Social Action Committee Fall News

Posted by & filed under Social Action Scoop.

Toda Raba to the Beth Ami family and friends who filled the Redwood Empire Food Bank bins to overflowing during the holidays . Once again we have demonstrated our commitment to Tikun Olam. We need to remember that hunger never takes a holiday, so please continue to bring healthy food to the shul on a regular basis.

As the weather is changing, days getting shorter and nightly temperatures dropping we can begin to look through our closets for lightly used warm clothing and accessories. Hats, gloves, warm socks, jackets, sweats and sleeping bags are always needed. The SAC hasn’t decided where to donate the clothes yet but the bins will be in the foyer of the shul by the time you read this article. If anyone has a suggestion where to donate, please let us know. We also continue to collect toiletries. Always needed: feminine products, socks.
Thanks again for everyones’ support.

The next dinner at The Palms is scheduled for Wednesday, November 20 th. The dinner will have a different menu. Jerry Newman has offered to cook Texas style brisket . A nice early Thanksgiving meal. Thanks Jerry!
The SAC is very excited about the Shabbat weekend with Beth Hamon on December 5-7. Some of us saw Beth at the women’s retreat and really loved her singing and ability to create community. We will support the Adult Education and ad hoc committee during the weekend.

We are also finalizing our plans to sponsor the Shabbat dinner and speaker on Friday, January 3. More details to follow.
Busy time and all is good.
Upcoming dates
The Palms: November 20 th. 4:30- 6:00
Redwood Empire Food Bank: December 18th. 5:00-7:00.
Interested in joining us? Call Elizabeth at the office 360-3000 or Lyla 526-7438
B’ shalom, Lyla

Kurdish Israeli folk dance

Posted by & filed under Israeli Dance.

For our October 16 class we will learn Debka Kurdit. Kurdish Jewish Israelis have a special festival called Saharane held during Sukkot in Jerusalem. 13,000 people have attended in past years; the Kurdish community in Israel numbers approximately 200,000. Most came to Israel in the general expulsion of Jews from Islamic and Arab countries after 1948.

Here is a nice video of Kurdish jewish Israelis doing a traditional dance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAIdm4BwdmM

And here is the dance choreographed by famed choreographer Moshiko:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYir5MTKOHs

Coming dance dates are October 16 and 30, November 20, December 4 and 18

Cheshvan and beyond

Posted by & filed under Rosh Chodesh.

We’ll celebrate Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan 5780 with a lunch and a movie! Slice of Life (6970 McKinley Street, Sebastopol) is a vegetarian restaurant near the Rialto Theater where “Dreaming of a Jewish Christmas” is playing at 1pm on Tuesday, October 29. Go to the JCC website to buy tickets, then join us at Slice of Life at 11:30am to start the festivities. Need a ride or want to carpool? Contact Patty Bernstein at basberyl@sonic.net.

Mark your calendars for November 11 at 11am to plan the November 29th Friday night service which the Moon Mavens will help lead.

Our Rosh Chodesh Tebet celebration will be on December 26 during Chanukah at 7pm at Judy Gunnar’s home … bring Chanukiah and candles and a parve/dairy snack to share. We’ll send you Judy address when you RSVP.

The theme of our Rosh Chodesh Shevat gathering on Monday, January 27th at 7pm will be “Recycling: What the Heck Do I Do With All This Stuff?” Can you recycle your receipts from CVS? How about receipts from Safeway? What do you do with the bubble wrap from Amazon Prime? Come find out tonight!

Questions … call 546-6043 or email Patty Bernstein at basberyl@sonic.net

Rosh Hashanah 5780

Posted by & filed under Rabbi’s Remarks.

Dear Friends, At this time when our Divine Creator examines the world and the deeds of humanity, we gather to examine our lives and our unique personal histories. All of this in the hope that we can gain wisdom from the past and look forward and work towards a brighter future.

Our prayers in our Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur Machzor (Prayer book) reflect this joyous-somber time. They provide us a way to focus our own thoughts in seeking T’shuvah (repentance) and reconciliation.

Our Beth Ami President Carolyn Metz, Administrator Judy Gunnar, Office Manager Elizabeth Jarlsberg and I, along with our Board and Lay Leadership wish you much health, happiness and prosperity in the coming year. May we all continue to merit and perceive the blessings that we sometimes overlook and come closer to a time when compassion and kindness will motivate the hearts of people throughout the word.

With warmest wishes,
Mordecai Miller
Rabbi, Congregation Beth Ami,
Santa Rosa, CA 95405

A New Year begins

Posted by & filed under Beth Ami & You.

The Nursery School has just wrapped up Summer Camp and will begin readying the rooms for the Fall School Year which begins Monday, August 19th.  This year marks the 40th Anniversary of the the Nursery School and we are excited to ring in this special year with some more good news, as our school has expanded! We have opened a second 2’s classroom and will welcome students into the new space Sunday, August 18th when the children and families come for a community picnic and a special mezuzah hanging for the new room.

There are a few spaces left for the coming school year, call the Nursery School office at 707-360-3030 for more information on current class availability and set up a tour!

A Time of Reflection

Posted by & filed under President's messages.

I’m looking forward to our time together during the upcoming Holy Days: A time of reflection, wonder, prayer, support, making things right where one can do so; I’m looking forward to greeting you and sharing our grief and joy, our hopes and yes, our fears, and our prayers for renewal.

