March 21, 2024 - Weekly News From The Chatham Synagogue / Netivot Torah

3/21/24 TCS/NT Update Table of Contents

1. Shabbat Services

2. Are You Ready for PURIM? Ooh-la-la, This Year's Theme is "Purim á la Parisienne"

3. SAVE THE DATE: Conversation Pieces: Author (and TCS member) Barbara Weisberg Discusses Her New Book "Strong Passions: A Scandalous Divorce in Old New York"

**Scroll down to check out The Sunday NY Times Book Review of the book**

4. Kabbalat Shabbat with a catered dinner

5. TCS/NT Kid's Programs

6. Reading Jeremiah - Reading and Discussion Group

7. (Re)Introducing Our Chesed Committee



8. Zoom Sit/Stand/Breathe/Balance Exercise

9. Zoom Yoga

10. Recent Donations

11. Out & About

12. Visit our Website

13. Become a Member

1. Shabbat Services - March 23, 2024

(See "Note" Below For Important Information)

Friday, March 22, 2024

Adar II 12, 5784

Shabbat Candle Lighting - 6:52pm

Saturday, March 23, 2024

Adar lI 13, 5784

Shabbat Service - 10:00am

Shabbat Ends - 7:53pm

Torah Reading

Parshah: Vayikra

Leviticus 1:1 - 5:26

Click here to Rabbi Or Rose's commentary on Vayikra



ZOOM LOG-IN LINK: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82536384257?pwd=dDFkSUJOUXRoV2pHNGFRR2hyeXJnQT09

Note:

Rabbi Pam Wax will be leading Shabbat services and the Torah discussion on April 6th. She will also be conducting a "Lunch & Learn" at 1pm, after services.

▶︎RSVP for the "Lunch & Learn" is required. Please RSVP to Steve Eidman at stretch44@gmail.com

And Save the Date for May 4th when Rabbi Wax will be leading Shabbat services again.

2. PURIM! á la Parisienne

Saturday, March 23

5pm: Children's Activities & Music

5:30pm: Children's Costume Parade

6pm: Pizza Dinner for Grown-ups & Kids

7pm: Megillah Reading and Purim Spiel (with a French inflection)

It's almost here! If you've never been to a TCS Purim event, this is your opportunity to find out what you've been missing. We don't want to toot our own horn (or twirl our own grogger), but Purim is pretty fabulous here.

Our Megillah chanter par excellence, Steve Eidman, will be sharing the stage (Bima) with our resident actor/writer/Purim-Spieler-without-equal, Robert Zukerman. Every year Robert adds an international "flavor" to the Spiel and this year it will be French, or as we like to call it: "Purim á la Parisienne".

There will be special activities for kids along with children's musician Bracha Louz and, of course, the all important Children's Costume Parade.

Come in costume or come as you are, but don't miss it!

*Image: Us tooting our own horn.

3. Conversation Pieces: Author Barbara Weisberg Talks About Her New Book

Save the Date: Sunday, March 31st at 3pm

at the Synagogue

[The book will be for sale at the event, or you can look for it

at The Chatham Bookstore].

Author and TCS member, Barbara Weisberg will join us to discuss her new book, Strong Passions: A Scandalous Divorce in Old New York. She will read a few sections from the book and then be interviewed by TCS member Alan Gelb, followed by a Q & A.

The book recounts the true story of a tumultuous marriage. In 1862, Mary Strong stunned her husband, Peter, by confessing to a two-year affair with his brother. Peter sued Mary for divorce for adultery—the only grounds in New York—but not before she accused him of forcing her into an abortion and having his own affair with the abortionist. She then kidnapped their young daughter and disappeared.

The divorce trial Strong v. Strong riveted the nation during the final throes and aftermath of the Civil War, offering a shocking glimpse into the private world of New York’s powerful and privileged elite. The book presents the chaotic courtroom and panoply of witnesses—governess, housekeeper, private detective, sisters-in-law, and many others—who provided contradictory and often salacious testimony, and then asks us to be the jury, deciding each spouse’s guilt and the possibility of a just resolution.

