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Shabbat Service Schedule
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May 9: 7:00PM Service of Confirmation and Celebration of Shavuot
May 16: 7:30PM Shabbat Services and Gianna Duddy becomes a Bat Mitzvah
May 23: No Services
May 30: 6:00PM Kabbalat Shabbat
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In Our Community
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Refuah Sh'leima (Get well) to...
Susan Blaicher
Fred Bernstein
Millie Albert
Estelle Breines
Bill Willey
Condolences to
...Elyse Belkin on the death of her sister, Allison Cimring Dorfman
...Eileen Schettino on the death of her husband, Jim Schettino
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.
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Upcoming Yahrzeits
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May the memories of the following individuals be for a blessing:
May 2
David Abrams
father of Larry Abrams
Esther Adelman
grandmother of Laura Senator
Louis Brodsky
grandfather of Gary Brodsky
Lillian Golden
grandmother of Beth Golden
Robert Hann
father of Chris Hann
Kate Hirsch
great-grandmother of Betsy Zalaznick
Ellen Sabio
mother of Steven Albrecht
Deborah Schwartz
loved one of Shelly Weller
May 9
Estelle Kern
mother of Allen Kern
Molly Margolis
grandmother of Stephanie Kassanoff
Lillian Rapp
mother of Salena Kern
Charlotte Werstein
grandmother of Leslie Hann
May 16
Hannah Rachel Sandler
mother of Jeff Sandler
Larry Seligman
father of Debbie Weiss
Anna Wolf
grandmother of Leslie Hann
May 23
Lillian Friedman
mother of Hilda Suchow
Leo Heller
father of Elizabeth Lewy
grandfather of Jim Lewy
grandfather of David Lewy
Shelly Weiss
cousin of Evelyne Hersch
Celia Zalaznick
grandmother of Bruce Zalaznick
May 30
Sheldon Connor
uncle of Ross Weinick
Avrum Katcher
love one of Estelle Katcher
Richard Levy
father of Robert Levy
Catherine Malitoris
mother of Nancy Levine
Bernard Sigel
father of Meridith Sigel-Willey
Bessie Sinoway
grandmother of Stephen Sinoway
Isidore Wolf
grandfather of Leslie Hann
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| Donations | |
Thanks to all who contributed
Victor Sloan & Sandra Gong
Educational Enrichment Fund
Steven & Susan Albrecht: In Memory of Allison Cimring Dorfman
Bruce & Betsy Zalaznick: In Memory of Allison Cimring Dorfman
General Contribution
Nelson & Beverly Kornstein
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| Scrip News | |
Announcing a way to reduce your dues by purchasing scrip!
Just purchase your scrip and for every dollar you earn Or Chadash, you will receive 25% as a reduction of your dues, a "scrip credit." So, that's 25 cents of every dollar your scrip purchase earns Or Chadash that goes back to you, back in your pocket as a scrip credit.
Come give it a try. Click here for the scrip FAQs sheet, and you'll be on your way to making a great contribution to your temple!
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| 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. We provide our services to a diverse socio-economic client population that includes individuals, children, young adults, families and the elderly.
Click here for information on additional services.
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| Meals On Wheels | |
Meals on Wheels needs volunteer drivers in our area. Serve your homebound senior neighbors a hot noontime meal. The commitment to drive is only once a month. It will take only an hour or two once a month to get that good feeling of giving. Call our office at (908)284-0735 to offer your time or for more information (and/or check out our website at mowih.org). Help us, help others. Many thanks.
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| Bar Mitzvah - Mitch Sarinick | |
Michael Sarinick (Mitch to his friends) became a Bar Mitzvah on May  3. He is the son of John and Toby Sarinick and older brother to Emma Sarinick. Michael is a 7th grader at J.P. Case Middle School in Raritan Township. He enjoys karate, roller blading, video games and playing Manhunt with his friends. Michael just received his 3rd stripe for his green belt in Karate and will soon be earning his blue belt. Michael's Torah portion, Emor tells the calendar of celebrations, laws on profanity, murder, the maiming of others, and an eye for an eye. Michael's mitzvah project is cleaning up the local parks. He likes keeping the paths and parks free of debris for others to enjoy.
