Jewish Community Center of Long Beach Island E-Letter
August 13, 2021
6 Elul 5781
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HIGH HOLIDAY UPDATE
Rosh Hashanah is 4 weeks away.
The JCC leadership has provided an opportunity for worshippers to come in person to the building and/or to participate in Holy Day services via Zoom. If you purchase an in-person ticket you will also receive a Zoom link.
We have also created a form which you can fill out on your device, save and email directly to the JCC office. A printable form is available on the website. You can also make your payment online by going to the website. See buttons below.
While things are subject to change based on circumstances as they unfold, the board has determined that this is the best way to proceed at this time. Rest assured we will keep you posted on any changes.
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A TORAH MESSAGE FROM THE RABBI
In this week’s Torah portion, Shoftim, Moses said that If the Israelites chose to have a king,
that king is commanded write a Torah for himself and:
“…he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel. (Deut. 17:19-20)
I love the fact that our leaders were required to be steeped in Torah. One question asked is why does Moses specifically tell us that the king is not to turn to the right of left of the commandments?
One answer is that Moses is letting the Israelites know that the Torah is not just a compilation of stories and laws. Rather, the Torah is a way of life which can be likened to a path. Indeed, by prohibiting a turn to the right or to the left, Moses is telling the Israelites not to stray from this path.
This year as I heard the Shofar for the first time this past Monday morning, I was incredibly moved by the experience. It conjured for me the words that the congregation says at the time of the Shofar service during Rosh Hashanah:
Give heed to the sound of the Shofar,
The shrill, quiv’ring notes of the Shofar,
Sounding its message of warning,
Its cry of alarm and awakening;
Urging us to labor together
To combat war and violence
Give heed to the sound of the Shofar,
The loud clarion call of the Shofar,
Bringing new hope to the suffering,
And strength to those stricken with sorrow;
Bringing to Israel assurance
Of healing, peace, and redemption.
The words resonate and that particular point in the service is a time when most folks are paying very close attention. It is a moment of focused, very positive, energy. (This year the experience will be heightened because we plan to have the Shofar service outside, along the bay.)
One of the great gifts that Judaism has given to the world, is the marking (and sanctification) of time. Shabbat and the holidays are not marked by physical space. They represent time that we set aside for ritual, for prayer, for family, for community, for our selves, and for God.
We always need to prepare for our special times. Shabbat requires advanced preparation. Who will we invite for Shabbat dinner, what will we serve, what will we choose to read? (This Shabbat we are having a Zoom Shabbat dinner. Join us and at the conclusion of services you can electronically share your Shabbat meal with friends, old or new.)
We need to prepare for Rosh Hashanah as well. In addition to meals and guests, we need to do spiritual and personal preparation. Elul provides us with the opportunity (in time) to prepare for the High Holy Days.
Now is the time to do a personal accounting (Cheshbon HaNefesh). What did we do correctly this past year? What could we have done differently? What would we like to achieve in the year to come: Physically, emotionally, and spiritually. And, yes, it means trying to figure out from whom we need to ask for forgiveness.
As a Rabbi it is also my time to finalize the words I wish to impart from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur and through the end of Sukkot. Will my words move you? Will they cause you to think? Will they cause you to take action?
Our tradition refers to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur as the “Yamim Noraim”, the “Days of Awe”. “Awe” can be translated as “fear” or “Wonder”. I prefer to see them as “Days of Wonder”. If they are the “Days of Wonder”, then the days of Elul are the "Days of Wonderful Preparation”.
Use this time to prepare. Over the next few weeks, I will be sending out little notes and ideas and references to prayers for how to think about Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Look for them! Whether you will be in person (In the Room) or electronic (In the Zoom), preparation is the key to a meaningful season.
Perhaps hearing the Shofar before Rosh Hashanah will help spark you to self-reflective action. If you would like to hear the Shofar, Join us on Zoom any morning, at 8:15. If you cannot join us, call me to set up a phone call or Zoom meeting, and I will blow shofar for you, and your family!
Think, consider, prepare and help to make your High Holy Day experience as full as it can be.
Shabbat Shalom – Rabbi Michael S. Jay
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SHABBAT SHALOM
Candle Lighting Time
Friday evening,
August 13, 2021
7:37 PM
So. Ocean County
JOIN US FOR SERVICES
AND
SHABBAT DINNER
VIA ZOOM
Hazzan Sara Geller
will be joining us
Friday evening
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We have the pleasure of being joined by Cantor Geller.
