Temple Israel Doorpost October 2017

October 2017

Tishrei / Cheshvan 5778

From the Rabbi’s Study. . .

POSITIVE THINKING

Sukkot: 9:30am Thursday, October 5

You've got to accentuate the positive Eliminate the negative Latch on to the affirmative Don't mess with Mister In-Between

Dairy pot luck dinner at the Sukkah at the Shapiro House, 6:15 pm Friday, October 6th

You've got to spread joy up to the maximum Bring gloom down to the minimum Have faith or pandemonium Liable to walk upon the scene -- Bing Crosby “Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be."

-- Abraham Lincoln An optimist can be defined as a person who believes that the glass is half-full rather than half-empty. If the same set of circumstances can be viewed in both a positive and negative way the optimist chooses the positive approach.

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Simchat Torah: 6 pm Wed, October 11th Shemini Atzeret: 9:30am Thursday, Oct 12th Yizkor: 11am (approximate time), Oct 12th

House Committee Meeting 7:00pm Tuesday, October 3, 2017 Shmoozatorium

Executive Committee Meeting 7:30pm Tuesday, October 10, 2017 Virtual Meeting

Gesher Youth Group Welcome Meeting for Teens 11:00 am Sunday, October 15, 2017, Social Hall

Board Meeting 7:00pm Tuesday, October 17, 2017 Tuesday Afternoon 5:30pm Friday Night 6:15pm Saturday Morning 9:30am Followed by Kiddush Luncheon

Board Room

Ritual Committee Meeting 6:15pm Wed, October 18, 2017 Shmoozatorium

(Continued from page 1)

SPECIAL EVENT

Scientific research shows that positive thinking leads to better health and longevity. Job performance, academic success, and relationships are strengthened by positive thought. This being said we cannot diminish the power of negative thinking. It robs us of happiness, sabotages our relationships, destroys families, and undermines our success in almost all facets of life.

In his book Living Each Day, Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski, M.D., states as follows. "If a person is in the state of depression and has an attitude of bitterness everything appears bitter, regardless how sweet it may be in reality. This is more than a figure speech, because in cases of severe depression food may actually taste bitter."

As we enter the New Year let us remember that after every sunset is a sunrise. Positive thought can carry us through even the most difficult times.

With Torah blessings, Rabbi David Rafael

Rabbi Senter’s Office Hours Wednesday Thursday Friday Sunday*

10:00am-5:30pm 10:00am-3:00pm 9:00am-12:00pm 9:00am-12:00pm

* when Hebrew School is in session

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Friday October 6th at 6:15 PM we will join Chavurah Piscatequa for a dairy pot luck dinner in the Sukkah at the Shapiro House at Strawbery Banke.

The Friday minyan regularly scheduled for that day will take place at the temple at 5:30 PM in the chapel.

Adult Biblical Hebrew Reading & Grammar Advanced-Intermediate Level - begins October 17 on Tuesday evenings 6 PM – 7:30 PM, meets in Nancy Mae Shaines Memorial Library right after Minyan.

Refresh your soul and invigorate your study of Torah by learning its grammatical features, including word pairs, pronoun endings, the Reversing Vav, hollow verbs, orthographic numbers (echad, shtayim, shlosh, arba, etc.) and the intensive binyanim (verb conjugations). The class will continue reading the Book of Ruth. Recommended: firm alef bet, Hebrew reading background. Text is The First Hebrew Primer, Third Edition (EKS). $18.00 per semester.

FMI, contact instructor Kathryn Mulhearn, isogloss@outllook.com or contact Temple office. Kathryn began her study of Classical Hebrew at Temple Israel Portsmouth in 2000, and has continuously taught either Biblical or Prayerbook reading and grammar and alef bet at TIP since 2007.

This class welcomes new members and likes to have fun. Please feel free to stop in at any time to observe or participate as you wish and see if it works for you. Adults and youth welcome.

Dear Fellow Congregants, I had the great pleasure of working side by side with 45 members of Temple Israel on our clean up day. We were organized in an inside and outside teams under the able leadership of Joanne Samuels, the vice president for house, and Ira Schwartz, a long-time member of the board of directors. The inside team removed literally tons of material from the Temple ranging from old-broken down computers to thirty-year old notices about car pool arrangements for the Hebrew School.

In addition to collecting information from the congregation, we also want you to let us on the board know what kinds of additional programs, events, and opportunities you would like to see at Temple Israel in this coming year. We have the space and financial resources to do more. It is up to us as congregants to take leadership roles, seize the day, and make the coming year even more fruitful than the past one.

David Bachrach

This gigantic New Year’s cleaning operation has opened up a considerable amount of usable storage space for our ongoing committees and the school.

The outside team weeded and planted all around the Temple’s grounds. Those of us working near our beautiful preschool playground were treated to the sight of Bob Bradbard, another long-time board member, shaping the hedges with aplomb and his 30 -inch electric hedge trimmer.

