May 5, 2022 / 4 Iyyar 5782

Depending on your email provider, long messages like our newsletter sometimes get cut off. If that happens, you'll see a message at the end that says something like: Message Clipped: View The Entire Message. Be sure to click the link to view the whole newsletter.

JRC requires proof that you are fully vaccinated to attend in-person programming (including at least one booster if eligible). If you have questions about JRC's Covid-19 precautions, please email JRC's executive director, Micky Baer.

As the school year comes to a close, we reflect on the wonderful ways our students have grown this year. We had the blessing of learning both indoors and in nature. We explored big ideas and shared beautiful small moments together.

Click Here to take a peek at the highlights of the 2021/2022 Religious School year.

We can't wait to share the exciting plans we have in store when our new Kehillah program launches this fall!

Share your good news with us! Your JRC Family wants to celebrate with you. Email [email protected].

10:00 am - 12:00 pm (includes Schmooze, Oneg, and Birthday Party!)

In-Person at JRC and on Zoom

Shehecheyanu! A Ritual and Celebration of Governance, Sustainability, Engagement, and Learning at JRC.

Our (new format!) JRC annual meeting will be filled with gratitude, an update on our financials and membership, and electing our new Board Members. We'll share the exciting programs and endeavors JRC members are participating in and reveal Kehillah: our New Shabbat Based Religious School for Fall 2022. JRC's Junior Choir has prepared a wonderful final performance for us as well!

Come offer blessings to our teachers and religious school kids as we say l'hitra'ot until the next year. Then stay for a sweet outdoor oneg and shmoozing in honor of our outgoing board and to celebrate the birthdays of our ED Micky Baer, our President Emily Harris, and our Assistant Rabbi for Education Rabbi David Eber (all on May 14th!)

Zoom Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81502235428?pwd=UmRVc3V4WUNPVDVFVmdtUTlzWEU3QT09

Meeting ID: 815 0223 5428

Passcode: 238506

Call-In: 1-312-626-6799 (Chicago)

7:00 pm - 8:30 pm

Take pleasure in the last hours of Shabbat. JRC members, Bonnie and Michael Nolan will graciously open their backyard for socializing and singing led by Cantor Howard Friedland. If you are so musically inclined, please bring along an instrument. A note about Bonnie and Michael Nolan's home: There is plenty of street parking and please be aware there will be a few steps up to the available bathroom.

RSVPs are required and an RSVP sign up sheet can be found Here.

The items IAE will be distributing in May are are razors, shaving cream, and deodorant. If you purchase these items in bulk for donation, you can drop them off at the SNAPGap donation site listed above for this month.

The other option is to purchase the items on line on this Amazon Wishlist.

10:00 am - 11:00 am

Via Zoom

Join the engaging conversation with your JRC community! JRC’s Book Group meets on the second Sunday of every month. All are welcome!

May's book is Madam: The Biography of Polly Adler, Icon of the Jazz Age, by Debby Applegate:

Simply put: Everybody came to Polly’s. Pearl “Polly” Adler (1900-1962) was a diminutive dynamo whose Manhattan brothels in the Roaring Twenties became places not just for men to have the company of women but were key gathering places where the culturati and celebrity elite mingled with high society and with violent figures of the underworld—and had a good time doing it.

As a Jewish immigrant from eastern Europe, Polly Adler’s life is a classic American story of success and assimilation that starts like a novel by Henry Roth and then turns into a glittering real-life tale straight out of F. Scott Fitzgerald. She declared her ambition to be “the best goddam madam in all America” and succeeded wildly. Debby Applegate uses Polly’s story as the key to unpacking just what made the 1920s the appallingly corrupt yet glamorous and transformational era that it was and how the collision between high and low is the unique ingredient that fuels American culture.

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84929497028?pwd=QUZZZ2NmS1NmMTQ2bm82ZG5qc1ptdz09

Meeting ID: 849 2949 7028

Passcode: 107082

Call-In: 312-626-6799 US (Chicago)

7:00 pm - 8:30 pm

Please join us for a series of learning opportunities led by Reconstructionist rabbis on Israel/Palestine. Guided by the values of justice and the dignity and equal worth of all human life, we seek to promote discussion of the histories and current conditions of Israel/Palestine that challenge the boundaries of current Reconstructionist approaches to Israel/Palestine and re-examine customary assumptions about the role of Israel in diaspora Jewish life.

