Purim is just a memory and we are now headed into Passover! The BIG, the BOLD, the most celebrated holiday in the Jewish calendar. Do you have a place to for seder?? This should be in the front of your mind now. Friends or family, a community seder, you should be making those plans.
What about THE SEDER? Want to discuss how to make this FUN for YOU as well as your guests? Join me for one of these upcoming workshops:
Juggling the Multigenerational Seder
It can be a challenge to have everyone from your neighbor’s toddler to your great uncle coming to your seder. Will people be bored? Will they get hungry? Will the kids wander from the table eliciting mumbling from other guests? Join me to discuss ways to keep everyone happy, when to compromise and when to hold firm. How to keep your family and friends happy, participating and not grumbling of starvation!
Date: Sunday, March 18
Time: 10:15am to 11:15am
Place: East Bay JCC, 1414 Walnut St., Berkeley
This workshop is just one workshop at the Freedom Fest: Liberate Your Seder Experience!
Passover Made Easy
Not everyone who holds a seder grew up with Passover traditions. Dawn will share tasty Passover recipes, shortcuts, and tips for engaging children (and spouses) of all ages in the holiday.
Date: Thursday, March 22
Time: 9:30 – 11:30am
Place: Kol Shofar, 215 Blackfield Drive, Tiburon
Cost: $20
To register, please call the Osher Marin JCC at 415-444-8000 or visit the JCC website here: http://bit.ly/xrGQgf
Kol Shofar’s phone: 415-388-1818
ALSO, I know many of you have been enjoying the What Color Are Jews series in Oakland. The next program is FABULOUS; don’t miss it! Join Chinese Rabbi Jacqueline Mates Muchin and Dr. Jerry Diller to discuss Jewish Identity Development for Multiracial Jews. If you are a member of a multiracial family this will delight you. Come listen and share your own stories and wisdom!
EVENTS
Rock ‘N’ Roll Shabbat (Danville)
Shabbat for Tots (Lafayette)
Juggling the Multigenerational Seder (Berkeley)
Passover Made Easy (Tiburon)
Vintage Movie Night Screening of “The Producers” (Palo Alto)
Torah & Revolution: The Influence of the Hebrew Bible on Politics (Walnut Creek)
An Introduction to Islam for Jews (Lafayette)
2nd Annual Chocolate Seder (Burlingame)
5th Annual Women’s Seder (San Francisco)
Jewish Identity Development for Multiracial Jews (Oakland)
More Wild Women of the Torah (Danville)
The Guide to the Perplexed Seder Leader (San Francisco)
Emanu-El Gardens at the Free Farm (San Francisco)
Rock ‘N’ Roll Shabbat
Celebrate a lively, rockin’ evening service with one of the most talented Jewish musicians of our time. Saul is best known for his “jump to your feet, improbable mix of African Soul music and traditional Jewish music.”
Date: Friday, March 16
Time: 7:30 pm
Place: Beth Chaim, 1800 Holbrook Dr., Danville
Info: 925-736-7146
Shabbat for Tots
Geared toward families with children 0-5 years old, Shabbat for Tots is an interactive and friendly Shabbat morning experience. Enjoy food, activities and prayer with other young families. All are welcome
Date: Saturday, March 17
Time: 9:30am
Place: Temple Isaiah, 3800 Mt. Diablo Blvd., Lafayette, in the Adult Lounge, look for signs.
RSVP here http://www.temple-isaiah.org/shabbatfortots. Contact Liz Kaufman for more information at lizk@temple-isaiah.org.
Juggling the Multigenerational Seder
It can be a challenge to have everyone from your neighbor’s toddler to your great uncle coming to your seder. Will people be bored? Will they get hungry? Will the kids wander from the table eliciting mumbling from other guests? Join me to discuss ways to keep everyone happy, when to compromise and when to hold firm. How to keep your family and friends happy, participating and not grumbling of starvation!
Date: Sunday, March 18
Time: 10:15am to 11:15am
Place: East Bay JCC, 1414 Walnut St., Berkeley
This workshop is just one workshop at the Freedom Fest: Liberate Your Seder Experience!
Other workshops include:
49 Ways to Count the Omer
Connecting Food Justice to Passover
Making your own Charoset
Making a more meaningful Seder
Exodus Live: Drama at the Seder
Cooking nourishing foods for the Passover Week
Beyond Dayenu: Music of Passover
Create your own Miriam’s Cup
Passover Made Easy
Not everyone who holds a seder grew up with Passover traditions. Dawn will share tasty Passover recipes, shortcuts, and tips for engaging children (and spouses) of all ages in the holiday.
Date: Thursday, March 22
Time: 9:30 – 11:30am
Place: Kol Shofar, 215 Blackfield Drive, Tiburon
Cost: $20
To register, please call the Osher Marin JCC at 415-444-8000 or visit the JCC website here: http://bit.ly/xrGQgf
Kol Shofar’s phone: 415-388-1818
Vintage Movie Night Screening of “The Producers”
Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder scheme to make millions by creating a Broadway flop in this outrageous 1968 Mel Brooks classic. Don’t touch that channel! Instead, join your Kol Emeth friends for popcorn, soda and laughter for a special (& free!) night out at the movies. Join Us for a Saturday Night of Fun and Laughter!
Date: Saturday Night, March 24
Time; 8:30 -10:30pm
Place: Kol Emeth, 4175 Manuela Avenue Palo Alto
Cost: FREE
Please R.S.V.P. to Jeff Schwarz via email: jeff @kolemeth.org or phone: (650)948-7498
Torah and Revolution: The Influence of the Hebrew Bible on Politics
Date: Sunday, March 25
Time: 2pm
Place: B’nai Shalom, 74 Eckley Lane, Walnut Creek
www.bshalom.org
An Introduction to Islam for Jews
How Do We See Each Other?
