Shofar December 2010

Shofar Kislev/Tevet 5771 Jewish Family Congregation December 2010

www.jewishfamilycongregation.org

From the Rabbi’s Desk page 1 Service Schedule page 2 President’s Message page 3 Early Childhood Center page 5 The Religious School page 7 Fabulous Fall Festival page 8 Kids Ask the Rabbi page 10 JiFTY page 11

Social Action Committee page 13 JFC Adults page 18 Yahrzeit/Annivs/Birthdays page 22 Ask the Rabbi page 24 Donations to JFC page 27 Donations Form page 28 Calendar page 29

From the Rabbi’s Desk

Chanukah is…early… this year. The High Holy Days were early, and so will everything else be, until the calendar cor-rection in March. The Jewish calendar adds a whole extra month, for the leap year, 7 times in a cycle of 19 years, and this is such a year. The merchants we patronize, and even worse, the cata-logs which flood our mailboxes, have been gearing up for the other big December holiday for months now. The malls are already fully set up to promote intense shopping for the biggest spending season of the year. But it may very well be that these same merchants, not being attuned to the idiosyncrasies of the Jewish calendar, are going to be caught unprepared for Chanukah starting on December 1. That may mean that the menorahs and dreidls they add to their reindeer and snowmen will be absent as we cele-brate our low-key winter holiday this year. And I for one will not regret that at all. Many years ago, the Supreme Court of this country de-cided that the Christmas tree is not a religious symbol; they were right. It is a pagan practice that was adopted by Christianity a long time ago, and despite the fact that it only appears as Christians prepare to celebrate their holi-day in December (and never in March or July, for example), it is in fact not a religious symbol per se. Therefore, it…and the reindeer and the santas and snowmen…can be placed on public property to remind everyone of the joyous winter holiday. But the menorah is…davka***…a religious symbol and not a secular one. The original menorah was built (accord-ing to the Torah) to be used in the Dwelling Place that the Israelites schlepped with them through the wilderness en route to Canaan, and ultimately stood in the temple that Solomon built in Jerusalem. The lighting of that seven-branched menorah (Hebrew: lamp) was part of the pomp and circumstance of the priestly duties in the Temple. That same menorah was looted from the Temple by the Romans in 70 CE, and a representation of it is shown on the Arch of

Titus in Rome; captive Judeans are seen carrying the huge menorah. Where did it go from there? An excellent ques-tion, for which we need Indiana Jones! Unlike the Christmas tree, the Chanukah menorah is a religious symbol, and should not appear in concert with the other secular symbols of the season, as per the Supreme Court decision. I know that other Jews, Chabad in particu-lar, are very keen about placing giant menorahs on public property and holding candle-lighting ceremonies each night of Chanukah. But to me that is just as wrong as put-ting a crèche (the manger scene) on public property, which is prohibited by law. This is a case of two wrongs not mak-ing a right. The menorah is the indispensible item for celebrating Chanukah. The only religious obligation (mitzvah) we have for this holiday (note: this is not a holy day, unlike Sukkot and Pesakh) is the lighting of the menorah (for some candle-lighting tips, see page 12 of this issue of the Shofar). We are not required to fast or sound the shofar or hold a seder. Our people came up with additional customs, like eating latkes or jelly donuts (both fried in oil…to remind us of that little jug of oil), and playing dreidl (to remind us of the miracle of Chanukah by forcing us to look at the initials of the He-brew words “nes gadol hayah sham,” a great miracle hap-pened there), to add some more pleasure to the holiday. And the custom arose of giving coins to children to cele-brate the holiday; I still have some of the silver dollars I received from my grandfather when I was a child. Later, this practice evolved into the giving of gifts, the size and cost of which have grown in response to the marketing of the “December holidays” by merchants eager to make sure that Jews get caught up in the frenzy of spending which accounts for so much of their annual income. Every year I encourage you to resist this ploy, and to confine your gift-giving to small, and especially, useful

(Continued on page 16)

Please Support Our Advertisers

Jewish Family Congregation Shofar December 2010

DECEMBER

Friday, Dec 3 /Kislev 27 6:00 pm Children’s “Shabbat and Me” Chanukah service 7:30 pm JFC’s ANNUAL CHANUKAH SERVICE Parshat Miketz Saturday, Dec 4 10:00 am Shabbat morning service Friday, Dec 10/ Tevet 4 7:30 pm Parshat VaYigash Saturday, Dec 11 10:00 am Shabbat morning service Friday, Dec 17/ Tevet 11 7:30 pm Parshat Vayikhi Saturday, Dec 18 10:00 am Shabbat morning service Friday, Dec 24/ Tevet 18 7:30 pm Parshat Sh’mot Friday, Dec 31/ Tevet 25 7:30 pm Parshat VaEyreh

