Congregation Ner Shalom
Year in Review 2020-2021
Table of Contents
Welcome to Ner Shalom . . . 3
From the President . . . 4 From Rabbi Irwin . . . 6 Pandemic Heroes . . . 8
In the Light of Peace . . . 12
Beit Midrash and Educator of the Year . . . 13 Nitzanim: Experiential Family Education . . . 16 Celebrations for Families with Special Needs . . . 20 Tzedek – Social Justice 21 Welcome New Members . . . 22 Fundraising Report . . . 23 Financial Report . . . 25 Building Report . . . 27
Technology Report . . . 28 Ner Shalom 2020-21 Scrapbook . . . 30 In Memoriam . . . 37 Get Involved . . . 38 Staff and Board . . . 39
Report Edited by Rabbi Irwin Keller
The Year in Review – 2
Welcome to Ner Shalom It was a year! Despite the restrictions we all lived under, we, as a community, continued to flourish. We found new ways to do ritual. We gained new friends from around the country and beyond. Our community grew, with new members and friends joining us from around the country and beyond. We have offered more programs and classes than ever before, and we have supported each other through. So much to be proud of, Ner Shalom. So please read this report beginning to end. Know a little bit more about Ner Shalom and the people who help make it happen.
The Year in Review – 3
From the President Amy Levinson Gray
Whew! What a year. Along with the rest of the world, we at Ner Shalom have done the best we could within the constraints of the COVID pandemic.
And many blessings appeared!
Through Zoom, we gained the ability to touch people all over the country and the world with our deeply felt and musical services and our extensive educational offerings. As a result, we have new members and participants joining us from locations east, north, and south of Cotati.
Another blessing: we met every Friday this year, which hasn’t happened in a very long time (perhaps not ever). With this weekly service, we were able to be there for our community in an ongoing and deeply engaging way, and our community grew in closeness.
Because of the pandemic, Reb Irwin’s ordination was not an event centered in Boulder, Colorado. Instead, we were able to witness the beautiful ceremony where our Rebbe became a Rabbi.
Congregants stepped up in deeply personal and generous ways. Individuals stepped up to lead and to support. Besides the folks profiled later in this Annual Report as “Pandemic Heroes,” I’d like to mention Rita Rowan, who created the role of procuring readers and participants in our Shabbat and holiday services, and our past president and tech guru Suzanne Shanbaum, who spent countless hours figuring out how to make our music sound good on a platform never intended for that purpose.
In all of this, we did not forget our historic building. We did long-needed repairs on the exterior, repairing rot damage and finishing with a beautiful paint job.
Despite all these achievements, the year was also hard. It was hard not to see each other in three dimensions and feel confined to tiny Zoom windows. It was sad to cancel our concert series. Our congregational trip to Israel and Palestine had to be postponed. We
The Year in Review – 4 had to figure out new ways to raise money to keep the shul going. Our administration and Board had to pivot and then re-pivot as each new challenge arose from the reality of living with a deeply dysfunctional administration in Washington, DC. This was the year of George Floyd and deaths of other Black Americans by police. This was the year of Q- Anon, the January 6th assault on the Capitol, and the endless recounting of voters’ legitimate ballots. And most recently, we’ve been following the violence in Israel and Gaza. A hard year, made even harder by the overlay of COVID and the anxious questions it brought up – is it safe to go out? To gather with grandchildren and family? To take a walk with a friend?
With the arrival of effective vaccines, we are now looking at restarting our lives, slowly and carefully. And for this I am very grateful.
As we look ahead to the next fiscal year starting July 1, I am encouraged. If the lease signing goes well (and it should), we will soon have a wonderful preschool renting space in our building on weekdays, providing Ner Shalom with a steady stream of income and the laughter of small children. Jill Rose has spearheaded a Women’s Picnic, which will take place on July 10 – helping to create a loving, intimate and in-person space for the women of Ner Shalom. Nitzanim, our experiential family learning program, will leave the small screens behind and resume their adventures in the natural world. The Kinsey Sicks will soon be touring and hope to offer a musical evening in December. And so much more.
It is time to take a deep breath, look back at the year, and move forward with a new and vigorous model of what Jewish community can be, both in person and virtually.
As Reb Charles Dickens once said, “It was the best of times; it was the worse of times.” We made it through. We supported each other. We innovated, created, learned, and sang. Together we went through a very challenging year, filled with unexpected losses and gains. We’re on something that is beginning to feel like “the other side” and it’s looking sunny from where I sit.
Thank you all -- our beloved Rabbi, the Board, the administration, and congregants both near and far.
