February 2008
Shevat/Adar I 5768
SHIR HAYAM EVENTS
See member’s calendar or call 206-855-7924 for event details.
If you do not remember how to log in to the members only area use the following instructions:
1. Click the member area link on the upper right corner of the web home page
2. When asked you to enter your Username and Password, click “Forgotton your password?” link
3. Fill in your email address (the one you used when you originally signed up)
4. Click submit button
5. Go to your email inbox and you will have received a “New Password Requested” email from Shir Hayam Community Forums Mailer
6. Open email
7. Click on link in the email and follow the instructions EXACTLY
If you need any help, please call or email Paul Travis or Rachel Kerbrat for help.
UPCOMING SERVICES
SHABBAT
Saturday, February 9th JLC-led 4-Worlds Shabbat & potluck. 5:00 pm The JLC students will help lead us through the Sephardic 4-Worlds of Shabbat for a short, fun, and artsy intergenerational Shabbat Service. Location tba – watch for the email.
FEBRUARY SHABBATON WITH ARIK LEIBOWITZ
See member’s calendar or call 206-855-7924 for event details.
Our chavurah welcomes another visit with Arik who will come for a Shabbaton this month. Please save the dates – we hope as many of you as possible will come to these services as Arik brings us his special qualities of spirituality, gentleness, humor, wisdom and love of music.
—FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 22: SHABBAT SERVICES AND SONG WITH DESSERT POTLUCK
—SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23: SHABBAT MORNING SERVICES
—SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23: HAVDALAH AND TEACHING WITH POTLUCK DINNER
MISHEBARACH
Our blessings and wishes for strength and continued healing to Marianne Cohen and Sheryl McCloud
ADULT BOOK GROUP
See member’s calendar or call 206-855-7924 for event details.
MOVIE NIGHT
Saturday, March 1 at 7:00
Live and Become (Israeli, 2006)
In 1985 at the height of “Operation Moses,” during the massive airlift of Ethiopian Jews to Israel, a Jewish boy slated for emigration dies A nine-year old Christian boy is secretly put in his place by a mother desperate for her son to escape Ethiopia’s violence and poverty. Her parting words to him are: “Go, live, and become.” And so begin the incredible adventures of Schlomo, the name given to him, as he grows from childhood to adulthood in his strange adopted land. Suffused with warmth and humor, Live and Become is an unforgettable story of survival and love. 143 minutes, Hebrew and French with English subtitles.
Bring a drink or dessert or finger food.
Hope you can come!
See member’s calendar or call 206-855-7924 for event details.
FROM DENISE:
After watching “The Jewish Americans” I was curious to learn about the publication, The Forward. The link follows and looks of interest. Anyone interested in listening to Yiddish radio…the link is there! www.forward.com
COORDINATING COMMITTEE MEETING Minutes
January 20, 2008
Jeff Brown, David Cowan, Sharon Rutzick, Chris Stanley, Cay Vandervelde attending – Torah Insurance and other insurance issues: The Committee discussed several issues regarding the Torah’s insurance – Should the Torah be lost or stolen, would insurance proceeds go to the chavurah or to the Trust in England that has given us the Torah on permanent loan? Should we increase our Torah coverage, especially since repairs have been made? What would replacement costs be? What types of situations does our liability insurance cover? Sharon will contact England to clarify their expectations in terms of insurance, and contact Rabbi Benzaquen regarding Torah replacement costs as well as his estimate of the present value of our Torah. Jeff will contact our insurance company about our liability insurance.
- Jewish Renewal Donation – We discussed how best to acknowledge, compensate and thank Jewish Renewal whose rabbis and leaders have been responsible for so many of the materials that we have drawn upon or that have inspired us. We have also drawn upon teachings, etc. from the Reconstructionist movement. We are contemplating a modest increase in our membership dues so that we may make donations to these two organizations by way of showing our appreciation for all that they have made available to us, and also establishing a “Resource Fund” to pay for future materials that we may wish to purchase for our chavurah’s use.
∑ Cemetery – We discussed the need to clarify the chavurah’s access, if any, to the Jewish portion of the Port Blakely Cemetery. Chris will contact Rabbi Glickman of Kol Shalom to begin a dialogue between our two organizations on this issue.
- Committee Feedback – Denise will send us lists of those who signed up for the various committees this year so that the Coordinating Committee can be sure to have information about and feedback from the various committees and their work.
- Next Coordinating Committee will be on Sunday, March 2 at Cay Vandervelde’s home at 10:30 a.m.
TIKKUN OLAM CORNER
If you have a favorite charity that you would like to profile here – please let me know.
It’s our single most bountiful resource. Yet, water is a daily privilege millions take for granted. The little known truth is that lack of clean and accessible drinking water is the second largest worldwide killer of children under five.
To address this situation, a nationwide effort is launching during World Water Week called the Tap Project, a campaign that celebrates the clean and accessible tap water available as an every day privilege to millions, while helping UNICEF provide safe drinking water to children around the world.
Beginning Sunday, March 16 through Saturday, March 22, restaurants will invite their customers to donate a minimum of $1 for the tap water they would normally get for free. For every dollar raised, a child will have clean drinking water for 40 days.