Jewish Family

Congregation 111 Smith Ridge Road

P.O. Box 249 South Salem, NY 10590 Phone: (914) 763-3028 Fax: (914) 763-3069 e-mail: [email protected]

jewishfamilycongregation.org

Rabbi Carla Freedman [email protected]

Cantor Kerry Ben-David

[email protected]

School Director Leslie Gottlieb

[email protected] Early Childhood Center Director Fern Tannenbaum

[email protected]

Temple Administrator Jolie Levy

[email protected]

Board Of Trustees

Richard Mishkin,

Co-President 914-764-8305;

Jeanette Sanders, Co-President

914-763-0311; Mark Lavin,

Vice President; Polly Schnell,

Vice President; Bill Pink,

Secretary; Andrew Serby,

Treasurer;

Carrie Kane David Marceau

Beth Tessler Debra Verbeke

Elisa Zuckerberg and

Johanna Perlman,

Past President

Shofar Editor

Jolie Levy

CHOIR

If you would like to join the choir, or for more information, please contact Kathy Storfer at [email protected]

We welcome all adults -- 13 or older!

SERVICE SCHEDULE

Capital Campaign

Statements Have Been

Sent to All Members With Unfilled Pledges.

Payments due December 15.

Please Pay Promptly.

Have you checked out

the JFC Blog yet?

Go to www.jfc.rjblogs.org

http://jfc.rjblogs.org

Kislev/Tevet 5771 Jewish Family Congregation Shofar

The President’s Message by Jeanette Sanders

Jewish Family Congregation’s Notables

A few months back I wrote my message about the richness of our congregation and what a wealth of knowledge, education and resources exist amongst the entries in the JFC directory and in our building. I’d like to take it a step further and recognize that many of those people are special for what they do either for JFC or for their contributions to the external commu-nity. I hope that we can begin a new tradition in our Shofar of recognizing members of our congregation. Please contact us with your thoughts about who you feel amongst us deserves some recognition for their contributions or achievements. I leave it to you to decide what makes their contribution notable. For example … I would like to take this opportunity to tell you about a few people who I feel are special to us at JFC. In October 2009 when our long-standing temple administrator retired from that role, there were liter-ally and figuratively, some pretty big shoes to fill. We conducted a thorough and successful search for the perfect replacement, but it took some time and left us with virtually no time for knowledge transition. Enter Jolie Levy to an incredibly fast-paced office that serves the Early Childhood Center mornings, the Reli-gious school afternoons, and the general congrega-tion during evenings and weekends. She has quickly adapted to the non-stop demands of our staff, clergy and temple board. She has approached her office work with professionalism and patience, the children of our programs with smiles and encouragement, and the general congregation with kindness, compassion and understanding. We are fortunate to have her dedication, and she has quickly become a pillar of strength and competence to meet our ever-expanding needs. She has recently been joined by

the equally skilled and delightful Kathleen Sakowitz, who completes the administrative staff. Kathleen is calm, cool and collected and together these ladies keep us in business. They frequently work in their off hours, sometimes at the office and also from their homes, when the business of the temple requires ex-tra time. They have both been known to sacrifice precious family time to pitch in when our needs are great. Stop in to our temple office and say hello and thank you to Jolie and Kathleen. They are two of the special people at JFC. I hope that you are spending some time viewing our website. I am sure you’ve noticed that it is much improved and that the dynamic content seems to be up-to-date at all times. That is thanks to our volun-teer webmaster, Laurence Furic. She is an active member or our congregation who sings with the choir, volunteers her time for temple fundraisers and the book fair, frequently assists in the office, attends services regularly, and raises her two sons, Joseph and Jacob. She also manages to find the time to keep our website up-to-date with special messages, the latest news & events, photos, the Shofar newsletter, content from the religious school and the ECC. She updates the weekly parsha and coordinates with the various website contributors. Laurence does this with great attention to detail and with significant creativ-ity. She is a special person to Jewish Family Congre-gation, and I am grateful for her service and devotion to the temple. I invite you to write to us and tell us about the par-ticular members who deserve to be mentioned either for the things they do here in temple or things they do in the spirit of Tikun Olam.

ALL ADS ARE A FLAT $18 AND MAY NOT EXCEED 50 WORDS. THEY WILL RUN FOR ONE MONTH ONLY.

To place an ad, submit the text and your payment to the JFC Office. You may email the text to

[email protected] and either drop off or mail your check (payable to JFC). Credit card

payments are also accepted.

JFC

CLASSIFIED

Don’t forget to stop in and

check out the JFC Gift Shop!

The items change frequently!

If you are interested in

purchasing anything, please let us know in the JFC Office.


