Daily Shofar Blast - Beginning on Rosh Chodesh Elul
Friday, August 18 to Friday, September 15 (except on Shabbat) – Havurah Facebook Page
Daily Elul Kavannah and Shofar blasts will be posted on the Havurah Shalom Facebook page by Diane Chaplin, Howard Patterson & Andrine de la Rocha. Elul Tov! The daily shofar blasts are being offered as part of Havurah Shalom’s celebration of the Hebrew month of Elul. To access the daily shofar post, visit (and sign up for) the Havurah Facebook page here.
Exploring Jewish Humor
2 pm to 3:15 pm, Sunday, August 20 – Havurah Shalom and Zoom Room Dalet
Author and playwright David Fuks will share his perspective on Jewish humor as a source of resilience and as a response to struggle and anger. David will share a few stories and ten-minute one act plays as well as a few favorite jokes. Please join us for an afternoon of affectionately shared insight. (Members and non-members welcome.) RSVP
Creative Ways to Express Your Grief
Sunday, August 20 from 12 pm to 2 pm and Sunday, September 3 from 2 pm to 4 pm – Zoom Room Bet
Led by Ericka Kimball and Carolina Martinez. In these sessions, which build off of one another, we will develop creative ways to honor and memorialize loved ones we have lost. We welcome you to come into the space at any place emotionally you are at with grief you hold in your heart. We will share ideas for coping that first year and beyond, from a mental/emotional level to a creative level (however that looks for you—all ways are important and valued), and we will hold a safe space for any feelings that come up during our time together to share stories and memories. (Members and non-members welcome.) RSVP
HCAT Book Group to Begin Reading Under the Sky We Make
5 pm to 6:30 pm, Monday, August 21 (subsequent HCAT Book Group Meetings for Under the Sky We Make will typically take place on the first and third Monday of the month) – Zoom Room Gimel
All Havurah members are welcome to become part of the Havurah Climate Action Team (HCAT) Book Group as we embark on our next book addressing the climate crisis, Under the Sky We Make, by climate scientist Kimberly Nicholas, PhD. In her best-selling book, Dr. Nicholas offers a hopeful, clear-eyed, and sometimes hilarious guide to affecting real change. For the August 21 meeting, please aim to read the book's introduction and first chapter. Details on the reading schedule and subsequent HCAT Book Group meetings, including an online meet-the-author event in September, will be posted in the calendar and Hineinu. Reach out to Harriet Cooke if you have questions. RSVP
Songs of Teshuvah/Turning Sing-Along
7 pm to 8:30 pm, Monday, August 21 – Havurah Shalom
Usher in Elul, the month leading up to High Holidays, with song! Join us at Havurah as we get into the spirit of the season with a full-throated group sing-along. We will till the soil of our souls through songs, both familiar and new, in English and in Hebrew, on teshuvah, transformation, and welcoming the new year. No experience necessary. Just bring your enthusiasm for singing in community! (Members and non-members welcome.) RSVP
Kabbalah for T'shuvah
7 pm to 8:15 pm, Thursdays, August 24 and 31; September 7 and 14 – Havurah Shalom
This is a four-week class for exploring our understanding of and relationship with God for T’shuvah. Through meditation, journaling, reading and discussing excerpts from Rabbi Alan Lew’s book, This is Real and You are Completely Unprepared, and Rabbi Abner Weiss’s book, Connecting to God, Ancient Kabbalah and Modern Psychology, we’ll turn the ideas of Elul into the practice of Elul. Limit 10 participants. Led by Harriet Cooke. (Members and non-members welcome.) RSVP
Return of the Beavers: A Walk Along Fanno Creek
8:30 am to 11 am, Sunday, August 27 – Hideaway Park, Tualatin Hills Park and Recreation District
This walk/hike will focus on the environmental transformation of an urban/suburban watershed by beavers. We'll observe and discuss the rise in the water table and resulting growth in vegetation, underground storage of water, flood control and learn about the positive effects of the return of beaver to the Fanno Creek watershed. Please note this program will require walking about 1.5 miles on uneven and at times muddy ground. Led by Jeffry Gottfried. (Members and non-members welcome.) RSVP
Temperature Tapestry Climate Project
10 am to 11 am, Sunday, August 27 – Havurah Shalom RSVP
or 11:15 am to 12:15 pm, Sunday, August 27 – Zoom Room Heh RSVP
Want to be part of another meaningful art installation at Havurah? Let's gather and get Creative for the Climate! We will be knitting, crocheting, weaving, etc. a tapestry that tracks the temperature during different times in history up to the present for Portland, Oregon. Coordinating colors, we will make stripes representing the temperature. For example, red for the hottest and purple or blue for the coldest, with other colors representing in-between temps. Using weather data, we will make rows that designate the high temperature for that day in Portland. Yarn will be provided; sliding scale payment. Led by Judi Soloway. (Members and non-members welcome.)
