The Core Crisis Team is moving forward with a careful, phased approach to opening our sanctuary under current Oregon Health Authority rules and limitations. We are now moving forward with guidelines for allowing limited indoor gatherings in our building for Wednesday Morning Minyans and upcoming B’nei Mitzvah. For more information about these guidelines, read the full article here. The Core Crisis Team is also exploring opportunities for greater community input on re-opening issues and will be sharing more about that in the near future.
Havurah Census
Your Response is Needed!
The Long Range Plan team is counting on your participation in the Havurah Census. If your household hasn't completed the Havurah Census yet, you will receive an email with the link in the next few days. Please click on the link to provide your household's input for our demographic census.
We need this information to accurately reflect our community, to enable us to be inclusive, responsive and self-aware as we plan for Havurah's future. Your responses are confidential. They are being received and processed by the Oregon Beliefs and Values Center, a market research non-profit organization.
Upcoming Events
Kabbalat ShabbatCANCELED
Friday, June 11
Bar Mitzvah of Judah Barnett Saturday, June 12, 10 am – Room Aleph
Please join us in welcoming Judah Barnett as a Bar Mitzvah and member of our community!
Jewish Mindfulness & Meditation Tuesday, June 15, 12 pm – Room Bet
We gather to find some moments of quiet and shalom. Led by Rabbi Benjamin, Adela Basayne, or Nancy Becker.
Morning Minyan Wednesday, June 16, 8:30 am – Room Aleph
For all who want a regular prayer practice and for people saying Kaddish. Led by J.D. Kleinke.
Community Minyan Saturday, June 19, 10 am– Room Aleph
Please join us for Shabbat morning! Led by community members and Rabbi Benjamin, this service includes davening, Torah reading, and discussion.
Book Group Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots Tuesday, June 22, 7-8:30 pm – Room Bet
As a member of the strictly religious Satmar sect of Hasidic Judaism, Deborah Feldman grew up under a code of relentlessly enforced customs governing everything from what she could wear and to whom she could speak to what she was allowed to read. Yet in spite of her repressive upbringing, Deborah grew into an independent-minded young woman whose stolen moments reading about the empowered literary characters of Jane Austen and Louisa May Alcott helped her to imagine an alternative way of life among the skyscrapers of Manhattan. Discussion led by David Newman.
LGBTQIA+ Advance Care Planning Tuesday, June 29, 7-8:30 pm– Room Bet DATE CHANGE The Ma'avar Committee is hosting an Advance Care Planning workshop on creating an Advance Directive with a special focus for the LGBTQI+ community. Advance care planning is a process of considering the types of healthcare decisions that may need to be made in a medical crisis or at the end-of-life then writing those decisions and preferences into an Advance Directive. Space is limited and RSVP is required. Please contact Ericka Kimball via the Havurah Member Directory with questions. RSVP here.
Maria & Carlos's Move
Help needed by “young athletic types” as someone called them, to move the many items donated to furnish their apartment. The move will take place on July 1, with some loading the night before. Please sign up on the spreadsheet. Feel free to call or write me, Barbara Hershey, via the Havurah Member Directory, as I am coordinating this move. Let me know your time availability.
It is now time for all you generous donors to Maria and Carlos to deliver your items for their apartment to either my house (inner NE) or to Nancy Chesser (NW). Contact us to arrange a mutually acceptable date/time.
Thank you to many generous menschen, we have most of what is needed to settle Maria and Carlos in their new apartment at the end of the month. There are just a few critical items outstanding (see a list here):
One twin mattress and box spring
Sharp kitchen knives for slicing and dicing (not eating utensils)
Iron and ironing board
First Aid kit
Monetary contributions are also accepted and you can give here.Thank you all!
Tikkun Olam
Nicholas Kristoff's Discussion on Poverty: Recording
Nicholas Kristoff's discussion around poverty issues on June 7 was well attended by Havurahniks. The event was sponsored by the Interfaith Alliance on Poverty with whom Havurah's Poverty & Homelessness Committee works as a member congregation. If you missed Nicholas's discussion and would like a recording, please contact Havurah member Gloria Halper via the Havurah Member Directory.
Congregation Neveh Shalom COVID-19 Outreach and Services (CNSCOS)
CNSCOS can help you make sense of all there is to know about the pandemic, testing, and vaccines. CNSCOS can help with finding and applying for financial resources, running errands, accessing food assistance, finding other helpful services, or just calling to chat with folks who are feeling isolated or lonely. The CNSCOS team also provides timely information online here and via a weekly email here. Contact covid19@nevehshalom.org or call 971-990-5652 if you need COVID-19 assistance.
