OCTOBER 2016
MONTHLY E-NEWSLETTER
In This Issue:
We are pleased to present the first edition of JRC's new Monthly E-Newsletter. This newsletter is designed to work in conjunction with the Weekly Announcements to inform JRC members of goings on, services, and upcoming events in the congregation. Please continue to check the Weekly Announcements for specific updates about Weekly Shabbat services, event details, important information, and of course birthdays, anniversaries, the Refuah Sheleymah list, and Yahrzeits.

Of particular note in this newsletter is the return of the Kvell Korner, so if you have a milestone to celebrate or a family member or friend to schep nachas on, please feel free to email Nina Litoff at [email protected]. Over the next few months we hope to grow and establish this as a resource for members. 

Shanah Tovah,
Sharon Diaz 

Executive Director 

OCTOBER EVENTS
October 1
Fall Social 
5:00pm 
Enjoy an evening of food, friends, and fundraising! T aste food, beer, and wine from local favorites and new Evanston restaurants while connecting with friends with free childcare. Bid on incredible auction items and try your luck in our raffle! Everyone is welcome to this fun event.  Funds raised will  benefit  JRC's Early Childhood Center. 
Purchase Tickets Here

October 2
Erev Rosh Hashanah 
8:00pm  First United Methodist Church, 516 Church Street in Evanston

October 3rd 
1st Day Rosh Hashanah Services 
First United Methodist Church 
Click here for full schedule

Rosh Hashanah Family Service 
3:00pm First United Methodist Church 
This family service is open to all members of the community and public. 
 
Tashlich 
4:30 Dawes Park 
JRC's Tashlich service will be held at Lake Michigan. This traditional ceremony of casting sins into the water will be given a contemporary meaning. Meet at Dawes Park (Church and Lake Streets) on the north side of the lagoon. Bring crackers or stale bread to cast into the water. A meaningful event to bring your children to!

October 4th 
2nd Day Rosh Hashanah Services 
9:30am  JRC 

Discussion Groups 
11:30am
Click here for details

October 5 
Israeli Film Night 
7:00pm 
Rabin: The Last Day
This award winning film by director Amos Gitai explores the dynamics of Israeli politics leading up to the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. It is a "sophisticated analysis of the ways and means of extremist actions within a democracy." (Film-Forward.com)  Free Admission for everyone. 

October 7
Interfaith Immigration Vigil
7:15am
Join JRC members in support of immigrants facing deportation and separation from their families.
Year round, this group gathers on the first Friday of every month for an interfaith prayer vigil at the Detention Center, 1930 Beach St., Broadview, IL

For more information (including carpools), contact JRC members Tina and Gonzalo Escobar at [email protected]
.
Erev Shabbat Member Led Service 
7:00pm 

October 11
Kol Nidre 
6:30pm 
First United Methodist Church 

October 12  
Yom Kippur 
First United Methodist Church 
Click here for full schedule

Yom Kippur Family Service 
3:00pm  First United Methodist Church 
This service is open to all members of the community and public. 

Discussion Groups and Book Group
Click here for details

Break-the-Fast-Potluck 
7:30pm 
This year everyone is invited to a community break-the-fast potluck at the church following the Ne'ilah service. Bring your dairy/veg/nut free dish to the kitchen at First United Methodist Church.

October 14 
Shabbat Services and Community Potluck  
Early Bird Service 5:30pm
Community Potluck 6:00pm
   Bring a dairy/veg/nut free dish to share.
Erev Shabbat Service 7:00pm

October 15 
Emily Hauser Bat Mitzvah 
The entire JRC community is invited to celebrate with Emily Hauser and her family as she is called to the Torah as a Bat Mitzvah. A special aliyah will be given to members of the JRC community. 

October 16 
Sukkah Decorating Party
3:00-4:30pm 
Join JRC's Early Childhood and Religious School families to decorate our sukkah! All are welcome to decorate and celebrate to make JRC's sukkah the most stylin' one around! Bring your friends!

October 17
Sukkot Festival Service
10:00am
Our Sukkot Festival Service marks the beginning of the first festival of the new year. Everyone is welcome to attend, sing Hallel, and celebrate this harvest festival

October 18
Young Adult Sukkot Cocktail Party with Rabbi Weiss  
7:30pm 
Both members and friends in their 20s-30s are welcome to join Rabbi Weiss for the first event of the new Young Adult group at JRC. Cocktails, snacks, and good conversation.

