OCTOBER 2018 | TISHREI/CHESHVAN 5779 CAI Leadership Team, from left, Cantor Joel Caplan, Rabbi Ari Lucas, Education Director Susan Werk, Rabbi Alan Silverstein • MEMBER OF CONGREGATION AGUDATH ISRAEL • We carry THE BEST in fashion eyewear! OLIVER PEOPLES TOM FORD GUCCI LAFONT RAY-BAN ALAIN MIKLI MAUI JIM SILHOUETTE AND MANY MORE MENTION THIS AD to receive 15% OFF Any Purchase + 10% BACK 796 Northfield Avenue, West Orange to CAI! (Corner of Old Short Hills Road) 973-736-7647 | www.BZopticians.com Ofer Steinberg, Owner, Optician 2 Congregation Agudath Israel of West Essex masthead OCTOBER 2018 | TISHREI/CHESHVAN 5779 Contents 4. Schedule of Services 14. Book Event and Signing: Authors 27. Extending Hands of Friendship Harris Nydick and Greg Perkowski 5. From the Pulpit: 28. The New Jersey Devils Rabbi Alan Silverstein 15. Development News 29. Men's Club: Man of the Year Welcome New Members Shabbat in Pajamas 31. Cemetery Association 6. From the Pulpit: Rabbi Ari Lucas 16. Social Worker 32. B'nei Mitzvah Cantor Arianne Brown Concert 17. Congregational Nurse 34. 2018 CAI Walkathon for Israel 7. Cantor's Notes 19. Israel Committee: Avner Avraham 36. CAI Adult University 8. Education Matters 21. Sisterhood 37. CAI ECC Holiday Boutique 10. Adult Education 22. JNF Speaker Talia Tzour Avner 38. Tributes & Donations 11. Third Annual CAI Comedy Night 23. Environmental Committee 48. Yahrtzeit Donations The Michael and Barbara Erlichman 24. Social Action Committee 49. New Jersey Jewish Singles 45+ Film Series Hadassah: Rabbi Tiferet Berenbaum 50. Personals Early Childhood Center 12. Congressional Candidates Forums 25. Photo of the Month 13. Torah for Tots 26. Interfaith Committee • MEMBER OF CONGREGATION AGUDATH ISRAEL • This message above an ad means the advertiser is a member of Congregation Agudath Israel. Please thank them for supporting CAI by supporting them! Special thanks to Abby Meth Kanter for her assistance in editing this publication. The Voice is published monthly from September to June by Congregation Agudath Israel of West Essex. 20 Academy Road, Caldwell, New Jersey 07006 973-226-3600 | fax 973-226-7480 | www.agudath.org Affiliated with United Synagogue of nservativeCo Judaism agudath.org | OCTOBER 2018 3 Schedule of Services October Daily minyan as per usual; Saturday Torah study, children’s services, as per usual Monday, October 1 Saturday, October 13 Shmini Atzeret, Shacharit .........................................................9:15 am Shacharit .......................................................................................9:15 am Yizkor ..........................................................................................10:45 am Shabbat Meditation ..................................................................9:30 am Minchah .....................................................................................12:45 pm Bar Mitzvah – Eli Rosenthal ............................................................ pm Erev Simchat Torah for Young Children ...................................6 pm Minchah/Talmud Study/Maariv ............................................5:55 pm Erev Simchat Torah for Children ..........................................6:45 pm Friday, October 19 Erev Simchat Torah Main Service .........................................7:30 pm Shabbat in PJs ............................................................................5:30 pm Tuesday, October 2 Erev Shabbat Service ...............................................................5:50 pm Simchat Torah, Shacharit ..............................................................9 am Shabbat Social for 3rd Grade and their Families ..................................................6:30 pm Friday, October 5 Erev Shabbat Service .....................................................................6 pm Saturday, October 20 Shacharit .......................................................................................9:15 am Saturday, October 6 Bat Mitzvah – Abby Fliegler ............................................................ pm Shacharit ............................................................................................9 am Minchah/Talmud Study/Maariv ............................................5:45 pm Bat Mitzvah – Hannah Koffler .........................................................am Guest Speaker Talya Tzour: Friday, October 26 “Environment in Israel Via JNF” ................................................. 11 am Erev Shabbat Service ...............................................................5:40 pm Lunch 'n' Learn with Talya Tzour ........................................12:45 pm GOA Shabbat Dinner and Service ........................................ 