March 2015 Shofar - Adar/Nisan 5775

Shofar Adar / Nisan 5775

Jewish Family Congregation www.jewishfamilycongregation.org

March 2015

March Service Schedule Shabbat Ki Tisa, Exodus 30:11 – 34:35 March 6

March 7

6:00 pm

Young Community Shabbat at Temple Shearith Israel in Ridgefield, CT No Shabbat Services at JFC

6:30 pm

Dinner/RSVP to JFC office

7:30 pm

Shabbat Services at TSI no Shabbat Services at JFC

10:30 am

Shabbat Services including Bar Mitzvah of Max Rauch

Shabbat Parah, Exodus 35:1 – 40:38

It is with profound sadness that we share the loss of our beloved Cantor Kerry Ben-David.

Our condolences extend to the Ben-David family and all members of JFC. Jewish Family Congregation will honor Cantor Kerry Ben-David's memory in the near future.

From the Rabbi’s Desk President’s Message Religious School Early Childhood Center Ritual Committee Members of the Community

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March 13

7:30 pm

Shabbat Services Featuring Grade 2

March 14

10:30 am

Shabbat Services

Shabbat Hachodesh, Leviticus 1:1 – 5:26 March 20

7:30 pm

Sephardic Shabbat Services Members of TSI visit JFC Free Babysitting

March 21

10:30 am

Shabbat Services

Shabbat Hagadol, Leviticus 6:1 – 8:36

Ask the Rabbi Yahrzeit/Birthday/Anniversary ECC photos Oneg Shabbat Hosts Donations Religious School photos

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Jewish Family Congregation Shofar

March 2015

From the Rabbi’s Desk Passover/Pesah As many of you know by now, I am very proud to teach our Adult B’nai Mitzvah class this year at JFC. In addition to getting to know members of the congregation and fellow teaching staff better, preparing for classes provides me an opportunity to review Jewish principles and traditions and to engage in meaningful discussions about various Jewish topics. As you also already know, even if you cannot attend the classes in person, it is possible to join us virtually -- either by video or simply by audio. Everyone is welcome to participate; our class usually meets at 12:30 pm on Wednesday afternoons, about twice each month. Please be in touch with me if you would like to join us in some way in the future.

We recently reviewed the holiday of Passover, and Rabbi Michael Strassfeld wrote some beautiful passages about the holiday in our “textbook” -- A Book of Life: Embracing Judaism as a Spiritual Practice. Passover can be challenging to celebrate in a meaningful way, especially when other family members and friends do not always focus on the rituals or traditions associated with the holiday. Children need to eat or sleep, we often must travel long distances, relative may be uninterested in the rituals, and a perfunctory sense of “we’ve done that already” provide additional challenges to a meaningful Seder experience. Of course, a haggadah that is out-of-date or out-of-touch with the rest of our lives can further complicate the enjoyment of the holiday. It takes a lot of effort in advance to make sure the experience -- culinary, Jewish and otherwise -- is a success.

The basis of the Passover celebration is to re-live the Exodus from Egypt -- not merely tell about the story, but to participate in the Exodus. We are called upon to make the Exodus narrative become a personal narrative -- for ourselves, our families, our communities, and our world.

The following passage by Rabbi Strassfeld (p. 232) provides an excellent overview of the holiday and what it can mean to us: Perhaps Pesah requires the most extensive preparation because so does liberation. Lest we think that slavery only comes in some obvious form of chains and Pharaohs, Pesah asks us to see the most common element of our life, bread, as enslavement. It suggests that while slavery can be found everywhere and in everything, perhaps most of all it is found in the routine of the everyday. Slavery can be found in the rote repetition of activities that leads us to sleepwalk through existence. Instead, Pesah call us to reexamine our daily routine by making us change our most basic element, bread, the staff of life. Nothing is to be accepted as is; rather, all is to be held up for examination and reflection. This process is not meant as a rejection of who we are and what we do; rather it is to lead to a renewal of our daily lives. After all, once Pesah is over, we go back to eating bread. Our goal is not to reject bread but to renew our priorities, to provide a greater appreciation for what we have and to remind us all of that we have yet to accomplish. We begin the cycle of the festival year with a holiday that comes to shake us out of our smugness and to remind us that the God of Israel calls us to work for the liberation of all people, including ourselves.