L’shalom, Amy Gray President
The Year in Review – 5 the Spirit Lives on at Ner Shalom Reb Irwin Keller
“Come, come, whoever you are,” began the song by Shimshai, with words from Rumi, with which our Good Shabbos Band and Ner Shalom Singers launched our first-ever online High Holy Day experience. “Come, come, whoever you are,” they sang. And you did. I don’t know fully how to look back at this year; it was so unusual in every possible respect. But I can see how we grew new lines of connection. How the boundaries of our community opened up to people in different parts of the country and the world. How despite the limitations imposed by the pandemic, there has been something really beautiful about opening the laptop on Friday night and having Shabbat – escorted by this holy community – breeze right into my own home. We have all learned so much this year. About ourselves, about the country we live in, about the Earth we depend on. We are beginning to emerge from this state of introspection and discovery; it is my hope that we will all bring the best of those learnings with us into whatever is emerging. At Ner Shalom we know that we will never again be an exclusively bricks-and-mortar (well, wood and sheet rock) synagogue. We will provide ample opportunities for locals to gather in physical space. But we will continue to tend to the rich web of connections we’ve made online. Opening the doors to all of you who have come from beyond Sonoma County. And to all of us in Sonoma County for whom online practice has made it possible to integrate Jewish – practice and learning – into our lives in a surprising and unprecedented way. This is something none of us wants to give up. Who would’ve thought? The personal highlight of my year was, as you might expect, my ordination, or smichah, as a rabbi in the Jewish Renewal lineage of Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. It was a long wait, coming after 5 years of study, 12 years serving Ner Shalom, and many decades of hope and longing. I was grateful that so many of you were able to be present for the ceremony. I was grateful to be in our Ner Shalom sanctuary, surrounded by my family, and wrapped in the tallit of my childhood (and lifelong) rabbi, Mark S. Shapiro, who had died just four months earlier. I knew that entering the rabbinate was earth- shaking for me. But I was initially unaware of how significant it was for many of you. Now I see how it represents a milestone for all of us. And while I love the Chasidic-style affectionate title Reb, I have not failed to notice how many of you insist on calling me
The Year in Review – 6 “Rabbi,” doing so with a tone of pride in your voice. I am grateful for your pride and your trust and I will do my best to continue to earn it. And then two weeks later, the over-the-top celebration of my smichah. I remain completely overwhelmed thinking about it. And grateful to the many who attended, who performed music or poetry, who recorded greetings, who donated funds to support the rabbinical position in coming years. It was wild and hilarious and humbling. Thank you. So yes, it has been a big year, as you will also see in the words and photos in this Annual Report. So please read through! I am (and I hope we all are) grateful for the hard work and flexibility of our Board of Directors. The tireless work of our Administrator, Vicki Allen. The eagerness and skill of all our spiritual leaders who have stepped to lead services when I’m away. The incredible and detailed work of all the people named below as “Pandemic Heroes.” It is a time full of change. I am sad that we have lost our dear Atzilah Solot to her hometown of Tucson, and grateful that the new platform in which we make ritual together allows her to remain present. I am sad to be losing the head of our Nitzanim Experiential Family Learning Program, Janet Rae Jorgensen, and her family, to the state of Maine. And the Goslow-Zwicker family to Salt Lake City. I hope they will all remain close to us in ways only this century could provide. And to all the newcomers from all over the place, come, come, whoever you are. You are so welcome here. Bivrachah – with many blessings,
Rabbi (Reb) Irwin
PS. If you ever need some private rabbi time, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Email is best: [email protected]. I’m busy. But not too busy for you.
The Year in Review – 7
Since the beginning of the pandemic lockdown, the Ner Shalom community has pulled together to become a thriving, supportive, primarily online congregation. A handful of our members have committed an inordinate amount of their personal time to make it all happen. We would like to honor these Ner Shalom Pandemic Heroes.
Barbara Lesch McCaffry
Barbara Lesch McCaffry has been here practically from the beginning. She joined our congregation in 1985, just a few years after its founding. Over the subsequent 36 years, she has served many roles here, as leader, counselor, and friend. She has taught, led ritual, offered poetry, and held the demanding burdens of Board President and Membership Chair. A couple years ago, at Reb Irwin’s request, Barbara agreed to serve as Dean of our Beit Midrash Adult Lifelong Learning program. As a retired Sonoma State University faculty member, it seemed a natural fit. When she said yes, she had no idea a pandemic was coming, and that people would be turning to us in a new way – using the time of isolation as a chance to deepen in learning; using the learning as a chance to build community across isolation. Under Barbara’s leadership, Beit Midrash shifted class offerings to Zoom on the same day as the county’s shelter-in-place order. Seeing the impact that gathering to learn was having on our community; seeing how participants were coming from as far as Alaska and Germany, Barbara encouraged us to dream big. As you see in the Beit Midrash report on p. 13, she more than doubled our offerings. In the last year more than 75 class sessions have happened, including short series, recurring classes, and single-event learning events. Many people have attended one class; many people have attended nearly all of them. Over this year, adult learning has become a deep and essential part of the character of Ner Shalom. We have Pandemic Hero Barbara Lesch McCaffry to thank.
The Year in Review – 8 Shari Brenner
Shari Brenner joined Ner Shalom in the mid-2000s, and initially became involved, along with Reb Irwin, as a parent in the school, then called Dor Hadash. Over time Shari’s involvement deepened, joining the Board of Directors and serving as its Chair. During the pandemic, Shari found herself with some time, so she offered Reb Irwin to take off his shoulders some of the tasks that remained on them as artifacts of earlier days. Shari began creating the weekly eBlasts and being the webmaster of Ner Shalom’s beautiful online presence at nershalom.org. These tasks themselves took many hours each week. But as she tried to gather all the congregation’s offerings, announcements and needs for each week’s eBlast, she realized that we were missing vital infrastructure that enabled us to coordinate our activities across programmatic threads. A longtime manager and administrator in the County healthcare system, Shari simply rolled up her sleeves and began serving as the point person for much of what happens backstage at Ner Shalom. She created systems, worked closely with Barbara Lesch McCaffry to hold the administrative burden of our increased educational offerings, and even learned to jockey Zoom rooms and event recordings. The deepening of our email announcements to include birthdays, yahrzeits and donations, come through Shari’s strong sense of what a religious community needs and deserves. The fact that it is all happening is thanks to Pandemic Hero Shari Brenner.
Rinat Abastado
Rinat Abastado joined Ner Shalom several years ago. Her involvement began to deepen just months before the pandemic, when she began to offer Torah study monthly before Friday night services. When the shelter-in-place order hit, Rinat offered Shabbat morning Torah study on Zoom, just 3 days later. That Shabbat morning Torah study has continued 3-4 Shabbat mornings every month. Every week she prepares a selection of the weekly Torah portion, along with medieval commentary and mysticism from around the Jewish world. Many participants have now completed an entire cycle of Torah portions with her, and are a couple months into their
The Year in Review – 9 second time around. For participants, this has been a deeply meaningful engagement with Torah – in many cases an engagement that folks had been denied or had denied themselves. Participants have called Rinat’s Torah study “an expansive and sacred space where we explore the words of Judaism, from the Hebrew text to the Sages, the theological to mystical, and discover and rediscover that out words matter.” In addition to offering the weekly Torah study, Rinat is working closely with Reb Irwin to bring Mizrahi melodies and customs (including some from her own Yemenite lineage) into the collective paintbox of Ner Shalom, so that more riches of the Jewish world can be at this community’s fingertips. We have learned Torah and been enriched, and for this we thank Pandemic Hero Rinat Abastado.