There is a Jewish proverb that says, “Who finds a faith-ful friend, finds a treasure.” The teachers at the ECC and I recently learned how difficult finding a faithful friend really is. This is especially true in this day and age when the me-dia and other influences blur the line between what a good friend is or is not. Last month we attended the Northern Westchester Staff Development Day and partici-pated in different sessions devoted to social problems in Early Childhood. The keynote session was called “Respond-ing to Aggressive Behaviors and Bullying in the Classroom” and was given by Joel D. Haber PhD, renown for his study of this challenging aspect of social development. We learned much about the influences on children by parents, teachers and society that permit bullying behavior. Sur-prisingly, bullying is not done solely by children who come from low socio/economic backgrounds, children who are consistently aggressive, children who have a high level of stress or children who have poor self-esteem.

It starts as early as three years of age and is exhibited in two ways. The first is exclusion, which is a planned scheme to keep another child from games, play dates, birthday parties or even an outdoor playhouse. The second, which is more commonly known, consists of acts of aggression such as hitting, pushing, name calling or destroying an-other child’s work or property. The most important thing we learned, however, was how to prevent and stop these insensitive acts. First, as teachers we must create rules for safety and inclusiveness. Second, we must immediately halt aggression and give consequences for bullying. Finally, we must teach bullies how to feel empathy. These prac-tices are not only important for teachers to implement, but for parents as well. When bullies feel the thrill of power over others they seek more of that pleasure. These bullies will only stop when they no longer receive the grati-fication that this power brings.

In class, our teachers work hard to teach and role model positive behaviors while praising children to be good friends and do kind things. By encouraging children to gain pleasure from being kind, the children want to continue to act kindly. The teachers are helping our children to learn about feeling empathy through the study of mitzvot. They talked about chesed (kindness) last month, and this month they will be discussing “Bichur Cholim” (or visiting the sick). No, we will not be making visits to hospitals, but we will be cheering up many elderly residents who stay at the Achieve Rehab and Nursing Center. For Chanukah, every three- and four-year old child at the ECC will be drawing a beautiful picture for their special resident-friend, and the teachers will be taking dictation of their words filled with

good wishes. Ultimately, we are hoping to not only pre-vent the formation of bullies but to create a solid founda-tion for friendship. Our ECC children are always a treasure to us and now their friendship will certainly be treasured by others. The Early Childhood Center must also be treasured be-cause on November 10th hundreds of shoppers came out to support the ECC. They purchased raffle tickets and lots of beautiful items sold by 22 fabulous vendors at the first ever Ladies Bazaar. Over $2,000.00 was raised for the Early Childhood Center due to the efforts of our Bazaar Chair, Luda Samuels, and to Rachel Clott, Gillian Margolin, Elise Serby, Whitney Wasserman, the entire Early Childhood Center Committee and especially all of our JFC members, ECC parents and friends who came to this event. We never could have done it without you! Chanukah is just around the corner, and the ECC chil-dren have been busy getting ready for the holiday. They have been crafting Chanukiot to hold the candles they will be lighting, practicing Chanukah songs to share with their families and listening to Chanukah tales told through many types of Chanukah story books. This is the time of year that we are thankful for our religious freedom won for us by the Macabees. It is also a time to be thankful for the family that we share these good times with, and especially to be thankful for our friends who always increase our happiness. Thank you to all of my friends, and may you have a very happy Chanukah!

Early Childhood Center By Fern Tannenbaum

To our amazement, we found out that bullying can come from happy children of all backgrounds.

Bullies are not bad children, they have only learned bad behaviors and found out that these behaviors made them

feel good without any consequences.


The Religious School by Leslie Gottlieb

A Poem for David

It’s hard to concentrate on the mundane When a friend has disappeared from

Doorsteps he once graced. Life is forever changed.

To read about priestly benediction… Where Gd blesses and protects and

Deals kindly and graciously and bestows Favor and grants peace…at this time seems

Too beautiful for words, like peace, Peace that comes

Dropping Slow

As Yeats revealed.

Numbers, his last reading here, So quiet were the ruminations of his heart

As he heard about the Nazirites and Gifts of the tribal chiefs, and of the sotah ritual.

He was a smile on two legs, Someone to encourage the rest,

Someone to bless others, Someone to watch over things.

In his tallit he stood tall, Stood tall for those who chose not to rise,

Prayed hard as if everything depended on it, Lived his life like a prayer.

A son, a father, a friend to many, A voice in the doorway,

His-- And always with a purpose,

To greet, to suggest, to help, To love other human beings

And share his glow.

David Emmer In the doorway, quixotic,

Coffee mug in hand, Offering a gesture of concern

With a smile too wide for his face.

What is a life? Who are we really?

If Gd is in our hearts Then where does that essence go When we take our last breaths?