This year, maybe you can use the holiday of Passover and the evening of the Seder to focus on the “slavery” that can be found in your routine. What would you like to change this year? How can you wake up from your “sleepwalk through existence” in the months ahead? What areas of your life do you need to reflect upon and to examine? If you would like to share your thoughts with me, I would love to meet you to discuss those challenges and support you on your individual path to freedom, whatever that may be.

Rabbi Strassfeld reminds us that “Most of all, the Pesah story is a story of change. The mighty power of Egypt is humbles. An enslaved people are freed. Once a year, we remember that real change is possible…. Hopefully we will emerge with a clearer sense of self, a vision of purpose, and the knowledge that change is within our grasp.”

Amen! Wishing you a meaningful and transformative Passover, Rabbi Marcus L. Burstein

Adar/Nisan 5775

Jewish Family Congregation 111 Smith Ridge Road P.O. Box 249 South Salem, NY 10590 Phone: (914) 763-3028 Fax: (914) 763-3069

Jewish Family Congregation Shofar

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From The Presidents

By Glenn Kurlander and Hal Wolkin Co-Presidents’ Message

office@jewishfamilycongregation.org

JFC’s exploration of the possibility of forming a union with Temple Shearith Israel (TSI) has picked up steam within the last month, and the various comwww.jewishfamilycongregation.org mittees working on aspects of the possible combination have achieved some ————— major accomplishments and crossed some significant milestones. At the same time, the number of people from both congregations working on aspects of the exploration has grown substantially.

Rabbi Marcus L. Burstein, D. Min As we’ve written before, we and the Board of Trustees continue to be fully rabbi@jewishfamilycongregation.org committed to keeping JFC congregants informed of the status of the exploration, and to making transparency and candor two of the essential hallmarks of ————— that exploration. Because the members of JFC and TSI will make the final determination as to whether JFC and TSI should form a union, it is essential that Director of Education we keep you apprised so that you will be able to make an informed decision.

Leslie Gottlieb In the coming weeks, as we anticipate that milestones will be reached with lgottlieb@jewishfamilycongregation.org even greater frequency, we and the leadership of TSI will work together to find ways to keep both communities informed on a more frequent basis.

Early Childhood Center Director Before summarizing the progress that has been made since we last wrote, we Jane Weil Emmer think it would be valuable to share with you our general thoughts about the jemmer@jewishfamilycongregation.org state of the exploration of a union. Moreover, in keeping with the emphasis on transparency, we believe that we have come to the point where it is now apAdministrator propriate for us to give you our prediction as to where we believe we ultimateKathleen Sakowicz ly are headed. Here’s what we think. ksakowicz@jewishfamilycongregation.org

————— Glenn Kurlander, Co-President Hal Wolkin, Co-President

president@jewishfamilycongregation.org

Josh Blum, First Vice-President Polly Schnell, Second Vice-President Robyn Cohen, Treasurer Suzanne Sunday, Secretary executive@jewishfamilycongregation.org

Karen Conti, Trustee Jon Glass, Trustee Mindy Hoffman, Trustee Robi Margolis, Trustee Paul Storfer, Trustee Bonnie Wattles, Trustee Richard Mishkin, Ex Officio

board@jewishfamilycongregation.org

Shofar Editor Kathleen Sakowicz Shofar Printer Copy Stop Royal Press

We began this undertaking with hope and enthusiasm, but with no certainty that a union was the right result. It wasn’t the case that we had misgivings about coming together with TSI. It was simply the case that we knew relatively little about TSI, and thus didn’t have enough information to form a belief as to whether a union would be best for JFC and best for the larger community.

Obviously, one of the points of the exploration we have undertaken is to gather as much information as possible so as to enable all JFC congregants to decide whether a union is the right step.