Check-In Soup
It was clear that the isolation and anxiety of lockdown would create ongoing emotional needs for our community. The day after the Shelter-in-Place Order, Ner Shalom launched Check-In Soup – a daily Zoom gathering for anyone who wanted to drop in and experience these unusual times with other sensitive souls. With rotating leadership, Check-In Soup is characterized by its ritual frame (the hour is held as sacred space), its attentive ears (generous listening is the rule), and its overflowing heart. For many, Check- In Soup became a crucial lifeline during the worst of the pandemic. Check-In Soup maintained a 5-day-a-week schedule for over a year, under the direction and facilitation of these tremendous grassroots congregational leaders: Joanne Witt Cyndi Norwitz Ari Hilton Jill Rose Ruach D’vorah Grenn Check-In Soup continues twice a week – Tuesdays at 7pm and Fridays at 10am. It is not too late to drop in. This is a holy and wholly helpful space, thanks to our Pandemic Heroes: Joanne, Cyndi, Ari, Jill and Ruach D’vorah.
The Year in Review – 10 Suzanne Shanbaum
Suzanne worked tirelessly over the four years of her presidency to help Ner Shalom achieve fiscal stability and to create lasting systems to help us oversee finances and other operations. She was also instrumental in getting our historic building in great shape, through artful use of grants and donations from outside organizations. So dayenu, right? Well, then came the pandemic and the movement of every single Ner Shalom service, class, and event onto online platforms. Suzanne spent countless hours researching, experimenting, and upgrading to uncover the best ways to create the audio and video production quality Ner Shalomers have come to expect, including coaching individual spiritual and musical leaders on better use of their own home equipment in order to sound better on Zoom. (See Technology Report on p. 28.) Without her efforts and knowledge base, so many of our online events would have been disastrous at worst, lackluster at best. Thanks to her hard work, we have been able to stay in touch and thrive during the pandemic, and enjoy her beautiful guitar playing as well. For these reasons, Suzanne Shanbaum is a Ner Shalom Pandemic Hero.
Suzanne’s command station for High Holy Days and other complex Ner Shalom Zoom events.
The Year in Review – 11 Mazal Tov to “In the Light of Peace”
Some synagogues publish cookbooks. We have our share of enviable cooks as well, but they seem to be outnumbered by the ranks of artists and poets that Ner Shalom boasts. And so when the idea was floated that maybe we ought to have an anthology of some of the beautiful work we had been hearing in the sanctuary, a team of dedicated editors instantly took on this labor of love. Editor-in-chief Leiah Bowden, joined by editors Sally Churgel, Abby Bogomolny and Rita Rowan, curated this collection of work by 28 poets and visual artists to create this rich, delicious offering: In the Light of Peace: Poems and Meditations of a Creative Spiritual Community. We were grateful to have had a partner in Rabbi Rachel Barenblat and Bayit Publishing (www.yourbayit.org) to produce this volume. Rabbi Rachel, herself an acclaimed poet, lent much love and technical care to the project. The poetry of In the Light of Peace is beautiful and varied, and a copy should be on every Ner Shalomer’s shelf. Autographed copies are available at the office and unautographed can be purchased at Amazon. (If you missed the launch event, you can still watch on the poetry page of the Ner Shalom website.)
“Enter fully into the broken heart and you will find Your whole, wild, untamed, uncivilized heart Here there is only yes Yes to love Yes to life Go deeply enough and you will remember Your heart is the heart of the world The world is the heart of God” From “Wild Heart” by Sally Churgel
The Year in Review – 12 Beit Midrash Lifelong Learning
Love of Learning at Ner Shalom
A Year of Successes Last year at this time we kvelled about what an active year it had been for Beit Midrash, with 35 sessions wrangled by our Dean, Barbara Lesch McCaffry. But we more than doubled that this year with 20 distinct classes plus our annual Tikkun Leyl Shavout night of study for a total of 75 sessions. All in all, nearly 400 individuals made over 1500 appearances in Beit Midrash classes! Our regular educational offerings from June 1, 2020 to May 31, 2021 included: • Chanukah Card Making, led by Ellyn Lazar • Coming into Being, 7 sessions led by Shoshana Fershtman, Reb Judith Goleman, Basha Hirschfeld, and Barbara Lesch McCaffry • Guided Meditation, 2 sessions led by Basha Hirschfeld • Introduction to Mussar, led by guest teacher Helaine Sheias • Jeremiah, 2 sessions led by Ari Hilton • Jewish/Buddhist Conversations, 2 sessions led by Reb Judith Goleman & Basha Hirschfeld • Meeting Lilith, 2 sessions led by Ruach D'vorah Grenn • Mindful of Race, 5 sessions led by Amy Schiff • Seder-Leading Boot Camp, led by Reb Irwin • Speaking About Death, 2 sessions led by Sharon Ziff, with Reb Judith Goleman, Ari Hilton & Andrew Wagner • Studying the Basics with Reb Irwin, 2 sessions led by Reb Irwin • The Cosmic Tree of Life in Kabbalah, led by Shoshana Fershtman • The Letters of Creation, 17 sessions (!) led by Gesher Calmenson • The Snake and Eve, led by Sheridan & Sharlya Gold • Who Wrote the Bible, 4 sessions led by Ari Hilton • Yiddish Tish, 14 sessions led by Reb Irwin
The “Academy” Series We also launched an “Academy” series with five Sunday afternoon major events designed for an audience that extends beyond our Ner Shalom members and friends. Some of these were collaborations with Ner Shalom’s social justice arm, Tzedek, and also with Reconstructing Judaism and two sister reconstructionist congregations: Or Zarua Havurah in the East Bay and Or Shalom in San Francisco. Many thanks to Susan Levine who serves on the national Board of Reconstructing Judaism, who has been a force behind these collaborations. Our Academy offerings over the past year have been:
The Year in Review – 13 • Racism & Antisemitism, 2 sessions led by guest scholar, Rabbi Mordechai Liebling. Co-sponsored by Tzedek. • This is the Day: The Poetry of Counting the Omer, led by guest scholar, Rabbi Diane Elliot • Transforming Trauma and Jewish Paths of Healing, led by Shoshana Fershtman and Reb Irwin • Where You Go, I Will Go: Same-Sex Marriage & Jewish Law, led by Reb Irwin • You Shall Not Go Empty: Wrestling with Reparations as Reconstructionists, led by Rabbi Micah Weiss, in collaboration with Or Zarua Havurah
Tikkun Leyl Shavuot This year’s Tikkun Leyl Shavuot was offered in collaboration with Congregation Shomrei Torah and Or Zarua Havurah. Our theme was “Practical Magic: Jewish Wisdom for Hard Times.” Over 100 people attended! Sessions were taught by Or Zarua teachers Marcia Falk and Josh Wirtshafter; Shomrei Torah teachers Rabbi Stephanie Kramer, Marilyn Nagel, Rabbi George Gittleman and Jay Peretz; and beloved Ner Shalom teachers Reb Judith Goleman, Basha Hirschfeld, Barbara Lesch McCaffry, Ilan Fichman, Orren Perlman, Shoshana Fershtman, and Reb Irwin. It is not too late to view the sessions. Just go to www.youtube.com/nershalom and click on the Shavuot playlist!
