April 2015 Nisan Iyar, 5775 IN THIS ISSUE Host an Oneg………………………….. 2 Honorable Mention .... ……………….. 3 President’s Column ……………….. .. 3 Rabbi’s Column ……………………… 4 What Conservative Judaism Stands for ……………………………. 6 Seder Tips ……………………………. 7 Yahrzeits ……………………...………. 8 Contributions ……………………..... 9 Education Director’s Column ….…. 10 May Fundraiser ……………………… 11 Social Actions ………………………. 12 Chametz ………………………………. 13 Gift Shop ……………………………… 14 UPCOMING EVENTS Kosher Korner ………………………. 15 Sisterhood News …………….……... 16 4/12 school returns from In Memory of Peter Stevens ……… 17 break Phila Memorial Ceremony for the Six Million Jewish Martyrs ……….. 21 4/20 Horizons Article due Community …………………………. 22 for May issue. Classes w/ Rabbi Jacob …….…... 23 Donation Form…………………….. 24 Monthly Calendar ………………. 25 Advertisers ……………... 26 thru 27 Please visit orshalom.com/ calendar for the latest in- formation about events at Or Shalom HORIZONS April 2015 Nisan Iyar, 5775 TD Bank Affinity Program One of our best opportunities to increase Or Shalom’s revenue is through TD Bank. The bank has a program which pays Or Shalom a percentage of the total balances of the accounts that are enrolled in Horizons is published monthly. Material the program and affiliated with Or Shalom. If you already have an submitted for publication may be edited account at TD Bank, you can easily enroll your account in the Affinity for style, length and content. Program by calling Jeff Salvo, the TD Bank branch manager in Devon. Jeff’s phone number is 610-254-9150. Please contact the office to report any errors or omissions. Thank you. Remember, any member, relative of a member, or friend of a member can open a savings or checking account then enroll the Editor: Lauren Porter account in the Affinity Program, providing them with Or Shalom’s Congregation Or Shalom name and address. Please note that all your bank account information 835 Darby-Paoli Road is held in strict confidence by TD Bank. Or Shalom is not told anyone’s Berwyn, PA 19312 account balances and we are not told who is enrolled in the program. Phone: 610-644-9086 The only information we receive from TD Bank is the total number of www.OrShalom.com accounts enrolled and the total account balances. E-mail: [email protected] Over the past four years, TD Bank has donated just under Congregation Or Shalom $21,000! Executive Committee President: Stuart Lurie Vice President: Dan Markind Treasurer: Fred Leibowitz Do you know Unaffiliated Jews in Secretary: Larry Bilker Membership: Scott Markovitz Chester County, Montgomery Events/Fundraising: Wendy Markind IPP: Fred Leibowitz County and Delaware County? Auxiliary & Community Groups Do you have Jewish friends or acquaintances who live in Chester County, Montgomery County and Delaware County who are not Sisterhood: Mindy Bernstein already members of a synagogue? If you do, why not invite them to Men’s Club: Dan Bernick Social Action: Gina Arlen one of the upcoming events at Or Shalom, for example our next Education Chair: Melissa Schneider Friday night dinner? They may have a good time and decide to come Ritual Committee: Murray Klug back. They may have such a good time that they decide to become members themselves. According to a recent survey by the Jewish Advertising rates Federation, there are many, many unaffiliated Jews in Chester county. Advertising contracts are arranged We’d love to contact them, but don’t know who they are. You can through the Temple office. All advertis- help. ing is due the first of the month for next month’s edition of Horizons. We accept Todah rabah! ads with a check made out to Congrega- tion Or Shalom and the ad copy sent at the same time. Celebrate with an Oneg Size 11 issues Per issue Full Page $900 $100 Or Shalom Sisterhood is delighted to announce that 1/2 page $450 $50 you can sponsor an Oneg for any celebration you wish! 1/4 page $225 $25 Friday night and/or Saturday morning. The Sisterhood 1/8 page $180 $20 will be happy to purchase it and set it up, we only want you to join us and celebrate! Call Faye Peel at (610) 356-7335 or email Faye at [email protected]. HORIZONS 2 April 2015 Nisan Iyar, 5775 From your news- letter editors The President’s Column Stuart Lurie Do we have your correct email address? If you have not been Continued Appeal for Funds receiving the weekly update, we probably don’t have a cor- rect address. Please email the By now, you should have recently received a letter from me office with your correct address asking you to consider making a supplemental pledge to the synagogue to help see us through the remainder of the fiscal year, which ends June 30. Since our mortgage payment is largely covered by the rent from Do we have a complete list of our tenant, The Cambridge Schools, the remaining cost of our your