The East Brunswick Jewish community will hold a Rosh Hashana wine tasting on Sunday, Sept. 7 from 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. to benefit Yashar LaChayal, Straight to the Soldier, an Israel-based non-profit organization that raises money for poor and lone solders without family in Israel. It will be held at the East Brunswick Jewish Center (EBJC).
Three vendors will be bringing an assortment of kosher new wines—the event is being dubbed new wines for the new year—as well as for the first time having a selection of whiskey. All purchases will be available for pick up on Monday, Sept. 15 between 7:30-9:30 p.m. at EBJC.
Yashar LaChayal provides essential humanitarian equipment to IDF soldiers such as socks, sleeping bags, underwear, first aid kits and water backpacks, headlamps, fans and medical equipment.
For questions contact Marty Genee at helpingisraelfund2023@gmail.com. EBJC can be reached at (732) 257-7070, info@ebjc.org or ebjc.org.
To help celebrate the start of a new semester, Israeli-American artist Peter Moshe Shamah will be exhibiting his art at a fundraiser for Rutgers Hillel in New Brunswick Wednesday, Sept. 3 at 7 p.m.
His art work will also be exhibited and for viewing and sale at Anshe Emeth Memorial Temple in New Brunswick on Saturday, Sept. 6 at 7:30 p.m. and he will speak there the next morning at 10:30 a.m. on the Artistic Zeitgeist of Today—How the Art World is Both the Problem and Solution.
Shamah, who grew up in New Jersey, is a Rutgers graduate who made aliyah after graduating. He creates art that aims to capture the convergence of old and new, of antiquity and futurism, as it relates to Jewish tradition, peoplehood and history through his Jerusalem-based studio. He was an active member of Rutgers Hillel and was the first intern in 2017 at its then new Karmazin Gallery, which features rotating exhibits by artists, alumni and students. Part of the sales from the Hillel exhibition will go to Hillel.
Shamah’s work includes calligraphy, collages, paintings and personally designed ketubahs. He has had exhibitions in Israel, Serbia and the United States and has others planned in the Tri-State Area, Johannesburg, Warsaw, Kyiv, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
The exhibits and programs are free. For information, contact Hillel at (732) 545-2407 or rutgershillel.org or (732) 545-6484 or aemt.net.
To commemorate the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, a teacher and parent in the pre-school of the Marlboro Jewish Center who lost her father that day when she was only 10 years old will speak there at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 18.
Christine Fiorelli Epstein will discuss her book, Wednesday Morning: Growing Up in Grief, which highlights her loss, the emotional toll of what it’s like to grow up without a father and how she finally found peace. The book also explores the long-term impact of childhood trauma. Fiorelli Epstein reflects on life after 9/11 and the years spent haunted by what happened on that Tuesday morning when her life was turned upside down.
For information, call the synagogue at (732) 536-2300 or mjc@mjcnj.com.
The Metro-Jersey section of the Natonal Council of Jewish Women will host cookbook authorand former associate food editor for Family Circle Magazine Carole Semel on Sunday, Sept. 14 at 1:30 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center of Middlesex County in Edison.
Semel, a former counselor for Jenny Craig, will demonstrate four of her delicious dessert recipes. Also the owner of Catering by Carole and author of the cookbook, Cook Like a Caterer, she had worked in the magazine’s test kitchen developing recipes and preparing food to be photographed. Semel, who has degrees in food science/hotel-restaurant management from Pratt Institute and Penn State University, has conducted cooking classes for various organizations and synagogues.
The $10 cost to attend includes receipt of copies of the four presented desserts. For more information, contact jstein5@optonline.net.