Does it fly above our heads then rain down on all of us, Showering us in our quotidian somnambulism

That we call living, Reabsorbed by those who look to the sky

For a calm that comes upon us like a soft wind In summer?

Thank you for the time we knew you, Thank you for the wisdom you bestowed,

Thank you for the gift you were to those around you, And thank you for the wind that carries your dreams forever

And gives life to the living.

Dedicated to Religious School parent and personal friend, David Emmer. May his memory be a blessing.


On Saturday night, November 20, at the Willows in South Salem, members and friends had a grand time at JFC’s Fabulous Fall Festival Auction and Dinner. The event was a phenomenal success, raising nearly $40,000 to help balance the temple’s operating budget. During the eve-ning, we paid tribute to the Vista Fire Department and its JFC members (Donia & Mark Albert, John & Julie Conti, Ari Rackear-Sturm, and Brian & Leslie Smith) as JFC’s Community Volunteer Organization of the Year. All of this would not have been possible without many volunteers who I will thank below and the generosity of nearly 250 local businesses, JFC families, and friends who contributed items or made cash donations to the auction and who placed ads in the Tribute Journal (see complete list on page 9). The fabulous dinner team was chaired by Johanna Perlman. Many folks helped transport auction items from JFC to the Willows and then set up the Willows on Novem-ber 20 including: Fran Apfel, Michael & Zach Horwitz, Cathy & Richard Mishkin, Ken Okamoto, Johanna Perlman, Jan Sanders, Tammi Shulman, Suzanne Sunday, Debra Verbeke, Nita Weissman, and Arman Weissman-Okamoto. Decorations were designed by Debbie Lavin and Fran Apfel, with Gossett Brothers Nursery of South Salem donating most of the plant materials and harvest vegetables. Food Fantasies of Yorktown provided the de-licious hors d’oeuvres, buffet dinner, drinks, and des-sert. Rabbi Carla added a wonderful bit of Jewish ritual to the event by performing a short havdallah service, kiddush and motzi. Illusionist Allan Sherer treated everyone to close-up magic as he circulated between tables and the dessert buffet queue to amaze us with his tricks; thanks to Deborah Kurlander who arranged for his performance. The amazing auction team was led by Laurence Furic, Richard Mishkin and Suzanne Sunday. As our technology chair, Laurence helped the entire team learn how to use the ReadySetAuction (RSA) software that powered our online auction website, check-in, check-out, and report-ing. Without her patience and hard work, we never would have been able to run this year’s event. Richard Mishkin ran the auction back office and made sure we had the pro-cedures and volunteers in place to handle check-in and check-out. Suzanne Sunday was responsible for the acqui-sition of auction items and made sure that auction items got entered into the online catalog with all the right data including descriptions, values, and opening bid prices. Many JFC members and friends worked hard to procure items for the auction, however special recognition goes to Leslie Gottlieb, Donn Henshaw, Carrie Kane, Johanna Perlman, Amy Rackear, and Eric Sherr for their efforts. Jamie Kaplan spent hours taking pictures of auc-tion items for the online website as well as being our on-site photographer during the dinner and auction (see page 23 and the JFC website for her photos). A whole host of folks handled check-in, proxy bidding, bid recording, check

-out, and item pick-up the night of the event including: Laurence Furic, Sue Kaufman, Debbie Lavin, Cathy Mish-kin, Ken Okamoto, Jan Sanders, Cindy Servider, Tammi Shulman, Denise Simon, Lauren Tapper, and Nita Weiss-man. Richard Mishkin, Jan Sanders, and Suzanne Sunday served as auctioneers for the live auction. You might be interested to know that we sold nearly 150 online or silent auction items and 7 live auction items; thank you for your generous bids. If you won an item and haven’t yet paid for it or picked it up, please contact the office ASAP. In addition to the dinner and auction, Jeff Berg led a team of dedicated members in producing the tribute jour-nal & auction catalog. Thanks to the 100 businesses and JFC families who placed ads in this Journal. Special recogni-tion goes to Sue Kaufman, who worked so hard to create the graphics for dozens of individual ads, painstakingly layout the 92-page document, and then create the elec-tronic version of the beautiful final product. We want to thank Andrew Serby and his company, EnterMarket of Valhalla, for printing the Tribute Journal. Ted Bloch and Hal Wolkin deserve special recognition for each selling over $1,000 of ads. All JFC members and ECC families who didn’t attend the event, will be mailed a Journal shortly (if you don’t receive yours soon, please call the temple of-fice). Please be sure to patronize the advertisers listed in the Journal during the coming year and make a point to thank them for their support. A number of members – Michelle Blum, Rachel Clott, Polly Schnell, Elise Serby, Beth Tessler, and many of those already mentioned above, made phone calls to others at-tempting to persuade you to attend and participate in the event. JFC Office assistant, Kathleen Sakowicz, kept track of ticket requests and payments, auction item donations, Tribute Journal forms and payments, and so many other administrative details of the event. Elisa Zuckerberg han-dled the publicity and marketing of our event, Carrie Kane designed and coordinated the printing of the invitations with Furman Printing of Bedford Hills, Deborah Kurlander designed and obtained the plaques that recognized the VFD, while Auntie T somehow infiltrated our team meet-ings and provided you with the latest snippets of how the event was unfolding. As always, temple administrator Jolie Levy, supported many behind the scenes details in-cluding nametags, event schedules, mailings, scanning of ads, and provided expert graphical support to Sue Kauf-man on the Tribute Journal & Auction Catalog. I extend my thanks to all of you for delivering a most enjoyable and beneficial evening for JFC. - Jeffrey Berg Chair, 2010 Fabulous Fall Festival Auction & Dinner Party

