Or Chadash Newsletter
 June 2012 
Or Chadash's Summer Schedule


Click here for a printable version of our summer schedule
that you can print out and put on your fridge at home! 
Quick Links
Join our list
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In This Issue
Summer Schedule
Service Schedule
Donations
Yahrzeits
IHN's 2nd Annual Box City
JFS C.A.R.S. Program
NFTY in Israel
Rabbi's Message
President's Message
Miztvah Day 2012
25,000 Mitzvot
Student Cantor's Message
Important Upcoming Dates
In Our Community
Confirmation Class of 5772 / 2012
JFS Walk for Families
Jewish Family Services
Registration Quick Link

Shabbat and Holiday 

Service Schedule


Shabbat Window 
 
June 1: No Service at Or Chadash
June 8: No Service at Or Chadash.  Service at Zamru in Princeton.
June 15: 6:30 PM Kabbalat Shabbat Service
June 22: No Service at Or Chadash
June 29: 6:30 PM Kabbalat Shabbat Service
July 6: No Service at Or Chadash
July 13: No Service at Or Chadash
July 20: 6:30 PM Kabbalat Shabbat with New York Times best selling author Mary Lou Quinlan, author of The God Box Project
July 27: 6:00 PM 25th Anniversary Cookout and Kabbalat Shabbat Service to Celebrate the 1980s
Donations

Click here to make a donation to Or Chadash to commemorate your simcha or memorialize the Yahrzeit of your loved one.  

 

Yahrzeit

Evelyne Hersch, in memory of Shelly Weiss

 

General Contribution

Steven Garfield

Darren & Elizabeth Loew, in honor of Daniel Tiber becoming a Bar Mitzvah
Darren & Elizabeth Loew, in memory of Ellen Sabio

 

Educational Enrichment Fund

Ken & Cindy Stoter, in memory of Ellen Sabio and Gerda Oeckinghaus 

Bruce & Betsy Zalaznick, in memory of Lillian Rapp and Estelle Kern

 

Oneg Fund

Stephen Sinoway & Beth Golden, in honor of Jordan Sinoway becoming a Bar Mitzvah

 

Mitzvah Day

Larry & Beatrice Abrams

Steve & Susan Albert

Ray Blumenfeld & Audrey Hackel

Matthew Carter & Cheryl Platt

Craig Erkkila & Ruby Halper-Erkkila

Harvey Gold

David & Rita Orlans

Nisim & Alexa Parliyan

Rick & Jill Rosenthal

Paul & Meredith Weil

Paul & Maureen Weiner

Gary & Debbie Weiss  

yahrzeit photo

Upcoming Yahrzeits


May the memories of the following individuals be for a blessing:

May 25 (will read on June 15)
Lillian Friedman
mother of Hilda Suchow
Hannah Rachel Sandler
mother of Jeff Sandler
Isidore Wolf
grandfather of Leslie Hann

June 1 (will read on June 15)
Sheldon Connor
uncle of Ross Weinick
Leo Heller
grandfather of Jim & Dave Lewy
father of Elizabeth Lewy
Richard Levy
father of Bob Levy
Bernard Sigel
father of Meredith Sigel-Willey
Joseph Tevere
father of Vincent Tevere
Shelly Weiss
cousin of Evelyn Hersch
Celia Zalaznick
grandmother of Bruce Zalaznick

June 8 (will be read on June 15)
Avrum Katcher
husband of Estelle Katcher
Catherine Malitoris
mother of Nancy Levine
Bessie Sinoway
grandmother of Stephen Sinoway

June 15
Ann Gorin
grandmother of Debbie Weiss
Arthur Horowitz
father of Cindy Stoter
Sylvia Horowitz
mother of Cindy Stoter
Lillian Magid
aunt of Bruce Zalaznick
Ethel Pearl
aunt of Dave Moutner
Ted Pytlar
father of Ellen Pytlar
Isidor Soodik
stepfather of Harvey Gold

June 22 (will be read June 29)
Richard E. Ingram
husband of Susan Ingram
father of Andrea Harvey
Minnie Singer
aunt of Harvey Gold