Over the last several months, the process we have built with our counterparts at TSI has enabled each to learn much about the other. We at JFC have learned that our deeply held values as a community are substantially the same as TSI’s values. We each have built our community on the bedrock values of inclusiveness, diversity, progressiveness and egalitarianism. We’ve learned that our ritual observances and practices, and our love for musically-enriched observances, are remarkably similar. We’ve learned that we place the same emphasis on, and share the same hopes and dreams for, the education of our children. Many of us have had the chance to experience the warmth and generosity of TSI congregants and we believe these qualities mirror our own.

But we haven’t only learned about one another’s values and precepts. The process we constructed has required an increasingly large number of JFC congregants to work with a growing cadre of TSI congregants. We’ve had to confront difficult and challenging issues. Throughout that entire experience, it has consistently been the case that the depth of the commitment from both congregations to work together collaboratively and respectfully has been nothing short of remarkable. And one need look no further than the decision to establish one religious school, and to select one Education Director (both of which decisions we discuss more fully below), to see that it is possible for our two congregations to focus collectively on what is in the best interests of the larger community.

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Jewish Family Congregation Shofar

March 2015

From the Religious School

By Leslie Gottlieb

Last month, my beloved friend and father, Eugene Kahn, passed away (z”l). He died ten days before what would have been his eighty-fourth birthday. Maybe he decided to depart from this world, intentionally, before his birthday -- quietly reflecting on the fact that the Torah gives a man seventy years-- and then life sort of starts in earnest again so that many men and women at eighty-three often become Bar or Bat Mitzvah, adding thirteen years to the seventy already lived. No matter, this loss has been a great one for me and our family.

The Bible includes several in-law stories, including one about a special mother-in-law relationship (Ruth and Naomi in The Book of Ruth) and another, a Torah parashah about a father-son-in-law relationship. The portion gets its name from a non-Jew (interestingly), Yitro or Jethro-- read around the world in the month of Shevat/February this year. It is interesting to look at Moses’ relationship with Jethro, his Midianite father-in-law, and compare this bond to that of my father and my husband, Larry—a most devoted son-in-law in every conceivable way right up till the end. Since this is a column dedicated to the school, I can only say that the respect we impart to the older generation in our lives, no matter what our age, is a most important commandment or utterance, number five in the aggregate ten, to be exact. This is a lesson we teach and embrace at the school in so many ways.

This lesson about kavod or respect for our mother and father comes to us in many ways looking into our tradition. I learned that it was from Proverbs that my father quoted, unbeknownst to me for many years, when he used to call every day for over a decade, whispering into the phone, a daily ritual, before I even had a chance to rise from bed…

“Do not forsake your father.” Did he worry I would abandon my post at some point when the going got rough and Parkinson’s disease became too much of a burden for me to manage in caring for him? Not a chance! There was no… forsaking here… and he upheld his commitment to me as a father the way I held him up as a daughter.

Jethro offers advice to Moses-- mostly about the administration of leadership. Larry regularly took all kinds of advice from my father who visited our home for an overnight stay for a twenty-four hour period--on a weekly basis-- for nearly twenty years. Whether it was what to look for when judging the qualities of a good Chinese restaurant or how to use a bar of soap to fill a hole in wood… the lessons were innumerable and of the highest value for living life to its fullest.

Moses also counseled Jethro in terms of management issues. In a column published last month by Ellen Weinberg Dreyfus, in one of the weekly URJ Ten Minutes of Torah editions, she writes about Yitro, “There are job qualifications established in the selection criteria set out by Moses: employees should be capable, God-fearing, truthful, honest, unswayed by prospects of material gain. Specialization was there before Moses' time as indicated by the numerous references to craftsmen. Division of government labor, however, Moses owes to Jethro in the persons of the captains of tens, hundreds, and thousands. . . . (W)e could say that by following these principles of administration, Moses was able to devote his time planning, directing and coordinating the activities of those under his command.”

