Hineinu

Dear Havurahniks,

Our High Holidays app and web portal is out! Anyone who has registered will have received an email invitation to connect, so check your inbox and your junk mail.
 
The app or the web portal, depending on your preference for the phone or computer, will be your entrance into our virtual tent. You’ll use them to click into the Zoom Rooms we’re using for Elul and the High Holidays. Register now if you have not already!

Click here to find out how to register.

Once you’re logged in, what’s the first event you should attend? We think it’s the ROSH CHODESH ELUL LAUNCH PARTY! We’ll welcome Elul, see fellow community members, and hear the first shofar blast of the season! There will also be games and prizes.
 
Remember, register first, then receive your app/web portal sign-in links and join us in our virtual tent!
 
– High Holiday Planning Team

Upcoming Events & Classes

Kabbalat Shabbat
Friday, Aug. 21, 7:30 pm – Room Aleph
Welcome in Shabbat with a musical service led by Susan Brenner.

Bat Mitzvah of Evelyn Goldberg

Saturday, Aug. 22, 10 am – Room Aleph
Please join us in welcoming Evelyn Goldberg as a Bat Mitzvah and member of our community!

Elul Offerings
Register for High Holidays at Havurah Shalom to RSVP for these events.

App Launch Party: Rosh Chodesh Elul   Tomorrow!

Jewish High Holiday Cooking: Modern Recipes & Classics
Tuesday, Aug. 25, 6:30-8 pm
With Jenn Louis. Each class will feature a chicken soup from around the world, with recipes from Jenn's upcoming book, The Chicken Soup Manifesto. The meal will be rounded out by modern and traditional dishes (all dishes other than the chicken soup will be vegetarian). One class will feature a new-to-Jenn challah recipe--her favorite homemade rendition yet! These sessions will be recorded and made available in the On Demand section of our website and app.

Four Wise Biblical Women (And They Aren't Who You Think They Are)

Monday, Aug. 24, 3-4 pm – Room Gimel
Please join Emily Simon as she features two more wise women who are entwined — Deborah and Yael (this is two classes worth). Please read Judges 4 & 5 and make sure to have a tanach available during the class. RSVP here.

Jewish Mindfulness & Meditation

Tuesday, Aug. 25, 12 pm – Room Bet
We will have an Elul focus for the next four Tuesdays. Led by Rabbi Benjamin.

Havurah Chai Hi Soiree

Tuesday, Aug. 25, 7 pm – Room Aleph
The Welcome Committee invites new and newish members to "Havurah Chai Hi" — an informal evening Zoom soiree on Tuesday, August 25 at 7 PM. Come and meet other new and prospective members, ask questions about Havurah, and be ready to have some fun!

Book Group Discusses The Water Dancer
Tuesday, Aug. 25, 7 pm – Room Bet
In Ta-Nehisi Coates’s fiction debut, he creates a speculative imaging of America's pre-Civil War history with stops in both southern and northern states. He writes about the Tasked, rather than using the phrase slave or slavery, and that shift in language immediately opens the reader into seeing the narrative with new eyes.
 

Morning Minyan

Wednesday, Aug. 26, 8:30 am – Room Aleph
For all who want a regular prayer practice and for people saying Kaddish.

Alte Rockers Zoom Happy Hour
Thursday, Aug. 27, 5 pm – Room Bet
Let's have another Alte Rockers Zoom Happy Hour! Following previous events, we are arranging a happy hour each month to check in with our wonderful group. Grab your favorite drink and appetizer and join others from Alte Rockers in socializing. I don't know about you, but I am sure interested in how you have learned to enjoy life during the time of COVID-19. How have you been using your time? Have you come up with new food dishes? What are you doing this summer? If you have any questions, please contact Ted Scheinman via the member directory.

Bar Mitzvah of Quinley Wise

Saturday, Aug. 29, 10 am – Room Aleph
Please join us in welcoming Quinley Wise as a Bar Mitzvah and member of our community!

Grief Support Group: Online Drop-In
Wednesday, Sept. 9 & 23, 12:30 pm - 2 pm
Havurah Shalom is initiating a facilitated Grief Support Group. Participants receive support and are invited to share feelings and experiences in a confidential peer-group setting. Each session also includes grief education focused on a theme, such as common grief reactions or coping with stress. Participants are asked to pre-register for each individual session they wish to attend, and may attend as many or as few sessions as needed. Limited to 10 people, age 18+. The Zoom Room will be given out with the registration confirmation email. To register, click your desired date(s) below:

    Sept. 9  |   Sept. 23

This is a new initiative by Havurah Shalom. Consideration will be given to extending these sessions through the end of 2020 or beyond if they appear to meet congregant needs and if in-person gatherings are still curtailed. Contact Tivona Reith at bikkurholim@havurahshalom.org with any questions.

