Shabbat and Holiday 

Service Schedule

Sanctuary Chair Fund

Paul & Meredith Weil, In honor of Ben Weil's Bar Mitzvah

Educational Enrichment Fund

Darren & Elizabeth Loew, In memory of Catherine Malitoris, mother of Nancy Levine

Library Fund

James & Arlene Berg, In honor of Jeff Berg becoming temple president

Tzeddakah

Upcoming Yahrzeits

The organic garden we all worked on on Mitzvah Day is thriving. Thanks to all of you who helped, but particularly to Erika Lewy, Aaron Lewy and Liz Tracey who have been watering it since May. Four bags of produce (yellow squash, zucchini and cucumbers) have made their way to the Food Pantry so far, but now that the tomatoes are beginning to ripen, we could use a volunteer to pick and deliver once a week. Please contact Estelle Breines at elka6301@embarqmail.com if you are available.

Click here to see the online summer edition of Reform Judaism. 

Please join us for a very special evening on Friday, August 12, with Joel Chasnoff. 

At 6:00 PM, we will be having a Pot Luck BBQ where you will have the oppotunity to nosh and meet our new president, board officers and trustees.  We will be grilling hot dogs, veggie burgers and chicken.  Please bring a salad, side dish, dessert or drink to share with the group.  Please click here to RSVP to the dinner.

At 7:00 PM we will join together for a Kabbalat Shabbat service with our new Student Cantor, Kathy Gohr.

At 7:30 PM we will be having a reading and discussion with Joel Chasnoff on his book The 188th Crybaby Brigade.  Please see below for more information on this humorous, informative and touching story.

There will be optional programming for young children if they do not want to attend the book discussion.

Books will be for sale that night as well as beforehand at the Clinton Book Store and the Or Chadash office.

We look forward to seeing you at this fun community event!

Joel Chasnoff grew up an observant Conservative Jew in suburban Chicago, and he is now an observant Conservative Jew in Riverdale. He is also a stand-up comic, able to make his living telling jokes. (Who knew that was really possible?)

Between then and now Joel took a year-long detour into the Israel army. That's not so unusual, but unlike most young Americans who make aliyah to join the IDF, he joined a combat unit. He tells his story about his attempt to live out his lifelong dream as a real Israeli in The 188th Crybaby Brigade, a book that improbably but truly had me both laughing (snorting through my nose, in fact) and sobbing (not hard, I admit, but still...) on the subway.

As poignant as Joel's look at army life is, and both as specific to the Israeli condition (the soldiers' mothers demanded that their sons not skip snacks, so there is a scene where they stop tank training, wearing combat gear, to sit in an officially mandated circle and eat chocolate sandwiches) and to all armies (these soldiers are 18 years old, so they are both men and boys), there is a twist. Joel's mother converted to Judaism with an Orthodox beit din, before he was born, before she was married, because she was so drawn to Judaism. He and his brothers went to Schechter schools, Camp Ramah, and USY. But when he fell in love with an Israeli woman and they wanted to marry, the official municipal rabbi did not allow it. His mother had been taught by a Conservative rabbi before her conversion, so the religion she was taught was not valid, so her conversion was void, so Joel was not Jewish.  That's not at all funny, is it?

His book is well worth reading.

As always, in loving memory of Shira Palmer-Sherman, z'l.

Joanne Palmer works for United Synagogue, where she edits CJ: Voices of Conservative/Masorti Judaism.

Click here for more information on The 188th Crybaby Brigade.

Look for OC in the news in your local paper!