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From the Early Childhood Center

By Jane Emmer

We live in a world of disharmony and it is our job to plant the seed that will help us heal the world.

We get that the times, they are a-changin'… we often wonder where has all the kindness gone?... and how do we get it back?

One way to start is by teaching our children social values such as self-discipline, respect and, perhaps most important of all, empathy.

Here's our thinking: If kids learn to understand how others think and feel, they will better understand how their choices affect them and their peers. We believe that qualities such as empathy can be learned at school and at home. When kids learn to take another person's perspective, they suddenly realize they're not the only person in the room.

We have all witnessed infants with the ability to imitate. We've all seen it: the newborn who copies his dad's facial expression; the baby who shakes the rattle just like her mother. That kind of imitation lays the foundation for empathy.

"We believe that when infants imitate, they are becoming 'like the other person' in action, with simple body movements," says Andrew Meltzoff, Ph.D, co-director of the Center for Mind, Brain & Learning at the University of Washington. "Later that can flower into empathy, which is the ability to become like the other person in emotion and perspective."

Meltzoff suggests parents begin nurturing empathy by playing imitative, reciprocal games with their babies. These can include using simple facial expressions such as opening their mouths, thrusting out their tongues, even just smiling. A few months later, parents can wave to their babies and play "peek-a-boo."

During the day, in our ECC, we talk to our students about their weekends, their snowdays, and their time away from school. We listen to what they say. We ask open-ended questions, such as “Help me understand what happened” We, at the JFC ECC, put a great deal of effort and energy into understanding what each child is feeling and we then try to reflect back his or her feelings. This is the essence of building compassion and empathy. This is what makes working with young children magical and important.

We encourage kids to see other points of view by saying things like: “How would you feel if that were you? What would you do?'" We read books to our children that deal with feelings. We try to find ways for our kids to show care and concern for others. One of our main goals it to have school programs that help build social and emotional skills. We attend to the whole child. The bottom line is: kids need to learn how to stand in other people's shoes.

The JFC ECC is a very special place. Please share your experiences with our wonderful program. We are currently registering for camp and Fall 2015. Questions? Call Jane at 914-763-3028 extension 15.

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March 2015

From the Ritual Committee

By Michael Salpeter

Over the past few years at JFC, we have devoted some energy into discussing the importance of names for the Jewish people. Our member Bryon Friedman has delivered a drash to our congregation describing the meanings and origins of many Jewish family names. Most of these names derived either from the location of origin of the family, the type of work that was historically performed by the males in the family, or some description relating to the appearance of an individual. In last month’s edition of the Shofar, Rabbi Burstein detailed the practices relating to giving a child his or her name and specifically the differences between the Ashkenazic and Sephardic traditions.

Of course, we are aware that typically we have a secular first name and family name, as well as a Hebrew name given to us at our brit milah or our naming ceremony.

At the beginning of the Book of Exodus we read from Parshat Shmot, shmot being the Hebrew word for “names.” Studying that particular reading led me to a poem, called Each of Us Has a Name, by the Israeli poet Zelda, a cousin of the Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendl Schneerson who lived in the middle of the 20th century. Her notion was that we had many more names than the ones we commonly recognize. Below I share her poem with you, and I believe you will be motivated to think deeply about her words.

EACH OF US HAS A NAME BY ZELDA Each of us has a name

Each of us has a name

given by God

given by our enemies

and given by our parents

and given by our love

Each of us has a name

Each of us has a name

given by our stature and our smile

given by our celebrations

and given by what we wear

and given by our work

Each of us has a name

Each of us has a name

given by the mountains

given by the seasons

and given by our walls

and given by our blindness

Each of us has a name

Each of us has a name

given by the stars

given by the sea

and given by our neighbors

and given by our death.

Each of us has a name given by our sins and given by our longing

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JFC Members in the Community

Many JFC members and families engage in wonderful acts of Tikkun Olam – Repairing the World – outside JFC walls. In this column, we will profile JFC members and the great work they do in acting out the Jewish principles of Tikkun Olam and performing acts of Gemilut Chasadim, Acts of Lovingkindness – either as a volunteer or as part of their chosen career. If you would like to share the work that you do in future editions, please be in touch with Rabbi Burstein.

