September 2009

Elul 5769/Tishrei 5770

Event Quick Reference:

September 11 – S’lichot Shabbat Potluck & Learning
September 17 – Cleansing Mikvah
September 18 & 19 – Rosh Hashanah
September 27 & 28 – Yom Kippur

October 4 – CROP Hunger Walk
October 11 – Sukkot & Simchat Torah

HIGH HOLIDAYS

Our High Holy Days this year, 5770, will again be guided by Rabbi Hanna Tiferet Siegel with the theme, “Prayer of the Heart.” The chavurah will be collecting food donations for Helpline at Erev Rosh Hashanah and Rosh Hashanah day services.
Erev Rosh Hashanah, Rosh Hashanah Day Services, Kol Nidre, and Yom Kippur Services will all be held at the Filipino-American Hall on Bainbridge Island, Meditation and Yizkor on Yom Kippur day will be at Linda and Dick Golden’s home on the island.
Rabbi Siegel will be available for pastoral counseling during the weekends of the High Holydays.

BEFORE ROSH HASHANAH:

S’LICHOT POTLUCK SHABBAT AND LEARNING:

Friday, September 11 at 6:30 pm
S’lichot will be at Robin Simons, 7505 NE Coyote Farm Ln., BI. Zann will lead a teaching on the upcoming holidays.

CLEANSING MIKVAH:

Thursday, September 17~~~~WOMEN’S MIKVAH 7 – 8 pm; MEN’S MIKVAH 8 – 9 pm The Mikvah Pool is located behind Julie Rosenblatt’s office at 164 Knechtel Way NE, BI.

THE HIGH HOLYDAYS:

EREV ROSH HASHANAH

on Friday, Sept. 18: 7 pm – Fil-Am Hall
Dessert Potluck follows service. Please bring food donations for Helpline.

ROSH HASHANAH DAY SERVICE

on Saturday, September 19 – Fil-Am Hall
Please bring food donations for Helpline
Children with Hanna: 10:00 am
Adult Service: 10:30 am
Break for Lunch (please bring your own)
Adult Learning with Hanna: 2:30 pm
JLC Students learning with their teachers: 2:30 pm
TASHLICH at Waterfront Park on BI: 4:30 pm

KOL NIDRE

on Sunday, September 27: 7:00 pm Fil-Am Hall

YOM KIPPUR DAY

on Monday, September 28 Fil-Am Hall
Morning Service: 10:30 am Fil-Am
Meditation: 3:00 pm Golden’s house
Yitzkor: 4:00 pm Golden’s house
Children’s Meditation: 4:00 pm Fil-Am
Bibliodrama practice: 4:30 pm Fil-Am
Bibliodrama with the children: 5:45 pm Fil-Am
NEILAH CLOSING SERVICE: 6:15 pm Fil-Am
Break Fast (potluck – bring lots!): 7:15 pm Fil-Am

SUKKOT AND SIMCHAT TORAH CELEBRATIONS

on Sunday, October 11 at 1 pm
Potluck lunch and celebrations at Julie Rosenblatt and David Kotz’s home: 7439 Coyote Farm Lane, BI Please bring fruits, vegetables and other decorations for our Sukkah. We will also march with our Torah around the Sukkah and do a little studying. For info, please call Sharon Rutzick 206.842.8453

TIKKUN OLAM CORNER

CROP HUNGER WALK 2009

The 14th Annual Crop Walk occurs this year on Sunday, 4 October.

If you don’t/can’t walk please give. Twenty percent on the contributions stay here, going to HelpLine House, 5% goes to FishLine In Poulsbo, and the remainder foes to Church World Services. Some of the Sponsor Designations include MAZON (A Jewish Response To Hunger), Heifer International, AJJDC (American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee), AFSC (American Friends Service Committee). If you so choose you can check this box & designate the sponsor of your choice.

At this time, Rachel Kerbrat & I are accepting donations. You can pledge online if you wish at www.cropwalkonline.org. Anyone is welcome to join the team and raise funds as well; I can get a packet to you as soon as you wish.

