WHAT’S HAPPENING AT A GLANCE
"Let's Make Our Building a Home"
Membership News and Upcoming Events
- New! WISH Turkish Art Marble Painting, February 15
- Sign Up Now for Trivia Night, February 25
- Book Club
- Recap of Coffee House Night -- Open Mic Style
Creative Worship and Ritual
- Family Shabbat, Friday, February 3, 5:30pm
- Shabbat Evening Service, Friday, February 3, 7:30pm
- Oneg Volunteers Needed
The Rabbi’s Corner
Youth Education Announcements- "The Golden Door"
- Religious School, February 5
- New! Tu Bi'Shevat Family Program, February 12
- Kallah is Coming! February 17-19
Youth Activities
- Kallah Retreat for Grades 6-12, February 17-19
- Sunday Morning Adult Ed Classes
- Monday Evening Adult Ed Classes
Social Action
Ongoing Fundraisers
- Help Shir Hadash Feed the Needy, February 19
- Links to Fundraisers: Amazon, iGift, and More
SHOP Shir Hadash
MEMBERSHIP AND UPCOMING EVENTS
New! WISH
Turkish Art Marble Painting, February 15
Come and
join WISH (Women In Shir Hadash) on Wednesday, February 15 at 7:00pm for a fun
night of Ebru Turkish Art Marble Painting!
(Look it up on YouTube.) We’ll
meet at Shir Hadash. Bring a bottle of wine or your favorite decadent
snack. All we need is an idea of how
many are coming so that we have enough supplies. A $10 donation at the door is also
appreciated to cover the cost of the supplies needed for our activity. Email your RSVPs to juliewellisch@gmail.com
or call/text 847-345-9073. Hope to see all you ladies there!
Sign Up Now for Trivia Night, February 25Only 16 tables left! Trivia Night is coming to Shir Hadash on Saturday, February 25. This multi-round general trivia night will be fun for high schoolers and beyond. All proceeds will be donated to the Samuel I. Andes Scholarship Fund and our religious school. Cash prizes will be awarded to the top teams. There will also be raffle prizes galore, pizza sales, and free babysitting! Click here for registration and further info.
Town Hall Recap
Approximately 40 members came together on Sunday, January 29 at our first Town Hall Meeting of 2017. The main purpose was to talk
about the recent member survey, which was sent to about 250 email addresses and
received 92 responses. That was a
statistically significant 38% response rate.
Click here
to see the survey results.
In naming the
top three reasons "Why I belong to a synagogue today," an overwhelming 80% of
respondents picked "To Feel Part of a Jewish Community" as one of their answers. Time was spent at the Town Hall in small
group discussion as to what that means.
Responses are being compiled.
We've created two Word Clouds, shown below, that show the most frequent words appearing in responses. (Click on the pictures to enlarge.) The larger the word, the more often it appeared in responses. The first shows words describing Shir Hadash's Strengths:
The second shows words used to describe recommendations for improvement/change:
Thanks to everyone who responded to the survey and participated in the Town Hall!
The next book will The Seven Good Years, a memoir by Etgar Kerry. This promises to be a uplifting, life-affirming, and humorous. The next Book Club will meet in March - details as to date and location TBA. For questions, contact Meryl Abensohn at abenkras@aol.com.
Recap: Coffee House Night -- Open Mic Style
Thank you everyone for making our January Open Mic Night a fabulously successful evening! 70+ in our audience, 20 acts, and a practically sold out bake sale! Several people in our audience found us on Facebook and when a duo from Wisconsin came in and performed, you thought you were listening to Johnny Cash and June Carter! As Pete, one of the performers, said upon leaving, “You’ve got a really good thing going here at Shir Hadash, it’s great to be a part of it!”
- Thank You to all who contributed goodies for our beautiful Bake/Beverage Table, graciously attended by Scarlett, Melanie, and Maureen. A big Thank You also goes to our Front of the House Team Sarena and Lynne, and our Tech Team Jeff and Dave, creating our lovely Coffee House Night environment with fantastic sound. Geoff and Rabbi Eitan deserve a hearty Thank You for getting the word out and encouraging this event! And finally, a big Thank You to Don who created magic by transforming our sanctuary in to our Coffee House Night venue.
- Save the Date - our next Open Mic will be on Saturday, April 22. We’re in the planning stages for another wonderful evening. If you want to share your Talent or be part of Coffee House Night Team in any capacity, please contact Margie at MargiePromoPro1@aol.com and put “Talent for Coffee House” in the subject line to sign up.
CREATIVE WORSHIP AND RITUAL
Family Shabbat -- Friday, February 3, 5:30pm: Our next kid-friendly Shabbat service will be tomorrow evening. We're planning a pizza dinner at 5:30pm, followed by a short service led by Rabbi Seeg and an oneg afterward. More details to come!
Shabbat Evening Service -- Friday, February 3, 7:30pm: The part of the Torah that we are reading now - about the Exodus - relates very directly to current events. As we read the biblical account of our people’s struggle to leave Egyptian oppression, how are we called to apply it forward and help those in need today? As American Jews, what is our responsibility to assist those seeking safety in America? What does the Torah mean when we are commanded to treat the stranger with compassion, because we were once strangers ourselves? Join us for a lively discussion on this ancient and very timely topic. Also, we will honor our 8th graders heading to Israel on the Ta’am Yisrael trip, and we will offer a special anniversary blessing to Nat Romero and Kevin Swagel. And as for oneg - maybe bring foods from the country that your family came from!
Oneg Volunteers Needed
We need oneg leaders for this week and future services.What does it take to volunteer for an oneg and what dates do we need? It’s simple: visit www.shir-hadash.org and sign into the member’s area of ShulCloud (or just follow this link). Choose a date, bring a challah, and show up. You’ll get a reminder that week, and an email with all the details. There are more dates than these, so feel free to sign up for any that fit in your schedule. Thank you for participating!
