Shul News & Notes
Virtual Journal Committee Sets Launch Date, Sara Bloom Honored
Bigger and better than ever, the Virtual Journal is underway, and you’ll be happy to know that our own Sara Bloom is this year’s honoree. The 2021 installment of the Virtual Journal, a major fundraising undertaking for our shul, represents more than a third of our operating budget, and is expected to top last year’s mega-successful debut. The Virtual Journal invites members, friends and local vendors to celebrate our synagogue’s now 120th year, recognize one among us who has contributed to the betterment of the shul, and produce an all-in-one directory of the businesses and services that enliven commerce here on the North Fork.
The Virtual Journal Committee has set July 15 as the launch date. Many members and local businesses and services already have purchased ads in order to be represented in the journal, a full color publication that is live online 24 hours a day for an entire year, providing enormous reach and visibility for our shul and for each individual message.
Place your ad in the Virtual Journal
Act now to be represented in the Virtual Journal. Keep in mind, our members are key to the success of this fundraiser that supports our shul and the programs that keep us connected, especially during the Covid crisis.
Please complete the ad insertion form emailed with this issue of The Shofar. Send your check as indicated on the form, or pay by credit card: visit www.tiferethisraelgreenport.org, click on the “Journal” tab.
The 2021 honoree
The Virtual Journal Committee has chosen Sara Bloom as the 2021 honoree. Sara is a 21-year member of our shul, who is best known, perhaps, as editor of The Shofar, an award-winning publication she has shepherded every month since November 2009. Rabbis, shul presidents, committee chairs, news writers and contributors have been subject to the exacting standards of Sara’s red editing pen.
When our shul building closed to protect members and visitors from the ravages of the Covid pandemic, Sara worked with Rabbi Gadi on a Lunch and Learn program to keep our membership together while apart. “Zoom at noon” became the byword that has characterized every Monday and Thursday since April 20, 2020 — more than a year ago — when Ron Rothman inaugurated Lunch and Learn with the story of a serendipitous friendship between his grandfather and the renowned mathematician Albert Einstein
Over her tenure at CTI, Sara has served as president, treasurer, recording secretary, and now vice president of our shul. She is also publicist for shul observances and events, and buyer and manager of our Gift Shop. Working with North Fork architect Meryl Kramer, Sara completed the application for our shul’s inclusion on the National and New York State lists of historic places.
In choosing Sara Bloom as the 2021 honoree, shul president Judith Weiner cited her vice president’s wise counsel and follow-through that help turn ideas into programs. “When I refer to my friend Sara as ‘extraordinary,’ she turns as red as her notorious red editing pen,” the president said. “She is truly the ideal choice for this tribute.”
Accepting the honor with appreciation, Sara Bloom thanked the committee for “the opportunity to serve the shul I love with joy and satisfaction.”
USCJ Recognizes ‘Lunch and Learn’ With Visionary Award
United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism (USCJ) has recognized our shul’s Lunch and Learn program with a 2021 Visionary Award. Synagogues across the nation submitted more than 50 applications in response to the call for entries detailing how synagogue programs could be transitioned from Covid-era ideas to hybrid ideas in preparation for the re-opening of synagogue buildings. Our submission indicated that once our building re-opens, we could invite speakers and a limited number of congregants and guests to attend in-person for the program and lunch. At the same time, Lunch and Learn would continue on Zoom so that those home-bound, traveling, or without transportation could continue to enjoy the weekly programs virtually.
The judges cited three ideas in each of three categories — Learning, Program, and Ritual. Lunch and Learn is one of the three award winners in the Learning category. The recognition earns Lunch a Learn a featured spot at an upcoming webinar dedicated to recognizing and sharing all of the award-winning ideas. The concepts may be shared throughout the USCJ network in articles, interviews, and social media venues.
The Lunch and Learn concept was suggested by Rabbi Gadi and Sara Bloom as a way to keep our members connected to the shul and to each other when Covid risks closed the shul building. The program was further developed and coordinated by shul president Judith K. Weiner with technical assistance from the shul’s office assistant Andrea Blaga. All were instrumental in developing the submission to the USCJ.
‘Lunch and Learn’ Wants You
Lunch and Learn is breathlessly trying to keep up with the talents, services, interests, hobbies, ideas, exploits, adventures and passions of our members — and even our members’ children. Our shul’s Lunch and Learn program debuted on Zoom, at noon, on Monday, April 20, 2020, when Ron Rothman talked to us about his grandfather’s friendship with Albert Einstein. We haven’t missed a Monday since. Whew!
But we may have missed some of the talents, services, interests, hobbies, ideas, exploits, adventures and passions of our members. So, we’re asking all of you with talents, services, interests, ideas, exploits, adventures and passions to please get in touch with Sara Bloom, the Sol Hurok of our shul’s Lunch and Learn program so that your talents, services, interests, ideas, exploits, adventures and passions can be shared with our Lunch and Learn audience.
Also, it has been suggested that we do a Lunch and Learn on this topic: second careers, second acts. Have you retired from your “day job” and moved on to something new? Maybe a new job, a new hobby, back to school, something that brings you joy. Lunch and Learn would like to hear from you.
Please respond to Sara Bloom: sbblazer@hotmail.com/.
In Book Circle Selection, Jewish Women Protest Price Of Kosher Meat
The Book Circle will meet Wednesday, June 16, at 1 p.m., to discuss Scott Seligman’s award-winning retelling of The Great Kosher Meat War of 1902 by Scott Seligman. In the wee hours of May 15, 1902, 3,000 Jewish women quietly took up positions on the streets of Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Convinced by the latest jump in the price of kosher meat that they were being gouged, they assembled, intent on shutting down every kosher butcher shop in New York’s Jewish quarter. Scott Seligman tells how these mostly uneducated female immigrants became a potent fighting force that challenged powerful corporate interests that had conspired to keep meat prices high.
Winner of the 2020-21 Reader Views Literary Awards Gold Medal, and finalist for the 2020 American Book Fest Best Book, and the 2020 National Jewish Book Award.
Shul Members, Tikkun Olam Group Ready Common Ground For The Growing Season
Tikkun Olam Plans ‘Annual Cycle’ Of Campaigns
Shul members and the Tikkun Olam group are stepping up again this year with other community organizations, churches and individuals to participate in a shared goal to provide for those in need. The charity is called the Common Ground Project — growing veggies to stock local food pantries, including CAST, the shul’s designated charity.
The project was initiated by Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Greenport, thanks to a grant from the Episcopal Ministries of Long Island, the generosity of Treiber Farms, which has donated the land and watering system, and the hard work of a dedicated group of volunteers, who are cultivating a quarter-acre on Route 48 in Peconic.
Pictured preparing one of the two plots maintained by the shul are Veronica Kaliski, Adrianne Greenberg and Tom Byrne. Not pictured, Madelyn Rothman and Susan Rosenstreich. Planted are tomatoes, bok choi, watermelon and onion. Others to come are peppers, beans, carrots, zucchini and some herbs. Pots of cherry tomato plants have been delivered to CAST for distribution. Ornamental Plantings donated the containers.
While the Tikkun Olam Initiative’s focus for the summer is planting, maintaining and harvesting the veggies, the group plans to offer seasonal assistance to neighbors in need — a cycle of community-oriented campaigns: the winter holidays, spring renewal, summer farming, and a fall project.
For more information about the Tikkun Olam Initiative, call the shul at 631-477-0232 and leave a message for Veronica Kaliski. Susan Rosenstreich photo
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