Vacation!

Shalom Everyone,

Next week is Mid-Winter break and we are on vacation.  Have a wonderful, refreshing break.

Busy Weekend

Shalom Chaveirm,

What a busy weekend we have here at Temple.  Starting tomorrow night at 5:30 we have our monthly Family/Tot Shabbat.  It's always lots of fun and a rollicking good time for all.  So bring your tambourine or maracas and shake the night away.  And by all means, stay for the yummy dinner I am preparing.

Saturday morning our own Kitah Vav/6th Grade is leading Shabbat morning worship.  The class families provide a lunch after the service to which everyone is welcome.  Families with younger children especially may want to attend as the Rabbi & I will be talking about Bar/Bat Mitzvah requirements.  I hope all of you can make it.

Saturday night we have the next in our Aleinu series:  Temple member and award-winning author, Tanya Lee Stone, will be talking about her book, The Good, the Bad and the Barbie.  Evening begins at 6:00 at the home of Cheryl & Len Rubin.  Once you RSVP, you will receive the information.  It's a warm, collegial evening with Havdallah, drinks, dessert.  What could be more fun on a cold winter night?

Snow Storm

It's the first of February and a big snow storm is predicted for tomorrow.  We may need to cancel school and all classes.  If this is the case, stay tuned.

This Friday night begins the Hebrew month of Adar, in this case, Adar 1, since to compensate for a lunar year of 354 days the calendar adds a leap month every 7 years in a 19-year cycle.  This year we celebrate Purim March 19 and Passover waaay late in April -- the 18th.  

This Shabbat we are very fortunate to have an adult Bnai Mitzvah.  Two of our wonderful members, Linda Roberts Greenblatt and David Weissberger, have been working very hard over the past few years -- taking classes in history, Judaism, literature, Torah, Hebrew and Jewish thought.  I hope you will all turn out and support these wonderful members of our Temple family.

And speaking of our Temple Family, please come to Folk Service 5:30 this Thursday when we celebrate New Member Shabbat.

See y'all there!

 

Kids4Peace

Yesterday and later today we are visited by Jade Kaplan who serves on the board of this wonderful summer camp.  According to their website:

Kids4Peace is an interfaith initiative that creates peacemakers amongst the children of the Abrahamic faith communities in Vermont, Palestine & Israel.

http://www.kids4peacevt.org/

Several of our students have attended and found it a fun, stimulating and enlightening atmosphere, meeting Israeli Jews, Muslims and Christians right here in our own Burlington backyard.  If you would like to learn more about the camp, come today at 4:00 to hear Jade or visit their website.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Today we honor one of the most important men of the 20th Century, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  His fiery speeches and calm demeanor fueled the Civil Rights movement in the United States.  Many Jews followed his call for the advancement of justice and equality.  If you would like to learn more about them and about how you can continue Dr. King's dream, please visit: www.rac.org, the URJ's Religious Action Center website.  In our own community the CVAA is sponsoring multi-events.  If you'd like to join me today at Winooski High School from 4:00-6:00 for Onionstock, I'd love to see you.  Please bring a non-perishable food item.
http://www.cvaa.org/onionstock

Monetary information

Just a couple of updates dealing with money:

1)  Our fund-raising Miss Chocolate packets should have gone home before the break.  I think only one class, Kitah Vav/6th Grade, did not receive theirs.  Please help our school by participating in this fund raiser.

2)  Tzedakah.  Each week we encourage our students to bring in either money or a food item.  These collections seem to be waaaay down this year.  Let's get them waaaaaay up!

Welcome back!

It's 2011!  I hope everyone had a restful and refreshing break, whether you went away or not.  I was in Buffalo visiting family and returned with a nasty cold.  I should hopefully be recovered by Wednesday when everyone returns to classes, including Prophet Study group, Adult Ed. Hebrew and Religious School.


I hope everyone will join us for Saturday morning services when our own Kitah Zayin/7th Grade leads the morning worship.  The class parents are providing a lunch afterwards, to which everyone is also welcome to attend.  Later this month we have the Bar Mitzvah of Sam Edwards-Kuhn on January 22nd.  It's a wonderful event in the life of our Jewish community and I encourage all of you to attend worship services and support Sammy.  Sam has been an active participant in our Youth Service Choir on the High Holidays as well as playing violin during those services.  As part of his mitzvah project he is collecting new or slightly used children's books so please bring one to Temple next time you are here.

Sisterhood Shabbat is January 28th.  Sisterhood members (and Shabbat Choir) will be leading the service that night.  Rabbi gets a break!

And Chai School starts up again this January 20th.  We have a wonderful roster of course offerings.  If you have a teenager, whether or not s/he has attended Chai School, or even Hebrew school before, is welcome to attend.  Go to our website for course selections and to register: www.templesinaivt.org

BTW, if you get the Sunday Burlington Free Press, you may have seen our own Tanya Stone's article in the Arts section yesterday about using local products.  In Tanya's case, she used local talent to enhance her latest book, "The Good, the Bad and the Barbie."  Next month, February 12th, Tanya will be leading an ALEINU (that's our Adult Education Saturday night living room lecture series) on this topic.  Stay tuned for details.

Welcome back and have a wonderful 2011!