ConnectionsTemple Emanu-El Shevat - Adar 5781 • V. 85 No. 5 February 2021 Service Schedule February Surprise! Friday, February 5 Purim-in-a-Box 7:00 PM Zoom Family Erev Shabbat Service coming your way Friday, February 12 Instead of our traditional Mishloach Manot drive, our Confirmation class will be boxing 7:00 PM Streaming Erev Shabbat Service up Purim for you, complete with grogger, mask, hamantaschen and more!! Friday, February 19 Stay tuned for delivery details soon! 6:00 PM Streaming Tot Shabbat If you want to join our delivery team, let us know at [email protected]. 7:00 PM Erev Streaming Shabbat Thursday, February 25 6:00 PM Zoom Erev Purim Trivia Night Experience Friday, February 26 JOIN US ON ZOOM 6:30 PM Zoom Live Kabbalat Shabbat Service Purim Shpiel We invite you to join us for our traditional Purim Shpiel on Sunday, February 28 at 10:00 AM We’ve got a lot planned and can’t wait to share it with you. More information to come soon!. If any Temple member would like a physical copy of the membership directory, please contact us at JOIN [email protected] or 408-292-0939, US ON and we will be happy ZOOM to mail one to you. Erev Purim Trivia Night Experience Think you know EVERYTHING about Purim? 1010 University Ave., San Jose, CA 95126 We bet you don’t. come test your trivia skills against your fellow 408-292-0939 congregants for trivia night! Hope to see you on www.templesanjose.org February 25 at 6:00 PM facebook.com/templesanjose for this great event! twitter.com/templesanjose [email protected] This experience is for adults. More information to come soon!. Connections From the President Temple Emanu-El is more that I didn’t want the temple to fail on my watch. Well, we’re than the building still up to our necks in this pandemic; what if people just lose interest in the temple and stop supporting it financially and I’m sitting here at home watching otherwise? So, I’m not always the most optimistic person in football, reflecting on the disturbing the room. past week. I’ve become adept at dealing with a kindergartner and a Before I went back to bed and pulled the covers over my 3rd grader doing distance learning head, I thought to myself……”That’s just not going to happen.” from my home office. I ran an Look at what we’ve accomplished in the last few years as a unusually spirited Temple Board congregation. We raised almost $2.6 million to do the 2020 meeting on Tuesday night, January renovations. Almost no one thought we could do this. We 5th. However, all normalcy left on had a few critics who felt that doing a capital project was Wednesday morning as a group of angry and misguided going to fail. But Andrew Weinberg and Larry Fox forged people overtook the Capitol building in Washington D.C. The ahead and we raised the money. Our plans have been next few days were spent cycling through news channels submitted to the City of San Jose and we hope to break and social media anger. As an American, I was appalled. ground before summer. As a Jew, I was sickened to see so many of the “patriots” The response to High Holy Days was amazing. Our Clergy wearing anti-Semitic symbols. It left me deflated team and staff put on a spectacular set of services Our So, why am I telling you this? I’m just the Temple President. production value was high and the music and content was My political leanings are completely irrelevant and have no second to none. We had a huge audience of members and bearing on my role at Temple Emanu-El. However, I ask you non-members from around the country. It was inspiring. Let’s to indulge me for just a moment. not forget how much we all loved the gift bags. This morning, I had the privilege of participating in the Bat Even during a pandemic/shutdown, our congregation Mitzvah of our own Sarah Applebaum. It gave me the chance stepped up and participated in our Annual Campaign like to fully escape the week and think about something else. never before. Right before High Holy Days, I told the board I really needed a break from the real world. It made me that we were going to set a BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious realize how Temple Emanu-El is always there when I need it. Goal) for the Annual Campaign. In my pre-Rosh Hashana video I announced we were trying to raise $100,000. That’s Not being one who can simply enjoy the moment…… I started $25,000 more than we have ever tried to raise during the reflecting on how important the temple community has been campaign. Did, I think we