Annual Meeting to Be Held at Baseballtown on June 13 Israel
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Jewish Federation of Reading/Berks Non-Profit Organization Jewish Cultural Center, PO Box 14925 U.S. Postage PAID Reading, PA 19612-4925 Permit No. 2 readingjewishcommunity.org Reading, PA Change Service Requested Enriching Lives Volume 51, No. 5 May 2021 Iyar - Sivan 5781 ShaloThe Journal of the Reading Jewish Communitym published by0 the Jewish5 Federation2 of Reading/Berks1 Your Federation Supports: Annual meeting to be held Jewish Education Food Pantry at Baseballtown on June 13 Friendship Circle By Amanda J. Hornberger Chevra The community is invited to join Jewish Community Shabbat Federation of Reading for its annual meeting on Sunday, June 13, at FirstEnergy Reading Jewish Film Series Stadium in Reading. Celebrate a year of pivoting and new offerings by Federation PJ Library with a baseball game, pool, dinner, and fun! Jewish Family Service Our group will be congregating at the Tower Health Pool Party Deck including Jewish Cultural Center the swimming pool, so be sure to bring your Children 12 and under are free. Anyone better and better at handling this situation. Lakin Holocaust Library suits and towels! The Pool Deck is located over age 12 is $5 per ticket including kosher The R-Phils play in a beautiful OUTDOOR just next to Phunland, which includes a buffet dinner, pool deck and baseball game. venue, and we look forward to hosting you & Resource Center moon bounce, fast pitch and other games Reservations are required by June 4 to info@ and your family for R-Phils baseball games for kids, available for an additional cost at reading.org or 610-921-0624. Free parking this year. It will certainly feel good to sit Israel & Overseas the game. Space is limited so RSVP today! is available at the stadium and nearby lots. outside at America’s Classic Ballpark, First Camp Scholarships The Annual Meeting will begin at 3:30 The R-Phils organization will be Energy Stadium, and hear the “crack of the and will be followed by a kosher picnic following federal and state health and safety bat” again this season! Israel Trips meal provided by Boscov’s Catering and guidelines. More details on this will be made Special accommodations will be a Reading Fightin Phils baseball game, available as the season draws nearer and available for seniors; please call Carole Jewish Community beginning at 5:15. Social distancing and as the situation improves. Robinson to confirm details. We hope High School masks will be required, and capacity will be Each day, more and more people are community members of all ages will join us limited per First Energy Stadium guidelines. being vaccinated. Each day our society gets for this fun event! Emergency Support Lakin Preschool Richard J. Yashek Lecture Israel celebration draws crowd Transportation Maimonides Society Your Jewish Legacy 92ND ST Y Programs Joint Distribution Committee Meir Panim Annual Campaign Jewish Agency for Israel Yemin Orde School Education Programs Interfaith Unity Council Israel Advocacy Youth Events Great Decisions Series Jewish Community Relations Council Community Holiday Programs Women’s Philanthropy Jewish Federations of North America Counseling Services Leo Camp Lecture Shabbat B’Yachad More than 100 people turned out for this year’s Yom Ha’atzmaut celebration, part of a series of April events planned by shlicha Adi Shalev in an effort to build our community’s connection with Israel. See more photos on Page 12. Page 2 SHALOM May 2021 Join us to discuss a must-read book In 2001, the IDF destroyed a secret nuclear reactor t being built in Syria. The facts and details of that mission remained hidden from the public until 2017. Yaakov Katz’s book on the subject, “Shadow n Strike: Inside Israel’s Secret Mission to Eliminate Syrian Nuclear Power,” gives a scholarly, historically accurate picture of the political issues and characters e involved, the agonizing risks that were taken and the brilliant and precise strategy that accomplished the mission. And Katz accomplishes that in a page-turner of a book. If this were all, it would be a must-read for anyone m interested in the fate of Israel. But today, parallel events are in play with Iran, Israel and the United States engaging in a game of threats p and brinkmanship with respect to nuclear weapons. Therefore, everyone should read the book to better understand the complexities surrounding the current o talks of renewing Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action l (JCPOA) nuclear agreement. Join us for the Israel Book Group’s discussion, 7 p.m. Thursday, May 6, at the Federation, even if you e cannot read the entire book in time. v e It’s Simcha Supplement time If you had or are having a bar/bat mitzvah or graduation (high D school or higher) in your family this Jewish year, share the good news with the community. Please submit a few sentences about Annual Campaign the