APRIL 2023
Adar / Nissan 5783
ANNUAL MEETING
SAVE THE DATE!!
SHIR HAYAM’S ANNUAL MEETING
Sunday, May 28, 2023, 10:00 to 12:30 PM
We will gather to shmooze and nosh on bagels with shmeers, enjoy coffee and tea, and to hear from our committees – their activities from this past year, as well as plans for next year.
We will vote on the budget for 2023-2024 and new Coordinating committee members.
Please come to participate and to support our very special community.
Your Coordinating Committee,
Cay Vandervelde, Paul Travis, Jill Onewein, Jon Garfunkel, Jane Greenberg
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REQUEST FOR RECIPES FOR SHIR HAYAM RECIPE BOOK:
Who likes to eat?
What better form of hospitality is there — than cooking for others, or eating what others have prepared for you? Mmmmm….
Please help us prepare a recipe ‘book’ with one or more of your favorite Jewish and/or Jewish-adjacent recipes (things you and your family just plain like) included.
We have already received contributions that will make this recipe’ book’ as much a memory book as a resource for some great eating. Delicious-looking recipes, photos and family stories!
Please do share a recipe or two (or three!) of your own — and note that they do NOT have to be particularly Jewish – think ‘pot-luck’ favorites! If you could add a few words about where the recipe came from, something about why it’s important to you and/or an image that ties in with such good eating that would be even better!
For technical reasons, the release of our ‘first edition’ is a bit delayed. Please send your contribution by April 30 – in the format that is easiest for you (email, Word document, photo… whatever!). We’ll package the set up in a nice document with a Table of Contents, and send it back out to the Chavurah (and any other contributors you may like to involve, like that cousin you might have from somewhere on the east coast!) as soon as we’ve compiled them.
Materials should be sent to: cay.vandervelde@gmail.com
It’ll be fun, and a real keepsake!
Thanks, everyone!
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DISPATCH FROM FLORIDA
Our correspondent in Florida, Cay Vandervelde, reports the following:
Shir Hayam has a sister island congregation with a Memorial Scrolls Trust Torah, like ours!
Last month the newsletter had a map of congregations around the world that have benefitted from the Memorial Scrolls Trust loan of Torahs to small congregations, like ours. By strong coincidence, one of those congregations is on Sanibel Island, Florida — very close to Cay Vandervelde’s current assignment with FEMA (helping with Hurricane Ian recovery). In contacting that congregation, Cay discovered a story on their website about the harrowing experience Temple Bat Yam’s Torah experienced during Hurricane Ian that you might enjoy!
THE RESCUE OF TEMPLE BAT YAM’S TORAHS
Hurricane Ian, a once-in-a-100-year storm, surprised everyone in Southwest Florida. What seemed like the typical Emergency Plan precautions of storing Temple Bat Yam Torahs turned out to be a life-saving measure.
After the Rosh Hashanah luncheon, the Plan was followed. The Torahs were put in the vault of a jewelery store belonging to Bat Yam congregants that evening along with the inventory from the store. The Torahs were placed on top of the baker racks in the vault, and the store owners felt as in years past that this would protect the scrolls from harm’s way. Instead, the harsh weather was NOT as in years past — the wind and surge of Hurricane Ian — none like we’ve seen in our lifetime — almost floated Periwinkle Place (the location of the jewelry store) away.
The day after the Hurricane, on Tuesday, September 29, the store owners went back to the jewelry store to make sure the vault and the sacred scrolls were still in place . . . and they were. But most of the congregation was not, having evacuated to the mainland in a hurry in advance of Ian.
On Sunday night, October 2, Bat Yam’s president was contacted by NBC Nightly News after they heard about Bat Yam’s Torahs being stranded on Sanibel Island. They wondered if they could help rescue them. The answer was a quick YES!!
Monday morning a call came in from an NBC reporter, asking if we knew a way back onto the islands since the Causeway was impassible. The NBC crew could only travel via a Sheriff boat. We were able to coordinate the mission with the help of the County Commissioner, local law enforcement heads in Lee and Sanibel Island, and the escort of the Sanibel Police Department.
Upon arriving on the island the national NBC reporters were told they could not leave the boat ramp area since no other national news organizations had access to Sanibel Island. This left the mission to three of our congregants.
Within 15 minutes they were at the back of Periwinkle Place taking the plywood off the back door to gain access. Upon walking in, the smell of standing water from receded flood waters was evident everywhere. The waterline was at 41”, high enough to seep inside the vault. They also saw a hole in the roof of the store. Everything was wet and damp, like the inside of a cave.
The plastic bags and placement of the scrolls turned out to be a blessing. While 1/3 of the vault was wet, the two Torahs survived unscathed.
To be part of this rescue and witness the devastation of our beloved islands gave the entire congregation much to be thankful for in the way of Hope. Having the Torahs then be part of the Yom Kippur Service, and mentioned at Temple Beth El in Ft. Myers and Temple Shalom in Naples, gives us much pride in our own Bat Yam family and causes us to cherish even more our SW Florida community of congregations.
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CULTURAL EVENTS
This is an event put on by the Tenement Museum in NYC:
When: Monday, April 24, 2023 at 6:30PM ET
Where: YouTube Live
Cost: Free, Suggested Donation
Back by popular demand! We’re partnering up again with the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research for a night exploring Jewish immigrant New York City of yesteryear through musical performances from inside the recreated 1890s parlor of the Levine family, immigrants from Eastern Europe.
At once a “golden land” of opportunity and joy and a place full of the challenges of immigrant life, New York held a myriad of experiences for new Americans. From songs about leaving one’s homeland and arriving in Ellis Island, to anthems of the everyday difficulties of sweatshop labor, to hit songs of the Yiddish theater that exemplify leisure time activities, this concert uses music to bring the bustling world of the Jewish Lower East Side to life.
The concert will feature introduction and historical commentary by Pulitzer prize-finalist Alex Weiser in conversation with Tenement Museum President Annie Polland, and musical performances by singer Eliza Bagg and pianist Paul Kerekes.
RUACH
COUNTING THE OMER:
Omer 5783
April 6-May25
“The custom of counting each day between Passover and Shavuot is of biblical origin… Over generations, “counting the Omer” has been embraced as a period of inner work and spiritual preparation for receiving the Torah anew. Our mystics associated each week and each day of the week with a particular spiritual quality, or middah – a way to experience transcendence in our lives, and express our desire to live in Godly ways…this musical rendition (is) of the kavanah (intention) and blessing for counting the Omer, composed by Rabbi Shir Ya’akov Feit, Rabbi Zach Fredman, and Rabbi Yosef Goldman, and sung by Rabbi Goldman, Rabbi Deborah Sacks Mintz, (Seattle-raised) Chava Mirel, and Joey Weisenberg of the Rising Song Institute Institute for Jewish Spirituality
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COMMUNITY NEWS
Mishabeirach to Nina Rogozen who is recovering from back surgery.
Our deep condolences to Marjorie Rubin on the loss of her beloved father.
Mishabeirach to Chris Stanley