Condolences | Mazal Tov | Purim | “The Passion” | Spelling Bee | Sisterhood Open Board meeting | Men’s Club Shabbat | Hebrew Reading Review | March Shabbat Dinner | Moshe Waldoks at TA | Tot Shabbat | Torah Fund | Wine Sale | Pesach in Kiryat Bialik | JTS Trip | Tutors Needed | Blood Drive | In the Community | Retreat | Trivia Contest | QuickLinks

Our condolences go out to to Ken and Margie Phillips and and their family on the loss this past weekend of Ken’s mother, Bertey Phillips. The graveside service is on Wednesday at 1:45 pm at Sharon Memorial Park.  Ken will sit shiva at his home (74 Sachem Road, Needham) immediately following the service on Wednesday, and minyans will be held on Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday evenings at 7:30.

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

Another wedding! Mazal Tov to Neil and Shelley Krug on the engagement of their daughter Tracey to to Michael Kaplowitz.

And another grandchild! This one to Jimmy and Debbie Krasnow, a grandson, Adam, born to their daughter Meryl.

Rabbi Perkins delivered his sermon this past shabbat relating his reactions to a screening of Mel Gibson’s controversial film. The remarks are now posted online. Those of you who attended services might be interested in reading these words again; those of you who didn't make it will definitely want to read this unique perspective.

Don’t be shy!  We still need one more volunteer 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. If you are interested in participating in this fun event, please let Lesli know ASAP.

Please join Sisterhood at 7:45 p.m. on Wednesday evening in the Youth Room for a sneak peek at Sisterhood’s operations, followed by a guest speaker. As one of our Social Action initiatives, Maxine Lyons, Senior Program Coordinator, Israel and Oversees Projects Department of the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC), will discuss the history and status of Ethiopian Jews who have emigrated to Israel. Maxine will share briefly her experiences working with Ethiopian Jews in our sister city of Haifa. She will show pictures of Ethiopian families and describe the needs of this segment of the Israeli population (now numbering 80,000 people). She will talk about ways to help these families. At the conclusion of the meeting, Maxine will display hand-crafted items made by Ethiopian women. These items will be available for purchase via cash or checks made payable to the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC).

This coming shabbat is our annual Men’s Club Shabbat, when all of the service will be led by the men of our congregation, with help in the Torah reading from some of our teens. We’ll have the distinct pleasure of hearing Rabbi Gary Davidson, whose topic will be “The Hidden Self: Unmasking our True Identity.” Rabbi Davidson grew up in Needham, the son of TA members Murray and Myrna Davidson. He received his religious education at Temple Aliyah and attended Brandeis University and the Jewish Theological Seminary. He is currently a chaplain at Beverly Hospital.

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). Registration forms and payment are due by Thursday, March 4. Click here for more info and a registration form.

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, Sisterhood, and TA45+ invite you to attend An Evening with Reb Moshe Waldoks—Rabbi, humorist, and raconteur—on Sunday evening, March 21st from 7 to 9 p.m.  The cost is $10 per person and $20 per family. Reb Moshe is the co-editor of The Big Book of Jewish Humor. He is one of the founders of the Jewish-Buddhist dialogue in the U.S. and participated in the first Jewish-Tibetan encounter with the Dalai Lama and his community in Dharamsala, India in 1990. There will be dessert and beverages served.  Please plan to attend.  Call Sylvia Shuman at 781-444-2342 to make a reservation, or email her.

Bring your toddler or pre-schooler to welcome shabbat on Friday evening, March 26, with Margie and Gil, for our final Tot Shabbat Friday evening service of the year, from 6:15-7 pm. A special oneg shabbat will follow.

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,” 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.

Our Sisterhood is offering a fabulous selection of Passover wines to order from the convenience of your home! Ther ordering deadline is March 28, and pickup will be on April 4th. Please check out the selection and ordering instructions online.

Our sister congregation in Kiryat Bialik, Israel, includes many Argentinean single parent families. In trying to escape economic chaos in Argentina, these families made aliyah to Israel in hopes of finding employment and a better life. However, they are struggling to make ends meet in Israel’s current harsh economic climate. You can help by sending money to help provide a seder for these immigrants. See the web page for more details and a donation form. Contact Bonnie Gold for more infomation.

Please join us for a day of learning and study at the Jewish Museum and the Jewish Theological Seminary, New York City, Sunday, April 25, 2004. Our Theme will be “Jewish Life in the Medieval Islamic World.” The bus will leave TA at 7 a.m. and return around 10:30 p.m. All meals will be served. This is a tremendous learning experience! The visit to the Rare Books room at the JTS library alone is worth the trip. See all the details and a registration form on the web site.

