March 30, 2023 |8 Nisan 5783

April Monthly Newsletter

Included in This Newsletter

Passover Third Night & Pot Luck - 4/7

Social Action Shabbat - 4/21

Celebration Of Jewish Music Event - 4/29

This Week's Torah Portion

Community Yom HaShoah Events

Photo-New Spiritual Leader Signs Contract

Gun Safety Call To Action

Social Action Shabbat

Friday, April 21st

6:30 PM

 First Presbyterian Church

in Greenwich

with Special Guest from Domus Kids

Donn Reid, Chief Values Officer

Rabbi Levy will be leading the service accompanied by Andrew Yeargin on piano. We are delighted to have Donn Reid join us for this service.

Donn joined Domus in 1991. He is a sought-after facilitator for both internal and broader community gatherings and is committed to improving racial literacy and educational equity. 

Domus’ mission is to create community by building loving relationships with young people facing adversity, empowering them to pursue their path to self-sufficiency. The goal is: no child shall be denied hope, love, or a fair chance in life. Click here to read more about Domus.

We thank Fran and David Pribish for hosting the service in memory of Fran's father, Harry Alter, on his 104th birthday and his yahrzeit.

Zoom option is available for those who cannot attend in person. (the zoom link may be found on our website's livestream page)  Please click here for the link (it will be updated for each service).

We're excited to invite you to...

"These Are A Few Of My

Favorite Things"

A Celebration of Jewish Music

Saturday, April 29th

7:00 PM

 First Presbyterian Church

in Greenwich

These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things will be a musical journey through songs that have particular meaning to each of our singers. It will include: 

• Emcee and storyteller Rick Lake
• Actor, Singer, Director and Broadway veteran John Hickok returns to sing
• Award winning pianist, Dina Pruzhansky
• Talented guitarist, Oren Neiman

Performers will include Cantor Jill Abramson, Rabbi Emerita Vicki Axe, and soloists from the Broadway stage and Shir Ami. 

Thank you to Jenny and Rick Lake for hosting the Oneg and lifting up the symbols of Havdallah with Rabbi Levy to begin our evening.

Bring your voices to a very special Havdallah service and event.

The evening is dedicated to the memory

of Harold Axe z’l.

We'll share music that brought joy

to Harold and continues to bring joy to us all.

Co-Presidents Jackie Marschall and Marie Orsini Rosen, happily celebrate the signed 3-year contract over cake with Rabbi David Evan Markus who will begin on July 1st, 2023.

In mid-February, the Search Committee enthusiastically recommended Rabbi David as the clergy candidate to the Board of Directors. The recommendation was unanimously approved and a small team worked with him on a 3-year contract, which was finalized, and signed remotely several weeks ago. This past Sunday the Officers and Search Committee Chairs came together to break bread together and formalize the signing in person!

Click here to read the full announcement to the membership and learn more about the many impressive accomplishments of Rabbi David. Meet and Greet opportunities coming this spring.

We remain very grateful to Rabbi David E. Levy who came to us for a one-year interim term and will continue to support and nurture our congregation through the end of our fiscal year on June 30th.

Living In Jewish Time

Hitkansut Yom HaShoah: A Special Service For Yom HaShoah

Tuesday, April 18th

7:30 PM via Zoom

We live every day by the Gregorian calendar. In this monthly class taught by Rabbi Levy, we will consider what the Jewish calendar has to teach us about how we live in the world. Each time we gather, we’ll unpack our Jewish calendar to find meaning in every day life.

To see the full schedule of classes and topics, please visit our website.

Asking Big Questions: Rosh Chodesh for

Women and Men  

What does the world need from you? 

Tuesday, April 25th

7:30 PM via Zoom

Why are we here? What does community look like? How do we find meaning? The best questions often don’t have concrete answers, but we enrich ourselves by struggling with the questions. We look forward to unpacking these questions together!

To see the full schedule of classes and topics, please visit our website.

Yom HaShoah Commemoration

Sunday, April 16th, 4:00 PM

Temple Beth El, Stamford

The program will feature a presentation by Julie Kohner, founder and CEO of Voices of the Generations, a non-profit organization dedicated to bearing witness as a second generation, preserving the memory and personal stories of Holocaust survivors. Julie Kohner is the daughter of a Holocaust survivor and a trained educator. Click here to for more information and to register

Another School Shooting!

This time in Nashville – 6 dead, three 9-year-old children and three adults.

Since 2009 there have been 306 mass shootings in the US.

What can we do about these massacres, which seem to happen weekly?

We can support organizations that organize, advocate and do research regarding gun safety. Everytown for Gun Safety seeks to improve our understanding of the causes of gun violence and the means to reduce it – by conducting groundbreaking research, developing evidence-based policies, and communicating this knowledge in the courts and the court of public opinion. There are several other non-profit organizations working to stop gun violence through advocacy, legal actions against gun manufacturers, educating kids to recognize potential shooters, and pressuring state and federal legislators to increase gun safety laws.

We are fortunate in Connecticut to have a Congressional delegation that is so supportive of gun safety. Senator Chris Murphy has made this his passion and recently spearheaded passage of the most important gun safety legislation in many years – but there is so much more to do.

There are many ways in which we can participate in welcoming refugees into our community.

At the Refugee Shabbat, we also talked about ways in which volunteers could provide hands-on help with:

• Initial apartment set-up and provisioning;
• Ongoing transportation to appointments;
• English practice, tutoring;
• Job search and financial skills. 

Contact Barbara Salop or Ronny Kaplan if you are interested in any of these volunteer opportunities in Greenwich or Stamford.

Thanks for “welcoming the stranger” - as we are reminded: "You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” (Leviticus 19:34)

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