The team-work and volunteerism exemplified by this event not only helped to beautify the Temple and make it more usable for all congregants, but also created a sense of community and pride in our shared accomplishments.

We on the board wish to expand these opportunities for members of our community to join together in meaningful work on behalf of the Temple and the entire congregation.

A major part of this effort is the collection of information from all of us so that we can make matches between those in need of help and those who can pitch in. The membership committee, under the leadership of Margie Wachtel, has put together a survey of skills and interests that we are asking all members of Temple Israel to complete.

A link to this survey will be placed on the Temple’s homepage, and postcards with this information will be placed on your seats during Yom Kippur.

Temple Israel Blood Drive!

Tuesday, December 19th, 2017 9am - 2pm December is a critical month for the Red Cross. Consider joining us and performing this mitzvah.

Coordinator Sandy Roberts needs volunteers to help with sign-in and snacks (1-2 hours). Please call him at 603-361-4768 or connect via email at sabakarob@gmail.com. Thank you!

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Ritual Committee With all the preparations leading up to the High Holidays it is hard to believe they have come and gone so quickly. I want to thank some of the many people who have volunteered their time and help make the observance of the holidays possible for all of us at Temple Israel. Many thanks to Doug Danforth who graciously agreed to lead us in prayer once again as our Sheliach Tzibor.

Yasheh Koach! Thank to Dick Grossman, and the “minions” of associates who helped usher this year. Thank you to Joanne Samuels and all the volunteers who worked hard with this year’s super cleanup and who made the building shine and got it ready to receive us. Many thanks to Laura Sher and Cheryl Berman who volunteered to lead the children’s and family service once more.

Thank you to everyone who participated in services, took an honor, read Torah or Haftorah, announced pages and helped make services run smoothly.

A special thanks to Rabbi Mars for helping out with services on Rosh Hashanah. I want to especially thank the volunteers who helped get the Yizkor book out this year: Sharen Eidelberg Spratt, Ellen Fineberg and Margie Wachtel. Many thanks to all of you who placed a listing this year in the Yizkor book and helped the Temple meet its financial obligations. I want to express a final heartfelt thank you to our Rabbi for being such a special source of inspiration to us all during this High Holiday season.

A couple of quick notes about Sukkot. There will be a dairy pot luck dinner at the Sukkah at the Shapiro House at 6:15 PM Friday, October 6th.

The Friday night minyan that night will start at 5:30PM in the chapel. The Simchat Torah celebration with the Klezmer band is at 6 PM on Wednesday, October 11th, followed by Simchat Torah services Thursday, October 12th at 9:30 AM. David Olken

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HEBREW SCHOOL NEWS Shalom Everyone and Happy 5778!

Hebrew School started on Sunday, September 10th. We opened the school year with a few welcoming words by Sam Berg, our Education VP, David Bachrach, our president, and me, followed by a service led by our very able Madrichim. Rabbi David took over midway and helped us get off to a rousing start with the blowing of the Shofar!

We welcomed a few new families this year and, for now, we are 75 students strong! On any given Sunday morning or Wednesday afternoon, there is a happy buzz in the hallways and the classrooms. September was all about getting to know each other, learning about Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot; apologies, second chances and gratitude! Kitah Gan(K) and Aleph (1st) made cinnamon and applesauce ornaments for the Sukkah, with Jody Kahn, our art teacher. The whole school made feel better cards for Rabbi David and thank you cards for Mr. David Jernigan, our Facilities Manager. Speaking of thanks, A GIANT THANK YOU to the Steber family for their donation of many freshly picked apples for our Children’s and Family Rosh Hashanah services. The leftover apples will be baked into apple cakes by Youth Group and Preschool!

As Head of School, I am very privileged to see amazing lesson plans that make me want to go to Hebrew School here! I have already seen emails from parents relaying positive feedback from their children, and when I asked my fellow teachers what went well this month, there was such excitement and positive energy around the table, as we took turns gushing about our lovely students and their parents, and our appreciation for our wonderful madrichim, as well as each other, as sources of support and learning. It will be a good year!

May the year 5778 be filled with health, happiness, kindness and menschlichkeit!

L’Shalom, Elian

October

6th

5:56 PM

October

13th

5:44 PM

October

20th

5:33 PM

October

27th

5:22 PM

THANK YOU It is with much appreciation that we thank Rabbi Senter and Rabbi Korinow for their support due to the passing of our mother, grandmother, and great gram, Mary Rottenberg. We would like to thank the Shiva service leaders and all those who came to join us for the services and for all the thoughtful contributions made in Mary’s memory.

The family of Mary Rottenberg

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YOUTH GROUP NEWS Shalom Everyone! Happy October and a sweet New Year 5778!

