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WHAT’S HAPPENING AT A GLANCE
Creative Worship and Ritual
- Register Today for High Holidays!
- Detailed Schedule for Rosh Hashanah Services
- Sponsor an Oneg
- No Religious School Classes on September 29
- Adult Ed: Torah and Jewish Philosophy, Sundays
- More Adult Ed: Hebrew Reading, Sundays
- Rabbi's Lunch & Learn, Thursdays
- Social Action Committee Kickoff Meeting, October 6
- Mussar Study Group Resumes October 17
- Book Club Selection for October 17 Meeting
- Visit our Reading Corner
- Reconstructing Judaism Today - Link to e-Newsletter
Social Action
- Tzedakah to help the Bahamas -- Hurricane Relief
Israel Awareness
- Israeli Film Series Presents "Ushpizin," October 12
- Sponsor a Bimah Ark Panel -- Only Three Left!
- SHOP Shir Hadash
- Simcha Tree Leaves
- Don’t Forget Our Permanent Restaurant Fundraisers!
- Shir Hadash Memorial Wall
- Links to Fundraisers: Amazon, iGive, and More
Rosh Hashanah starts on Sunday evening! Before we come together as a community to celebrate the High Holidays and move into a new year, here are a few things to remember:
Registration -- For those of you who are High Holiday Guests, but have not registered and paid, please do ASAP - you do need to be registered to attend. And for those of you who are Shir Hadash members, if you have not already registered for a volunteer slot, please do - we need your help! All of these registrations can be done at https://www.shir-hadash.org/high-holidays-2019.
Times and Locations --
- Erev Rosh Hashanah services start on Sunday at 7:30pm, at Our Lady of the Brook (OLB), 3700 Dundee Road in Northbrook.
- Rosh Hashanah morning services start on Monday at 9:30am, also at OLB.
- Our special Rosh Hashanah Day 2 program - with a brief service, then Torah reading, then Torah discussion, starts at 10:00am, at the synagogue. But come early - 9:30 - to schmooze and have some bagels, cream cheese, lox and coffee!
- PLEASE NOTE: We are NOT having a separate afternoon service on Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur for families with small children. Instead, we encourage you to bring them with you to the morning services - we have very special programs planned for them! (But please do register them, so we know they're coming and can plan accordingly.)
Important Things to Bring Along - When do you bring your tallit and/or shofar? DO NOT bring them on Sunday evening, but DO bring them on Monday and Tuesday.
And as for prayer books? Please remember bring them from home. We lend books out to those people who have bought the New High Holiday Guest ($54 special offer) tickets, but we only have enough for those folks.
If you have any questions, please send a note to cwr@shir-hadash.org . L'Shanah Tovah!
Sponsor an Oneg! Having a birthday, anniversary or remembrance? You can sponsor an oneg to celebrate. A dessert oneg is $136 and everybody appreciates and enjoys your hospitality. The donation covers all food, including a special celebration cake. Please contact Nancy Kekst, execdir@shir-hadash.org to make arrangements.
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.
September 27-28, 2019 / 28 Elul 5779 / Shabbat Nitzaveem
Torah: Deuteronomy 29:9 – 30:20 Haftarah: Isaiah 61:10 - 63:9
“Choose Life”
Dear Friends,
The High holidays are almost here. It is a time when we come together with our Shir Hadash community to join in prayer, study, and contemplation. It is a time when we renew our commitment to our Jewish values, heritage, faith, and tradition. In this week’s Torah portion, which we will read on Yom Kippur morning, Moses calls upon the Children of Israel, past, present, and future, to enter in a ‘brit’ – a covenant - with God. He tells them to follow and live by the Torah’s teachings and most of all, to choose life and live life to the fullest.
This is an important teaching as we prepare for the High Holidays. Through the ten days of repentance from Rosh Hashana to Yom Kippur, we evaluate our lives and explore how we can do better in the coming year. It is all about living life to the fullest each and every moment. “Choose Life.”
I send you and your families my fondest wishes for a Shanah Tovah – a healthy, happy, prosperous, and good year - a year of life!
Zay a Mentsch – Be a Good Person.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Eitan Weiner-Kaplow
No Religious School on September 29 -- There will be no classes held on Sunday morning as we prepare for Erev Rosh Hashanah. We will see all our students back at school on October 6 at at 9:15 a.m.
No Adult Ed Classes on September 29 -- Our regular Torah & Jewish Philosophy and Hebrew Reading & Prayer classes resume on October 6.
Today! Lunch & Learn with the Rabbi, Thursdays --Join Rabbi Eitan Weiner-Kaplow, Shir Hadash members and friends for a refreshing and contemporary exploration of the weekly Torah portion, a selected book of the Bible, or a contemporary work of Jewish wisdom. We meet on Thursday afternoons from 1:00 to 2:00pm. Don’t be surprised if archaeology, sociology, contemporary world affairs as well as law, medicine, and business ethics enter the lively conversation as we plumb the deeper meanings of Judaism’s core text. Participants are encouraged to share their views, questions, and opinions.
Social Action Committee 2019-20 Kickoff Meeting, October 6 -- The first Social Action Committee meeting of this school year will take place Sunday, October 6, at 10:00am in the annex conference room. Let's plan which social action activities Shir Hadash will do this year. If you can't attend the meeting but want to get involved, email Lisa Burton Radzely at socialactionsh@gmail.com.