What classic religious texts in Islam teach about Jews and what Jewish texts teach about Muslims
People’s views about the “other” are profoundly informed by culture including religious culture, and religious culture is deeply shaped by a combination of core religious texts and historical experience. The messages that core texts convey about the religious “other” has a great impact on our opinions even when we do not study scripture, because scriptural messages infiltrate culture and are passed down from generation to generation
through stories, aphorisms, songs, poetry and even music. How we interpret the messages of scripture will be influenced deeply by our experience and the experience of our communities. In this session we will examine Jewish traditional messages about Muslims and Islamic traditional messages about Jews. We will then consider the situation in the world today, particularly in light of the great changes we are observing today in the Arab world.
With Rabbi Reuven Firestone, Ph.D.
FREE
Date; Sunday, March 25
Time: 4:00 pm
Place: Temple Isaiah, 3800 Mt. Diablo Blvd., Lafayette
www.temple-isaiah.org
2nd Annual Chocolate Seder
Join Peninsula Temple Sholom and BJE’s INCLUDE: The Special Needs Initiative of the North Peninsula for an inclusive family event!
This will be an evening of delicious chocolate, fantastic Jewish learning, and afikoman hunting! (A quiet room will be provided for kids who need it.)
Welcoming all families who have children K-7th grade.
Date: Sunday, March 25
Time: 5:30pm-7pm
Place: Peninsula Temple Sholom, 1655 Sebastian Dr., Burlingame
Free, but RSVP required.
RSVP to David Neufeld by March 19th at dneufeld@bjesf.org
Questions? Comments? Contact David at 415-751-6983 x 150
5th Annual Women’s Seder
Calling ALL adolescent girls (10 years and older recommended), their mothers, sisters, grandmothers, and BFFs, for the 5th Annual Emanu-El Women’s Seder.
Led by: Rabbi Carla Fenves, Marsha Attie, and Ariana Estoque
Date: Tuesday, March 27
Time: 6:00 – 8:30 pm
Place: Guild Hall
Register on line at: http://www.emanuelsf.org/register. Questions? Please
contact Ariana Estoque, Director of Adolescent Education, at aestoque@
emanuelsf.org or call (415) 751-2541 x307.
Jewish Identity Development for Multiracial Jews
With Dr. Jerry Diller & Rabbi Mates-Muchin
Children experience life quite differently than adults. We will address what it is like to grow up Jewish if you don’t look Jewish. What comments and behaviors impact a multiracial child’s sense of their Jewishness? What happens to a child whose Jewish parent is ambivalent about their own Jewish identity? We will discuss what we can do/say to support those around us and will contemplate when is silence golden.
Join Dr. Jerry Diller, emeritus professor at The Wright Institute in Berkeley and psychotherapist who has focused extensively on identity development for multiracial people, and Rabbi Jacqueline Mates-Muchin, rabbi at Temple Sinai and a Chinese Jew, in conversation about developing healthy and happy identities in multiracial families and communities. Dawn Kepler of Building Jewish Bridges will moderate the conversation and facilitate Q&A from the audience.
Date: Wednesday, March 28
Time: 7:30 pm
Place: Temple Sinai, 2808 Summit St., Oakland
Cost: $18/public; free to Sinai members. No one turned away for lack of funds.
Register here: http://catalog.lehrhaus.org/course/2012/winter/A350-TS/
More Wild Women of the Torah
The Torah contains stories of extraordinary women, such as Hannah, who asserted her right to pray as she wished and Ruth who joined a people and boldly changed history. We will discover how these and other women of the bible claimed their power—and were challenged by the limitations of their power. We will explore what Biblical women can teach us about our inner selves as women and men today.
Led by Rabbi Carol Caine
Dates: Tuesdays, March 27 and April 3
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Place: Beth Chaim, 1800 Holdbrook Dr., Danville
$20 – payable in the temple office. Registration deadline: March 20.
Info call: 0925-736-7146
www.bethchaim.com
The Guide to the Perplexed Seder Leader & Her/His Guests:
Maximizing Participation at the Seder
We are fortunate to host a world renowned scholar and author of the widely used Passover Haggadah A Different Night, Noam Zion of the Shalom Hartman Institute of Jerusalem. Noam will be teaching on the Passover Haggadah and how to make your Seder as participative and engaging as possible. Whether you are a regular Seder host or are attending for the first time, this is your opportunity to learn with one of the world’s foremost experts on the traditions and customs of the Passover Seder. So bring all of your (four) questions and join us in learning enough about the Seder to the point that you will say “Dayeinu!”
Date: Sunday, April 1
Time: 9:15 – 10:30 am
Place: Emanu-El, 2 Lake St., San Francisco, in Martin Meyer Reception
Register at http://www.emanuelsf.org/register for Maximizing Participation at the Seder 4-1, or phone Frana at (415) 751-2541 x151. There is no charge.
Emanu-El Gardens at the Free Farm
Help to plant and harvest fruits and vegetables for the hungry in San Francisco. All harvested produce is distributed at the Mission Street Farm Stand on Sundays. Please join us for this unique mitzvah! All ages are welcome!
If interested or you have questions, please contact Stanley Edwards –
edwards.stanley@gmail.com or call (415) 317-3502.
Date: Sunday, April 1
Time: 10:00 am – Noon
Place: Corner of Eddy and Gough Streets, San Francisco
Sponsored by Congregation Emanu-El of San Francisco
www.emanuelsf.org