Conversation About Our Pilgrimage to the Deep South: Reckoning with Our Shameful History of Racism
3 pm to 4:30 pm, Sunday, August 27 – Havurah Shalom
An informal discussion about the pilgrimage taken by four Havurah members in March to Alabama and Georgia with 200 other Reconstructionist Jews from around the US, including twenty Jews of color, some of whom were rabbis of color. Highlights were Bryan Stevenson’s Legacy Museum and Memorial to lynching victims, the Rosa Parks Museum, hearing from survivors of Bloody Sunday in Selma, and attending Sunday church service at the Ebenezer Baptist church, founded by Martin Luther King, Jr. (Members and non-members welcome.) RSVP
Teen Room Mural Painting & Posters
3 pm to 5 pm, Sunday, August 27 – The Havurah Annex
Calling all Havurah teens (7th-12th grade) for mural painting and poster making! We had a fantastic first day painting a mural on one of the walls in the new Teen Room and the entryway at the Havurah Annex. Join us as we continue painting the murals and begin making posters for the Rose Haven Book Drive. Come reconnect with Havurah friends and meet new teens too! Cupcakes, cookies and drinks provided. RSVP
Ice Cream Social with Our Houseless Neighbors
7 pm to 8:30 pm, Sunday, August 27 – Havurah Shalom Courtyard
The Havurah Poverty and Homelessness Committee will be holding a face-to-face social gathering in the Havurah courtyard for Elul as a way of saying thank you to all who appreciate and respect our courtyard space, and to remind us to recognize each other’s basic humanity. We will sit together and enjoy a treat. Not to discuss social problems, not to offer service, just share with folks who so often can feel invisible—a small way of gaining understanding for all who attend. Check out the event flyer. We believe this event is in the spirit of Tikkum Olam and Teshsuvah. Questions? Contact Marcia Suttenberg or Steve Rudman. (Members and non-members welcome.) RSVP
Peter Beinart: Reparations and the Palestinian Right of Return as a Form of Teshuvah for the Nakba
5 pm to 6:30 pm, Tuesday, August 29 – Offsite Zoom Room
Peter Beinart will take part in a nationally organized conversation with Rabbi Laurie Zimmerman of Reconstructionist Congregation Shaarei Shamayim focused on reparations and the Palestinian Right of Return as a form of teshuvah for the Nakba, a subject which Beinart has also written about here. Questions? Contact Joel Beinin. You can sign up via this link (or you can RSVP with Havurah to be emailed the sign-up link). (Members and non-members welcome; this is a nationwide event that Havurah's Israel/Palestine Committee is co-sponsoring.)
Rosh Ḥodesh Tov! Gender-Inclusive New Moon Ritual
Evening of Wednesday, August 30 and subsequent new moons starting in October – In Person or Zoom Room Heh (Leader will announce which.)
