Ask the rabbi

March 25, 2012 in Holidays by Laurence | No comments

faro saladFrom Rabbi Carla Freedman’s column
Question: For Passover, can I use quinoa or faro?

Answer: You are right that these grains are not amongst the foods we are required to avoid for the eight days of Passover. The grains we are forbidden to eat (or use in any way) during Pesakh are: wheat, barley, spelt, rye and oats. Of course, flour made from wheat is nowadays produced under rabbinic supervision so that it does not come in contact with water, which causes it to leaven, and from this flour, matzah and matzah-products (farfel, etc) are made.

Ashkenazic rabbis added corn, rice, millet and legumes to the list of forbidden foods on the grounds that they could be confused with the forbidden grains. These foods are permitted in Sefardic practice. Today, none of us are likely to mistake a grain of corn or rice or a bean for a grain of the forbidden foods, so many Ashkenazi Jews now eat these foods despite the traditional objection.
As for grains like quinoa and faro, there can be no objection to eating them during Pesakh, because they are clearly not on the list of forbidden foods, and there is no reason to expand the list. This will make Passover more manageable, especially for vegetarians (quinoa is a good source of protein, unusual in a grain).

I actually think that eating faro on Pesakh is appropriate: the bad guy in the Exodus narrative is, after all, Pharaoh.

Products made from grain or those that might contain some leavening agent require a hekhsher, or certificate of rabbinic supervision, to be useable during Pesakh. Things like coffee, tea, spices, sugar, salt, honey, fresh fruits and vegetables and juices and even frozen fruits and vegetables and juices (as long as no other ingredients are added) do not require a hekhsher, although many such products are marketed with one (to appeal to those who are very strict in their observance or to those who can be persuaded to pay extra for a hekhsher when it is not actually required!)

Derekh Agav (By the way): there are a lot of customs about foods permitted or not during Pesakh, based on experiences in the places where our ancestors came from in Europe. For example, the Jews who came to Winnipeg in the late 19th or early 20th century brought with them a prohibition against eating cabbage during Passover. Some research in the 1950s revealed that over the winter in Poland, people protected cabbages from worms by pasting the outer leaves together with a flour-and-water paste, which indeed made the cabbages unacceptable during Pesakh. Since we do not store cabbages that way anymore, even Winnipeg Jews now eat cabbage during Pesakh.

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Another very succesful Midnight Run

March 20, 2012 in Community, Social Action by Laurence | No comments

Traveling participants: Emily Yaniv Jason Pat Skylar Aspen Claire Sierra Curt Edmond Cole Peter Greg Zach

A guest post from JFC’s Social Action Committee - Debbie Lavin

We had a very successful Midnight Run on March 17. The weather was beautiful and some of our young people were experiencing the Run for the first time. It was a gratifying experience for all. Thanks to everyone who participated — from the people who have been donating clothing and toiletries all year, to people who made extra bag dinners for the Run and the people who have helped out sorting and labeling clothing.

Our own Talia conducted a terrific Girl Scout project with several of her fellow scouts. She organized them to go through the huge amount of clothing in the bins, labeling and sorting them. There were quite a number of bins that had gotten wet on the inside, so she washed and dried the clothing so they were ready to use! Thanks to her mother, Sue K., for facilitating and helping with this project! And thanks to Sue for donating more bins for the clothing. Congrats to Talia for working on this high level scouting award.

Thanks to Sarah V. , Phyllis A. and Emily K. and their families for helping to sort and label clothing.

Thanks to Iris G. and her two kids who helped make bag dinners to take on the Run.

Thanks to Jan S., Alan S. and Mark L. for helping to get things ready on the Run and “launch” the runners.

And finally, thanks to all the people who participated on the 3/17 Midnight Run till the wee hours of the morning

Thanks especially to Pat S. who took leadership responsibility for this Run and made an extra trip down to Dobbs Ferry to pick up the Midnight Run Van.

We hope to do our next run in Late June — look for the date in next month’s Shofar and email me if you want to participate.

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A Simple Twist of Fate

February 26, 2012 in Social Action by Laurence | No comments

A Simple Twist of Fate – By Patterson Shafer

As we reach our first stop in Manhattan we are struck by the number of men, women and children who approach the Midnight Run van for food, clothing and supplies to ease winter’s burden.  How did they get here, how did they slip through the safety net?  Fact is, it’s not hard.

I have been twice “homeless”, both times after a divorce.  I took shelter with parents or friends.  Not quite the street, but certainly not home.  Mine was an issue of comfort, not survival.  In my work with the alcohol and drug addicted, I know many who have been homeless for extended periods and have gone on to rebuild their lives.  I know many who are dead.

