Upcoming at Or Chadash

Give the Gift of a Great School Year to a Child in Need

As the new school year approaches, many families are excited for fresh starts, new teachers, and new opportunities. Unfortunately, for many households, back-to-school season also brings significant financial stress.

The cost of school supplies adds up quickly, and many families are forced to choose between purchasing classroom essentials and paying for everyday necessities. The Harbor of Hope, a not for profit in Flemington serving the immigrant and wider community, is asking for donations of new school supplies for local students. Every notebook, pack of pencils, backpack, or box of crayons helps ensure a child walks into the classroom feeling prepared and confident.



The Harbor of Hope has created an Amazon Wish List with many of the items their families need most. You can shop directly from the list, and your donation will be sent straight to Harbor of Hope.



Together, we can help make the first day of school a little less stressful and a lot more hopeful for families in our community.

A Sweet Honor for Our Temple!

We’re excited to share some wonderful news with our community!

Our temple is being featured as part of Leah Konig’s Dessert Table Book Tour!

It’s pretty special to see our temple included in this exciting tour, and we’re honored to be part of it. We wanted to share this fun recognition with all of you!

Come celebrate this sweet moment with us!

RSVP information and event details are provided above.

Flemington Food Pantry Fundraiser

The Flemington Area Food Pantry’s annual Empty Bowl Lunch Fundraiser returns Friday, October 23, from 11:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Enjoy a delicious take-out lunch featuring soup from a variety of local favorites, along with a mini sandwich, dessert, bottled water, and a handcrafted bowl—all delivered right to your car.

Proceeds help provide food and personal care items to income-qualified Hunterdon County families experiencing food insecurity. A pottery sale will also be held nearby, offering unique home décor and holiday gifts.

Tickets are $35 and will be available soon!

Back to School? Keep Your Student(s) Connected to Or Chadash

The Student Outreach Program of Or Chadash has as its mission to maintain a Jewish connection for our students away from home at preparatory, college or graduate schools. Students will be mailed a treat symbolic for some of the Jewish holidays. Students tell us each year how much they look forward to these packages and how comforting it is to know that they are still important to our Or Chadash Family.

We create a new “Student Address List” each year, so all interested parents should send in their child’s address for the coming year as soon as possible. You must submit this each year, even if there has not been a change. You will notice that there is space for an email address and cell phone so we can notify the students to be on the lookout for a package. 

Any questions, please reach out to me.  

Betsy Zalaznick

908-310-9247

bzalaznick@gmail.com 

Chesed Caring Community

The Hebrew word chesed means "compassion". The Or Chadash Chesed

Caring Community is an informal group of congregants dedicated to helping

members of our temple through life’s challenging times with acts of compassion.

You can volunteer as much or as little time as you are able, even just a few minutes to write a get-well or sympathy note or to make a comforting phone call. Very often, the people who help with Chesed activities get the same uplifting feeling as those who receive assistance. By helping others and allowing ourselves to receive help, we forge meaningful connections with other members of the Or Chadash temple community.

Right now we are looking for volunteers to lead two important services provided by the Chesed Community:

• Arranging Food for Shivas - Reach out to the family and see if they would like a meal delivered. If so, find out from where and then make the arrangements to have it delivered.
• Organize "Meal Trains" for births & critical illnesses - Reach out to the family to see if & when they might need assistance with meals. Then establish a calendar of when meals are needed and the rest is easy!  Rabbi Joe and Betsy will take care of communicating with the congregation to ask folks to supply & deliver the meals.

If you are interested in leading either of these Chesed Community services, please contact Betsy Zalaznick (bzalaznick@gmail.com) or Rabbi Joe Forman (josephforman@gmail.com).

“These are the obligations without measure, whose rewards, too, are without measure:

• To perform acts of loving kindness,
• To welcome the stranger,
• To visit the sick,
• To rejoice with the bride and groom,
• To console the bereaved,
• To make peace where there is strife.”

-Talmud

Or Chadash Temple Youth Group (OCTY)

See you in the Fall for more great OCTY programming!



Religious School Begins in October

Thursday, October 1

Grades 7–10

Sunday, October 4

Grades K–6

Please mark your calendars!

2026-2027 OCTY Co-Presidents:

Carly MacIsaac carly-macisaac@hotmail.com

Jake Korfin jakeyk09@icloud.com

Levi Hodkinson levihodkinson@gmail.com

OCTY Advisors:

Stephanie Orr stephanieorr123@gmail.com

Stacey Hubbard stacey.hubbard@gmail.com

Sisterhood

Grateful for good weather, Sisterhood got together last for our July Walk & Talk. We walked Landsdown trail in Clinton and the enjoyed coffees and teas at Jimmy’s Coffeehouse. It’s always great to catch up with one another!

Stay tuned for more dates coming soon!

If you have an idea for an event, we'd love to hear from you!

Please reach out to:

Christine Berg cberg3@comcast.net