Wednesday, November 30, 2011

This Sunday in Oakland! Information session for Ramah Outdoors!

Ramah Outdoor Adventure, the only Kosher Outdoor Adventure camp in the country with an intensive Jewish program, is currently enrolling children age 8-15 for the 2012 camping season as well as teens age 16 &17 for a leadership training program.  Located on a majestic, 360 acre alpine ranch, Ramah Outdoor Adventure is located in the heart of the one million acre Pike National Forest, only 90 miles from Denver. Direct flights from the Bay Area to Denver allow your camper to experience the great outdoors: mountain biking, whitewater rafting, rock climbing, horseback riding, farming, pioneer crafts, wilderness survival and much more!!!!.

Interested? Intrigued?

Parents and campers are invited to come meet our director, Rabbi Eliav Bock, at an upcoming Bay Area information session

Sunday, December 4, 2011
Time: 2:00-3:00pm
Where: Home of Beth Sirull and Jon Shuster parents of 2011 camper, Zevan.  290 Sheridan Road Oakland CA 94618

Please RSVP to info@ramahoutdoors.org or call 303 261 8214 X104  to reserve a space at either of these information sessions 


--

Rabbi Eliav Bock 
Director, Ramah Outdoor Adventure
eliavb@ramahoutdoors.org
303-261-8214

Visit us online at www.ramahoutdoors.org

Watch us online:  on Youtube






---
Rabbi Menachem Creditor
Congregation Netivot Shalom  || Bay Area Masorti ||  ShefaNetwork 

Rabbis for Women of the Wall  ||  menachemcreditor.org 
To join Rabbi Creditor's email list, send a blank email to thetisch-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

Monday, November 28, 2011

Help us learn about G-dcast

Dear Chevreh,

I forward you this request from Sarah lefton, creator of G-dcast, a production company dedicated to raising worldwide Jewish literacy using digital tools and modern storytelling in short animated films and apps based on Jewish texts.  This is a great opportunity to support an amazing project that has ANIMATED Torah-learning for many thousands of people in the past 3 years!  Please participate in the study, and jump into Go-dcast - your Torah-mojo will thank you!

Kol Tuv,
Menachem

To better serve rabbis and educators, we'd love to know how you use (or don't use) G-dcast. We want to better understand the needs and interests of users and nonusers alike. We will select two random survey respondents to win their choice of a Torah or Holidays Teachers' Guide with a DVD from G-dcast, a $200 value!

Please complete G-dcast's brief online survey here:

If you have questions about the survey, please contact the researcher at dana@danapowell.org.

Get ANIMATED about Jewish stories!

---
Rabbi Menachem Creditor
Congregation Netivot Shalom  || Bay Area Masorti ||  ShefaNetwork 
Rabbis for Women of the Wall  ||  menachemcreditor.org 
To join Rabbi Creditor's email list, send a blank email to thetisch-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.




Monday, November 21, 2011

Rabbi Aaron Alexander: "Reflections from My First CJLS Meeting: Access & Equality"

Rabbi Aaron Alexander: "Reflections from My First CJLS Meeting: Access & Equality"
Posted on Nov 21, 2011
http://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/story/reflections-my-first-cjls-meeting-access-equality

By Aaron Alexander, Associate Dean, Ziegler School

Last week we intensely and passionately discussed and debated no less than eighthalakhic topics. However, this particular meeting illuminated one coherent theme:Access. Or, access, status, and equality in the light of Torah.

Access to Revelation.
Access to Authority.
Access to Relationships.
Access to God on behalf of the Community.

We talked deeply about real issues and real people. While it is impossible to cover everything at once, significant change demands careful attention, more questions than answers, and a healthy realization that different people understand and intuit God's will and word in diverse and distinct, yet equally valid ways. 

(What follows is my take on four of the issues discussed, and does not necessarily reflect the views of the entire CJLS, or individual members.)

Access to Revelation: Rabbi Pamela Barmash put forth an appendix to her already unanimously passed teshuvah, "Status of the Heresh and of Sign Language." One issue remained unresolved: whether or not a deaf community could hold a fully ritualized Torah reading in sign language, complete with blessings. Rabbi Barmash brought with her well respected members of the deaf community who addressed the CJLS with passion and eloquence.

While the CJLS remains somewhat divided on whether or not sign language is 'reading' or 'translation', which impacts the Torah reading more than other rituals, Rabbi Barmash's teshuvah passed virtually unanimously. In this case, members of the Law Committee powerfully elevated inclusion and near-equal access to Torah for its deaf members of the Jewish community.

