Your JCC’s preparing to welcome dozens(!) of new members for Friday night services and dinner tonight continues a longstanding tradition known as Oneg Shabbat, or Oneg Shabbos for the more Ashkenazically inclined. In early 20th century America, Blue Laws prohibited businesses from opening on Sunday. To put challah on the table, or more likely pay for country club membership, many Jewish shopkeepers across the denominational spectrum felt compelled to work on Saturday something hitherto unheard of in the Old Country. Absent a Bar Mitzvah (Bat Mitzvahs really weren’t a thing yet), most families knew nothing of the Shabbat morning service.
As the rabbis saw it, the main problem was less that people weren’t being called up for aliyot than that they were missing out on Kiddush, the great social unifier and builder of communal cohesion over Schnapps and herring (nowadays White Claw and hot dogs). Thus, Oneg Shabbat was born beginning at 8:00pm throughout the year regardless of what time the sun happened to set. Reform, Conservative and Orthodox synagogues bowed to larger societal forces and carved out this additional service that ranged from combining elements of Friday night and Saturday morning prayers to throwing out the entire playbook and creating something entirely new centered around “hymns, a review of Jewish Current Events, readings from Yiddish literature and a lecture followed by a discussion” as Professor Jeffrey Gurock of Yeshiva University writes.
Just as the JCC’s worship service hews fairly traditional, our weekly communal dinner, a rarity in non-Chabad synagogues nowadays, remains a welcome anachronism from simpler times when men dared not leave the house without a hat, women placed doilies on their heads when entering the sanctuary and children wore ‘shul clothes’ that were just formal and uncomfortable enough so as to impart a sense of decorum. Whether new member, longtime member or not yet a member, all are welcome to participate in the JCC’s Friday night services and dinner by reservation that hearken back to another era in Jewish history, fast disappearing outside of Tokyo.
Services
Kabbalat Shabbat
Friday, June 2nd
Services: 6:00pm
Dinner by Reservation: 7:00pm
Kabbalat Shabbat
Friday, June 9th
Services: 6:00pm
Dinner by Reservation: 7:00pm
Shabbat Parashat Beha’alotcha
Bat Mitzvah of Emma Brownstein
Saturday, June 10th
Services: 10:00am
Kiddush: 12:15pm
Kabbalat Shabbat
Friday, June 16th
Services: 6:00pm
Dinner by Reservation: 7:00pm
Shabbat Parshat Shlach
Bar Mitzvah of Theo Daquin
Saturday, June 17th
Services: 10:00am
Kiddush: 12:15pm
Events
New Member Shabbat
Friday, June 2nd
Services: 6:00pm
Dinner: 7:00pm
Registration Details
If you have an idea for an event or a topic you would like to share with others, please visit our website.
Announcements
JCC Art Night proved a huge success for artists, attendees and even the auctioneer. A large sum of money was raised for multiple B’nai Mitzvah projects with beneficiaries in Japan, the US and Israel. Kudos the Events Committee for their hard work and planning.
Thank you to everyone who came out for our Leil Tikkun Shavuot last Thursday night, especially the random Italian family from Torino who strolled in at 11pm to eat some cheesecake like it was the most normal thing in the world. Needless to say, we obliged and their presence greatly enhanced our Simchat Yom Tov.
Happy 2nd Birthday to Asher Adi Scheer, newest 兄弟 (kyōdai) in the JCC.
The JCC will be on summer intersession beginning June 19th.
Yiddish Club with Jack Halpern: Monthly meetings have been taking place for quite some time in-person at the JCJ. Please contact Jack at jack@cjki.org if you are interested. All levels are welcome, from beginner to advanced. Much more than just language, the club enjoys exploring Yiddish culture as well.
Shabbat Parshat Nasso
Candle Lighting: 6:33pm
Havdala: 7:37pm