We are very happy to present the work of our members Jay Zaslow and Samantha Rai to inaugurate this new column.

Jay Zaslow and Samantha Rai

Jay and Samantha are family physicians. We take care of families – from newborns to the elderly. We each entered medical school with the desire to care for the underserved. We each brought our values of social justice to our hopes and goals within medicine. Through our travels and our own families’ experiences of immigration, we each felt a particular empathy for and desire to help new immigrants to the United States with the medical and social challenges they face. We continue to ask ourselves where this drive comes from but one important source undoubtedly is the Jewish value of Tikkun Olam. The ideal of making the world a better place was explicitly present in our homes growing up.

We met in Guatemala in 1993. Jay was finishing medical school at Brown, taking part in a three-month health and human rights scholarship in Guatemala. Samantha was traveling through Central America, learning Spanish and enjoying some freedom before starting medical school. We spent our first weekend together in a rural village vaccinating hundreds of children.

We now work at Open Door Family Medical Centers, Samantha in the Mount Kisco office and Jay in the office he founded in Brewster. Samantha also teaches at the Phelps-New York Medical College Family Medicine Residency program, helping to train the next generation of family physicians. Open Door is a federally qualified health center, receiving federal, state and grant funding. This funding allows us to see patients regardless of their ability to pay. We spend the majority of our days speaking Spanish with Guatemalan and other Central and South American immigrants, but we have patients from all over the world. We have cared for people from Nepal, India, Pakistan, Albania, Georgia, Israel, Cape Verde, Nigeria, China, Japan, and the Philippines. We see many Americans who have lost their jobs and their health insurance, people who are working but continue to face financial barriers. Our patients bring to us a huge variety of health problems, and they are appreciative of the care they receive. We provide ongoing continuity care to the families in our practices, and so over the years we have been fortunate to develop many close and meaningful relationships.

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Jewish Family Congregation Shofar

March 2015

Ask the Rabbi

Do Reform Jews believe in the Messiah?

Jewish tradition speaks of the Messiah -- or Mashiach, in Hebrew -- as a descendant of King David. Mashiach literally means “anointed one,” since in Biblical times one became a king when oil was poured on his head.

From a traditional point of view, the Messiah would be a messenger of God, and usher in a time of peace for the entire world. Although Jews throughout history prayed for the Messiah to come with great fervor, a telling story written about 1300 years ago shares a more realistic perspective of the Messiah. Avot d’Rabbi Natan, a compilation of stories about the talmud, states “If you are planting a tree and someone comes along shouting ‘The Messiah is here! The Messiah is here!’ finish planting the tree. Then go see if it’s true.”

Messianic Judaism has had many challenges throughout our history. Even Maimonides or the Rambam, one of Judaism’s greatest scholars wrote, “One should never occupy oneself with the legends and midrashim relating to the messianic age, and should not consider them as central beliefs, as they foster neither love of nor obedience to God…” (Mishneh Torah, Laws of Kings 12:2)

I will not go into great depth with the history of this subject, as it could be an entire college course. In brief, traditional Jews believe that in order for the Messiah to come, it will be necessary for the maximum number of Jews to do the maximum number of mitzvot, or commandments. The Messiah will not arrive until all Jews perform all the mitzvot in the Torah.

Reform Judaism, rather than believing in a single, male descendant of King David who will be the Messiah, urges us to be more active in bringing a time of peace on earth through our actions. Instead of a particular person, we believe in a Messianic Era, when all will be at peace. We have the power to make that real through our actions and reactions to what happens around us.

Rabbi Arthur Green, a former president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, writes “The actual work of redeeming the world is turned to us in history, and is done by all of us, day by day… Rather than messiah redeeming us, we redeem messiah.” Reform Jews have a similar view in that we should act the way we hope a messiah would act.

