HEBREW SCHOOL

We seek to promote in our children an ethical, moral, Jewish identity and to instill pride so they may find comfort and delight in being Jewish.

We encourage critical thinking and participation in the worship service, and hope to develop a commitment to social justice and a desire to become lifelong Jewish learners.

Our Hebrew school teachers, along  with our rabbi and cantor, work to provide our children with many positive and enjoyable learning experiences. This multi-talented team guides the students in a wide and interesting variety of thought-provoking discussions about Jewish history and ritual, life cycles and celebrations, midrash and Torah.

Our kids learn Hebrew in preparation for bar or bat mitzvah but not necessarily because of it. A number of them have returned to the bimah after b’nai mitzvah to read from the Torah and chant Haftorah portions at the High Holidays. This, to the utter delight of our congregation, is truly l’dor v’dor.

Solomon Ibn Gabirol wrote, “Learning in old age is like writing on sand; learning in youth is like engraving on stone.”

COMMITTEES

To truly become part of a caring community, one should consider getting involved in a committee that holds your interest. It does not take a tremendous amount of time, but instead a commitment to furthering the goals of Kehillath Shalom... and at the same time fulfilling your own desire to bring a positive energy and change to your life and the lives of those around you.

Adult Education - Chairperson Rabbi Arthur Schwartz

Our purpose is to establish programs, educational and/or enjoyable, that will add to the Jewish experience of Kehillath Shalom members. We are a new committee so we're experimenting with different kinds of programs. So far, this year we had a wonderful pre-High Holy Days Shabbaton, yoga, dancercise, Israeli dance and Yiddish classes taught by congregants. In addition, Dalia Rosenthal, the Director of our school, is teaching the adult Crash Hebrew course again and Rabbi Schwartz is teaching "Torah and Tefillah" for b'nai mitzvah and other interested students.

Besides our "in-house" programs, we have recently had a visit from Norman Berman, President of the Jewish Geneology Society of L.I. who spoke to us about geneological research. In January, Eileen Bohrer of UJA/Connections will treat us to a video and discussion on "Jewish Identity". We are working with Senda Newman of FEGs to develop a series, "Being Jewish in the 21st Century". We have organized a group called Knit Wits to spread the joy of knitting, crocheting and shmoozing.  We are planning to have some crafts classes. We are also looking for someone to teach challah baking. We would love to hear any ideas/needs for adult classes or from anyone who'd like to teach something.

Social Action

Social Action at Kehillath Shalom: Past, Present and Future

As a Reconstructionist synagogue whose name, Kehillath Shalom, means Community of  Peace, we have always had a strong commitment to working towards social justice – the basic prerequite to peace. As individuals and as a community, we are dedicated to social action as a way of putting our Jewish spirituality into practice.

Our members, both as part of the Social Action committee and on their own, have, over the years, been involved in projects devoted to anti-war, civil rights, gay rights, helping the hungry and homeless in our own community and in other parts of the country and the world, gun control, Russian Jewry, Ethiopian Jewry, anti-semitism, interfaith activities, the environment and Israel. This is only a partial list of what we have worked on. 

Specifically, in the past we were actively involved with the Huntington Coalition for the Homeless and helped raise money for and erected a playground at Haven House, the local shelter for homeless families. Both adults and kids from Kehillath Shalom worked with the coalition to collect food and pack Thanksgiving baskets each November. For several years, we also gathered at Temple Beth El in Huntington on Sunday mornings, working with their members to cook and then deliver hot meals to families who, in those days, were living at some of the welfare motels in our community. We donated furniture and various household goods to help a Russian Jewish émigré family establish themselves here on Long Island. We took part in a number of interfaith gatherings with members of the Christian and Muslim communities. In addition, we educated ourselves by inviting representatives of different Jewish social action organizations to speak at our synagogue. Between marching, picketing, writing letters, making phone calls, attending forums and shlepping here and there, we were a very busy group.

