Sivan/Tammuz 5780

Call 206-567-9414 for event details or see our online calendar here.

June (all virtual Zoom Room gatherings)

• 1 Kugelettes
• 6 Shabbat Morning Meditation
• 7 Coordinating Committee Meeting
• 10 Vos Tut Zich?
• 15 Kugelettes
• 20 Solstice Havdalah
• 24 Vos Tut Zich?
• 28 Annual Meeting
• 29 Kugelettes

July (all virtual Zoom Room gatherings)

• 5 Coordinating Committee Meeting
• 8 Vos Tut Zich?
• 13 Kugelettes
• 22 Vos Tut Zich?
• 27 Kugelettes

COMMUNITY

Congratulations to Cay Vandervelde for passing her immigration law class in preparation for volunteering for KIAC. Mazel Tov, Cay!!

At long last, welcome home to Bill & Sharon Rutzick!

ANNUAL MEETING

Mark your calendar. The annual meeting (via Zoom) will take place June 28th. Details to follow.

MEDITATION SHABBAT

Dick and Linda Golden will lead a Shabbat Morning meditation on Saturday June 6th from 9-9:30 AM. They will start the meditation with a Niggun and end it with the chant Elohai n’shama shehnatata bi t’hora hi  (Beloved God, the soul you have given me is perfect). We are including the words in case you need them. Shir Hayam Zoom Room.

SOLSTICE HAVDALAH

In Jewish tradition the summer solstice is called Tekufat Tammuz, or the solstice of the month of Tammuz. Robin H. will lead this havdalah and would LOVE someone to co-lead with (email Robin if you are interested). She is looking forward to cooking up something special to celebrate the longest day and the official start of summer. June 20th at 7 p.m. in the Shir Hayam Zoom Room.

VOS TUT ZICH? 

Wednesday, June 10th 7 p.m. Gather together and schmooze. BYO whatever! It’s always good to see your Shana Punim!

Wednesday June 24th 7 p.m. Tune in, check in with friends, let us know how you are doing.

Both in the Shir Hayam Zoom Room

BONNIE SHOWERS

On Saturday, May 23, those in attendance at Shir Hayam’s Havdalah service said Kaddish for Bonnie Showers, who died in March from cancer. Bonnie used to sing with Kugelettes, sharing her laughter, love of song, sense of theater, enjoyment of our company, and her interest in cultures outside her own. How we loved having Bonnie among us when she was able to join in.  

Bonnie was deeply rooted in our larger community—over three generations of her family lived on Bainbridge Island—and was a friend to many people. You would likely see her on any given day taking her mom to lunch, volunteering in the schools, swimming at the pool, shuttling her now-all-grown-up daughter, Sierra, and friends to play-dates, and creating a remarkable production legacy in community theater. Always with a dazzling, knowing smile, as though she’d been waiting to see you that day. She was a friend-for-the-years if you were lucky enough to know her.

Robin Hruska had the good fortune to work with Bonnie when she ran the Arts Education program for Bainbridge Arts and Humanities and reminisced that:

“Bonnie had such a brilliance in her approach to arts education. She continually took giant leaps forward in her imagining of what an art program could be. She had the organizational skill, endless goodwill and intelligence to see her ideas to completion. The solution to a problem was always a creative stride forward, not just a band-aid. Bonnie was a joy to collaborate with. Having her organize the artist-in-residencies in my classroom and at our schools added so much to our programs. She was a unique force in the world of arts education.”

Bonnie brought to her job at Centrum, where she was the program manager for creative youth development, years of diverse experience in community arts and education as a director, artistic director, educator and a faculty member at colleges in urban and rural settings, Europe and Asia. Their online tribute to Bonnie is lovely: “We will always remember [Bonnie’s] fiery spirit, deep compassion and extraordinary lifelong commitment to her work. Bonnie was a force, running with her inspired and progressive ways of being. … empowering both youth and teaching artists … her spirit of inclusiveness opened the door wide for challenging conversations and exciting collaborations. … She helped young artists find and share their unique voices … as they practiced new arts skills and discovered new life opportunities.”

TIKKUN OLAM

As the COVID-19 crisis continues to unroll, the suffering of various communities—essential workers, unemployed, immigrants, and more—deepens. While many from Shir Hayam have contributed as individuals, it’s also important that Chavurat Shir Hayam, as a Jewish spiritual community, honors a commitment to the foundational principle of Tikkun Olam with a coordinated response. The Coordinating Committee (CC) and especially the Tikkun Olam Committee (TOC) have been working hard to make that happen. The need for support is urgent and letting our community know these plans and have a chance to be heard is also important. So here’s where we are and how we got there: 

The Special Shir Hayam COVID Relief Fund was established by CC and funded with $10K from $40K we have had in reserve for more than three years. Our Mission Statement commands us to engage in Tikkun Olam, and the present moment urgently asks, “If not now, when?”. The COVID Relief Fund answers this call, while leaving us with substantial and prudent remaining reserves over and above currently foreseeable needs.

The responsibility for crafting the particulars of how and where to donate lies with the TOC.  TOC head Jane Greenberg and TOC member Cay Vandervelde refined an overwhelming number of potential recipients to a vetted list of nine local, national and international organizations emphasizing food assistance, medical care, housing and water assistance. All TOC members then participated in a multi-vote process to further refine the list to five. Those groups are: 

Fishline – Fishline serves the North Kitsap community by providing food, emergency services and resources. http://fishlinehelps.org/

Northwest Harvest – Northwest Harvest is Washington’s own statewide hunger relief agency. NH mission is to lead the fight for hungry people statewide to have access to nutritious food. https://www.northwestharvest.org/

Catalyst Kitchens – Farestart and its Catalyst Kitchens network are producing and delivering 350,000 meals a week nationwide. https://www.catalystkitchens.org/

Center for American Indian Health – emergency food, water and basic relief supplies. Contract-tracing training and support. COVID-related educational material. http://caih.jhu.edu/programs/category/covid-19-response

Doctors Without Borders – treats people where the need is greatest. We are an international medical humanitarian organization. https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/

COVID-19 presents challenges to all of us. Being locked down, being afraid to go to the grocery store, not being able to hug a grandchild, a friend—none of this has been easy. But hard on the heels of those thoughts must come the awareness of how much harder it is for many—stuck at a border, falling behind in the rent, unable to find medical care and food, homeless. 
 
There is much we can do to help repair the many broken places surfacing in our community, country and around the world. We are so fortunate to be in the position of being able to help alleviate suffering in a substantial way while still preserving an ample reserve. 

Additional way to help:

Cay and Dee are collecting donated food, purchasing food and delivering it to the immigrant communities in Belfair and Forks weekly. If anyone from Shir Hayam would like to contribute to the purchase of grocery staples for these families, your help is welcome. Contact Dee for info on where to send your contribution.

COORDINATING COMMITTEE

Meeting on Zoom, June 6th at 10 a.m. All members are welcome.