Please be in touch with Jan if you have some time to work one-on-one with a member of our current Adult Bar/Bat Mitzvah class.  We have six students preparing for their b’nai mitzvah on Shavuot and we’re hoping for a commitment from our tutors of just 1 hour a week.  Let us know what time will work for you and we’ll do the arranging. 

The Men’s Club annual Blood Drive has been postponed from March 15 to some time later this spring. The final date will be announced later. Contact Bob Rosemark  at brosemark@comcast.net for more details or if you can volunteer.

Hebrew College is pleased to present one of the most important and challenging lecture series of the year, “Going to Extremes: The New World Disorder.” Three prominet scholars address the questions: Why and how has religious fundamentalism roared to the center of the world stage? How great is the danger? Is coexistence even possible? What does the future hold? When: Three Wednesdays, March 3, 10, and 17 at 7:30 p.m. Where:  Hebrew College, 160 Herrick Road, Newton Centre. Admission: $10 paid advance registration; $15 at the door; $25 for all three events. Registration:  Call the Center for Adult Jewish Learning at 617-559-8709. Web Site: www.hebrewcollege.edu/extremes.

The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra will perform on Monday, March 8 at 8 p.m. at Symphony Hall. Yoel Levi, conductor; André Watts, piano soloist. A pre-performance buffet reception will be held at 6:30 in Higginson Hall at Symphony Hall. The cost is $250 per person. For information, call (617) 598-3203. Tickets are $87, $72, $57, $42. Call SymphonyCharge at (888) 266-1200 (M-F, 10-6) or visit the Celebrity Series web site at www.celebrityseries.org, or at the Symphony Hall box office, 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston.

Special program for 12th graders: Anti-Israelism and Anti-Semitism on the College Campus. Sunday morning, March 14th (exact time TBA), Location: TBA (on a local Boston area college campus). College campuses have historically been the center for anti-Israel and at times, anti-Semitic activity. Jewish college students around the country have confronted increasingly tense campus environments over the past three years. This coming September, you will be joining a campus community.  Come learn about what many college students have faced, how they have responded, what you can expect, and more important information about Israel on the college campus. All 12th grade students that attend will receive a copy of Alan Dershowitz’s new book, The Case for Israel. Please RSVP to James Bornstein, 617-457-8655 or jamesb@cjp.org.

Needham Unplugged is a month long awareness campaign to remind Needham families and residents to "unplug their electronics" and "plug into" each other. It is a reminder that there is more to life than what is on the other side of a plug. The highlight of this year's program will be a no-homework, no-sports, and no-activities night for Needham Public School Students on March 11, 2004. In addition, there will be no town-related meetings and virtually no community, school, or religious meetings held on that night. Parents can play their part on March 11th by getting home from work no later than dinnertime, canceling/rescheduling any night meetings, and thinking about making this night a special time for the entire family. For more information contact the Needham Youth Commission at 781-455-7518 or visit the "Unplugged" calendar of event at http://www.town.needham.ma.us/youth/YouthCommissionNeedhamUnplugged.htm.

The North Cambridge Family Opera Company will be staging the world premiere of Springtime for Haman, described as “a sensitive and entertaining portrayal” of the story of Esther, consisting of two 45-minute acts and featuring music and lyrics by David Bass, the artistic director of Family Opera. (Rabbi Perkins especially recommends this for those who took his Adult Ed course on the book of Esther last spring.) This is the second “Esther” production for this opera company; in 2001 they presented The Coronation of Esther.  The opera will be performed on March 20 and 27th at 3PM and 7PM (Saturday) and March 21 and 28 at 1PM and 5PM (Sunday).  The performace location is the King Open School, 850 Cambridge Street, Cambridge.  Cost of admission will be $5 for children, $10 for adults, $25 for a family of 4 and $5 per person in any group of 10 or more.  For more information, please call 617-331-1598, or visit them on the web at www.familyopera.com.

(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.

Congratulations to Jody Traub, the winner of our second on-line trivia contest. The question was: Where is the Temple Aliyah Family Retreat held? The correct answer is of course Camp Yavneh in Northwood, New Hampshire. A total of 19 entrants got the correct answer, but Nancy’s name was chosen at random, and she gets a gift certificate to our Sisterhood Gift Shop.

This week’s question: Cantor Gelman first davened at Temple Aliyah on a holiday: which one?

Click here to answer and for complete contest rules.

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