Our first Youth Group event was on Sunday, September 24th.

An exuberant group of a dozen 4th through 7th graders went bowling at Bowl-O-Rama in Portsmouth. They bowled, ate delicious pizza, bowled some more and, of course, played arcade games!

Scenes from our Back to School Bowling Bash

There was loud cheering, good natured competition, blessing of the pizza (yes, indeed!) followed by good conversation, and at the end, a mad dash for the games that spit out the prized tickets that were exchanged for all kinds of candy and little plastic tchotchkes!!

Big, giant thank you goes to Tim Sands, who drove and chaperoned, and the drivers, David Bachrach, Michael Rubin and Faye Goldberg. Thanks to all the others who volunteered but were not needed this time. Can’t do this without the volunteers! A shout out goes to Rachel Dennis for locking up the school for me!

Our next Youth Group event is on October 22. We will be going to Firefly Pottery and make our very own Chanukkiot (Chanukkah menorahs)! It will be FUN! As always, please feel free to call or email me with any questions or suggestions for new events, at 603-969-2984 or EGT9@aol.com L’Shalom, Elian Tackeff, your friendly youth person

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Rosh Hashanah is a time for new beginnings, and this past month was a whirlwind of new beginnings and new experiences for the children of the Early Learning Center. How exciting it was for them to discover all the wonderful materials available in our beautiful classroom space. The children explored puzzles and games. They spent time in our artwork and painting area, building and design area, our dramatic play area, our puppet theater, our science disLaura Sher covery table, our library, and on our floor loom! LitDirector, ELC tle did they know that their classroom had been thoughtfully designed to promote social skills and encourage thinking, reasoning and creativity!

This amazingly warm month also gave us the chance to enjoy time outdoors in our playground: climbing on our state of the art play structure, balancing on ramps, and jumping on our log “stepping stones.” And what a treat it was to harvest and eat our sugar snap peas, pole beans, parsley, chives, nasturtium, kale, and (best ever) cherry tomatoes that grew in abundance in our raised bed gardens!

We celebrated Rosh Hashanah with a Birthday cake for the world, and made wishes for keeping our world beautiful. The children also experimented with “apple printing,” and made beautiful “Shanah Tovah” cards for their families. Lastly, the children kneaded and shaped homemade challah dough into wonderful mini round challah rolls for their holiday meal!

We’re off to a great beginning!

Wishing you a New Year filled with health and happiness!

L’Shalom, Laura

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Temple Israel congregant Alana Sher spent most of the summer in Israel.

Alana began her summer with Birthright Israel, that sponsors ten-day heritage trips to Israel for young adults of Jewish heritage, aged 18–26. Next Alana participated in the Onward Israel Program which sponsors internships with Israeli Companies. The following article appeared in the Onward Israel Newsletter.

My name is Alana Sher and I am a Civil Engineering student at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, MA, USA. This summer, I had the privilege to work as a summer intern at Galil Engineering group as part of the Onward Israel Program. This program enables students to experience Israel for an entire summer and work for a professional company related to their field of study.

I lived in Haifa along with about 50 other students from the Boston area. I worked at Galil Engineering four days a week, and the other day was spent traveling with the Onward program to different parts of Israel. On the weekends, we were free to travel on our own.

As a Civil Engineering student seeking to expand my technical and professional skills, I could not be happier with this company and the work I have been assigned. I have worked on many different projects using AutoCAD, STRAP, and other software and gained valuable skills that I will use in the future.

For the first project I was given the responsibility of modifying and redrawing floor plans and section drawings for a concrete structure using AutoCAD. The second project involved using a structural analysis program called STRAP as well as hand calculations to determine the specifications of a runway crane beam for a steel structure. With each project, I was initially overwhelmed and feared I did not know enough to complete the task. However, my co-workers were more than helpful when it came to explaining my specific assignment as well as answering all of my questions regarding the project and company in general.

I have also really enjoyed getting to know everyone in the office and I have gained mentors and lifelong relationships. I have been pushed outside of my comfort zone and am incredibly grateful for this opportunity.

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INSTITUTIONAL OPERATING ENDOWMENT FUND Gary and Iris Atkins in memory of Mildred Lobel.

Bert Freedman in memory of Mary Rottenberg.

Norma & Marvin Lesser. Donations received in memory of Sheldon Goodman: Sue Tober; Selma Freedman; Renee Levy; Arline Koiles.

CULTURAL ENDOWMENT FUND Julie Whitehouse in memory of her father Michael Mittelman. Samuel Goodman in memory of Jeanette’s brother William Lederman. Marc and Agnes Cabot.

RABBI’S DISCRETIONARY FUND Gary and Iris Atkins in memory of Mildred Lobel.

Bert Freedman in memory of Mary Rottenberg.

Donations received in memory of Sheldon Goodman: Sue Tober; Selma Freedman; Renee Levy; Arline Koiles.