Access to Relationships: Rabbis Elliot Dorff, Avram Reisner and Danny Nevins put forth a worthy draft for a gay-marriage ceremony as a follow-up to their landmark teshuvah that passed in 2006. As the committee begins to fully unpack and internalize their effort, it is clear that the needs and rights of the gay community are being well considered within a framework of Halakhah and the Torah's most precious values.

Access to Authority: Rabbi Joseph Prouser presented a paper to rebut an unfortunate ruling by a prominent orthodox rabbi, that basically bans a convert from sitting on a Bet Din, even with all other qualifications being equal (see more here).

Rabbi Prouser has written an extraordinary response in the form of a teshuvah for the Conservative Movement's Joint Bet Din, bringing the best of halakhic discourse, academic rigor, and aggadic prose to strongly deflate any possible stringent opinion. In doing so, he beautifully reaffirms exactly how the Jewish community ought to treat and view those amongst us who make the holy choice to join Judaism - as nothing less than full Jews in every respect.

Access to God on behalf of the Community: Rabbi Gail Labovitz has addressed a question that has vexed living communities for quite some time. Knowing how essential and embedded the Yom Kippur fast is, may one who is unable to cease from eating based on medical advice (pregnancy, breastfeeding, etc..) still serve the community and God as Shaliah Tzibbur, prayer leader? Rabbi Labovitz's answer, Yes. While some restrictions will help guide the community in deciding how to implement this ruling, it is evident that Rabbi Labovitz has deftly utilized traditional sources and a realistic awareness of individual and communal needs to navigate this question. 

After spending a few days reflecting on my first CJLS meeting I feel nothing less than honored and humbled to be nestled amongst this brilliant and thoughtful group, doing this work, all in service of God, Torah and Israel.


---
Rabbi Menachem Creditor
Congregation Netivot Shalom  || Bay Area Masorti ||  ShefaNetwork 
Rabbis for Women of the Wall  ||  menachemcreditor.org 
To join Rabbi Creditor's email list, send a blank email to thetisch-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

Friday, November 18, 2011

A New Viral YouTube: "Try To Imagine A Jew"

If you're having trouble viewing this email, you may see it online.

Share This:
the masorti (conservative) movement in israel - promoting religious pluralism and building community through inclusive, traditional, egalitarian Judaism
        
Getting the message out takes multiple shapes and forms.
 
The Hebrew only version of the YouTube video at the link below was posted just a couple of days ago by Masorti in Israel and already has about 5,000 hits.
 
Take a look at this version with English subtitles. It may not be the most profound text ever written, but it does get a message across.
 
If you share belief in the critical importance of pluralism in Israel, please help support the Masorti Foundation.
 
Sincerely,
 
David H. Lissy
Executive Director and
Chief Executive Officer
To learn more, please contact:
Masorti Foundation for Conservative Judaism in Israel
475 Riverside Drive, Suite 832
New York, NY 10115-0068
(212) 870-2216; 1-877-287-7414
http://www.masorti.org/; info@masorti.org



Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Rabbi Aryeh Cohen: "On the Culture of Greed"

Rabbi Aryeh Cohen: "On the Culture of Greed"


A few weeks ago, I was in a meeting discussing an upcoming ballot initiative which would eliminate the death penalty in favor of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Everybody in the room was opposed to the death penalty. The discussion was about the strategy that should be employed to convince voters to make the proposition law. The campaign's tactic was to argue that the death penalty was more expensive than life imprisonment without the possibility of parole (LWOP). This is, of course, true. As theLA Times reported:

[An] examination of state, federal and local expenditures for capital cases, conducted over three years by a senior federal judge and a law professor, estimated that the additional costs of capital trials, enhanced security on death row and legal representation for the condemned adds $184 million to the budget each year.

However, sitting in that room, engaging in that conversation, I suddenly got very depressed. I realized how we had all been impacted by the culture of greed that has overwhelmed our country.

I want to make clear that I think that we urgently need to stop our country's machinery of death and to begin the hard work of justice—reforming our prisons, making victims and/or their families whole, allowing for transgressors to repent and atone (as I argue here). I think that replacing the death penalty with LWOP is a good and important step on the way to accomplishing this. I was reacting to the fact that the parameters of the debate (cheaper is better) are not ones that I agree with and are destructive to the moral fabric of our country and society. Let me explain.

