WHAT’S HAPPENING AT A GLANCE
Membership News and Upcoming Events
- Sunday! Prospective Member and School Open House, April 22
- Annual Meeting, May 6
- Friday After Service - Environmental Preservation Education Series, April 20
- Coffee House Concert Series presents Classical Guitarist Mitchell Green, April 28
- Israeli Film Series, May 5
- Book Club, May 22
- Check Out the Shir Hadash Business Directory
Creative Worship and Ritual
- Shabbat Service with Special Guest Speaker, April 20
- Oneg Volunteers Needed -- Sign Up Today
The Rabbi’s Corner
- “Cause and Effect”
School News
- Religious School, April 22
- Bring A Friend To School Open House, April 22
Adult Education
- Lunch and Learn with the Rabbi, April 19
- Torah and Jewish Philosophy, Sundays
- Living Judaism: Introduction to Jewish Spirituality & Civilization, April 15
- New! A Taste of Mussar Class, Thursdays
Israel Awareness
- Israeli Movie Night on May 5
- Israel Speaker Series Recap
- Did You Know? Fun Facts About Israel
Northwest Suburban Interfaith Council
- Sock Drive for the Homeless Going on Now
- More Events and Programs from Interfaith Council
- Seeking an Additional Shir Hadash Rep for Interfaith Council
Ongoing Fundraisers
- Simcha Tree Leaves
- Don’t Forget Our Permanent Restaurant Fundraisers!
- Shir Hadash Memorial Wall
- Links to Fundraisers: Amazon, iGive, and More
- SHOP Shir Hadash
MEMBERSHIP AND UPCOMING EVENTS
This Sunday! Religious School Bring a Friend Open House, April 22
Join us on Sunday, April 22 during Religious School for our Bring A Friend Open House event. Students and Members are encouraged to bring a friend to learn more about Shir Hadash and our Religious School. Help us share the excitement of our innovative school and our progressive Synagogue by inviting your friends to attend. For each friend you bring you will receive a raffle entry for a $50 gift card.
During the open house your friends will get to:
- Meet Rabbi Eitan Weiner-Kaplow and Education Director Geoff Prass
- Tour our warm and inviting classrooms, youth lounge, and sanctuary
- Have the option to sit in on an age appropriate class
- Have a nosh, a cup of coffee, and meet parents with children currently enrolled
Please click here to RSVP.
Annual Meeting, May 6
Join us for our Annual Meeting. Have bagels and lox while you hear from candidates for the Board of Directors and hear the reports from the President and Treasurer. We will then vote for Board Members and to approve the Annual Budget.
This Friday! Environmental Preservation, April 20
We are launching a new educational series on the vital issues of environmental protection. Our first guest speaker, this Friday evening, will be Mary S. Allen, the Recycling and Education Director for the Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County (SWANCC), a not-for-profit intergovernmental agency with 23 member municipalities including the Village of Wheeling. She will provide an overview of key programs and resources that focus on waste prevention and recovery, as well as highlight sustainability initiatives. Come and learn what more you can be doing to reduce your carbon footprint to be a better steward of the Earth! Our Shabbat service will run from 7:30 to around 8:15pm, followed by Mary’s presentation. The public is welcome.
Coffee House Night - Concert Series presents Mitchell Green - Classical Guitarist, April 28, 7:30 pm
We’re revving up for our third fabulous Coffee House Night – Concert Series event featuring one of our own: Mitchell Green – Classical Guitarist. Mitchell has prepared a glorious 90-minute concert featuring music from traditional Spanish guitar repertoire as well as contemporary composers. Background lore will augment each piece.
We’re revving up for our third fabulous Coffee House Night – Concert Series event featuring one of our own: Mitchell Green – Classical Guitarist. Mitchell has prepared a glorious 90-minute concert featuring music from traditional Spanish guitar repertoire as well as contemporary composers. Background lore will augment each piece.
We are expecting a rather sizable group. Please be sure to reserve your seats so we can set up the Coffee House to accommodate everyone. Please click this link or email Margie at MargiePromoPro1@aol.com with “Mitchell Green Concert” in the subject line. If you’d like to be part of the Coffee House Night Team, please indicate your interest area in the Reservation form or email Margie using the above link.
This event is offered for a free-will donation. Looking forward to seeing you on Saturday, April 28 for this very special opportunity!
Israeli Film Series, May 5 - 7:30 pm
We have an exciting and unusual movie planned for the evening of May 5. We will be showing The Ballad of the Weeping Spring. Torn apart by tragedy, a legendary band reunites to play an emotional final concert in this stylized homage to Spaghetti Westerns, samurai epics, and South American mysticism, shot entirely in Israel but set in a mythical time and place. With a pervasive pan-ethnic soundtrack serving as the film’s backbone, the story centers on the brooding Jossef Tawila, once the leader of a Mizrahi band (a unique musical form combining Middle Eastern and North African influences), who lives a hermit-like existence in the wake of a terrible accident. In a series of quirky vignettes across stunning exotic locations, Tawila brings together his old musician buddies to grant the last wishes of a dying friend, while healing his own tortured soul. Nominated for nine Israeli Academy Awards, with wins for Best Original Music, Best Original Soundtrack, Best Production Design, and Best Costume Design. Admission is free and snacks will be available for purchase.
