The May Edition Includes:

Register and Join Us for "An Evening With John Paul Thornton",

Youth & Adult Basketball Leagues, Summer Sports Camp, Speakers Series,

Maj Jongg, Readers Club, Meet Irene Klenetsky

Letter From Jeff Rubin

Executive Director, Valley JCC

“We make a living by what we get, 

but we make a life by what we give.” – Winston Churchill

Valley JCC has a long history of engaging with, and giving back, to the community. In the past few months, we’ve added some new ways to reach out to many areas in the Valley. This past December, you might have seen our volunteers in front of several restaurants handing out boxes of Hanukkah candles. More recently, our Valley JCC members offered courtesy boxes of Matzo to patrons of Brent’s, Lovi’s, and Label’s delicatessens.

During each community outreach, we learned how surprised people were when we said, “There’s no fee - there’s no catch” for the candles or matzo. We explained that we are just being good neighbors and friends and wish to share what we have with others. Many people stopped to talk and asked questions about various programs offered by Valley JCC.

There are many impressive ways to reach out to the community. Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, 46th District, hosts an annual Day of Service, working with dozens of community groups and nonprofits. He brings people together to assist with service projects around the San Fernando Valley. His projects help those in need as well as the environment. Many Valley JCC staff and members participate each year at our booth and with the service projects.

John Paul Thornton, the honoree for our May 20th signature event, “John Paul Thornton: From The Artist’s Studio”, began his career by giving back to the community in a very profound way. He honored families of missing children by creating a series of paintings depicting the children’s faces. Numbering in the hundreds, they have been exhibited on the National Mall and the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.  For his work linking social causes with art, John Paul has been honored by the United States Congress. 

As a renowned artist, art historian and lecturer, John Paul has touched the lives of so many of his students by introducing them to art history throughout the world, and giving them the tools to appreciate the art and culture of European and American societies. 

It’s been said that a life is well lived when you give back to others. Valley JCC has, and will continue, to give back to the community in countless ways.

Please join us when we honor one of the “givers” on Saturday, May 20th. Register for

“An Evening With John Paul Thornton: From The Artist’s Studio” at 

www.ValleyJCC.org/Celebration

Thank You,

Jeff

Thanks to our volunteers

for a successful Matzo GiveAway

Register HERE for "An Evening With John Paul Thornton" Saturday, May 20th, 7PM

Message From Ollie Haas,

Valley JCC President, Board of Directors

If you’ve watched any TV during the past few weeks, you’ve probably seen an ad, or several ads, for a new campaign, “Stand Up to Jewish Hate.” Numerous Jewish and non-Jewish organizations alike have joined together to work on raising awareness of antisemitism and to inspire and mobilize people to show support for the Jewish Community as a whole. During this time of growing hatred and intolerance, this is an especially important effort.

This campaign was the brainchild and personal passion of Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots. The Foundation to Combat Antisemitism created a brand, symbolized by a blue square emoji, to represent solidarity with the Jewish people and fight against antisemitism.

The Campaign encourages people everywhere to download, post and share a small blue square emoji on their own social media to demonstrate their personal solidarity with Jews and against hate and hate crimes.

The size of the blue emoji square only takes up 2.4% of the space on a TV or digital screen. The small size clearly shows the distinction between the size of the Jewish population in the United States (2.4%) and contrasts the fact that Jews were targeted in 55% of all reported religion-based hate crimes in our country. 

Recent survey findings showed that more than half of Americans do not believe antisemitism is a big problem and most of the rest of Americans believe that Jews can handle it on their own. This Campaign attempts to educate and inform all Americans that antisemitism is, in fact, a big problem and needs to be addressed and remedied.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), in its annual report of Antisemitic Incidents, found that 2022 saw the largest number of attacks against Jews, assault, harassment and vandalism since the ADL began tracking such incidents in 1979. While some of the high numbers may actually be a result of better reporting, experts agree that antisemitism is indeed a growing threat in the US.

This Campaign is aimed at bringing all Americans on board in the fight against antisemitism. Once again, to be an onlooker should NOT be an option. We can all get involved. We can all do what we can to educate, inform and become active in the fight against antisemitism. 

Note: To download the Blue Square Emoji, simply go on Google and ask “How to download the blue square Emoji” for free.

Best wishes,

Ollie Haas

We're collecting items for our Silent Auction

to be offered Saturday, May 20th at "An Evening With John Paul Thornton"

If you have:

Gift Certificates

Sports Memorabilia

Catered Dinner

Vacation or Time Share Packages

Movie or Theater Tickets

or any other auction item

Please call: (818) 360-2211

About

Irene Klenetsky

Irene Klenetsky started sewing when she was just seven years old. She was cutting out patterns by age 10 and continued sewing through the years. Today, she is accomplished not only in sewing, but in the art of embroidery.