But most perplexing is the plight of a friend of mine, I’ll call Rhoda.  She is a degreed and experienced social worker who for the better part of a year was living in her car.  Friends gave shelter during the winter months.  But during warmer times, unemployment exhausted and the economy in shambles, she worked for minimum wage, just barely able to buy food for herself and her dog and gas to move her car.  Did you know that some Wal-Marts allow you to sleep in your parked car?  How could this happen?  The good news is that she has since found a good job in her chosen field.

This brings us to the Midnight Run, which is March 17.   We already have our limit of participants to go on the run, but we really need volunteers to help sort and label the clothing and make bag dinners.

We need a volunteer to make soup.  And several volunteers for meals: each meal should have, in a paper or plastic bag:

  • A hearty sandwich (a nice amount of meat, or chicken or tuna salad, etc.), condiment and lettuce (no tomato, too messy!)
  • Fruit- e.g. durable like an orange or banana (apples sometimes OK, but hard to bit if one is missing teeth), or a prepackaged fruit cup with a plastic spoon.
  • A high protein item, such as a hard-boiled egg or cheese stick snack.
  • A Juice box
  • A dessert or two – e.g. granola bars, cookies, candy bar, or brownies, etc.
  • A couple of napkins

The food should be prepared on the 17th.

All those interested in meeting up to help with sorting clothing between now and then, please email DebbieLav@aol.com .  We will set times that are convenient to those willing to help.   You can also take clothes home to label.  We use masking tape to mark the clothing size so that it’s easy to sort and distribute.

We will need some people to gather at the garage prior to 3/17 in order to organize and decide what we will be taking.  We hope many can come to help out.
For those who also want to participate on the run to New York City, we are planning to schedule one more in May or June.

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JFC’s 7th Annual Comedy Night

February 12, 2012 in Events by Laurence | No comments

JFC’s 7th Annual Comedy was a roaring success! Thank you all who made it possible, the list is too long to be nominal, as it includes each of  who attended, bought raffle ticket(s) – even though only one of them won the coveted prize, but most were willing to take the chance to support JFC, and we are so grateful for that!

Thank you for the beautiful and delicious dinner prepared by the caterers, Garelick and Herbs, thank you to the Zusels for donating the wine and beer, thank you our rabbi for closing Shabbat with havdalah, thank you our hilarious master of ceremony Denise Simon, thank you the great stand-up comedians, Andy Hendrickson and Dan Naturman who entertained us greatly, and thank you the efficient pairs of hands who set up and cleaned up the place.

A special thank you for mother Nature too, that didn’t bother us too much with snow and waited until the middle of the night to send the cold upon us.

Now please join the After Party if you want to see pictures and snippets of video, until next time!

You may comment here or there – accepting all, complaints included!  And also we would love to hear from you, if you want to participate into any other fund raising idea that you would have. Tell us what you would like JFC to offer and how you can help make it happen!

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A confused Hanukkah – a delicious children’s book

December 25, 2011 in Holidays by Laurence | No comments

A confused Hanukkah - children s book s cover
The holiday of Chanukah is fast approaching in the village of Chelm, but the Rabbi is away. Unfortunately, not one of the villagers remembers how Hanukkah is supposed to be celebrated. So they send Yossel, a simple young man, to the neighboring village to learn what he can. Yossel makes a wrong turn, but he does find some people celebrating a holiday. The question is: Is it the right holiday?

You can buy this delicious holiday children’s book by clicking this link (affiliate link, a small percentage of your purchase will benefit JFC!)

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A Thank You to our Youth Group

December 23, 2011 in Social Action by Laurence | No comments

Youth Group Parents & Youth Group Board and Members:

Thanks so much for the great effort you made in helping to collect books (and spreading the word to others) for Open Door Family Medical Centers.  We collected hundreds of books for underprivileged children who visit these centers across the country– including the one in Mount Kisco, NY.

 

Here is their thank you letter to you:
On behalf of the physicians, nurse practitioners, staff, and most importantly, the patients at Open Door Family Medical Center in Mount Kisco, I am writing to thankyou for organizing an incredibly successful book drive. Of our 4,500 patients in Mount Kisco, 40o/o are children, and all of them come from families that are struggling financially. Sending each child who visits our Health Center home with a book they can keep is an invaluable gift. After a summer of school physicals and a fall of flu shots, our shelves were looking a little bare. Thanks to the generosity of the families at |FC, they are now filled with wonderful, age appropriate books, and our closets are stocked to refill the shelves when needed. The families we care for greatly appreciate being able to return home with a book every time they visit us. Thank you for helping us in that effort.
If you are reading this and still want to donate books to this cause, please contact our Religious School Director who will direct you for your donation.

