Ebjc Recorder
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Elul - Tishrei 5778 September 2017 Vol 72 EBJC RECORDER 511 Ryders Lane, East Brunswick, NJ 08816 Tel: 732-257-7070 Fax: 732-257-9630 October 29 Mah Jong Tournament Shabbat Services November 2 Israeli Art Exhibition and Sale at B'nai Shalom November 13 Hazak Luncheon KI TETZE November 18 Volunteer Shabbat Friday, September 1 – 6 pm December 2 Sisterhood/Men's Club Shabbat Saturday, September 2 – 9:30 am & 8:10 pm December 3 Torah Fund Brunch December 15 Artist in Residence - Joshua Nelson KI TAVO December 16 Concert Joshua Nelson Friday, SEPTEMBER 8 – 6pm December 18 Hazak Luncheon Saturday, SEPTEMBER 9 – 9:30 am & 7 pm January 20 Mitzvah Corps Wine and Food Tasting Experience Bar Mitzvah of Zachary Kraft January 27 Shabbat Shira Concert January 28 Hazak Brunch NITZAVIM-VAYEILECH – LEIL SELICHOT January 31 Tu Bishvat Seder with Kesher Friday, SEPTEMBER 15 – 6pm February 2 World Wide Wrap Saturday, SEPTEMBER 16 – 9:30 am & 6:50 pm February 11 Blood drive and Unsung Heroes Bar Mitzvah of Jack Zeidwerg February 12 Hazak Luncheon February 25 Purim Carnival and Wine Tasting CANDLELIGHTING TIMES: March 3 EBUSY/Teen Service (egal Shabbat) March 10 EBJC Talent Show 9/1-7:11 pm March 12 Hazak Luncheon 9/8-6:59 pm March 18 Women's Seder 9/15-6:48pm March 21 Congregational Meeting March 30/31 Community seder April 12 Yom HaShoah Program April 16 Hazak Luncheon SAVE THE DATE April 19 Yom Ha'Atzmaut Program April 27 Sisterhood Kesher Shabbat September 7 Sisterhood paid up membership dinner April 22 MJ Tournament September 10 Kesher Opening Day May 5 Sisterhood Egalitarian Shabbat September 17 Mitzvah Day May 6 Hazak Brunch September 24 Concert Cantor Arzai June 3 Israel Day Parade October 6 Shabbat Dinner in the Sukkah (New Era) June 7 Congregational meeting October 15 Designer bag Bingo June 10 Brunch/Gala October 16 Hazak Luncheon June 12 Hazak Dinner October 25 Congregational Meeting September 2017 Calendar Board of Directors 9/13 Talmud Class 9/6, 13, 27 Board of Ed 9/27 Youth Commission 9/27 Egalitarian Morning Minyan 9/16 Sisterhood Paid-Up Mem. Dinner – 9/7 Executive Board 9/7 Genesis Science 9/11, 18, 25 Hebrew Class 9/7, 14, 28 Israeli Dance 9/11, 18, 25 Mah Jongg 9/11, 18, 25 2 RABBINIC REFLECTIONS Shalom Haverim! From the time of my first conversation with the Rabbinic Search Committee, through our family’s arrival in East Brunswick and our first Shabbat in the community, the leadership, lay members and staff of EBJC have made our transition one filled with warmth and joy. We thank all who have helped to bring us here and to initiate me into my first weeks as rabbi. I look forward to meeting each of our members and learning their histories as we begin this new chapter in our shared history together. The yamim nora’im (the High Holidays) are a time for reflec- tion, taking stock and renewing our efforts to shed the mis- takes of the past. Looking ahead to a new year, we rededicate ourselves to the proposition that each of us has the capacity to change for the better. As we begin this new year of 5778 together, I want to encourage each of our members to do teshuvah, seeking to return to our better selves, in three areas: Community, Jewish learn- ing and Jewish skills. One goal I have for us this year is to initiate a year long conversation about who we are as a synagogue community. In order to do that I’ll need your help. Please take note of public events that we are now scheduling for me to hear your voices about EBJC traditions, so I can learn what we cherish and what we are looking to evolve and innovate. Help our com- munity do teshuvah by reflecting back on where we have been and charting a course to our future. Second, I strongly encourage our members to make this a year of Jewish learning. Torah, in all its meanings, is the center of our spiritual and intellectual lives, and the basis for our identity as Jews. Let’s delve deeply into Torah this year through adult education classes, attending services in daily minyan and Shabbat and holiday services throughout the year, and by making study part of our daily routine. In addition, I call on each of our members to improve their Jewish skills. At the top of that list this year is Torah reading. We are transitioning to a lay-led system of Torah reading, and so are developing a core of Torah readers who will be called upon to read Torah on Shabbat throughout the year. If you already read Torah, call or email me immediately to