A gender-inclusive New Moon group, learning and celebrating each Rosh Ḥodesh with ancient and contemporary ritual. 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. Please RSVP to be updated on the location and other details throughout the year.
The Play of Turning and Returning
7 pm to 8:15 pm, Wednesday, August 30, 2023 – Havurah Shalom RSVP
or 7 pm to 8:15 pm, Thursday, August 31 – Zoom Room Heh RSVP
Using simple, incremental birthright practices of story, voice, movement, and stillness, we'll enter the text and discover our own personal midrash, stories, chochma flashes (insights, ahas!). Open to everyone: cultural creatives and recovering serious people, newbies and scholars. Childcare will be provided for the in-person version. Led by Cassandra Sagan. (Members and non-members welcome.)
Shabbat Morning with Bar Mitzvah of Roger Veneklase
10 am, Saturday, September 2 – Havurah Shalom and Zoom Room Aleph
Please join us for Shabbat morning services, including welcoming Roger Veneklase as a Bar Mitzvah and member of our community. All are welcome.
Jonah: A Deep Dive During Elul
7 pm to 8:15 pm, Tuesday, September 5 – Havurah Shalom
Join Emily Simon to learn and discuss many of the myriad interpretations of Jonah—all the way from Herman Melville to feminist theorists, to our very own previous Havurah teen drashes (and if you don’t remember the teen drashes—it’s even more reason to come!). Expect to have a good time, find out what resonates for the class, and then—if you are willing—be prepared to participate in the Mincha service on Yom Kippur. Readings will be emailed ahead of class. Familiarity with the Jonah story is much appreciated but not required. RSVP (Members and non-members welcome.)
Rabbi Benjamin Leads a Discussion of the Peter Beinart Presentation
7 pm to 8:15 pm, Tuesday, September 5 – Havurah Shalom and Zoom Room Dalet
Rabbi Benjamin will lead a Torah and values-based discussion of the complex issues raised by Peter Beinart’s Aug 29 Conversation: “Reparations and the Palestinian Right of Return as a Form of Teshuvah for the Nakba.” You are strongly urged to watch the Beinart conversation live or recorded prior to attending this discussion (to attend the August 29 Peter Beinart talk, you can register via this link). Click here to RSVP for the September 5 discussion led by Rabbi Benjamin. (Members and non-members welcome.)
A Reparations Primer
6 pm to 7:15 pm, Wednesday, September 6 – Zoom Room Dalet
Considerations about reparations are complicated. This causes any meaningful discussion about reparations not to go anywhere. This discussion will not answer many questions but will provide a framework for thinking about what it means to plan for a reparations program. The hope is that people will learn the language and tools to discuss reparations. This discussion might also motivate people to participate in our 5-part class offering about reparations offered by the Racial Justice Committee in the fall. Please register for this September 6 reparations primer. There may be some short pre-readings. Questions? Please reach out to Bob Brown. (Members and non-members welcome.)
Safety and Situational Awareness: Useful Skills For Greeters, Ushers, and All Members
6:30 pm to 7:30 pm, Wednesday, September 6 – Zoom Room Heh RSVP
or 1 pm to 2 pm, Sunday, September 10 – Havurah Shalom RSVP
During Elul, all Havurah members are warmly encouraged to sign up for our safety and awareness training, listed in the Elul offerings as Greeter and Usher Training. While anyone who is interested in ushering at High Holidays or in being a greeter at High Holidays and at Havurah throughout the year is encouraged to take this training, it’s not just for greeters and ushers! This training gives you valuable skills around situational awareness, welcoming, and de-escalation (among others) that can benefit everyone. You will learn how to respond appropriately to challenging situations that can come up in anyone’s life — at home, at work, at school, or out in the community. The two remaining class sessions are the same, except one is on Zoom and the other is in person at Havurah. Questions? Contact Joel Bettridge or Rachel Pollak (rachel@havurahshalom.org). (These trainings are for Havurah members only.)
