|
Weekly Newsletter
October 1, 2025
9 Tishrei 5786 | Parshat Ha'azinu
| | | | | 333 Cortland Ave, SF, CA 94110 | |
Kol Nidre
Wednesday, October 1
Unitarian Universalist Center, 1187 Franklin St, San Francisco
Join us for an evening of teshuvah (accountability), tefillah (prayer), and tzedakah (justice) as we enter Yom Kippur together.
- 5:00–6:00 pm – Family Service (free and open, no RSVP needed)
- 7:00–9:00 pm – Main Service (watch livestream)
| |
Yom Kippur
Thursday, October 2
Unitarian Universalist Center, 1187 Franklin St, San Francisco
A full day of prayer, learning, reflection, and community.
- 10:00 am–1:30 pm – Main Service (register for childcare • watch livestream)
- 2:00–3:15 pm – Ceasefire Circle: Hani Almadhoun from Gaza Soup Kitchen (in person & Zoom)
- 3:30–4:15 pm – Yoga with Gail
- 4:30–5:45 pm – Healing Service
- 6:00–6:45 pm – Yizkor (watch livestream)
- 6:45–7:45 pm – Ne’ilah (watch livestream)
- 7:45–8:45 pm – Break-Fast (please bring a labeled, vegetarian dish to share)
🧸 Sign up for childcare here.
⚠️ Food Disclaimer: To ensure inclusivity and accommodate dietary needs, all potluck dishes must be accompanied by a full list of ingredients.
♿ Health & Accessibility Info: The Unitarian Universalist Center is ADA compliant. Please read our COVID policy here.
| |
Sukkah Build
Friday, October 3, 1 PM
Ingleside Terrace
Help Or Shalom build its Sukkah, to be used for many events and gathering throughout the Sukkot holiday! Refreshments will be provided! From 1 PM on.
This year, our sukkah will be at the home of Jurate Raulinaitis & Kirk Schneider in Ingleside Terrace. Address and contact information are provided in the confirmation email after registration.
For more information and to register, click here.
| |
5786 Youth and Family Programming Launch: Sukkot Edition
Sunday, October 5, 10 AM - 12 PM
Ingleside Terrace
Join us for the formal 5786 kick-off of our Youth and Family Programming!
Gather in community to call in the joy and cultivation of Sukkot, where we'll collectively decorate the Sukkah, invite our ancestors in, and celebrate the season's bounty with a delicious potluck, songs, and arts & crafts.
While this is the launch for Youth and Family Programming for the year, everyone, of all ages, is welcome! Sunday, October 5th from 10am-noon at the home of Jurate Raulinaitis & Kirk Schneider in Ingleside Terrace. Address and contact information are provided in the confirmation email after registration.
Please bring photos or items of ancestors that you’d like represented in the Sukkah and a dish/items to share for the potluck.
For more information and to register, click here.
| |
Forage Your Own Lulav!
Sunday, October 5, 1 - 2:30 PM
Alemany Farm, 700 Alemany Blvd, San Francisco
Sukkot is a holiday that reminds us we come from the Earth. We build and dwell in temporary structures made of Earth, we gather plant life and wave it all around, we celebrate the harvest and feast on Earth’s bounty. And a core part of the earthiness of Sukkot is the lulav.
According to the Torah, the lulav is made of four species: palm, myrtle, willow and etrog — four species of the land from which the Torah came that represent the diversity of its ecosystem.
This year, rather than buying lulavim and having them shipped around the world, we will be gathering our own! Join R' Faryn to gather the four species — or their equivalent native species — from our very own San Francisco backyard.
For more information and to register, click here.
| |
Shabbat in the Sukkah
Friday, October 10, 5:30 PM - 8:30 PM
Ingleside Terrace
Come have Shabbat in the Sukkah with us at the home of Jurate Raulinaitis & Kirk Schneider in Ingleside Terrace. Address and contact information are provided in the confirmation email after registration. Please bring a vegetarian potluck dish to share. We will enjoy a community meal following the service.
