Our High Holy Days continue with the holiday of Sukkot! We will be building our Sukkah this weekend for you to visit and enjoy! Come celebrate Sukkot with these great upcoming events!

• Erev Sukkot Experience & First Night Fiesta on Sunday, October 9th
• Scotch in the Sukkah on Wednesday, October 12th 
• Erev Simchat Torah and Consecration on Sunday, October 16th
• Simchat Torah Morning Yizkor Service on Monday, October 17th.

Sunday, Oct. 23rd // 9:30am // In Person

The Havurah Zion presents: Judge LaDoris Hazzard Cordell who will discuss her recently published memoir Her Honor: My Life on the Bench… What Works, What’s Broken, and How to Change It. Her Honor is a finalist for the 2022 California Book Award and for the 2022 Northern California Book Award. It is a revealing and insider look at the life of a trial judge and also discusses how we can make our legal system more fair and just.

Program:

9:30-10 AM - Coffee, Bagels & Networking

10:00-11:00 - Judge Cordell

11:00-11:15 - Questions from the audience

Join Us Here

Saturday, Oct. 8th // 9:00am // In Person 

Temple Emanu-El presents a Shabbat experience geared towards families with children ages 1-30 months. Little ones will enjoy a service full of Shabbat songs and Torah talk! Kiddush, motzi, and a bagel oneg sponsored by Temple Emanu-El Sisterhood follows this fun-filled program. What a great opportunity for parents of young children to meet and form groups- perhaps even life long friendships- with their peers. Everyone is welcome!

Please register in advance

Sunday, Oct. 9th // 5:00pm // In Person 

Come join your fellow congregants and clergy as we welcome in Sukkot with a fiesta dinner and celebration! Our membership committee is providing a nacho bar and sangria for everyone to enjoy! You are invited to decorate the Sukkah with your family and partake in the mitzvah of dining in it as well. This event is open to all age groups.

Celebrate with us here!

Wednesday, Oct. 12th // 6:30pm // In Person 

Brought to you by Temple Emanu-El's Brotherhood, we proudly present Scotch in the Sukkah! A fine array of scotch whiskies will be available for tasting, in addition to appetizers & taps for you to enjoy. Cost will be $80 per person. Registration required. Open to all.

Join Us Here

Saturday, Oct. 15th // 9:00am // In Person 

Come together like roots of a redwood and join Rabbi Magat, Cantor Shafritz and Midpen Open Space Docent Naturalists Nancy Weintraub, Liza Coe and Rae Collins for our special Sukkot Shabbat in Nature  at Purisima Creek Redwood Preserve near Half Moon Bay. Experience what Sukkot would have been like for the Israelites if they lived near a Redwood forest.

More Info  & Register Here

Sunday, Oct. 16th // 5:00pm // In Person & Streamed

Tonight begins Simchat Torah, the celebration of reaching the end of reading the Torah, and then starting over again. Traditionally, the Torah scrolls are taken from the ark and carried or danced around the synagogue seven times. 

Additionally, tonight is our Consecration service, when we recognize all of our new religious school students, Kindergarten and older. We welcome them into our Temple Emanu-El family with our community service and blessing from the clergy, Rabbi Magat & Cantor Shafritz.

Celebrate with us here

Friday, October 21st // 7:00pm // In Person & Streamed

Introducing Ruach Shabbat! Lift and renew your spirit with a lively, musical Kabbalat Shabbat service featuring members of our Rock Shabbat band, led by Cantor Shafritz and Rabbi Magat. Inspired by contemporary, progressive Israeli worship, join us as we make a joyful noise and celebrate Shabbat together. 

Following the musical Ruach Shabbat, join us for Special Oneg for prospective members hosted by the membership committee. This fun event is an opportunity to enjoy festive fall foods, like pretzels, beer and more, with the opportunity to schmooze with our clergy and Temple members

Register Here

Sunday, Oct. 23rd // 7:00pm // Zoom 

 Join what is certain to be a great discussion of this riveting autobiography, Never Alone: Prison, Politics and My People, by Natan Sharansky. Be sure to register below to get the link for this next book club.

In 1977, Natan Sharansky, a leading activist in the democratic dissident movement in the Soviet Union and the movement for free Jewish emigration, was arrested by the KGB. He spent nine years as a political prisoner, convicted of treason against the state. Every day, Sharansky fought for individual freedom in the face of overt tyranny, a struggle that would come to define the rest of his life.

More Info Here

Tuesday Oct. 25th & Thursday Oct. 27th, both at 5-7pm ,

CLIMATE & DEMOCRACY ARE ON THE LINE TOGETHER in the upcoming election. To achieve the science-based policy solutions we need, we must also protect our democracy from voter suppression and build connections with people who are concerned about climate change all over the U.S.

