Keeping Connected   December 2024

This is Tasha! She is a Yellow Labrador puppy who is being trained at the Israel Guide Dog center to hopefully become a seeing eye dog for someone in need. As the students say, “She is soooo cute.”

The Israel Guide Dog Center is the tzedakah project for the year. There is a dog bowl in the lobby that collects monetary donations. This money will be given to the Israel Guide Dog Center to help train puppies to become guide dogs, emotional support dogs or service dogs and then given to those in need. Congregation Shalom will be following Tasha this year to watch her grow and get trained. We will be sent “pupdates” throughout the year to find out how she is doing.

We are keeping track of the money collected by filling a jar with dog biscuits. Each biscuit represents $5 of tzedakah money collected. Our goal is to fill the jar (and to then donate the biscuits to dogs!)

The main mission of the Israel Guide Dog Center is to improve the quality of life of Israelis who are blind by providing them safe mobility, independence, and self-confidence through the faithful assistance of Guide Dogs specially trained in Hebrew for the challenging conditions in Israel. Our tzedakah collection will go directly to helping to support this mission.

How can you help your student understand the idea of tzedakah? The PJ Library website defines tzedakah as “justice, specifically, doing the right things by helping people or causes in need.” “Healing the world” is a part of our temple’s mission statement. At the Religious and Hebrew School, we are constantly helping our students to understand the Jewish responsibility of performing tzedakah in many ways. This is an ongoing conversation through the years.

Many families have shared with me different ways that they help their children understand tzedakah and donate to the school tzedakah project. It is important that parents are role models for their children. If your kids see you doing good for others, they will learn that it is an important family value. Helping others as a family is also a good way for children to begin to learn and incorporate giving to others into their daily lives. All the students have engaged in conversations with us about ways that they can donate money for tzedakah. One student shared that he gets allowance and brings some of it to the temple. Someone else shared that she gets money for doing chores and that some of that money can go towards helping the dogs. We talked about holding a lemonade or hot chocolate stand to earn money for our tzedakah project. Some students said they ask their parents for some money to bring to temple. And the list of ideas goes on and on. This can be a wonderful family discussion and experience. What do you do to help your child understand the idea of tzedakah? How do you help and encourage them to donate to our project? Please share with me your own ways of helping your children understand the importance and responsibility of tzedakah so that we might be able to help other families that are still trying to figure out how to incorporate this into their own lives.

Congregation Shalom is committed to Tikkun Olam, helping the world to be a better place.  Jump on the tzedakah wagon with us and help the dog biscuit jar fill up to help Tasha and her puppy friends to grow into strong and healthy dogs who are trained to help those in need!

With gratitude,

Deborah

Schedule for December

• Sunday, December 1 – NO Religious School
• Wednesday, December 4 – Hebrew School, 4:15pm-6:00pm
• Friday, December 6 – Tot Shabbat at 6pm
• Sunday, December 8 – Religious School for Preschool – 7^th graders; Family Ed for 6^th grade families; Kol Kolot rehearsal at 11am
• Tuesday, December 10 – Post Confirmation, 7pm-8:30pm at Rabbi Perry’s home
• Wednesday, December 11 – Hebrew School, 4:15pm-6:00pm
• Friday, December 13– Shalomites Creative Service at 6pm
• Sunday, December 15 – Religious School for Preschoolers – 7^th graders until 10:30am; Hanukkah Party for students and families from 10:30am-noon
• Wednesday, December 18 – Hebrew School
• Friday, December 20 – Shabbat Dinner and Hanukkah Shabbat
• Sunday, December 22 – NO Religious School
• Wednesday, December 25 – NO Hebrew School
• Sunday, December 29 – NO Religious School
• Wednesday, January 1 – NO Hebrew School
• Sunday, January 5 – Religious School is back in session for Preschoolers – 7^thgraders; Kol Kolot rehearsal

Keeping Connected    November 2024

“Mmmmm – What’s that delicious smell?”

Imagine it’s a Friday night. You have had a busy week of work and school and activities. You are exhausted and can’t even think about cooking up a Shabbat dinner for your family. Lucky for you, once a month you can have Shabbat Dinner at temple! Jump in the car and head over for a 6pm meal of pasta, meatballs, salad and challah. And you get an added bonus welcoming in Shabbat with your temple community!

You walk into the temple and immediately smell sauce simmering in the kitchen. The tables are already set, with markers and paper for everyone to doodle. Friends and classmates begin to gather in the lobby and the social hall. Everyone then sits together, grabs a dinner plate and enjoys good food, good company and the joy of Shabbat. No shopping, no cooking, no preparing for you! How can you not join us?

After dinner and socializing, you can then head into the sanctuary for a Family Shabbat Service, filled with music, prayer and much joy. This all sounds like the perfect Friday night.

And you can do this every month!

A few years ago, we changed the structure of our monthly Friday night Shabbat dinners in the hope of gathering more of our community together for Shabbat. All school families are invited each month. It is really fun if you reach out to your friends and classmates. You may also meet a new friend and family. It’s really a win-win!

Let’s work together this year to create even more joy and community at the monthly Shabbat dinners. Mark your calendars. Plan to join us for dinner and Shabbat. What a great way to welcome in Shabbat!

Though we do offer the dinners at no cost, we do accept donations at any time to cover the cost of the food. (We have a great group of cooks and clean-up crew who volunteer their time so the cost is just for the food!) If you want to donate to the Shabbat Dinners, please earmark your donation to say it is for School Shabbat Dinners. Thank you in advance for any money you choose to donate.