Schedule
- 5:30 - 7:00 Musical Shabbat Service
- 7:00 - onward Dinner in the Sukkah!
About the hosts: Kirk Schneider, Jurate Raulinaitis and their Brooklynite writer-son Benjamin Schneider have been Or Shalom members for about 28 years. Jūratė is a cellist in the famous Or Shalom Music Ensemble, and Kirk is an existential humanistic psychologist and author.
⚠️ Food Disclaimer: To ensure inclusivity and accommodate dietary needs, all potluck dishes must be accompanied by a full list of ingredients.
♿ Health & Accessibility Info: It is flat yet uneven terrain to get to the Sukkah, along stepping stones. The program will take place outside.
For more information and to register, click here.
| | School of Jewish-Living Arts | |
How To Chant Torah
Sundays, beginning October 19, 4 - 5 PM
via Zoom
The School of Jewish Living Arts (SJLA) will offer a new, 12 session Zoom course in the ancient, quintessential Jewish art of chanting from the Torah scroll, which gives punctuation, rhythm and emphasis to the Torah text.
The course is open to members and non-members for a donation in the amount of your choice to Or Shalom.
Prerequisite: Being able to sound-out Hebrew words with vowels at a rudimentary (imperfect) level. (You will get a lot better by the end of the course!)
Upcoming Dates:
- October 19, 26
-
November 2, 9*, 16, 23, 30
- December 7, 14, 21, 28
- January 4
- January 10 - Graduation: Willing class members will do an actual reading from the Torah during services!
*Note: On November 9th, in lieu of a Zoom class, we invite participants to instead attend the Let My People Sing! Bay Area Song Leading Intensive. Please register in advance, as space is limited.
| |
Enrollment Now Open for all Youth & Family Education Programs!
We’re excited to welcome students and families into our programs for 2025–26!
Or Shalom Community School (Grades 1–6)
Hands-on, experiential and embodied Jewish learning that is relevant to our time and rooted in joy. This year, we’re focusing on the elements and all the ways that our people’s stories, rituals, and values are shaped by the great universe around us!
Sunday Family Program (Ages 5–12 + Parents)
Building Jewish community and experiential practice through field trips and hands-on experiences as a family!
Shabbat Shalomies (Ages 1–5, All Welcome)
Tot Shabbat service with songs, prayers and learning for the whole family!
Alef-Bet Hebrew Class (Grades 4–7 + Parents or Just Adults)
Young people and their grown-ups (parents, godparents, grandparents, etc!) learning how to read the Hebrew alphabet together.
Teen Collective (Grades 8–12)
Come together monthly for learning, community building, and social action that allows teens to develop their own relationship to and pride in their evolving Judaism.
To learn more about our programs to enroll, click here.
📩 For questions about these programs, contact Mira Stern!
| |
Upcoming Sessions!
Shabbat Shalomies and the Teen Collective on October 4th will be replaced with the 5786 YFE Launch on October 5th. Everyone is invited, please join us!
5786 Youth and Family Programming Launch: Sukkot Edition
Sunday, October 5, 10 AM - 12 PM
Ingleside Terrace
Family Alef-Bet Class
October 8, 2025, 6:30 - 7:30 PM
331 Cortland Ave
| |
Resisting Project Esther - Political Education Workshop
Sunday, October 12, 3 - 5 PM
St. Aidan's Episcopal Church, 101 Gold Mine Drive
Or Shalom's Social Action Circle invites you to a political education workshop on the dangers of Project Esther. Project Esther is a little-known initiative from the same architects as Project 2025. Framed as a way to “protect Jews,” it equates anti-Zionism with antisemitism and promotes punishing critics of Israel. In practice, it threatens civil liberties — already seen in revoked student visas at UC campuses — and risks dividing Jews, Muslims, and Christians against each other.
This workshop will unpack the dangers of Project Esther and help us prepare to defend our rights and strengthen solidarity. Please invite family and community members.
Cosponsored by Or Shalom’s Social Action Circle, St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church, IfNotNow Bay Area, and CAIR-SFBA.
