Havurah Sanctuary Committee Meeting Tuesday, June 27 700 - 900 pm Havurah Shalom This will be an important meeting! Havurah is making plans with the folks at the Clara Vista apartments in Cully, and we need to discuss how we will be able to suppor
Tuesday Sanctuary Committee Meeting & Book Discussion Group
July 14 Dorot in the Park, July 15 Israeli Scholar in Residence
This will be an important meeting! Havurah is making plans with the folks at the Clara Vista apartments in Cully, and we need to discuss how we will be able to support the community. We will also hear about the rapid response training and important work needed to oppose some initiative petitions that we might see in 2018. Please attend. Questions? Email Kathy Gordon at farvergordon@gmail.com.
Above photo is from the movie "The Zookeeper's Wife."
Book Discussion Group
Tuesday, June 27
7:00 - 8:30 pm
Havurah Shalom
Phil Walters will lead a discussion of The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman. This is a riveting and tragic non-fiction work drawing upon the unpublished diary of Antonina Zabinski and her accounting of her life during World War II with her husband Jan Zabinski, the director of the Warsaw Zoo. The couple became active in the Polish underground resistance and risked their lives to shelter more than 300 Jews in the zoo, saving them from deportation from the Warsaw ghetto to the camps. Please RSVP here.
Dorot Kabbalat Shabbat & Potluck Picnic in the Park
Friday, July 14
5:30 - 8:30 pm
Laurelhurst Park Picnic Area D
Near SE Ankeny & Cesar Chavez
Please join our Dorot musicians, Tanja Lux, Sarah Shine, Gabe Adoff & Jacob Mandelsberg, as we bring our family-friendly, musical Dorot service from the sanctuary to the beautiful grounds of Laurelhurst Park. Please bring a veggie dish to share and your blankets to spread as we welcome Shabbat in true summer-style. Who knows ... we just may break into a camp-style song session while we're at it. Kiddos and parents are welcome to bring a music-making instrument and/or spirit!! We have Picnic Area "D" reserved from 4:00 pm until closing, and the site contains five picnic benches. For questions, contactjmandelsberg@gmail.comor sarah.shine@gmail.com.
Photo above is of Emanuel Ben-David and his wife, Connie.
Emanuel Ben-David, Scholar In Residence
Saturday, July 15
10:00 am - 3:30 pm (service, lunch, presentations)
Havurah Shalom
Havurah is honored to welcome Emily Simon's good friend from Ashland and Israel, Emanuel Ben-David, as our Scholar In Residence on Saturday, July 15. He will lead morning services at 10:00 am, join us for a potluck vegetarian lunch afterward, then give two presentations on Israel in the afternoon.
Being a native Israeli, Emanuel notices nuances in Hebrew, and as a result his teachings have great depth. He is studying for the rabbinate, and he and Emily have led services together in Ashland. His "day job" in Israel involved the technical side of Israeli military defense.
In the first afternoon presentation, at 1:30 pm, he will share “Ten Commandments” that humorously examine the characteristics of the "typical" Israeli and, by extension, of the country at large. The commandments examine some of the driving forces and origins that have made Israelis who they are and explain how they came to be that way. Each of the ten points is supported by examples and facts, many of which come from Emanuel’s personal experience.
In the second presentation, at 2:30 pm, Emanuel will unveil his personal experience working for decades for Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, one of the major three Defense Contractors in Israel. Among the technologies and products he describes are the Iron Dome and David’s Sling, two of the three layers of Israel’s Missile Defense Architecture. He will also give an example of how defense technology is transposed to the medical arena to provide life-saving breakthroughs.
All are invited to the morning service and potluck lunch or the afternoon presentations, or both the morning and the afternoon. Please RSVP here.
Photo below is a cool photo of Havurah this past winter. Hard to imagine today, with the temperature soaring over 100!
Please use this form to submit stories for Havurah's weekly community email. Submissions are due by noon on Tuesday.
Havurah Shalom is a vibrant, egalitarian, and diverse Jewish Reconstructionist community. Steeped in Jewish values, Havurah promotes spirituality, learning, and acts of social responsibility.
Find our calendar and learn more at www.havurahshalom.org.
(HYB) Solidarity Shabbat Friday, May 23rd 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.
Shabbat Morning with Bat Mitzvah of Maya Rosenbaum Shabbat, May 24th 10:00a to 12:00p Please join us for Shabbat morning services, including welcoming Maya Rosenbaum as a Bat Mitzvah and member of our community.
(HYB) Rosh Ḥodesh Tov! Gender-Inclusive New Moon Ritual Sunday, May 25th 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.
CANCELED - Palestinian Justice Letter Writing Group Monday, May 26th (All day) We are taking May off for Memorial Day. See you in June! We hold monthly letter writing group Zoom gatherings to write letters to our lawmakers for Israel/Palestine justice. Questions? Email Dale Oller (member log-in required to access directory). Feel free to drop in any time! There’s no need to RSVP, but please do RSVP if you need the Zoom login. Non-Havurah-members very welcome as well.
(ZM) Book Group: A Day in the Life of Abed Salama by Nathan Thrall Tuesday, May 27th 7:00p to 8:30p The Havurah Shalom Book Group meets monthly to discuss fiction and nonfiction books voted on by Havurah members. All are welcome to any and all meetings. Copies of our upcoming books can be checked out by members in the Havurah library. *This is the last meeting for the year. We will start up again in September 2025.*
(IP) Hebrew as a Tool: Prayer and Torah (registration closed) Wednesday, May 28th 7:00p to 8:15p (This class will now be starting on January 8.) Using an in-depth, word-by-word approach, we discover literal meaning(s), ancient layers of understanding, and our own personal interpretations that stem from the nuances of the Hebrew text. Basic Hebrew decoding skills necessary.
(HYB) Shabbat Morning Shabbat, May 31st 10:00a to 12:00p Led by community members and Rabbi Benjamin (who is on sabbatical until July 1, 2025), 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.