Capacity and Support Since December, our Dean, Barbara Lesch McCaffry has been collaborating closely with Shari Brenner (they served together on the Ner Shalom Board from 2008-2012) to add some big picture thinking as we envision Beit Midrash in the coming years: how can we support our community’s interests? nurture our teachers? encourage new participants? help sustain Ner Shalom financially?
What was once an annual January brainstorming session to plan the year’s curriculum has expanded and we’ve created a Steering Committee – Gesher Calmenson, Shoshana Fershtman, Basha Hirschfeld, Linda Pantoskey and Shari Brenner – to help us refine our vision and prioritize potential offerings. And we will now offer support in class design for new teachers, thanks to the talents of veteran educators Linda Pantoskey and Rita Rowan. And we refined our mission: Congregation Ner Shalom’s Beit Midrash Lifelong Jewish Learning classes, programs, and workshops lean into the mystical, magical, spiritual, and textual as a way to illuminate our lives, spark our creativity and strengthen our community. We also looked at what is a realistic bandwidth for us and have decided on a maximum of two classes a week, one introductory class a month and one Sunday event a month, at
The Year in Review – 14 least for now. We set a standard registration fee for classes with scholarships available, so no one is left out. And all new member households are eligible for a free class, so they get a taste of what we have to offer.
Looking ahead, we anticipate that most of our classes will continue on the Zoom platform as our participants have expanded to those across the country and even Canada and Germany. We will reserve on-site learning for content that requires physical proximity.
In the Wings Looking ahead this year, Ner Shalomers can look forward to these offerings and more:
• In June, Sharon Ziff will offer two sessions of “Speaking about Death,” with guests Ari Hilton and Sally Churgel focusing on Compassionate Caregiving. • Yiddish Tish continues on the first Wednesday of the month at noon. • “Studying the Basics with Reb Irwin” continues on the third Wednesday of the month at noon through the winter with topical videos provided by Reconstructing Judaism and lively conversation to follow. • Our next Academy Class will be with Rabbi Esther Azar on “Trauma Healing through Jewish Practice” on August 1st at noon.
Our Beit Midrash brainstorming group meets in January. If you would like to join that group or have ideas for a class you would like to see or offer, email Barbara Lesch McCaffry at [email protected].
Educator of the Year
We are so pleased to name Gesher Calmenson our Educator of the Year. Gesher offered to teach a few sessions on the mystical qualities of the Hebrew letters. This expanded, and this month he completes the entire 22-letter alefbet. Gesher is the former head of Ner Shalom’s school, Dor Hadash, and currently teaches in Ner Shalom’s Nitzanim Program. Gesher’s beautiful teaching inspired students and gave room for everyone’s creative response to the mystical learning. We are thrilled that Gesher intends to turn his “Letters of Creation” class into a book.
The Year in Review – 15 Nitzanim Experiential Education for Kids and Families
Nitzanim Year 2. The Year We Reinvented . . . Again Nitzanim was always meant to be a place for children and their families to sing, move our bodies, and be together in a relaxed atmosphere. We knew that young families tend to be reluctant to join a synagogue. So, in our pilot year (2019-2020) we went with what we knew to be true: our families wanted to be outside, they needed a flexible schedule, and a very low commitment level. And it worked! Under the leadership of our Program Director, Janet Rae Jorgensen, the Nitzanim Program got off the ground beautifully. In this pandemic year, however, we couldn’t jump into large gatherings as we had in the past, so we needed to make adjustments while still trying to fulfill our vision.
Online Family Offerings and Events As with so many programs, we went online. Rabbi Irwin very quickly introduced the idea of welcoming Shabbat together in a low-key way. We would light candles, sing, and send some blessings to one another's homes from our little Zoom boxes. It was heartbreaking and powerful. In a time when there was so much unknown, the familiarity of seeing light from each other’s spaces was comforting. And Janet Rae’s storytelling (including video versions of Chelm stories) delighted us all. In order to provide content and connection for families for whom Zoom was challenging, Janet Rae created an audio library of Jewish children’s stories. Families could use these at bedtime, and their children would be connected to Jewish content, and to Janet Rae’s familiar voice.
The Year in Review – 16 We recommited to offering monthly family programming. We knew Zoom would not work for every family, but it was important to create the offerings and let families who could join us do so. Teachers Shai Schnall and Ilan Fichman were the Nitzanim angels of the pandemic. Their programming was creative, engaging, and thoughtful. During each family Zoom gathering, we incorporated home activities off screen, to keep the experience from being passive screen-watching. For instance, during one Havdalah gathering, each family was asked to go outdoors and find something in their gardens that was fragrant. Since everyone was in California in January, that task was easy and awoke some senses that are not easily engaged on the computer. It was an extra delight when many of the families brought the same herb back into their screens. (Rosemary will always remind Janet Rae of this Havdalah experience with Nitzanim.)
