April 2010
Nisan/IYAR 5770
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Event Quick Reference:
See member’s calendar
or call 206-855-7924 for event details.
Event Quick Reference:
April 11 – Yom Hashoah – IFC event
April 17 – JLC Beach Plastics Collection/Art Project/Potluck/EcoHavdalah
April 24 – Earth Day Work Party at Pritchard Park
May 2 – Lag B’Omer Picnic, Garden Planting and JLC Graduation
May TBA – Showing & discussion of the Coen brothers film “A Serious Man”
YOM HASHOAH
Sponsored by the Interfaith Council: Holocaust Remembrance Day: Sunday, April 11 at 3 pm in front of Eagle Harbor Congregational Church. We’ll have music and readings on this day of solemn remembrance.
EARTH DAY EVENTS
Saturday, 4/17/2010 – Beach Plastics Collection and Art Project, Dinner Potluck and JLC-led Eco-Havdalah Details TBD.
All are invited to help with this wonderful project to raise awareness of the environmental costs of plastics to our beaches and oceans. We will collect plastics on the beach and then make them into art which will be part of traveling exhibit organized by Rebecca and friends. We will bring this Shabbes to a close by sharing a potluck dinner and a sweet eco-themed Havdalah, led by the JLC.
Please feel welcomed to come to all or any part of this Shabbes. This is not just for JLC, but for the whole community!
Saturday, 4/24/2010 – Bainbridge Island-wide Earth Day Project at Pritchard Park
Again this year we will be tackling Scotch Broom and other invasive, noxious weeds at Pritchard Park, working alongside the Weed Warriors. Bring gloves & tools and spend an hour or spend the day. Event begins at 10:00 am.
HAPPY PESACH “Robotic Seder”
TIKKUN OLAM
Most months, we try to profile a charity or two in the newsletter. Sometimes they are charities that the Tikkun Olam Committee has chosen to receive some our funds, sometimes they are charities that one or more members are involved with or have suggested should be profiled, or maybe a charity has come to our attention and others may want to learn something about it. One of the things that we always try to do before a charity is profiled (and especially before we donate money) is to figure out how well it is run and exactly what their mission is. A great resource for this kind of information is Charity Navigator. This month I decided to profile Charity Navigator instead of a specific charity. Click here for their website.
Founded in 2001, Charity Navigator has become the nation’s largest and most-utilized evaluator of charities. They have professional analysts that examine tens of thousands of non-profit financial documents. As a result, they know as much about the true fiscal operations of charities as anyone. They have used this knowledge to develop an unbiased, objective, numbers-based rating system to assess the financial health of over 5,000 of America’s best-known charities. Specifically, Charity Navigator’s rating system examines two broad areas of a charity’s financial health — how responsibly it functions day to day as well as how well positioned it is to sustain its programs over time. Each charity is then awarded an overall rating, ranging from zero to four stars. To help donors avoid becoming victims of mailing-list appeals, each charity’s commitment to keeping donors’ personal information confidential is also assessed. To read more about how charities are ranked see their article How Do We Rate Charities?
Charity Navigator accepts no funding from the charities that they evaluate, ensuring that the ratings remain objective. Charity Navigator, a non-profit 501 © (3) organization itself, depends on support from individuals, corporations and foundations that believe they provide a much-needed service to America’s charitable givers.
The site is easily navigable by charity name, location or type of activity and also features opinion pieces by Charity Navigator experts and donation tips. Recent articles have included “Top 10 Best Practices of Savvy Donors”, “6 Questions To Ask Charities Before Donating”, “Tips For Older Donors” and an article that recently caught my attention, “What has happened with your Haiti contribution?”
They also have lots of interesting Top/Bottom 10 lists – such as 10 Charities Overpaying their For-Profit Fundraisers, 10 Super-Sized Charities, 10 Slam-Dunk Charities, 10 Celebrity-Related Charities, 10 Highly Rated Charities Relying on Private Contributions, 10 Most Frequently Reviewed Charities and more. Take some time to take a look at this interesting and informative website.
Helpline sends its thanks to the chavurah for our volunteers and contributors – Bob and Jane Greenberg, Dina Manoff, Denise Brown, and the Bessers – in Helpline’s recent food drive. Not only were there many more food donations than during the usual food drives, an impressive $800 was also donated to the Food Bank during this drive. Thanks to all of our volunteers and any others who helped out with donations – Yesher Koach!