6:15 pm Bar Mitzvah – Michael Friedman ................................................... pm Saturday, October 27 Minchah/Talmud Study/Maariv ............................................6:05 pm Shacharit .......................................................................................9:15 am Friday, October 12 Bar Mitzvah – Evan Feldstein .......................................................... pm Erev Shabbat Service .....................................................................6 pm Minchah/Talmud Study/Maariv ............................................5:35 pm Candle Lighting Times Daily Services Saturday Schedule Monday, October 1, Mornings Services begin ................................9:15 am Shmini Atzeret, Monday & Thursday ..................... 6:45 am (When B'nei Mitzvah) ..........................9 am Eve of Simchat Torah ................... 7:48 pm Tuesday, Wednesday, & Friday .........7 am Torah Study Group ..............................9 am Friday, October 5...........................6:13 pm Sunday Talmud Study ...................8:15 am Shabbat Meditation ...................... 9:30 am Shabbat ends, Sunday Shacharit .................................9 am (per monthly schedule) Saturday, October 6 .....................7:23 pm Torah Reading Chug .............10:15-11 am Evenings (twice a month, ages 9-12) Friday, October 12 ......................6:02 pm Sunday-Thursday .......................... 7:30 pm Shabbat ends, Torah for Tots (ages 0-4) ................. 11 am Friday (see schedule) Saturday, October 13 ....................6:12 pm Shabbat Friends .................................. 11 am (twice a month, grades K-2) Friday, October 19 ....................... 5:52 pm Shabbat ends, Jr Congo (grades 3-7) ...................... 11 am Saturday, October 20...................6:02 pm Friday, October 26 ....................... 5:42 pm Shabbat ends, Saturday, October 27 .................. 6:52 pm 4 Congregation Agudath Israel of West Essex From the Pulpit RABBI ALAN SILVERSTEIN Israel as our Ancestral Jewish Homeland “Rabbi, why should I consider Israel my ‘home’? I am An intense feeling of historic belonging arises when not a persecuted Jew fleeing my country of birth, nor people reconnect with their ancestors’ physical address. am I contemplating aliyah from a life of freedom here That is how I felt when I disembarked from a DC-10 in the USA.” onto the tarmac of Israel’s international airport for my first visit in 1972. Some people, with this feeling, kissed In honor of the State of Israel at 70 years, we should the ground. We felt a rush of emotion, a sense of distinguish between “home” and “homeland.” homecoming — or, should I say, “homeland-coming.” I, too, regard a glorious America as my “home.” I was When I boarded a bus that first day in Jerusalem, a born here, as were both of my parents and my mother’s passenger got up and offered his seat to me. As a 23-year- parents. My roots are deep. My loyalty and appreciation are old, I declined. But he demurred, saying, “We have been saving clear. this seat for you for 2,000 years.” Forty-four years later, during the But part of being in America, a land of immigrants, is also to events celebrating the bat mitzvah of my granddaughter, Noa, recognize the power and inspiration derived from my ancestral our family visited an archaeological dig. Noa unearthed shards of “homeland.” This is what Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan described as pottery from a 2,000-year-old Jewish civilization. We davened “living in two civilizations,” home and ancestral homeland. Maariv in the ruins of a Maccabean synagogue. I came of political age in 1963, in the last year of President John Only in Israel can these affirmations of my heritage come to the F. Kennedy. This vigorous young national leader was an Irish- fore. Our ancestors, our roots, are everywhere in Israel, as was the American. He had been born in America, and so had members case for JFK and for Barack Obama. Israel is not necessarily the of two previous generations of his family. For President Kennedy, land of our birth, or the birthplace of our parents or grandparents. without question, the USA was “home.” But in 1963, with great To quote journalist Jane Eisner, Israel is “a living, breathing fanfare, when he visited Ireland, he was filled with pride in homeland connected to us through history and faith, one that we connecting for the first time with his beloved ancestral homeland. can engage and support and love.” So, too, was President Obama, when he made an exuberant visit With friendship, to Kenya, his father’s ancestral land. Rabbi Alan Silverstein to our newest families as of October 1! • Omer Amir and Jessica Bramnick Amir • Ben and Brooke Grubb with Blakeley • Mark and Andrea Berkowitz with Noah and Ella • Jarrett and Alana Hass with Logan • Jonathan and Geri