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 This Shabbat |
Shabbat times for New York, NY Candle lighting:
6:25pm on Wednesday, 29 September 2010
Holiday: Shmini Atzeret on
Thursday, 30 September 2010
Holiday: Simchat Torah on
Friday, 01 October 2010
Candle lighting:
6:21pm on Friday, 01 October 2010
This week's Torah portion is Parashat Beresheet
Havdalah (60 min):
7:38pm on Saturday, 02 October 2010
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To read the latest updates from national USCJ headquarters, click here for USCJ eNews.
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| Publicize your event on the METNY Community Calendar. Please email
metny@uscj.org to have your event posted.
Click here to view the calendar. |
| Follow METNY on the Web! | 
Click here to become a fan of
METNY USCJ on Facebook!
Twitter
@CharlieSavenor
@MetnyUSY |
METNY Contact Information
| | 820 Second Avenue, 10th Fl.
212-533-0800 (p)
212-533-0400 (f)
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| To read workshop summaries and to download handouts from the 2010 Synagogue Leadership Conference, visit the METNY website. |
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METNY's Biennial Convention
The place to be on Sunday, November 14 is the METNY Biennial Convention! We hope that you will join all of us from around METNY at Beth El Synagogue Center in New Rochelle for our 2010 Biennial Convention!
Our theme will be "The Charismatic Kehillah". Using the pillars of the book, The Charismatic Organization, we will learn how to transform your congregation into a dynamic kehillah, or community, that is mission-based, forward thinking and attracts and retains volunteers through meaningful engagement and contemporary communications.
Confirmed speakers include:
- Jeremy Fingerman, Executive Director, The Foundation for Jewish Camp
- Ruth Messinger, Executive Director, American Jewish World Service
- Rabbi Alan Silverstein, Spiritual Leader, Agudath Israel, Caldwell, NJ
The convention committee is hard at work planning the day's program, including the installation of the District Council and synagogue recognition awards. More details to follow soon.
You may have already seen information about the awards process. Material about all of METNY's awards and applications for the Rothschild Leadership Award may be accessed by clicking here. These materials will be due Oct. 12. For more information, please contact Rabbi Moshe Edelman, METNY District Associate Director, at edelman@uscj.org or 212-533-0800. |
Although this official US documentary about the first Nuremberg trial was widely shown in Germany as part of the Allies' de-Nazification campaign during 1948-1949, US officials decided not to release Nuremberg to American theaters for political reasons. Over the years, the picture negative and sound elements were lost or destroyed. Sandra Schulberg and Josh Waletzky's restoration uses original audio from the trial, allowing you to hear the defendants' and prosecutors' voices for the first time.
The film ends with Justice Robert H. Jackson's stirring words - "Let Nuremberg stand as a warning to all who plan and wage aggressive war" - words which leap the decades and make Nuremberg startlingly contemporary.
Rabbi Edelman was able to see a preview screening of the movie, which he highly recommends. If you have questions about the film, please contact him.
For more information about the film, click here for the official website. Nuremberg is playing an exclusive showing in New York City at the Film Forum.
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Tefillah for Geshem
On September 30, we celebrate Shemini Atzeret, when we will begin to add the phrase "משיב הרוח ומוריד הגשם" to the Amidah - "You cause the wind to blow and the rain to fall." The line is introduced in the Geshem prayer, which invokes our ancestors and their relationships to water, asking God to grant us water on their behalf.
In preparing for that holy day, we would like to share with you an egalitarian text for the Geshem prayer, an additional stanza composed by Rabbi Jan Uhrbach, spiritual leader of the Conservative Synagogue of the Hamptons. This text can be found in Siddur Hadash, published 2000 by the Prayer Book Press. 
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Register Now for Social Media Boot Camp - Reminder
This past year 19 synagogues on Long Island took part in a Social Media Boot Camp, a year-long series of webinars on everything from Facebook and Twitter to policy and staffing for communications and community-building in the digital age. Instructed and coached by Darim Online and participating in "sharefests" to learn from the progress of other synagogues, team members - rabbis, membership chairs, educators, executive directors, etc. - began to create new platforms forengendering conversation within and about their congregations. A creative YouTube video put a fresh face on leaders' congregational Rosh Hashanah greeting. A new job description was developed for an executive director hire. Four congregations shared Israel content from BJENY-SAJES via Facebook. You get the idea.
