Shul News & Notes
Lunch and Learn: Rabbi Gadi Tu B’Shevat Seder
A LUNCH AND LEARN EXTRA
Join Rabbi Gadi this Monday
for a Tu B’Shevat Seder
Zoom at noon this coming Monday, Jan. 17, for an addition to Lunch and Learn’s first-Monday-of-the-month schedule. Lunch and Learners will recall the extraordinary table set by Rabbi Gadi a year ago to recognize the holiday of Tu B’Shevat. We learned about foods and spices native to Israel, sipped wine, and celebrated the beauty and bounty of trees.
Come and have fun.
Oculus: Eye On The Arts/A Communal Activity
As we reflect on the Covid challenges of the past year, we are reminded of the Shehecheyanu blessing (who has sustained us), the traditional prayer of thanks for bringing us to this moment. In that spirit comes the Shehecheyanu Curtain, a Judaism and the Arts group project to encourage each of us to reflect on our Covid experience and, perhaps, our reordered priorities.
All shul members — from youngsters to seniors — are invited to express their Covid thoughts and observations in paintings, drawings, calligraphy, collage, poetry, storytelling, photography, handwork, etc. Each submission will be displayed on a 20’-by-6’ canvas now mounted on the south wall of the community room. This kind of activity, sometimes called mural art, will echo the life of our shul family community. As each submission is mounted on the Shehecheyanu Curtain, a thoughtful picture of our communal response to a global emergency will emerge. The J&A group invites your contributions to the Shehecheyanu Curtain.
For more information, email Saul Rosenstreich at the shul at ctigreenport@gmail.com.
Book Circle Explores Memoir Set In A Barrio, By Quiara Alegría Hudes
The Book Circle will meet again on Wednesday, Jan. 19, at 2:30 p.m., on Zoom, to discuss My Broken Language, a memoir by Quiara Alegría Hudes, which tells a coming-of-age story with her sprawling Puerto Rican family against the backdrop of a Philadelphia barrio. It is a story of home, memory and belonging narrated by a girl who fought to become an artist so she could capture the world she loved in all its wild and delicate beauty.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, whose father in Jewish and her mother Puerto Rican, earlier developed the screenplay for Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights.
The book circle meets monthly to explore works about Jews and by Jewish writers. For information, email the shul at ctigreenport@gmail.com with a message for Susan Rosenstreich, coordinator of the group.
JTS Course Offered Online Only, Consistent With Limits In Sanctuary
The new JTS course, originally advertised as a hybrid, will be offered now on Zoom only, in keeping with the shul’s recently imposed limitation on the number of people allowed in the sanctuary for individual services and events. In fact, most of those who have signed up for the course chose the Zoom option rather than the in-person option, said Ann Hurwitz, administrator of the Marshall S. Hurwitz Fund For Special Programs and Projects, the sponsor of the JTS courses for our shul. Limits on the number of people in the sanctuary at one time were imposed when Covid’s Omicron variant surfaced in our area.
“Beyond Dispute: Debates That Shape Jewish Life” will debut on Sunday, Jan. 2, and continue on Jan. 9, 16, 23 and 30, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. The course, developed by the Jewish Theological Seminary and facilitated by Rabbi Gadi, probes questions at the heart of Jewish life.
The course is programmed for 11 sessions, with a short break after the first five before the remaining sessions are scheduled. Each session will begin with a short video by a JTS faculty member whose experience mirrors the topic. Relevant source materials distributed by JTS to each registered participant (or downloaded) prior to the start of the course will suggest areas for study and discussion.
For questions, email the shul at ctigreenport@gmail.com and leave a message for Ann Hurwitz.
Shul Members And Guests Gather To Welcome Annual Festival Of Lights
On a crisp November night, shul members and guests welcomed Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights. At a gathering in the sanctuary, Rabbi Gadi led the congregation in traditional blessings and songs and welcomed families new to the synagogue’s membership roster. Then, members and guests walked together east on Front Street to Mitchell Park for the lighting of the public menorah.
Both venues were well attended, with congregants eager to return to the togetherness of the holiday, denied the previous year, owing to the risks of Covid. But this year, with all attendees vaccinated and masked in the sanctuary, Hanukkah revelers were protected.
Fortified with jelly doughnuts (sufganiyot) ordered by Adrianne Greenberg and delivered to the shul by Joanna Paulsen, everyone gathered in the park, where Greenport Mayor George W. Hubbard and shul president Judith K. Weiner welcomed the crowd and joined Rabbi Gadi, who led the lighting ceremony.
Photos documenting the joyous, Nov. 28 events were submitted by Sara Bloom, Adrianne Greenberg, and Ellen Jaffe.
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