One does not expect to learn Biblical lessons from a politician. However, just a few weeks ago, in an interview with the Wall St. Journal, Herman Cain illustrated an important lesson that the Torah teaches. Cain didn't teach Torah. Rather he personified the type of person that the Torah warned against. (This is all before he demonstrated his latest moral and political obtuseness.) We find the following in Deuteronomy chapter 8:

Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes which I am commanding you today; otherwise, when you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built good houses and lived in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. … and you say to yourselves, "My own power and the might of my own hand have won this wealth for me."

Cain, referring to the folks at Occupy Wall St., said: "Don't blame Wall Street, don't blame the big banks, if you don't have a job and you're not rich, blame yourself. It is not someone's fault if they succeeded, it is someone's fault if they failed." What better paraphrase is there of "My own power and the might of my own hand have won this wealth for me."

This narcissistic solipsism of the "winners" (or as Matt Taibi has pointed out, the cheaters) is not limited to one of the Republican candidates—it has taken over our culture in many ways. The most prominent arena in which this happens is the political. All arguments come down to their monetary value.

One of my constant companions nowadays is a rabbi who died over a hundred years ago. Simchah Zissel Ziv was born in Frankfurt, Germany in 1824 and eventually became the rabbi of the Lithuanian town of Kelme, as a result of which he is known as the the alter or "elder" of Kelm. He was the student of the founder of the mussar movement in Judaism. This movement stressed the importance of strict ethical behavior in the spirit of Jewish law. Reb Simchah Zissel put his own spin on this school. In the collection of his essays he stresses that the most important prerequisite to living a righteous life is "helping one's fellow with their burden." Reb Simchah doesn't mean this in a metaphorical way. A person has to train themselves towards a radical empathy in order to be able to feel and then to actually respond to the sufferings of another person.

The greatest obstacle to this radical empathy of "helping one's fellow with their burden" according to Ziv, is greed. Greed, he says, turns all actions and intentions on their head. One wants to give charity, but then, realizing that there is a monetary loss involved, one will invent all manner of justifications for not giving charity, up to and including making not giving charity an ideal ("moral hazard," "teaching people how to fish," "pulling up by bootstraps"). Not giving charity becomes in one's mind the more righteous path. Radical empathy is dependent on being able to respond to another person's suffering rather than calculating your actions vis a vis another in dollars and cents.

Wealth and greed are not the same. Greed is bad while wealth is neutral. The accumulation of wealth for the purpose of comfort and even luxury, if it is also accompanied by an investment in the well being of society—the assurance that all people reach a threshold of the goods needed to live in dignity— is good. The accumulation of wealth for its own sake—beyond any possible needs of survival then comfort then luxury—at some point turns into an obsession. The wealth becomes an end, a value independent of and overriding other values. In the Jewish tradition this is called idolatry.

The vocabulary of greed has taken over the political culture and has trampled empathy and the claims of justice. Cutting social service programs—which, a study released this week shows, have kept millions of people above the poverty line—in the name of "efficiencies" and "anti-tax pledges" is immoral. Raising the cry of narcissistic solipsism to the level of a moral virtue ("I earned this money all by myself and therefore nobody has any right to it!") makes the immoral claim of being an island unto oneself, as if one graded the land and poured the concrete and smoothed the blacktop with one's own hands to get one's widgets to the markets—as if one has not benefitted from luck and circumstance and the hard work of many who came before, and who toiled independent of one, as if the accident of birth, the economic and geographic circumstances of one who is impoverished are their own doing and their own fault.

The worse thing about this, the thing that had me depressed in that very nice living room with those fine people was that even those of us who are trying to create a more just world, have been impacted by the universe of monetized morals. Should we not be able to argue that the death penalty should be abolished because it is immoral on its own, and not because it is more expensive than the alternative!? Should we not be able to be heard on the issue merely because it is just and right?


---
Rabbi Menachem Creditor
Congregation Netivot Shalom  || Bay Area Masorti ||  ShefaNetwork 
Rabbis for Women of the Wall  ||  menachemcreditor.org 
To join Rabbi Creditor's email list, send a blank email to thetisch-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

Friday, November 11, 2011

Ramah Leaders Shine at the GA This Week


NRC Website Banner
National Ramah Commission, Inc. of The Jewish Theological Seminary
www.campramah.org 
November 11, 2011
14 Cheshvan 5772

Ramah Leaders Shine at the GA This Week 

 

Dear Friends of Ramah,

What a great few days for Ramah at the Jewish Federations of North America's General Assembly (GA) in Denver this week.