Thanks to All Who Assisted with Our 2010 Fabulous Fall Festival


Kids Ask the Rabbi Question: Why do we get chocolate coins

for Chanukah?

Answer: The story of Chanukah begins

with the Maccabees throwing the Greeks

out of Judea, and rededicating the temple

in Jerusalem. Then the Maccabees set up a

Jewish government once again in Judea.

One of the first things a government

has to do is establish a means of doing

business with other countries, and also a

means of paying its employees, which of

course includes the soldiers who fight for

the country. That means: money.

Today, most countries use paper money,

but in ancient times, they all used coins.

The Greeks and Romans were famous for

putting the picture of the emperor on their

coins, but since the Torah forbids us from

making representations of people (and ani-

mals and stars, etc), we Jews don’t do that.

Instead, we put pictures of grain or things

like menorahs and shofars on coins, and

words in Hebrew, too. That’s how, when

archaeologists find ancient coins in Israel,

they know which are Jewish and which are

Roman or Greek coins.

To celebrate the Maccabee victory and

the establishment of a Jewish government

in Judea, we today have chocolate “coins,”

chocolate discs covered in gold or silver

foil, with pictures of the menorah and

other very Jewish symbols on them. They

remind us that the victory of the Macca-

bees had real significance for the Jews of

Judea.

And besides…

eating chocolate is

always a celebratory

thing to do!


JiFTY By Zia Waldman

JiFTY is celebrating Chanukah

on December 2nd! All Youth Group members are really encouraged to come. It will be from 7:15-8:15, and we will have tons of fun activities! Cookies! Frosting!

Lots of dreidel play!! How can anything be wrong with that??

We look forward to celebrating with you guys!!!!


CHANUKAH TIPS

Here are a few helpful tips for celebrating Chanukah: The candles are lit after dark (except on Shabbat…see below). The point of lighting candles

is to publicize the miracle of Chanukah (as the Talmud says, l’pirsomey neysah.) So tradition-ally the menorah is supposed to sit in the window where it can be seen. Of course, around here, we can’t see most people’s windows…(in my window where you can see the glow…)

On Friday evening, the Chanukah candles are lit before the Shabbat candles. When we light the Chanukah candles, we say the blessing first and then light the candles;

when we light the Shabbat candles, we light the candles first and then say the blessing. The Chanukah candles are placed in the menorah from right to left, the

way Hebrew is written. The Chanukah candles are lit from left to right, so that the newest one is

lit first each night. Consider putting your menorah on a piece of wax paper or tin foil or on a plate to avoid get-

ting melted wax on fine furniture. Place a large grocery bag somewhere near the menorah (but away from the flame!), and

each night, put at least one non-perishable food item in it (maybe one per family member?). This is a good way of adding the mitzvah of tzedakah to the holiday. When Chanukah is over, bring your grocery bag to JFC and we’ll get it to the Community Center of Katonah, which will in turn get the food to people who need it.

Come to the JFC annual Chanukah service on Friday, December 3, at 7:30 pm…our choir has

some great songs for this holiday, and we always do a medley of Chanukah’s greatest hits. The Women’s Group serves latkes at the Oneg Shabbat…a great festive kick-off to the holi-day.

Gelt (Yiddish: money) is the traditional gift for Chanukah. It is given to

remember that when the Maccabees defeated the Greeks, the first thing they did was mint their own coins, to show that they were an independ-ent political entity. Today we give chocolate gelt…

The game of dreidl is simply a popular activity that uses the four initials of

the Hebrew words meaning: a great miracle happened there. In Israel, the dreidls convey a slightly different message: a great miracle happened here! The game should be played without real money…maybe jellybeans or other candies can be used as “the coin of the realm” for this.