be put into that rotation. If you need a refresher to be ready, Torah reading classes will be held throughout the year. And if you have not yet mastered this skill, NOW IS THE TIME! Let’s all take possession of this sacred task, enriching our abilities while simultaneously beautifying our services. There is no better way to feel connected to Torah than to chant its words at home and in shul. There is much to do this year, for me as rabbi and for each of us as members of a thriving and growing shul. Let’s make the most of this first year together, learning, singing, praying, dancing, celebrating and comforting others as a kehilah kedoshah (a sacred community). Beginning anew, let’s each find a renewed relationship with the tradition that binds each of us to this place and to each other. Shanah tovah t’hateivu v’tihateinu, Rabbi Jeff Pivo 3 President’s Report In looking to write my first Presidents’ Report I turned to the Torah por- This year will be the year of the founding members. We will start with tions for inspiration. In Pinchas there is talk about the transfer of leader- interviewing them and writing their stories in these pages, in the Recorder ship from Moses to Joshua, now that would be relevant but Eric and I are each month. This will culminate with a membership breakfast to honor no Joshua and I doubt Neil sees himself a Moses; and there’s the story of them. Please help make this happen. Write down your memories; try to the five daughters of Zelophehad who argue for what they believe is an find old friends that have moved away, or children of friends that have unjust situation. I certainly can relate to that, I am one of three daughters left us forever and reconnect. and the youngest and most spoiled of them all, a daddy’s girl. My father is the reason I am a scientist, he would share with me his blue prints and We ended last fiscal year with a Re”Jew”venation Breakfast that was a his projects around the house. I particularly remember a time when he big success. We have so many to thank for pulling it off in such a short wanted to measure how much time the hot water heater was actually time and bringing in over $25,000 to the coffers of our shul. Anne and heating the water so he and I hooked up an electrical alarm clock in series Adrian Kroll who championed the idea and ran with it, Vicky Nathanson, to the power leading to the heating element, set the clock to noon and Joannie Weinfeld (even though she missed the event), Debbie Berger, waited. But I digress, the daughters of Zelophehad protested the fact that Karen Rosen, Ken Gerson, Hollie Ceramie, Taryn Webber, Rick Roll- their father is being discriminated for not having sons, as his inheritance man, Debbie Freidman and Ellen Botwin. Also we need to thank Dana would be lost to his name forever for there was no son to accept it and Eckstein, Yigal Oren and Michael Zimmerman of Rutgers Hillel who all daughters didn’t count. I, as a female, could choose to speak about this spoke so well and moved us all (you can see videos on our website). legal precedent, to speak about God’s morality, or about women’s rights or maybe even about how this is a sign of Egalitarianism. But no, I want to focus on a more important angle. We thank Neil Kosher, our immediate past president, for his dedication these past two years. We worked very well together and he formed and led a cohesive and active executive team. He navigated changing stormy I always told my own children, and my students at the university, that it is waters solidly and chose the right people to form the Rabbinic Search smarter to know where to find information than to be smart. So, I will Committee and the Negotiations Committee. A special thanks to Marilyn admit that I read most of this Dvar torah in an article by Rabbi Dr. Eli- Friedes, Dr. Phil Schiffman and the whole Rabbinic Search Committee yahu Safran, from the Orthodox Union, in a publication Entitled “The for being an amazing example of teamwork, mutual respect and transpar- Present Rests Upon the Past; The Future upon the Present”. Rabbi Safran ency. Of course a huge thanks to the Negotiations Committee led by Wil- starts by quoting Isaac Newton, known for Newton's Law of Universal liam Eckstein whose dedication and compassion resulted in a successful Gravitation that states that a particle attracts every other particle in partnership to the benefit of us all. the universe using a force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance be- tween their centers.