March 6 - Purim Celebration (Help!), PHFS Cooking & Volunteering
(1) Kabbalat Shabbat & Family Shabbat (2) Writing Group (3) Change Is Our Choice: Creating Climate Solutions (4) PHFS Volunteer Orientations (5) Tot Shabbat (6) Parent Workshops (7) To the Chai Life Purim Celebration (8) Tivnu & Havurah Teens Kabbalat Shabbat (9) Book Discussion of Quiet Americans (10) Drawdown Book Discussion (11) Havurah's Evening at the PHFS Family Winter Shelter (12) Counting the Omer (13) Calling All Former Students of Michele Goldschmidt (14) Shabbat School Enrollment
(1) Upcoming Shabbat
Kabbalat Shabbat, Friday, March 8, 7:30 pm – Join one of Portland’s most musical and spirited Shabbat gatherings, led by Rabbi Benjamin and Havurah musicians. Childcare is available.
Family Shabbat, Saturday, March 9, 10:30 am-12:00 noon – A big fabulous morning of singing, storytelling, Torah learning, celebration and noshing. We gather together for some parts of the service and break into smaller age-focused groups for Torah learning and family activities. Especially for families with youth grades K–6 and anybody who wants a boost of kid energy. Led by Deborah Eisenbach-Budner, Rabbi Benjamin, and community members. Followed by potluck oneg lunch. RSVP here.
(2) Writing Group, Thursdays, March 7, 14, 21, 28, April 4, 11, 18, and May 2, 7:00-9:00 pm – In the spirit of Havurah’s theme this year, David Kertzner is organizing a new Havurah adult amateur writers workshop for anyone who wants to go Panim el Panim with themselves, as exploring writers, and with the community. The workshops will culminate with a Friday oneg with writers sharing their work in a public reading. Joining the group does not mean you must read publicly, but it has been fun, transformative, and moving in the past. The goal is to create a supportive, reflective environment for people who want to write and share in a context that they might not have experienced before. Limited to eight participants. Learn more and register here.
(3) Change Is Our Choice: Creating Climate Solutions, Mondays, March 11 and 18, April 1, 8 and 15, 7:00-8:30 pm – Don't know much about climate change or want to learn more? Join us for a five-week discussion course which will explore climate change from scientific, psychological, and social perspectives. The class will follow the curriculum developed by the Northwest Earth Institute and will require purchase from them of the e-book Change Is Our Choice: Creating Climate Solutions. RSVP here.
(4) Portland Homeless Family Solutions (PHFS) Volunteer Orientations, Tuesday, March 12, 5:00 pm & Saturday, March 16, 10:00 am, 6220 SE 92nd – Children can attend if they will be volunteering too, but their attendance at the orientation is not required. The Family Winter Shelter (FWS) closes end of April, so there's still time to volunteer!! RSVP with your name and which orientation date you're interested in to Bethany Rocci at bethany@pdxhfs.org. For other PHFS issues, email Gloria Halper at losninos6@gmail.com.
(5) Tot Shabbat, Saturday, March 16, 10:30-11:30 am– Young children (0-5) and their parents celebrate Shabbat with singing, movement, blessings, and storytelling. We will touch on the main highlights of the Shabbat service: wonder, fun, song, listening to the world, dancing, and Torah. Afterward we will enjoy an informal oneg nosh and the chance to play and schmooze. Please RSVP here by March 13.
(6) Workshops for Parents, Saturday, March 16, 3:10-4:30 pm– Havurah 101: Wondering what goes on at Havurah outside of Saturday afternoons? Find out what's happening outside of the Shabbat School community, learn more about Havurah's history, and hear about what's ahead to help families mix with the rest of the congregation. Join us during Shabbat School for a discussion and snacks with folks working on intergenerational issues and leadership development. RSVP here by March 12. Whose Bar or Bat Mitzvah Is It Anyway? Parents explore the hopes and fears that inspire, inform and complicate the planning process. Led by Deborah Eisenbach-Budner and Laura Orgel. Please RSVP here by Friday, March 12.
(7) To the Chai Life! Purim Celebration, Wednesday, March 20, 6:00-8:30 pm – Come one, come all, for a night of joy, masquerade, and retelling the story of the courageous individuals from long ago whose valor saved the Jewish People. We will have pizza and vegetarian potluck, Megillah chanting, spieling, a costume parade, Hamantaschen contest, and dancing.
6:15 pm - Pizza will be provided by Havurah. Please bring a salad or vegetarian side dish if your last name begins with A - L. Please bring a dessert if your last name begins with M - Z.
WE NEED YOU!!!!! Havurah's holiday celebrations happen only with support from our members. Can you help for a few minutes (5, 10, 15?) so we have both greeters and people to tidy up as the party winds down? Please email Adela if you can help: adela@havurahshalom.org. Thank you for helping make this celebration possible.
(8) Tivnu & Havurah Teens Kabbalat Shabbat Dinner & Service, Friday, March 22, 6:00-7:00 pm Service, 7:00-8:30 pm Dinner – Parents will have their own table(s) for dinner. $15.00/person. For more information about activities and dinner, be in touch with davidfeder@sbcglobal.net. All Havurahniks grades 8-12 are invited to meet and hang out with a group of teens from New York and New Jersey Reconstructionist synagogues, who will be in Portland on a Tivnu Building Justice program March 22-23. You'll have a chance to see construction of tiny homes for and with formerly houseless people, hike on Shabbat, and show the visitors the best ice cream in town.