▶︎ Click here to read the Sunday NY Times Review of Strong Passions. "In.... her riveting reconstruction of a scandal that 'rocked genteel society,' Barbara Weisberg reassembles the story with the clear determination to treat both sides equally.....(and) tells a story that fiction could not touch." - Liesl Schillinger

4. Kabbalat Shabbat

Friday March 29

6pm - 8pm with a catered dinner

at the Synagogue

Join us at our first spring Kabbalat Shabbat service to celebrate the light we are for one another. It's an opportunity to raise our voices in joyful song, readings and prayer as we gather together to welcome the Sabbath bride.

A poetic, liturgical reminder of God's closeness to us, the Kabbalat Shabbat service originated in the 16th century by  mystics from S'fat. It comprises psalms that represent the days of the work week, plus L'cha Dodi, a song heralding the arrival of the Shekinah and of Shabbat.

A catered dinner follows our service. If you want to bring a favorite dessert, that's fine but not necessary.

Please RSVP to Carol Singer (see link below) by end-of-day Wednesday, March 27 if you wish to attend dinner.

Hope to see you!

▶︎ Click here to RSVP for dinner to Carol Singer.

5. TCS/NT Kid's Programs

All programs will be held at the Synagogue

Kid's Passover Program: Let's Make Matzo!

Sunday, April 21

11am - 12pm

For Kids ages 3 - 11

Get ready for Passover with some homemade Matzo! Educator Arielle Derby will create a Kid's Matzo Factory - kids will learn how matzo is made and then bake the matzo on our backyard fire pit. Matzo baking will be followed by an outdoor afikoman hunt.

Yom Haatzmaut (Israeli Independence Day) Program

Sunday, May 19th

Join us for a special Israeli Independence Day Program, featuring children's musician Bracha Louz.

6. Reading Jeremiah: Discussion Group

Saturdays: Feb. 17, March 2, March 30, April 13, May 18, June 1, June 22

1pm - 2:30pm

at the Synagogue

In 587, the prophet Jeremiah witnessed Nebuchadnezzar's Babylonian army lay waste to Jerusalem and destroy Solomon's Temple. This stunning loss ended the monarchy that began with King David, and resulted in the exile of large numbers of Judeans to Babylon. While Jeremiah's descriptions of politics and social conditions make the ancient world seem familiar, his theology tells a different story. He understood these events as God's punishment of Israel's sins. He rages at God and also at governmental and religious leadership. His letter to the deported community in Babylon, which includes advice for living in exile, is a model for how Jews have lived in all of our diasporas.

This informal discussion group, led by TCS/NT member Fran Snyder, is meant to provide an opportunity to further knowledge of the Bible and rabbinic writings and to experience the pleasure of reading our sacred canon.

All are welcome to attend and participate. Prior to upcoming classes, check back here at The Update for links to recommended translations, commentaries, podcasts, and historical and literary backgound.

*image: "The Flight of the Prisoners" by James Tissot, depicts the Jewish exile to Babylon

7. Chesed - Loving Kindness

Chesed is the Hebrew word for "loving kindness" or "compassion." Our Chesed Committee provides care, support, and a helping hand to TCS/NT members in a variety of ways - from visiting or phoning members who may be ill or housebound to helping organize shiva meals in the event of a death, to assisting people who need rides to Synagogue, we are committed to supporting and assisting members in times of need.

If you, or someone you know is in need of any kind of support, or if you would like to be part of Chesed's community of volunteers, please contact Chesed Committee member Ann Berlstein at 914-356-5602, or Rachel Weisman at rachelannweisman@gmail.com.



8. Zoom Sit/Stand/Breathe/Balance Exercise

Every Monday - 10am - 11am

TCS/NT member, and dancer, choreographer, physician-assistant Jamie Stiller is teaching a sit/stand exercise group. The group will meet every Monday, via Zoom, from 11am - 12pm. The focus of these classes will be on building strength in your core and extremities, learning to breathe mindfully to fuel your entire body, and having fun! 

There is a $10 donation per class. Click here email Jamie and arrange payment (Venmo, checks, etc.).

ZOOM LOG-IN LINK & INFO:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89863170484?pwd=V2VuYm80T1g3L3RBTTRDcnF4bisrUT09

Meeting ID: 898 6317 0484

Password: 953995

9. Zoom Yoga

Every Friday at 9:30am

Our weekly Yoga classes are on Zoom. TCS/NT member, and dancer, choreographer, physician-assistant, Jamie Stiller, will be leading the classes. There is a $10 donation per class. Click here email Jamie and arrange payment (Venmo, checks, etc.).