Book Club; Meeting October 17 -- The Shir Hadash Book Club is reading The Cooking Gene by Michael W. Twitty. The author, a renowned culinary historian, offers a fresh perspective on our most divisive cultural issue, race, in this illuminating memoir of Southern cuisine and food culture that traces his ancestry—both black and white—through food, from Africa to America and slavery to freedom. We will meet on Thursday, October 17 at 7:30 p.m. - location TBA. For information, contact the office at admin@shir-hadash.org or (847) 498-8218.
Mussar Discussion Group -- Life repeatedly challenges us. How do we translate high-level concepts of ethical living to this moment in time? Mussar is a Jewish practice that guides us on this path.
Shir Hadash's Mussar Study Group discusses the core text Everyday Holiness by Alan Morinis. Our next group meeting will be Thursday, October 17 at 7:30 p.m. For more information, contact Lynn Liebling, lliebling@sbcglobal.net or Kayla Shonberg, klashon74@gmail.com.
Visit our Reading Room -- Have you seen our new mini-reading room? It is now located in the hallway outside the sanctuary, across from the restrooms. There are many books of interest. Please feel free to take one, enjoy it, and pass it along to a neighbor, but DON"T return it! We have more books to put out!
Reconstructing Judaism Today e-Newsletter -- Learn about what’s going on in Reconstructionist communities around the world, and gain access to exciting online learning opportunities and resources from the central organization of the movement, Reconstructing Judaism. To subscribe to the e-newsletter Reconstructing Judaism Today, and receive other vital communication from Reconstructing Judaism, just click on this link.
SOCIAL ACTION
Help the Bahamas -- Hurricane Dorian's impact on the Bahamas is staggering. Thousands of homes were destroyed. As of September 22, at least 53 people are dead and more than 1,300 still missing—many likely swept to their deaths. The recovery process will be very slow, for they still are without running water, have no electricity unless a generator supplies it, encounter fuel shortages, and face shortages of food and daily necessities. The government has ordered no rebuilding for six months in order to "allow for recovery efforts and the removal of (billions of pounds of) storm debris."
Just as people around the world helped the US after Hurricane Katrina, it is now our turn to help the Bahamas. There are multiple ways you can give tzedakah: leaving cash or a check in the tzedakah box near the prayer books, or by mailing a check or leaving one with the office. Checks should be made out to Jewish Federation Hurricane Dorian Relief Fund. 100% of collected funds will provide relief for those impacted by this disaster, with Federation absorbing all administrative costs. Questions? Ask our Social Action Chair, Lisa Burton Radzely, or email socialactionsh@gmail.com.
High Holidays Food Delivery -- For the past 15 years, volunteers from Shir Hadash have helped deliver Passover and High Holidays food boxes to those who are less fortunate in our community. On September 22, Shir Hadash members and some of their kids helped deliver 100 boxes of food and other holiday items to needy Jewish seniors in the Wheeling area. It is always a very rewarding volunteer experience to deliver these food boxes, and to see the joy we are bringing to these people. For many of the recipients, we may be the only person who visits them that day or even that week. They are always so thankful and appreciative of our efforts and most make sure to give the kids a little candy as a thank you for helping (the adults get some candy too).
It’s also a great chance for the adult member volunteers to talk and catch up on what’s been happening over the summer. For most of the families, this is an annual volunteer event, and many make sure to bring their kids back to help volunteer even after many of them have moved out on their own or are in college.
Mark your calendar for March 22, 2020 for non-perishable food box packing for Passover and March 29, 2020 for box delivery. We hope that you will be able to join us for the fun and rewarding volunteer experience in the spring. Please contact Mark Lenhart at mclenhart@gmail.com if you have any questions.
ISRAEL AWARENESS
Israeli Film Series at Shir Hadash Presents "Ushpizin,” October 12 - Come to Shir Hadash at 7:30pm on October 12 for a screening of “Ushpizin.” This film is a heartwarming story for the Sukkot holiday, which begins the following evening. Admission is free and snacks will be available. Donations to help offset costs are always appreciated.
ONGOING FUNDRAISERS
Twelve Tribes Bimah Panels: Only Three Panels Left to Dedicate! -- Celebrating our fifth anniversary in our building, our Twelve Tribes bimah ark panels are a combined creation of artists Maureen Fisher Schweit and Abe Schor, who worked together on concept, design and colors.
You are invited to participate in this fundraising historic project by dedicating all or part of a panel. Each panel dedication is $1,800; panels may be dedicated by more than one person and families may pool resources to dedicate one panel (e.g, $180 each by 10 people). Donors will be acknowledged on our new donor wall next to the Simcha Tree. The panel dedications will remain in perpetuity, or as long as the art remains in our sanctuary. (They will not expire in 18 years as originally stated.) To learn more about the Bimah Panels, click here. For questions, panel reservation, choice and payment options, contact Executive Director Nancy Kleine Kekst at (216) 789-2452 (mobile) or email execdir@shir-hadash.org.
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, Butterfield’s Restaurant in Northbrook, and three locations of Flappy’s 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 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 SHOP 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. For more information, email Michelle at SHOP@shir-hadash.org.
To view past editions of the Newsletter, please visit our website.
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