Condolences | Art Show Fundraiser | Hebrew Reading Review | Kabbalat Shabbat | Rosh Hodesh Group | A Taste of Me’ah | Purim | Girl Scout Shabbat | March Shabbat Dinner | Blood Drive | Torah Fund | Spelling Bee | Book Club | Cookbook | In the Community | Annual Retreat | Trivia Contest | QuickLinks

Our condolences go out to to Neil Ram and his family on the loss of Neil’s father, David Siegel. The funeral was held in Florida, and the family will sit shiva there the entire week. Neil will return to Neeedham and will have one night of minyan next Wednesday night, February 18, at 7:30 pm. at his home at 41 Hemlock Street.

May the Divine Presence comfort them, among all the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.

This year’s major fundraiser event will be an Israeli Art Show and Sale, running from February 26 - 29, 2004, arranged by the Safrai Fine Art Gallery from Jerusalem. The show wil feature original oil paintings, watercolors, lithographs, and etchings. This exhibition and sale will include over 1600 works of art by 100 Israeli artists. Menahem Safrai will be on hand to meet you and guide you through the exhibit.

For more information about the show, including a complete schedule, please check out the web page.

Invitations, including information about being a sponsor, have been sent by mail. Please RSVP as soon as possible. Remember that this is our major fundraiser for the year, so please support it.

Please also considering purchasing one or more raffle tickets to the “Dues for a Year” Raffle. Tickets are $100 each. The drawing will take place on Saturday night, February 28 during the Art Show. Entry forms were included in the last Pulse. If you need more, contact the Temple Office or Anne Glanz.

Brush up on your Hebrew! If you have at least an elementary Hebrew reading ability but feel “rusty” and need a little refresher course, then this program running four Sunday mornings in March is for you! Hebrew Reading Review and Drill: A course for Adults, with our popular instructor extraordinaire, Hasia Richman, will take place on 4 Sunday mornings, March 7, 14, 21, and 28, from 9:15 - 10:45 a.m. This course is for all those adults who can read Hebrew letters and vowels but need more reading review and drill before moving on. Texts used for reading review and drill will be taken from the siddur (prayerbook). A minimum of 8 students is needed for this course to take place. Registration forms and payment are due by Thursday, March 4. Click here for more info and a registration form.

Join us for our monthly early Friday evening Kabbalat shabbat service on February 27th, at 6:15 pm.

It’s Adar, the happiest month. The Sisterhood Rosh Hodesh group will meet on Wednesday evening, February 25, at 7:30 pm, at the home of Marcy Goldberg, 102 Edwardel Road in Needham, to celebrate and explore the theme of Purim.

Join us for an introduction to the Me’ah Adult Learning Program Tuesday, March 2, 2004, from 8-9:30 pm at Temple Aliyah. Needham Jewish education isn’t just for kids! Me’ah is a well-regarded program for adult Jewish learners and we hope to bring this program to the Needham Collaborative (a joint venture of Temple Aliyah and Temple Beth Shalom) in the fall of 2004. You’ll want to be part of this exciting learning experience. For adults, Me’ah can be a life-transforming experience. Beginning its 10th year, Me’ah is a two-year study program for adults who want to delve more deeply into Judaism. Check this out for more information, or email Terri.

In this secular season of romance, if you think “Roses are red, violets are blue...” is quality love poetry, do we have some serious adult education for you! One of the world’s oldest and still most widely read collection of love poems is the Biblical Song of Songs. Come learn about this Book with a loved one (special tuition price for couples)! Rabbi Perkins will lead the class in which we will read them literally and also explore how Jews have read them metaphorically over the centuries. Check here for more info and registration form.

Whatever your background, the exciting new program “Our Jewish Home (OJH)” can help make Judaism more meaningful for your family! This exciting home-based program, for families with young children ages 3-5 (older and younger siblings may also participate), begins this March at Temple Aliyah. OJH brings a trained, caring Jewish educator into your home with an individualized curriculum to meet the needs and interests of your family. Participation is based on the family's desire to learn, not on the present level of practice. This program is open to all, both members and non-members of Temple Aliyah.

.For more info, check out the web page or contact Terri.

There are lots of lots of events coming for this festive holiday:

Join us here at Temple Aliyah for a special Music & More with Margie for Purim!!! Join together and meet other parents and toddlers in our community for a morning of Purim songs and ‘old favorites,’ movement, snacks and lots of fun! Come in costume for Purim!!! Wednesday morning March 3, 2004 from 10:00-10:45 a.m. This program is free to all. Please join us! Bring friends!

Saturday evening, March 6th: Megillah reading at 6:30, costume parade, Purim spiel, hamantashen, and the TA Klezmer band! (and Post-Megillah party for 8-12 grades)

Sunday, March 7: Shaharit with Megillah reading 9:00 am, special classes and celebations in our Religious School, Purim Seudah at noon (reservations required), Sisterhood Purim Carnival 1-3 pm.

Also, don’t forget to order mishloach manot, Purim gift baskets for your family and friends (order form in the recent Pulse): orders due by February 23.

