Temple B'nai Israel, Albany, GA

A weekly update of information and events…

Friday, February 3, 2012 (10 Shevat)

8:00 p.m. Shabbat Service

Thank you to Service Leader Edie Cohen

Thank you to Board Member David Prisant

Thank you for the Oneg to Vivian & David Stern and Kim & Stuart Goldsmith

Please call the office in the event of a birth, death, injury, illness or hospitalization. If you wish to share any special occasion, let us know at 446-6536. Thank you!

PLANNING AHEAD:

1. Sisterhood Meeting - February 1, 6:30 p.m.

2. Religious School First Sunday, Judaica Shop Open - February 5, 9-11 a.m.

3. Tu B'Shevat Pot Luck Dinner - February 11, 6:30 p.m.

4. Religious School Planting Ceremony - February 12, 9:00 a.m.

5. No Religious School - President's Day - February 19

6. Seniors Brunch - February 19, 11:00 a.m.

7. Temple Board Meeting - February 22, 7:00 p.m.

Student Rabbi Kelly's Schedule*: Feb. 10 & 24, Mar 9 & 23, Apr. 6 & 20, May 4 & 18

*Subject to change depending upon the weather and flight schedules

SERVICE LEADERS, BOARD MEMBERS, ONEG ASSIGNMENTS:

February 10: Student Rabbi Kelly, Gail Greenfield. Virginia & Lan Skalla, Jayne Massaro.

February 17: Edie Cohen, Alan Bitterman. Kathy & David Prisant, Joann & Wally Moses

CARING COMMITTEE MEMBERS

February: Debbie Mulford, Mandy Downs, Lorraine Fink, Edie Cohen

FEBRUARY BIRTHDAYS

February 5 - Lindsay Stern, Ethan Bruck

February 7 - Howie Largeman

February 9 - Jeremy Harrell

February 11 - Peggy Kobley

February 13 - Carl Sagasser

February 16 - Gerry Alverson

February 20 - Janie Bitterman, Linda Prisant

February 24 - Doris Lorig

JUDAICA SHOP NEWS

The Judaica Shop is the place to go whenever you need a special gift. During Religious School this Sunday, February 5th, we will be open from 9 to 11 a.m. You may be surprised at the large selection of beautiful and whimsical items. We have the best prices in town! Cypora, Judaica Shop Coordinator, 435-2071

YAHRZEITS

January 29th - February 4th, 2012

Raymond C. Marks

Lottie Hirsch Simons

Erica Anne Skalla

Carrie Simon Stern

Mary Kaufman Simon

Ruby Webber

Lily Lind

Charles S. Kuhns

Isaac C. Gortatowsky

Harriet Selig

Jessie G. Morgan

Dede Varon

Hylda Kalmon Gortatowsky

Harold Stiller

Ike Rosenberg

Anchell Farkas Berman

Rea J. Alverson

Bernard Moskowitz

Reducing Loneliness for Caregivers

by Benjamin J. Dubin Some 35 years ago my wife, Esther, gave birth to an adorable girl, Rachel. It was not until Rachel was three that we knew she had a hearing loss. Then, at the age of five, Rachel lost all her residual hearing. Esther, a coronary care nurse, took a break in her career to be with Rachel and to be her ears when necessary. Together the three of us advocated for the deaf and hard of hearing: Rachel testified before the United States Congress beginning at age eleven while Esther and I were involved in local and national disability groups. Everything was going well. Esther returned to nursing when Rachel was in her mid-teens and Rachel, despite her profound deafness, graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Goucher College with a major political science and a minor in Russian language and earned a masters degree from George Washington University. [...]

Rosh Chodesh: Marking Time with Friends

By Wendy Grinberg Back when I lived in Atlanta, my single girlfriends and I would get together for Rosh Chodesh celebrations. It was a wonderful time to get together, devote time to one another, acknowledge our spiritual and psychological growth and challenges, and just show each other some love and support. This celebration of the new Jewish month was revived by Jewish women groups in the ‘70s, based on the traditional association of women with Rosh Chodesh. We are commanded to celebrate the new moon in Exodus 12:2, right before the Israelites leave Egypt. A text in Pirkei D’Rabi Eliezar explains that women did not give their jewelry for the creation of the Golden Calf, and so were rewarded with the observance of Rosh Chodesh (Chapter 45). The actual celebration is hardly mandated, so there is a lot of room for creativity in designing a ritual celebration. I used to [...]

Parenting Podcast: Raising Moral Children: Know Thyself, Adonai Echad and Ob-la-di, ob-la-d

by Rabbi Leora Kaye I’m a rabbi, and my husband’s an atheist. My husband Doug’s atheism is well thought-out. He’s a loving, intelligent guy who doesn’t believe in God and hasn’t since he was eleven. He is moral, compassionate and Jewish, and he does not believe that his ethics are related to God. We believe parenting should be deliberate and purposeful, much like Reform Judaism. Choices should be based on knowledge, specifically knowledge about what kind of parent you want to be, what works in your family system and what works for your son or daughter. In this week’s Jewish Parenting Podcast, psychologist Richard Weissbourd says that while most parents do care about raising moral children, few make it their number one priority. Outside of the conversations my husband and I had trying to decide if a relationship between an atheist and a rabbi could work, we had one discussion [...]

An Uncommon Debbie Story

The first I ever heard of Debbie Friedman was to see her name printed on the inside covers of my synagogue’s prayer books, naming her the author of the modern Mi Shebeirach tune. Growing up, that was all I ever knew of her – just a name above the words on a page. I grew up attending a Reform congregation, but I did not grow up “in the Movement,” per se. My mother and I were members of a small congregation in Northeast Ohio where there was no organized youth group, no NFTY or BBYO. There were just six students in my bat mitzvah class, and though we considered ourselves friends, we all attended different schools, which made friendships difficult outside of synagogue-related activities – and at my suburban public school, I was one of just two Jewish students. Needless to say, though I always identified as Jewish, I did [...]