With the High Holiday season approaching, we wanted to take a moment to offer our best wishes for the holidays season, and share with you some timely insights into your local JCC as we prepare for the year ahead. | | |
Now in the Hebrew month of Elul, we have embraced this time of reflection and taking stock. The Hebrew phrase cheshbon nefesh—an accounting of the soul—captures this sacred practice of honest self-examination and spiritual inventory. We at the JCC of Sonoma County have spent the past year engaged in our own form of cheshbon nefesh through a comprehensive strategic planning process that will continue as we enter the new year.
Just as individuals use this season to align their actions with their deepest values, we have been examining how well our programs, initiatives, and daily work reflect our organizational soul—our mission.
| | |
LOOKING BACK
Last year's organizational report and official update on strategic planning:
| | |
LOOKING FORWARD
We've added an open call questionnaire to the bottom of these emails. In the weeks and months ahead, as you read our eNews, free to share your thoughts:
| | |
A CHORUS LINE!
6th Street Playhouse
w/ Lunch at Grossman's Noshery
| |
SUN, SEPT 14 • 11:30 AM, 2:00PM
Downtown Santa Rosa
| |
Dancing, Drama & Dreams -
The Ultimate Triple-Threat Musical!
Step onto the stage with A Chorus Line, the groundbreaking Broadway musical that captures the hopes, fears, and dreams of 17 dancers auditioning for the chance of a lifetime. Set on a bare stage, the show peels back the curtain on the bittersweet realities of life in the theater, blending song, dance, and raw emotion.
| | |
TAMARA - The True Story of Tamara de Lempicka & The Art of Survival
| |
TUES, OCT 14 • 1PM & 7PM
Rialto Cinemas, Sebastopol
“The True Story of Tamara De Lempicka & the Art of Survival” is a visually stunning and sweeping feature documentary that traces the life and survival of the renowned painter through her powerful paintings – from her rise to international stardom in 1920s Paris, to her move to the United States in 1940, fleeing the rise of fascism, and her revival in the current art market. Tamara de Lempicka was the preeminent Art Deco painter, known for her high-gloss sensual nudes and portraits of high society during the Jazz Age. She was marginalized and gained notoriety for her romantic liaisons with her models and her indulgent, decadent lifestyle, but she was so much more.
The film follows this remarkable émigrée as she reinvents herself multiple times, looking behind the veneer of the publicity she generated for herself and examining the bisexual Jewish artist who embodied talent, resilience, passion, and the relentless pursuit of artistic freedom. Told through her never-before-seen 8mm home movies and groundbreaking newly-discovered birth and baptism certificates, our film reveals her true name, heritage, and identity for the first time and will change art history.
| |
| | | |
COMING UP: SONOMA COUNTY & BEYOND
| | AN EVENING WITH HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR SORA VIGORITO - Youngest known Survivor of Mengele's Experimental Twins | |
TODAY
THURS, SEPT 11 • 6:00 PM
SRJC Petaluma,
Carole L. Ellis Auditorium
| |
A historic opportunity to hear a surviving voice from Auschwitz's infamous "Angel of Death".
Sora Vigorito was one of 89 pairs of identical twins who went through Dr. Joseph Mengele's laboratory. Her remarkable journey from loss & devastation to a fulfilling life of faith & resilience is captured in an Emmy award winning film Sora directed.
| |
Special Feature: Musical performance including the stirring theme from Schindler's List. | |
MUSICAL FAMILY SHABAT
+ Pizza & Salad wit Rabbi Irwin & Reb Mia!
| |
FRI, SEPT 12th • 5 - 6:30 PM
Ner Shalom Courtyard
| |
Welcome Shabbat in Community!
Music, crafts, pizza, and a sprinkle of magic.
Bonus joy: It’s Rabbi Irwin’s birthday!
We’ll honor him with song and birthday cake.
Dinner: Pizza (GF + vegan options) + salad
| | | |
FRI, SEPT 13th • 8 PM
Ner Shalom
| |
Led by Reb Irwin, Shoshana Fershtman, and Reb Mia Zimman
Selichot is one of the most beautiful rituals of our year. Not a traditional prayer service, it is an opportunity to begin the High Holy Day flow, moving as a community into a deeper place of gentleness, repentance, forgiveness, expansiveness and beauty. The service will include short teachings, meditation, some of our favorite High Holy Day songs and chants, and a blast of the shofar. During the ritual we will also dress our Torah scrolls in their High Holy Day white mantles.
| | |
ROOTING MORE DEEPLY
- A Collage Workshop
SUN, SEPT 28 • 10:30 AM - 1:30 PM
Ner Shalom & Online (Via Zoom)
In between the High Holy Days, Sally Churgel and Sheridan Gold will be offering an opportunity for a deeper connection to this year’s theme at Congregation Ner Shalom, “Planted like a Tree Beside Divided Waters.”
This collage process invites you to play with images, opening the door to insights that words or prayer alone might not reveal. You will create two small collages—one Challenge Card, exploring how we navigate inner conflicts or divisions within ourselves and the world, and one Resource Card, discovering the inner strength that helps us stand tall and blossom, like a deeply rooted tree.
| |
|
The creative imagining of this workshop supports you to nourish your soul in a surprising and elegant manner. Carl Jung noted that it was only by first taking a thing apart, getting to know these parts intimately, and then letting the parts come back together that transformation occurs. In this way, a new and more precious element is created.