For more information, click here.
| |
Open Shabbat with Or Shalom
Friday, October 24
16th & Mission BART Plaza
Or Shalom is sponsoring the SF Night Ministry’s Open Shabbat, a monthly gathering that’s light on ritual and heavy on sharing food and community. We’ve hosted in the past, and our presence is always welcomed and appreciated.
We need volunteers to help make it a success:
- Donate to help cover food costs
- Sandwich-making: Thursday, Oct. 24 at 5:00 pm (until finished)
- Shabbat + food distribution: Friday, Oct. 25 from 5:30–7:30 pm
This is a powerful opportunity to show up for our neighbors with food, song, and care.
To get involved or for more information, please reach out to Sue Schechter.
Note: This event falls on the same evening as October's Traveling Shabbat. If you’d like to join both, we encourage you to help with sandwich-making on Thursday so you can fully participate in Traveling Shabbat on Friday.
| |
Let My People Sing! Bay Area Shabbaton & Sunday Song Leading Intensive
Friday, November 7 – Sunday, November 9
Kehilla Community Synagogue, 1300 Grand Ave, Piedmont
Or Shalom is proud to cosponsor Let My People Sing!’s Bay Area Shabbaton & Sunday Song Leading Intensive, hosted at Kehilla Community Synagogue. This immersive weekend of prayer, song, and learning will feature powerful Jewish song leaders and teachers, including Anat Halevy Hochberg, rabbi dr. koach baruch frazier, Ary Solomon, Batya Levine, Margot Seigle, and featured teacher Eliana Light, with more voices to be announced.
Friday night’s opening gathering is free, open to the public, and requires no registration. Join us to daven, sing, and welcome Shabbat in community.
The full Shabbaton, which includes workshops, meals, and learning throughout the weekend, requires advanced registration and is expected to sell out.
Come raise your voice, deepen your connection, and be part of a joyful, justice-seeking, song-filled Jewish community.
letmypeoplesing.org/bay-area-shabbaton
| |
Have You Seen Our Chuppah Cover?
We’re searching for our beautiful chuppah cover handmade by Susan Rifkin. We need it back for an upcoming wedding at the end of October. If you know where it is or have it at home, please let us know or return it to Or Shalom as soon as possible.
Help us keep this special piece of our community tradition in circulation. Thank you!
| |
Pacifica Havurah - October 13
The Pacifica Havurah is open to all Or Shalom members. We meet on the second Monday of each month at the Pacifica Pier at 1 PM for a walk and chat, weather permitting. Dogs welcome!
Our next gathering is Monday, October 13th. RSVP not required, just show up! We’ll wait by the Pier until about 5 after 1. Contact Norisa Berardi with any questions.
| |
Welcome New Members
Molly Braun & Alex Spiliotes, with Adina
Bennett Miller
| |
Tzedakah
We gratefully acknowledge these contributions from our community:
When making a donation online, please be sure to specify where to allocate.
Matt Rudoff, in memory of Janet Meyers Rudoff
Patricia Kalman, in memory of Michelle Kalman
Stephen Gerard, in memory of Robert Gerard
Robin Roth, in memory of Joseph Roth
Gloria Kolbe-Saltzman, in memory of Lucy Saltzman
Beth Mills, in memory of Eric Richard Solow
Judy Olasov, in memory of John Paul Ferrara
Corey Weinstein, in memory of his family killed at Babi Yar and Auschwitz
Eleanor & David Louis, in memory of Mendel Cohen & Isabel Louis
| |
Yahrzeits
On the anniversary of their deaths, we remember:
Fred Avril, Orlo Clark, Sunny Fine, Joseph Benjamin Gavrin, Michelle Kalman, Roger Henri Rifkind, Leonard Rudoff, William Shulman, Sandy Siegel, Sylvia Stein, Elizabeth "Noe" Summer, Rose Thurm
| | |
To submit an Or Shalom group-sponsored event for the newsletter, email newsletter@orshalomsf.org
by the Monday before you want it to be included.
| | | | |
