Virtual Jewish Film Series Serves Everyone
The 21st annual Jewish Film Series of Highland Park Conservative Temple—Congregation Anshe Emeth is operating virtually this year. Viewers can stream the film at their convenience, then gather via Zoom to discuss it with a featured speaker.
Upcoming talks in the series include:
Promised Lands, a documentary about an Israeli director who returns from Berlin to catch up on her Gen-X friends from primary school days while viewers get a glimpse of different Israelis, things that connect them to their homeland, and how they see what happened to the promise of a better life given to them back then while they were still in school. Discuss it with the film’s director on February 8.
Shalom Taiwan, an Argentinian comedy about a debt-burdened rabbi who seeks donations for his synagogue in Taiwan. Indebted, a rabbi from Buenos Aires travels for donations, to New York and later to Taiwan. Far from the known traditions, he must face multiple challenges to achieve his goal. Discuss it on March 1 with the communications director of the Jewish Taiwan Cultural Association.
For more information, visit hpct-cae.org/learn/music-film/.
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NJ School Dedicates Life-saving Rescue Vehicle for Israel
At a special ceremony on Tuesday, February 28, at 9:30 a.m., at the Hebrew Academy, 22 School Road East, Marlboro, NJ, the school will dedicate a life-saving emergency vehicle on behalf of the community to United Hatzalah of Israel. The vehicle, an ambucycle (motorcycle-ambulance)—the organization’s flagship vehicle used by emergency medical service (EMS) first responders in Israel—enables responders to arrive at the scenes of medical emergencies quickly and safely.
The Reich family is making the donation. Dan Reich, a representative of the family, is a Hebrew Academy alumnus and a first responder who understands the value of a quick response to medical emergencies.
During the dedication ceremony, students from the school will hold a special presentation followed by a short talk about United Hatzalah’s activities by Gavy Friedson, the organization’s Director of International Emergency Management and Global Ambassador. Gavy was one of the EMTs who accompanied an extraordinary rescue mission to Bucharest, Romania, to rescue six critically ill Jewish refugees who fled the Ukraine conflict and brought them to Israel to receive emergency medical care at an Israeli hospital. For more information or to get involved, please contact Mara Soverinsky at maras@israelrescue.org. For information about The Hebrew Academy, contact Linda Glickstein at linda@thanj.org.
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Women of Temple Shalom (WTS) Holds Gift Auction
Women of Temple Shalom will hold a bi-annual gift auction on March 18 at 6:00 p.m.. Gift baskets, gift cards, and other items will be available. Themed a WTS Wonderland Mad Hatter gift auction, the event will take place in the Social Hall of Temple Shalom at 5 Ayrmont Lane in Aberdeen, NJ.
The event will help to raise funds for Women of Temple Shalom activities, including backpacks and healthy snacks to Backpack Buddies, school supplies to needy school children, breakfast food for Yom Kippur Ne’ilah, apples for Sukkot, Torah scrolls and flags for Simchat Torah, gelt and dreidels to religious school students for Hanukkah, gift Bibles for B’nai Mitzvah students, and hamentashen for students and local senior centers. For more information, visit https://templeshalomnj.org/temple-community/women-of-temple-shalom.
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HPCT-CAE Sisterhood Begins Annual Soup Project
The annual Soup Project, sponsored by the Sisterhood of Highland Park Conservative Temple-Congregation Anshe Emeth, has begun. Each winter sisterhood chefs make soup to sell and to donate. The soup varieties cover all taste palettes and include pea, carrot and sweet potato, lentil, minestrone, cauliflower and Israeli white beans soup. In addition to selling the soup to the community, 70 quarts will be donated to area long-term care facilities and community organizations, including the Highland Park Senior Center.
For further information, please contact Marcia Klioze, HPCT-CAE Sisterhood President at (732) 801-3580; email: mklioze@yahoo.com.
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at JNF-USA’s Central NJ Breakfast for Israel 2018
JNF Hosts Love of Israel Brunch March 19
On Sunday, March 19, at 10:00 a.m., Jewish National Fund-USA (JNF-USA) will host its Love of Israel Brunch at Congregation B’nai Tikvah in North Brunswick to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Israel’s independence. Chaired by Anne and Adrian Kroll and Brenda and Roy Tanzman, the event will feature keynote speaker Olga Meshoe Washington, CEO of Defend Embrace Invest (in) Support Israel (DEISI) and board member of the Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel (IBSI).
Attendees will learn how JNF supports environmental and nation-building activities in Israel’s north and south and has aided the land and people of Israel since 1901. The organization develops new communities in Israel’s Negev and Galilee regions, connects the next generation to Israel, and creates infrastructure and programs that support ecology, individuals with special needs, and heritage site preservation.
General admission is $36. RSVP is required at jnf.org/CNJLOI.
For more information, contact Anna Millstein, Director, Central NJ at amillstein@jnf.org or 973.593.0095 x826.