For a more complete understanding of this subject, I encourage you to read The Messiah and the Jews: Three Thousand Years of Tradition, Belief and Hope, published by Jewish Lights Publishing.

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Continued from page 3—Presidents message In short, the more we learn about each other and the more we take on and conquer sensitive issues together, the more compelling the vision of a union grows. While there still is work to do, we feel that we can now say that it is more likely than not that that the Boards of each synagogue will recommend to their respective congregants that they approve a joining of the two synagogues into a single, new synagogue. Of course, the final decision will rest with congregants of both synagogues.

Here are some of the more important steps we’ve taken since we last wrote, and those we expect to take in the next month or so:



The joint teams we and TSI have created for the purpose of the exploration of a union continue to meet and accomplish significant results. (As a reminder, the initial goal of the JFC Teams was first, to work independent of TSI to define JFC’s values, vision, defining attributes, strengths and weaknesses in the given area, and then to come together with the TSI counterpart Team to assess compatibility and what the two synagogues might seek to create together in a union, so that the combination draws on the strengths of each community to build a new, united synagogue that is stronger, more robust, richer and more sustainable than either could be in isolation.)



As the leadership of both legacy synagogues jointly explained in their memorandum to all TSI and JFC congregants dated February 9, the combined JFC/TSI Education Team has recommended that Leslie Gottlieb be the Education Director of a new religious school that will serve the JFC and TSI communities, and that recommendation has been approved by the Boards of both JFC and TSI. Thus, there will be one religious school irrespective of whether the two synagogues form a union.



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This was a difficult and challenging decision, particularly because Amy Ritell, the director of the TSI religious school, is a highly qualified and dedicated educator. Nevertheless, the ability of the two communities to work together collaboratively under the leadership of Karen Conti (JFC) and Lynn Broder (TSI), co-Chairs of the Education Team, augurs extremely well for the future success of a union and the ability to focus on what is in the best interests of the Jewish community.

Leslie is committed to building a new school that will draw on the best attributes of the legacy schools, leveraging the success each has achieved to create something even more vibrant than either had been alone. We offer her our congratulations and most sincere wishes for continued success.



The Governance Team has recommended a governance structure that would ensure that a union of the two synagogues functions as a true combination of equals. The proposal calls for a board that, for a specified period, would be constituted equally from members of both legacy synagogues, together with a structure for the most important of the executive officers to achieve equal representation. The Governance Team is at work on a form of proposed bylaws for a combined synagogue.

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The Finance and Legal Team continues to refine financial projections of what a united synagogue would look like and to address the future dues structure for each membership category. After interviewing legal counsel to assist TSI and JFC in addressing regulatory and other legal matters associated with bringing the two congregations together, the Team recommended that TSI and JFC engage one of the candidates, and the two synagogues have jointly retained legal counsel to advise both synagogues.



The Integration Team has met and is working on developing an efficient and effective means of electronic communication for the sharing of union-related news and is beginning to create a vision for an internet presence and social media strategy for a combined synagogue.

Rabbi Burstein and Rabbi Reiner of TSI have engaged in many discussions regarding their vision of what the rabbinate of a united synagogue would look like, particularly from the perspective of the additional richness and vibrancy two creative and energetic Rabbis could bring to the combined community. The two Rabbis presented jointly a preliminary picture of their thinking to the leadership of both synagogues and their vision was met with unanimous enthusiasm. The Rabbis are continuing to talk frequently to refine further their vision of what the rabbinate could become.

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Jewish Family Congregation Shofar

March 2015

Continued from previous page—Presidents’ message



As we have previously noted, the clergy and lay leadership of the legacy synagogues decided that each would cancel its own Shabbat service from time to time and instead attend services at the other synagogue. We’ve received strong feedback about these services, and additional opportunities have been placed on the calendar: on March 6, a Shabbat service jointly led by the clergy of both synagogues will be held at TSI and on March 20, such a service will be held at JFC. These joint services will give us the opportunity to begin to see the possibilities for a combined service.