Born in New York, Irene moved to California in 1978. She has been a pre-school and kindergarten teacher in the San Fernando Valley. Once married, and the mother of two children, Irene began embroidering for her family. Her husband presented her with her first embroidery machine as a gift. It allowed her to create small pieces of embroidery. Irene soon advanced to other machines which provided 9x12 inch pieces of finished work.

A long-standing member of Temple Aliyah, Irene has created a personalized challah cover for Rabbi Vogel, and tallites for Hazzan Stein and Cantor Mimi Haselkorn. The Hazzan Stein’s tallit is embroidered with an array of musical instruments. Irene even learned how to make the knotted fringes (tzitzit) that are integral to each tallit. 

“No two tallit are the same”, explains Irene. It takes about three weeks to complete a project. She discusses the occasion and recipient’s interests with each customer and designs the tallit, challah cover, table runners, or chuppa with them before she starts working on the piece. Among the highlights of her life, was creating the tallites for her two granddaughters B'nai Mitzvahs.

Irene has two grown children, five grandchildren, and lives in Canoga Park.

If you are interested in discussing a personalized tallit, challah cover, table runner or chuppah with Irene, please email her at: IKlenet@prodigy.net

Still Traveling: Quaint & Quirky Quebec

Mondays, May 1, 8, 15 & 22, 2023

11am-12:15pm (PT) on Zoom  

Save! Register before April 29th for “Early Bird” pricing! 

For details & tickets, click here.

Music & Morsels: Masterpieces from the Classical Guitar Repertoire – Part II

Wednesday, May 3, 2023

1-2pm (PT) on Zoom  

Save! Get “Early Bird” pricing before May 1st.

For details & tickets, click here.

Exploring Operetta: Glitter, Glamour & Gold

Thursday, May 4, 2023

1-2:15pm (PT) on Zoom  

Save! Get “Early Bird” ticket pricing by registering before May 2nd!

For details & tickets, click here.

Bryant’s Broadway: Gilbert & Sullivan

Wednesday, May 17, 2023

1-2pm (PT) on Zoom  

Save! Order before May 15th for “Early Bird” pricing!

For details & tickets, click here.

Basketball

The Wayne League

by

Jason Moser

We've had an unbelievably productive recruiting session for our Spring basketball leagues. We have surpassed expectations and now have 70 adult league teams and 32 youth teams.

We are getting more and more inquiries weekly and already have a list of teams ready for our summer leagues. In just one short year, the Jerry Wayne Basketball leagues at Valley JCC have surpassed 100 teams and we are only limited by the fact that we don't have enough gym space to accommodate more.

It is always important to recognize the facilities that have made this past year possible. We would like to sincerely thank the following schools for supporting us and allowing our leagues to use their gyms: AC Stelle Middle School, AE Wright Middle School, deToledo High School, El Camino High School, Emek Hebrew Academy, Lindero Canyon Middle School, Viewpoint School, and West Ranch High School. We can't wait to see what year two has in store! 

Please join us - Shalom!

Wayne Girls Basketball

Girls league playing Sundays at A. E. Wright Middle School

Valley JCC sports leagues are named

in memory of beloved former

Executive Director Jerry Wayne

From Today's Montessori...

Valley JCC Men's Club

Meet and socialize

with other 55+ men in the Valley!

Past outings include special tours of Santa Anita Park, Jet Propulsion Laboratories in Pasadena, experiences at Dodger Stadium, the Getty Museum, and Axe Throwing at Lumberjack's in Northridge.

The Men's Club meets the first Monday of the month, unless there is

a national or religious holiday.

The Men's Club will not meet in May 2023.

Stay tuned for the next activity...

We are planning trips for 2023

For more information, contact sandnl@verizon.net or call 818-360-2211

Tampenade Recipe

Ingredients

2 cups pitted black olives, such as Kalamata

grated zest and juice of ½ to 1 lemon

pinch crushed red pepper flakes, optional

2 cloves garlic, peeled

2 tablespoons capers, drained

1 tablespoon white balsamic vinegar

2 cups parsley, divided roughly into two 1-cup portions

1/3 cup olive oil, plus more to taste

Instructions

Pulse the olives, zest, juice of half a lemon, pepper flakes, garlic, capers, vinegar, and half of the parsley in the food processor until a coarse paste is formed. Be sure to pulse to avoid turning the purée into complete mush. It may take 20 to 30 quick pulses.

