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Weekly Newsletter
May 8, 2025
10 Iyyar 5785 | Parshat Acharei Mot-Kedoshim
| | | | | 333 Cortland Ave, SF, CA 94110 | |
Welcoming Shabbat on Zoom
May 9, 6 - 7 PM
Join us for a Welcoming Shabbat led by Rabbi Faryn – a warm gathering filled with songs, candle lighting, healing blessings, the Mourners’ Kaddish, and Shabbat poetry. Embrace the spirit of Shabbat together, from the comfort of your home.
Zoom Link
PW: Shabbat
For this special Welcoming Shabbat on Zoom, Rabbi Faryn will be leading from the Kol Haneshama prayerbook.
(Our usual Zoom Siddur, or prayerbook, can be found here for for your reference.)
For more information click here.
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Shabbat Morning Service
Saturday, May 10, 10 AM - 12:30 PM
331 Cortland Ave
Join Rabbi Faryn for intimate Shabbat morning services, where we will sing, pray, read from the Torah and learn together. We will be reading from a part of the Torah known as The Holiness Code, a long list of ethical obligations as to what we owe to each other in community.
Bring a vegetarian dish and reusable dishware for our post-service vegetarian potluck 12:30 – 1:30 pm.
For more information and to register, click here.
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Shabbat Service & Potluck
Friday, May 16, 6 - 8:30 PM
Noe Valley Ministry, 1021 Sanchez St
Join us for lively musical services with R' Faryn and the Music Ensemble! Before our Shabbat service, join us for a Happy Half-Hour sponsored by Julie Minoff & Glen Marr, in honor of their daughter Natasha's high school graduation. Then enjoy Shabbat dinner with your fellow Or Shalomers. Bring a vegetarian dish to share and reusable dishware for our post-service potluck.
5:30 pm: Happy Half Hour
6:00 pm: Shabbat service
7:30 pm: Vegetarian potluck
Thank you to this week's Greeter Eala Gross and to our Closing Supporter Madeleine Levin! And a special shout out to Nathan Ladyzhensky for supplying a case of excellent wine for our kiddush!
♿ Accessibility Info: NVM is ADA accessible.
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Teen Program
Saturday, May 17, 6 PM - 8:30 PM
331 Cortland Ave
Join us for the final session of our Spring Teen Program pilot on Saturday, May 17, as we wrap up a season of learning, connection, and action. Together we’ll briefly reflect on what we’ve explored so far — from being Jewish in today’s world to showing up for justice — and spend the duration of the time designing what the future of the Teen Program will look like.
As always, we’ll mark the end of Shabbat with Havdalah, dig into meaningful conversation and planning, and enjoy plenty of time to just hang out, eat pizza, and be in community.
Whether you’ve been coming all along or this would be your first time, we’d love to see you there. This is your space to help shape what comes next.
For more information and to register, click here.
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Reconstructing Israel with R' Faryn
Wednesdays, May 14 - May 21, 6:30 - 8:30 PM
331 Cortland Ave
Reconstructionism is not a set theology or doctrine, but rather a historical and analytical lens, an ongoing process, and an embodied practice. In this 8-week series, we’re applying that lens—what we call “Reconstructing”—to the concept of Israel. Is “Israel” a person? A people? A place? A nation-state? A state of mind?
Each week builds on the last, offering space to explore and wrestle with the evolving meaning of “Israel” through a Reconstructionist lens. Whether you're returning or joining for the first time, come ready to reflect, question, and engage in this dynamic process of reconstructing identity, history, and possibility.
For more information and to RSVP, click here.
❗Note: The final two classes, May 14 and May 21, will go for two hours, beginning at 6:30 PM instead of the usual 7 PM
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Nosh & Learn & Lunch-Bag Making with the Southside Jewish Collaborative
May 15, 12:30 - 2 PM
331 Cortland Ave
Come to nosh, learn and make lunch bags for unhoused San Franciscans. Our teaching this month will be from our own R' Faryn at our home at 331 Cortland. The Southside Jewish Collaborative's Nosh & Program has been thriving for about ten years.
♿ Accessibility Information: There are no stairs to enter this space.
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National Day of Action for Health Care for All
Saturday, May 31, 11 AM - 1 PM
Harry Bridges Plaza, The Embarcadero
The Social Action Circle invites Or Shalomers to join us in a National Day of Action on May 31 to demand a not-for-profit, universal health care system to cover everyone in the United States. The rally starts at Harry Bridges Plaza at 11 AM. More information here.
Or Shalom, as a synagogue, has endorsed this concept for many years. See the
statement adopted by the board in 2018 here.