Based on their success, UJA-Federation is pleased to fund Darim Online to offer a 6-part Social Media webinar series for staff and lay leadership of New York area congregations in the coming year. It is highly recommendedthat each congregation bring multiple representatives including a senior staff member to each webinar, as this team approach translates into action much more successfully. When you register (see below), please list all synagogue representatives who may participate so Darim Online can provide login details in advance of each webinar.
The first webinars have been scheduled on the following dates:
October 7, 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
The Foundations of Social Media
November 18, 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Facebook Strategies for Synagogues
Those who register in advance for the webinar series will have first priority. Registration for individual webinars in the future will be offered if space is available.
While the curriculum is designed as a series, each individual webinar will also be accessible as a stand alone session. All webinars will be recorded, and will therefore be available for future reference.
As part of this program, Darim Online is also offering 50% off membership for a year, $250, which entitles staff and lay leadership in your congregation to attend additional webinars on a variety of topics related to social media and leadership in the digital age, as well as to access online resources, discussions and consultations. You can indicate your interest on the registration form, and Darim Online will get back to you with further details.
For more info, please contact Dru Greenwood at SYNERGY: UJA-Federation of New York and Synagogues Together at greenwoodd@ujafedny.org or 1.212.836.1832.
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Yasher Koach Corner
Yasher koach to the entire Bellmore Jewish Center community - especially President Scott Cohen, Rabbi Avraham Rabinovich, Cantor Elliot Yavneh and Ritual VP Joseph Weisbord - on the completion of their newly commissioned Sefer Torah. Members of the community celebrated the culmination of this project with a joyful parade through their neighborhood back to the synagogue.
 Coverage of this amazing event was plentiful, mentioned in Newsday and Bellmore Patch. Video of the day's events is also available on YouTube.
What an intro to Simchat Torah!!!
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MERCAZ USA - Lech Lecha Tour
SPEAKER available for your synagogue
MERCAZ USA sponsors an annual speaking tour, the "Lech Lecha" tour, which brings back to the USA former Americans who are now living and working as Masorti rabbis in Israel. The purpose of the 10-day speaking tour is to expose our Diaspora community to a message about what life is like in Israel, its challenges and its benefits, towards the goal of encouraging more travel to Israel, volunteer and study programs in Israel and, for some open to the idea, aliyah. MERCAZ is now planning its seventh such tour, and for the first time, we will be concentrating the entire tour in the New York/New Jersey area. The featured speaker is Rabbi Jeffrey Cymet, now the fulltime rabbi at Congregation Tiferet Shalom in Tel Aviv. For more about Rabbi Cymet, go to http://www.linktoisrael.org/link/comings_and_goings.html. He will be in the New York area from Thursday, October 14, through Sunday, October 24.
To coordinate an event with Rabbi Cymet at your congregation, please contact Rabbi Charles Savenor.
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Petition for Gilad Shalit
As Israel's International Red Cross organization, Magen David Adom has launched a series of initiatives worldwide in order to gain Red Cross access to Gilad Shalit. Magen David Adom UK has set up an online petition to highlight Shalit's plight and demand the basic human right, as set out in the Geneva Convention, for Shalit to be visited immediately by the International Red Cross.
To sign their petition just visit the website below and please forward it to as many people as possible.
http://www.mdavisitshalit.org/?utm_source=MDA+Newsletter&utm_campaign=d72440238f-Sept_eNewsletter6_1_2010&utm_medium=email
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Get Out the Vote Guide
With the coming of the fall hagim, we know that Election Day is coming soon. This year's midterm elections have the potential to reshape our country's discourse and future. It is vitally important that you get involved - vote your conscience, vote your ideals, vote your hopes - most importantly, that you vote!
With this in mind, we are proud to bring you the Get Out the Vote Guide, compiled by the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism on behalf of United Synagogue. You can access the guide by clicking here. November 2 is coming soon - get involved, get educated, and become a part of the process!
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METNY USY's Walking On Sunshine...
all the way to Orlando! Registration for IC 2010 is now open! Access more information by clicking here.
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Birthright Registration is Now Open!
Registration for Taglit-Birthright Israel is now open for all programs. KOACH is the proud sponsor, in partnership with Shorashim, of a very special track for participants with Asperger's Syndrome. More information is available at www.israelwithisraelis.com; general registration is at www.birthrightisrael.org. You can also contact Rabbi Elyse Winick Associate Director for KOACH USCJ Department of Youth and Young Adult Services 857.231.3690 winick@uscj.org
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Family Israel Experience
July 3-14, 2011
 In the midst of the holiday season, we want to look to the future. At the end of the Neilah service at the conclusion of Yom Kippur, Jews around the world recited the verse - Next Year in Jerusalem!
