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Our Minyan Needs Your Help!
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KIDDUSH
Join us for Kiddush on Shabbat. This is the perfect opportunity for us to experience community and get to know each other better.
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Mazal Tov!
Birthdays & Anniversaries
April 1st - 7th
Paul Cohen
Josephine Landman
Shari Whitman
David Kessler & Lauren Peccoralo
Leo & Mary Rettig
Harry & Miriam Richman
Steven Schwalbe & Annemarie Krim
Marvin & Janet Chertkoff
Tuesday April 4th
Sisterhood Executive Board Meeting 1:00 pm
Thursday April 6th
Rabbi's Class 10:30 am
Visiting Scholar Rabbi David Fine PHD 12:45 pm
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Friday April 7th
Bible Study 11:30 am
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Well, we're back from AIPAC, and this year was doubly exhausting: the usual 'on the go' from eight in the morning until at least nine at night, and the disappointment of learning that our talks with the New Synagogue seem to have been pre-empted. (More on that down the road when we hope to know more, and have had a chance to process what happened.)
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United States had to turn to Israel for help in unlocking the San Bernardino terrorist's iPhone; it turns out that the favor has been returned:
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There were three items on AIPAC's legislative lobbying agenda: expenditures for missile defense (within the context of foreign aid for other countries, not just Israel), sanctions against Iran's ICBM program, and noncompliance with the blacklist that the UN Commission on Human Rights (UNHCR) is seeking to mandate (which is, essentially, a form of boycott). What follows are several articles on two of the three legislative items, and other articles related to the Human Rights Commission (what a misnomer!), BDS, and a very welcome new stance in support of Israel by Teresa May's government, and her Foreign Sec., Boris Johnson:
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AIPAC
Five members of our congregation attended the AIPAC Policy Conference. Two were college freshmen! (Casey Danoff and Neil Dasgupta), joined by Iris Coleman, Tobey, Lyden and Hilda Froelke.
During services tomorrow morning we will report to the congregation on what we heard and saw, and our impressions. (And if it takes two sermon-length slots to get through it all, will continue next Shabbat morning as well).
With over 18,000 people in attendance, it's not possible to be everywhere and witness everything. I only saw a very small group of protesters outside the Verizon Center's sports arena when I left on Sunday night to take a group to dinner. I did not see any of the other dissent/protest described in this next article.
Here's the best evidence, in addition to the strong bipartisan political support that AIPAC is indeed striking a middle ground: one of our members told me that s/he wouldn't attend for fear of being marginalized/overwhelmed/excluded/made to feel unwelcome by the Trump/Bibi supporters; and another told me that s/he didn't want to go because of all the liberals. So AIPAC must be doing something right!
Again, let me remind you that all of us should support AIPAC; its organizational strength and the respected has in the halls of Congress are unmatched. Can any of us really quarrel with a legislative agenda that seeks full and continued funding for Iron Dome, Arrow and David's Sling, or sanctions against Iran, or opposition to UN-sponsored, McCarthy-like blacklists of those who do business with Israel?
Go ahead and support JStreet, ZOA, or any other politically-oriented Israel organization, but do that in addition to AIPAC.
I was not aware how many breakout sessions were close to the press. I know that the one I attended on Lebanon, given by an Israeli colonel, was closed for obvious security reasons. So was Wall Street Journal columnist Brett Stephens' very frank and personal opinions shared with Rabbinical Assembly (Conservative Movement) rabbis. Rabbi Donniel Hartman had some very blunt and distressing things to say about Israeli society that our departure from Israel's official line, but he certainly makes no secret of his views, and he voices them very publicly. The truth is, I'm not sure if his session (exclusively for the rabbis and cantors of all movements) was close to the press are not.
All of the above is by way of introduction to this editorial:
Vice President Pence and Rwanda's President Paul Kagame highlight the first day of the bipartisanship schmoozefest in D.C.