As the world’s leading children’s organization, UNICEF understands the critical role water plays in a child’s survival. Currently, UNICEF provides access to safe water and sanitation facilities while promoting safe hygiene practices in more than 90 countries. By 2015, UNICEF’s goal is to reduce the number of people without safe water and basic sanitation by 50 percent.
You can make a donation, register your restaurant and see which area restaurants are participating and learn more about The Tap Project at their website: http://www.tapproject.org/
The Shir Hayam and Eitz Or teens are teaming up again to participate in the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life at Greenlake on May 31-June 1, 2008. It was a fun and very powerful way for us to help out in our community, and we’re looking forward to your support and making it an even greater success this year! More details will be forthcoming, as the event gets closer. If you would like to make a donation now, click the link above.
HAPPENING IN SEATTLE
NEXTBOOK Series February Events
James Kugel FEBRUARY 06 2008, 07:00 PM _HENRY ART GALLERY, UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
How to Read the Bible Modern biblical scholars have discovered all sorts of amazing things — when and how different biblical books were written, where the ancient Israelites really came from and how they ended up in the land, and what sort of a person King David really was. But have they killed the Bible in the process? James Kugel enters the fray, exploring these radically different readings and trying to find a place for himself as both a modern scholar and an observant Jew. A longtime professor at Harvard, Kugel is also the author of The Bible As It Was; he now directs the Institute for the History of the Jewish Bible at Bar-Ilan University.
Jon Entine FEBRUARY 20 2008, 07:00 PM HENRY ART GALLERY, UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
Genes and Jewish Identity In Abraham’s Children: Race, Identity, and the DNA of the Chosen People, Jon Entine continues his investigations into nature, nurture, and the politics that surround them. Entine delves into recent genetic research that suggests Jews of the Himalayas and of New Mexico may have more in common than they think, and tackles the controversial subject of Jewish intelligence. The Emmy-winning journalist’s other books include Taboo: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports and Why We’re Afraid to Talk About It. Joining Mr. Entine will be renowned geneticist and UW professor Mary-Claire King, discoverer of the breast cancer gene.
The JEWISH STUDIES PROGRAM AT THE HENRY M. JACKSON SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIES presents the lecture series:
Tuesday, February 5, 2008 Hannah Pressman, UW Jewish Studies Cole Fellow, Whose Little Boy Are You?: Constructing Jewish Selfhood in Modern Hebrew Literature 202 Communications, 3:30-5:00 PM The question “Whose little boy are you?” is not just the title of Hanoch Bartov’s autobiographical novel of 1970; it also represents a set of crucial questions about the construction of selfhood in Israeli culture. Does an individual’s story belong to himself, his family, his town, his country-or, perhaps, his readers? What role does religion play in coming of age, and how is the struggle with faith represented in Hebrew autobiographical literature? Through the lens of Bartov and other Israeli authors of the mid-to-late twentieth century, the colloquium offers the opportunity to consider issues of identity and affiliation in modern Israel._Texts will be provided in translation.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008, 7:00 pm, 220 Kane Hall, UW Campus
Dr. Avner Cohen U.S. Institute of PeaceIsrael & the Bomb: A Unique Case? Dr. Cohen is a prominent expert on Israel’s nuclear policy and global nuclear proliferation at large. He has been a global nuclear proliferation at large senior research scholar at the Center for International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland since 2000.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008 Jewish Studies Program; Sephardic Lectures Daniel Schroeter (History, University of California at Irvine), “Who are the Jews of Morocco? The origins and identity of the rural communities”. Communications 202, 12:00-1:30. The Sephardic Lectures are co-sponsored by The Jewish Studies Program, The Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities, the programs of Middle East Studies, Near East Languages and Civilization, and Spanish and Portuguese, and the Department of History.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008 3:30-5 p.m. in Room 317 Thomson Hall. A Jewish Spark Rekindled in China A Talk by Mr. Shi Lei A Chinese Jewish Descendent from Kaifeng Shi Lei represents the younger generation of Jewish descendants in Kaifeng, China, a community whose history dates back over a thousand years to the Tang Dynasty. With only a few hundred Jewish descendants still living in China (out of a population of 1.3 billion ethnic Chinese), the Jewish descendants are heirs to a unique and little known place in the annals of both Chinese and Jewish history. Shi Lei will discuss the Kaifeng Jewish community and his own experiences as a Jewish descendant in both China and Israel. Event is sponsored by UW Jewish Studies Program and UW China Studies Program. The American Jewish Committee, Greater Seattle Chapter and the Sino-Judaic Institute are sponsoring his visit to Seattle.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008 New Interpretations of Israel: Politics, Society, Culture and Human Rights Lecture Series Dr. Avner Cohen United States Institute of Peace, Washington, D.C. Israel and the Bomb: A Unique Case? 7:00 PM 220 Kane Hall, UW Campus Dr. Cohen is a prominent expert on Israel’s nuclear policy and on global nuclear proliferation at large. He has been a senior research scholar at the Center for International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland since 2000. Dessert reception follows the lecture
*FROM THE IFC”
4/19/08 (Saturday):
*Earth Day Service Event: The Interfaith Council will sponsor an Earth Day service event on Saturday, April 19th at Pritchard Park.
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