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News from the Religious School at Adas Emuno

from the pages of Kadima, the newsletter of Congregation Adas Emuno:

News from the

Religious School

at Adas Emuno

Religious School Director
Jennifer Katz-Goldstein

It is hard to believe that we have entered the month of November, albeit with a bit of an interruption after the unexpected storms in late October. So we have had an incredible beginning in more ways than one! But our schoolhouse, as always, is filled with the energy and spirit of our students and teachers busy with their respective curriculum.

It is a pleasure to have our school gather to pray as a community each week. As we have settled into a routine, so too have our students become increasingly comfortable participating in services and sitting in prayer together. I am particularly pleased when our students assist the Rabbi and Cantor in leading portions of the services. In addition, our 7th graders are getting the opportunity to “practice” standing in front of their community and getting comfortable on the bima.

 One of the areas that we are focusing on to improve this year is the Hebrew level of our students. What we mean by this is increasing their ability to follow the service, read and/or chant the prayers and be comfortable with their own prayer participation. As such, we will be emphasizing more prayer chanting in our classrooms. Students will spend time as a group, in pairs and individually working on getting to know prayer tunes earlier so that by the time we begin to work on B'nai Mitzvah preparation, they will already have achieved a certain level of competency in many of the prayers they will lead during their B'nai Mitzvah service. 

One particularly exciting component to this is a website that student Cantor Luke Hawley has put together for Adas Emuno. With this site, a student or parent can have access to all of the prayers contained in our Shabbat worship service and eventually, to include holiday songs, blessings and Torah Portions for B'nai Mitzvah. One can follow along reading text or listening to the correct way to chant and learn at one’s own pace. All of our congregants will be provided with the website and password to gain access to this wonderful learning tool. Thank you Cantor Hawley!
 
Our Confirmation class also continually impresses me. Our students are consistently almost all in attendance for every session (all fifteen of them) and their enthusiasm for being at Adas Emuno and learning together is contagious. I must admit that being with this group, teaching and learning with them is one of my favorite aspects of my job. Our teens are quite impressive! I should also mention that many of these same Confirmation students as well as other teens are also assistant teachers in our school. Having these students helping out and serving as role models is invaluable.

We have begun our Family Shabbat Grade Participation services. Already grade seven has gathered in October for a family dinner and service participation which was truly impressive. Grade Six will participate on November 18, and on December 9, grades four/five will come together.  We look forward to sharing another special evening together with our students, parents and the Congregation.

In December, students will usher in the Festival of Lights with a special snack of latkes, applesauce and soufganiyot (munchkin donuts) a special student service focused on the “miracles” of Chanukah and in-class learning. A special thank you to the parent volunteers who provide the ritual foods and extra materials we need as well as setting up and cleaning up when we are finished. These unique days could not take place without you!! 

As the holidays approach, please be on the lookout for your child to bring home a copy of the “Parent Page”. This is put out by the URJ (Union of Reform Judaism) and serves as a guide to observing the holidays and includes history, blessings, stories and projects to help you and your family enjoy the holidays.
 
Progress reports will be sent home for every child in grades kindergarten through seven during the month of January. These are our way to give you a “glance” at what your child is doing in class. As always, please feel free to contact me at any time regarding these or any other school matter either by phone or email at Adasschool@yahoo.com.

L’Shalom, (go forward towards peace)

Jennifer Katz-Goldstein

Sephardic Music Festival

Something that may be of interest is the upcoming Sephardic Music Festival in New York City, on December 20-27th. Here's some information about it, from their website:

The Sephardic Music Festival showcases the remarkable diversity that exists within the Jewish community. Its tapestry of harmonies, rhythms, and cultural motifs are as rich, vibrant, and diverse as the Jewish world itself. Popular perceptions of Jews and Jewish culture are dominated by Ashkenazi images and symbols like bagels, gefilte fish, klezmer, and Yiddish. This is the first music festival to focus exclusively on the less familiar but captivating culture of the Jewish communities of Spain/Portugal, North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia.  The festival showcases artists from all over the world, representing cultural traditions from Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) to Mizrahi (Middle Eastern/North African) to Yemenite (Judeo-Arabic). In addition to traditional liturgical music, Shabbat songs, Sephardic folk tunes, and classic love poems (Romanceros), the festival also presents artists who fuse traditional rhythms, melodies, and themes with modern styles such as electro, hip hop, and dance music. The Sephardic Scholar Series, an important part of the Festival, brings performers, ethnomusicologists, and experts together to illuminate the historical and sociological roots of Sephardic music and culture.  quotes:  “This Hanukkah fest wants to school us in Jewish music—and not just your grandpa’s klez.” - Time Out NY “Thanks to events like the Sephardic Music Festival, the sounds of Sephardic Jewry are at last beginning to get their due.” – The Forward  “For most New Yorkers, “Jewish music” means klezmer: plaintive fiddles, wailing clarinets and other vestiges of a largely vanished Eastern European culture. But at the Sephardic Music Festival, a New York City tradition…, the world of Jewish music gets explored from an entirely different angle, focusing on the aural legacy of Jewish communities from Spain and the Muslim world.” – JPost  “Our Hannukkah-side suggestion is the annual Sephardic Music Festival…look at this festival as the un-Ashkenazi festival.” - National Public Radio, WNYC

And here's a video promoting and fundraising for the festival:



Sephardic Music Festival Promo Clip from ShemspeedTV on Vimeo.