Book Club, May 22
The Book Club’s next selection will be The Bridal Chair by Gloria Goldreich, a historical fiction about Marc Chagall’s daughter. Our meeting will be on May 22, 7:30pm, at the home of Rebecca Rice, 3641 Bernay Drive in Northbrook.. For more information, contact Meryl Abensohn at abenkras@aol.com.
Check Out the Shir Hadash Business Directory!
Looking for a business? What could be better than working with another Shir Hadash Member! Shir Hadash has a business directory that includes many businesses -- from child care, to gift baskets, to auto sales and magicians and more. Just click here and see all that our members have to offer. And if you would like to list your business, just click on the above link and look on the right for the "Would you like to be included on this page?" option. Note that you have to be logged into Shul Cloud to submit a business listing.
CREATIVE WORSHIP AND RITUAL
Shabbat Service and Guest Speaker, April 20, 7:30pm
This week we will have a brief Kabbalat service followed by a presentation on environmental issues by Mary S. Allen of SWANCC (see detailed description above). Join us for an engaging and informative evening, and please bring a nosh to share at the oneg afterward.
Oneg Volunteers Needed for Services
Sign up to help as an oneg volunteer for one of our upcoming services. It's easy: just click here to pick a date, bring a challah, and show up.! You'll receive a reminder email the week before with more details. For more information, contact Sean Fisher-Rohde at oneg@shir-hadash.org.
THE RABBI’S CORNER
April 20-21, 2018 / 6 Iyar 5778
Omer Day 21
Shabbat Tazria-Metzora
Torah: Leviticus 12:1 - 15:33 Haftarah: II Kings 7:3 - 7:20
“Cause and Effect”
Dear Friends,
What is the cause of disease? For our ancestors in biblical times, disease was the punishment one received for doing evil. And what was the sin that brought about the skin diseases described in this week’s Torah portion? Slander and gossip were the culprits. After all, Moses suffered from a skin disease after he complained to God that the Children of Israel would not listen to him. Miriam became leprous after she gossiped about Moses’ wife Tzipora.
Of course we know that gossip does not cause disease. Yet is does cause “dis-ease” – a discomfort in our community leading to embarrassment and upset. Are you having trouble controlling the urge to gossip? Here are some quotes to keep you focused on kindness and compassion:
Have you heard something about someone? Let it die with you. Be of good courage, it will not harm you if it ends with you. (Ben Sirah 19:10)
Your friend has a friend, and your friend’s friend has a friend. So be careful of what you say. (Talmud – Ketubot 109b)
For lack of wood, a fire goes out. And without a querulous man, contention is stilled. (Proverbs 26:20)
Because of gossip, if you want to know what is happening in your own home, ask your neighbors. (Yiddish folk saying)
Gossip is nature’s telephone. (Shalom Aleichem)
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Eitan Weiner-Kaplow
To enjoy past entries of the Rabbi's Corner, please visit our website.
SCHOOL NEWS
Religious School, April 22
We’re looking forward to seeing all our teachers and students ready to go at 9:15 this Sunday.
This Week! Bring A Friend To School Open House, April 22
Our open house is finally here! On April 22, have a friend join you at religious school and show them how amazing our Sunday School is! You will receive a raffle ticket for each friend you bring, with an opportunity to win a $50 gift card. Scroll back to the top of the newsletter or click here for details!
ADULT EDUCATION
Torah and Jewish Philosophy Class, Sundays
Instructor: Fred Andes
Join us on Sunday mornings at 9:30 to dig deep into the weekly Torah portion and take a look at modern Jewish philosophy.
Living Judaism: Introduction to Jewish Spirituality & Civilization, April 22
Sundays, 11:15 am to 12:25 pm on April 22 and 29, 2018.
Instructor: Rabbi Eitan Weiner-Kaplow
A survey of essential and fundamental concepts of Judaism - its roots, history, sacred texts, holidays, and life cycle celebration. This class offers a great opportunity to learn what Judaism offers us to live, learn, celebrate and relate to life’s challenges in a Jewish way, today! This class is for everyone – from those with no Jewish background to those with a strong Jewish background, and all in between.
Lunch and Learn at Shir Hadash, April 19
Join Rabbi Eitan and Shir Hadash members and friends for refreshing and contemporary Jewish learning. We are studying the books of Joshua and Judges, which cover the fascinating period of Jewish history from the crossing of the Jordan River until the first kings of Israel. Everyone is welcome. No prior study, expertise, or background required. Feel free to bring your lunch.
A Taste of Mussar
An introduction to the study and practice of Jewish spiritual ethics. Mussar is a centuries old Jewish body of teachings, a perspective, and a disciplined practice that provides distinctively Jewish answers to the sorts of questions any thinking person asks about life.