Restaurant Day is slated for Thursday, 1 October. More information about local restaurant participants will be posted soon. Mark your calendars for a day of no cooking! Some restaurants give as much as $500 to Crop Walk annually. Please support our local businesses as they support Crop Walk.

Thanks for your help. Denise Brown, 780-0931

JLC SCHOOL NEWS – 2009/10 – 5770

Parent-Staff Meeting- Sunday, October 11, 11:45-12:30
At the last part of our third Sunday session, the parents will have a chance to meet with each other and the teachers, ask questions, and hear more about this year’s Torah Tales/ Shalom curriculum. We are looking for your suggestions and participation, particularly in the learning fairs, classrooms and Tikkun Olam (earth healing) projects.

Supply Fees- $20/family
Please bring your $20/ family supply fee to the Parent Staff meeting or send it to Denise Brown, 7989 Walden Ln., Bainbridge, WA 98110. Thanks!

JLC Meeting Place
The Life Span Center, 11290 Sunrise Drive.
Our JLC home is located in Rolling Bay, just a few doors north of Bay Hay and the Post Office. We are extremely grateful to Steve and Jane Curtis for graciously inviting us to use their spacious two-house offices which include classrooms, a living room for whole school meetings and adult ed, a kitchen, and a big backyard garden for recess and gatherings.

Please park in front of the Life Span Center or in the public parking lots near the courthouse- not in front of the neighbors! They will be oh so unhappy if we do.

JLC School Times: Sunday, 10:00 am – 12:30 pm, September 13, 2009 -May 2, 2010

JLC Staff News
We will have four classes for ages K-7th grade with five wonderful teachers including returning teachers Hallie Rosner, Talia Weiss, Jon Garfunkel and me, Zann. We are also so excited to be joined this year by Rebecca Rockefeller, a seasoned Sunday School teacher and lover of Jewish education with so much energy, creativity and warmth to share. Some years the ages and mixes of the students line up in obvious classes. This was not one of them. After hours of creative discussion, the JLC committee decided to use this conundrum as the opportunity to do more team teaching and choice time, something we have been wanting to expand. This allows the staff to offer more diversity from our strengths, and for us to learn from each other.

New this Year
We will be starting a bit earlier to take advantage of the later start of the High Holidays with a special focus on preparing our children for their parts in the holiday services.

We will also be doing more outdoor learning, building on our past successes with farming and Tikkun Olam, especially our on-going farm project of growing lettuce and potatoes for our homeless neighbors. We have the opportunity to work with Day Road Farms, just five minutes from our JLC home, an amazing long-time community of farmers who grow grapes, plow with draft horses, and create each year an organic Garden of Eden. Our vision is for our farm time of living in touch with the seasons and the earth to tie in with the Jewish holidays and our Torah Year curriculum, relating to a time when our ancestors were farmers in the land of Israel.

JLC Curriculum: Torah Year
This year our Jewish Learning Center will spend a year exploring the compelling stories of Torah, stories of real people, learning from their mistakes to be human beings. It is true that the Torah stories can be told as tales of a punishing God of strict justice. But they can also be told as stories of a spiritual journey and the unfolding of the human heart. Needless to say we will opt for the latter telling. This year’s Torah curriculum lends itself to helping our children grow their emotional awareness and their social skillfulness. Our Fall theme, Shalom Within, Shalom in the Family, uses the Genesis stories of coming into our world, family loyalty and sibling rivalry and reconciliation to help our children know their own Gardens of Edens and to find ways to live in peace in the family. In the Winter we will explore Shalom in Groups and Communities, following the lead of Moses and Miriam through the Red Sea to Mount Sinai, as well as the early judges and kings of Israel as they wrestle with how to live together in peace and equity with a bunch of other people. Our Spring theme, Shalom in our World, uses the stories of the prophets who led us into exile by the rivers of Babylon and back to the land of Israel to turn our focus outward to the world through EarthDay work and hopefully a Mid-East Peace Walk. Because the whole school will be studying the same themes, but at age-appropriate levels, we have the opportunity to enhance and deepen our learning by sharing it with all the students and parents in our Fall, Winter and Spring Learning Fairs.