June 29
Selma Simon Ingram
mother in law of Susan Ingram
grandmother of Andrea Harvey
Boris Rabiner
grandfather of Betsy Zalaznick
Rose Rabiner
great grandmother of Betsy Zalaznick
Irving Senator
grandfather of Laura Senator
Leonard Weil
grandfather of Paul Weil
Eileen Gong Weiner
sister of Sandra Gong

July 6(will be read on July 20)
Harold Smith
husband of Connie Smith

July 13 (will be read on July 20)
Paul Adelman
grandfather of Laura Senator
Marcus Leon
grandfather of Betsy Zalaznick
Diane Segal
mother of Meridith Segel-Willey

IHN's 2nd Annual Box City
June 2-3, 2012



Be a part of this incredibly rewarding and super fun event!


Family Promise of Hunterdon County (incorporating Interfaith Hospitality Network) invites you to participate in our 2nd annual BOX CITY! 

 

Join us for a special night under the stars to raise funds and awareness for homelessness.  

 

The event kicks off on Saturday, June 2nd, 2012, at 6:00 pm at a field on the Hunterdon Central High School Upper Campus.  

 

Everyone is encouraged to solicit multiple sponsor pledges for a total of at least $25 for their "rent" at BOX CITY. Citizens of Box City who raise at least $50.00 will receive a special Box City event t-shirt. We would be very grateful to anyone who can raise $100 or more. There will be great prizes for our top fundraisers and top fundraising teams (average raised per team member).

You will spend the night in a cardboard box- designed by you; or in a sleeping bag, lawn chair or other insufficient "housing" to draw attention to the lack of affordable housing in Hunterdon County and the necessary work of IHN which assists families and inviduals who are temporarily displaced.

 

Click here to register and for more information! 

   
JFS C.A.R.S. Program

Jewish Family Services

Donate Your Unwanted Car to JFS through the CARS program

 

To donate your car, truck or other vehicle

 

Please call CARS at (877)537-4227

 

Representatives are available to assist you.

NFTY in Israel

NFTYinIsrael 

Teen summer programs in Israel are recognized not only as spectacular opportunities for fun and friendship but as defining and transforming Jewish growth experiences as well. All those who care deeply about ensuring a vibrant Jewish future appreciate the impact of a substantive Israel program on young people.

What can you expect your children to accomplish during their summer in Israel? What are the benefits of this wonderful opportunity?

Click here to find out!
 

 

Rabbi's Message

JMF

This week in Israel, in a historic decision helped by the work of the Reform Movement's Israeli Religious Action Center, the first non-orthodox Rabbi is to be paid by the State of Israel under a ruling by the Israel Attorney General.  Israeli Rabbi Miri Gold, who first heard the news on the radio said, "This is a big step for religious pluralism and democracy in Israel.  Israeli Jews want religious alternatives and with this decision the State is starting to recognize this reality. There is more than one way to be Jewish even in Israel."

 

For less than a week Israel has begun enjoying advances in religious freedom for non-orthodox Jews, particularly Reform Jews.  How fortunate we are to live in Flemington where there are myriad ways to be Jewish.  We are blessed that our community supports many different paths toward fulfilling our diverse religious needs.   It has not always been the case that Hunterdon  - particularly the Jewish community here - has been so blessed.  But for a quarter of a century now, Reform Judaism has had a home at Or Chadash, the Reform Temple of Hunterdon County, moving from living rooms, to churches and firehalls to our own building.  Over the course of the upcoming year Or Chadash will be celebrating our 25th Anniversary.

 

Sometimes we take for granted the freedoms and choices that exist for us when we did not work to achieve them.  Years of dedication went into the establishment of our Reform congregation, and each of us is privileged to be the beneficiaries of the work of those founders.  This 25th Anniversary year will be filled with exciting programs and opportunities to gather and to learn and to celebrate and to perform wonderful acts of righteous living for our loved ones and those whom we may never meet and to ensure that Or Chadash will be here for many generations to come.

 

I look forward to seeing you over the coming months and sharing in the exciting celebration.

 

Shalom,

 

Rabbi Joe Forman
President's Message

Jeff Berg
Dear members of Or Chadash,

 

25,000 Mitzvot.  That  may seem like an awful lot, but let me tell you, Or Chadash is up for the challenge.

