January 2014 • Shevat 5774 The Washington Congregation MACHAR for Secular Humanistic Judaism P.O. Box 42014, Washington, DC 20015 • 202-686-1881 • www.machar.org Happy New Year! Inside this issue: 2: Features I hope you all had a wonderful holiday We start 2014 with many exciting activi- season. It’s hard to believe it’s already ties planned. Please join us for a special 4: JCS News 2014! The new year is a good time to re- adult education program on February 23 flect a bit on the memorable year we had. when we will welcome Rabbi candidate 6: Adult Education Nehama Benmosche for a presentation 9: Clubs and Activities In 2013, Machar was deeply saddened about Purim. Rabbi Benmosche will also by the loss of three dear members: Bert join us at 5 p.m. on February 22 for a 10: SHJ News Donn, Norm Gleichman, and Enrique potluck/challah baking and Havdalah ser- Lerdau. But we welcomed many new vice at Unitarian Universalist Congrega- 12: The Machar Family members and stayed busy with a variety tion of Rockville, 100 Welsh Park Drive. of activities. Our members mean so much 13: Staff, Board of to us and your enthusiasm and willing- Machar members Barry and Elaine Directors and ness to lead our activities keeps us a Dancis will lead us in Machar’s annual Leadership vibrant community. Tu B’Shevat Seder for our Community Sunday event on January 26. 16: Information/Ads We ended the year with some wonderful seasonal events: Danielle Leff led us in On March 9, we will honor SHJ’s Hu- a lovely Autumn dinner Shabbat ac- manist Jewish Role Model for 2013-14, companied by our song leader Naomi Maurice Sendak. Machar member Hildie Gamoran. Our teen group organized a Block will discuss Sendak’s work, fol- fun-filled Hanukkah that so many of you lowed by our Community Sunday when braved the weather to enjoy. Machar’s children will perform “Where the Wild Things Are.” Machar’s leadership kicked off our annual fundraising campaign with a And don’t forget Machar’s Purim party on $7,500 challenge pledge. This gener- March 16 with food, games, and a play! ous pledge matches dollar for dollar the contributions of other Machar members, This is only the beginning of the year for and we are delighted to say that we us. We have so many more interesting came close to reaching that goal, but we and exciting things planned for 2014! are not quite there! If you haven’t had a chance to participate, it’s not too late to I look forward to seeing you all! contribute via the Machar website or by check. Thank you all for your continued Darlene Basch support of Machar. Machar President Secular Humanistic Judaism We affirm the power and respon- Machar is affiliated with the embraces a human-centered phi- sibility of human beings to shape Society for Humanistic Judaism losophy that combines rational their own lives independent of and the International Federation thinking with a celebration of supernatural authority. of Secular Humanistic Jews. Jewish culture and identity. Features Scenes From Machar Page 2: About sixty Machar members enjoyed a lovely Autumn Shabbat dinner and service led by Danielle Leff with song leader Naomi Gamoran on Friday, November 22. Page 3: In spite of snow and sleet, we had a great turnout at our annual Hanukkah party, where we enjoyed a new play by Amit and Yael, fun games and crafts, and songs. Thanks to the teens and teen leader Seth Garfinkel for planning the festivities! 2 Features 3 JCS News JCS News Debby Brennan Thanks to everyone who celebrated Hanukkah with thought it would be fun to create name plates and let Machar! Many people braved the wintry weather, and the students see what their names look like in Hebrew. many kids kept the dreidls spinning. Thanks to the teen We’ll learn a little more about Hebrew for my lesson on group for running the games. A special thank you to the Israel, but this was a great preview. It was also great Hanadari- Levy daughters for another great play, and to to hear what the students said they would name their all actors. A special thank you to Holly Campbell for all children... as soon as one suggested a middle name of of her organizing, and to Sue Zwicker for leading us in “poopy” I decided it was probably time to move on. song. A special thank you to all who brought food, to all who helped setting up and cleaning up, and for all Looking beyond birth, we talked about how life changes those who brought their babies (lots of new babies at but some things tend to stay the same - and one of those Machar!) and good cheer. Congratulations to Manny things, family, is very important in Jewish tradition. We Pastreich