When you come to the CBA campus now, notice the new fence that has been installed around the Nursery School play yard and along the west entrance. Thank the California Office of Emergency Services (Homeland Security money) and Henry Cohn for writing the grant which paid for the fence. You’ll be hearing about additional security endeavors in the coming months—stay tuned. Russ Gurevitch is Chair of Security at CBA.

The Nursery begins its classes for the year today, August 19, as I write this. The new classroom is beautiful! Poke your head into rooms 12/13 and see how they have transformed the environment to accommodate eight 2-year-olds every day. Very sweet. The cost of making the transformation came from an allocation of the Sustainers’ Circle (Beth Ami members.)

What’s next? Many of you have asked about results of the Strategic Planning Focus Groups, which have been on-going since March of this year. I expect to have analysis and options for your consideration this Fall. It’s been an interesting journey of discovery, and we’re not quite finished yet. Stay tuned.

Be well my friends. Hold those you love near in body, heart, mind and soul.

Jewish National Fund at Beth Ami March 6

Posted by & filed under Israel Affairs.

The Israel Committee is co-sponsor for the November 1 dinner. We are so pleased that the Adult Education Committee has invited Don Schlesinger, Executive Director of the Jewish National Fund to share with us how JNF works for us.

One activity JNF does is plant trees and Don’s talk will be the kickoff for the planting of a Beth Ami grove of trees in Israel.

JNF also builds communities, especially in the north and south. They work with water management, and they support those with special needs.  They do all this for both Arabs and Jews. 

JNF also is strong in building Jewish identity.  In particular, they provide a life-changing experience for high school students to study in Israel for 6 or 8 weeks.


Social Action in the New Year

Posted by & filed under Social Action Scoop.

The social action committee wishes everyone a sweet and happy New Year.  As we prepare for the holy days we want to thank everyone in the kehilla who helps support our  mission of Tikun Olam.(fixing the world) Your continued support of the Redwood Empire Food Bank and supplying toiletries and winter clothes for the needy is much appreciated.  The bins in the foyer of the shul are always full. Thanks so much
As you all know the need for healthy food is a year round concern.  As the holy days approach,please consider  collecting food now. Then when the food drive is held at Rosh Ha Shana and Yom Kippur you can easily fill a bag and bring it to services.  Extra grocery bags are always available at the services.


The committee will continue to have a monthly event to serve the community alternating between volunteering  at the food bank and serving a hot meal at The Palms.  The volunteer opportunities for the next few months are:
Wednesday, September 18 , at The Palms.  4:15-6:15 Wednesday, October 16, 500-7:00 at The Redwood Empire Food Bank with dinner to follow. Wednesday,  November 20, at The Palms.  4:15-6:15 Wednesday,  December 18, at The Redwood Empire Food Bank 4:15-6:15 dinner to follow Consider joining us or helping in any way.  We always need food for the Palms,
We have also committed to bringing two speakers to the monthly Friday Night Shabbat Dinners. We are hoping to bring speakers who will speak on the social issues of today. The speakers will be informational. Details to follow.


 For many of us, these are very difficult times that we face in our country.  We hope that kindness and forgiveness will be in  our thoughts as we enter the holy days.   Let us remember that  once our people were strangers in a strange land and that we are all made in God’s image.  A peaceful year to all,   Lyla Nathan



Rosh Chodesh Moon Mavens

Posted by & filed under Rosh Chodesh.

We’ll celebrate Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan 5780 with a lunch and a movie! Slice of Life (6970 McKinley Street, Sebastopol) is a vegetarian restaurant near the Rialto Theater where “Dreaming of a Jewish Christmas” is playing at 1pm on Tuesday, October 29. Go to the JCC website to buy tickets, then join us at Slice of Life at 11:30am to start the festivities. Need a ride or want to carpool? Contact Patty Bernstein at basberyl@sonic.net.
Female-centered Rosh Chodesh observances vary from group to group, but many, like ours at Beth Ami, are centered on gatherings of women like our own Moon Mavens Rosh Chodesh group. All Jewish women are welcome regardless of affiliation (or lack thereof). We meet as close to the actual day of Rosh Chodesh as possible each new Jewish month, sometimes having a Sunday brunch, a potluck, a picnic and walk around a park, enjoying a speaker, cooking, or engaging in activities that relate to the facts, characters, and holidays associated with the new month. Some background: The Holy One gave Jewish women their reward for not contributing to the Golden Calf. In this world, they are rewarded with a more stringent observation of the new moons than men. They are forbidden to engage in work (spinning, weaving, and sewing: the skills that women contributed to the building of the Mishkan) on Rosh Chodesh. Instead, they celebrate a minor holiday like the intermediate days of Pesach and Sukkot. In the world to come, they are destined to be renewed like the new moons. The first of each Jewish month, the celebration of tthe new moon, its slender crescent barely visible in the night sky, is a day historically associated with women’s renewal and celebration. In recent decades, Rosh Chodesh has become an occasion for Jewish women to gather for learning, ritual, and spiritual exploration, and to mark life passages. Rosh Chodesh groups, meeting monthly, offer a women’s space in time. The Passover Seder addition of Miriam’sCup (for the prophet Miriam) originated in the 1980s in a Boston Rosh Chodesh group. Our own Rosh Chodesh group pulled off a spectacular Chai Tea in 2008, honoring 28 women over 88­ — our Matriarchs at Congregation Beth Ami! Patty Bernstein, basberyl@sonic.net