 

For those of you who participated in Mitzvah Day, you may recall the 25th anniversary committee announced that we would attempt to perform 25,000 acts of Mitzvot over the coming year in honor of our 25th anniversary as a congregation.  Many of you signed up on the spot committing your family to do hundreds, even thousands of Mitzvot.  On Mitzvah Day alone, we had pledges totaling nearly 21,000 Mitzvot. 

 

For those of you who did not sign up yet, please do so at the following link on our website here and join our community challenge.  Your pledge emphasizes our passion for doing good deeds.

 

What better day to begin this congregation-wide effort than our very own Mitzvah Day?  We started with a single day during which we concentrated our efforts on doing good deeds, and we uped the ante by committing ourselves to doing mitzvot each day and week and making it a meaningful part of our daily lives.  Doing Mitzvot is our obligation as Jews and one of the cornerstones of our mission statement.  In this case, not only does doing mitzvot contribute to a great commemoration of a milestone at Or Chadash, but it also makes us think of the good that we are doing each and every day, and we feel that sense of accomplishment.

 

Now that the challenge has been set, we need to start logging those pledges.  On our website at the link here each and every one of us can log the many Mitzvot we perform.  Go to the website today and log your activities from Mitzvah Day and the days since. We will keep track of them and give plenty of words of encouragement over the course of the year.

 

I hope everyone feels empowered to participate.  We have provided some sample Mitzvot which you can view here and you will see things for every member of our congregation from the youngest to young at heart.  Please join your temple family on this adventure.

 

Shalom,

 

Jeff Berg 
Mitzvah Day Thank You

 

Nearly two-thousand years ago Rabbi Tarfon said: "You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to desist from it." (Pirke Avot)  On Mitzvah Day  more than 160 members of Or Chadash joined together to do "Tikkun Olam" (repair the world.)  Clearly the members of Or Chadash have taken this Jewish proverb to heart.  

Now that we have achieved our blood drive goals; the mulch has been spread; the weeds have been pulled; the peanut butter & jelly lunches delivered to the Samaritan Homeless Interim Program: non-perishable foods, recycled T shirt grocery bags, and hand tied fleece blankets delivered to the Flemington Food Pantry;  light fixtures vacuumed; shelves dusted; prayer books updated with stickers;  chocolate chip cookies baked, delivered, and totally consumed by the boys now residing at a beautifully landscaped Hunterdon Youth Services on Sandhill Road; stream delittered and garlic mustard weed removed from Echo Hill; dogs walked;  fleece pet-toys braided; Happy Dolls en route to recipients across the world; photo frames and Teddy Bears (with hand knitted scarfs!) waiting to make a child smile--it is time to thank you.

Thanks to ALL our Mitzvah Day volunteers for making Or Chadash Mitzvah Day 2012 such a spectacular success for our community and the community which we serve.  What an incredible start to our goal of doing 25,000 mitzvot as we commence our celebration of our 25th anniversary year. 

Betsy Zalaznick 

 

Click here to see more pictures from Mitzvah Day!  

25,000 Mitzvot for Or Chadash's 25 Years

As part of our 25th Anniversary Celebration, we would like to engage together in 25,000 acts of Tikkun Olam & G'milut Chasadim: acts of repairing our world and loving kindness. Each and every one of us can contribute. No act is too small (or too big for that matter)! Please help us realize the goal of reaching 25,000 mitzvot performed this year by helping us tally your mitzvot.

Click here for a list of examples of a mitzvah.

Click here to make your pledge of how many mitzvot you and your family will make in the next year.

Over the course of this year, you can log onto our tally form which will be on the front page of the Or Chadash website and enter the number of mitzvot you would like to add to our total.  There is also a section on the form to tell us more about the mitzvah you perform.  We will use that information to send emails throughout the year to highlight all of the good we are doing throughout our community. 

Click here to enter your mitzvot as you complete them!