THE RABBI’S CORNER
February 3-4,
2017 / 8 Shevat 5777
Shabbat Bo
Torah -
Exodus 10:1-13:16 / Haftarah - Jeremiah 46:13-28
“The Golden
Door”
Dear
Friends,
In this
week’s Torah portion we find Pharaoh oppressing the Hebrews with ever more
slave labor as the plagues rage against Egypt.
Soon, Pharaoh will expel the Hebrews and they will become the refugees
of their day - the outcast homeless of the region searching for a new home in
the Promised Land of Canaan. This week,
all over America, we are debating how our country will receive visitors,
immigrants, and refugees. How will we
reach out to those in need? For Jews,
the answer is clear. Our Torah tradition
teaches us numerous times to treat the foreigner, the stranger, and the outcast
with compassion and respect. Why?
Because we Jews know what it is like. For
we were foreigners, strangers, and outcasts ourselves.
I share with
you a poem by the Jewish poet Emma Lazarus entitled “The New Colossus” written
in 1883. It is inscribed on the base of
Statue of Liberty in New York harbor.
The New Colossus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to
land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall
stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes
command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities
frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied
pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired,
your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe
free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to
me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Rabbi Eitan Weiner-Kaplow
YOUTH EDUCATION ANNOUNCEMENTS
We look forward to seeing all our students and families at 9:15am.
New! Tu Bi'Shevat Family Activities, February 12
On Sunday, February 12 from 10:00-11:30 am, we will have the
opportunity to celebrate Tu Bi’Shevat together with activities for the whole
family. Tu Bi’Shevat is the New Year for
Trees, an opportunity to look longingly toward spring, and a chance to consider
Judaism’s view of our natural world. Our
program this year will include five different stations with each station’s
program running approximately 20 minutes.
We will have art projects, food projects, planting projects, and more!
There is no set rotation; families will be able to experience the different
options in whatever order best suits your mood and interests.
At 11:30, the Shir
Hadash programming will finish for the day. Families are encouraged to head
over to Rochelle Zell Jewish High School in Deerfield for the JNF (Jewish
National Fund) Tu
Bi’Shevat Community Celebration. Please contact Rabbi Segg, learning@shir-hadash.org, for more information.
Next month over President’s Day weekend, we will have our annual regional retreat for 6th-12th graders. We will leave by bus on Friday, February 17 around 4:00pm and return on Sunday, February 19 around 1:00pm. The retreat takes place at Olin-Sang-Ruby Union Institute (aka OSRUI) in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin and includes Reconstructionist youth from Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Indiana. Our theme this year is “When Jew-Wish Upon a Star
” and the weekend includes a lot of fun and social activities as well as time for social action, services, and a wee bit o’ learning.
” and the weekend includes a lot of fun and social activities as well as time for social action, services, and a wee bit o’ learning.
This is a great chance to get to know other Shir Hadash students as well as peers from around the region. All of the programming is created and implemented by a committee of student leaders including a number of our Shir Hadash madrichim. The registration form will be available next week. Please contact Rabbi Seeg with any questions.
YOUTH ACTIVITIES
We're getting ready for Kallah, an outstanding chance to join with other Reconstructionist youth from around the Midwest! Scroll up to our "Youth Education" section for details, and contact Rabbi Seeg with any questions.
ADULT EDUCATION
Check out these engaging Adult Ed opportunities that meet during our Religious School hours. All are welcome.
- Torah and Philosophy, 9:30-10:30am
- Learning the Shir Hadash Prayer Book, 10:30-11:30am -- We will be studying the Amidah, or Standing Prayer, including its meanings, origins, and significance in modern Jewish life.
- Modern Hebrew, 11:30am-12:30pm
Monday Evening Adult Ed Discussions
Our Monday “Soup
and Study” series continues with two new classes. All sessions start with soup at 6:30pm and
continue with the learning component at 7:00pm. Please RSVP to Rabbi Seeg (learning@shir-hadash.org) only if you will be coming for soup. Otherwise, no RSVP necessary.
- February 6: Intro to Jewish Meditation (with Rick Zinbarg) -- Wait… Jews meditate? Indeed we do! This class will serve as an introduction to religious foundations of Jewish meditation as well as a demonstration of a simple meditation or two to begin one’s own meditative practice.
- February 20: The Ethics of Euthanasia -- With the emergence of the “right to die” movement and the legalization of physician-assisted suicide in several states, the question of choosing death remains at the forefront of many ethical and political conversations. This class will explore what Judaism says about these questions as well as refusing treatment and “pulling the plug.”
SOCIAL ACTION
On Sunday, February 19, Shir Hadash will be serving over 90 meals for needy individuals in our community. In order to provide the food and support for this meaningful project, we are looking for five or six families (18-20 people total) who are able to prepare, cook, and serve at the St. Paul's Lutheran Church soup kitchen in Evanston. This event will require volunteers to be available from 2:00 to 4:00pm on February 19. Each family will be responsible for bringing a precooked meat or pasta entrée, one large bag of frozen mixed vegetables, and a dessert to feed approximately 10-12 people.
ONGOING FUNDRAISERS
Fundraiser Information Now Available on Shul Cloud
You can help Shir Hadash at no extra cost to you by taking advantage of a variety of ongoing fundraisers, including iGive, Amazon Smile, and more. For complete details, click here.
SHOP SHIR HADASH
A New Year to SHOP!SHOP is 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. Orders can be picked up in the Shir Hadash office or purchased during Sunday School.
Thank you for supporting Shir Hadash with your SHOP purchases!
To view past editions of the Newsletter, please visit our website.
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