Plus kosher sushi, kosher jokes
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Israel's Water Sources
At AIPAC, Alan Dershowitz introduced us to one latest water inventions: an apparatus that can extract moisture out of the air and transform it into drinkable water. We also heard that Israel now has a surplus of water and was exploiting it to other countries! And we heard from Californians how grateful they are for Israel's assistance in helping them to deal with their severe water shortages.
The next article describes the tremendous depletion of Israel's natural water sources: aquifiers, streams and lakes, and the one after that alerts us to the down-side of drinking so much desalinated water:
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Israel & Other Countries
With their mass-exodus to Israel after 1948, an ancient community that once numbered over 100,000 now counts perhaps 18 souls struggling to maintain empty synagogues.
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Pop Culture
Oslo Talks on Broadway
Playwright J.T. Rogers talks about the deputies' deputies who allow him to tell a complicated diplomatic story, why the play resonates today, and why the 1990s seems so very long ago now
Red Hot Mama (Cass Elliot)
A graphic biography of singer Cass Elliot traces her journey from a kosher deli in Baltimore to the top of the pop charts
The Super Bowl champion and marathoner recently ran the Jerusalem race, returing to Israel for the first time since visiting Peres there
Two proud Jews are having a war of the words. Would you believe it?
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On going film -- Various Venues
MR. GAGA
follows choreographer Ohad Naharin at a critical turning point in his personal life. This spirited and insightful documentary will introduce you to a man with great artistic integrity and an extraordinary vision. Mr. Gaga tells Naharin's personal story of this controversial, political, and always entertaining figure, and his constant battle for artistic perfection. Eight years in the making, Mr. Gaga traces Ohad Naharin's artistic roots using personal family footage, intimate rehearsal footage, extensive unseen archive material and stunning dance sequences. Heymann weaves a marvelous tale of what it takes to be a genius, the exhausting toll dance can take on its performers, and finally, the beauty that art can bring to this world.
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A group of young adults with Down syndrome embark on a demanding trip through the Himalayas accompanied by their typically abled siblings, bringing unresolved challenges to the surface. Winner, Best Documentary, Jerusalem Film Festival.
as part of
Reelabilities
- the largest festival in the country dedicated to awareness and appreciation of the lives, stories and artistic expressions of people with disabilities.
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Creative Action Network
Creative Action Network and the Anti-Defamation League are teaming up to invite artists to illustrate refugee stories from across time and geography. Maybe your family fled pogroms in Eastern Europe, from Nazism, from political oppression in Iran or the Soviet Union. Maybe you know someone who fled Uganda or other countries that persecute members of the LGBT community, maybe you are concerned about how many today have to flee extreme violence and persecution. No matter where refugees came from or their reason for fleeing, each story is unique--but connected. We hope to build a collection of pieces that rise above the noise and hateful rhetoric by humanizing the refugee experience.
Crowdsourced, creative campaigns that enlist artist and designers to create work around different ideas and causes. All designs that meet the requirements in their respective creative briefs will be published and made available for sale as prints and other merchandise. Artists retain ownership of their work but grant us permission to promote, license and sell it in exchange for 40% of the proceeds.
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T
ORAH Page 585 HAFTARAH Page 607
VA-YIKRA
The third Book of the Torah begins with the five personal and voluntary sacrifices that an individual could bring. The Torah is very specific about where these sacrifices were to be offered (on the Sanctuary's courtyard altar), that the priest must perform the ritual on behalf of the person bringing the sacrifices, and that restitution or repentance must precede the offering, if applicable.
Our sidra's sacrifices are: The Olah (Voluntary), Minha (Meal Offering, brought by someone of limited means) Sh'lamim (Thanksgiving or Peace),
Hatat
(Sin-Offering, for an action committed unwittingly or in error), and
Asham
(Guilt-Offering, for the unintentional withholding of tithes and donations, or for falsely retaining another's property)
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