Our shabbatot together are something that we look forward because Cantor Geller always brings a wonderful energy to the service, and she often
provides us with new insights into the prayers.
The service will begin at 6:00 on Zoom. After the service, we will go into our Shabbat Zoom rooms to eat and Schmooze. After about a half hour, we will then go back into the main Zoom room and join Cantor Geller as she teaches us some Shabbat songs to sing.
Friday evening
August 13, 2021
6:00 PM
Here is
your invitation from
Rabbi Jay to Join
Zoom Services
Saturday morning
August 14, 2021
Services
9:00 AM
In Person Services
and
Zoom Service
Here is
your invitation from
Rabbi Jay to Join
Zoom Services
Torah Reading
Parashat Shoftim
Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9
Here is the Parshah
Please respond to this email if you wish to have an aliyah this Shabbat.
Haftorah
Isaiah 51:12 - 52:12
Here is the Haftorah
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Saturday evening
9:00 PM
Havdallah followed by
Here is
your invitation from
Rabbi Jay to
Join Zoom Services
Sunday - Thursday
Ma'ariv Service
7:30 PM
Here is
your invitation from
Rabbi Jay to
Join Zoom Services:
Sunday - Friday
Shacharit Service
8:15 AM
Here is
your invitation from
Rabbi Jay to
Join Zoom Services:
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THE WEEK THAT WAS...
The JCC of LBI just completed its annual August Bazaar. One of the challenges of COVID was to provide food for the vendors participating at the Bazaar. We are exceedingly fortunate to have Dockside Diner as our neighbor across the Boulevard. Mike Messler, the wonderful owner of Dockside Diner provided a selection of sandwiches that not only very delicious but very, very appreciated. We are truly grateful to have such a kind, caring, and generous neighbor.
Thank you to all those who volunteered and came to the August Bazaar last Wednesday. Our volunteers were:
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Don Pripstein
Ron Marr
Diane Hoffman
Suzy Geier
Jill Denker
Rose Valentine
Eileen Feldgus
Art Davis
Ina Morgenthal
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Ira Morgenthal
Noralyn Caroll
Stu Lehrer
Eve Lehrer
Michael Babst
Rabbi Jay for doing the announcement of food over the loudspeaker
Judge Hoffman for bringing and setting up the tent.
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Special thanks to our Staff member, Mary Beth Kreiger for all her work in making the Bazaar a success. |
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.THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE
SUNDAY
9:30 AM Talk by Rob Van Naarden
10:30 AM Annual Meeting
MONDAY 8/16
10:00 AM Chumash Class
TUESDAY 8/17
Open Mah jongg/Canasta
12:30 - 4 PM
THURSDAY 8/19
11:00 AM Torah Study with the Rabbi
2:00 PM Beginning Hebrew with Ira
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HERE ARE THE LINKS FOR THE CLASSES FOR THIS WEEK
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AUGUST FRIDAY NIGHT SCHEDULE
August 13 - Zoom with Chazzan Sara Geller
August 20 - Shabbat on the Beach - Loveladies
August 27 - Shabbat in the Sanctuary
YOU CAN JOIN ALL SERVICES ON ZOOM
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GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING
Our general membership meeting is scheduled for Sunday, August 15, 2021 at 10:30 AM. Members will have an opportunity to hear the accomplishments of this past year as well as plans for the year ahead.
Rob VanNaarden will give a talk prior to the meeting at 9:30 entitled 'What Would You Do?"
The meeting will be conducted in person and on Zoom.
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Dear Congregants:
You are invited to attend our tenth Shabbat dinner on Friday, August 13, 2021 at 6:00 PM. Please plan on joining us for a Shabbat filled with friendship and community.
We will start our evening with the blessings and services and to make this evening even more special, Cantor Geller will be joining us. Following our services, there is a period of sharing your Shabbat dinner with family and friends in a breakout room. If you have no specific request and are open to making new friends, please respond to this email and we will arrange for you to be seated with a fabulous group of people.
Please click on this link and fill in the form by Friday, August at 13th, 3:00 PM. List your name(s), (couple(s) or single(s), telephone number and include the names of friends and family to be included in your private breakout room or send an email to: JCCOFLBIShabbatDinner.
Or join at the last minute, all are welcome!
This is our tenth celebration of this type of event, hoping to see you then!!! If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Rabbi Jay (973) 865-9534 or Irene B. at (856) 904-5145 for dining arrangements.
Rabbi Jay and Sheri
Michael and Irene B.
