ScripNow eCards are now available in increments of $10, from $10 - $500, with a 3% rebate. With ScripNow you can print out electronic gift cards and redeem them in stores, or online. You can even order and redeem eCards fromMyScripWallet™ on your phone, so your ScripNow is always with you. Plus, when you pay for your order with PrestoPay™, your ScripNow is delivered to your account in minutes - 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Thanks to the following families for participating in SHOP this week!
Zinbarg
Schleicher
Herbin
Singer