for his delicious latkes!! And congratulations read a book called “My Rotten Readheaded Older to Henry Zamore for guessing the number of M&M’s in Brother,” where a girl complains about being picked the jar..enjoy the 2000 M&M’s!! on by her brother but, when he takes care of her after an accident, she ultimately realizes that he loves her Looking ahead—we are planning a 4th,5th, 6th grade no matter what. We talked about our own siblings and trip to Ellis Island. Early returns point in the direction of how we love them even if we don’t always get along a March 29/30 date. perfectly. I thought this might be a nice message for the holiday season! Any parents in other grades who would like to organize a field trip for their child’s class for the same Sunday - After a little runaround outside, we came back and March 30 - please contact Debby Brennan. embarked on our final project of the day - making snowflakes. After a fairly complicated process of folding The registration date for HuJews Conclave in Boston - and cutting, we wound up with beautiful snowflakes, MARCH 28-30, 2014 is January 31st, 2014, with a and (some of us) wrote on them something we can do deadline to apply for scholarships of December 18th, in the new year to give back to our families. Lila wrote 2013. There is a capacity this year to have about 60 about being nicer to her brother. Mason wrote that he teens and young adults attend the conclave. The more wanted to do more magic; I chose to believe that the attendees, the more fun! inspiration for that was wanting to entertain his family, though I suspect there may have been some personal HIGHLIGHTS FROM OUR CLASSES: goals there as well! The goal of the snowflakes was to celebrate the season while decorating students’ homes Kindergarten: and constantly reminding them of one thing they can do Another fun Sunday in kindergarten - and there wasn’t for their families. even any candy! I hope the next month is restful, safe, and fun - I look The focus of the week’s lesson was the Jewish lifecycle. forward to seeing you on January 12th for a lesson on Judaism is full of cycles - from daily religious rituals to Tu B’shvat. It’s hard to believe, but after that class, we’ll weekly Shabbat to monthly lunar patterns to yearly holi- be halfway done with the school year! days to singular events in the course of life. —Ben Lauing First, we talked about what some important moments First/Second Grade: in life are - birth, maybe a bar/bat mitzvah, going to In light of the holiday spirit, we focused our attention college, maybe getting married (“yuck”). As one of the this week on generosity and gratitude. We began class very first Jewish traditions in life is the baby naming, I by sharing our favorite things that had happened since 4 JCS News we last met and then read a story together. It was an read it again and make different choices. So we went Egyptian fable that teaches the importance of sharing back to the beginning and I let them make some differ- what you have with others. We discussed what we had ent choices to see how those choices would change the read and the importance of generosity and then went outcome. outside for a brief recess. The kids really enjoyed put- —Heather Gale ting together snowballs with the very last of the snow. After we headed back inside, I transitioned us over into B’nei Mitzvah class: our second topic, explaining that generosity and grati- Debby Brennan spoke with the students about secular tude are mirror images of each other (generosity being humanism and the morals and values that are a part a driving force behind what you do for other people of secular humanism and how those could relate to and gratitude being the way you express thanks for the students’ projects. We then transitioned to Jewish what people do for you). I asked the students to write traditions and teaching about environmentalism and thank you letters to someone in their life who they feel taking care of the planet. We learned the story of Honi gratitude for. The letters were very creative - Jacob’s and the carob tree. We then played a game where letter to his father was in the shape of a spiral and Teo’s students were given a blank piece of paper and secret letter to his sister was written in a language she created. instructions on what to draw, ranging from “start draw- All around, we had a great class this week and I look ing a farm” to “scribble all over the paper.” after 15 forward to seeing you all in January! seconds or so they had to pass off their drawings to a —Brittany Grimm classmate, who had to try and continue their drawings.