JLC Committee
The JLC is guided each year by our JLC Committee that meets before each season’s session, and makes sure that the school is running smoothly. We welcome all JLC parents to be part of it. If you have any questions, suggestions, or offers to volunteer; please don’t hesitate to get in touch with Zann (z-c@themaskery.com/ 360-297-4160).

Parent Participation
Parents are invited to join in our learning fairs at the end of each of our three seasons of learning, and to participate in our Earth Day Tikkun Olam Project and field trips. You are also invited to join us for our Blessings Gatherings at the beginning of class from 10:00 – 10:10, and our Songs and Stories Gatherings at the end of class, from 12:15- 12:30. In the morning we learn to chant Shabbat blessings and in the afternoon we sing songs, tell stories and share something from the day’s lessons.

As always, there is plenty of room for parents and community members to join our classrooms in order to share special interests, or just to have a morning of learning. Please let us know if you would like to participate in our JLC classroom community.

Hebrew Class News
The JLC is offering two weekday Hebrew Classes, a beginners and advanced Hebrew class. We use different learning modalities including games, movement and simulations, as well as Hebrew workbooks to make the learning fun. Classes may include adult learners as well. Please e-mail or call Zann (360) 297-4160; z-c@themaskery.com), if you have questions.

JLC Vision Statement
We are a participatory, multi-generational, mutually supportive Jewish learning community, dedicated to exploring our spiritual and cultural connections with Judaism’s rich heritage, performing acts of tikkun olam (healing our world), and providing an intellectually stimulating, multi-sensory, and joyful learning environment.

JLC School Philosophy
So many Jewish adults found their own Sunday School and Hebrew School experiences uninspiring, to put it mildly. We are dedicated to changing that perception for this generation’s children. The key is connection: connecting the students’ Jewish learning to real things in their own lives, connecting older kids and younger kids through whole-school fairs and gatherings, and connecting the JLC families with each other, the greater community, and the natural world through Tikkun Olam (community service) projects, active participation in holidays and Shabbots, and the presence of so many active parents as teachers, planners, and learners. At the center of all this connection is the Jewish wisdom of the Sh’ma, that we are One (Echad), a connected whole.

Scholarship News
We are committed to doing our best to offer confidential scholarships to all who request them, no questions asked. However we are asking that families fill out their forms with scholarship requests as soon as possible so that we can budget accurately and responsibly. If families need reminders or are late with payments, Denise, our trusty bookkeeper, will send out invoices and make gentle phone calls based on families’ commitments as stated on their application forms.

Trying Out JLC School
New families interested in attending JLC are welcomed to “visit” for two sessions before enrolling. However, for insurance purposes, we absolutely need all parents to fill out the JLC registration form when they leave their child the first time

Teen Group News
We hope that the teens will be active in Tikkun Olam projects this year as in the past. If you are interested in putting energy into this, especially the Peace Walk plans, please contact Zann (z-c@themaskery.com)

Tikkun Olam Projects (Healing the World)
Actively participating in the broader community is an essential part of the JLC and Shir Hayam. Past Tikkun Olam projects include planting trees at Gazzam Lake, building trails in the Grand Forest, pulling ivy for Island Wood, and making lunches for homeless folks in Seattle.

Adult Education
Adult Ed is a stimulating and enjoyable way for adults to get together regularly and engage in Jewish learning. Discussion topics and speakers are chosen with input from the group.

SAVANNAH TRAVIS’ BAT MITZVAH – A MAGICAL AFTERNOON

Many Shirhayamites came to support Savannah in becoming a Bat Mitzvah this past August 15th. The Kugelettes infused spirit through harmony, including a never-before-released tune not included on the “Fiddler on the Roof” soundtrack: “If I Were Savannah…”

It was a testament to Savannah as well as our whole community that one of her (Christian) Godparents from Seattle remarked that she was ready to convert!