As revelatory as we expect these services to be, in order to give JFC and TSI congregants an opportunity to get to know the Rabbi of the other synagogue on a more personal level, the leadership of both synagogues are working together to create more informal “meet and greet” occasions. You’ll hear more about these shortly.



Each synagogue’s standing ritual committee has met to plan joint celebrations of upcoming festivals, and a combined Seder on the second night of Passover will be held at TSI.



We are planning other shared events and celebrations to give the congregants of each synagogue the opportunity to get to know one another better.

We hope that it is evident from this message that we are very optimistic that a union will ensure the survival of a rich, thriving and robust Jewish community in Westchester and Fairfield counties. We believe we soon will be at the dawn of a wonderful, new future for the combined community if together we decide that is the right path.

Glenn Kurlander and Hal Wolkin

Continued from page 4—Religious School After considering this carefully, I thought about this section in terms of my own leadership, presently at The Religious School at JFC, and going forward as the director assigned to the collaborative schools of JFC and TSI. This is going to be a joint venture school that will combine the best of each program-- and inherent in the leadership of this position is the need to follow the shared advice of Jethro and Moses, as I see it. Being truthful, delegating tasks to those interested and qualified, being un-swayed by personal ambition or desires, and giving everything an honest and diligent effort is the direction needed. Being a strong listener makes the best kind of leader, and I will strive toward that.

Dreyfus continues, “We, too, in our daily work, in our activities on behalf of our congregations and communities, in our families and households, in our activities to improve the world, need to remember that we are engaged in sacred tasks, that we are imbued with ruach hakodesh, that spirit that connects us to God and Torah and Israel. And thus inspired and strengthened, we, too, can stand again and again at Sinai.” This, too, is useful to reflect upon contextually as we all consider the joint venture school leadership and program.

In closing, I recently interviewed a contractor and we were sitting at the kitchen counter drawing up some ideas for a home construction project. He said something very insightful-- and after studying Shakespeare as an English major in college, I came to understand from my professors that often it is the knave (with no offense to the contractor intended here, whatsoever) in the story or someone whom you least expect—to issue thoughts of great profundity.

Sitting beside me he said that, “People support what they help to create,” inviting my full participation in the design process. Perhaps this statement should be obvious to us all but it is simply brilliant in its simplicity and message. I hope, with the help of others, to create a new collaborative school, one that we can all support and enrich over time. Thank you all for your past and ongoing support at JFC for the past fifteen years. I look forward to a bright future with all of you along for the ride.

And in speaking so much of Moses, it is a reminder to wish all of you a zissen Pesach!

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Please call the JFC Office when any relevant information arises or changes so all Birthday, Anniversary and Yahrzeit listings are accurate and up to date.

ANNIVERSARIES Ellen & Ken Elias Martin & Hanky Kutscher Matthew & Julie Portnoy

YAHRZEITS Aaron Auerbach Murray Augustus Daniel Berlin Elliot Bernstein Leo Bloch Martin Bressler Leonard Brodnick Amy Cohen Anne Elias Morton Eydenberg Horvilleur Francis Alex Gelbart Leon Gold Felicia Israel-Mucciolo Anna Jacobson

Goldie Kardish Feyga Levin-Goldberg Betty Ravitch Max Rifkin Herman Rosenthal Milton Rubin Elsie B Rudy Freda Salmon Max Schenk Sam Schmeltzer Tillie Schmeltzer Muriel Silberstein-Storfer Agnes Spergen Morton Tucker Hetty Weaver

BIRTHDAYS Holly Alexander Harley Baum Tracy Benson Julia Besterman Joshua Bolgar Kevin Brand Andrew Carter Ellen Conti Aaron Cohen Andrew Emmer Kenneth Feldman Zachary Fischman Amy Fishkin Michael Gilbert Melissa Goodstein David Gottlieb Leslie Gottlieb Richard Hellinger Taylor Hoffman Laurel Honig Dr. Mitchell Kahn Terry Kalter Dayna Kaplan Jamie Kaplan Jeffrey Klotz