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Shabbat Potluck Dinner at JFC

December 19, 2011 in Shabbat by Laurence | No comments

Shabbat Potluck Dinner at JFC
Shabbat potluck dinner at JFC

 

I attended the pot-luck dinner this past Shabbat, and had a great time. I’d encourage you all to attend the next one. Guess what was on the menu? let see if you’ll know what I made (and yes, this time, I did actually make something without cheating!).

 

JFC Shabbat Potluck Dinner Dec 16, 2011

 

Next date to put on your calendars is Feb 17, 2012.

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The President’s Message

December 1, 2011 in Board, Community by Laurence | No comments

This is the President’s Message, by Richard Mishkin

Adversity can break you or make you and JFC has certainly had its share this fall.  As the President of your Board of Trustees, I am charged with the responsibility of “making us better and growing our community“.  I knew assuming this responsibility would not only be challenging, but would also be rewarding.  It seems that lately, with every step forward, we have gotten pushed back by some unexpected event requiring an even stronger commitment to carry us through.

The purpose of my message is  to share with you how we, as a community,  have faced these challenges.  We began 2011-2012 in July, almost JFC’s 30th year, with a projected budget deficit that is primarily the result of the worst economy any of us has ever experienced.  We will not be able to solve the problems that have erupted around the globe, but we have risen to the challenges in our tiny community in significant ways.

We had a very successful High Holy Day appeal alleviating some of our budget deficit and easing the financial burden and concern of 27 JFC families who have been hit extra hard by the economy. Without our policy to provide a welcoming Jewish community and education for everyone, these families would have nowhere to turn when, perhaps, they need it most.

Leslie Gottlieb copied me on a message from a congregant expressing her gratitude for how our Religious School, through the innovative MARS (Madrachim-led Alternative Religious School) Program,  has been doing whatever it can to accommodate people whose needs may be a little different:

 

Hi Leslie; our daughter was so excited to tell me about the class with Andrew Blum.  She cannot wait to go next Thursday!! I am thrilled you asked her to be a part of this extra help program. I think it is going to be a positive experience for her.

Leslie told me this new program has been so positively reviewed by all involved.

Our younger members are making an impact; the Youth Group and the Kids Knesset (student government for grades K-6) help to organize some great social action programs that bring our community to the forefront with respect to caring projects.  Also, whenever it comes to activities like the UJA Gift of Chanukah annual toy drive (going on now) and the JFC Book Fair… we are always pleased to find congregants who are happy to help run these programs.

 

Just when we were starting to get our heads above water with dues, ECC, RS payments being paid on a timely basis and “austerity” agreements by the Rabbi and Staff, we found ourselves drowning under the deluge of Irene.  We got through the High Holy Days relatively dry but it didn’t take long before our parade was rained on; the cancelations and inconveniences set us back but also served to push us together.  Our building was safe and dry, thanks to the new generator that finally went on line a week before the storm, and the momentum continued.  The planning process for the year’s social events and fundraisers was under way with the help and involvement of energetic, young families. The Board was also identifying how they might best approach a decision on the Rabbi’s contract, whose term is up on June 30, 2012.

Then, we unexpectedly experienced the loss of four of our congregants, and again the forward momentum was lost.  The Rabbi, the Cantor, Leslie, Jane and all our wonderful teachers were as overwhelmed as any of us.  But, they instinctively knew that their role, as impossible as it must have felt, was no only to mourn but also to give comfort and support to our children, their parents and to the entire congregation and, with the help of professionals within our congregation and the community, make sense of what happened and to help people grieve.  JFC became the focal point for the media.  Rabbi Freedman was asked in TV interviews locally, regionally and nationally to explain the inexplicable.What came through was that because of the community we share, we all would come through this experience scarred but able to  respect and honor the memory of Friedlanders.

A memorial service open to all was planned with the help of the Town of Lewisboro, but what wasn’t planned was two feet of snow and power outages that lasted, for some, over a week.  I started this message by saying “adversity can break you or make you.”  What stands out in my mind is how JFC weathered these challenges.  The snow finally melted, it became autumn again, the leaves on the trees that were left standing turned red, orange and yellow, and we did what we had to do.  In a way, we lost six weeks that at JFC would have been filled with meetings, school, services, focus groups, and Torah study.  In our “outside” lives, some of us missed work, hot meals, a warm house, running water, showers, refrigeration. Additonally, we all, including JFC, spent money we weren’t anticipating spending.  But we persevered, became closer and stronger as a community, maybe gained some humility. We met the adversity head on and with the help of the JFC community and the local community we have come through these events and are stronger and wiser.