Transfer the mixture to a bowl. Finely chop the remaining parsley, and stir it in. Stir in the olive oil. Taste; then adjust seasoning as necessary with more lemon, pepper flakes, or olive oil. You can stir in more olive oil by the tablespoon until the mixture both looks and tastes right.

Store olive tapenade in the refrigerator for 1 week. Bring to room temperature before serving. If the parsley looks dull after the tapenade has spent a few days in the fridge, spruce it up by adding freshly chopped parsley.

https://alexandracooks.com/2018/04/20/olive-tapenade/

Book Recommendation

The Thread Collectors

by

Shaunna J. Edwards

& Alyson Richman

1863: In a small Creole cottage in New Orleans, an ingenious young Black woman named Stella embroiders intricate maps on repurposed cloth to help enslaved men flee and join the Union Army. Bound to a man who would kill her if he knew of her clandestine activities, Stella has to hide not only her efforts but her love for William, a Black soldier and a brilliant musician.

Meanwhile, in New York City, a Jewish woman stitches a quilt for her husband, who is stationed in Louisiana with the Union Army. Between abolitionist meetings, Lily rolls bandages and crafts quilts with her sewing circle for other soldiers, too, hoping for their safe return home. But when months go by without word from her husband, Lily resolves to make the perilous journey South to search for him.

As these two women risk everything for love and freedom during the brutal Civil War, their paths converge in New Orleans, where an unexpected encounter leads them to discover that even the most delicate threads have the capacity to save us. Loosely inspired by the authors' family histories, this stunning novel will stay with readers for a long time.

www.goodreads.com

Did You Know?

Here Are Some Random Facts!

Did you know the Eagles' stadium once had a courtroom?             

Veterans Stadium, where the Philadelphia Eagles once played, had a stadium courtroom and jail to handle the team's notoriously rowdy fans. 

Did you know Neil Armstrong threatened to sue his barber for selling his hair?                                                               

In 2005, Neil Armstrong once threatened legal action to his former barber who had earned $3,000 for selling a lock of the astronaut’s hair. The barber took no heed of the threat and went on to make over $38,000 in 2016 by selling both the hair and the barber's comb and scissors.

Did you know the filling in Kit Kats is made from damaged Kit Kats?         

The folks at the Kit Kat factory sure know how to recycle! Whenever a Kit Kat bar is somehow made imperfect during production like air bubbles or some other issue, the chocolate bar isn’t thrown out. Instead, it is ground it up into a fine paste and turned into a filling that's then incorporated back into the production process to create new Kit Kat bars!

Did you know there's a basketball court in the US Supreme Court building?

Located on the top floor of the US Supreme Court building, the former storage room was turned into an exercise area for courthouse employees in the 1940s before nets were eventually installed. It is now known as the “highest court in the land.”

Did you know a lifeboat drill was canceled the morning of the Titanic tragedy?

According to passenger Arthur Godfrey Peuchen, a routine lifeboat drill was scheduled on the morning of the day of the Titanic disaster. However, the crew never assembled for one and it was canceled.

Did you know bubble wrap was originally invented as wallpaper?              If you find popping bubble wrap one of the best things about getting mail, imagine it being plastered all over the walls of your home! Engineer Al Fielding and Swiss inventor Marc Chavannes invented bubble wrap by accident in 1957 while trying to create a textured wallpaper by sealing two shower curtains together to trap air bubbles.

Did you know the average U.S. household has 300,000 things in it?           

No matter how many times you follow Marie Kondo’s advice to “spark joy”, you probably still have more than you need in your home. According to recent reports, the average U.S. house has around 300,000 things in it.

https://parade.com/

Valley JCC is looking forward to engaging in continuous outreach in the community.

Stay tuned for details...

Fundraising Opportunity

On Your Birthday!

"How To" Use Ralphs To Benefit Valley JCC

1. Go to: www.ralphs.com
2. Click on "Sign in" to the right of the search box. (If you don't have an online account, click on "Register")
3. Click on your name to the right of the search box at the top
4. You will now be on your Account Summary page
5. Scroll down to "Community Contributions" and click on "Enroll"
6. Complete the online form and Click on "Save"
7. Enter organization number SK677 and click on the "Search" button
8. "Valley Jewish Community Center" will be displayed. Click "Enroll"
9. You will see a confirmation at the top of the Account Summary page
10. A percentage of your purchases will be donated to Valley JCC