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See the news of all our Groups!
The Calendar's Monthly Presentation is avaliable from the My Synagogue pull-down menu
Read all about Cantor Merrick's trip to Poland and Israel as part of the Cantor's Assembly
(see her story in her section in From Our Leaders pull-down menu)
We are optimistic about our future and look forward to a bright 2009
Our Religious School held
two wonderful Chanukah Celebration events this week. First, Bruce Vatske
and his daughter Marin hosted a amazing Latke Making Demonstration &
Chanukah Educational Experience. If you were in the building that day you
could hear cheering and chanting from the children. It was an incredible
event and the latkes were delicious! Thank you also to the TBS Sisterhood
for providing Chanukah Cookies! It would be great to have other
congregants with special talents visit our Religious School to share their
skills with the children! Please let me know if you would like to arrange
a visit!
On Monday and Wednesday, December 14 & 16, TBS Religious School had
Chanukah parties.
On Wednesday we hosted our very first Bring a Friend Chanukah
Celebration. This idea was brought to the Education Committee from
Michelle Alperin-Smith. The children rotated to three different activity
stations:
Food Activity - The children tasted Chanukah foods (Thanks Laurie
Passalaqua for making all the delicious latkes!) & make edible dreidels
& menorahs! (Thanks Glenda for teaching the children how to make these
items out of food!)
Community Service - We made holiday cards for the soldiers &
decorated tablecloths for the Soup Kitchen in St. James Church. (Thanks
Laurie Passalaqua for donating all the beautiful tablecloths & Lynn Arato
for all the fabric pens!!)
Games - The children played dreidel & other Chanukah games.
All the kids received goody bags with gelt and dreidels (thanks again
TBS Sisterhood!)
Here are some pictures of the activities on Wednesday:
News of our Congregants
This article appeared in the Saturday, Sept. 26 of Newsday about Leah Stoltz being presented with a TeenNick Halo award.
Nickelodeon honors Long Island teen with
award
September 25, 2009 By BETH WHITEHOUSE beth.whitehouse@newsday.com
The homecoming
pep rally in the gym at Smithtown High School West Friday already was
boisterous when a surprise celebrity guest sent things whirling into even more
of a frenzy.
Actor, rapper
and TV personality Nick Cannon - who is married to singer and Long
Island native Mariah Carey - strolled in wearing a tux, bow tie
undone and slung casually around his neck and white handkerchief poking out of
the pocket.
"I came
out here to put somebody in the spotlight," Cannon said to the amazed
teenagers. "She took a negative situation and made it into a
positive."
Smithtown West
senior Leah Stoltz, 17, was shaking and crying and holding her hand over her
face as Cannon called her out. School cheerleaders brought out a podium with
"Halo Awards" on it and rolled out a red carpet.
Stoltz has
scoliosis and had to wear a full-torso, hard plastic brace and have surgery to
correct the curving of her spine. When she was 13 she started a support group
on Long Island called "The Curvy Girls" to help affected girls feel
less self-conscious. Eight "Curvy Girls" emerged to place a tiara on
Stoltz's head and present her with red roses.
"Don't
pass out, Leah," Cannon said. "Deep breath, deep breath."
Nickelodeon
filmed the event for its "TeenNick Halo Awards," a one-hour special
that will air later this year recognizing four teenagers for "Helping and
Leading Others." He presented Stoltz with a $10,000 check for her organization
and another $10,000 for her to use for college.
And there was
more.
"This is a
secret ticket to a secret location," Cannon said, handing Stoltz an
envelope. "I can't tell you where you're going, but you're going to have
an amazing time."
Where is she headed? Stay tuned.
Dear
Congregants
I
know that at this time of year, in the weeks in advance of Rosh Hashanah, we
all get inundated with requests for donations to a number of worthy
causes. As your neighbor and
fellow synagogue member, I am going to add to this list and ask you to (re)join
MERCAZ USA, the Zionist arm of the Conservative Movement, for this new fiscal
year of 5770 - 2009/2010.
Membership
is important for MERCAZ for two key reasons: first of all, it provides the moral justification for our
ability, as the representatives of the Conservative Movement, to demand changes
in Israeli society; and secondly, it provides the sole source of financial
resources for our project work here in the United States on behalf of Zionist
and Hebrew education, tourism to Israel and aliyah.
While
membership is important in every year, it is especially important as we look
forward in 2010 to the 36th World Zionist Congress. At this moment, while the date of the international Zionist
gathering has finally been set for June 2010, there is still no agreement as to
how the delegates to the international Jewish parliament will be chosen.
One
option that is being explored is calculating delegates on the basis of an
organization's membership. While
this idea may ultimately not be the one adopted, I bring this to your attention
as now is the time that the new fiscal year for MERCAZ membership is
beginning. Help us reach our
maximum level of strength by (re)joining MERCAZ for the new 2009/2010 fiscal
year!
Currently,
there are 9,500 households, out of more than 200,000 Conservative Jewish
households throughout the United States that are current paid-up MERCAZ USA
members. For a movement that has
always prided itself on its support for Israel and Zionism, that's a poor
showing. With your help, we can
give Israel and Zionism the kind of public support from our movement that they
deserve.
Please
see the enclosed membership application, with the information on the flip side
of the extent of the financial benefits that MERCAZ brings to the institutions
of Masorti Judaism in Israel and around the world. A business reply form is enclosed for your use. Or save the trees and renew on-line on
our secure server at http://www.mercazusa.org.
During
Tisha B'Av, as part of the liturgy, we prayed for the comfort of Zion and the
rebuilding of Jerusalem. Let us do
our part by strengthening the Zionist arm of the Conservative Movement!
Sincerely,
Gloria
Cohen
The Shabbat-on-the Beach Service on Friday, August 7 was abeautiful event. Some families camped out overnight and participated in a Shabbat morning serviceat 9:30 AM as well. Here are some pictures of the Friday evening service.
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