Tangible Goods In addition to our Zoom offerings, we wanted the program to maintain a tangible component. Shai and Janet Rae were inspired to create Rosh Chodesh kits which were mailed to our most active families. The kit included a beeswax candle, handmade angel cards and a beautiful prayer card to use as guidance for observing Rosh Chodesh at home. Ilan, Shai and Janet Rae also recorded a Rosh Chodesh instruction video for families to review at their leisure, and hosted a Rosh Chodesh gathering on Zoom in Kislev, the darkest month of the year. For Purim, Janet Rae designed personalized mishloach manot bags to deliver around Sonoma County to our Nitzanim families (as you see in the photo to the right). The bags included homemade hamentashen, a wooden grogger which children could assemble, and other goodies. When we met on Zoom for Purim, sharing the groggers folks made was one more way our children and their families could feel a bit more connected with each other.
Online and Live Classes for Kids In November, we re-launched programming for our older students. Although, we didn’t want a traditional “Hebrew School” experience for the children, we wanted to create small group opportunities with children of the same age. Thus we launched “Shabbat with Mia” and “Mystery School with Gesher.“
The Year in Review – 17 “Shabbat with Mia,” for students 9-11 years old, met in person at Wickersham Park in Petaluma. Seven students gathered on eight different Shabbat mornings. Students (and some parents) sat distanced and masked, relieved just to be in one another’s physical company. Teacher Mia Zimman guided the children with lessons on different Jewish values. The children laughed, shared their ever-blossoming thoughts on spirituality, and created skits together. During two of the sessions, Rabbi Irwin simultaneously met with the parents to engage in dialogue about their own spiritual searches. Meanwhile, teacher Gesher Calmenson met with the older children (12–15-year-olds) online twice a month. Gesher’s goal was to ask questions that were relevant to the children’s lives as modern young Jews. Gesher created a laboratory !for developing our individual relationships to God, legacy, happiness, a meaningful life, and each other.”
Parent-Only Events In response to the parent interest and commitment around the Black Lives Matters Movement, Nitzanim parents formed a “Raising Anti-Racist Children” dialogue which continues to meet monthly. The group is most often facilitated by Jenny Levine-Smith, a Ner Shalom member and Master’s candidate at San Francisco State University, focusing on Equity and Social Justice in Education. Via Zoom, parents come together to have thoughtful and sometimes challenging discussions on how they can raise race-conscious and anti-racist Jewish children. We consider what tools, questions, and guidance we give to our children and receive from them, as Jewish humans of this generation and the next.
Networking and Community Support This year Nitzanim received a $30,000 18-month grant from the Jewish Community Federation of the San Francisco Bay Area. This Community Impact Strategic Grant supports efforts to connect families and children during COVID times and is funded as part of the Federation’s Family Engagement Initiative. As part of the initiative, Nitzanim Program Director Janet Rae has been participating in grantee cohort trainings and convenings, sharing our learnings and learning from others.
The Year in Review – 18 Gratitude and Changes Ahead Despite the obvious obstacles, this has been a meaningful year for Nitzanim families, most of whom continued to connect regularly with the program. By the end of the year, we began to hold our first in-person family gatherings, including a beach trip for Pesach, in which families created mock seder plates on the sand using found objects. (The saltwater was particularly easy to procure.) We are truly grateful that the groundwork of Year 1 carried us through this challenging Year 2. As the Nitzanim year draws to a close, Janet Rae and her family are preparing for a cross- country move to Maine. Janet Rae has been the beating heart of this program. So much has depended on her creativity, rapport with children and parents, skill as an educator, natural charisma, and deep commitment. We are assembling next year’s team and we know we will continue to capitalize on the successes of these first two years, even though we are heartbroken to be doing so without Janet Rae. All of us in the Ner Shalom family wish Janet Rae, Paisha and Arielle so much joy and success in everything that’s ahead. Nitzanim teacher Shai Schnall will be stepping into the role of Nitzanim Director – mazal tov Shai! We look forward to working with you!
The Year in Review – 19 Celebrations For Young People with Special Needs and their Families
Now completing its 13th year, Ner Shalom is proud to offer the Celebrations Program, serving the needs of young people with special needs and their families. Celebrations continues to be a pioneering program. In a typical year, sessions focus on a Jewish holiday and involve music, art, ritual food preparation, storytelling, games, and teachings about the holiday. During the 2020-2021 year, Celebrations was forced onto Zoom. Some Celebrations participants were not able to manage the platform. For other participants and families, this worked well – including for new families joining us from Santa Clara, San Carlos and Vancouver, BC. In the coming year we will be moving back to in-person events, punctuated by Zoom gatherings, to be accessible to as many families as possible. Due to shifting priorities, the Celebrations Program will no longer be funded by the Jewish Community Federation of the San Francisco Bay Area. We are immensely grateful for their more-than-ten years of support. We are also seeking replacement funding. We invite Ner Shalomers with connections to charitable foundations to contact us through the Ner Shalom office! Thank you to our Celebrations leadership: Mary Ann Malinak, Leslie Gattmann and Jennifer Lorvick!
Above: Lick a card, any card! At a recent Celebrations Zoom Talent Show, founder Mary Ann Malinak demonstrated a card trick with Alex’s service dog, Ondre. Who said you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?