Havurah Zoom Rooms

For info on Zoom, click here. You must sign-in after you visit the link.

Updates Inside Havurah

Why Did We Choose Slack for Our Havurahood Groups?
See these helpful slides explaining why Slack was chosen for our community. You can also see the article in our August Hakol, which goes more in-depth.

Interested in Book Group?
We have a new Book Group webpage found here! (You can also go to the Havurah website and hover over the Clusters tab to find Limud, and then hover over Limud to the Book Group page.) The Book Group webpage has tips for discussion leaders, and a list of previously read books, and most exciting of all, the list of books being read this year! Enjoy reading!

Sign Up to Be a Host or Scroller
You have probably attended a service, class, meditation, or other Havurah event on Zoom by now. Have you ever wondered how we manage to get such a great experience for everyone, or who is scrolling through the siddur? Our hosts and scrollers are volunteers, and you can join them! Just sign up on the Hosts & Scrollers tab of this form. No experience? We can train you! Please sign up today, or contact Karen Westerman for more info.

Help Collect the Jewish History of Portland
JewishGen has reserved a page for Portland in KehilaLinks, a feature of JewishGen.org. Each community can post its history, photos, memoirs and data. A few cities in the U.S. have their own pages. Considering the number of Jewish people who live in the U.S., every city should have its own page. By inviting all the Jewish organizations in Portland to participate, the page will belong to all of us. We can leave this legacy for the next generation to have as a reference. We need submissions about the period from 1849 to 1950 on the following topics: businesses, memoirs, and family stories, military involvment, and the Holocaust. Please get appropriate permissions from authors and families, and include the permissions with your submissions. Please email Linda Kelley at lkelley49@gmail.com with questions.

Recon Connect & Virtual Shabbat Box from Reconstructing Judaism
Visit ReconstructingJudaism.org and click on Recon Connect or the Virtual Shabbat Box. There you will find the community, innovation, spirit and depth that embody Reconstructionist Judaism. Recon Connect is an online hub updated regularly!

COVID-19 Resources
Check out our COVID-19 resource page on our website for more information. We have added a new publication about Parenting in a Pandemic and Mental Health During a Pandemic.

Tikkun Olam

Lift Urban Portland Online Fundraiser
Thursday, Aug. 27, 5:30-6:15 pm
Help Lift UP provide food to our community, as COVID-19 and unemployment mean more neighbors face hunger. Learn about Lift UP's food pantry, adopted buildings, and free food market. Watch Jenn Louis's cooking demo. Purchase a chance for an urban bike, dinner for 4 prepared by Jenn, or getaway in wine country. Raffle tickets available through August 26. The event is free. The need is great. Click here for details, RSVP, and pre-event raffle tickets.

Can You Help Get Carlos Ready For School?
The Torah calls on us to welcome the stranger. In 2016, Havurah became a Sanctuary Congregation, and we are currently sponsoring Maria and her 16-year-old son Carlos, who left Guatemala in search of safety. Now seeking asylum in the U.S., Maria and Carlos are living temporarily with a Havurah family.

The Sanctuary Committee thanks the Havurahniks who have generously contributed to support Maria and Carlos. These funds have been helping with the family’s basic living expenses. Now that fall is approaching, we’re asking for donations to help Carlos with the supplies and clothes he needs as he begins his first year of school in Oregon. If you can help with a gift card to Kohls, Old Navy, or Target, please contact Kathy Gordon. Other donations can be made to the family’s support fund at this link.

Interfaith Alliance on Poverty's August Newsletter
Features articles on Portland Forum on Alternative Shelters & Villages, Crisis of Homelessness, and Working Coalitions to Assist the Unsheltered. View the issue here.

Havurah's BLM Resource Page
Check out our new Black Lives Matter resource page for more info!

Let's Help Each Other

If you are facing financial hardship from a loss of employment, decrease in income, or any other impact of this crisis; or, if you would benefit from the support of community members for grocery shopping, errands, or any other concrete needs, for any reason, please contact Rabbi Benjamin at benjamin.barnett@havurahshalom.org or 503-248-4662 ext. 3.

If you would like to be on a list of people to support others in concrete ways, such as grocery shopping or running other errands, please contact Susan Lazareck or Rabbi Benjamin at the email above.