October 19
Adult Ed: Arabs in a Jewish State 
7:30pm
This two part seminar will focus on minority-majority relations in Israel. Click here for more information.

Dinner in the Sukkah 
6:00-7:30pm 
Join with your JRC friends for an informal BYO dairy/veg/nut free dinner in the sukkah. 

October 20 
Dinner in the Sukkah
6:00-7:30pm 
Join with your JRC friends for an informal BYO dairy/veg/nut free dinner in the sukkah. 

October 21 
Wine and Cheese Shabbat in Sukkah
Wine and Cheese Reception 6:30pm 
Erev Shabbat Service 7:00pm 
Oneg in Sukkah 8:30pm 
Join us for a delicious taste of wine and cheese, generously provided by the Membership Committee, before our 7pm Erev Shabbat service. This is a great opportunity to meet Rabbi Weiss and other JRC members in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere.

October 22 
Cassidy Goldman Bat Mitzvah 
10:00am 
The entire JRC community is invited to celebrate with Cassidy Goldman and her family as she is called to the Torah as a Bat Mitzvah. A special aliyah will be given to members of the JRC community. 

October 23  
Simchat Torah celebration with Heavy Shtetl 
6:30pm 
This celebratory service marks the beginning of a new cycle of reading Torah. Join JRC and our resident Klezmer band Heavy Shtetl for a party including dancing, taffy apples, and our tradition of unfurling the Torah around the room. 

October 24 
Yizkor Service
10:00am 
Our Shemini Atzeret Service marks the end of Sukkot - the first festival of the new year. Everyone is welcome to attend.

October 28 
K-1st Grade Shabbat Dinner and Shabbat Service
6:00pm 
Religious school families in kindergarten and First grade are welcomed to this annual dinner. 
7:00pm - Shabbat evening service led by Rabbi Weiss and Cantor Friedland

Adult Kallah
Friday-Sunday, October 28-30
Camp for Adults. It doesn't get any better than this! Escape from the city for the weekend. Slow down and enjoy the surroundings of  OSRUI , located on scenic Lac La Belle in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin.
SOLD OUT
High Holiday Highlights
Opportunities to get involved this holiday season

Tickets and Prayerbooks
Prayerbooks can also be purchased on the ticket order form. Please note that JRC does not provide prayerbooks for the High Holidays. 
Tickets can be picked up at the JRC office or at the church immediately before the services. 

Readings 
Each year, we select readings and poems from a wide variety of sources other than our prayerbook in order to deepen and enrich our experience of the High Holiday liturgy. Out of respect for the value of Bal Tashchit (Do Not Waste), we will not be providing printed copies of these readings at our services. If you wish to have a copy during services, please print them at home and bring with you to services. All readings can be found here.

Shofar Blowing 
Everyone who has access to a shofar and wishes to participate in the group shofar blowing on Rosh Hashanah and at the end of Yom Kippur is invited to do so. Please contact Carol Goldbaum  at 847-256-1444 or [email protected] for more information. 

Open Mic 
Open Mic, held immediately after the morning services on Yom Kippur, is an opportunity for JRC members to share their personal reflections on issues of a religious, spiritual or social nature. In living our lives, we experience and learn many things, big and small; we have awakenings and other life-changing events. Sharing these with our fellow congregants is a way to offer those experiences as inspiration to others. Please join us. 

Meal Sharing
Congregants interested in opening their homes to fellow JRC members or guests searching for an extra space at a holiday meal table for Erev Rosh Hashanah dinner and Rosh Hashanah lunch can contact Linda Hewitt at  [email protected]. 

Contemplative Music
At 4:30pm on Yom Kippur we will have an hour of restorative, meditative music immediately before the Yizkor/Ne'ilah service. If you are a teen or adult musician who would like to play, contact Michelle Brodsky at  [email protected]. 

Break-the-Fast Potluck 
This year everyone is invited to a community break-the-fast potluck at the church following the Ne'ilah service. Adults and children of all ages are welcome. Please bring a vegetarian/dairy dish to share. Please note that we are fostering a nut-sensitive environment so do not bring any food with peanuts or other nuts. We need to be prepared so please,  RSVP here. For more information contact Linda Kaskel, [email protected] or Bonnie Nolan, [email protected].