The Year in Review – 20 Tzedek Social Justice at Ner Shalom
Tzedek, the Hebrew word meaning justice, is the Social Justice Action arm of Congregation Ner Shalom. Jewish social justice is a way to respond to the brokenness of our world and to inform that work with Jewish knowledge and insights. Central to Jewish practice is the principle of tikkun olam, to repair the world—working to transform suffering and pursue justice, in alignment with core values of compassion and equity. For Jews to fully live our justice values, we believe that we must involve ourselves with those who are in need now. By being social justice advocates we try to listen to those who are suffering—hear their stories, become connected with their pain and then help by standing up with them and for them. In the year 2020-21 Tzedek has been active on many fronts. During the election cycle we sponsored a postcard writing campaign to Get Out the Vote in closely contested states, sending over 6,500 cards to encourage people to register and to vote. We were joined by our sister Congregation Shomrei Torah in this outstanding outreach effort. We also found it imperative to make a statement after the murder of George Floyd, on upon the conviction of his murderer (those may be found on our webpage (nershalom.org/tzedek) and a statement in solidarity with the Asian-American community. In May we co-sponsored with the Workers Circle/Arbeter Ring of Northern California a talk on Black/Jewish relations by Rebecca Pierce, a film maker who is both Ashkenazi and Black. In the talk “Other Together,” she helped us explore the complicated and important connections between these two groups and legacies. Our 2020 program on refugee and immigrant rights featured speakers from multiple local organizations and raised $500 that was donated this year to Undocufund, a local program that provides direct assistance to refugees. Please look at weekly alerts posted in the eblast and on our webpage for congregants to take action to support social justice, with a current focus on voting rights. We are donating $450 raised from the postcard campaign and other events to Central Valley Matters, an organization mobilizing voter registration among disenfranchised voters. Currently Tzedek is educating the congregation about voter suppression activities in several states, asking us to reach out and support the For the People Act (HR 1; S1). On August 22, Tzedek is sponsoring a Homelessness Cafe online and in person to educate our community about the practical and policy issues faced by the unsheltered in our community, and how we can be of service. Our own Jeff Hoffman and Terry Rowan will be helping us understand the issues. The Tzedek Steering Committee are Elaine Leeder, Eszter Freeman, Roberta Teller, Rita Rowan and Shoshana Fershtman.
The Year in Review – 21
Welcome New Members! So happy to have you.
Ner Shalom burgeoned during the trying pandemic time. Perhaps because so many of us experienced such a strong need to connect in meaningful ways. Belonging felt more important than ever before and reflected in a remarkable number of people joining our ranks. As of today, we have 140 member households made up of truly remarkable people. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the following folks have cast their lot (or re-cast their lot) with the Ner Shalom community.
Eric and Kathleen Adams Alexandra Appel Cody Cammbell Hannah Caratti Julie Rachana Chasen Elaine Daly and Mopani Aaron Draper and Heather Fischer Cathy, Jordan and Isaac Epstein Diane Frank and Erik Ievens Ruach D’vorah Grenn Ari, Amanda, Henry and Benjamin Hilton Doron Hovav and Elon Slozberg Peter Krohn Russ Messing Adrienne Momi Roanne Olonoff Les Raffel Sabra Rahel and Shamayim Amy and Jace Ricafrente and Malachi Lilith Rogers Desmond and Margaret Shapiro Jessica Tunis Clare Venet and Jonathon Meltzer Marcus Webster Cy Wilcox and George Lin Mia, Alejandro and Luna Zimman Mug Shot: Membership Chair Stephanie Brown models the newest perk of membership: the Ner Shalom mug! We are grateful for and enriched by the love, skills, and joy you bring!
The Year in Review – 22
Fundraising Report
When the pandemic closures began, we braced for the worst. We didn’t know how individuals in our community would be affected financially; our fundraising concerts and events were cancelled; and we didn’t know if people would even think to donate to a synagogue that they couldn’t set foot in. But support for Ner Shalom only grew. Many donations came in expressly “in honor of the Zoom offerings.” Many new people became connected to Ner Shalom, and veteran Ner Shalomers deepened their connection. With this support, we exceeded our fundraising goals for the year (even without taking into consideration our special “Rebbe-to-Rabbi Campaign,” described below). Here are some of our fundraising successes over ten months from July 1, 2020, through April, 2021.
Season of Giving Campaign $31,845 Our annual end-of-year campaign running from Rosh Hashanah through December 31.
General Donations $6,258
Yahrzeit Donations $3,166
Shabbat Sponsorships $4,509 This is a new revenue source. Instead of offering Oneg Shabbat, many Ner Shalomers sponsored Zoom services to honor or remember loved ones.
Rabbi’s Discretionary Fund In addition, spurred perhaps by Reb Irwin’s ordination, donors were especially generous this year in giving to the Rabbi’s Discretionary Fund, contributing $11,858 toward Reb Irwin’s capacity to support congregants’ emergency needs and as well as unusual synagogue needs and programs that are unbudgeted.
Rebbe-to-Rabbi Campaign
This year was the year that Reb Irwin fulfilled his dream and became Rabbi Irwin, by way of a unique path through the law, gay rights, drag queen outfits, and song, and finally with a long stop at a unique shul -- a small, bright light in Cotati, California. What an amazing journey for him and for our community.
The Year in Review – 23
Reb Irwin’s ordination also made it imperative for us to raise the funds to help support the rabbinic position at Ner Shalom. A team, led by Elaine Leeder, Susan Levine, Basha Hirschfeld, and Amy Gray, in consultation with Elaine’s cousin, professional fundraiser Lee Rosenfield, launched our Rebbe-to-Rabbi Campaign.
The R2R Campaign was two-pronged. One element was the recruitment of major donors who could make substantial commitments to the R2R fund over the next three years. The second element was a public celebration and fundraising event.
Numerous members immediately stepped up with lead gifts for the major donor campaign. Meanwhile a vast team of Ner Shalomers volunteered to create the “Rebbe to Rabbi” event honoring Rabbi Irwin. The producers included Amy Gray, Stephanie Brown, Leiah Bowden, Rita Rowan, and Doron Hovav, and they were supported by many volunteers. Presenters included poets, Jewish musicians, the Kinsey Sicks and Kinsey Sicks alumni. The evening was emceed by Kinsey Sicks co-founder, Ben Schatz. It was a lively, moving, joy-filled (and technically smooth) evening.
Between the major donor outreach and event donations from Ner Shalomers as well as from Reb Irwin’s community of colleagues and friends, over $183,000 has been raised in cash gifts and pledges, which will partially cover the cost of the Ner Shalom rabbinic position for years to come.
We offer our gratitude to all our members and friends for their dedication and enduring generosity.