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| Bat Mitzvah - Gianna Duddy | | Gianna Devan Capri Duddy will become a Bat Mitzvah on May 16, 2014. She is a 7th grader at Branchburg Central Middle School. She enjoys softball, the trampoline, cooking, baking, being part of the Leadership Coalition, and anything Taylor Swift. This year for Gianna has been one of self-discovery and coming into herself. She has been faced with challenges and met them head on. She will be reading a familiar passage from Deuteronomy, the Shema and V'ahavta. For her Haftarah reading Gianna has selected a passage from My Basmati Bat Mitzvah, highlighting the multiple identities she has as Italian and Jewish.
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| Jewish LIFE: Learning Is For Everyone | | 
Jewish LIFE (Learning Is For Everyone), our community wide adult education program, has an exciting new season of programs and special events planned for the coming year. A great lineup of special events are scheduled in addition to a wide variety of classes and films offered at our participating synagogues. The complete 2013-2014 Jewish LIFE brochure will be available on line at www.ssbjcc.org. Printed copies will be available at the Shimon and Sara Birnbaum JCC in Bridgewater.
- Sun., June 1: Celebrate Israel Parade, Fifth Avenue, New York City
Please refer to the Jewish LIFE brochure for program fees and additional information. To register for programs hosted at the JCC, please call 908-725-6994 x201. To register for programs at other locations, please contact the hosting synagogue or agency.
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Confirmation Invitation - Everyone is Invited!
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Ben Weil, Ethan Tyler and Kim Graybeal
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Rabbi's Message
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"Shavuot" is the Hebrew word for "weeks." The Torah tells us to count seven full weeks after the second day of Passover to Shavuot. In ancient times, the Israelites were an agricultural people who brought sheaves of grain as gifts to the Temple for these seven weeks. On the fiftieth day, Shavuot, they brought loaves of bread made out of the new grain.
The holiday has several names. It is also called Z'man Matan Torateinu (Hebrew for Season of the Giving of our Torah), as well as Hag HaBikkurim (Hebrew for Holiday of the First Fruit) as it marks the beginning of the fruit harvest when the first ripe fruits were brought to the Temple as an offering of thanksgiving.
In the early part of the 19th in Germany, Bar Mitzvah was replaced in the emerging Reform congregations with a Religious School graduation ceremony called Confirmation. Linking this affirmation of faith with the ancient Israelites' affirmation of faith -- as told in the story of the receiving of the Ten Commandments in the Book of Exodus -- Confirmation has endured as link between the past and the present.
At Or Chadash, our service of Confirmation takes place a few weeks before the traditional date of Shavuot. Nonetheless, we celebrate this holiday as we welcome our newest Confirmands who represent the first graduating fruits of our academic season.
I hope you will join us for one of the most moving and inspiring services of the year.
Below are my introductory words from our Confirmation Service this Shabbat:
Reform Judaism presents a challenge to every one who considers themselves a member of this community. Reform Judaism - Judaism in all its forms really - has few basic tenets: don't treat others as you yourself would not wish to be treated; never forget that the greatest of all obligations is the preservation of human life; and - the hardest to grasp - that we are free to make choices about all our actions. These broad notions of Judaism afford each of us the opportunity for creative expressions of our traditions and the challenge of discovering an authentic path to Jewish living.