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To pay for this event by credit card, either use your account with Rakefet OR please go to our website, www.jccoflbi.org.
At the top of the 1st page:
Click "Community"
Click "Giving"
Scroll down to "Pay Here" - click on it and it will take you to the credit card site.
There will be a place where you indicate the purpose of your donation. If it is not "In Honor or In Memory Of', then indicate the purpose under "Other".
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Apeirogon by Colum McCann
Bassam Aramin is Palestinian. Rami Elhanan is Israeli. They inhabit a world of conflict that colors every aspect of their lives, from the roads they are allowed to drive on to the schools their children attend to the checkpoints, both physical and emotional, they must negotiate.
But their lives, however circumscribed, are upended one after the other: first, Rami’s thirteen-year-old daughter, Smadar, becomes the victim of suicide bombers; a decade later, Bassam’s ten-year-old daughter, Abir, is killed by a rubber bullet. Rami and Bassam had been raised to hate one another. And yet, when they learn of each other’s stories, they recognize the loss that connects them. Together they attempt to use their grief as a weapon for peace—and with their one small act, start to permeate what has for generations seemed an impermeable conflict.
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This extraordinary novel is the fruit of a seed planted when the novelist Colum McCann met the real Bassam and Rami on a trip with the non-profit organization Narrative 4. McCann was moved by their willingness to share their stories with the world, by their hope that if they could see themselves in one another, perhaps others could too.
With their blessing, and unprecedented access to their families, lives, and personal recollections, McCann began to craft Apeirogon, which uses their real-life stories to begin another—one that crosses centuries and continents, stitching together time, art, history, nature, and politics in a tale both heartbreaking and hopeful. The result is an ambitious novel, crafted out of a universe of fictional and nonfictional material, with these fathers’ moving story at its heart.
ORDER YOUR BOOK NOW AND START READING TODAY!
Click here to borrow book from the Ocean County Library.
A Zoom link will be sent shortly before the event.
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August 22 at 7:00 PM
Summer Concert II
Vocalist Ryan Kelly with comedian Larry Donsky
Wednesday, August 25 at 4:00 PM
WAX Book Club
"Apeirogon" by Colum McCann
August 31 at 5:00
Fashion Show at Wildflowers at Barnegat Light
Mah jongg/Canasta every Tuesday at 12:30 PM
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18 Mile Run
49th Annual Long Beach Island Commemorative 18 Mile Run
Sunday, October 10, 2021
After A 2 Year hiatus due to coastal storm flooding and COVID-19 precautions, the 18 Mile Run is back in person!!
The event is sponsored by St. Francis Community Center, Brant Beach, NJ, in cooperation with the LBI Jewish Community Center.
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THIS WEEK'S YAHRZEITS
The following names will be read at Friday night services.
David Cramer
Alan Glass
Leonard Piscetelli
Shirley Pollack
Gertrude Sanders
Louis Abromovitz
Harold Cohn
Abraham Frank
George Katz
Rae Hochman
Ethel Kates*
Elsie Lox
Rose Luterman
James Patrician
Morris Steinberg
Emil Koupf
Fran Lilienfeld
Billie Snyder
Mindy Greenbaum
Philip Nelson
Gertrude Ettman
Anne Millstein*
Stephen Zelin
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In this Zoom era, we have been able to have a daily minyan at 8:15 AM and at 7:30 PM and on Shabbat. We encourage you to join us on the day of your loved one’s yahrzeit. In the morning, the service is about ½ hour beginning at 8:15 and in the evening at 7:30 until about 7:45. Rabbi will be glad to say the traditional El Malei Rachamim prayer for you, which is recited during the funeral, going up to the grave of the departed, Yizkor remembrance day and other occasions on which the memory of the dead is recalled. You are also welcome to share with the minyan some special memories of your loved one. |
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SHARE YOUR NEWS
AND PICTURES
CONTACT:
CARING COMMITTEE
This committee acts as a support system for congregation members facing illness and other personal situations that need to be addressed.
Please contact Chairperson,
Debby Schweighardt
if you are in need of assistance or if you know of a JCC member
that needs our help.
973-634-5349
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Larry Aronson
August 16
Gloria Canter
August 16
Steven Hartman
August 17
Andrea Seidler
August 17
Warren K. Racusin
August 19
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GIVING OPPORTUNITIES
PAVERS
Inscribe a paver at the front entrance to the building
8" X 4", 8" X 8" and 12" X 12"
SEE UPDATED ORDER FORM:
Become a permanent part of the JCC landscape.