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Jlife Heart of New Jersey’s Bi-weekly Enews
Don’t miss Jlife NJ’s biweekly enews with a featured podcast with Rabbi Michael Pont, Senior Rabbi of Marlboro Jewish Center, To view the podcast directly please visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O71y-g11WQw. You can also view the podcast as part of our enews. Visit www.jlifenj.com, click on the pop up window prompt and fill out the enews contact information form.
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Rutgers Offers Mega Hanukkah Festivities on Campus
Students from all five campuses of Rutgers, and from all walks of life, took time out of their exam studies and participated in Chabad’s eight days and nights of Hanukkah get-togethers on campus. From a public lighting of a gigantic menorah on the front steps of Brower Commons on College Avenue, with music, hot potato latkes, doughnuts, hot cocoa, and very short speeches amidst below-freezing temperatures, to a Menorah Car Parade driven by students and alumni through College Avenue, Busch and Livingston campuses and the surrounding communities of Highland Park, Edison, and Piscataway, to a mega, campus-wide JCafe’ Hanukkah Party right in Chabad House, with dreidel games, doughnut making, latke frying, and individual menorah lightings, more than 1,000 students participated.
Nearly 1,500 menorahs were distributed campus-wide, and many students held private mini Hanukkah gatherings with friends in their off-campus houses. In the weeks leading up to Hanukkah, students packed menorah kits for campus distribution and delivery to Rutgers US Troops serving nationwide and overseas, so that they too can participate in publicizing the miracles of Hanukkah, wherever they may be stationed.
For more information please visit http://www.chabadnj.org/.
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Congregation Torat El’s “Meet the Author” Series Next Event
The 3rd event of the series’ 6th season will be held in person on Sunday March 12 at 301 Monmouth Rd. Oakhurst, NJ at 11:00 a.m.. The author, Matthew Daub, will be speaking about his book, “Leaving Eastern Parkway.”
The protagonist of the book, Zev Altshul is a fifteen-year-old boy and a talented handball player who breaks the rules of Shabbos to compete in tournaments. A family tragedy forces him to leave the closed world of his Lubavitcher community in Brooklyn. This coming-of-age novel is revelatory, lyrical, and thoroughly engaging as it shows Zev struggling to be true to himself in a world that demands otherwise.
Matthew Daub is a visual artist whose watercolors and drawings have been exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the United States. “Leaving Eastern Parkway” is his first novel.
Prepaid reservations are available at www.torat-el.org or for $15 ($20 at the door). A delicious, light homemade brunch will be served.
The next event of the season will be held on Sunday, May 7, the author will be Meira Cook discussing her book, “The Full Catastrophe.”
This ongoing series has been made possible by a grant from the B’nai Sholom/Beth El Foundation.
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Congregation Sons of Israel Welcomes Rabbi Kenneth and Aviel Brodkin
Congregation Sons of Israel will hold a Rabbinic Probeh Shabbat welcoming Rabbi Kenneth and Aviel Brodkin on February 11 and 12 (Torah portion: Tetzaveh). The schedule includes Friday evening Shabbat services in the main sanctuary: Shabbat dinner for board members, committee members and significant others in the triple classroom; Saturday morning Shabbat services in the main sanctuary with a sermon by Rabbi Brodkin; full kiddush lunch in the Mishan Hall; Seudah Shlishit in the Mishan Hall with a drashah by Rabbi Brodkin and a “Q and A” session with the congregants; and Havdalah in the main sanctuary.
Rabbi Brodkin earned a Bachelor of art degree in history at Brandies University, studied at Yeshivas Toras Moshe in Jerusalem and received Semicha from Rav Zalman Nechemia Goldberg and Rav Gedalia Dov Schwartz. A member of the Rabbinical Council of America, Rabbi Brodkin hosts “The Jewish Growth Podcast.”
RSVP for the kiddush and the Seudah, catered by Dalia (the Orchid), by February 4, at (732) 446-3000.
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B’nai Tikvah Celebrates Shabbat Together
Congregation B’nai Tikvah has a monthly tradition of coming together as a multi-generational community of members and non-members to welcome Shabbat with a catered dinner followed by Tot Shabbat and Kabbalat Shabbat services. Recently, FOMO (fear of missing out) has increased participation in Shabbat Together. While eating dinner, members of a very diverse community mix, mingle, laugh, enjoy each other’s company and build friendships.
After dinner, the young children sing various songs during Tot Shabbat and do what children do best—enjoy themselves and each other. While the children are focused on Tot Shabbat, the adults continue to kibbitz before the start of Kabbalat Shabbat services.
Upcoming Shabbat Together dinners will be held on Friday, February, 9, and March 17, at 6:00 p.m.. For more information or to RSVP, please contact B’nai Tikvah’s synagogue administrator, Lesley Lewkowicz, at (732) 296-0696.