Do You Need Help?
If you are facing emotional or financial hardship from a loss of employment, decrease in income, or any other impact of our recent crises; or, if you would benefit from the support of community members for grocery shopping, errands, or any other concrete or emotional 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 Rabbi Benjamin.
Havurah Zoom Rooms
To see our full Zoom room instructions, click here. Member sign-in required.
Questions About Havurah?
The Transparency & Inclusivity Committee is an avenue within Havurah Shalom to help members find the answers to question they have wondered about. Please send your questions to transparency@havurahshalom.org. We will anonymously publish your question in Hakol and then answer that question. Everyone in our community benefits from this clarity!
(IP) Elul Gallery Art Drop-Off Sunday, Aug 17th 12:00p to 3:00p As part of our annual holiday cycle, Havurah members are invited to share our own reflections on the themes and stories of the High Holiday season. In addition to prose or poetry that may be shared on the bima at High Holiday services, we are putting out a call for artistic expressions in any visual medium, including paintings, drawings and photography. We welcome your reflections on any aspect of the High Holidays experience, whether they arise from our tradition’s core concepts of teshuvah (return) or seliḥah (forgiveness), or from any other aspect of your own process of looking inward during the time leading into the holiday season. The Elul and High Holiday Gallery is a project of the High Holidays Committee and the Design Committee, led by Joan Peck and Marcia Suttenberg.
(ZM) Climate Change Book Group Slow Reading of "Not Too Late" Monday, Aug 18th 5:30p to 6:30p All are welcome! Havurah members and non-members alike are invited to join us in this slow, section-by-section reading of "Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility." Click and RSVP. Attend any or all of these HCAT (Havurah's Climate Action Team) Book Group discussions about "Not Too Late."
(ZM) Healing the Heart, Soothing the Soul: A Grief Process Support Group Tuesday, Aug 19th 5:30p to 7:00p **Note: Registration for this group is now closed.** During the month of Elul, we are guided to examine our souls, explore our relationships, reflect on our actions with God and others, and prepare ourselves spiritually to begin a new year. With the Spirit of Elul, we will journey into exploring the aspects of grief. For Havurah members only. Limited to 8 people. Participants are strongly encouraged to attend all sessions.
(IP) Israeli Dancing Wednesday, Aug 20th 7:30p to 8:30p Join us to learn Israeli dancing! We’ll teach the steps and tell the stories behind Israeli dances while you enjoy the catchy rhythms, creative body movements, and spending time with friends.
Led by Havurah members Cindy Merrill and Gail Schwartz with dance instructor Rhona Feldman.
Hakol Deadline is Thursday, August 21 Thursday, Aug 21st (All day) Havurah members, click to learn how to submit your contributions to our monthly newsletter, Hakol.
(HYB) Solidarity Kabbalat Shabbat Friday, Aug 22nd 5:45p to 8:00p Join Havurah members and friends for a Solidarity Shabbat service and potluck nosh. This is a spiritual space for community members working in solidarity with Palestinians - and for the liberation of all peoples - to come together to pray, build connections, and renew ourselves on Shabbat to continue our justice work. Please review Havurah's Brit Kavod for our community guidelines. Masks strongly encouraged and provided.
(HYB) Shabbat Morning Shabbat, Aug 23rd 10:00a to 12:00p Led by community members and Rabbi Benjamin, this service includes davening, Torah reading, and discussion. Join us afterward for a light community brunch provided by the Lunches and Noshes Committee! Free childcare is provided. For Zoom information, please email info@havurahshalom.org.
(HYB) Rosh Ḥodesh Tov! Gender-Inclusive New Moon Ritual Sunday, Aug 24th 7:00p to 8:15p A gender-inclusive New Moon group, learning and celebrating each Rosh Ḥodesh with ancient and contemporary ritual. Open to any and all genders, inviting each to connect with our closest heavenly body, the Moon. An introductory meeting will happen on the full moon of Elul on Wednesday, Aug. 30 outdoors—weather permitting—in North Portland. Subsequent meetings will be on or near the new moon of each month either in person in North Portland or on Zoom, depending on seasonal shifts in the weather. Attend any or all sessions. RSVP to be updated on location and other details throughout the year.
