Looking Ahead
Our in-house poet, Joel Netsky, will be
discussing Biblical Poetry.
Sunday, January 13, 11 AM.
Marking Life Cycle Events
Making a financial contribution to
Congregation Leyv
Ha-Ir is a great way to mark special life events,
simchas, yahrzeits, etc. We are happy to send an
acknowledgement of your contribution to a
designee
of your choice. Contributions can be sent to our
regular P.O. Box address, or contact Evy
Simon, at
215-561-7474 or [email protected], if you'd
like to
have an acknowledgement card sent.
Thank you.
Kiwi The Cat c 2007 Roy
Shenberg- (previously owned by Kiwi)
We lost our special friend Kiwi
To the home of the Great Cat Spirit
Kiwi's gentle purr was a gift to us
And now, I'm afraid, we can't hear it
Except, perhaps, on sunkissed days
When there's a gentle summer breeze
We'll hear his meow
'Neathe our white ash bough
And our hearts will be at ease
We'll walk, again, the paths with him
And the flowers will shine like jewels
Where loved pets travel in the great pet
beyond
Unencumbered by human's rules
Great Cat Spirit : please pet Kiwi
He's one glorious, wonderful feline
Kiwi the cat
Twice as sweet as the fruit
And a thousand times more divine
Goodbye Kiwi love, our muse,
We'll sure miss you
Newsletter Design and eMail Marketing:
Ilene
Hass Creative Solutions for Business
Marketing
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Dear Friends and Members of Leyv Ha-Ir ~ Heart of the City,
I visualize our community in terms of
concentric circles. The innermost circle
holding the surviving members of the Bat
Mitzvah group from our early years along with
others who are our founders. They became our
first sustainers. Around them stand our
current leaders. We are a small group of
heavy lifters who make sure the synagogue
keeps going. Around them stand council
members, committee chairs and former leaders.
Around them stand the committee members and
reliable volunteers who fill out our
membership. The next circle is filled with
participants including our family torah
group. Somewhere in there is the group of
folks who attend regularly and donate money.
Most of the people who receive this
newsletter fit in that group. There are over
five hundred people in that category right
now. The next circle has about four hundred
additional folks. They represent the people
we know who have ever visited us and told us
their names. I like to picture this large
group circling around our two Torahs with our
Rabbi, our choir leader and our occasional
musicians in a dance celebrating this special
brand of Judaism we call Leyv Ha-Ir ~ Heart
of the City.
If this synagogue is to continue holding
up these Torahs, we need you to move closer
to the middle. It is no secret that our core
groups are aging. We are getting tired. We
have taken our turn holding up this welcoming
expression of Judaism. In that spirit. I
will identify some skills which will serve
our community in the future. If you have
these skills, or others I've missed, I'd like
you to step to the middle and commit to this
group. If you would like to develop these
skills, please join us.
Non-Profit Leadership: I won't do
this forever. If you have a mind for
strategic planning and volunteer
coordination, please let us know.
Marketing: As I stated above, we
have over 900 contacts, 500 of whom have
attended multiple services or donated money
to us. If you have the skills which would
help us reach these people and increase their
level of engagement in our community, please
step up.
Development: We have been deficit
budgeting for several years now. Although we
have done some fundraising and grant writing,
we are clearly amateurs. Over the next
couple of years we will have to develop
funding streams that will produce over
$20,000 in additional revenues each year. If
you have those skills, step to the middle.
Event Planning: From the
perspective of a synagogue leader, the High
Holy Days are like planning five weddings in
ten days. It is a monumental task which
requires coordination of dozens of volunteers
and professional staff. Our current planners
are excellent, it is not fair to ask them to
do this forever.
Public Relations: Our mission and
our programming is astounding for a community
of our size. We get occasional media
exposure, but not enough. We have been in
existence for seventeen years, and I believe
that we have not yet saturated the center
city market. By this I mean that many center
city residents who would be interested in our
synagogue do not yet know we exist. If you
have public relations skills, please step up.
Web Site creation and maintenance:
We pride ourselves in our web site's
appearance and message. We need volunteers
to maintain and develop it.
Lay ritual leadership: Our Rabbi
is a part-time spiritual leader. Like many
synagogues, our ritual leadership depends on
volunteers to lead services. We also depend
on people to attend services. If you are
interested in developing your skills at
spiritual leadership, please let me know.
It takes much heavy lifting to keep a
synagogue going. We live in a time and
culture that emphasizes individuality at the
expense of the collective. This synagogue is
a worthy collective, if you are willing to
share some of the effort in maintaining and
developing it. Being President of this
synagogue is one of the most difficult and
annoying tasks I have ever undertaken. I
would not trade it. Please join us next year
as we make this synagogue better.