Thank you for your help in meeting our goal of 25,000 Mitzvot in celebration of 25 Years at Or Chadash! 
Student Cantor's Message

Kathy Gohr

While you are reading this I will be in Oconomowoc Wisconsin at one of the Reform Movement's summer camps attending an event known as Hava Nashira (Hebrew for "Let Us Sing"). Always held the week after Memorial Day, it is a gathering of Rabbis, Cantors and lay folk who believe with all of their hearts that music is the highest form of worship. This will be the tenth year I have attended this retreat, and I always look forward to meeting new friends as well as reconnecting with old ones. We worship together, sharing some of the newest music being written in our movement. Under the guidance of such teachers as Jeff Klepper, Ellen Dreskin, Josh Nelson, Dan Nichols and in the past Debbie Friedman z"l we hone our skills as leaders of congregational music in areas such as religious school programs, early childhood, transformative worship, guitar and percussion skills and song writing. I look forward to sharing what I learn this year with my family here at Or Chadash. I hope to bring back some new songs for Religious School, worship and our Shir Chadash choir along with a recharged spiritual battery for next year.

 

It was here in 2001 that I first experienced this deep connection with Jewish music surrounded by others such as myself who heard the music with much more than just their ears. It was here that I met such friends as Ross Wolman and Zoe Jacobs as they were taking their first steps on their Cantorial path. It is here that we spend 4 days joined with the voices of angels raised in harmonies which are heard only once a year but yet echo in our hearts forever. Many have asked why it is so important that we make this pilgrimage every spring to this camp on the shores of Lac Labelle. The 265 or so attendees will smile, knowing that one must be there to fully experience what words can never attempt to describe.

 

I owe much to this intentional community that comes together each year for giving voice to that yearning which I had held inside for many years, for establishing a connection between my soul and my music. It is the Hava Nashira community which propelled me on my own path to becoming a teacher and Cantor, eventually bringing me to the doors of the Or Chadash Community. And for that, Modah Ani, I am grateful.

 

Bles-sings,

Kathy Gohr 

Important Dates to Remember
Tuesday, June 12: 7:30 PM - Annual Meeting

Saturday, June 16: 9:00 AM - Breakfast at Skylands Airport - cyclists welcome

Friday, July 20: 6:30 PM Kabbalat Shabbat with New York Times best selling author Mary Lou Quinlan, author of The God Box Project

Friday, July 27: 6:00 PM 25th Anniversary Cookout and Service to Celebrate the 1980s

In Our Community


Refuah Sh'leima (Get well) to...

Fred Bernstein, father of Melissa Pickell
Helen Sherbet, grandmother of Susan Lazar

Seth Parkoff, brother in law of Leslie Hann
Eileen Berkelhammer
Pat Wolf, mother of Leslie Hann
Evelyne Hersch
Don Corey, father of Faith Fuhrman

Cathy Peckman, mother of Gary Peckman 

 
Condolences to...

Stephanie, Jim, Teddy, and Shane Kassanoff on the death of their grandmother and great-grandmother, Molly Margolis.   


Steven, Susan, Rachel, Amanda, and Melissa Albrecht on the death of their mother and grandmother, Ellen Sabio.  


Todah Rabbah (Thank You to)... 

Steve Sinoway for his assistance with landscaping at Or Chadash.

 
In
order to help us be a more caring community, please share your lifecycle events with Rabbi Forman

  

Feel free to click on a hyperlink to send a note and let someone know you are thinking about them.

 

Confirmation Class of 2012 / 5772

 

Click here to read Betsy Zalaznick's speech.

 

Click here to read the speeches of our Confirmands.

 

Click here to see the special 8/9/10 Annual Slideshow, featuring pictures throughout their entire Religious School years at Or Chadash!    

 

Click here to see more pictures from Confirmation! 

 

Jewish Family Services Walk for Families
Sunday, June 3rd at 10:00 AM


Jewish Family Services

Jewish Family Services

JFS is a non-profit, non-sectarian social service agency whose mission is to preserve and strengthen the quality of individual, family and community life based on Jewish values.

 

Betty and Arthur Roswell

Mental Health Counseling Center

Holocaust Survivors Assistance
Refugee Assistance

Special Needs Programs
Family Mentoring

Senior Support Services
Family Life Education

Information and Referral Emergency Assistance

AmeriCorps
Ohr Tikvah
Career Services

 

For more information contact:

Jewish Family Service of Somerset, Hunterdon and Warren Counties

150-A West High Street, Somerville, NJ 08876

908-725-7799     Admin@JewishFamilySvc.Org     www.JewishFamilySvc.Org