As your president, I am proud to be part of this community and I promise to do my part in making us better and growing our community.

Richard Mishkin, President of the Board of Trustees
Jewish Family Congregation

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Building a community

November 23, 2011 in Education by Laurence | No comments

The Early Childhood Center at JFC
by Jane Weil Emmer,  Director

Building a community is my “big picture” goal at the JFC ECC this year.

I hope that you will consider helping me achieve this goal.

The children are getting to know each other; the parents are getting to know each other. The teachers are getting to know the children, and the children are learning about their teachers.  We are becoming a community, a neighborhood of learners.
 
Mister Rogers (Mr. Community himself) wrote:  “As human beings our job in life is to help people realize how rare and valuable each one of us really is, that each of us has something that no one else has – or ever will have- something inside that is unique …”

Fred Rogers defines our goal at JFC ECC, to celebrate each individual child.  At the same time, we strive to incorporate each student into our bigger community.  These are the building blocks of building our larger community of JFC, and our more global community of Jewish Leaders.

Okay, you might think that I am getting away from myself here…. but I will continue.
The first three to five years of life are a time of extraordinary brain development.  Jewish experiences lay the groundwork for a lifelong Jewish identity and create the basis upon which all future learning is built. Jewish early childhood education is about building the foundation of a strong, vibrant, joyful Jewish identity for each child.  Each child is a vibrant and important member of the larger Jewish community.   A child who lights the candles and eats challah in his classroom each week in preparation for Shabbat begins to understand the rhythm of Jewish time.
The Jewish calendar gives us a framework for our year, beginning with Rosh Hashanah.  The holidays and festivals help us to appreciate and celebrate our heritage.  Shabbat gives us a structure for our week.  Each week we celebrate Shabbat as an entire school community.  Our first Shabbat was filled with Ruach (spirit).  If you are ever in town on Friday morning, please join us at 11:15 in the sanctuary for our Ruach-filled Shabbat, and maybe you can be a special guest for our Shabbat snack.

 

Todah Rabbah:
Dinah, Lynn, Ellen, Alison, Debra & Laura for a great beginning!
Rabbi Carla and Cantor Kerry for helping us to celebrate Shabbat.
Jolie and Kathleen for all that they do for the ECC.
Rachel Clott and Dara Marceau for agreeing to lead our ECC Committee.
Gillian Margolin, Marjorie Schiff, Jennifer Carter, Cassie Hollander and Marina Fried for agreeing to be our class parents.
Meredith Rudin for running our Scholastic fundraiser.

Chayei Sarah – a d’var torah

November 20, 2011 in Education, Torah by Laurence | 1 comment

During our Youth Group led Shabbat service, Sierra shared a lesson on the parshah that she had prepared. Sierra is a 9th grader, and a religious school student in the confirmation class. Here is her d’var torah:

This week’s Torah portion is called Chayei Sarah from the book of Genesis. I have written a d’var torah, or teaching of the Torah. Chayei Sarah means “the life of Sarah” and is about her death at age 127. She is buried in the Machpelah Cave in Hebron and is accompanied by her husband Abraham and their two eldest children about 50 years later after paying the price of four hundred shekels of silver for the graves. This happens even though Abraham remarried to a woman named Keturah. He gains 6 boys from that short-lived marriage, though his heir to all his belongings is still Isaac. Sarah misses the marriage of her child, Isaac to Rebecca. Issac and Rebecca come together when Eliezer is sent with gifts to Charan. Eliezer is given a sign from G­-d when Rebecca appears with water for his camel and as a result passes the test. Then Eliezer is invited to Rebecca’s home where he tells his story and later brings Rebecca back to Canaan to meet Isaac during his daily rituals. This is important because they marry after falling in love and he eventually forgets the grief of losing his mother, Sarah.

 

Looking further into the text, Chayei Sarah expands on what makes you happy in life.“Sarah lived to be 127 years old. These were the years of Sarah’s life,” (23:1). Could this mean that she lived life to the fullest. Was it simply an enjoyable life or simply a long and full life– or is it both? All we can do in our own lives is to define the meaning of happiness and hope to see it come to fruition. “To be happy does not mean that you have everything you want or everything you were promised. It means, simply, to have done what you were called on to do, to have made a beginning, and then to have passed on the baton to the next generation.” I think the most important thing to be learned here is that we need to fulfill our duties to education and career—but we also must do our work of continuing to teach the generations to come. And maybe, if possible, we will make a lasting impression. After all, we are only human– just like Sarah and Abraham.

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