Michael Meketon, President
Leyv Ha-Ir ~ Heart of the City
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January 2008 Activities
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January 2 WEDNESDAY Council
Meeting Ethical
Society 7:00 PM Michael
January 5 SATURDAY Shabbat
Morning Service Ethical
Society 10:00 AM Lay Led
January 6 SUNDAY Choir
Rehearsal Member's Home 6:00 PM (new
time) Call Beverly
January 13 SUNDAY Family Torah
Group 10:00 AM
January 13 SUNDAY "Biblical
Poetry" presented by Joel Netsky 11:00
AM - $5 brunch Contact Joan 215 561-5193
January 18 FRIDAY Kabbalat
Shabbat/Tu B'shevat/MLK Service Ethical
Society 7:30 PM
January 19 SATURDAY Shabbat
Morning Service Ethical
Society 10:00 AM Lay Led
January 26 SATURDAY
Shabbat Morning Service
House
10:00 AM Lay Led
January 27 SUNDAY Choir
Rehearsal Member's Home 6:00 PM Contact
Beverly
As part of the Kehillah of Center City we
are invited to attend all of the events that are
sponsored by the Kehillah and our larger
community. To learn more about these events,
check
out the link to Center
City Kehillah.
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Click here for a complete look at Congregation Leyv Ha-Ir activities for the upcoming two months. |
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Rabbi's Office Hours -- January 13 |
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I welcome Leyv Ha-Ir~Heart of the City
members to make an appointment
with me for Sunday, January 13 if you'd like
some one-on-one time.
This could be a time to let me get to know
you better or to share a
concern or to learn a Jewish skill. Just call
or e-mail and I'll
respond with a time and details about where
we can meet. I'm looking
forward to hearing from you.
Rabbi Julie
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eMail Rabbi Julie for an appointment January 13 |
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Rabbi's Message: Rabbi Julie Greenberg |
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Dear Chevre,
I wonder if any of you heard Rodger
Kamenetz speak at the Free Library on Dec. 13
or heard him interviewed the same week on
NPR? Kamenetz's recent work is about the
importance of dreams. His new book is called
The History of Last Night's Dream.
Jewish tradition paid attention to dreams as
we know from the story of Jacob's dream of
the ladder with angels going up and down and
Joseph's dreams and skill at dream
interpretation. The Talmud says, "An
unexamined dream is like an unopened letter."
(Kamenetz is well known for his
book The Jew and the Lotus, which is
about the Dalai Lama interviewing leading
members of the Jewish community for advice on
how to keep his religion alive in the face of
geographic dispersal and oppression. Kamenetz
documented how Tibetan Buddhists, facing
enormous pressure from the Chinese, turned to
our people for wisdom on spiritual survival.)
I have been a student of dreams
for many years. I was fortunate to inherit an
extraordinary collection of books about the
meaning of dreams bequeathed to me by
congregant Susan Singer before she died. Some
friends and I formed a Dream Group a few
years ago, hired a Jungian analyst to meet
with us on a regular basis and have been
studying how dreams can be guides into
Wholeness. Dreams encourage us to discover
what we don't yet know.
Which is a perfect segue into an
area where we can dream big and we don't yet
know what will unfold. We have the
opportunity this year to design an innovative
Jewish education program for young people,
possibly a Hebrew school without walls, in
which children and families can experience
living Judaism. Stay posted for ways to be
involved in this visioning process. We need
all the dreamers we can get.
With blessings for the secular New
Year,
Rabbi Julie
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Biblical Poetry Discussion |
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Please join us! Our very own in-house poet,
Joel Netsky,
will discuss "Biblical Poetry"
Sunday, January 13, 11 AM
at Joan Goldberg's Apartment:
1901 Kennedy Blvd, #2226
RSVP: 215 561 5193
$5.00 cost for a wonderful brunch
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Special MLK Birthday Shabbat Service |
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Mark your Calendars for a Special Event!
In observance of Martin Luther King's Birthday
Leyv Ha-Ir is holding a special Shabbat service.
Friday, January 18, 7:30 PM
Masterman High School's Gospel Choir
will sing along with the Leyv Ha-Ir Choir
Bring family & friends
Held at the Ethical Society
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Share Your Broken Dishes~ Help us Build an Ark |
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We have had an extraordinary offer from a
talented artist, Beryl Kravitz, who has
volunteered to create a beautiful mosaic ark
to house our Torah. The artist envisions a
way to involve all congregants in this
creation. She is inviting us to bring
fragments of pottery, such as broken dishes
or any other special pottery that we'd be
willing to share, to the service on Friday
night, Jan. 18. We'll have a big collection
box. Our donations will be integrated into
the artwork. This is such an exciting,
generous offer; I hope you'll participate in
the project. Rabbi Julie
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Don't Miss Out on our Annual Retreat! |
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February 1, 2, 3
at Pendle Hill Retreat Center
in Wallingford, PA
From Friday Evening to Sunday Noon
Services with Rabbi
Some music with Cantor Jack Kessler
Delicious Meals and a Great Program
Cost for the Weekend - $260
Cost for Saturday only - $60
You must register by January 8
Call Beverly 215-557-3777 or Evy 215-561-7474
for more details
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Latkes of Fun at Leyv Ha-Ir Hannukkah Party |
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Forty people, together with 5 families,
attended our annual Hanukkah party
on December 8th, held at the William Penn
House. There was music, games for the
children and many, many latkes.
Our photo shows Rabbi Julie with Jessi
Roemer, Family Torah Leader & Choir Director.
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