Ashkenazi Jews eat latkes, potato pancakes fried in oil, while Sefardi Jews eat sufganiyot,

jelly donuts, also fried in oil…all to remember that little jug of oil in the story. Today, we all sample each other’s traditional dishes, so feel free to explore.

Have a safe, generous and happy Chanukah!


The Tzedakah of the Month

For DECEMBER is

“MIDNIGHT RUN”

Selected by the

JFC Social Action Committee

We are pleased to announce that the JFC Annual Blood Drive was a great success. We collected 29 pints of blood, with 36 people volunteering to donate. Thank you to all those who gave of themselves, literally, to help others. Each pint of blood can potentially help 3 people in medical need. So thank you for participating in this very important mitzvah. Furthermore, thank you to all the JFC B'nai Mitzvah students and their families, and Social Ac-tion Committee members who helped out by making phone calls to previous donors. We certainly would not have been able to have a successful Blood Drive without your help. And a special thank you to Ben Kurlander and Evan Dash, who volunteered their time to help out the day of the blood drive, and beforehand as well. We will be doing the next Midnight Run on Saturday, March 5, 2011. If you are interested in participating in the Run, please let Debbie Lavin know at [email protected] . We will also need help in making bag dinners. If a B'nai Mitzvah student or two would like to do a Mitzvah project but cannot attend the run, it would be a great project to coordinate various families to make the bag dinners. Also, if a student would like to coordinate a mini-clothing drive in his/her neighborhood or among his/her relatives and friends, this would be a great project. The mini-clothing drive in the neighborhood is easy: I dropped off a big plas-tic bag with a note attached explaining about the Midnight Run and that I would come back on a certain day and pick up any second-hand clothing they might like to donate. When I returned to the neighbor's homes, I collected 8 big bags of clothes! If there is sufficient interest and volun-teers, we will plan to do a third Midnight Run some time around May.

JFC Social Action Committee by Debbie Lavin

FOR THOSE WHO ARE STRUGGLING The sudden and tragic death of David Emmer this fall has left many of us struggling with our thoughts and feelings, and wondering how to make peace, if not sense, of it. We as a community did what our tradition pre-scribes, attending the funeral and the shiva services in huge numbers. But now we are left wondering what this tragedy means for us and for our community. On Sunday, December 12 at 9:00 am, we will have an opportunity to talk about all this with Dr. Alexis Johnson, a psychologist of international repute who is also a member of JFC. We will meet in the Garden Room, where coffee and bagels will be available, and with Alexis’ guidance, we will discuss the subjects of depression and suicide. This opportunity is offered for adults only. We will offer a separate program for teens, if they want to have it. If you are amongst the many who are grieving and troubled by David’s death, please take advantage of this chance to get some support and direction, so that some healing can take place. (The Emmer family is aware of, and supportive of,

this program, and they will not be in attendance.)

Want to help too? Call Debbie Lavin (232-0756)

or Jeanette Sanders (763-0311)


Pumpkin

carving

The Early Childhood Center

BIG trains...

little trains...

...peop

le train

s!


The Religious School

The Book Fair Grandpa Mikey


From the Rabbi’s Desk (cont’d)

things like scarves and mitts and such. But I know that the expectations of our children are fed by the advertising that bombards them, and none of us wants to be the “Grinch Who Steals Chanukah.” So I am hopeful that the merchants will miss the boat in marketing to us as the result of the little quirk of our calen-dar that will make Chanukah “early” this year. And I am also hopeful that you will take advantage of the calendar to celebrate Chanukah on its own terms. Light the menorah every night. Give your family and friends, if you so desire, small gifts. Add the practice of tzedakah to your holiday celebration by putting at least one non-perishable food item into a bag for the food pan-try each evening, to help others have a happy holiday too. Eat latkes and jelly donuts (sufganiyot), play dreidl and sing all those great Chanukah songs. And come to our annual Chanukah service on Decem-ber 3, at 7:30 pm…where we will light, sing, eat and re-joice together. ***davka: (Hebrew) wouldn’t you know it; also used sim-ply for emphasis.

(Continued from page 1)

Alan & Jan Sanders, Johanna Perlman, Ted Bloch

AND it’s never too late to check out this awesome shopping card program!

It’s so EASY!

Tons of vendors you already love!

And, of course, you’re helping JFC.

Call the JFC Office for details!

JFC Hiking Club’s 1st Hike

Overlook Mountain Oct . 9, 2010

IMPORTANT MESSAGE TO ALL READERS

Ruth Ossher is DANGEROUSLY ALLERGIC to many flowers. Accordingly, we CANNOT have the fol-lowing flowers in the building at any time:

Lillies Tropical flowers Jasmine scent

Any highly scented flowers Artificial flowers that have been sprayed

Ruth is NOT allergic to: Tulips

Daffodils Hydrangeas

Mums Sunflowers

Potted flowers that we plant outdoors

If you are using a florist, PLEASE have them call us even if they are sure. Dangerous mistakes have already been made.