The class meets on Thursdays, April 26, May 3, 10, and 17. Shir Hadash member Lynn Liebling, who has studied Mussar for seven years, will facilitate. The fee for the course is $36.
ISRAEL AWARENESS
Israeli Film Night on May 5
Scroll up to the Member Events and Worship & Ritual sections to read about the screening of planned for the coming weeks from the Israel Awareness Committee.
Israel Speaker Series
About 20 members participated in an interesting workshop with Keren Fraiman of the Spertus Institute. We discussed Israel as a Jewish and Democratic state. She will be covering that topic in more depth at an upcoming series from Spertus. Please reach out to Burton Kopulsky (oct13@ameritech.net) of the Israel committee with suggestions for future speakers and programs.
Did You Know? Fun Facts About Israel
- The people of Israel come from more than 100 countries. They represent diverse ethnic, religious, and racial groups. Roughly half the population has origins in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
- Of Israel's 7.8 million residents, 75.5 percent are Jews, 20.2 percent are Arabs (mostly Muslim but also some Christians), and 4.3 percent include Druze, Baha’is, Circassians and others not classified by religion.
- Israel’s Arab citizens enjoy equal rights with Jewish citizens of the state. Israeli Arabs participate in all aspects of Israeli life, from menial jobs to Supreme Court justices. In fact, Abdel Rahman Zuabi, the first Arab to sit on the Supreme Court, took his seat on March 3, 1999, and in May 2004, Salim Jubran was selected as the first Arab to hold a permanent appointment as a Supreme Court Justice.
NORTHWEST SUBURBAN INTERFAITH COUNCIL
Sock Drive Going on Now
Interfaith Council’s annual Knock Your Socks Off collection for mens’, womens’, and childrens’ new socks is going on now. Please bring new socks to help fill the box near in the Shir Hadash lobby during April and May. Donations will be distributed to our homeless neighbors in the Northwest Suburbs.
Other Events and Projects from the Northwest Suburban Interfaith Council
Shir Hadash is an active member of the Northwest Suburban Interfaith Council. We look forward to the spring and summer with the following upcoming programs:
- Stamp Out Hunger, May 12, sponsored by the US Postal mail carriers: You place non-perishable food in your mailbox and the mail carriers will collect it. The Interfaith Council will then pick up the food and distribute it to our pantries that serve our community.
- 5th Annual i-Walk Against Hunger, June 24: A family walk from St. Mary Parish to Hope Lutheran Church and back. All donations collected go to assist our food pantries. We need walkers, sponsors and volunteers.
- 5th Annual Service Trip to Detroit, August 1-5: Volunteers will work with Cass Community Social Services to repair, maintain and build facilities to benefit the hungry, homeless, and unemployed. For more information and to register, click here.
- Interfaith Trip to Israel, summer 2018: details forthcoming.
- Food Donations: Please remember those less fortunate. Donations of canned goods are accepted throughout the year at our food pantries located at Congregation Beth Am (1370 Abbott Court, Buffalo Grove), Kingswood Methodist Church (401 W. Dundee, Buffalo Grove) and St. Mary Parish (10 North Buffalo Grove Road.)
We are discussing ideas for further educational programming. Our last panels covered questions on Christianity and Judaism. If you have any suggested topics, please contact Suzanne Wexler at skwexler@yahoo.com or 847-769-8257.
Seeking Shir Hadash Representative for Northwest Suburban Interfaith Council
Please consider joining Suzanne Wexler in representing SH at the Interfaith Council, a group of 10 congregations from synagogues and churches in Buffalo Grove, Wheeling, Arlington Heights, Prospect Heights and Long Grove. The council members meet on the first Monday of each month from 7:30-9:00pm. We share ideas from our congregations as well as plan and execute community-wide programs to serve our communities, including our neighbors in need. Please contact Suzanne Wexler if you are interested in hearing more: skwexler@yahoo.com or (847) 769-8257.
ONGOING FUNDRAISERS
Simcha Tree Leaves Available for Purchase
Our Tree of Joy—a Simcha Tree—is situated in our Community Room to remind us of all the joys of our lives. The leaves come in copper, silver, and gold. Each leaf marks a lasting memory of a joyous simcha in the lives of members of Shir Hadash. We invite you to add your loved ones’ simchas to our Tree and share your nachas with our congregation or just add your loved ones’ names out of love. Leaves can be purchased to mark your special family or individual accomplishments. Click here to see additional information and make your purchase.
Don’t Forget Our Permanent Restaurant Fundraisers!
The Continental Restaurant in Buffalo Grove or 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.
Shir Hadash Memorial Wall
Having a Memorial Plaque for a loved one in Shir Hadash’s Memorial Wall ensures that Yahrzeit will be observed for them in perpetuity by our congregation.The cost for a plaque is $360. Many congregants prepay and reserve plaques.You may register for the plaque(s) through our website, or request a paper order form by calling the office (847-498-8218).
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
SHOP for … Spring?
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. For more information, email Michelle at SHOP@shir-hadash.org.
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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