Link of the Week: Videos by Reform leaders to accompany your Passover festivities! View the collection, including a clip by our Director of Education, Sue Bojdak.

Are you a Sha'ar Zahav member? We are looking for your opinions! Please fill out this survey and help us begin to reimagine our community and build sanctuary together post-COVID. Your answers will be completely confidential, so please tell us what you really think!

Please Complete the 15-minute Survey Here. We have until next week to get your input!

If you'd like your name and email to be removed from the survey list, or would like to opt-out your responses at any point, please contact Liliana Peliks.

Register Here. Meeting ID: 452 290 988.

Join the Zoom Meeting. Meeting ID: 365 434 855 and Passcode: 068575.

To join by phone for either service, dial +1 669 900 9128 or find your local number.

Golan Moskowitz, scholar of Jewish studies, will share with us the evolution of Maurice Sendak’s artistic vision and its appeal for American, Jewish, and queer audiences. The talk will show how Sendak’s multiple perspectives as a gay, Holocaust-conscious, American-born son of Yiddish-speaking Polish immigrants informed his life and work, and changed the face of children’s literature.

Learn More and Register. Reply to this email and we will waive the $15 fee for Non-members.

Traditional models, such as CCRCs (continuing care retirement communities) are changing and becoming more expensive, rendering them out of reach for most of us Boomers. Join us to learn about innovation in housing, from intergenerational living to community housing with affinity groups. Facilitated by Paisha Rochlin. Please feel free to email her with any questions.

Open to All! Join the Zoom Meeting: Zoom link

Presented by the Trans Gender Non-Conforming Group, this program is an accompaniment to the Trans Jews are Here conference by CBST, co-sponsored by Sha'ar Zahav. The theme of the panel will be inclusion in the synagogue, and the program will include breakout sessions about pronouns, shifting identities, dispelling misconceptions, and safe-space for trans-attracted people. Questions? Please contact Martin Rawlings-Fein.

Open to All. Join the Zoom Meeting: Zoom link

This year has brought us losses and sorrows -- deaths, disappointments and isolation. Many of us have found that our normal coping strategies aren't working. Join Dr. Betsy Stone for an interactive discussion of the impact of COVID and other traumas on our brains, our bodies and our communities.

Open to All, for Free. Join the Zoom Meeting: Zoom link

We have re-launched the theatre/movie chavurah and we are starting by watching "God of Vengeance" (view the details below) and discussing it together on Thursday, March 25 at 6pm. Let us know if you'd like to join and we will send you the details!

Please email Yvette Adida or Liliana Peliks. After this first meeting, we will convene as a group to discuss a plan to move forward with frequency, dates, genres etc.

An artful video adaptation of Sholem Asch’s ground-breaking 1906 play, in English! Surrounded by controversy (the first Broadway production was closed down for portraying unconventional Jewish characters and the first lesbian kiss on Broadway), this play was the inspiration for the award-winning Broadway show, Indecent.

We Are Reading "The Book of V." by Anna Solomon and Discussing it on April 22

We are reading "The Book of V." by Anna Solomon as part of the One Bay One Book project of the Jewish Community Library. Let's read and discuss this new novel, rooted in the Book of Esther, where three characters’ stories in different time periods overlap and ultimately collide. Perfect to start reading during Purim!

A limited number of books will be available on loan starting on March 22. If you'd like to borrow a copy, please email Liliana Peliks.

Join the Zoom Meeting: Zoom link

During this season of Passover, as we remember how the Jewish people yearned to find a place to call home, we are accepting donations for our neighbors who still have no place to call home and are in need of support and assistance.

We are collecting items for the St. John's Safe Sleep Site Accompaniment Program. Please view their Amazon wish list for elders and adults with disabilities and the unhoused individuals in the Mission.

To Donate and Coordinate a Drop-off, Please Contact Deb Farkas

A Passover-themed virtual vigil with Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity, Or Shalom and Congregation Sha’ar Zahav to stand with those directly impacted by the prison system, U.S. immigration systems and laws, and U.S. foreign and domestic policies that damage people’s lives.

Join us to hear testimonies from women impacted by these systems, and listen to a retelling of the freedom-from-bondage message of Passover and the roles women play in liberation interpreted by Rabbi Katie Mizrahi and Rabbi Mychal Copeland.

Everyone is welcome! Our ongoing topics are post-elections actions, hunger, immigration, homelessness, racial justice, and gun violence. We meet every month but you may contact Geri Kahn or Nancy Wecker anytime.

Join the Zoom Meeting: Zoom link

We would like to thank everyone who came to hear Andrea Miller speak last Sunday. The John Lewis Memorial Voter Engagement Group will be working with Andrea Miller's organization, the Center for Common Ground. If you would like to be part of this effort by writing postcards please contact Tirtza Peal. These postcards will help voters turn out for the June 2021 primary election in Virginia.