Many thanks for your cooperation!


JFC Adults By Jeanne Shanin, Adult Program Coordinator


Jewish Family Congregation Early Childhood Center

Where Family is our middle name

WE ARE CURRENTLY REGISTERING FOR 2011-12!

Please visit our website at www.jewishfamilycongregation.org OR call Fern Tannenbaum at (914) 763-3028 ext. 15


Fran Apfel

Amy Armitage Karen Blum

Neal Blum Robert Brown

Cheryl Chess Ivy Cohen

Samantha Dorf Scott Dorf

Jo Drawec Benjamin Fischberg

Alyssa Fisher Jonathan Gabor

Ariel Goodstein Edward Grossman

Erica Levens

Daniel Levinson Kenneth Levinson

Michael Levinson Emily Lopkin

Arel Meister-Aldama

Andrew Melinek

Russell Monaco Ted Okamoto

Zachary Ozols Zoe Ozols

Richard Perlman Ari Rackear-Sturm

Emily Sanders Lisa Sheptin Tammi Jacobs Shulman

Richard Sklarin

Peri Stevelman Ellen Strauss

Zia Waldman Margot Weisberg

Arman Weissman Bryan Wolkin

Ella Zaslow David Zuckerberg

Elisa Zuckerberg

Please call the JFC Office when any relevant information arises or changes so all Birthday, Anniversary and

Yahrzeit listings are accurate and up to date. JFC can only

list names/dates that have been reported to us.

YAHRZEITS

BIRTHDAYS

Please consider celebrating significant birthdays and anniversaries with a leaf on our Simcha Tree of Life. Call the JFC Office for details.

Richard & Sandi Auerbach

David Berger & Jennifer Fisher Kenneth & Cindy Carson

Jonathan & Iris Glass Mark & Debra Lavin

ANNIVERSARIES

Aaron Blumenthal

Michael Canno Ethel Feinleib

David Sol Friedman Arthur F. Karsch

Lillian Kerner Charles Kingsley

Jeff Lederman Isadore Lichtbach

Belle Marcus Stern Malvina Mendell

Michael Mishkin

Alan Perl Grayce Romeo

Ruth Rosenthal Yale Rubin

Abraham Schulman Betty Schulman

Jack Sher Raymond Slater Bertha Waldman


Fabulous Fall Festival Nov. 20, 2010

Photos by Jamie Kaplan


Question: Is Chanukah really just a Jewish version of a winter solstice observance?

Answer: No!

Chanukah is based on an historical event…the de-feat of the Greeks by the Maccabees in the year 167 BCE. Following the departure of the Greeks, the Jews cleaned out the temple in Jerusalem, which the Greeks had trashed, and they held a rededication ceremony, which involved relighting the huge meno-rah. You know the story about the little jug of oil, etc. The date on which the rededication took place was Kislev 25. And that is the date on which we light the first candle of Chanukah.

But Kislev 25 does not always fall on or even near December 21, which is the winter solstice date. That depends on the fluctuation of the Jewish calendar, which is a lunar calendar with a solar correction to keep the festivals tied to the appropriate seasons (unlike the Muslim calendar which is a true lunar cal-endar with no solar correction). This year is a good example of how far apart the solstice and Chanukah can be: we will light the first candle of Chanukah on the evening of December 1, fully three weeks before the solstice. So, no…Chanukah is not a winter solstice event. Many years, it may include the solstice within its eight days, but that is just coincidence.

ASK THE RABBI

ShopWithScrip!

And help support JFC at no cost to you while shopping at the stores you already visit!

If you have not yet created an account with ShopWithScrip, please contact the JFC Office and we’ll get you started!

It’s easy! It’s free! And there are many exciting offers!


Please Support Our Advertisers

Have you checked out our

Gift Shop lately?

Stop in and take a look! The items

change frequently!

If you are

interested in purchasing anything, please let the JFC

Office know.

WJCS to Host Chanukah

Celebration for Developmentally Disabled Persons

The WJCS Havorah Program and Westchester Re-

form Temple will co-host a Chanukah Celebration

for Persons with Developmental Disabilities on

Wednesday, December 8 from 7:00 – 8:30 PM at

Westchester Reform Temple at 255 Mamaroneck

Road in Scarsdale. There will be music, crafts, re-

freshments and fun. All are welcome and admission

is free. RSVP to Gail Oliver at 914-761-0600 X107.


