News You Can Lose
Special Purim Edition
IN THIS ISSUE
Top 10 Movies of 2010
What's in a Name?
Funny Faces of METNY
Good Mourning
Banned Books?
An Idea That's No Joke
Purim Success from Lake Success JC
The Yeshiva Skier
AJWS Purim Materials
Click here to view a hilarious
 Purim Shpiel from our friends at Congregation Beth Am,
San Diego, CA
.

METNY Top 10 Movies of 2010

  1. "Up" - METNY's move to the East Side
  2. "The Hangover" - the day-after Purim story
  3. "Valentine's Day" - Do we celebrate it or not?
  4. "Where the Wild Things Are" - the insiders look at a Shabbat kiddush luncheon
  5. "A Serious Man" - The Rabbi Charlie Savenor story
  6. "It's Complicated" - Are we a region or a district?
  7. "District 9" - The place for naughty USCJ regions
  8. "Youth in Revolt" - What really happens at USY events
  9. "Twilight: New Moon" - A documentary aboout Rosh Hodesh groups
  10. "Precious" - What our congregations mean to us!
 

What's In a Name?

   
                                      A Most Memorable Moment 

                                                                                      from the  USCJ HAZAK Israel Trip  

                                                January 17-28, 2010
                                                                                   By Sheila Harnik, Gaithersburg, MD

 
Rabbi Moshe Edelman, METNY's Associate Executive Director, brought a very special aura to our trip to Israel. When he was on the bus and on the tours he always had a way of teaching Torah and Midrash in a light, fun and memorable way.
 

 One very special highlight took place in Zicharon Yaakov. I was looking for a spice called Hyssop which was used to season the chicken when we had dinner in the desert tent at Eretz Breisheit.  Rabbi Moshe spotted this wonderful spice shop with hundreds of spices.  He asked the clerk if she had Hyssop.  She didn't know what we were talking about.  Rabbi Moshe asked if she had a Tanach.  Sure enough, she pulls one out of a drawer. (Only in Israel could this happen.)  Rabbi Moshe reminded her that the Hyssop branch was used by the Hebrews to mark their doorposts with blood during the plagues and that we just read about this past Shabbat.  Rabbi Moshe finds the line in the Torah and he read and translated it to us.  
 
 
In Hebrew, Hyssop is "Zaatar".  The clerk calls someone on the phone and this person tells her where to find it and I come home with a biblical spice.
 

The Many Funny Faces METNY - Hag Sameah!

  
                                  
 
 
                       
 
 
 
 
     
 
       

Good Mourning

 
I was speaking with an Anthropologist, who was studying the Inuit (Eskimos). He is a Methodist, unfamiliar with Jewish customs.

He told me of a group of Inuit who mourn the death of relatives by sitting on small blocks of ice for a week after burial.

When I asked him what they call this custom of sitting on a block of ice, he replied: "I think they call it sitting shiver." 

METNY's List of Banned Books

 
  • Green Eggs and Ham                                          
  • The Catcher in the Rye Bread
  • The Kvetcher in the Rye
  • The Sun Also Rises (Only banned on Pesach)
  • Haman's Heart of Darkness
  • The Grapes of Wrath by B. Manischewitz
 

An Idea That's No Joke 

 METNY Synagogues Celebrate Purim Together

 
The JCC of West Hempstead and the Valley Stream Jewish Center will be joining together for the observance of Purim this year.  Maariv and megillah reading Saturday night will be at the JCC and megillah reading and the Purim Seudah will be at Valley Stream on Sunday morning.  The idea was generated by the rabbis of the two congregations, Rabbi Art Vernon and Rabbi Yechiel Buchband.  The leadership of both congregations reacted positively to the concept and the plans were formulated.  While both congregations have observed Purim separately in prior years, a joint observance hopefully will draw more members from both congregations and generate a more lively celebration. 

Sharing Purim Ideas  

Lake Success Jewish  Center Purim Booklet

 
 
Rabbi Michael Klayman of Lake Success Jewish Center created and prepared a dynamic and innovative Purim booklet for his congregation and friends. Please share this resource on celebrating Purim with your communities. Click here to view the pamphlet.
 
Yasher koach also to Lake Success JC President, Mark Eiseman, for his excellent audio/video email invite to ' Purim service.
 
The Olympic Yeshiva Skier
 
In a slalom race, the skier must pass through about 20 gates in the fastest time.
 
Well, it happened that a very observant Yeshiva in Vancouver had an exceptional skier among its students. So fast, that in practice, with tzitzis streaming out behind, he had beaten the world record several times.After first checking to make sure none of the men's slalom races would be on the Sabbath, he tried out for and made the Canadian Winter Olympic team.With his times in the trial heats, he was the favorite for an Olympic gold medal.Came the day of the final, the crowd waited in anticipation.
 
 The French champion sped down the course in 38 seconds.
 The Swiss in 38.7 seconds.
 The German in 37.8 seconds.
 The Italian in 38.1 seconds.*
 
Then came the turn of the Canadian Yeshiva "bocher." The crowd waited, and  waited . . . .Finally, after a full five minutes, he crossed the finish line.
"What happened to you?" screamed his coach when the skier finally arrived.
Breathing hard, the exhausted yeshiva student replied, "All right, who's the wise guy who put a mezuzah on every gate?"
Some Serious Purim Material
 

Purim Materials from American Jewish World Service: 

"Trafficking, Sex Work & Power in the Megillat Esther"
The story of Purim is often told as a sweet fairy tale of good and evil, with beauty pageants, parties and a parade to give it flair. But the story of Purim includes evidence of the abuse, exploitation and trafficking of women. As we read about the rounding up of women for King Ahashverosh's review, we hear echoes of people rounded up into servitude, whether Africans to labor in the New World or Korean "comfort women" to serve the sexual demands of Japanese soldiers in World War II. Women today, especially in the Global South, are often exploited due to unequal power relations, lack of access to resources and pervasive sexism. Women who become involved in sex work regularly cite lack of alternative employment options as motivation for their decision. The story of Esther gives us the opportunity to reflect on the circumstances that propel women into sex work and the tension between agency and sexual exploitation in the Megillah and in our time.
 
Click here to read the full version of this text study and to download a supplementary resource that provides greater depth on the themes and global justice issues that arise.