Shul News & Notes
Shul Members Support Common Ground For The Common Good
The Shofar proudly recognizes the members of our congregation who are stepping up with other community organizations, churches and individuals to participate in a common ambition to provide for those in need. The charity is called the Common Ground Project — growing vegetables to stock local food pantries, including CAST, for the poor.
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 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 (look for the Dodge truck with the giant American flag on its side; that’s Treiber Farms.) The Boy Scouts helped build the raised plots, Southold Town donates the soil, Marion Gardens in East Marion donates the seedlings, and the horse farm across from Treiber Farms supplies the manure to fertilize the plants. Clearly, the Common Ground Project is a true community garden.
Volunteers cultivate for charity. Photos by Tom Byrne and Adrianne Greenberg.
For quite some time, a volunteer gardening group from our shul has put hands in the dirt to plant, weed and water the young veggies in Bed 16. But recently, the group took on a second plot, Bed 18 (chai), a number that figures prominently in modern Jewish culture. [In Hebrew, chai means life and/or luck. The Hebrew letters that spell chai add up to the numerical equivalent of 18, which is why many Jews make contributions in multiples of $18.] The gardening group maintaining the two beds are Tom Byrne, Rabbi Gadi Capela, Miriam Gabriel, Adrianne Greenberg, Veronica Kaliski, Jesse Reese, Suzi Rosenstreich and Madelyn Rothman. Those interested in helping can contact Veronica at v2kay@aol.com/.
Random Reads Offers Diverse Choices For A Sheltered Society
- Hell and Other Destinations, by Madeleine Albright
Six-time New York Times bestselling author and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright reflects on the final stages of one’s career, and working productively into your later decades in this revealing, funny and inspiring memoir.
- Family Papers, by Sarah Stein
Named one of the best books of 2019 by The Economist, and a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice. A National Jewish Book Award finalist. Sephardic historian Sarah Stein uses the family’s correspondence to tell the story of their journey across the arc of a century. They wrote to share grief and reveal secrets, to propose marriage and plan for divorce. They wrote because they were a family.
- A Life In Comics, by Stan Lee
Few artists have had as much of an impact on American pop culture as Stan Lee. Witness the characters he created — Spider Man and Iron Man, the X-Men and the Fantastic Four. This illuminating biography draws surprising connections between comic book heroes and the ancient tales of the Bible, the Talmud and Jewish mysticism.
EEJCC Provides Pizza And Hero Sandwiches To Local Police
In appreciation for responsiveness to their communities, member congregations of the East End Jewish Community Council donated pizza pies and hero sandwiches to local police departments.
Our shul worked with the North Fork Reform Synagogue to recognize Chief Martin Flatley and his team at the Southold Police Department. In all, eight departments on the North and South Forks were recognized, including Sag Harbor, Southampton, Westhampton Beach, Riverhead, Suffolk County precincts, and the New York State department in Suffolk County.
Coordinating the total effort was shul member Ladan Shalom-Murray, who worked with Rabbi Gadi Capela, president of the organization, to develop the project. “Because of all our first responders, we have a safer and better community today and always,” the council said. “We pray for the health, safety and strength of all of our front liners. With God’s help, may there soon be global healing.”
For more information about the EEJCC, call 631-645-5106 or visit www.eejcc.org.
Book Circle Looks Back To 1966 For Malamud’s ‘The Fixer’
The Book Circle will meet on Wednesday, June 17, at noon, via Zoom, to revisit a prize-winning classic novel, The Fixer, Bernard Malamud’s best-known and most acclaimed novel. The Fixer won the 1967 National Book Award for fiction and the 1967 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.
Set in Kiev in 1911 during a period of heightened anti-Semitism, the novel tells the story of Yakov Bok, a Jewish handyman falsely blamed for the brutal murder of a young Russian boy.
The Book Circle meets monthly to explore books on Jewish themes by Jewish writers. For more information, call the shul at 631-477-0232, and leave a message for Susan Rosenstreich, coordinator of the group.
Oculus: Eye on Art
This month’s Oculus column features ´Edouard Vuillard (1868-1940), who benefitted from the patronage of Jewish avant-garde artists, theater impresarios, writers and philosophers who supported him throughout his life. As the image illustrates, Vuillard tended toward intimate domestic scenes of family and friends. His work is infused with intricate wallpaper and upholstery patterns, colored with the warm and intimate hues that speak to home. Lucy Hessel was Vuillard’s muse, model and lover. This painting, “Lucy Hessel Reading,” which is housed in the permanent collection of The Jewish Museum in New York City, is a good example of his approach to painting.
Submitted by Saul Rosenstreich for the Judaism & Art group
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