During these three years of study and shared unique Jewish experiences, our Confirmands learned about many core values in Jewish living including the preservation of life, Tzeddakah and Tikkun Olam, repairing the world. This year's Confirmation class learned about one of the core values not only of Reform Judaism, but of all the varied expressions of our people: Judaism speaks with many voices. We studied familiar topics and new lessons about them, each time exploring how the Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist, Renewal, Modern Orthodox and Humanist movements within the Jewish community responded to the issue we were learning about. Our classes explored such diverse topics as the role of women in Judaism, our tradition's attitudes on tattoos, piercings, drugs and sex, and the rituals surrounding death and burial. We traveled to the Religious Action Center in Washington, D.C., lobbying on Capitol Hill to try to change the world; we visited New York City to visit the Holocaust museum and the 9/11 memorial; we visited Brooklyn to experience the Hassidic Jewish world and to eat some amazing challah; we spent time in Philadelphia at the National Museum of American Jewish History to learn about the communities of earlier generations of Jews who shaped the foundations of American Judaism and saw a play about our nation's history of racism; and we experienced a glimpse into immigrant life as we toured Ellis Island and the Lower East Side; we spent time in the fields of Peaceful Valley Orchards, harvesting food for food deserts in New Jersey; we listened to guests from a funeral home and an architecture firm, a scholar on Islam and a Catholic priest; we heard from a group of individuals who shared their stories of how they chose to convert to Judaism; we listened in horror as an Auschwitz survivor shared her story of the Holocaust; and we piloted the Reform Movement's Teen Philanthropy program which enabled our students to explore with professionals and with one another the diversity of needs in our local and global communities and together understand the challenges of smart giving. Together we made and ate challah and rugelach and hamantaschen - complete with fortunes from Jewish sources; and we roasted marshmallows and made s'mores to celebrate a year of learning, friendship and fun.
As we confirm these graduates of Jewish learning, we hope they will continue the life-long journey of Jewish learning and living and that their voices will contribute to the chorus of voices of contemporary Judaism echoing throughout the generations yet to come. They have been a blessing to our congregation. May they continue to bless us and Jewish communities wherever they live out their Jewish identities.
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President's Message
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A short while ago, I was getting together with a friend. The plan was for her to meet me at my house, we'd have a cup of coffee, hang out and catch up. My friend showed up with several small gifts for my family and me: homemade jam, banana muffins, a cute hand-me-down dress for Lyra and a book she thought I'd enjoy. It wasn't my birthday, just a lovely gesture from one friend to another.
The book, 29 Gifts, How a Month of Giving Can Change Your Life, by Cami Walker, is based on the premise that giving without any intention of receiving in return can have transformative effects on your life as it did for the author. Many of her gifts were simple, a kind gesture, some spare change, holding a door, a phone call when a friend needed it. Her month of giving with intent, and sometimes anonymously, changed her life, and it sparked a worldwide giving movement.
What better time in the Or Chadash calendar to think about giving? Mitzvah Day is fast approaching, and I hope you can join us in our own community's day of giving. For me, after reading the book and doing my Mitzvah Day sign up, I want to start thinking about ways I can give everyday: the kind gesture to the friend, focusing on my kids instead of my email, cookies for my coworkers. The more I think about it the easier and more fun the idea becomes to me. If you happen to pick up the book I hope it inspires you, but even more importantly, I hope the way our community comes together on Mitzvah Day inspires you even more.
I look forward to seeing all of you on May 18th for Mitzvah Day!
Shalom! Caryn
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| Cantor's Message | |  On this year's Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remebrance day, I began my day by watching the live video stream of "The March of the Living" from Poland.
"The March of the Living" is a 3-kilometer walk from Auschwitz to Birkenau, a silent tribute to all victims of the Holocaust. The March is designed to contrast with the death marches, which began towards the end of World War II, and continued virtually up until the Third Reich's last days. The Nazis forced approximately 750,000 prisoners, almost half of whom were Jewish, on to the death marches. The March of the Living serves as a hopeful counterpoint to the experience of hundreds of thousands of Jews and others forced by the Nazis to cross vast expanses of European terrain under the harshest of conditions where many of them perished. The March of the Living is joined each year by thousands of Jewish teens, adults and survivors from around the world along with many other people from diverse faiths and background, including the Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu and Jewish traditions. Students whose communities have experienced historic persecutions also participate, such as survivors of the Rwandan genocide, First Nation students and African Americans" (for more information, please refer to www.motl.org).