Join us, at Congregation Ner Shalom or on zoom, for a morning of insight about your strengths, forgotten or unacknowledged, or ways you might want to practice rooting deeper.
----
Registration Required
| |
SELICHOT SERVICE -
Service, Program & Havdalah
| |
SAT, SEPT 13 • 7:30 PM
Beth Ami
| |
We are so happy that Jessie will return as our High Holiday cantorial soloist!
Selichot veggie potluck dinner
Social Hall, 6:30 p.m.
Selichot Service,
Program, & Havdalah, 7:30 p.m.
Selichot is a low key and beautiful service that begins the holiday season with dressing the Torah scrolls and bimah in holiday white, and the singing of Avinu Malkenu and other beautiful songs and poems of the season.
| |
SUN, SEPT 28 • 10:00 AM
Doyle Park, Santa Rosa
| |
Join the Advocates for Social Justice Committee for Reverse Tashlich. Instead of throwing crumbs, we will be cleaning up the park from 10:00am to noon, with a potluck lunch to follow. Bring a chair and water bottle (we will have drinking water available). We will supply the gloves, bags, etc. Please wear closed-toe shoes.
RSVPs are required.
For parking directions: Contact Us (---->)
| | |
We don’t charge for High Holiday tickets.
We do appreciate donations. Invite friends and family to spend the holidays with us.
| |
Contact our office with RSVPs
for guests and non-members
BethAmiSR.org • 707-360-3000 • office@bethamisr.org
| | |
OPENING DAY
SUN, SEPT 14th
Shomrei Torah
We welcome children grades K-8
into our nurturing, joyful, and hands-on Jewish education program!
Kiddish (Pre-K: Ages 2-5)
Yesod (Level 1 / 5-8 yrs)
Gemesh (Level 2 / 8-10 yrs)
Netzach (Level 3 / 10-12 yrs)
Bina (Level 4 / 12-13 yrs)
| | | |
REGULAR JEWISH MEDITATION/ MINDFULNESS PRACTICE
TUESDAYS, 5:30 - 6:30 PM
Online via Zoom
HIGH HOLIDAYS'
3 EVENINGS A MONTH:
SEPT 16, 23
OCT 14, 21, 28
We welcome you to join us for a free series of mindful/meditation practices over the course of the next two months. This will be a time for grounding, siting practice and a "Dharma/Torah" teaching.
Everyone is welcome. Please contact Shomrei Torah's office cst@cstsr.org for the Zoom link.
| | NOTE: This is an on-going group, continuing after the High Holidays through November and December. | |
"MEANINGFUL JUDAISM"-
A New Weekly Adult Education Experience with Rabbi Shalom
TUES, SEPT 16 • 7 PM
B'nai Israel
| |
This week's topic: Sounding the Shofar
Free for members, $10 per class for non-members
| | |
SELICHOT
FRI, SEPT 19 • 6 PM
B'nai Israel
ROSH HASHANA
MON, SEPT 22 -24
B'nai Israel
| | | 2025 HIGH HOLY DAYS
ROSH HASHANAH | | |
EVENING SERVICE
MON, SEPT 22nd • 6:30 PM
Shir Shalom (& Online via Zoom)
| | |
DAY SERVICE
TUES, SEPT 23
9:00 AM Morning Blessings
10:00 AM Morning Service
12:00 PM Tashlich at Sonoma Plaza Duck Pond
1:15 PM Luncheon
(separate reservation/fee required)
| | |
ROSH HASHANA AT RAGLE
TUES, SEPT 23rd • 10:30 AM
Ragle Park, Sebastopol
| |
This will be year 29 of the Sebastopol Jewish Community celebrating the birth of the universe together at Ragle Park.
If you are not a member of the "SebJews" GoogleGroup and would like to learn more about this event, please contact Gary Weiner: gw52749@gmail.com
| | "In the meantime, will you join me in taking stock of our lives since last year? This is the time for us to begin to evoke compassion for the times we ourselves missed the mark in our relationship with our Self as well as with our community, starting right at home and aiming for the Earth herself." | |
GRIEVING THE LOSS OF A LOVED ONE
Beginning October 14 in SF
& Online
|
TUESDAYS, 10:00 - 11:30 AM
OCT 14 - DEC 23 2025
Online via Zoom
Open to people of all traditions who have recently suffered the loss of a loved one, this ten-week grief support series offers opportunities to learn about the grieving process.
We will:
- address ways to manage challenging feelings, including loneliness, loss, and isolation
- discuss ways to learn how to live with grief
- plan ways to move forward
- feel the support within the community to heal together
| | |
This group is suitable for anyone who has suffered the loss of a loved one, regardless of age, faith, or relation. It will be facilitated by professional grief counselors.
Pre-registration is required, and we request your commitment to attending all ten sessions when you enroll. The cost is $120 for the series with a $30 book fee. Please note, no one is turned away for lack of funds.
| | | | |