Please join us for services on March 6 as a number of local Girl Scouts join us. March 6-7 is the Girl Scouts’ annual weekend during which girls of all denominations are being encouraged to attend services in churches and synagogues to earn their worship merit badges. Scouts are urged to wear their Girl Scout vests or sashes. If you would like further information or learn how to earn the badge, please contact Sherri Goldman 508-359-6401 or sherrigold@aol.com.

Come welcome the Shabbat with your Temple Aliyah community on March 12, from 6:15 - 8:45 p.m. Join together with others for a the Kabbalat Shabbat service to welcome Shabbat, followed by a delicious Shabbat dinner (we’re using a new caterer with a new menu!). After dinner we’ll be treated to a special a cappella music performance by “Shir Appeal,” a Jewish a cappella group made up of college students from Tufts University. Shir Appeal last performed at Temple Aliyah to full houses in both March, 2000 & 2002. Appropriate for ALL ages! Reservations are due by March 5th. Go to the Reservation Form...

The Men’s Club will sponsor its annual Blood Drive at the Temple on Sunday, March 14, from 9 am to noon. Contact Bob Rosemark  at brosemark@comcast.net for more details or if you can volunteer.

The annual Sisterhood Torah Fund Brunch will take place on Sunday, March 28. The guest speaker will be local author Joan Leegant, who wrote “An Hour in Paradise,” which is a collection of 10 short stories. This book won the Edward Lewis Wallant Book Award for the best book of Jewish-American fiction for 2003. Copies of her book are still in hardcover and are available for $15 (list
price is $23.95) To reserve a book to read prior to Torah Fund (and have it autographed at the brunch!) please contact Pam Glass at pamglass@aol.com or 781-449-7940.

Calling all Spellers!!!  We still need volunteers for the Needham Educational Foundation 13th Annual Spelling Bee, which will be held on April 1st at 7:00 pm at the Newman Elementary School. Three people are needed to make up the team, so if you are interested in participating in this fun event, please let Lesli know ASAP. If we don’t hear from you, we’ll start calling and volunteering you ourselves!

The next meeting of the book club will discuss Three Daughters, by Letty Cottin Pogrebin. Contact Risa Carp or Bess Weiskopf for more information.

The Sisterhood is looking for any and all kosher recipes to include in their upcoming cookbook. If you’ve got that perfect kugel nailed down, please either snail-mail it to the TA office (please write “Cookbook” on the envelope) or email it to either Suzanne Brand or Marcy Goldberg. Also let them know if you’re interested in working on the committee.

Back by Popular Demand: “The Orphan Queen: The Story of Esther” is an original musical by Cantor Robbie Solomon of Temple Ohabei Shalom. Directed by Kevin Mark Kline, Music direction by David Sparr. Two performances Saturday, March 6th, 8pm-10pm and Sunday, March 7th, 4pm-6pm at Ohabei Shalom, 1187 Beacon St., Brookline, MA Tickets are $20 for Adults, $15 for Children, 12yrs. and under and seniors. Call 617-277-6610 and choose “Tickets for Orphan Queen” Mailbox; or e-mail OrphanQueen@ohabei.org.

Scholarship Funds Available: The Combined Jewish Philanthropies Scholarship Committee is now accepting applications for financial aid for the 2004-2005 academic year. The Committee awards supplemental financial assistance to eligible undergraduate students whose permanent address is in a CJP service community. Aid is in the form of a grant or an interest-free loan. The average award in 2003-4 was $2600. Awards are based on documented financial need. For more information concerning eligibility requirements or for an application, please contact the Jewish Vocational Service Financial Aid Administrator at (617) 451-8147 (Lee Ann Bennett) or scholarship@JVS-Boston.org. The deadline for applications is April 30, 2004.

(For a comprehensive listing of all of the upcoming Jewish events in the Greater Boston area, check out the calendar page of the shalomboston web site.)

The sixth annual TA Family Retreat is on its way, and now is the time to start making plans. This is a great event for families young and old. If you’ve been, you know how great it is, and if you haven’t, you owe it to yourself to come to this great getaway. The early reservers get the best rooms, so it’s never too soon to register.

These web pages were set up for us by Anna Glozman, our previous receptionist, as a web design project, so the look of the pages is different from the rest of our site, but all of the information has been updated, and there are some great pictures of the 2002 retreat there.

Congratulations to Nancy Magier, who was the winner of our very first on-line trivia contest. The question was: How many unique email addresses receive the “ComingUp@Aliyah” weekly email (as of this issue)? The correct answer is 542. Everyone underestimated the number, but Nancy came closest and gets a gift certificate to our Sisterhood Gift Shop.

We decided to make it a little less challenging this week, in order to encourage more participation, so here is this week’s really easy question: Where is the annual Temple Aliyah Family Retreat held?

Click here to answer and for complete contest rules.

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New on the web site: Rabbi Perkins gave a short sermon on Martin Luther King day this year, read it online.

A reminder that there is no Religious School this weekend or next week. The office will be closed on Monday for Presidents’ Day but will be open the rest of the week. Services will be held as usual on Shabbat and on Sunday and Monday mornings and Monday through Thursday evenings.