ZOOM LOG-IN LINK & INFO:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82558600433?pwd=RE55b1NzSFV2QUhsWUVJa2hYb2JyQT09

Meeting ID: 825 5860 0433

Password: 953995

10. Donations

(Note: Donations can be made online on our website. Click here to donate.)

Alan & Ellen Goldner - IHO the birth of Brenda Gevertz's granddaughter, Claire

Leonard Grossman & Debra Brown-Grossman - Kol Nidre 2023

Allen & Ilene Brill - IHO the Swersey family

Barbara Glicksman - Thanks for being open to the community at large

Clayton Rockefeller & Manya Rubinstein - Cemetery Fund

Susan Waisbren & Howard Lipton - Cemetery Fund

11. Out & About

Entertainment / Education / Social Action

Alicia Jo Rabins & the Camas High School Choir - I Was a Desert: Songs of the Matriarchs

Thursday, May 23 at 6:30pm

Tickets $18

Museum of Jewish Heritage

36 Battery Place, New York, NY

Don't miss this dynamic East Coast premiere of choral songs about Biblical women! Alicia Jo Rabins joins sonic forces with 95 singers from the award-winning Camas High School Choir (Washington State), plus a top-tier rock musicians and a string trio, in a powerful concert integrating Biblical women's stories with song. 

I Was a Desert: Songs of the Matriarchs is a gorgeous, richly textured multimedia performance that builds upon Rabins' long-running Girls in Trouble song cycle to celebrate the stories of women in Jewish myth and the hidden places where their lives overlap with ours today. 

With a colossal musical scale matching the power of these stories, this intergenerational, intercultural, and interdisciplinary supergroup draws from a rich kaleidoscope of musical traditions including orchestral indie rock, bluegrass, klezmer, and classical.

Throughout, Rabins explores the meaning of spiritual texts in a secular world, centers women’s experience in historically patriarchal traditions, and interweaves the choir's own anonymous contributions of how these stories relate to their own lives.

▶︎ Click here for more info and for tickets

Met Opera Live in HD: Romeo et Juliette

Sunday, March 24 at 1pm

all tickets $25

Mahawie Performing Arts Center

13 Castle Street, Great Barrington

Two singers at the height of their powers—soprano Nadine Sierra and tenor Benjamin Bernheim—come together as the star-crossed lovers in Gounod’s Shakespeare adaptation, with Yannick Nézet-Séguin on the podium to conduct one of the repertoire’s most romantic scores.

▶︎ Click here for tickets

"Like Swimming in Air" - Tai Chi for Beginners at TCS/NT

Taught by TCS/NT Member Fran Snyder, NY School of Tai Chi Chuan

Thursdays, January 25 - April 25 / 1 - 2pm

No class on March 14 or 21

Fee: $240

at the Synagogue

Tai chi's fluid and controlled movements are notable for their graceful and rhythmic flow, promoting a harmonious blend of strength, flexibility, and mindfulness. With regular practice, tai chi helps us regain balance, build endurance, and cultivate relaxation

Anyone can participate. The class proceeds at a slow and tranquil pace. Demonstrations are clear and easy to follow. Class is capped at twelve persons, allowing individual attention for each student.

Fran Snyder is on the faculty and is president of the board of directors of the New York School of Tai Chi Chuan. She is a Tai Chi Foundation certified tai chi instructor teaching in New York City and in Chatham.

▶︎ To register, please contact Fran at: uws.upstate.taichi@gmail.com

12. Visit Our Website

Have you checked out our website at: www.thechathamsynagogue.org? On it you can find a current listing of events, links to services, information about who we are, and a growing library of photos.

For members there is also a member portal. You should have received an email with a link inviting you to access the portal, instructions on how to log-in, and an explanation of some of the information that you will find there. Check it out and let us know what you think. If you have any questions or need help accessing the member portal, please email: tcsntmembers@gmail.com.

13. Become a Member

We welcome members from diverse Jewish backgrounds and perspectives. Our members are people who were born into Judaism as well as those who chose Judaism. We recognize patrilineal as well as matrilineal descent, and we welcome interfaith families and LGBTQ Members.

You can download a membership application here.