Purchase a personalized paving stone
in honor of your family or in memory of a loved one.
Please contact Diane Hoffman
with your order or with any questions:
PRAYER BOOKS
There are still High Holiday Prayer Books and Chumashim available to be purchased in memory or honor of someone or something. The cost of a Prayer Book is $72 each and $120 for an Eitz Hayim Chumash. The donation includes an affirmation sticker in the book and an acknowledgement letter or letters.
TRIBUTES
SEND ONE OF OUR TRIBUTES IN HONOR OR IN MEMORY OF
TREE OF LIFE
Add a leaf (leaves) to our beautiful Tree of Life located in the Social Hall. See the order form here: TREE OF LIFE
Bronze Leaf $90
Silver Leaf $126
Gold :Leaf $180
ENDOWMENT FUND - NEW INFORMATION !!!!!!!
Herb and Selma z”l Shapiro established the first individual Endowment Fund in memory of his father, as part of the JCC’s Endowment Fund portfolio. Judith z”l & Donald Pripstein joined the Shapiros and established The Pripstein Family Endowment Fund.
As recently reported, Don Pripstein pledged another $50,000 to establish The Judith & Donald Pripstein Endowment Fund.
As a result of Don’s letter, Harold Farin has stepped forward and has established “The Farin Family Endowment Fund”. This Fund will join with the three others as part of the JCC Endowment Fund portfolio. Other members are encouraged to also provide for the future of our JCC by establishing similar funds.
A donation of at least $50,000 to the endowment fund will allow the donor to name one of the funds as the donor wishes. All such named funds will be joined together to be part of the Endowment Fund portfolio.
Endowment funds are necessary to ensure the continuation and well being of our congregation. All members are encouraged to help this important effort by contributing to this portfolio, whether as a specific named individual fund, or as a general donation. The donation can be spread over one, two, or three years, and can be paid via check, donation of appreciated stock, wills, or from the RMD of your IRA or 401K account. Your gift to the fund can be sent to the JCC Office. Please mark your check accordingly.
YAHRZEIT PLAQUES
Space is available for memorial plaques on the yahrzeit boards in the Sanctuary.
Here is the order form:
KOL HAKAVOD
Please consider being a part of this campaign to supplement the clergy needs of our congregation. This is a separate, voluntary commitment and is additional to our low annual dues obligation. HERE IS THE LINK TO BRING UP THE DONATION FORM KOL HAKAVOD
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JCC FUNDS
Your gift to the JCC support our Clergy, our Congregation and the Community.
ENDOWMENT FUND
This fund was established to assure the continuity of our JCC, and our ability to continue providing a full-service congregation to serve the Jewish people of the area. While a donation of any amount is encouraged, a donation of at least $50,000 allows the donor to name a special or specific Endowment Fund in memory or honor of a specific person event, or family.
GENERAL FUND
Donations to this fund are not earmarked but placed in the general administrative account. Donations to this fund can be in honor or memory of a person, event, or family.
KOL HAKAVOD FUND
Donations to this campaign supplement the clergy needs of our congregation.
RABBI’S DISCRETIONARY FUND
This fund, managed by the rabbi, allows donors to enable the rabbi to do the work of tzedakah in response to the needs of individuals, organizations and the community.
ZENA & JERRY JAY KIDDISH FUND
The Zena and Jerry Jay Kiddush Fund was established in memory of Rabbi Jay's parents to help provide funds for our Saturday morning kiddushes.
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THE JCC OF LBI IS LOCATED AT
2411 Long Beach Boulevard (24th Street)
Spray Beach, NJ 08008
Telephone: 609-492-4090 FAX: 609-492-7550
THE OFFICE IS OPEN TUESDAY AD THURSDAYS
FROM 10 - 2
CONTINUE TO USE THE PHONE OR EMAIL WITH REQUESTS.
OUR OFFICE STAFF WILL BE CHECKING IN REGULARLY.
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Staff:
Leslie Dinkfelt, Office Manager
Mary Beth Krieger, Staff Member
Kitchen Manager: Susan Berube
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LATEST
BULLETIN:
PRAYER BOOK:
WEB SITE:
PAVERS:
TREE OF LIFE
YAHRZEIT PLAQUE FORM:
KOL HAKAVOD DONATION FORM
KOL HAKAVOD
TRIBUTES:
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Rabbi Michael S. Jay
Michael Babst, President
E-mail Editor: Rose Valentine
Graphics by
Irene Babst
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