Amy Skopp Cooper Covenant Video 2011

Sunday night was truly magical. Hundreds of Jewish leaders came together for the annual Covenant Foundation awards dinner, at which Amy Skopp Cooper, National Assistant Director and Director of Ramah Day Camp in Nyack, NY, was recognized as one of three winners of this year's prestigious Covenant Award for excellence in Jewish education. I encourage you watch this inspiring video about Amy's work at Ramah Nyack.

Throughout the night, and all three days of the convention, people came up to me saying how wonderful were Amy's video and speech, how deserving she was, and how terrific it was to have Ramah again recognized for excellence. Fellow winner Rabbi Shai Held is also a Ramahnik, and among the previous winners of the Covenant Award in the past two decades are close to a dozen Ramahniks, including Dr. Sara Rubinow Simon, one of the winners in the first year that the award was established (1991); Ellie Bach Gelman (1996); Henia Lewin (1997); Rabbi Yosi (Joel) Gordon (2000); Lorraine Posner Arcus (2001); Vicky Kelman (2003); Jane Taubenfeld Cohen (2006); Rabbi Philip Warmflash (2007); Susan Werk (2008); Rabbi Stuart Seltzer (2009); and Rabbi Loren Sykes (2006), past Director of Ramah Darom and current Director of Ramah Wisconsin.

Anna Hartman
Anna Hartman

Looking towards the future, the Covenant Foundation this year announced the inaugural Pomegranate Prize, recognizing five promising Jewish educators. One of the five award recipients was Anna (Robinowitz) Hartman, Director of Early Childhood Education at Greenfield Hebrew Academy in Atlanta. Anna is an alumna of Camp Ramah in New England, where she was a camper, and of Ramah Darom, where she served as a staff member with Director Rabbi Loren Sykes. She represents a new generation of Ramahniks who are making valuable contributions to their Jewish communities. We were joined at the Covenant dinner by ten other young Ramah alumni, who were attending the GA as representatives of Hillel, members of local delegations, and Wexner Fellows. The enthusiasm of these lively Ramahniks was contagious.

Ramah Alumni Reception
Ramah Alumni Reception, November 7, 2011

On Monday night, for the first time in at least a decade, we held a Ramah Alumni Reception at the GA, where Ramah alumni and friends were invited to meet and share stories. Almost 100 alumni attended, and the publicity for the reception throughout the GA kept people talking about the impact of Ramah on their lives, and on the landscape of leadership of Jewish communities globally. Click here to see photos from the event on Facebook. While at the reception, we celebrated the impact of Ramah and Amy's award, and we announced the imminent creation of a Ramah movement-wide alumni initiative. Being in Denver, we also celebrated the second outstanding season of our newest camp, Ramah Outdoor Adventure.

As I walked around throughout the three days at the GA, it was striking to see so many GA delegates proudly wearing the Ramah buttons that we gave out to Ramah alumni, Ramah parents, and Ramah grandparents, and to recognize the significance of Ramah's influence in so many organizations. As JTS Chancellor Arnold Eisen commented, "We are so proud of Amy Skopp Cooper and all that she and Ramah Nyack have accomplished. But this is also about Ramah being recognized as perhaps the greatest single creation of JTS, the Conservative Movement, and North American Jewry in terms of real lives impacted."

 

Best regards, 

       

Mitchell Cohen  

Rabbi Mitchell Cohen, National Director

 

www.campramah.org

   

Like us on Facebook  Follow us on Twitter 


Friday, November 4, 2011

United Synagogue November eNews

eNews: Electronic Bulletin - The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism

uscj.org/eNews

November 2011

Kallah

It's just a month away! From December 1 to December 4, United Synagogue's leaders and friends with gather in San Diego for Kallah 2011. We'll learn, sing, talk, think, feel, and share the joy of Shabbat with each other, and to learn skills to bring home to our own kehillot. And as part of the celebration of USY's 60th anniversary, we'll honorJackie Saltz that Saturday night, after havdalah. It's not too late to decide to join us.

New Ideas

Alim - Helping a Kehilla Evolve - One of the new United Synagogue's most pressing mandates is to work with new, emerging, or evolving kehillot. Here's the story of one such partnership.

What's New for You

Meet Our New Relationship Managers - As our new system of developing relationships with each of our kehillot continues to unfold, we are glad to announce that we've completed our team of kehilla relationship mangers. Please meet our two newest KRMs.