How appropriate and exciting for us - to announce that USCJ has designed a "Family Israel Experience". This dynamic multigenerational trip was
designed for congregations that may not have clergy or have enough
critical mass to offer an affordable family trip. This memorable trip will
take place on July 3-14, 2011.
 This coming July we invite you to join together with congregants from across North America to form one unit as we fulfill this millennia-old aspiration of the Jewish people, visiting our homeland with those we care about most.
You will experience a dynamic and colorful country where Judaism comes alive in a way like no where else in the world. This program will be led by Rabbi Charles Savenor, METNY District Director.
Best wishes for a shana tova, a sweet new year!
For more information, please contact Rabbi Charles Savenor Savenor@uscj.org or Jo-Anne Tucker-Zemlak zemlak@uscj.org or 212-533-0800.
http://www.authenticisrael.com/UserFiles/File/USCJFamily.pdf |
METNY Candlelighting  Magnets 5771
METNY mailed magnets to METNY lay, professional and spiritual synagogue leaders before Rosh Hashanah. We appreciate the calls and emails of appreciation!
If you would like extra magnets for members of your kehilla, community and family, please contact our office at metny@uscj.org and 212-533-0800. We will be happy to send you up to 25 magnets.
Shana Tovah & Shabbat Shalom! |
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METNY on the Road...
This week, METNY's staff are on the move!
On September 28, Rabbi Edelman attended the meeting of the Rabbinical Assembly's Nassau Suffolk Region at the Jericho Jewish Center.
From October 4-6, Rabbis Savenor and Edelman will be at USCJ's annual staff meetings with staff from the other districts and USCJ's central office.
On October 8, Rabbi Savenor will be speaking at the Sutton Place Synagogue in Manhattan.
Our road can lead to you, too! We can train your synagogue board, work with your clergy and staff, do an adult education program...we'd love to have you on our road map! |
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"The Laws of the Sukkah according to Dr. Seuss"
by Rabbi Arthur E. Gould
You can build i t very small / You can build it very tall
You can build it very large / You can build it on a barge
You can build it on a ship / Or on a roof but please don't slip
You can build it in an alley / You shouldn't build it in a valley
You can build it on a wagon / You can build it on a dragon
You can make the skakh of wood / Would you, could you, yes you should
Make the Sukkah from leaves of tree / You shouldn't bend it at the knee
Build your Sukkah tall or short / No Sukkah is built in the Temple Court
You can build it somewhat soon / You cannot build it in the month of June
If your Sukkah is well made / You'll have the right amount of shade
You can build it very wide / You cannot build it on its side
Build if your name is Jim / Or Bob or Sam or even Tim
Build it if your name is Sue / Do you build it, yes you do!
From the Sukkah you can roam / But you should treat it as your home
You can invite some special guests / Don't stay in it if there are pests
You can sleep upon some rugs / Don't you build it where there's bugs
In the Sukkah you should sit / And eat and drink but never ...
If in the Sukkah it should rain / To stay there would be such a pain
And if it should be very cold / Stay there only if you're bold
So build a Sukkah one and all / Make it large or make it small
Sukkah rules are short and snappy / Enjoy Sukkot, rejoice be happy.
If you are interested in an annotated version of this poem, including textual citations, please click here!
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Do we know who's who in your congregation?
METNY USCJ would like to keep all of your synagogue board members up to date on METNY programs and information. When your synagogue elects new board members, please fill out the Synagogue Leadership form and send back to the METNY office so we can include your leadership on our lists. Please click here for the form for 2010-11.
Please email, fax or mail to metny@uscj.org or fax to 212-533-0400. The form can be mailed to 820 Second Avenue, 10th Floor, New York, NY 10017.
Furthermore, many of our congregations are currently in search for professional and spiritual leadership. METNY is here to help. Please contact any of our staff with questions. We wish our congregations success in this sacred enterprise.
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Hag Sameah! All of us at METNY wish you and your families happiness and health in the new year. As a reminder, METNY's offices will be closed for Yom Tov on Wednesday afternoon, September 29; and Thursday and Friday, September 30 and October 1.
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