Discussion Groups
High Holiday discussion groups for both the second day of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur have just been announced. You can find full descriptions here or by contacting the JRC office. 

Tzedakah Opportunities 
  • High Holiday Food Drive: Both kosher and non-kosher food will be collected and donated to the ARK. Shopping bags will be distributed to congregants at Rosh Hashanah services and should be returned to First United Methodist Church at Yom Kippur services. 
  • Bernie's Books: JRC is working with Bernie's Books to increase book ownership for at-risk infants, toddlers and school age children throughout Chicagoland. Please bring new or gently-used books with you to First United Methodist Church during High Holiday services. Books should be appropriate for kids from birth through 6th grade; no encyclopedias or other reference books. 
  • Bundled Blessings: Each year we partner with First United Methodist Church to provide diapers for Bundled Blessings, the only "diaper bank" in Evanston. Please bring packages of new or opened and clean diapers to First United Methodist Church during High Holiday services. 
DiscussionDiscussion Groups
Second Day Rosh Hashanah, October 4, 11:30am at JRC

Repair The World 
Peace Dialogue
Every act of youth violence destroys more than one life - the victim, the aggressor, their families and their friends all suffer. When violence occurs, we all then must respond - restoring the victim, rehabilitating the aggressor, and tackling systemic failures that lead to violence and brand aggressors as "other." Please join Patrick Keenan-Devlin, Executive Director of the James B. Moran Center for Youth Advocacy, for a discussion about the work being done to "repair the world" locally and what you can do to restore the broken and brokenness within our community. 
 
Rosh Ha'Shinui: The Beginning of Transformation
Led by Maggid Al Goldberg
T'shuvah literally means "return." To spiritually "return" is a process of re-alignment with the Divine Presence within us and around us, and with family and community. Engaging in t'shuvah requires deep personal honesty (not destructive hyper-criticality), and a willingness to allow God to co-partner our return.  -Rabbi Marsha Prager

Join us as we explore these topics:
  • Al Cheyt.  We have sinned. What do we mean by sin?
  • The word kavanah, is an archery term and means "to intend to hit the target."
  • The word Cheyt, is also an archery term and means "to miss the target"... where our lives are not whole and integrated.
  • What is the target?  To be aligned both within ourselves and with the world around us...To be living our unique story.
  • On Yom Kippur, we read in Leviticus 16:1 - 16:34 the Torah instruction for Aaron to sacrifice two goats, (please read this as preparation for the discussion).  How does this Torah reading inform us about t'shuvah and the beginning of transformation in our lives?
Yom Kippur, October 12, 2:00pm at First United Methodist Church 

"Day of Awe" by Edith Pearlman
Short story discussion led by Carol Friedman:
Set in an unnamed Latin American country, the short story "Day of Awe" by Edith Pearlman explores the meaning of Yom Kippur and different ways to observe the holiest of holidays, both individually and collectively. Download the story here. 
 
Gratitude by Oliver Sacks
JRC Book Group discussion for Yom Kippur - Jill Berkeley
During his last two years of life, the famous neurologist and author, Dr. Oliver Sacks, wrote four moving essays, published in The New York Times, reflecting on his life and facing mortality. In Dr. Sacks' words, "It is the fate of every human being to be a unique individual, to find his own path, to live his own life, to die his own death."  These four essays have been compiled in an inspiring 64-page book,  Gratitude,which we will be discussing on Yom Kippur afternoon. Please join the JRC Book Club for this conversation.     
 
Chesed: Compassion and loving kindness as a Jewish value and practice.
Led by Lou Weiss
According to Torah, the world was created out of acts of lovingkindness. We will discuss the importance of compassion and lovingkindness in our relationships, our community and in the world.
 
Literary Reflections
Led by Todd Hasak-Lowy
Writer, professor, and JRC board member Todd Hasak-Lowy will read and lead a discussion of a set of short poems that resonate with the themes of the High Holidays.
AdultEd
Upcoming Adult Education Classes and Seminars  

Arabs in a Jewish State: The Arab Minority in 
Israel between Integration and Alienation
Professor Elie Rekhess
October 19 and November 2
7:30pm

The 1948 war created a unique situation: a Palestinian-Arab minority amidst the Jewish state of Israel. Thus, Israel was established as a Jewish state but not exclusively so. The Palestinian Arabs who became Israeli citizens remained nationally and religiously bound to the outside Arab world. This necessarily resulted in a sharp crisis of loyalties. The lectures will focus on minority-majority relations in Israel.