Nadine Kochavi is the senior KRM for Metny, the district that encompasses New York City's five boroughs and many of its suburbs. Nadine comes to us from Congregation Rodeph Sholom, a prominent Reform synagogue in Manhattan, where she was membership coordinator; she's enjoyed her experience there, recruiting, engaging, and retaining members, but she's glad to return to the Conservative world in which she grew up. She has a bachelor's degree from the State University of New York at Albany and a master's in public administration from Baruch College, where she concentrated in nonprofit administration.
Aimee Close, the senior KRM for the Northeast district, is a lifelong Bostonian who has been both a professional and a lay leader in Conservative synagogues in the greater Boston area. As a former membership director for the JCCs of Greater Boston and a synagogue executive director in Cambridge, she brings years of experience in membership recruitment and retention and in customer service to her new role. Aimee lives in Sharon, Massachusetts, with her son, Ariel, and is an active member of Temple Israel there.

CJ Is On Its Way - The latest issue of CJ: Voices of Conservative/Masorti Judaism is due in your mailbox the week of November 21. Read about women rabbis, a bat mitzvah project in a Chinese orphanage, Jewish life in the Caribbean, bnai anousim in New Mexico, and so much more.

MicroGrants for Outreach to Young Adults - Our strategic plan stresses the importance of reaching out to young adults, who after all are our future. We are thrilled to be able to offer grants of up to $3,500 to kehillot that provide resources and engagement opportunities to 22- to 35-year-olds. Hurry – the application deadline is November 15.

Could Your Kehillah Use Help Launching a Leadership Program? - Sulam for Current Leaders provides a toolkit that helps you to plan around issues of leadership, delegation, and accountability. It explores the managerial challenges of volunteer and staff relationships, as well as the visionary aspects that make synagogue leadership special and sacred. Rabbi Charles Savenor and Bob Levanthal of the Alban Institute will lead a webinar exploring the program on Wednesday, November 16, at noon eastern time (that's 1 p.m. Atlantic, 11 a.m. central, 10 a.m. mountain, and 9 a.m. Pacific time). The webinar will be held again at 7:30 p.m. eastern time that day (and of course that's 8:30 Atlantic, 6:30 central, 5:30 mountain, and 4:30 Pacific, all p.m.). Register now; we'll send you call-in information by November 15.

Schechter Schools' New Website - The Solomon Schechter Day School Network's lovely new website offers prospective students and their parents the information they need to make the vitally important decision about where to go to school; its private section offers Schechter professionals and lay leaders materials, background, and support.

Calendar

Educators Workshops in Oakland - Our educational consultants, Wendy Light and Susan Wyner, go to Oakland, California, in mid-November to offer workshops to help teachers in Jewish institutions and educational leadersconfront the challenges they face.

Celebrate USY@60 in New York at Citi Field - On Sunday, November 20, our Metny region will celebrate USY's 60th birthday, honor Bruce Varon, and remember Bob Perla by launching a youth fund in his name. Email Wendy Glick for more information.

We Want Your Art! - Next year's calendar will showcase art from our affiliated kehillot. If there is something particularly beautiful in your synagogue – an object, a structural element, an angle where the light comes in – send us a photograph and we will be glad to consider it for the 2012/2013 5773 calendar. Email images to Joanne Palmer. The deadline is November 30.

United Synagogue Kallah - We take what used to be the biennial convention and make it into a kallah – an unconventional convention – as we gear up toward Shabbat and then celebrate it with joy, spirit, heart, and mind on December 1 through 4 in San Diego, California. Please join us!

Honoring Jackie Saltz - As part of USY's 60th birthday celebrations, we honor Jackie Saltz in San Diego on December 3, the Saturday night of our convention.

Hazak Is Going to Israel - Hazak, for people 55 and older – often much older! – is kicking off a new, much more active trip to Israel, with an exciting new itinerary. The trip is set for December 11 to December 22, 2011. Join us! Email Jo-Anne Tucker-Zemlak for information.

USY's International Convention - From Sunday, December 25, to Thursday, December 29, USYers will get together in Philadelphia with incredible ruach, curiosity, and joy to celebrate the organization's 61st international convention.

North American Day School Conference - Educational leaders from across the Jewish world, including representatives of the Schechter Day School Network, will gather in Atlanta from January 15-17 for the annual North American Day School Conference.