And the write up on the fundraising page goes like this:

Over the past 6 years we have produced the Sephardic Music Festival in NYC. The Festival highlights the remarkable diversity that exists within the Jewish community. Its tapestry of harmonies, rhythms, and cultural motifs are as rich, vibrant, and diverse as the Jewish world itself.. This is the first music festival to focus exclusively on the less familiar but captivating culture of the Jewish communities of Spain/Portugal, North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia.  The festival showcases artists from all over the world, representing cultural traditions from Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) to Mizrahi (Middle Eastern/North African) to Yemenite (Judeo-Arabic). In addition to traditional liturgical music, Shabbat songs, Sephardic folk tunes, and classic love poems (Romanceros), the festival also presents artists who fuse traditional rhythms, melodies, and themes with modern styles such as electro, hip-hop, and dance music. The Sephardic Scholar Series, an important part of the Festival, brings performers, ethnomusicologists, and experts together to illuminate the historical and sociological roots of Sephardic music and culture. The festival also produces Fashion, Art & Food events, all promoting and showcasing diversity.  Your money will help fund this year’s festival, which will take place in and around NYC from December 20th through the 27th.  We will produce an incredible diverse series of events including a Sephardic Story Slam night, a flamenco dance night, an Israeli & International Hip Hop night, a Kosher Taste Fest, a World music dance party alternative to the Matzo Ball on Xmas eve, a mega event with the Godfather of Israeli music (Miki Gavrielov). These are events that you will not see anywhere else and they are vital to the preservation and education of this rich culture. And here are some sights and sounds from previous years, representing some diverse musical tastes: And there's art and fashion too: And diversity! What a marvelous, exciting, and refreshing approach to Judaism! And so, in the Sephardic tongue of Ladino, let us remember: Boca dulce avre puertas de fierro (Kind words open iron gates)!

Searching for Our History

from the pages of Kadima, the newsletter of Congregation Adas Emuno:

From the desk of …                    

 Rabbi Barry Schwartz

    

SEARCHING FOR OUR HISTORY

In the year 1871:

-        Ulysses S. Grant was president of the United Sates and the Civil War had ended only a few years before.

-       Queen Victoria ruled England.

-        The Great Chicago fire left 100,000 people homeless.

-        The first major league baseball game was played on May 4 and the first home run was hit on May 8.

-        Lord Stanley located a missing explorer in Africa with the words, “Dr. Livingstone I presume?”

-       Congregation Adas Emuno was founded in Hoboken.

 In this, our 140^th year, I’d like to find out more about our long history. After all, we are one of the oldest congregations in New Jersey. Keep in mind that the entire Jewish population of the United States at that time was only some 200,000, before the great emigration from Eastern Europe beginning in the 1880’s swelled our ranks by several million. The majority of Jews, like the founders of Adas Emuno, were Ashkenazic German speaking immigrants (although Sephardic Jews were the oldest segment of the American Jewish community stretching back to the colonial period). 

 A few paragraphs on our journey from Hoboken to Leonia can be found in the history section of our website. A synagogue was built in 1883; the Gothic Revival building stills stands today. Ten years later the congregation had tripled to a hundred families. The flourishing community included a religious school, choir, and benevolent association to aid the poor. Brotherhood and sisterhood groups were formed in the early 1900’s, and later on a youth group and “Spiritual Advisory Committee”.  Dues in 1919 were $30 a year; $45 by 1924 (but High Holy Day seats were extra and those closest to the ark cost $15). The congregation moved here in 1974, and became known as the synagogue with a steeple and star.

 What more can we find out and include in our story? There a many gaps to try and fill in. Sadly, some records may have been destroyed during Hurricane Irene when the basement of our religious school flooded. I’d like to propose a Temple history taskforce that will search historical sources and interview long time members and others with connections to our past. If you would like to volunteer, or contribute a piece on your own memories and recollections, please contact me. 

 As a people we deeply cherish memory and the transmitting of our heritage from one generation to the next. Our story, approaching a century and a half in the making, spans more than half of our nation’s history. Let’s tell it: for ourselves, our children, and posterity.