More recently, a number of our congregants have been involved in HIHI, the interfaith program to provide shelter for homeless individuals during the cold winter months and several of our members are active participants in the Huntington Coalition for Affordable Housing. Our synagogue is also a member of MICAH – the Mobilized Interfaith Coalition Against Hunger and our congregants provide ongoing support to the food pantry at St. Hugh’s Church in Huntington Station. Many Kehillath Shalom kids are part of the Peanut Butter and Jelly Club which makes sandwiches for those in need. We  continue to participate in various interfaith activities which we view as essential to furthering the cause of peace in our community and the world.

At this time, our goal is for social action to remain at the heart of our synagogue and we want to include more and more of our members in social action projects. We hope that each of you will think about ways in which you can help fulfill the mitzvah of tikkun olam. As Rabbi Tarfon said, in Pirke Avot, “Yours is not to complete the task, but neither can you desist from it.” We look forward to hearing from you and working with you. 

Deborah Globus, the Chairperson of the Social Action committee, may be reached at:

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or 631-935-2777.

Israeli Connections - Chairperson Judith Davis

A Little About the Israel Connections/Ki Va Moed Committee

 

The Israel Connections Committee is an apolitical committee whose mission is to create a caring connection with the Israeli people and to educate our members about Israel Other synagogue’s Israel committees often involve a lot of fund raising. Our emphasis is on education about Israeli culture and social action on behalf of Israel.

We believe direct involvement is the best education.  Through a special program sponsored by SAJES/UJAFederation, Ki Va Moed (The Time is Now), we have taken two unforgettable trips to Israel, visiting our Israeli friends at home and, in return, two delegations of Israelis have stayed with members of our community.

 

One of our joint projects with our Israeli friends was to write personal letters of encouragement to families in Sderot. When our Israeli partners visited us, we gave them 130 letters to bring home to Israel and deliver to families in Sderot.

 

Our synagogue-wide current project, Operation Sheba, was awarded by the Legacy Heritage Innovation Project Israel Engagement Fund. We are proud to be one of only seven synagogues in the country to receive this award.

 

Fundraising - Chairperson Scott Ash

Help us raise needed funds to benefit the Synagogue and Hebrew School and have fun while you do it!  Meet once a month to help plan and participate in the fundraisers.  This year, we had a Community Garage Sale, several Family Nights At the Movies, a children’s production of the play “Annie,” a pre-Mother’s Day Plant Sale, plus our BIG fundraiser, “Oscar Comes to Cold Spring Harbor,” in which we presented our own Long Island tribute to the Academy Awards. 

School-Chairpersons  Erika Jenkins

The Education Committee provides a forum for parents to be involved with the Hebrew School.  Here they can express their interests/concerns for their children’s education, create special programs reflecting Jewish values and feel a part of the Kehillath Shalom community.  The Chairpersons and School Director work together as a team in supporting and facilitating the Hebrew School mission.  They also act as liaison to the Board of Trustees.

Ritual - Chairperson Rita Fenderson

The Ritual Committee works closely with the Rabbi, Cantor and Hebrew School to organize and design worship services, festivals and celebrations (i.e., Shabbat dinners, Tu B’shvat and Passover seders); to promote and preserve Jewish ritual and customs; and to encourage active, joyful and knowledgeable participation in services

Bagels and Books-Chairperson Harriet Koppal

Bagels & Books—2011-2012

SEPTEMBER 18 — COMEDY IN A MINOR KEY — HANS KEILSON A recently-translated 1947 novel about a Dutch couple hiding a Jewish perfume merchant in their home during WWII. The author, who began writing this during the war, was himself hidden.

OCTOBER 16—SARAH’S KEY—TATIANA DE ROSNAY On the 60th anniversary of the Nazi round-up of Parisian Jews, an American journalist embarks on an investigation that leads her to long-hidden family secrets and to the ordeal of ten-year-old Sarah. A mesmerizing story in which a tragic past unfolds, the present is torn apart, and the future is irrecovably altered. Due to high demand, it is recommended that you reserve this no later than early September.

NOVEMBER 20—97 ORCHARD—JANE ZIEGELMAN The sub-title says it all: An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement.