Terrence Levens Corie Levine Jonah Levine Asher Meister-Aldama Michael Portnoy Harrison Rappaport Jacob Rauch Max Rauch Andrew Rose Noah Rose Sophie Rudin Dylan Salpeter Wynter Schnell Jordan Schwartz Fulvio Segalla Jodi Senese Julian Shafer Alexa Stevelman Seth Levi Tubbs Bennett Wattles Jodi Waxman Emily Wein Rebecca Westlake Julia Zuckerberg

Have you considered celebrating significant birthdays and anniversaries with a leaf on our Simcha Tree of Life?

Call the JFC Office for details.

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March 2015

Adar/Nisan 5775

Jewish Family Congregation Shofar Long-time JFC member and teacher

Rona Salpeter is available to help with: babysitting, house sitting, animal care—& all jobs requiring a loving caring individual!

References are available upon request.

Contact Rona at # 914-643-8176

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Jewish Family Congregation Shofar

March 2015

Adar/Nisan 5775

Jewish Family Congregation Shofar

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Jewish Family Congregation Shofar

March 2015

Adar/Nisan 5775

Jewish Family Congregation Shofar

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Register Today Early Childhood Center Jewishfamilycongregation.org We proudly offer programs that emphasize our philosophy of child-centered & engaging curriculum plus flexible schedules. Call our ECC Director, Jane Emmer at (914) 763-3028 ext. 15 with any questions or to schedule a tour.

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Jewish Family Congregation Shofar

March 2015

March Oneg Shabbat Hosts Date

Name

3/13/2015

Grade 2

3/20/2015

Kenneth Levinson and Ellen Strauss Adam Ozols and Donna Finkelstein

3/27/2015

Graeme and Catherine Lipper Warren and Karen Lustig

Donations Caring Committee Ken & Mary Ellen Kutscher John & Karen Conti Ruth & Harold Ossher Michael & Rona Salpeter

In In In In

General Fund Robi Margolis Glenn and Deborah Kurlander

In memory of Steve Margolis on the occasion of his yahrzeit In honor of Michael Salpeter’s 60th Birthday

Rabbi Discretionary Fund Grade 4 Class Bobbie, Audrey, The Cohlan and Kaplan Families

memory of Denise Fuchs honor of Michael Salpeter's birthday honor of Michael Salpeter's birthday memory of Eugene Kahn

In honor of Rabbi Burstein on the occasion of Chanukah In honor of Rabbi Burstein for officiating their parent’s unveiling

Religious School Discretionary Fund Grade 4 Class Robyn & Adam Cohen Doris Hettmansberger Doris Hettmansberger Eric Sherr & Michele Auerbach-Sherr Suzanne Sunday & Ken Kurzweil

In In In In In In

Simcha Tree Leaf Mary & Allyn Salpeter Alan & Jan Sanders

In honor of Michael Salpeter's birthday In honor of Emily Sander's graduation from Cornell University

honor or Leslie Gottlieb on the occasion of Chanukah memory of Eugene Kahn memory of Eugene Kahn memory of Joan Elkind honor of Linda Paudling memory of Eugene Kahn

Donations made after the tenth of the month will appear in next month’s Shofar.

Adar/Nisan 5775

Jewish Family Congregation Shofar

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Jewish Family Congregation Shofar

March 2015

Adar/Nisan 5775

Jewish Family Congregation Shofar

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Non Profit Organization Postage PAID White Plains, NY Permit No. 9022

Ruth Ossher and Aaron Cohen oversee students in the computer lab.

CURRENT RESIDENT OR

Upcoming Events Thursday, March 5 Saturday, March 7 Friday, March 20 Saturday, April 4 Sunday, April 12 Friday, April 17

Purim Pizza Dinner Judaism and the 5 Senses—Wine Tasting Sephardic Shabbat Services Second Evening Passover Seder at TSI Roadside Cleanup Yom HaShoah Service

Make sure to check out our calendar for up to date events at www.jewishfamilycongregation.org