That’s why RAC-CA’s Climate Tzedek Campaign is teaming up with the Environmental Voter Project and Dayenu: A Jewish Call to Climate Action to call low-propensity, high potential, climate-concerned voters in Arizona, and make sure they know the when, where, and how of voting, and voting safely. 

Register here for Tuesday, October 25 at 5 p.m. PT.

Register here for Thursday, October 27 at 5 p.m. PT.

Together, we’ll learn to use the phone banking tool, then we’ll stay on Zoom to make calls and offer each other guidance and encouragement. We’ll close with a live musical performance!

If you missed any of our services, not to worry! All of them are available on our YouTube Channel. We are currently uploading complete services. Please click here for our Youtube Channel.

If you took your lanyard home, we kindly ask that you return it next time you are at Temple.

Since the start of the pandemic,  the need for food has skyrocketed. Second Harvest of Silicon Valley is now serving 450,000 people on average every month, an 80% increase over

pre-pandemic levels. 

Community support has been vital to Second Harvest’s ability to meet the dramatic increase in need.

Helping those in our community is what [Virtual food drive name] is all about. 

Your gift to Second Harvest helps provide hope and security to families across Silicon Valley who are still

recovering from the financial devastation caused by the pandemic. A gift of $1 helps provide enough food

for 2 meals.

Donate Here

The JCRC of Silicon Valley, together with local rabbis, sent a letter to all Superintendents and school principals in Santa Clara County advising them of the dates for the Jewish High Holidays and providing a link to the Jewish Calendar. The intention of the letter is to provide support to Jewish families throughout our community by sharing these important dates with our school administrators, while educating and encouraging understanding as our families take time away from school to celebrate.

Click here for the link to the JCRC blog, to access the letter and learn more. Please share with your friends, family and networks!

Are you looking for ways to get involved in the Temple Emanu-El family? Are you looking to do Mitzvah?

Opportunities including helping out on Friday afternoons to prepare the Oneg Platters for Shabbat Services.

If you want to help out, please email us and we pair you up with the perfect opportunity. Email us at admin@templesanjose.org to sign up

Please check date availability here

Monday, October 10th // 6:30pm // Sukkah on Lone Mountain*  & Online 

 Part of the JSSJ "Open Doors" Sukkot Program + in celebration of Indigenous Peoples' Day

In his award-winning book, The Jews' Indian: Colonialism, Pluralism, and Belonging in America (2019), scholar David S. Koffman investigates the history of relations between American Jews and American Indians, both in the realm of cultural imagination and face-to-face encounters. In this talk Koffman will discuss this largely unknown piece of modern Jewish history within the context of both the longer, more complex entanglements between settlers and Indigenous peoples in American history, and contemporary Jewish efforts to grapple with the legacies of colonialism and advance the cause of justice on Turtle Island.

Immediately following Koffman's talk, USF Professor Kouslaa Kessler-Mata, an American Indian studies scholar, will moderate a Q&A discussion.

* The event will take place in the campus sukkah, between Lone Mountain Main and the Pacific Wing dorms. However, if it rains it will be relocated to Fromm Hall's Xavier Auditorium.

More info here

Register Here for the Webinar

Sunday, October 23rd // 4:00pm // In Person

 Join Saul Dreier and the Hot Kugel band, to celebrate life, strength, and music through the Jewish songs that lived with us for many years. The program will feature traditional Klezmer tunes, Eastern European melodies and Yiddish songs. The evening will open with an intimate interview, conducted by Ruth Litwin, Chair of the Healthy Aging Committee at Jewish Silicon Valley.

About Saul Dreier: Saul, a Holocaust survivor from Poland, moved to Florida after World War II. At age 89, he decided to start the Holocaust Survivor Band, a klezmer band to keep alive the music he grew up with, and through the music, to memorialize those who perished in the Holocaust. Joined by Ruby Sosnowicz, also a Holocaust survivor from Poland, the band was invited to play around the world. A documentary of this amazing journey has been shown at many film festivals including the Silicon Valley Jewish Film Festival (SVJFF) in 2020. Click here to view the trailer.

Join Us Here

Help Respond to the Current Refugee Crisis: Did you know that in Santa Clara County, Jewish Family Services of Silicon Valley is one of only two nonprofits providing refugee resettlement and connected services for families and individuals?

Currently, JFS SV is assisting refugees from Afghanistan and other locations. If you are interested in learning more, have questions or ideas, or would like to provide support to refugees in other ways, please contact JFS SV volunteer and refugee housing committee member, Debbie Michels, debbiemichels@yahoo.com, 408-507-1282. Thank you!

More Details Here