If you would like to be part of a small group making phone calls with text message follow-ups to voters for an important state election in Texas (district 6), please contact Ruth Schoenbach.

Adult B’Mitzvah Program

Many of us did not become B’Mitzvah as children and feel like it might be time to make that connection. Our Adult B’mitzvah Program (ABP) is a monthly group educational program, which runs for approximately 8 – 12 months. In the ABP you will learn about the history of the ritual and explore what it means to become an adult B’mitzvah. You will have practical classes in giving a D’var Torah, reading/chanting from the Torah, leading services, and learning the prayer service.

There will also be sessions on the who, what, and why of prayer, different perspectives of G-d, everyday spirituality and much more. The process culminates in either an individual or group B’mitzvah on a Saturday morning at Sha’ar Zahav.

Contact the coordinator Mark Pressler to let us know you are interested or would like to hear more!

Mussar is a very practical and flexible spiritual discipline to help you balance soul-traits (Middah/Middot) such as Humility, Loving-Kindness, Generosity, and Silence. Drop-ins are always welcome! For more information, contact Mark Pressler.

Join the Zoom Meeting: Zoom link

Study the weekly Torah portion with Rabbi Copeland and lay leaders. For the first half hour, we’ll talk, learn and share thoughts about the portion. In the second half, we will practice our Hebrew reading skills in a compassionate environment! Join for either or both parts of the study.

Join the Zoom Meeting: Zoom link

Jews love to say we are “God-strugglers,” so let’s explore the rich Jewish landscape of God-talk, from the classics like Buber, Kaplan, Heschel to feminist and queer Jewish theologies. We will explore how theology, pantheism, and atheism attempt to answer the most profound questions of our time.

Sign up for the whole class or drop in when you’re able. We'll be counting the omer. Open to all.

Free to Members and $15 for Non-members. Register Here.

Va'ad meetings are open to everyone in our member community. We meet the third Wednesday of every month. Join us!

Join the Zoom Meeting: Zoom link

Focusing on France, Germany, Poland, and Hungary, this program will examine the current condition of their Jewish communities, now facing their greatest challenges since the fall of the Berlin Wall. We will analyze the recent surge in anti-Semitism, the deteriorating image of Israel, advances and setbacks in commemorating the Holocaust, and more. Led by award-winning

historian, educator, and teacher Fred Rosenbaum.

Drop in for a joyful hour of free art-making and connection. Everyone is welcome! The group meets every Thursday. For more information, contact Paisha Rochlin, Barbara Cymrot or AJ Turpen Fried.

Join the Zoom Meeting: Zoom link

During this time of immense loss and grief, we are holding regular Kaddish Memory Circles to support each other. Rabbi Mychal Copeland, Ora Prochovnick and Martin Tannenbaum will alternate leading these circles twice a month.

Join the Zoom Meeting: Zoom link

You are invited to a twice-a-month Shabbat morning exploration of yoga and Judaism that integrates mind, body, and spirit. Stuart Dick and Rabbi Mychal Copeland will alternate leading the first and third Saturday of every month.

Join the Zoom Meeting: Zoom link

Everyone is welcome. And you will not regret it! A typical session includes a short and longer silent sit, with chanting, movement, and a short teaching. The group meets on the first and third Saturday of every month.

Join the Zoom Meeting: Zoom link

Songs and prayers to set our hearts and minds! This service takes place every Tuesday morning, and is led by community lay leaders and Cantor Bernstein. For more information, contact Cantor Bernstein.

Join the Zoom Meeting: Zoom link

Let's work together at Sha'ar Zahav's Gathertown, set up by Rebbetzin Kirsti Copeland. We'll be in the virtual space on Wednesdays from 10am-12pm for the month of March. Want to join? Have questions? Please email Sara Beroff.

Join Virtually: Sha'ar Zahav Gathertown

Join to meet others with disabilities and work towards a more accessible Sha'ar Zahav on Zoom and when we go back to the synagogue building. We are also looking forward to starting programs and events centered around queer, Jewish, and disabled identities. Want to join? Have questions? Please email Eliana Smithstein.

Join the Zoom Meeting: Zoom link

Hitch a ride on the wayback wagon for a trip down memory lane. Let’s reminisce about the 40’s thru the 70’s together! Different topics each month. We will gather on the first Wednesday of every month. Everyone is welcome! Questions? Please email Marv Lehrman.

Join the Zoom Meeting: Zoom link

This three-part session with Keshet explores LGBTQ+ language, identity, and inclusion, not only in our secular world but also in our Jewish community. Led by Keshet educators: Randi Reed

and Rabbi Micah Buck-Yael.

Learn More and Register Here. Use code "friendsofSZ" for $18 off at checkout.

Contact sharonh@shaarzahav.org to sponsor a Shabbat

Programs at Sha’ar Zahav are supported by the Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund, the Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus Initiative for Immigrant and Refugee Justice of the Religious Action Center, San Francisco Humanities, and the National Center to Encourage Judaism.

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