Kedoshim? Again? You may have noticed that this week’s newsletter subject line seems familiar. Well oddly enough, while last week’s parsha was indeed Kedoshim it was also another parsha called Acharei Mot. How is this possible? The answer depends on whether you were in Israel or the Diaspora. Usually, the weekly parsha/lectionary cycle (SAT word)...
Sefirat haOmer. No, also not an autocorrect or typo. The term references the practice of counting seven weeks between Passover and Shavuot. Before you think ugh rabbi, thanks for sharing another esoteric Jewish practice that has no practical significance in my life, know that Sefirah is a mitzvah taken directly from the Torah. Not impressed...
Eruv Tavshilin. No that is not an autocorrect error or a typo. Eruv Tavshilin is a ritual that, if not obscure, comes up very infrequently. While prohibited on Shabbat, cooking is permitted on Yom Tov/Festivals like Sukkot, Shavuot and of course Passover. Normally, somebody is only allowed to cook those meals necessary for the holiday...
The tables are set. The kitchen has been turned over. The chametz has been sold. We are in the home stretch of a nearly yearlong process. It began with Dan Turk helping to arrange our Passover order from Streit’s in the middle of a pandemic and supply chain crunch. Several weeks after passing through the...
Passover is coming. If you haven’t made your seder reservations yet, the deadline is today, Friday 4/8 so please visit our Passover page ASAP. But also…the Mormons are coming? Yes, it’s true. On Sunday, April 24th at 2:30pm nearly 200 LDS’ers, Zionists the whole lot of them, will visit the JCC to learn more about...
The Presidency. No, not of the United States but the JCC. In our nearly 70-year history, just over a minyan of men have held the title and borne the responsibility of leading our august institution. In the beginning were gentlemen from Harbin and Shanghai of Russian extraction. More recently, the Americans have held court. But...
Before we get to Passover, let’s take a moment to appreciate just how amazing Purim was at the JCC. Instead of charging admission fees, we trusted that the community would step up in terms of donating to World Jewish Relief’s Ukraine Crisis Appeal instead and did you ever. We are currently holding at over 150,000...
The war in Ukraine continues to be on our minds and in our hearts. Many of our ancestors emigrated from Ukraine relatively recently after centuries of shtetl life. We have partnered with my rabbinical school YCT for a learning session on Monday, March 14th at 9:00am JST focused on the Torah of Ukraine. The event...
Once upon a time, the JCC held parties so raucous that people were literally led away in handcuffs. This is not hyperbole. In the 1950s during a ‘Monte Carlo Night’, the good people of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department raided our center and arrested two board members on suspicion of illegal gambling. We are all...
The below photo shows the 1955 JCJ Purim Party. Dapper suits and evening gowns…on a Tuesday night. It might only be 67 years ago but it feels like light years away from the modern iteration of the JCJ. Let’s reclaim some of that faded glory on Wednesday night, March 16th at our Purim bash to...