COORDINATING COMMITTEE MINUTES

8/18/09
PRESENT: Jeff, Paul, Debra, Rachel and Robin
1. BUDGET: we have no income yet since the membership letter has not yet gone out.
2. MEMBERSHIP LETTER: has not yet gone out
Action item: Jeff will send the letter out this week via email so members can start sending in their dues. He will send a hard copy in a week or so with the High Holiday mailing. We discussed emailing the letter instead of mailing a hard copy and decided against it because we think a hard copy will generate a better response.
Instead of asking if people want a reminder to make their quarterly or monthly payments we will tell people that we will be sending reminders. We can email the reminders instead of mailing.
Action item: Jeff will change the wording on the membership letter accordingly.
3. CEMETERY: the Cemetery Committee needs to follow up on items from Annual Meeting:
a. plots are now more expensive, around $1000 each. Port Blakely hasn’t decided if we can buy more plots in the new section because this was their last expansion. So, questions to be determined:
b. Do we want a Jewish section? We would have to buy a minimum number, maybe 20, would also have to buy a divider.
c. We bought the original plots before the split. It is the Jewish cemetery for both congregations. What interaction should we have with KS?
Action item: Robin will ask Sharon and committee to pursue.

4. LAUNCHING THE COMMITTEES FOR THIS YEAR:
a. Cemetery: see above
b. Adult ed/Adult JLC: Paul will convene Adult JLC to meet during JLC time as it did last year
c. JLC: already planning for the year
d. CPC: Paul has contacted Ovation re co-sponsoring Fiddler on Roof in December
e. Ruach: already planning for the year
f. Other: Torah repair: Robin will ask Sharon for status
Action items: see a, d and f above

5. INVITE NEW AND OLD MEMBERS ONTO COMMITTEES: We discussed strongly urging members to join committees in order to encourage more involvement with the chavurah. No decisions were made.
Action item: discuss at next meeting

6. WE NOW HAVE AN AUTODIALER that we can use to make group phone calls. We will initiate it for the High Holidays when Paul will have his kids make the announcement.
Action item: Paul have Savannah and Gabe make phone announcement and get it sent before High Holidays.

7. RETREAT: Should we have one? After much discussion we decided to hold a “kibbitzfest” (camp-out) next June in conjunction with annual meeting. Preliminary thoughts:
a. hold it at a place with cabins as well as campsites (Kitsap Memorial State Park?)
b. do it Sat/Sun. Hold havdalah Sat night, annual meeting Sun a.m.
c. Have Arik? A storytelling block?
d. There is a restricted fund for a Retreat and also a $500 Education Dream fund for which anyone can apply. These could perhaps be used to create a budget to fund Arik or other educational or spiritual activities.
e. How much is in the restricted fund?
Action items:
Robin will find out how much is in the restricted Retreat fund.
Continue discussion at next meeting.

8. THE FORUMS: Debra and David have both offered to conduct in-home training for people who are having trouble using the forums.
Action items: Paul will disseminate a Doodle survey asking if people are using the forums so we can target the training to the people who are not.
Robin will advertise the in-home training in the next newsletter.

9. PUTTING THE ROSTER ONLINE: Do we want to put the SH membership roster online on a password protected site?
Benefits: – Can keep data updated so that everyone always has access to accurate data instead of having people working off of out-of-date roster sheets. – potentially more secure than emailing it to members since the data will sit on a single server instead of on multiple servers the way email does.
Liabilities: – concern about security, addressed above
Decision: we decided to do it but to offer members the choice of opting out if they want to.
Action items:
Paul will upload the roster to Google Docs and make it password protected. It will be accessed from the SH website.
Robin will mention in the newsletter that the roster is going online and that people can opt out by emailing Paul.

ITEMS FOR NEXT MEETING

1. From the Annual Meeting: Coord Comm’ee will designate a procedure for how to handle any additional money that comes in, and also what happens if we take in less money. If we get more than 14,000 does it go to Ruach bec they took biggest hit? Or?

2. From the Annual Meeting: Look into what would be involved in helping out a family in need with money (legal and IRS implications, procedure, budget)

3. Continue discussions of Retreat and inviting members onto committees.

NEXT MEETING: Tuesday, Oct 20, 7:00 pm

CULTURE & POLITICS FORUM

Many of you love talking with other Shir Haymers about our world, from Kugel to Interfaith Marriage Challenges to the Middle East, when we get together. Well now a forum exists for such sharing and discussion ONLINE — in and around the rest of our busy lives :) .

