CLICK HERE FOR THE BEST VIEWING

OF THE SHABBAT REMINDER

MAH JONGG & CANASTA

WEDNESDAYS

12:30 PM TO 4:00 PM

PICKLEBALL

Sundays and Thursdays

10 - 1

Tuesdays

3-4 PM Beginners

4 - 6 PM Experienced Players

SURFLIGHT COMEDY SHOW

To Benefit the JCC of LBI

August 31, 2025

8:00 PM

Contact the Surflight Box Office to order your tickets. 609-492-9477

When you order your tickets, you can request to sit near the JCC section. The JCC will receive a portion of the revenue from ALL seats sold in the theater. 

Wednesday, September 10^th at 4:00 pm

Discussion Leader: TBA

The Avengers: A Jewish War Story

By Rich Cohen

In 1944, a band of Jewish guerrillas emerged from the Baltic forest to join the Russian army in its attack on Vilna, the capital of Lithuania. The band, called the Avengers, was led by Abba Kovner, a charismatic young poet. In the ghetto, Abba had built bombs, sneaking out through the city's sewer tunnels to sabotage German outposts. Abba's chief lieutenants were two teenage girls, Vitka Kempner and Ruzka Korczak. At seventeen, Vitka and Ruzka were perhaps the most daring partisans in the East, the first to blow up a Nazi train in occupied Europe. Each night, the girls shared a bed with Abba, raising gossip in the ghetto. But what they found was more than temporary solace. It was a great love affair. After the liquidation of the ghetto, the Avengers escaped through the city's sewage tunnels to the forest, where they lived for more than a year in a dugout beside a swamp, fighting alongside other partisan groups, and ultimately bombing the city they loved, destroying Vilna's waterworks and its powerplant in order to pave the way for its liberation.

Leaving a devastated Poland behind them, they set off for the cities of Europe: Vitka and Abba to the West, where they would be instrumental in orchestrating the massive Jewish exodus to the biblical homeland, and Ruzka to Palestine, where she would be literally the first person to bring a first hand account of the Holocaust to Jewish leaders. It was in these last terrifying days--with travel in Europe still unsafe for Jews and the extent of the Holocaust still not widely known--that the Avengers hatched their plan for revenge. Before it was over, the group would have smuggled enough poison into Nuremberg to kill ten thousand Nazis. The Avengers is the story of what happened to these rebels in the ghetto and in the forest, and how, fighting for the State of Israel, they moved beyond the violence of the Holocaust and made new lives.

From Rich Cohen, one of the preeminent journalists of his generation and author of the highly praised Tough Jews, a powerful exploration of vindication and revenge, of dignity and rebellion, painstakingly recreated through his exclusive access to the Avengers themselves. Written with insight, sensitivity, and the moral force of one of the last great struggles of the Second World War, here is an unforgettable story for our time.

We have an exciting upcoming event on October 22, 2025, and I need your help and support. 

Boscov’s Department Stores are sponsoring “Friends Helping Friends”, a 1 day only in store and on-line shopping event. For a $5 (or more, if you like) donation to Women’s Auxiliary, you will receive a 25% off Shopping Discount Pass! All proceeds from your donation go to the Women’s Auxiliary! This is a win-win for everyone! You get to do your shopping at a discounted price (Chanukah is right around the corner), and Women’s Auxiliary raises funds to help the JCC!

Boscov’s stores are located in Toms River, Egg Harbor Township, Monmouth, Moorestown, and Woodbridge in New Jersey, as well as Neshaminy and Plymouth Meeting in Pennsylvania.

I have a supply of the Shopping Passes, so please reach out and support our event!

Thank you,

Joanne Babbitt

215-962-3688 (cell; call or text)

609-312-7439 (home)

Jb_toot@att.net

HONEY FROM THE HEART

Jewish Museum Series

This is the first of the Zoom programs brought to our members through our participation in PJP (Partners in Jewish Programming). Look for more information about future Museum programs including "American Jewish Soldiers and the Liberation of the Concentration Camps” and Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience – “Stories from the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience” 

Sunday, October 19 @ 1:00 PM

The Jewish Museum, NY – “Afterlives: Recovering the Lost Stories of Looted Art”

During World War II, untold numbers of artworks and pieces of cultural property were stolen by Nazi forces. After the war, an estimated one million artworks and 2.5 million books were recovered. Many more were destroyed. This exhibition chronicles the layered stories of the objects that survived, exploring the circumstances of their theft, their post-war rescue, and their afterlives in museums and private collections.