Yahrzeits? We send out a operations is approximately $250,000 per year. As a small reminder letter each month. If you don’t get one, we don’t have synagogue of approximately 130 family units, we don’t have a your Yahrzeit records up to date. large membership based over which to spread these costs. Email the office with the name, On a per-family-unit basis, that comes to $1,923. Under our relationship to member, and civil pledge system, some have contributed more than this amount, date including year and we will add it to our records. but far too many have contributed less. Unfortunately, so far this year, the total amount pledged and fulfilled is falling well short of this, and we need to raise another $78,000 to finish out our year. Past years of operating deficits Special thanks to the folks have left our cash reserves critically low, and so I am, once who keep dropping off again, appealing to you all to give what you can. Box Tops for Education, keep it up. If the future of Or Shalom is important to you, please consider making a generous and immediate supplemental pledge to get us through the end of the fiscal year. Your Jewish community This newsletter is for all thanks you, and I thank you. communicate, to share thoughts, to tell simchas, to speak of our Stuart Lurie, President. losses, our joys, and to say “did you know?” Let us know! HORIZONS 3 April 2015 Nisan Iyar, 5775 Mitzvah of the Month Rabbi Jacob Rosner Message From the Rabbi It is very important that all of us who support Israel, vote in the elections for world Zionist congress. This year’s election is of particular importance to us at Or Shalom, as our former beloved rabbi Alan Iser is one of the delegates on the slate for Mercaz. I urge you to click on the website and vote. You, too can have a voice in Israel. By voting, you are supporting Israel, the Conservative movement and Rabbi Iser. Our Platform MERCAZ USA is the Zionist Organization of the Conservative/Masorti Movement, the voice of Conservative/Masorti Judaism within the World Zionist Organization, the Jewish Agency for Israel and the Jewish National Fund/ Keren Kayem- et L’Yisrael, ensuring that our values are expressed at the highest level in regard to matters relating to Israel and the Jewish world. Conservative/Masorti Judaism was the first of the modern Jewish religious movements to embrace Zionism and has steadfastly remained at the forefront of the effort to promote its values: the centrality of Israel in the life and consciousness of the Jewish people and the unity of the Jewish people wherever they may live. Our connection to the Land and State of Israel and its capital Jerusalem begins first and foremost with our people’s 4000- year covenant with the Divine. This covenant has imposed upon us the responsibility not only to support and defend the State of Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people but also to create in Zion an exemplary society — democratic and pluralistic — that empowers all streams of Jewish practice, guarantees the rights of all of its citizens, is uncompromising in its struggle for security even as it strives for peace with its Arab neighbors and is committed to protecting the environment and its natural resources. MERCAZ Stands For: An Open Pluralistic Jewish Society — A vote for MERCAZ is a vote for an Israeli society that celebrates Jewish values without limiting itself to one particular stream of Judaism. We insist on the acceptance and registration of all conversions, weddings and divorces performed by Conservative/Masorti rabbis in Israel and demand that all non-Orthodox rabbis func- tioning as community spiritual leaders receive State-funded salaries as do their Orthodox colleagues. We applaud the cam- paign to provide alternatives for marriage and divorce for all Israelis and support the concept of redeveloping the entire Western Wall plaza to answer the legitimate demands of the Conservative/Masorti Movement, the Reform Movement, the Women of the Wall and others who seek to pray according to their egalitarian and pluralistic traditions. A Contemporary Zionist Agenda, including Aliyah, Hebrew and Zionist Education — A vote for MERCAZ is a vote for keeping Zionism relevant in the 21st Century as exemplified by the 2004 MERCAZ-initiated revision of the Jerusalem Program. MERCAZ USA supports a pro-active policy to combat anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, encourages Aliyah from all countries, champions the partnership between the Jewish Agency and Nefesh B’Nefesh and opposes all attempts to re- strict the Law of Return. We also call for the strengthening of Jewish/Zionist education in the United States and throughout the world, including increasing the number of shlichim to college campuses and Jewish youth movements .