DECEMBER 18—NEMESIS—PHILIP ROTH “Set mostly in Newark in 1944 and suffused with tenderness, Roth's novel tells the story of a military reject, a young phys ed teacher, who turns a polio out-break into his own patriotic battleground.” The New York Times Book Review, Editors’ Choice

JANUARY 22—THE CONVERT: A TALE OF EXILE AND EXTREMISM—DEBORAH BAKER The Pulitzer Prize-finalist author unravels the often contradictory life of an American Jewish woman who converted to Islam, moved to Pakistan, and became one of the pre-eminent voices of Islamic revivalism, in this stellar biography that doubles as a meditation on the fraught relationship between America and the Muslim world.

FEBRUARY 19—WATER FROM THE WELL: SARAH, REBEKAH, RACHEL AND LEAH —ANNE RICHARDSON ROIPHE Roiphe embroiders the terse accounts of Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel and Leah in Genesis by using her own imagination and by drawing on prayer books, Talmud, midrash, the Zohar and several collections of legends. The result is a colorful, characterdriven portrayal of the women, emphasizing their experiences with their husbands and their children.

MARCH 18—THE FINKLER QUESTION—HOWARD JACOBSON The Man Booker Prize-winning story of three friends, two Jewish and one who longs to be. A mugging sends the non-Jew on an exploration of the cultural, social, and political nature of Jewishness. He grapples with questions like, What makes someone Jewish? Is it anti-Semitic to make generalizations about what makes someone Jewish? Why are British Jews so much more open and warm than British non-Jews? “Dialogue reads like an exchange between Sigmund Freud and Woody Allen.”

APRIL 22—IN THE GARDEN OF BEASTS: LOVE, TERROR AND AN AMERICAN FAMILY IN HITLER’S BERLIN—ERIK LARSON A vivid portrait of Berlin during the first years of Nazi rule. American ambassador William Dodd was an unassuming and scholarly man who grew to have misgivings about Hitler’s ambitions. His daughter, Martha, became mesmerized by the city’s glittering salon society and parties, and threw herself into many affairs; her lovers included the head of the Gestapo and a Soviet spy. A gripping, deeply intimate narrative that reads like a political thriller, this is an enthralling chronicle of history.

MAY 20—MORNINGS IN JENIN—SUSAN ABULHAWA In this novel, Abulhawa, herself the daughter of refugees, chronicles the development of Israel and its consequences for Arabs from a Palestinian point of view. One of the Abulheja family’s twin baby sons is kidnapped by an Israeli soldier and raised as a Jew; the other son grows up and joins the PLO.

JUNE 17—THE HARE WITH AMBER EYES: A HIDDEN INHERITANCE—EDMUND DE WAAL The objet d’art of the title is one of a collection of 264 netsuke handed down through the author’s family. This graceful memoir traces the Ephrussi family fortunes from grain merchants in Odessa to fabulously wealthy bankers in Vienna and Paris, through the upheavals of Dreyfus-inspired anti-Semitism, the Anschluss, and the miraculous preservation of the netsuke by a family servant. The New Yorker called this book “the most enchanting history lesson imaginable.”

Please come for any and all books that interest you; watch for the flyers with locations and directions.

 

Membership

         The Membership Committee works to recruit new members and retain present members.  The Committee interfaces with all other synagogue committees and is responsible for planning activities such as open houses.

Unless notified otherwise, the Kehillath Shalom Membership Committee meets monthly on the 2nd Thursday of the month. The meetings are from 6:00-7:00PM at the Synagogue. We're always happy to have new people attend.

House-Chairperson - Peter Gollon and Abby Pariser

The House Committee takes care of the physical well-being of the Synagogue, both inside and out.  If you are handy and love to maintain your own home, why not help maintain our home away from home.

Communications

The communications committee works with a number of the other committees to create messaging and tactical elements on behalf of the synagogue. This could be an advertisement for Hebrew School, additions to the website, creation of brochures, flyers and collaterals for membership or other committee activity within the community. The committee is also responsible for creating the proper positioning of Kehillath Shalom so that our community can distinguish itself as both an alternative to, and a part of the Long Island Jewish community.

This committee does not meet on a regular basis but does has specific times during the year during which its activities are required, as well as serving Kehillath Shalom whenever the need arises.