The best thing to do is click the following link to subscribe to the Culture & Politics forum of the Shir Hayam member site. Comment on others’ sharing; add your own topics; unsubscribe at any time if it isn’t valuable to you!
http://shirhayam.org/forum/misc.php?subscribe_all=18

SHIR HAYAM SPEAKER’S BUREAU

We would like to set up a Speakers Bureau. Would you be interested in being on a list to be called upon when a community event requests a speaker from Shir Hayam? Examples could be a community forum or vigil, Crop Walk blessing, IFC event, etc. Keep an eye on your email – I will post an item on the Community Forum and people can sign up there.

MITZVAH CORP

The Chavurat Shir Hayam Mitzvah Corp wishes to offer assistance of any kind to anyone in our community. If anyone is in need of help please contact one of the following members Denise Brown, Zann Jacobrown, Sharon Rutzick, Robyn Stahl or Sue Steindorf.

ALL DAY MAH JONGG

Crack, Bam, Dot, Mahj!
West Sound Hadassah’s First Annual Day of Mah Jongg*

Sunday, November 8, 2009 10:00AM to 4:30PM
Congregation Kol Shalom on Bainbridge Island
9010 Miller Road, Bainbridge Island

Three Rounds of Mah Jongg
Two styles of play: “Relaxed” and “Competitive”
Delicious Catered Lunch
Shopping at the “Where the Winds Blow” Gift Table
Cash Prizes – Door Prizes – Raffle
Hadassah Information and Membership Table

To reserve your spot, send $36 and your registration form to Judi Leader:
11537 Matsu Place NE, Bainbridge Island, WA 98110
Questions? Call Judi at 206-842-4370 and 360-301-5039
Deadline to register: October 25, 2009

Schedule of Day

10:00AM Registration, Morning Nosh, and Shopping
10:30AM Orientation/Rules/Questions
10:45AM Round One
12:00PM Lunch and Shopping
1:00 PM Round Two
2:15 PM Round Three
3:30 PM Dessert and Prizes

FROM THE SUMMIT IN SEATTLE

Website: http://www.klinegalland.org/summit.html

Message: The Summit at First Hill, the only Jewish senior retirement community in Washington state is currently involved in a major outreach effort to congregations and Jewish communal groups all over the state. We are trying to reach Jewish elders or their adult children who may be unaware of our facility and the spectrum of services and activities it offers.

“Like going home, many find comfort and nourishment in maintaining or returning to their roots. Seattle is lucky to have the only full service Jewish retirement community in Washington State, The Summit at First Hill. The Summit is one of the Kline Galland Center affiliates that include the Caroline Kline Galland Home (skilled nursing, rehabilitation and memory care) and the Polack Adult Day Center.

The Summit is situated just east of downtown in the convenient and park-like First Hill neighborhood, close to all amenities, hospitals and doctor offices. Requiring no “buy-in” typical of many retirement communities, The Summit offers graciously appointed independent and assisted living rental apartments, fine dining, homecare, nurse clinic and social work support services, religious services, 24 hour security, scheduled transportation, concierge services, emergency response and a full array of activities and fitness opportunities. In other words, everything an active Jewish retiree might need under one roof.

If this is your season for considering changes for yourself or family members, consider a complimentary meal and no-obligation tour scheduled at your convenience. Call Trudi Arshon, Summit Community Relations Director at 206.652.4444.”

Please contact Trudi Arshon, Community Relations Director at trudia@summitatfirsthill.org or at 206-652-4444, extension 115.

We thank you in advance for being our partner in supporting Jewish seniors and their families.

Beth Cordova, MSW

HAPPENING IN SEATTLE

The PJ Library program funded by the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle (and a few partners) is a great program that sends out an age-appropriate book each month to Jewish children between 6 mos & 5 1/2 yrs old for free…The books are wonderful, and come with a page that explains the relevance of the story to Judaism, any related mitvzah, how to enhance/explore the ideas on your own, etc. Here’s a link: http://www.pjlibrary.org/

Aug 31, 11:33 AM