The day of action will bring people together locally and nationally from neighborhoods, unions, faith groups, businesses, and all types of civic organizations to join the demand to remove profit from health care, and make sure everyone has access to the care they need.
Contact Margo Freistadt or Betsy Strausberg for more information.
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OS Chesed Circle
Click here to join.
Assist Or Shalom members with visits, rides and meals.
Questions? Email Madeleine at madelevin@gmail.com.
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JSSJ Summer Course: Disability and Jewish Social Justice
June 9-13 & June 22, 9 AM - 1 PM
Remote
Taught by Rabbi Julia Watts Belser, this course aims to help students deepen their capacity to create cultures of accessibility within Jewish social justice practice. We’ll bring classical Jewish texts into conversation with the lived experiences of contemporary disability activists to grapple with spiritual and political questions about access and equity, invisibility and shame, as well as practices for transforming social inequality.
We’ll hone skills for recognizing and resisting ableism, as well as for understanding the way ableism intersects with racism, antisemitism, misogyny, queer, trans, fat hatred, and more. We’ll also examine the contours of hegemonic norms around decorum and behavior, pace and time, and physical and sensory access—and consider ways to transform our religious communities and cultural spaces so that they more fully welcome the vivid, complex diversity of all our bodies and minds.
Open to All—No USF Enrollment Required. Registration closes May 23. For more information about the course, including links to register, click here.
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Join the Kvetch and Kvell Club
Every Second & Fourth Monday, 4 PM
via Zoom
Every second and fourth Monday of the month, at 4 PM there is a gathering for Or Shalomers who want to hang out and chat while doing some kind of handwork. Men and women are welcome, and any kind of project is encouraged, including no project. Current members do costume design, quilting, embroidery, and knitting, but, in this day and age, addressing or writing postcards would be an ideal addition, along with painting, sketching, crosswords and sudoku. Any woodcarvers out there?
4 PM on a weekday is not an ideal time for anyone who works, but the meeting time could be revised to an evening if enough people would prefer that.
Interested in joining? Send a request to join our new Google Group for reminders from our moderator Beth Mills, or simply drop in the Zoom at the designated time, always listed in the purple sidebar in the newsletter. For any other questions, feel free to email Beth.
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Shabbat Day of Unplugging
May 30
Join Or Shalom for the Shabbat Day of Unplugging on May 30 - 31!
In today's constantly connected world, when was the last time your family truly unplugged? Join us and other Jewish organizations from around the Bay Area to experience the transformative power of setting aside your devices for one Shabbat.
What you'll gain:
• Precious downtime away from work pressures
• Screen-free quality time with your kids
• Opportunities to create meaningful rituals and to connect with other families
• A free Shabbat kit for your family and a “sleeping bag” for your phone!
All we ask is your pledge to intentionally unplug and turn Shabbat time into family time. This one Shabbat could spark lifelong rituals!
👉Visit jfcs.org/unplugging-2025 to join the challenge.
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Or Shalom Mobile App Relaunch! Stay Connected on the Go
We’re excited to announce the relaunch of the Or Shalom Mobile App! Now, staying connected with our community is easier than ever. With the app, you can access the member directory, stay up to date with events and prayer times, and find helpful links to our WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram
How to get started:
- Search for ShulCloud Mobile Member App in the iOS App Store or Google Play Store.
- Download and install the app.
- Log in with your Or Shalom credentials—our logo will appear automatically!
Experience Or Shalom at your fingertips! Download the app today and stay connected wherever you are.
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Tzedakah
We gratefully acknowledge these contributions from our community:
When making a donation online, please be sure to specify where to allocate.
Tala & Chester Hartsough, dedicated to the healing of Carl Magruder
Hilton Obenzinger, in memory of Paul Auster
Jurate Raulinaitis & Kirk Schneider, in honor of Irena Raulinaitis
Robin Roth, in memory of Gertrude Roth
Wendy Thurm & David Greene, in memory of Milton Thurm
Allan Pleaner, in memory of Elec Klein
Rachelle Resnick, in memory of Jerome Muchin
Leslie Roffman & Bob Goodwin, in memory of Leonard Roffman
Gail & Ron Gurewitz, in honor of Or Shalom
Chad & Kathy Balch, in memory of Frank Pagano
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Yahrzeits
On the anniversary of their deaths, we remember:
Bruce Balch, Samuel S Bisnovich, Hill Boss, Elizabeth Krauss Banning, Ethan Fox, Beverly Halm, Joe Hammel, Daniel Jacoff, Allen Johnson, Mort Levy, Alice LeWitter, Pinchas Olech, Alex Reisman, Chris White.
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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.
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