6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

In-Person at JRC

Hone your cooking skills and explore Jewish culinary tradition (and eat what you make!) with your Derech friends. Our curriculum will be an exploration of non-Ashkenazi dishes, and in each session we will dive into a different Jewish culture and explore their cuisines and culinary traditions. Each session will combine cooking competitions with learning new dishes from around the world together.

This week: All the Dairy; Syrian jibn and Hungarian paprika cheese spread.

1:00 pm - 4:00 pm

In-Person at JRC

Grab your wide brimmed hat and sunblock! Our perennial native wild flower garden is in full bloom and in need of TLC. Since the new building was erected in 2008, the garden has been lovingly nurtured by volunteers. Join the Garden Hands committee which meets once a month to pull invasive plants and provide general upkeep while chatting with JRC friends. All are welcome!

Email or call Larry Goldberg with your interest at [email protected] or 847-441-5804.

Location TBD Based on RSVPs

We are determining whether this meeting will be held in person at JRC or on Zoom based on your RSVP responses. If we do hold it in person, we will offer a follow-up Zoom parlor meeting on a later date. We really hope you can make it!

Plans are now underway for our Annual Gala Fundraiser, a live, in-person event set for Saturday evening, June 18, at an off-site, Covid-conscious venue.

‘Flights of Fancy’ will tempt you with creative food and drink sips and samples, a dynamic DJ for dancing, and, as always, a plethora of opportunities to support JRC’s important work.

This much anticipated event is both an incredible community celebration and our biggest and most important fundraiser. Here are some impactful ways that you might support the Gala. If you have questions, email the Gala Committee.

Registration is not required to attend Kabbalat Shabbat service. Please review our vaccination requirement.

Zoom Link:  https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84498876575?pwd=dWhaR2owY3d5QzVVZVJOckNpN0c4dz09

8:30 pm, following Kabbalat Shabbat service

Indoor and Outdoor at JRC

Honor Shabbat with your JRC community. This week, following services with Rabbi Rachel Weiss and Cantor Howard Friedland, take time to gather in the small sanctuary with friends, or linger on the outdoor patio. Per our updated COVID protocols, masking is required indoors except while actively eating and drinking.

This Oneg is sponsored by JRC's Membership Committee in honor of JRC's Connection Callers and their Callees and by Kristen Harris and Sean Collins-Stapleton on the upcoming Bat Mitzvah of their daughter, Laney Harris-Stapleton.

If you have an upcoming simcha or life cycle event and would like to sponsor an Oneg, or if you would simply like to bake or provide bought items to share, please email JRC member, Sara Polonsky. Upcoming Shabbat Onegs are scheduled for May 13, and May 20, in addition to our Congregational Meeting Oneg on May 15.

10:00 am to 12:00 pm

In-Person at JRC and Via Zoom

The JRC community is invited to join Laney Harris-Stapleton and her family as she is called to the Torah as a Bat Mitzvah. This Shabbat morning service will be led by Rabbi Rachel Weiss and Cantor Howard Friedland in the JRC sanctuary.

Zoom Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89971219147?pwd=RlZOR2V4cDFuTFl4dXFzSkJrcU1LZz09

Meeting ID: 899 7121 9147

Passcode: 066792

Call-in: 312-626-6799 (Chicago)

If you need an accommodation to fully participate please contact JRC Executive Director, Micky Baer at [email protected] or on her cell: 847-409-1432.

7:00 pm Kabbalat Shabbat Service with Rabbi Rachel Weiss and Cantor Howard Friedland

8:30 pm Community Oneg, Indoor and Outdoor at JRC

10:00 am Bat Mitzvah of Laney Harris-Stapleton

10:00 am The Minyan will join the Bat Mitzvah of Laney Harris-Stapleton.

10:00 am Interfaith Action Evanston’s “Snap Gap” Collection Day

7:00 pm Backyard Havdalah with Cantor Howard Friedland

5:00 pm Weekday Minyan

Optional Time: Adult Brit Mitzvah Cohort - Hevruta Week

There is No Formal Class today - it is your chance to meet, connect, and learn with your Hevruta.

7:00 pm Reconstructionists Expanding Our Conversation About Israel: Open Conversation

11:00 am Weekly Torah Study with Rabbi David Eber

6:45 pm Jr. Choir Dress Rehearsal

7:30 pm Choir Rehearsal

The weekly announcements feature events hosted at or sponsored by JRC, approximately two weeks in advance or less. Announcements are sent out on Thursdays and items to add should be submitted no later than 5pm Monday.