Family Engagement Community

From the pages of Kadima, the Newsletter of Congregation Adas Emuno:

Religious School News from

Annice Benamy, Religious School Director

Family Engagement Community

(More information can be found in my weekly newsletter Ma Chadash: What’s New at Congregation Adas Emuno Temple and Religious School. If you are not receiving it, please email me immediately so I can put you on the email list.)

As many of you know, Board of Trustee member and parent, Rebecca Kind Slater and I wrote an application to be part of an URJ (Union of Reform Judaism) Community of Practice [see our previous post, Communities of Practice]. This is a new concept for URJ because in the past, there were regional offices throughout the United States helping synagogues. Now, through an application process, synagogues are able to apply to be part of a community of practice on a subject important to the congregation.

What is a community of practice? Communities of practice are formed by people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly. Congregation Adas Emuno is one of 11 congregations from the United States in "Successfully Engaging Young Families."

At first I went into this project thinking it was all about how to increase our Temple membership and create great programming. However, towards the middle of my weekend in Chicago at the inaugural Communities of Practice meetings, I discovered it was about something much different. Our goal is: Families with young children will develop strong, deep, long-lasting connections to Jewish life. For the young families, it is about relationships and making connections, an impact to do things differently, and meaning to change or add something to understand the world. Membership is not the priority.

Where do we go from here? If you would like to be part of the Young Families Task Force, please send me an email at adasschool at gmail.com. We will meet in March to get this project off the ground. This will take a commitment from everyone to get the word out that Congregation Adas Emuno is alive and well and in Leonia, New Jersey. Let's share our successes and engage with others.

L'shalom,

Annice Upcoming Religious School Calendar:

• March 3 – Grade 2 Family Enrichment
• March 10 – Model Seders for K-3 and 4-10
• March 22 – Grade 2 Family Shabbat
• March 31 – No Religious School for Passover vacation
• April 7 – Yom HaShoah program grades 6-7
• April 14 – Yom Haaztmaut School-wide program
• April 19 – K/1 Family Shabbat
• April 21 – K/1 Family Enrichment

Yoga At Adas Emuno

Interested in taking a yoga class, or just curious? We are very pleased to share with you this latest offering on the part of our Adult Education program, a weekly yoga class.  Here's the scoop!:

A hearty todah rabah to congregant Mia Howard for offering this special treat for our members! And if there's anything you can say about Adas Emuno, it's that we're very flexible here!

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

From the desk of …                    

 Rabbi Barry Schwartz

    

EARLY OR LATE?

Ever notice that the Jewish holidays always come “early” or “late” but never on time?

This most common of comments is ironic indeed. According to the Hebrew calendar our Jewish holidays always come on time because they fall on the same day of the same Hebrew month year after year. It is only in comparison to the secular (civil) calendar that they appear early or late. The fact that we unfailingly make the comparisons is testimony to Mordecai Kaplan’s thesis that we really do live in two civilizations, which he called Jewish and Western (and can be called “Jerusalem” and “Athens” when referring to philosophical world views [see Rabbi Schwartz's previous column, From Athens to Jerusalem).

Well, this year is a doozy. Talk about the holidays coming early… by the time you read this Purim will be over, because it is in February instead of March, and Pesach is in March instead of April. Rosh HaShana is two days after Labor Day and Sukkot and Simchat Torah are done by the end of September.

But the craziest thing of all is that Hanukkah and Thanksgiving come at the same time this year! No, that’s not a mistake… check your calendar and you will see that we actually light the first candle the night before Turkey Day (in my case Tofurkey Day). Due to vagaries of the Hebraic and Gregorian calendars (too complicated to explain) this confluence is unprecedented and will never happen exactly this way again. The next time anything remotely similar will occur will be in 2070 and 2165.

But back to our next holiday, Pesach, which happens to be the most widely observed Jewish holiday. You don’t have to belong to a synagogue. In fact, you don’t have to leave home. A special family meal is the centerpiece. And the celebration of rebirth of spring and freedom in the context of the great Exodus story are universal themes that appeal to all Jews, and indeed, all people.

Consider adding a special dimension to your observance of Pesach this year. Congregation Adas Emuno is proud to host the Pesach Morning Reform Community Service this year (Tuesday, March 26 at 10:30 am). The rabbis and cantors from Temple Beth Emeth in Teaneck and Temple Sinai in Tenafly will join us. Any of you who have attended these communal services know that the worship is spirited and joyful. You will even be pleasantly surprised at the quality of the kosher-for-Passover reception that follows! Even if you are up past your bed time and eat too much at your family seder… come early, stay late, and you’ll be right on time for our festival gathering.

After all, it makes no difference if the holidays are early or late, so long as we celebrate.

Emma Schuller's Blood Drive Mitzvah Project

From the pages of Kadima, Emma Schuller's message to our congregation.

Hello Adas Emuno Congregants, 
 
My name is Emma Schuller and I will become a bat mitzvah on Saturday, May 11. I chose a Blood Drive as my mitzvah project. It will be held on Sunday, March 24 from 10:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. To take part in this blood drive, you must be 16 or older. You must come with some sort of photo ID, such as a Driver's License or passport. After you donate, a snack will be provided. My goal is to have at least 30 people to sign up and donate. If you would like to donate, please call my mom (Zena) on her cell phone at 973-534-6784 to schedule a time. Walk-ins are welcome, but an appointment time works best. Please help me achieve my goal and make this blood drive a success! 

Sincerely yours, 

Emma Schuller 

 That is a mitzvah indeed! Todah rabah, Emma, we know your blood drive will be a great success!

Jewish Culture in India This Sunday!

Join us this Sunday, March 17th, for an evening of music and discussion about the Jews of India:

Shalom! Namaste!  And we hope to see you there!

Spring Into (Social) Action!

A Message to the Congregation  

from Annette DeMarco

 Social Action Committee Chairperson

Time to Spring Into Social Action

The Social Action Committee will be holding its next meeting on Thursday, March 21, at 6:45 pm. Won’t you please join us? If you can’t make it, but have an idea for the committee to discuss, please email me at acheryl21 at gmail.com. Thank you.

We are continuing the food drive, so please continue to bring non-perishable items to the temple. Another delivery was just made to the Center for Food Action from Adas Emuno. I hope you know how very much this food is appreciated, as well as needed.

As spring arrives (and not a minute too soon!) we will be working on new projects. So, we’ll be in touch!

Happy Passover to All!

A New Sign

As you may recall, we lost our temple's sign to Hurricane Sandy (see our previous post, Sign of the Times), and to be honest, it had long been recognized that our our signage was inadequate, and antiquated.

We are therefore pleased to share with you the fact that our sign has finally been replaced. We are very pleased with our new sign, and we hope that you are too!

 

This sign should be much more easily visible from the street than our old one, as well as being more pleasing to the eye. And note that, unlike our old sign, this one features our new logo, as well as our street address!

 But even this bigger, brighter sign is still not so easy to read as folks drive by, so along with the replacement sign, we added something new:

 

 

Now, there really shouldn't be any trouble recognizing us from the road!

Special thanks go out to Lauren Rowland and Amy Chartoff for arranging for our new signage, and to Michael Fishbein, chair of our Buildings and Grounds Committee. This has certainly been a day for religious renewal, and new signs of the times!