Shul News & Notes
CAST’s ‘Holiday Toy Drive’ Is Under Way; The Big Red Barrel Returns
Here at Congregation Tifereth Israel, we’re familiar with the big red barrel that CAST provides for donations that correspond to the various drives and campaigns that help CAST clients — our neighbors needing a helping hand from time to time during the year.
We step up when personal care items are needed, similarly back to school supplies and, most recently, cans of food and nonperishable items to help families having difficulty feeding their families.
This time, the shul is one of many drop-off points (that’s us listed there under Greenport) for the Holiday Toy Drive. The Big Red Barrel is at the top of the ramp by the kitchen door, where it is protected from bad weather and temptation by passers-by.
The shul’s participation is monitored by the Tikkun Olam group, which will check the barrel frequently for donations, and see that they are delivered to CAST headquarters so that children can enjoy the fun of the season of giving.
Will you help us fill the barrel?
Thanksgiving Service
GEM (Greenport Ecumenical Ministries) invites our shul to attend an interfaith Thanksgiving Service on Wednesday, Nov. 15, at the Cutchogue Presbyterian Church, at 11 a.m. Rabbi Gadi will participate in the program that seeks peace in the Middle East and in Ukraine.
A soup lunch will follow the service.
Kristallnacht
Please join Rabbi Gadi and the congregation this Friday, Nov. 10, at 7:30 p.m., for a Shabbat service and Kristallnacht observance. Shabbat is a day to celebrate peace, yet sadly this year, we must gather to connect today’s news with events that occurred in the 1930s.
The Book Circle To Host Author Alina Adams At The November Meeting
The shul’s Book Circle group will continue to explore Alina Adams’ novel, My Mother’s Secret: A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region, as its November selection, to be discussed on Thursday, Nov. 16, at 3 p.m. (note new time) on the shul’s Zoom. The author will join the group at the meeting.
For this novel, the author has drawn on her own experience as a Jewish refugee from Odessa, USSR, as she provides readers a glimpse into the world’s first Jewish Autonomous Region. The novel is rooted in detailed research about a little known chapter of Soviet and Jewish history.
Alina Adams is a prolific and innovative writer who has authored more than a dozen books, both fiction and nonfiction. Her previous release, The Nesting Dolls, is a Soviet-Jewish historical novel published by HarperCollins in July 2020. Her newest novel, My Mother’s Secret: A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region, was published by History Through Fiction in November 2022.
The Big Red Barrel Returned; We Filled It With Cans For CAST
Once again, our shul has responded with enthusiasm to a call for charity, this time a campaign called “Cans For CAST.” We asked all those joining us for Yom Kippur services to bring a can or other nonperishable item, and to deposit the food in the big red barrel stationed at the ramp entry door. And people did, filling the barrel and making it a back-breaker for CAST volunteers to drag it away.
The “Cans For Cast” campaign is based on a worldwide movement to feed the hungry as part of the annual observance of Yom Kippur, often referred to as the “Fast of Isaiah,” the Biblical prophet who said, “And if you spend yourself in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.”
Feeling the effects of hunger on a fast day, worshippers will be reminded of those who struggle to nourish their families.
In addition to overseeing the “Cans For Cast” campaign, the Tikkun Olam Group continues to maintain beds of vegetables and herbs at Common Ground and donates the harvest to CAST. The shul thanks Veronica Kaliski, Susan Rosenstreich, Madelyn Rothman, and Cookie Slade for their volunteer efforts on behalf of our shul for the benefit of CAST clients.
In the upcoming year, the Tikkun Olam group will expand its initiatives to include help for the homeless population in Greenport. To that end, the group will begin collecting socks, gloves, hats, undergarments and tee-shirts, to be donated to John’s Place in Greenport. Once again, a big red bin will placed at our shul for donations. The group is hoping CTI members and friends will respond generously to this collection, as they did recently for Cans For CAST.
Coming up, the Tikkun Olam Group has established a calendar for giving through the year:
September/Yom Kippur: Cans For CAST
Early November: John’s Place
Late November: Chickens for CAST
December: Children’s toys
March: ParentChild+ Program
May to October: Common Ground veggies and herbs/planting and harvesting
August: School supplies
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