The dates for the dinners for the rest of the year are as follows:

• November 15
• December 20
• January 10 – Pizza
• February 7
• March 7
• April 4
• May 2

Hope to see you at a Shabbat Dinner,

Deborah

 Schedule for November

• Friday, November 1 – Tot Shabbat at 6pm
• Sunday, November 3 – Religious School for Preschoolers -7^th grade, Family Ed for 6^th grade
• Wednesday, November 6 – Hebrew School, 4:15pm-6:00pm; Chai School 6:15pm-8:15pm
• Sunday, November 10 – NO Religious School due to long holiday weekend
• Tuesday, November 12 – Post Confirmation, 7pm-8:30pm at Rabbi Perry’s home
• Wednesday, November 13 – Hebrew School, 4:15pm-6:00pm; Chai School 6:15pm-8:15pm
• Friday, November 15 – Shabbat Dinner at 6pm; Family Shabbat led by 4^th/5^thgraders at 7pm
• Sunday, November 17 – Religious School for Preschoolers – 7^th graders; Kol Kolot rehearsal
• Wednesday, November 20 – Hebrew School, Chai School
• Sunday, November 24 – Religious School for Preschoolers – 7^th graders: Kol Kolot
• Wednesday, November 27 – NO HEBREW SCHOOL
• Sunday, December 1 – NO SCHOOL – due to the Holiday weekend

Keeping Connected    October 2024

Forming K’hillah – קְהִלָּה

(Community)

Religious and Hebrew School have gotten off to a great start this year.  There is joy in the building, lots of community building, and engagement in curriculum.  Thank you to everyone for your support and commitment in helping your students be at school with a positive attitude!More

Keeping Connected    July 2024

School Registration, Summer Hebrew Practice and More

Summer is here and I hope you are all enjoying a little rest, relaxation and family time.  It is well deserved for all!

SUMMER HEBREW PRACTICE

It is really important to have your students practice Hebrew a little bit this summer. Research shows that children’s reading ability will decline during the summer months without continued practice.

Click here to access a fun Summer Hebrew Bingo Board. The activities suggested on the board should take no more than 10 minutes each. Encourage your student to complete the entire Bingo board and bring it back to temple for a little prize.

As always, please feel free to reach out to me with any questions.

SCHOOL REGISTRATION

Thank you to all the families who submitted their registrations! We truly appreciate your promptness.

As we move into summer, we are beginning to make plans for the next school year.  We are buying books and supplies, creating class lists and figuring out what the school will look like this coming year. It is important that we have an accurate count of how many students we will have. Please submit your forms as soon as possible. You can access the registration forms from the Learning tab on the temple’s website. Reach out to me if you have any questions or concerns.

SCHOOL COMMITTEE

The temple’s School Committee is a group of people who work together to provide for the educational needs of the school. We meet monthly (sometimes with snacks!) and work to help the school to be strong and successful.  We are open to new thoughts and ideas.  Anyone can be part of the School Committee.  If you are interested in joining the committee or finding out more information, please reach out to me.

SUNDAY MORNING COMMUNICATION

For the past several years, during the school year, an email is sent out early on Sunday morning with information for the morning of classes.  A few people have shared with me that the early Sunday morning note is not working for them.  Please let me know if you find the Sunday note helpful, if you think there would be a better day/time to send it out or if it is simply clogging up your inbox.  I appreciate your thoughts to help us go forward with communication.

Enjoy the summer,

Deborah

Keeping Connected    June 2024

Todah Rabah and L’hitraot

(Thank you and until we meet again)

Thank you again to everybody for helping to create a successful school year. So many great things happened during the course of the year and we were able to end the year with well-deserved fun celebrations! Teacher Appreciation on the last day of school was a wonderful morning with our community and the last Wednesday of Hebrew School allowed us to recognize our teachers and madrichim and enjoy a fun last day of Hebrew. I am so grateful to be part of this school community!

The summer will bring with it lots of work in continuing to figure out and design the school for next year, including class configurations, curriculum, staffing and so much more. Please send in your registration forms if you have not already done so. It is so important for us to have that information as we move ahead with plans for the next school year. I welcome any suggestions and questions as this important work continues throughout the next few months

As you know, we exceeded our goal with the plastics collection this year! We collected over 200 pounds of soft recyclable plastics. The donation container will remain in the entry way for a little while, but everyone is encouraged to bring your collected plastics directly to the donation container at your grocery store. We can continue with the idea of Shomrei Adama by everyone doing their part to help take care of the earth.

In conjunction with our plastic collection, we raised enough money to purchase a bench made from recycled plastics. We are awaiting the arrival of the bench any day now. Look for it the next time you are at Congregation Shalom.

 The year is not over. There are still some end-of-the-year services that you will want to attend!

• Friday, June 7 – 6:15pm, This is the last Family Shabbat of the year. We will begin at 6:15pm with a free Shabbat Pizza dinner for all school families, followed by a music filled Shabbat at 7pm.  Reach out to your friends and classmates and plan to come out for one more Shabbat dinner and service!
• Friday, June 14 – 6pm, Tot Shabbat – join us as the youngest members of our community join together in song and prayer and fun as we honor Shabbat. It is always a fun and spirited time.  If you have never been, end the year with attending Shabbat.  If you have been before, come back and celebrate Shabbat together!
• Friday, June 14 – 7pm, Graduation Shabbat – come and celebrate our young adults as they graduate and move on to their college experiences. This is always a moving and inspirational service as you hear about the journeys of these young adults and their own experiences at Congregation Shalom. It will be a Shabbat service that you won’t want to miss!

Wishing a wonderful summer, filled with a little Hebrew practice!

With gratitude,

Deborah