The Jewish Community Forum of Raritan Valley will host Assemblyman Rabbi Avi Schnall speaking on, “A Jewish Agenda for New Jersey: Antisemitism, Security, School Funding and More,” on Saturday, Jan. 4 at 8:30 p.m. at Yeshiva Shaarei Tzion Girls School in Highland Park. A Democrat representing the 30th District covering the Monmouth and Ocean County towns of Lakewood, Howell, Wall and several shore communities, Schnall also serves as the director of federal education affairs for Agudath Israel of America. He previously served as director of New Jersey Agudath Israel and as national director of Oorah’s Chill Zone, which offers Jewish programming for children and teens. In 2020 Schnall was appointed by Gov. Phil Murphy to serve on the Social Services and Faith Committee of the Restart and Recovery Advisory Council.
Light refreshments will be served. The program can also be viewed online at https://tinyurl.com/yvzdnbb3. For more information about the free program contact hpedisonorthodoxforum@gmail.com.
Come join in the healing of Israeli music therapy at the Marlboro Jewish Center on Monday, Jan. 6 at 7:30 p.m. when Josh Shron, the host of the podcast and radio program, The Israel Hour, will share some of Israel’s most beloved songs in a program of communal singing. Lyrics will be provided on-screen in English, Hebrew and transliteration.
The Israeli Music Hour began airing over the airwaves from the New Brunswick studios of Rutgers University’s radio station, WRSU-FM, 88.7, with then students Mairov Dubrovsky and Josh Shron—who later married—at the controls every Sunday morning. Long after graduating they continued the program, which recently celebrated its 30th anniversary. With the advent of the internet, the program gained an international audience of fans from Europe, Central and South America and Israel.
Podcasts are available on-demand on iTunes, Spotify, TuneIn, Stitcher and other podcast mediums and continue to air live at 11 a.m. (EST) on WRSU.
For information contact synagogue executive director Dara Winston at (732) 536-2300 ext.101 or dwinston@mjcnj.com.
Author Adam Nimoy had a complicated relationship with his famous father, the actor Leonard, known to many as the iconic half-Vulcan Dr. Spock on the original Star Trek series. He explores that tumultuous relationship in his book, “The Most Human,” which features Jewish themes and biblical allusions to the Akedah (Binding of Isaac) and Jonah and the Whale.
On Sunday, Jan. 12 at 11 a.m. he will appear live and on Zoom at Congregation Torat El in Oakhurst. Nimoy will speak about the themes in the book, which describes the ever-changing nature of parent-child relationships and the reminder that, although it may be difficult to admit, parents are just as human as their offspring. The book not only describes his childhood in the Star Trek era, but also his own career shifts, including practicing entertainment law for seven years and filmmaking, starting his own family and his recovery from alcohol and drug addiction. Nimoy directed the critically acclaimed film about his father, “For the Love of Spock,” and taught writing, directing and acting at the New York Film Academy and taught filmmaking at Beit T’Shuvah, a Jewish addiction treatment center.
The book is available at Bookshop.org, which supports independent bookstores, or from Amazon. Go to torat-el.org to register by Jan. 12 and a link for the program will be sent. Cost is $10 per screen and the in-person program is $15 in advance and $20 at the door.
Asaf Elia-Shalev, a Los Angeles-based Israeli American journalist and staff writer for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency will appear at Anshe Emeth Memorial Temple in New Brunswick on Monday, Jan. 13 at 7:30 p.m. in a program, “Who Were Israel’s Black Panthers and How They Rebelled Against Israel’s Hierarchy.”
The group, which was inspired by the African-American group of the same name, were young Moroccan-Israeli Jews who challenged their country’s political ethnic status quo in the 1970’s. They mounted protests and a yearslong political campaign for the rights of Mizrahim, or Jews of Middle Eastern ancestry, rattling the country’s establishment and changing the course of Israel’s history through the mass mobilization of a Jewish underclass.
Elia-Shalev us also author of the book, “Israel’s Black Panthers: The Radicals who Punctured A Nation’s Founding Myth,” which explores the parallels between the Israeli and American Black Panthers, offering a unique perspective on the global struggle against racism and oppression.
Cost is $15 for members, $18 for non-members and $10 for students and seniors. Register at ansheemeth.net. For more information call (732) 545-6484.