This year marks a particularly painful anniversary, for it has been 70 years since the deportation and destruction of Hungarian Jewry during the Holocaust. As I watched thousands of people enter the courtyard of Birkenau and gather to hear speakers and singers from all walks of Jewish life, I was particularly impressed by all of the younger people present. I know that the march has always supported many student educational programs as a part of their efforts, but it wasn't until I watched the event that I could sense the connection that these young folks felt to their past. By participating, the Holocaust became for them an undeniable part of their Jewish heritage and identity. Uncomfortable as it was , confronting this painful part of our past is one way of solidifying our future. By not denying our past we are hopefully destined not to repeat it.
We who are more advanced in life experience will come to depend on these same young ones to continue in our footsteps and ensure the future of the Jewish people. Here at Or Chadash we will be acknowledging several of our own as they formalize their decision to be a part of that future. On May 9th we will be celebrating the Confirmation Class of 2014. Please join us as we support them in their decision to become that link between our past and our future. This is, in its truest sense, l'dor vador, from generation to generation.
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| Betsy's Message | |  This Friday evening, May 9th, we will be celebrating the festival of Shavuot and the confirmation of five amazing Or Chadash students -- Kim Graybeal, Samantha Tracey, Ethan Tyler, Ben Weil, and Abby Weinick. I am writing this very personal message in our May newsletter to strongly encourage you (and your family) to attend this most special Shabbat service. We have found that our Or Chadash community has little knowledge of what our Confirmation (Grades 8/9/10) program is all about--much less a Confirmation service. It is only after attending this remarkable service that parents, students and congregants understand the power, the connection and the meaning this event can transmit to you, your child, and your entire family. Those first-time attendees will remark during the celebratory oneg following the service that the statements of Jewish identity from the Confirmands created a memorable, powerful and uplifting message. And we agree. This is the capstone event of the year. We believe that listening to these five 10th grade students and meeting their parents will give you a new perspective on our Or Chadash programming and specifically -- our Confirmation education curriculum. These high-school students are all hyper-involved in sports, clubs and academics, yet they each made the commitment to continue their Jewish education with the support and encouragement of their parents. Today, everyone one of them considers that decision to have been life-changing. It is sometimes challenging to explain to adults as well as pre-teens where Judaism fits into their lives. These five students will be talking about "What does the 'Jewish' me look like?" As our Confirmands answer that question, we hope you will be there to witness and support these students and their families as Or Chadash comes together as a community to celebrate this most significant and meaningful lifecycle event. It will be a Shabbat to remember. |
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Mitzvah Day 2014
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Rabbi Tarfon said: It is not your duty to complete the work, but neither are you free to avoid it. Pirke Avot 2:2  1
Please join us and participate in Mitzvah Day at Or Chadash on Sunday, May 18, 2014 from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM. (Mitzvah Day will be held rain or shine.) This is a wonderful opportunity to get involved in the Or Chadash community and have a huge impact on our world.
The entire Or Chadash community is encouraged to donate just a few hours of time. We have projects for all ages and abilities. Some projects will be done at the Temple and others will be done off-site. Thank you in advance for your generosity of time and money to support the many activities of Mitzvah Day. Mitzvah Day will also include a blood drive at Or Chadash. New Jersey Blood Services will have a mobile blood unit on site from 8 am until 2 pm. Like last year, we will host a bone marrow registry program. Please RSVP and sign up for projects here. Mitzvah Day FAQs can be found on the home page of our website.
If you cannot attend Mitzvah day--or you know that you will not be at Or Chadash for our Mitzvah Day 8:45 AM start time, please make sure to drop off your donated items by Thursday, May 15.
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Passover Seder 2014
| | On Tuesday, April 15, members of the Congregation celebrated the second night of Passover with a seder. The meal was prepared by congregant Karen Tovi-Jones.
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What You Might Have Missed
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Temple Tots
Celebrating Passover and making Charoset
 
Matzoh and Pita Making at Bobolink Bakery
On Sunday, April 6, members of the congregation joined friends from the Islamic Center of Hunterdon County for some matzoh and pita making.
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