Caring Committee Doris Hettmansberger In Memory of David Emmer Resa Fremed In Memory of David Emmer

General Fund Gary and Paula Levine and Family In Memory Of Hirsch Grossman Doris Hettmansberger In Memory Of Betty Rubin. Al Rubin and Bill Goldman Michael and Renee Wortzman In Memory Of David Emmer Phyllis and Julius Rubin In Memory Of David Emmer Elizabeth Goodman In Memory Of David Emmer Geraldine Trent In Memory Of David Emmer Arnold and Lee Birdoff In Memory Of David Emmer Dan and Shelly Papernik In Honor Of Rabbi Freedman, Cantor Ben-David, Ruth Ossher, Jolie Levy and Polly Schnell on the occasion of Abigail's Bat Mitzvah David and Amy Fischer In Memory Of David Emmer Alice and Allan Gottlieb In Memory Of David Emmer Lawrence and Leslie Gottlieb In Memory Of David Emmer 6th Grade In Honor Of their Religious School Teachers: Ruth Ossher, Rona Salpeter and Noah Sklarin Robert and Amy Bernstein In Memory Of David Emmer Hal and Laurie Wolkin In Memory Of David Emmer Mindy and Drew Hoffman In Memory Of David Emmer Brent Feurer In Memory Of David Emmer Frank Jahn In Memory Of David Emmer Leonard Mark In Memory Of David Emmer Susan Westlake In Memory Of David Emmer Lee Sherman In Memory Of David Emmer David Wallick In Memory Of David Emmer David Amerling In Memory Of David Emmer Barbara Orwick In Memory Of David Emmer Priscilla Luckow In Memory Of David Emmer Michael Kingston In Memory Of David Emmer Elizabeth Maltin In Memory Of David Emmer Cheryl Echevarria In Memory Of David Emmer Laurence Furic In Memory Of David Emmer Richard & Sandra Auerbach In Memory Of David Emmer Stephen and Roberta Margolis In Memory Of Freda Shuler and Rose Margolis

High Holy Days Marvin and Yvette Carp

JFC-URJ Camp Fund Lawrence and Leslie Gottlieb In Memory of David Emmer

Rabbi’s Discretionary Fund Allen Gabor and Lisa Papernik In Honor Of Rabbi Carla Freedman on the occasion of Abigail’s Bat Mitzvah Jennifer and David Ceisler In Memory Of David Emmer Susan Stillman In Memory Of Aaron Stillman David and Stephanie Eisenberg In Memory Of Rae Shulman Laura Levenson & Jay Stenberg High Holy Days Marjorie Karsch In Honor Of Stephanie and Andrew Blum

Donations to JFC Last Month

IF ANY DONATIONS MADE LAST MONTH ARE NOT LISTED, KINDLY CONTACT THE JFC OFFICE AND LET US KNOW.

Donations made to the

Andrew and Matthew

Emmer College Trust

funds are NOT listed in

the JFC Shofar. The

Emmer Family has been

notified of all donations.


Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 ECC

P/T conferences

Chanukah (1st Candle)

Creation Station

2 K-3/CC/SMP YG Chanukah Celebration

Chanukah (2nd Candle)

Bd Mtg

3

ECC Children’s “Shabbat for Me” 6:00

Chanukah (3rd Candle)

Service 7:30 Tot Shabbat

4 Gr. 7 9-10:45

Chanukah

(4th Candle)

5 Gr. 4-6 Chanukah Celebration

Chanukah (5th Candle)

6 ECC

Gr. 7


7 ECC


8 ECC Chanukah Celebration


Creation Station

9 K-3/CC/SMP

10 ECC


11 Gr. 7 9-10:45

12 Gr. 4-6

NFTY Social Justice Day

Kids Knesset 10:10

For Those Who Are Struggling 9 :00

13 ECC

Gr. 7

ECC Comm. Mtg. 7:30

14 ECC

15 ECC

Creation Station

16 K-3/CC/SMP YG

Kids Knesset 5:10

RS Staff Mtg 6:15-7:15

17 ECC

Gr. 5 Service Service 7:30 Tot Shabbat

18 Gr. 7 9-10:45 RS Talent Show 5:30-7:00

19 Gr. 4-6

20 ECC

Gr. 7

21 ECC

10-PK 6-7:30

22

23

24 [K/L Closed]

OFFICE CLOSED


25

26 27 28 29 30 31


December 2010

JEWISH FAMILY CONGREGATION

W I N T E R B R E A K NO ECC OR RELIGIOUS SCHOOL O F F I C E C L O S E D

W I N T E R B R E A K NO ECC OR RELIGIOUS SCHOOL

Jewish Family Congregation 111 Smith Ridge Rd/Rte. 123

P.O. Box 249

South Salem, NY 10590

Non Profit Organization

Postage PAID

White Plains, NY Permit No. 9022

CURRENT RESIDENT OR

Shofar December 2010

Documents

Transcript of Shofar December 2010