Koach Kallah - Koach, our college program, invites college students to Boston University from February 23 to February 26 for the 2012 Koach kallah. Rabbi Jane Kanareck, assistant professor of rabbinics at Hebrew College, will be there; the weekend will focus on high-quality, accessible learning, skills training, and leadership development, and of course Shabbat will be filled with music, talk, high spirits, spirited davening, and joy. This year, the kallah is made possible by the generous support of the Women's League for Conservative Judaism.

From the Conservative Yeshiva

Summer Program - Registration for the summer program at the Conservative Yeshiva at United Synagogue'sFuchsberg Jerusalem Center is open. We offer two three-week session, one beginning July 1, the other July 22. Learn Hebrew, study texts, and enjoy the city! We are introducing the volunteer and study option – learn for half the day, and volunteer with Jerusalem-area organizations the other half.

Scholarships for the Conservative Yeshiva's year program still are available. Come for the Yeshiva's spring semester, which begins January 4, and experience the joy of talmud Torah in Jerusalem.

Feel free to email for information about any of the Conservative Yeshiva's programs.

USY

USY International Convention - This December, Philadelphia will host the 61st annual USY convention. It will include a musical salute to USY's 60th anniversary, Chanukah candlelighting, discussions about derech eretz (ethical behavior), social activities, leadership sessions, social action programs, a talk from Marc Elliot, music from a cappella group Six13, and much more. USYers, talk to your regional USY office, look on the web, or email us for more information.

Early Bird Registration - If your teenager wants to join us in one of our life-altering summer programs, which go to the glaciers of Alaska or to sun-soaked Israel, to the depths of the Grand Canyon or the top of Masada, register now and lock in the early bird 2011 price. It's good until November 15. From then until December 31, you can save $100.

Nativ Opens a New Track - Nativ, USY's gap-year leadership program in Israel, now offers a track in Kfar Hassidim Youth Village. You can get regular updates about Nativ 31's year in Israel on Twitter by following @nativisrael. Nativ is accepting applications for the 2012-2013 school year.

From Our Book and Media Center

Autumn and winter give us more time to read, to think, and to create, as we curl up indoors, next to a fireplace (if we're lucky enough to have one). Here are some books with food for (Jewish) thought.

It's Never Too Late For a Luach - The secular year is drawing to a close, but the Jewish year is still young. Do you have your luach yet? If you buy one now, you can register for Luach Updates, an online information source that keeps you up to date.

Thank You from Project Reconnect

More than 300 kehillot across the world participated in Project Reconnect's High Holy Day program, Come Home For the Holidays. Project Reconnect is grateful to each one of them, and wants to express its gratitude publicly. Project Reconnect also is looking for stories from participating kehillot and the families who opened their homes this holiday season. Please send your stories to Daniel.

USY at 60

Save the Dates! - We will celebrate Jackie Saltz on December 3 in at Kallah 11 in San Diego, California as we mark USY's 60th anniversary.

We look forward to watching old friends reconnect, laugh, and remember as we raise scholarship funds to ensure USY's bright future.

Please join us at facebook.com/USY60. If you met your husband or wife at USY, please share your story on Facebook – just enter "I Met My Spouse in USY" in the search box.

Jules Gutin - Now On Video! - Jules Gutin, USY's longtime director, was honored by USY@60 and a legion of his fans and admirers in late September. Here is the video that was shown at the celebration.

Celebrate USY@60 in New York at CitiField - On Sunday, November 20, our Metny region will celebrate USY's 60th birthday, honor Bruce Varon, and remember Bob Perla by launching a youth fund in his name. Email Wendy Glick for more information.

Around the Jewish World

New Bedford Shul Seeks Former Members - Tifereth Israel Congregation in New Bedford, Massachusetts, is turning 90! It's looking for former members and their descendants for a big birthday bash to celebrate chai times five in November. Email, call 508-997-3171, or write to 145 Brownell Avenue, New Bedford, MA 02740.

Around the Jewish World

Get A Job, Rambam! - Masorti, the organization that represents Conservative/Masorti kehillot in Israel, offers a copy of the poster that's taken non-haredi Israel bystorm. For just $11.95, you can have your very own copy.

Web Hosting

Take advantage of free Internet hosting services to affiliated synagogues, USY chapters, and afternoon/day schools. We now also can provide your synagogue with a free template CMS website.

Two Minute Torah

Got two minutes? Get some Torah! Enjoy our weekly podcast and sign up for email alerts. www.koach.org

The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism
Rapaport House · 820 Second Avenue, New York NY 10017
212.533.7800· info@uscj.org