Afterlives includes objects looted from Jewish collections during the war, including works by such renowned artists as Pierre Bonnard, Paul Cézanne, Marc Chagall, Gustave Courbet, Paul Klee, Franz Marc, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and Camille Pissarro. The Jewish Museum has also commissioned four contemporary artists to create new works that address the resonance of the exhibition’s themes: Maria Eichhorn, Hadar Gad, Dor Guez, and Lisa Oppenheim. Treasured pieces of Judaica, including rare examples of Jewish ceremonial objects from destroyed synagogues, will also be on view, as well as rarely seen archival photographs and documents that connect the objects to history.

75 years after the Second World War, Afterlives explores how surviving artworks and other precious objects were changed by those events, and how they have moved through time, bearing witness to profound historical ruptures while also acting as enduring carriers of individual expression, knowledge, and creativity. The exhibition follows the paths taken by works of art across national borders, through military depots, and in and out of networks of collectors, looters, ideologues, and restitution organizations.

Returning this Fall is the popular series with John Kenrick as he brings us back stage with stories of Broadway.

October 5 - Oklahoma

October 21 - South Pacific

November 9 - Fiddler

All at 8:30 p.m.

Coming in January 2026, we will also be bringing to our members a PJP series entitled " Jewish Art with Evgenia Kempinski"

Evgenia Kempinski is a professional Jewish tour guide, born and raised in St. Petersburg, Russia. With over fifteen years of experience guiding Jewish heritage tours in her hometown, she has developed a deep passion for uncovering and sharing the stories of the Jewish Diaspora. With her family she spent six enriching years living in Israel and now resides in Barcelona, continuing her mission to connect people with Jewish history and culture around the world. She is the founder of the Online Jewish Travel Club, a vibrant community that brings together Jews from different countries through a shared love of travel, art, and Jewish heritage.

Thank you to everyone who brought food and supplies to the JCC in support of the Food Pantry at St. Francis Community Center in Brant Beach. Please continue to help stock their shelves as they provide food for those in need. We ask you to drop off your donations directly to the Pantry. Their hours are:

Monday – Thursday: 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM



The JCC section at Crescent Memorial Park is available for sales. Please contact Bonni Rubin-Sugarman at 609-417-7148.

NEW Beautiful mah jongg bags

We are very excited to add to the WAX Gift Shop items from local merchants and artisans. Stop in to look and buy one (or more) of these beautiful pieces for your home, as a gift or just for yourself. The gift shop is open during office hours M-F 10 - 2.

PAVERS

CALL PAUL LEVINE WITH ANY QUESTIONS

484-802-0586

SEE ORDER FORM BELOW

CONGREGATION NEWS

A follow-up to last week's story about the visit to the JCC by Morty Simon, son of one of the early members of our synagogue. Morty sent this article about his father, Dr. Henry Simon, and how he rescued the Torahs when the Baldwin Hotel was on fire.

Remembering Fran Lilienfeld whose yahrzeit is this week, pictured here with her companion Curt Kelly. She was ever present at services in the back of the old synagogue. For most of her life, Fran was a professional singer and entertainer who went under the stage name "Frantic Fran". She was one of a kind!!!!

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

YOU CAN NOW FILL OUT A GIVING FORM AND PAY ON LINE IN ONE SIMPLE PROCESS.

Go to jccoflbi.org - Giving/Pay

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:

PAVER 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:

dihoff1@aol.com

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.

See Order form here: Prayer Book

TRIBUTES

SEND ONE OF OUR TRIBUTES IN HONOR OR IN MEMORY OF

See order form here: TRIBUTES

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

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.

Since then, three additional individual Endowment Funds have been established. Other members are encouraged to also provide for the future of our JCC by establishing similar funds. Please consider adding to this number.

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: 

YAHRZEIT

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

2025 MEMBERSHIP FORMS

Your support is so important to the continued success of the JCC.

Here is form for renewal:

RENEW NOW

And if you have been reading our Shabbat Reminder and other communications and have not yet joined our congregation, here is the new member form:

JOIN NOW

BE A PART OF THE WOMEN'S AUXILLARY

2025 DUES FORM HERE