|
Dear Chaverim:
Whether you regularly read through my communications or not (why not?), please read carefully through everything below. There is much important information here:
- Convention 2024 / 5784
- Security and Advocacy
- Yom Haatzmaut and Yom Hazikaron
- This Week's Haftara
Convention 2024 / 5784
The convention is almost here, but its not too late to sign up for one of the last hotel rooms or to come to the terrific program.
Some last-minute details:
- See the latest schedule here!
- We will be having a special section of the program for those in chinuch. Please feel free to send this link to your chaveirim in chinuch regardless of whether they are RCA members or not. We would love to have them join us for part of the convention and, who knows? They might become members as well!
- Its not too late to thank and recognize the accomplishments of our outgoing Executive Vice President Mark Dratch by contributing to the Scroll of Honor and attending next Monday night’s dinner.
- We are excited to be hosting Rabbi Leo Dee for some words on Tuesday morning.
- We will soon send out a list to all registered attendees of the multitude of opportunities for one-on-one sessions with Rabbanim and professionals. Spots will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis.
- We need some final learners to finish the siyum mishnayos for LEARN in MEMORY of Daniel Perez, Hy”d. Be part of this special mitzvah, and join us Tuesday night of the conference for this special program. There are only a few days left!
- Have children in the IDF? We would like to have (a few) parents of chayalim share their experiences at the Tuesday night program as well Please contact conference co-chair R. Binyamin Marwick to ask about participating.
- Shidduchim! Please bring multiple copies resumes to the convention to share with your chaverim. The convention is a unique opportunity to share ideas!
- If you have recently published a sefer and would like to bring along a box of seforim, please feel free to do so. We will have a table in the vendor fair that you can put out seforim. Payments will be in Zelle to your account (no cash). Note that Koren and RIETS Press will have large displays as well.
Security and Advocacy
Fighting the Political War in Washington
We've all gotten many questions and concerns from our congregants about domestic political developments and how they can impact policy, specifically relating to American support toward Israel. From the rise of the Squad and Isolationists, to debates about conditioning aid, this off the record session is an opportunity to understand what is at stake in the coming election and the role our communities can and must play as we fight against Israel's enemies in Washington.
With:
Ed Miller, Director of Political Strategy and Campaigns, AIPAC
Jonathan Schulman, National Synagogue Initiative Director, AIPAC
Here are two practical projects for rabanim to consider bringing to their shuls right now. They are both relatively simple to implement by baalebatim—not for the rabbi to organize and oversee—to encourage their growth as lay leaders. (Neither of these ideas is entirely mine. Both were refined by lay leaders within my shul; the second one originated from one of our chaverim, cannot recall exactly who it was, since the idea was proposed to me a decade ago…) In my shul, at least, I can attest that these projects are both measurable and manageable. Further, beyond the hopefully positive impact of projects themselves, there is a meaningful level of engagement by baalebatim:
Set Calling Hours to Lobby Congress Together - as of last week, our shul community placed nearly 20,000 calls to congressional offices since we started Calling Hours six months ago. That number is not an exaggeration—every call we placed is tallied. In other words, every one of the 535 congressional offices in DC heard us press our case thirty seven times. Why invest time in placing these calls? Click here to find out why and how to do this.
Appreciate Local First Responders Together - few people take the time to recognize the vital work done by local law enforcement and other first responders, whose lives are literally on the line to safeguard communities. Click here to find out how to encourage your shul to easily set this up.
Every community can continue to lobby their elected officials to ensure that they are voting in ways that support Jewish students on campus.
Additionally, there may be students who return from their semesters in the next few weeks who would be interested in sharing their thoughts with their shuls.
- FYI - Hillel Commencement Resource
Hillel International has compiled best practices to address anticipated disruptions to commencement programming for university administrators. View the document here.
Yom Haatzmaut and Yom Hazikaron
- Keeping your institutions safe – required reading / watching!
Thank you to our partners at the OU for working together with our chaverim to create guidelines for keeping shuls safe over yom haatzmaut and beyond. Special thanks to R. Adir Posy for his work on this.
Here is a link to a write up of the bullet points from the conversation:
https://sway.cloud.microsoft/bKmIKaqpJ5ki1y0s?ref=email&loc=play
Here is a link to the timestamped video of the conversation:
www.OU.org/yomsecurity
- Events and Materials
-
LeKedoshim: Sign up to learn your daf yomi, nach yomi, mishna yomi, or other daily learning for a fallen soldier on *Yom Hazikaron." Submit your email and a name and details of a fallen soldier will be sent to you to learn for on Yom Hazikaron, Click Here for more information.
-
Rabbanan.org - Yom Hazikaron & Yom Haatzmaut Special Chomer Lidrush Recording 5784 – Featuring R’ Dr. Jacob J. Schacter, R’ Dovid Gottlieb and R’ Hillel Mertzbach, Click Here
-
Rabbanan.org - Iyar Parsha & Yom HaZikaron/Yom HaAtzmaut Chomer Lidrush 5784 featuring our chaver R’ Brahm Weinberg, Click Here.
-
Ematai (www.ematai.org) has prepared a special 36x48 size memorial poster with the names of those who have been killed on and after October 7th alongside a special אזכרה written by the IDF chazzan for them. You can print it at any local print shop and hang it in your shul hallway for Yom Hazikaron The poster is up to date as of May 6th. You can download it at ematai.org/war-yizkor.
-
Remembering Together: A project of the World Zionist Organization, the Ruderman Family Foundation, the Israeli Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combatting Antisemitism, the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Please see the website for content, texts, prayers, photos, videos and relevant information about Memorial Day, including stories of the victims, a hybrid ceremony that was recorded in advance and can be used, and more. Click Here to learn additional information about the initiative and how your organization can get involved.
-
AZM Resource Page: Click Here to see the resources compiled by the American Zionist Movement for Yom Hazikaron.
This Week's Haftarah
This week's haftarah is the subject of some dispute. Most Ashkenazic shuls will read the haftarah for Kedoshim from Yechezkel 22 - "Hatishpot," known as "To'eivot Yerushalayim." Because of the very harsh criticism contained within, some read a different haftarah.
It is most unusal that this issue arises. An interesting discussion can be found here.
Rav Soloveitchik reported that the minhag in Europe was to leyn - for a second week in a row, the haftarah from Amos that was read last week. See here for the pages in Nefesh HaRav where Rav Schachter catalogues this.
| 