About the Instructor
Professor Elie Rekhess is a Crown Visiting Professor in Israel Studies and Associate Director for Isra el Studies in th e History Department at Northwestern University.

Forward News Schmooze
October 30
9:30-11:00am
For almost 120 years, The Forward  has brought the Jewish world to an American audience-global events, rabbinic rulings, profiles of little-known Jewish communities and more. One Sunday per month, we'll discuss a variety of The Forward's best stories. 

Nurture the Wow: Parenting as a Spiritual Practice 
Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg
November 6
9:30am

The work of parenting can be glorious and amazing.  And it can be, at least as often, frustrating, crazy-making, and mind-numbingly boring.

How can the riches of the Jewish tradition help us to transform the most difficult moments with our children? How can it illuminate the beautiful moments in powerful new ways?  But not only that: What do parents who are deep in the trenches of this labor of love, have to teach Judaism about what spirituality is and can be?  And, most critically, what might happen if we regard the work of raising children a legitimate spiritual practice in its own right?  This talk will explore these essential questions of heart and soul, and their implications for parents of young children. 

About the Presenter
 Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg was named by Newsweek as one of ten rabbis to watch, and by The Forward as one of the top 50 women rabbis. She's the award-winning author of seven books.  Her most recent one is Nurture the Wow: Finding Spirituality in the Frustration, Boredom, Tears, Poop, Desperation, Wonder, and Radical Amazement of Parenting.  

Remembering Dr. Janusz Korczak
Panel discussion with moderator Richard Reeder and participants  Marlene Targ Brill, Ronald Swartz, and Ron Grossman
November 16
7:30pm 
Register Here

Dr. Janusz Korczak was one of the most innovative European educators during the first half of the twentieth century. His book, King Matt the First, remains as one of the most beloved children's stories in Poland. Dr. Korczak played a heroic role during the Holocaust, serving as a guardian of orphans in the doomed Warsaw Ghetto.
This event is free admission for JRC members. Non-members: $6.

About the Panelists 
R i c har d Reeder is an Instructor of literature and social history at the Oakton College Emeritus program.
Marlene Targ Brill is an award-winning author of 65 books, most for children and teenagers, but some also for adults.
Ron Grossman is a writer for The Chicago Tribune and a social historian.
Dr. Ronald Swartz is a retired professor of education and philosophy at Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan.

For a list of future classes and the Adult Education Brochure please visit our website.
Kvell Korner
To kvell (or shep naches) means to be proud of. This column is devoted to letting our community know about the wonderful things happening in the lives of JRC members.
Mazel Tov to: 

Becky and Dick Block who celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in June. 

Josh Byster for being inducted into the National Honor Society.

Sharon Diaz on the marriage of her son Orlando Diaz to Pamela Seaver. 

Carol Goldbaum on the birth of her granddaugher, Terra Jade Kelly.

Daniel Israelite for qualifying for the Boston Marathon.

Nichola Jackman & Mike Levy on the birth of their daughter,  Ruby Louise Jackman Levy

Nina Litoff for helping to raise $27,884 for the Rebirth Garments fashion Kickstarter campaign and being interviewed in a cover story in the  Red Eye

Dan and Judy Soloman on the birth of their granddaughter, Veronica Aubrey Schneider, in June.

Pamela & Eric Youngelman on the birth of their daughter, Aviva Bonnie Youngelman.

Davida Mangiullo, Levi Rosing, Levi Gershfeld and  Nathan Weitzman for becoming B'nai Mitzvah in September.
Donations
Thank you for your generosity 
 
Tzedakah is a central mitzvah of Judaism, humanizing both the donor and the recipient. JRC has established a series of tzedakah Funds in response to members' interests, aiming to serve three functions: 
  • To support the congregation. All are welcome to membership, to worship, to our school-even those unable to pay full dues. Your contributions make this possible.
  • To support important extra-budgetary activities.
  • Most importantly, to provide a convenient and meaningful way for JRC members and others to fulfill the traditional obligation of tzedakah as we honor, commemorate, and express gratitude.

We would like to express our gratitude for these donations made between April 26-September 28, 2016

To donate online, please click here.


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