Emcee Ben Schatz engages in serious dialogue with fundraising executive Stephanie Brown during the Rebbe-to-Rabbi Celebration on January 24th.
The Year in Review – 24 Financial ROundup Mark Miller, Treasurer
The current fiscal year, 2020-2021, makes the fifth consecutive year where our income exceeded our expenditures. And this is after we thought that the rainy days we had been saving for were upon us!
As we settled into the COVID-19 pandemic, things remained uncertain: fundraising concerts were canceled, outside renters were not able to use our building, our programming shifted online, and some community members lost their own sources of income.
But to repeat from last year: wow. With your continuing generosity in your Annual Membership Commitments, your support of our Season of Giving, an incredible increase in supporting and sponsoring our online activities, and extra donations by folks from all over who have been joining us electronically, we have been able to find the funds to sustain us through this period and add to, rather than draw from, our rainy-day fund.
All this is in addition to your very generous support of our Rebbe to Rabbi fund!
We started the current fiscal year (2020-2021) anticipating outspending our income by roughly $7,000. Due to far better-than-budgeted donations, grants, and other income, we expect to finish the year at about $26,000 to the good. This is the fifth consecutive year in which income has exceeded revenue.
Income / Expenses 2016-2021
$197,699 $183,659 $158,000 $193,819 $141,750 $167,528 $182,763 $156,990 $132,660 $127,500
2016-17 2017-18 2018-19 2019-20 2020-21 (EST)
Income Expenses
The Year in Review – 25 Years ago, we set a goal of having in reserve approximately 6 months of operating expenses. Five consecutive years of positive cash flow has brought us to the verge of achieving that goal. This fund balance is a reserve for building repairs, emergencies, and other circumstances, foreseen and unforeseen. It also allows us to be more deliberate and intentional in all our budgeting and spending, after some years of deficit in which scarcity too often made the decisions for us.
For the coming 2021-22 year, the Board has approved a balanced budget, with expenses and revenue both at $222,000. With your support, we are confident we will meet this budget.
A big thank you goes to our dedicated finance committee: Accounting Guru Art Magnus, Board President Amy Gray, Board member (and don’t tell her but our Treasurer when I term limit out) Alison Marks, Administrator Vicki Allen, and me, your Treasurer. Thanks, team!
The Year in Review – 26
This Old House: Building Report Mark Miller, Building Chair
Last year I started our building report saying, “Hey, remember that? We have a building! A lovely old building, back behind the fire station. Some day we can go back and use it again.”
Well, it’s been a whole year and the building has not had the joy of hosting our congregation. We did get to use the outside spaces a bit so far and will be back inside soon. Promise.
We also said that we would not take on any new building projects this year unless we came up with some outside funding sources. And . . . we got another grant!
Under the leadership of Alan Ziff, we inspected the entire outside of the building and replaced all the missing or damaged shingles, replaced/repaired all of the damaged trim and fascia boards, repaired the front columns, fixed up the front lighting and fencing, and completely painted the outside of the building. We are ready for action.
Dianna Grayer and Sheridan Gold stepped up and used some of the leftover tiles from last year’s bathroom reflooring to redo the countertop in the all-gender bathroom. It looked so good that Leiah Bowden decided to follow it up with a spiffy new paint job. Thanks, you three!
We are grateful to all the members of our Building Committee: Lorenzo Valensi, Suzanne Shanbaum, Alan Ziff, Larry Resnick, Vicki Allen, and tyrannical overlord Mark Miller.
The Year in Review – 27 Technology Report Suzanne Shanbaum, Tech Guru
Over the years, we cobbled together sound system Ner Shalom that worked well for our in-person services. The fastest internet available to us at the time was good for 1 or 2 computers doing email. We had a B.Mitzvah coming up on Zoom where we needed to support multiple computers, live music, and a pre-recorded Storahtelling video. That afternoon, we ran a test and discovered the video would not play. We also discovered we needed most of the computers to disconnect from our internet connection and connect through their cellphone hotspots to prevent Reb Irwin’s screen from freezing. We managed to have a beautiful bar mitzvah with some quick thinking by Reb Irwin and the tech team. We learned a lot from that experience. We now have cable-speed internet (we needed new construction to bring it to us), and the ability to create Zoom-friendly videos.
During our “Zoom only” months, Reb Irwin developed a service format that allowed many presenters to read poetry, lead prayers, and play music. We rose to the challenge of helping everyone sound their best after a flurry of research, by working with each presenter to ensure they had the proper equipment and software configuration to make sure they were heard, and we worked to improve the sound quality of their music.
Because Zoom does not allow for real-time performance of live, ensemble music, our Good Shabbos Band and Ner Shalom Singers at first hung up their hats. But then we began doing recording projects. One musician would create a “guide track” of one of our favorite songs. Each singer or instrumentalist would play along with it, recording their part. Then all the parts would go back to either Reb Irwin or me, and one of us would engineer it into what turned out to be surprisingly beautiful musical offerings that we could all sing along with at Zoom services. What’s more, for the High Holy Days, we went a step further, and capitalized on the skills of Doron Hovav, who is a professional television video editor. We created music videos for the High Holy Days which served to transport us and make us feel like we were together in the sanctuary! Eventually we lost count, but we know that our crew created more than 25 audio tracks, many of which are now available on Soundcloud (search for “Ner Shalom”) and 3 music videos (so far) which you can find at youtube.com/nershalom.
As we slowly open up to in-person services and events, our challenge has become developing a platform where our band could play together in person through a live sound system for in-person attendees, while at the same time broadcasting to a Zoom audience with good sound quality. That hurdle took me about 2 months of intensive research, the purchase of some advanced equipment and many, many special cables, literally hundreds of test Zoom calls/recordings, and some highly specialized consulting. On the video side, Suzanne and Doron again dove into researching the problem and experimenting with solutions that will maintain the intimacy on Zoom while still maintaining our connection with the people in the room.
The Year in Review – 28 Although we’ve been working on this for a year, we are still developing the knowledge, skill, and equipment to support our wonderful physical and electronic shul. We are proud that we have proven to be very effective at making the Zoom medium work for us, and that community members from around the world are able to find a home in our online sanctuary and virtual mishkan.