Lag B’Omer Picnic, Garden Planting and JLC Graduation Sun, May 2. 10:00 am. Details TBD.
JLC would like to invite the whole Chavurah to join us for our Lag B’Omer picnic and to help celebrate the achievements of the JLC students. We will especially celebrate and honor graduating seniors, Hallie and Talia who have spent the last twelve years as JLC students, aides and teachers!
It was so meaningful and successful last year that we will again plant and tend a garden to feed our homeless neighbors. Once it grows, you are welcomed to join the Chavurah group who will work with the Compass Center in Seattle this summer to make and serve a healthy meal to 100 people.
“WHEN DO WE EAT” Movie Night a Success
The Travis’ hosted Jon, Robin, Marianne, Diana, and Rebecca for Shabbat. After a fantastic potluck dinner and delightful conversation, we jumped into the hilariously outrageous Passover movie, “When Do We Eat”.
But the best part was not the story! It was the Rabbi midrash track with sage perspective — and then our group discussion of what it means to each of us to be Jewish, or married to a Jew.
For those who missed it, you can get the movie direct at WhenDoWeEat.com or from Netflix. The community dialogue is difficult in a vacuum, but I’m sure we’ll do it again in a few years :)
HAPPENING ON BAINBRIDGE
TAX HELP: Free income tax assistance & electronic filing is available for seniors and low-to-middle income taxpayers at the Bainbridge Public Library, Feb. 1 – Apr. 14. Hours are MWF 10:30-1, Mon. eve 5:30-7:30, and by appointment only-Sat. Bring all pertinent forms and 2008 tax return. Volunteers are trained and sponsored by the IRS and AARP. Information: 780-0931.
FROM THE IFC
6/6/10 (Sunday): *Baccalaureate: The 2010 High School Seniors’ Baccalaureate will be hosted by the Interfaith Council on Sunday, June 6th at 3 p.m. Location to be determined. Seniors will come dressed in their caps and gowns, and the service will be followed by refreshments. Come and celebrate their achievements!
The Baccalaureate committee needs the following:
1. Clergy and lay members to serve on the committee. We can have our meetings at BHS, but our role is to mentor the students and help them plan their Baccalaureate service, including all of the little details associated with it (inviting speakers and musicians; finalizing, laying out, and printing the program with the associated artwork; communicating with the students and following up with them).
The number of graduating high school seniors from your congregations, including the names of 1 or two outstanding seniors that you would nominate to serve on the Baccalaureate committee and/or to speak or perform during Baccalaureate.
Last year we had just 45 students participate in Baccalaureate. The year before that we had about 100, and the year before that we had about 150 students. Do we have fewer students within our congregations? Do we need to do a better job of promoting Baccalaureate and preparing our high school seniors for this sweet, spiritual celebration of this important milestone in their lives?
You can send this info to patricialahtinen@msn.com
HAPPENING IN SEATTLE
MenschWorks: Volunteer at the Holocaust Remembrance Day Community Commemoration April 11, 2010 12:00 PM – 4:00 PM
On Sunday, April 11, MenschWorks volunteers will be giving their time to help out at the Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center’s event, Yom Hashoah: Holocaust Remembrance Day Community Commemoration at the SJCC. This annual event provides our community with a meaningful way to observe Yom Hashoah.
You can be a Mensch, too! Volunteer with us on Sunday to help make this a successful event. Volunteers will meet for lunch at noon and then will assist with activities and help facilitate the day’s programs. This project is the third in our MenschWorks volunteer program. Projects occur each month at a different local partner agency of the Jewish Federation. Sign up for this project or for upcoming projects here!
RSVP: Register Now
Program Start Time: 12pm
Location:
Please RSVP for project location and details.
Event Cost: $18 one-time program fee
Posted in Young Adults
Stroum Lectures in Jewish Studies 2010 presents “Agnon’s Moonstruck Lovers: The Song of Songs in Israeli Culture” Two lectures by Professor Ilana Pardes of the Hebrew University, Jerusalem Both lectures will be at 7:30 in Kane Hall at The University of Washington
April 25: “Upon the Handles of the Lock: Agnon, Balak and the Israeli Bible”
April 27: “Ethnographies of Love and the Quest for the Ultimate Song”
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