person and their accomplishment, along with a photo. Women’s Philanthropy Maimonides Society Text and photos can be sent to Your Jewish Legacy [email protected] or to the Federation office. Chai Circle L’Chaim Society DEADLINE IS HERE. MATERIAL DUE ASAP. Book of Life Letter of Intent DONATE NOW TO OUR JEWISH COMMUNITY CAMPAIGN Please visit ReadingJewishCommunity. org Make your gift today! May 2021 SHALOM Page 3 From online news sources New York Times opinion columnist Bret Stephens has taken on a side gig as the editor of a new limited- run journal of essays about Jewish issues. The journal, titled Sapir, is an initiative of the Maimonides Fund, an increasingly influential force in Jewish philanthropy that supports Jewish identity-building through media, education and Israel engagement. Over the past year, the fund has also become known for its leadership on COVID relief efforts. The first of four print issues scheduled for 2021 landed in mid- April and focuses on social justice — a topic Stephens has addressed in columns that criticize progressive efforts. “Our first issue is on the subject of Jews and social justice,” Stephens wrote in an email to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “This is a complex, controversial, Page 4 SHALOM May 2021 Second season of Literatour Berks wraps up By Amanda J. Hornberger afternoon of everything you wanted to know What a season! As I write this, we are about being Jewish! down to our final three Literatour Berks Butnick and Leibovitz are the authors of programs of our second season. “The Newish Jewish Encyclopedia: From After starting with more than two dozen Abraham to Zabar’s and Everything in events, the end of the second season seemed Between” and panelists on the well-known far off for most of the year. But instead, I’m Jewish podcast “Unorthodox”. Last year days away from receiving six boxes of brand- Unorthodox’s Mark Oppenheimer visited new books and meeting dozens of authors at Wyomissing and featured our community on the annual Jewish Book Council conference 1939 New York World’s Fair, this novel is the podcast. Back again to learn and share in May. Monday, September 9, 2019 at 7 aboutp.m. JCC andtwo Exeter intrepid Community Liyoungbrary women — an more, this will be an event you will not want Literatour Berks Preview Night The conference and selection process aspiring journalist and a down-on-her-luck to miss! Come learn more about the 18 authors visiting Berks this year! is always a hectic but exciting time. Our actress — who form an unlikely friendship as Finally, our second season will conclude _____________________________________________________________________________________________ committee spends time reflecting on which they navigate a world of endless possibility, on Monday, June 7, with Charles Belfoure, Monday, October 7, 2019 at 7 p.m. Exeter Community Library Center programs were successful and which did E.R.stand Ramzipoor down adversity and find out what they the New York Times bestselling author of The Ventriloquists not quite work for our audience. All while are truly made of during the glorious summer “The Faberge Secret’. Set in St. Petersburg, Presented in partnership with the LGBT Center of Greater Reading. combing through hundreds of books and of spectacle and opportunity. Russia, in 1903, Belfoure’s story takes hearing fascinating stories from this year’s Then on Thursday, May 13, we will readers on a breathless journey from the Wednesday, October 16, 2019 at 7 p.m. Location Provided Upon Registration group of authors. Angelabe Himseljoined by the Blue Dove Foundation gilded ballrooms of Imperial Russia to the A River be a Tree Literatour Berks is excited for our third and learn more about mental health and grim violence of the pogroms, in his latest season and we welcome yourA programfeedback of Women’s on Philanthropy the oforganization’s #quietingthesilence thrilling historical adventure. this year’s events. Send me an email with project. The Blue Dove Foundation You can register for any of these your thoughts or suggestions: amandah@ was created to help address the issues events by visiting our website: https:// jfreading.org of mental illness and addiction in the readingjewishcommunity.org/home/literatour BUT… before we move onto season Jewish community and beyond. Jewish Signed copies of the book will be available three, we still have some great events to Federation of Reading is excited to for purchase through the Literatour Berks conclude this second, completely virtual, partner on this special program. official book vendor, Reads & Company of season of Literatour Berks. On Sunday, May 23, at 11 a.m. gather Phoenixville. On Monday, May 3, Susie Orman Schnall your friends and prepare to laugh as Thank you to the sponsors and patrons will be joining us with her latest novel, “We Stephanie Butnick and Liel Leibovitz of of Literatour Berks for making this event Cultural Came Here to Shine”.