Shabbat provides a change from the rest of the week, a time to disconnect from the day-to-day and reconnect with our friends and family. Starting in October we will introduce a Friday night rotation to provide a range of ways to experience Shabbat.
Category Archives: News & Events
We’ve Been Busy
Shalom,
As summer is winding down and everyone enjoys the last few weeks of vacation, we wanted to share with you what to expect when you return to Shomrei.
Our preschool teachers completed another successful camp season and are now preparing their classes for the first day of school. The entire staff and all of our volunteers are hard at work preparing for the High Holidays and fall season filled with a number of activities. Continue reading
A Glorious Evening
With approximately forty-five other Shomrei members, Bruce and I attended the Musical Taste of Shabbat hosted by Ken Bannerman and Judy Wildman last Friday evening at their beautiful home.
The Service was glorious and memorable. Judy led the service, while Ken played the bass and Merrill Silver played the piano. We all sang the wonderful Kabbalat Shabbat songs, led by Judy, including Mizmor Shir, Lechu Neranina, etc. The music was so very wonderful! Continue reading
Addressing Antisemitism
Utilizing a microgrant provided by the Jewish Federation of Greater Metrowest NJ, CSE hosted an “Addressing Antisemitism Today” program on Thursday, June 8.
With antisemitism alarmingly on the rise, it is essential to foster dialogue within and between communities of faith, specifically in this program — the Jewish community and the Christian community. Participants gathered for dinner and a program presented by Rabbi Julie and Pastor Nancy Truscott, Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Nutley. Continue reading
New Social Group at Shomrei
A new social group called Boomers has been formed at Shomrei Emunah whose purpose is to encourage social, supportive and informational opportunities for Shomrei Community Boomer members and their friends. Activities will be aimed at the Baby Boomer generation, and, while membership is intended for fellow Baby Boomers, participation in activities will be fluid and open to all. Subgroups and activities might consist of groups for hiking, lectures, meet-and-greets, theater, and widows/widowers, as well as opportunities to connect/reconnect with people and events at Shomrei. Activities will be determined by the group. Continue reading
Toratah
The annual Shavuot Tikkun always has interesting and enlightening study sessions. This year was no exception.
The keynote featured Yael Kanerek, one of the driving forces behind Toratah the regendered Torah.
I wrote about this huge project last fall when Genesis was revealed (See Toratah, Sept 30, 2021). Since then there have been weekly study sessions revealing more of the Toratah (her Torah).
Bat Mitzvah L’dor Vador (from Generation to Generation)
Last week, synagogues across America marked the 100-year anniversary of the first official bat mitzvah. The ceremony occurred on March 18, 1922 and was created by Rabbi Mordechai Kaplan, the founder of Reconstructionist Judaism, to welcome his12-year-old daughter, Ruth, into the family of Jewish adults. While that sounds like a long history, it pales alongside the roughly 1,000-year longevity of the bar mitzvah. Moreover, it took almost 60 years for the bat mitzvah ceremony to attain equal stature with the bar mitzvah at synagogues in the U.S.
To explore this evolution — and what it says about the role of women and girls in Judaism — assistant JLC education director Lily Lucey invited Shomrei women of several generations on Sunday, March 19 to recount for the b’nai mitzvah classes what the bat mitzvah represented when they were 12 or 13. Continue reading
Stop the Bleed
On Tuesday evening, four active Shomrei members – all of whom are involved in volunteering at Shomrei – took part in disaster training called Stop the Bleed.
While this training on how to save lives by staunching the flow of blood is intended to be part of emergency training in case of an event at the synagogue, what we learned could be applied to a kitchen knife accident, a fall down the stairs or any situation where extensive bleeding occurs. Continue reading
Shomrei goes to the Theater–A Big Thank You to Lindsey Sag
On Sunday March 6th, twenty Shomrei people went off-Broadway to see a production of Prayer for the French Republic at the Manhattan Theater Company. Our congregant, Lindsey Sag, who is the General Manager of the theater suggested I organize a theater party. I hesitated — it was still Covid after all — were we ready to head into Manhattan? In fact we were! Tickets sold out quickly, COVID is waning, and it was almost a Spring day. Continue reading
SOUPERSPREADER (but in a good way) Quiz
Can you match the SOUPERSPREADER with the delicious soup he/she/they made? Continue reading