Picnic on Highlands: Tu B’Shevat Edition
January 30 @ 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM
Temple Beth-El
Save the date for the Tu B’Shevat edition of Picnic on Highlands! Picnic on Highlands is a special series of outdoor gatherings with a focus on young families. Bring a lunch, a blanket or chairs, and, of course, your favorite face mask. We’ll provide warm treats and drinks, Tu B’Shevat snacks, Shabbat friendly activities and additional childcare, so that parents can socialize too. Picnic on Highlands takes place at Caldwell Park.
Sister Cities Cultural Exchange Series
January 31 @ 11:00 am - 12:00 pm
Israel Connections Committee
Join Birmingham, New Orleans and sister city Rosh Haayin for a cultural exchange series. The history of Jewish Birmingham and the Civil Rights Movement. Register here!
Tu B’Shevat with Social Action Committee
January 31 @ 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
Temple Beth-El
For this holiday SAC is inviting TBE Family and Friends to join SAC in the lower parking lot of TBE on Sunday, January 31, 2021 at 1:00PM. There will be a farmer’s truck with 2/900 pound pallets of apples waiting for us. We will put these apples into 10 pound bags. It should take us about 1½ hours to complete. Then these bags will be picked up and delivered to various locations needing food to “end hunger”.
This is a great Mitzvah project you and SAC can accomplish for TBE and the Society of St. Andrews to help “END HUNGER”.
"The New Jewish Canon”:
A Conversation about Contemporary Judaism
February 2 @ 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Temple Emanu-El
The late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries have been a period of mass production and proliferation of Jewish ideas, and have witnessed major changes in Jewish life and stimulated major debates. Join this class to talk about the book, “The New Jewish Canon,” which came out this year in July. This book offers a conceptual roadmap to make sense of some of this rapid change. The New Jewish Canon is an entry point for the Jewish intellectual and communal zeitgeist of the contemporary period and the recent past, canonizing our most important ideas and debates of the past two generations; and just as importantly, stimulating debate and scholarship about what is yet to come. Join Rebbetzin Bethany with your lunch on zoom to talk about some of these debates. Register here for the zoom link.
Introduction to Judaism with Rabbi Adam Wright
February 2 @ 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Temple Emanu-El
Join us for an engaging 12-session course for anyone interested in exploring Jewish life. Open to all, this course is perfect for interfaith couples, those rearing Jewish children, spiritual seekers, individuals considering a “return” – (conversion), and Jews who want a meaningful adult Jewish learning experience. Our programs welcome people from all backgrounds. Topics include holidays, life cycle celebrations, theology and core beliefs, prayer, Torah, history, antisemitism, and the Holocaust, Zionism, and Israel, the North American Jewish experience, and the tapestry of the Jewish people today. Register here.
The Holocaust in Focus:
French Children of the Holocaust
February 2 @ 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM
Birmingham Holocaust Education Center
In 1996, Serge Klarsfeld edited French Children of the Holocaust: A Memorial, a nearly 2,000 page book documenting the roundup and deportation of thousands of French children. At the time of the book’s publication, the Los Angeles Times commented: “French Children of the Holocaust: A Memorial, more vividly than any other source I know in any language, presents the human personhood of the catastrophe. About 2,500 images–arduously gathered over 20 years from snapshots, formal portraits, family groupings, identity cards, memorial plaques, and gravestones–show French-born children and those who had found refuge in France, infants through late adolescents, looking out with smooth fresh features. These are not the children precariously hidden with Gentile families or in convents and monasteries, or those luckily sent on children’s transports to England, but girls and boys living their everyday lives before they learned what “deportation” meant.”
Dr. Clark Hultquist will lead a discussion of selected photographs from this harrowing work and attempt to contextualize the Holocaust in France, discussing the perpetrators, collaborators, and the victims.
JewCurious?
February 3 @ 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM
Temple Beth-El
Are you JewCurious? Have you heard that Judaism is about asking questions? Questions are the start of a great conversation. I would say, Judaism is about a great conversation. Come learn more about what that conversation sounds like by joining this JewCurious Class. This class is for everyone looking to get a broad overview of Judaism. This 101 class lasts for 20 weeks and is open to anyone who is curious. We’ll explore the major narratives, history, practices, theology and values of Judaism. You can expect that the learning will happen with curiosity and open-mindedness and respect for one another’s boundaries and beliefs. Taught by Bethany Slater from Temple Beth El. To register: Click here to register!
The Birmingham Jewish Federation
Annual Campaign Community Kickoff Event
February 6 @ 6:00 PM
Kick off the 2021 Annual campaign with the a family fun event! Join us at the Grand River Drive-In Saturday, February 6th at 6 PM! For more information and to RSVP please click here!
Come Together- B'Yachad
Tuesdays, February 9, 16, & 23 12 PM - 1 PM. EST
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
The JDC is the leading Jewish humanitarian organization, working in
70 countries to lift lives and strengthen communities.
Come together with JDC for a three-part virtual journey to Israel featuring stunning nature views, from the North to the Negev. Discover how JDC is helping Israel chart a new course for the most vulnerable — breaking down boundaries and increasing opportunities for all.
Join us on this powerful journey. All are welcome! Register here!
Financial Assistance Available
for Jewish Community Members
Thanks to a grant from the Greatest Needs Fund of the Birmingham Jewish Federation’s COVID Relief Campaign, Collat Jewish Family Services is offering financial assistance to Jewish community members who are facing financial insecurity because of job loss, caring for family or other issues. Confidential assistance is available to members of the Birmingham Jewish community who need help with rent or mortgage payments, utilities, prescription costs or other needs. To learn more, please email CJFS Clinical Director Marcy Morgenbesser LICSW, marcy@cjfsbham.org or call 205.879.3438.