CHARITY FUND Agnes Cabot in memory of her mother Elsa Vero.

PRESCHOOL DONATION FUND Donations received in memory of Sheldon Goodman: Roberta and Lenny Baer; Arnold and Naomi Fishbein. Roberta and Lenny Baer in memory of Mary Rottenberg.

DINNERMAN/ROTTENBERG EDUCATIONAL ENDOWMENT FUND The following donations were received in memory of Mary Rottenberg: Marty Brown and family; Goldie Fink; Joanne Samuels; Claire and Barry Siegel; Arnold and Naomi Fishbein; Barney and Diane Share; Selma Freedman; Linda Welles; Arline Koiles; Shel and Elaine Krasker; Dorothy Gaffen; Gregory W. Hankin; Bonnie and Richard Silver; Renee Levy; Marlene and Al Rubin; Pippa Shulman and Jodi Sperber; Eliza Shulman; Stan and Rita Robbins; anonymous gift. Harman and Pula Friedman, in honor of the Bar Mitzvah of Jonah Friedman. Dennis Roffman in memory of his mother Salle Roffman.

KIDDUSH FUND Robert Bradbard in memory of his parents Ann and William Bradbard. Harman and Pula Friedman, in honor of the Bar Mitzvah of Jonah Friedman.

Special Thank You to our September 2 Kiddush Sponsors Doug and Isabel Danforth

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October Yahrzeits

11 Tishrei / 11 Cheshvan

1

Philip Fox

16

Thelma Walden, Joyce Belostock, Bernard Shamesman, David Saczyk

2

Lillian Lessow, Esther Milechman, Louis Shapiro, Jacob Dinnerman

17

3

Anna Handleman, David Goldberg, Rose Krasker, Leah Selzer, Carl Prietz, Gerald Landgarten, Michel Emmer

18

Florence Salden, Sophie Cohen Anderson, Ethel Goldstein, Melvin Harrison, Samuel Osher Morris Schwartz, Sherry Parsons, Gregory Parsons

4

Shirley Fleischman, Minnie Lederman

19

Gloria LoPatin, Arthur Promer, Diane Franklin

5

Hortense Bernheimer

20

Bessie Salden, Charlotte Meenes, Stanley Rosenfield

6

Maurice Stone

21

Samuel Cohen, Ruth Rosengard, Irving Schultz, Inez Sherman, Sylvia Pedell

7

Adele Goldberg Smith, Rachel Beaupre, Bess Grossman, Molly Leitman

22

Lillian Goldin, Debbie Natansohn, Anita Freedman

8

Abraham Shapiro, Bessie Greenfield

23

Mindel Winebaum, Rose Hirshberg

9

Ida Tober, Simha Benshimol

24

Rose Riback, Rachel Wener, Bernie Davis

10

Murray Goldberg

25

Baby Spousta, Fred Linden

11

Nathan Thrope, Morris Cohen, Sarah Jackson

26

Abraham Cutler

12

Alfred Fluster, Debra Faye Jacobs

27

Eva Kramer

13

Alice Sussman, Oscar Chaikin, Ben Benjamin

28

Evelyn Robbins, Jacob (Jack) Zeidman

14

Sarah Applebaum, Jack Berman, Louis Wein

29

15

David Borne

30

Molly Portman, Samuel Koiles, Esther Bradbard Hyman Stromer, Helen Wyle

31

Chaim Weizman, Abraham Siegel, Abraham Richman

When you are observing a family member’s Yahrzeit, you are welcome to say Kaddish not only at the Friday night or Saturday morning service, but also at the 5:30pm Tuesday minyan and Wednesday or Sunday when school is in session.

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Announcing the Gesher Youth Group for Teenagers!

Welcome Meeting: Sunday, October 15th, 2017, 11am Temple Social Hall

Temple Israel Portsmouth Board of Directors David Bachrach, President Fran Berman, Immediate Past President David Olken, VP Ritual Joanne Samuels, VP House

For all Post Bar and Bat Mitzvah Youth, age 13-17

A renewed and re-imagined program for our post B’Nai Mitzvot teens Social * Traditions * History * Current Events

Sam Berg, VP Education Beth Salzman, Recording Secretary Jennifer Sebeny, Financial Secretary Amy Borne, Treasurer Robert Bradbard, Director

Steve Sacks, Director Ira Schwartz, Director Margie Wachtel, Director Mel Prostkoff, Director

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday, Friday

8:00am—2pm 8:00am—2pm 11:00am—5pm 8:00am—2pm

OFFICE HOURS 200 State Street Portsmouth, NH 03801 603-436-5301

Temple Israel

For More Information, email: brianhyett@gmail.com

Amy Hyett, Director

Proud member of USCJ

Please Read Our Welcome Letter: http://www.templeisraelnh.org/education/gesher