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Friday, April 10, 2020. Issue #8.

Cultural Arts & Trips

James Sokol  Director of Adult Learning and Living

Destination Japan Japan is renowned for its cherry blossom festivals . Known as hanami (pronounced huh·NAA·mee), this “viewing flowers” is an important tradition held throughout the country, starting in January in the southern islands of Okinawa to March/April in the central region of Honshu to May in Hokkaido, the northern-most island. Its origin dates back over 1,000 years to when aristocrats enjoyed looking at beautiful cherry blossoms and writing poems inspired by them. Click on the button below for a tour of Japan Guide’s Top-10 Cherry Blossom Spots in Japan. Japan's Top Cherry Blossom Spots

Kyoto, Japan’s ancient capital, is known for a high concentration of cherry blossoms. Avoid the crowds and visit Japan Guide’s Top-10 Cherry Blossom Spots in Kyoto ,.  Kyoto's Top Cherry Blossom Spots Create your own festival at home with the linked videos and a “Cherry Blossom Cocktail.” Cherry BlossomCocktail Recipe Read the Brooklyn Botanical Garden’s article: Hanami: Cherry Blossom Culture in Japan. Cherry Blossom Culture

Health & Fitness Heather Skoda JCC General Manager Lisa Vincent's Meditation Workshop: Finding Your Center in Challenging Times Mark your calendar for Sunday, April 12, 10-11:30 AM. This class is for all of us, but you do need to pre-register. Lisa Vincent  will gently guide us in meditation to support us in feeling grounded and centered.   We'll practice calming yogic breathing techniques, and we'll relax into a visualization designed to help us let go of the thoughts and feelings that don’t serve us well in these challenging times. Free Pre-Registration And, remember, we have a webpage full of upcoming and pre-recorded workouts for you, too.  www.marinjcc.org /virtualworkouts Performing Arts Linda Bolt Director, Kanbar Center for Performing Arts It was almost exactly one year ago that the amazing chef, author and critic  Ruth Reichl shared our stage with Soleil Ho , chef, food writer, podcaster, and (at the time,) the newly appointed restaurant critic for the San Francisco Chronicle. Read the Interview In the new season of Top Chef, Ruth is a guest judge on the second episode! Hear what she has to say about that. Listen to Ruth And while we’re all at home cooking, why not try one of her easy go-to recipes. Ruth's Recipes

By the way, if you haven't subscribed to the twice-a-week email newsletter  Moments of Joy, Learning & Laughter,  you're missing out on some wonderful, feel-good content. It's highly recommended for its fun theatrical and musical clips with colorful commentary from Adult Learning & Living's James Sokol. Just send an email to him:  jsokol@marinjcc.org  and put 'Subscribe me!" in the subject line.

Jewish Peoplehood

Heidi Sanders Director of the Taube Center for Jewish Peoplehood Every year during Passover, I find myself revisiting this video of Israel's Batsheva Dance Company performing Echad Mi Yodea . The song is a cumulative-number song found in the Passover Haggadah and is frequently sung by children. Choreographer Ohad Naharin's now-iconic version has a visceral energy to it, and it has been performed hundreds of times around the world since its 1990 debut. During this remarkable year, in which we celebrate Passover on Zoom, and contemplate the holiday's themes of slavery and liberation in the shadow of an unfolding plague, Batsheva's performance is particularly poignant. Watch the Amazing Batsheva Dance Dancer Stefan Ferry , described the physical and meditative experience of the performance as such: “It’s a rough one…you enter the song by repeating the movement, entering a short trance, a meditation...You shout loud enough for people to hear and then you sit and wait…and this waiting is like a charging point.” For me, this description is parallel to our own reality in April 2020: Hunkering down as long as we are able, making our voices loud enough to be heard in this time of isolation, and understanding that this sitting and waiting is our own charging point. Then, with a shared hope that when this is over, we can once again rejoin our daily movements with those of our community.

Jewish Engagement Joanne Greene Director of Jewish Engagement Passover is the original Jewish Engagement story. Our main task is to tell the story in both traditional and creative ways. That’s why there are so many different Haggadot (plural of Haggadah), with new ones being published every year. My humble collection alone contains a Sephardic Haggadah, the 30-Minute Seder, At Our Rebbe’s Seder Table, an Egalitarian Haggadah, and, of course, the Maxwell House Haggadah, a gift with your coffee purchase in the 1960’s. We teach our children and grandchildren that the story of the Jewish people is about moving from slavery to freedom. The Passover story affirms that questioning is good, that we all learn differently and have different personality styles, that leaders might not always look like our previous conceptions. Passover teaches us that it’s not just about gaining freedom, but what we’re going to do with freedom once we attain it. That’s why we wandered in the desert for forty years—to learn how to be a community, to work for the greater good, to make choices that will enable us to thrive. Adult Learning & Living Danielle Vierra Adult Learning & Living The Art of Journaling Diaries, ships' logs, ranch records: all are journals and collections for record keeping, poetry, expression, and exploration. A journal charts progress (or stasis) of the heart, the thoughts, and the world as viewed in that unique moment. It's a practice one might be inclined to take up now. Take a look at this article describing the first well-known diarists and their practice. Early Diarists Journaling takes many forms: personal, expository, cathartic, technical. Examples include luminaries like Thomas Edison, iconoclasts like Anais Nin, and marginalized people whose words were not exposed to the world for generations, like Emilie Davis and Michael Shiner. Noteworthy Journal-Keepers People still do write diaries in our world—often part therapy and part artistic expression. For example, Nature Journaling champion, Marley Peifer, captures his explorations in nature in great detail using both drawings and words to capture a moment and place in time. Perhaps his work will inspire you? Nature Journaling

Camp & Youth

Brittany Mahalik  Director of Camp & Youth Programs

Let's all come together to learn about the story of Passover, different rituals, and other fun facts about this celebration of freedom!

See "It's Passover, Grover!" JCC Association of North America and Shalom Sesame are proud to present: It's Passover, Grover! Monday, April 13 at 12pm PT Join us on Facebook LIVE

Early Childhood Education

Tamar Lai Director of Early Childhood Education Shabbat with Asaf Ophir, JCC Preschool’s Music Specialist Listen to Asaf

An Odd Guest at Seder For most of us, the Passover Seder this year was unusual, and, as if to prove it, we received this picture from a well-known JCC staff member who prefers anonymity. So what are we looking at? Is this a Zoom face filter at a virtual Seder? We're not sure if it's funny-funny or funny-weird, or flat-out scary! But one thing is certain, this Seder guest (Mr.McMatzaBallFace?) is unusual and a fitting symbol for the strangeness of these times. Thank you, Anonymous, for sharing. (We think.)

Stay well, Friends. We miss you.  Expect Issue #9 on Tuesday, April 14th.