would make it? Remember, I’m not for me during last 10 months. Being involved with the board an optimist. I figured, we’d shoot for $100K and be happy if and then becoming President certainly helps keep my time we got to $75K. Once again, our community stepped up and occupied during what seems to be an interminable “shelter we raised just under $110,000. This isn’t just mad money. We in place”. It’s nice to have something to fill up a few hours. operate the synagogue with this money. We may even be Temple business is a bit like work; I do it because it needs able to reinstate pay raises that were suspended this year. to be done. Tuesday’s Chat with the Rabbi has become something I try to attend as often as possible. It’s a small My natural pessimism has waned. We have so much to group, but we have some lively discussions and laugh a lot. look forward to in 2021. We have a beautiful new Sanctuary Live Onegs and live Zoom services have a great energy. waiting for us, hope to have a completely remodeled I understand that some of our services will be recordings exterior. We’ll even have a new Cantor. available on YouTube, but I look forward to the day when we A synagogue is a building. A congregation is a group of will all be able to share in services together Any event that is people getting together for worship. Temple Emanu-El is a little bit social always leaves me feeling better than when I both of those things. We are also a community of people started. It’s good therapy. who care about the institution and each other. It sounds a Of course, I couldn’t leave well enough alone and feel good whole lot like a family. Even in the strangest of times, we about what’s going on at the Temple with ZIGZAG events cling to our family for support and love. It makes me feel and social groups. I shifted into a slightly darker place. good to be part of the Temple Emanu-El family. How much longer can we go without actually being open? Let’s have a happy and healthy 2021. Let’s connect How much longer can we go without being able to shake whenever possible. That’s what families do. hands or hug a friend? When can we actually spend time in our beautiful sanctuary? I could feel the spiral of despair Steve Krandel, President beginning. One of my fears of being Temple President was 2 Connections Cantor Notes Happy Purim, everyone! Enjoy one of my favorite bored, non-screen time things: KILLER SUDOKU! In case you don’t know, here are the rules: 1. As with Sudoku, the objective of Killer Sudoku is to fill the grid with the numbers 1 to 9, such that each row, column and nonet (3x3 group of cells) contains each number only once. 2. In addition to this, a Killer Sudoku grid is divided into cages, shown with dashed lines. The sum of the numbers in a cage must equal the small number in its top-left corner. 3. The same number cannot appear in a cage more than once. GOOD LUCK and have a HAPPY PURIM! Cantor Amanda Edmondson Parents Circle - Families Forum program coming to Temple Emanu-El You may know that the COVID relief bill the President which will hopefully be funded by this Partnership signed in December was a “package” deal, with a load for Peace Act is the Parents Circle - Families of other items included in it. One of those items was the Forum (PCFF). Nita M. Lowey Middle East Partnership for Peace Act. The Parents Circle is a joint Israeli-Palestinian This new law represents a huge investment in Israeli- organization made up of more than 600 bereaved Palestinian peacebuilding. It provides $250 million over families. Their common bond is that they have lost five years to expand peace and reconciliation programs between Israelis and Palestinians and will help lay a continued on page 7 foundation for a genuine peace. One of the programs 3 Connections Religious School Sisterhood Here are clues to the following riddle: Sisterhood continues to engage our Significance: Remembers the defeat members and of a plot to exterminate the Jews Temple congregants Observances: Public reading of by planning virtual a book of while “blotting out” the events. We were so villain’s name happy to celebrate Hanukkah together Length: 1 day with a virtual White Customs: Costume parties; drinking; Elephant gift card party. We had some long-term eating fruit-filled triangular cookies members (Doris Davis, Bobi Levine, Harriet Reisner, Sybil Sommers and Lois Zell) and new members (Ellen Rudy What am I? Hopefully you answered the Jewish holiday of & Anna Guiltieri) join us.