We look forward to refining the technology to enable us to meet all of these needs for years to come.
Many thanks to our technology team:
Suzanne Shanbaum: Chair, Tech Guru, Audio Engineer
Doron Hovav: Video Engineer
Mark Miller: Infrastructure, Building Committee Liaison
Roey Abastado: Zoom Shamash
Jim Gray and Sheridan Gold: Live sound team members
Lorenzo Valensi and Mark Miller: Live event lighting
Pictured: The backstage complexity of Yom Kippur on Zoom. Reb Irwin and his husband, Oren Slozberg, at their Zoom station; in the background, Suzanne Shanbaum plays guitar from her audio engineering station. Lower left: some of the many cords and cables making this possible. Photo by Doron Hovav, who also operated the “Torah-Cam.”
The Year in Review – 29 Ner Shalom Scrapbook Some of the Memorable Events of 2020-2021
Here are some memorable moments of the past year. What are other moments that you especially remember?
Shoshana Fershtman and Kohenet Ruach D’vorah Grenn brought us into the tent to launch Shekhinah Shabbat, periodic Friday nights in which we expressly honor the Divine Feminine.
We all got to know Reb Irwin’s living room very well.
The Year in Review – 30
We bade a geographic goodbye to Chantleader Atzilah Solot as she prepared for her move to Tucson. We are glad Zoom has allowed her to continue to offer her gifts to our community.
We welcomed Mia and Alejandro Zimman into the congregation, and baby Luna into the world.
The Year in Review – 31
The Goslow-Zwicker Trio, affectionately known as GZ3, offered to our Zoom services some of the beautiful harmony we sorely missed in that platform. Emilia, Sophie and Annemarie (and David!) are moving to Salt Lake City this summer. We hope more Zoom appearances are in the cards for us.
Isaac Epstein’s Zoom Bar Mitzvah included a Storahtelling event that featured his father, his grandparents, and Reb Irwin.
The Year in Review – 32
Laura Ingram (here with her parents Rebecca Norwick and Geoffrey Ingram) became a bat mitzvah.
Especially beautiful was the moment when the whole family donned their tallitot.
The Year in Review – 33
We had the honor of a double b.mitzvah – Ner Shalom member and musician Sheridan Gold and her mother Sharlya Gold, zooming in from Florida.
Sheridan, flanked by wife-of-the-bat-mitzvah Dianna Grayer, reading from Torah, while we used Ner Shalom’s second Torah scroll to provide a close-up view using the “Torah Cam!”
The Year in Review – 34
Our Purim Spiel was masterminded by Stephanie Brown and Leiah Bowden. And look who all showed up to tell the story!
The Year in Review – 35
The High Holy Days included this music video of the Shimshai song “Come,” featuring our Good Shabbos Band and Ner Shalom Singers. The audio was recorded and engineered by Suzanne Shanbaum. The gorgeous video was made by Doron Hovav.
Janet Rae and Arielle Jorgensen pose for the cover photo of our Nitzanim audio bedtime stories.
The Year in Review – 36
In Memoriam
Since our last congregational meeting, Ner Shalom has lost two valued members.
Fran Dayan was a therapist, artist, rock-and-roll vocalist, and larger-than-life figure. She grew up in a Syrian Jewish family in Indianapolis, and was the mother of David Rubinstein, a friend of many in our community.
Myrna Jensen was a calm and loving voice in this community. She was the mother of our Administrator, Vicki Allen. Her poetry is included in the Ner Shalom anthology, In the Light of Peace. She was a fixture at Ner Shalom, and will be missed terribly.
In addition to them, a number of Ner Shalomers lost close loved ones over the past year:
Lou Heckenlaible, mother of Dave Blackburn Patricia Patton Lawhon, mother of Jane Lawhon Leo Levine, father of Susan Levine Viva Brenner, mother of Shari Brenner Joan Shaffer, mother of Ellyn Lazar Stuart Shaffer, father of Ellyn Lazar Ginette Adams, mother of Eric Adams Beth Frindell, mother of Karen Frindell Teuscher Eugene Ziff, father of Alan Ziff
The Year in Review – 37 Get Involved!
There are many ways to be involved at Ner Shalom. Here are some of our standing committees and teams that could use your head, heart, and hands:
Membership Stephanie Brown [email protected]
Greeting Basha Hirschfeld [email protected]
Fundraising Events & Amy Gray [email protected] Auction
Kavanah/Spiritual Life Reb Irwin [email protected]
Band of Angels Leiah Bowden [email protected]
Beit Midrash Barbara Lesch- [email protected] (Lifelong Learning) McCaffry
Nitzanim Shai Schnall [email protected]
Building Mark Miller [email protected]
Finance Mark Miller [email protected]
Oneg Shabbat & Service Liz Hagen [email protected] Sponsorship Stephanie Brown [email protected]
Fun Committee Amy Schiff [email protected]
Tzedek – Social Justice Shoshana Fershtman [email protected]
Cemetery Gesher Calmenson [email protected]
Office, Marketing & Tech Vicki Allen [email protected]
Join a committee, volunteer at an event, come to every service or only once a year. Sponsor Oneg Shabbat refreshments or a Zoom service in honor of your anniversary or in memory of someone you love. If there’s a way you want to be involved that you haven’t seen yet, suggest it! Whatever your level of participation, we’re glad you’re here!
The Year in Review – 38 Ner Shalom Staff and Board of Directors 2020-2021
Amy Gray, President Amy Schiff, Vice President Linda Schneider, Secretary Mark Miller, Treasurer Tanya Robertson, Personnel Chair Stephanie Brown Basha Hirschfeld Elaine Leeder Art Magnus Alison Marks Linda Pantoskey
Reb Irwin Keller, Rabbi Vicki Allen, Administrator Paige Hotchkiss-Needleman, Administrative Assistant Shai Schnall, Nitzanim Director
Images by Lorenzo Valensi
The Year in Review – 39