(9) Book Group Discussion of Quiet Americans by Erica Dreyfus, Tuesday, March 26, 7:00 pm – Dreyfus’s short stories tell of lives enmeshed in the Holocaust, scenarios that highlight the existential anxieties of Jewish Americans in the age of Hitler and afterwards. The characters include: a high-ranking Nazi wife and a Jewish doctor in prewar Berlin; a Jewish immigrant soldier and the German POW he is assigned to supervise; a refugee returning to Europe for the first time only to encounter the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics; a son of survivors who discovers long-held family secrets. These Americans are “quiet”—most don't talk about what they've been through, and some continue to be afraid. Deceptively simple, Dreyfus's tales reframe familiar questions about what is right and wrong, remembered and repressed, resolved and unending. Discussion will be led by Stacey Hankin.
(10) Drawdown Book Discussion, March 28, April 25, May 23, 7:30-9:00 pm – There is way out of the climate change disaster. And there are many things we can do to have an impact. These solutions are addressed in depth in the New York Times best seller, Drawdown. We will meet to discuss the solutions and actions in Drawdown that can reverse climate change. Each meeting will have a reading assignment from the book. Please check the online event calendar for more information. Questions? Email Andy Beers at andy@andybeers.com.
(11) Havurah's Evening at the Family Winter Shelter (FWS), Sunday, March 31, Cooking at 4:15 pm, Havurah Kitchen; Kid Host or Helping Hand at 6:30 pm, Family Winter Shelter for Portland Homeless Family Solutions – We have now had two successful collaborative cooking sessions using the Havurah kitchen preparing dinner for the families in the Family Winter Shelter. Some of us bring the meal over to serve. Others join us as "kid hosts," playing with the kids in the shelter, and others work as "helping hands," helping out with whatever needs to be done. The next date Havurah has signed up for is March 31. If you want to be part of this event, please sign up at this link or contact Deborah Mandell at deborah.mandell@gmail.com.
(12) Counting the Omer: Seven Weeks of Spiritual Refinement, Meeting Tuesdays 8:00-9:00 am or Wednesdays 12:00-1:00 pm, April 23 or 24 to June 4 or 5 – The Counting of the Omer, which connects Pesach with Shavuot, lasts for 49 days. Each of its seven weeks represents one of the kabbalistic sefirot, divine emanations or qualities. Thus each week is an invitation to reflect on the presence or absence of that quality in our lives, as a means of refining our awareness and behavior. Following the liberation of Passover, this period gives us a road map through which to live the question: To what do we dedicate our freedom? At each of our meetings, we will connect with material about the sefirah of the week, reflecting on its meaning and how we understand its role in our lives. Toward that end we will utilize various practices– meditation, chanting, contemplative study, and dialogue. If you are interested in learning more or participating, please follow this link and indicate whether one or both of the times would work for you.
(13) Calling All Former Students of Michele Goldschmidt! – As you may know, Michele Goldschmidt will be leaving Portland soon to be closer to her family. Havurah will be honoring her at the community minyan on Saturday, April 6. We would like to reach out to as many of her past students as possible to invite them to participate in the service if they are interested. Please contact Keren McCord if you or your child had Michele as a b'nai mitzvah tutor. When you contact Keren please include your name, your child's name and the date of the bar or bat mitzvah. Thank you!
(14) Enrollment in Havurah's Shabbat School for 2019-20 – We are currently planning for next year’s Shabbat School, our cooperative Jewish education program for children and families. If you have a child who is entering grades K-6 in the autumn of 2019-20 and are considering having them participate, please note that May 1 is the enrollment deadline to become Havurah members and enroll in Shabbat School. Learn more here.
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Havurah Shalom is a vibrant, diverse, participatory Jewish community steeped in Jewish values promoting spirituality, learning, and acts of social responsibility.
Prayer Flags for Our Planet Thursday, Apr 25th 11:00a to 3:00p This exhibit is about science and art.
It is meant to be a learning experience, about the top 60 solutions to climate change, as researched by over 5,000 scientists.
And most importantly it is about hope.
It is about learning about these solutions to climate change and
changing the hearts and minds of those around us,
so that we can all work together.
Anne Nesse, 2024
(ZM) Racial Justice Committee Meeting Thursday, Apr 25th 7:00p to 8:30p Please join us for our monthly Racial Justice Committee Meeting. We will learn of upcoming events and plan new ones.
(IP) HCAT & Partners' Climate Action Fair at MJCC Sunday, Apr 28th 12:00p to 4:00p HCAT invites you to continue with our climate action month by attending a community wide Climate Action Fair at the Mittleman Jewish Community Center. Cosponsored by the MJCC and the Jewish Federation’s Climate team, meet dozens of environmental organizations and discover resources for actions you can take. A series of speakers will talk about forestry, electrification, native plants and climate friendly foods. (And let Elianne Lieberman know if you can give someone a ride or are seeking a ride!)
Passover Minyan (Yizkor) Tuesday, Apr 30th 8:00a to 9:15a For all who want a regular prayer practice and for people saying Kaddish. We will observe Yizkor today as well. We meet both in person and streaming online in Zoom Room Aleph. All are welcome. Please email info@havurahshalom.org for join info.
Experience the Omer: Making it Count! Tuesday, Apr 30th 7:00p to 7:30p [RSVP to be emailed a recording of the April 9 intro session.] The Omer is an ancient tradition marking time between the Exodus from the Narrow Place to the Expanse at Sinai. Explore tools and practices to facilitate your own learning and experience from Liberation to Revelation. We will have an intro class followed by half-hour check-ins, one for each Sephira. Led by Andrine de la Rocha. 7 pm, Tuesdays, Apr. 9 (Intro), 23 (Chesed), 30 (Gevurah); May 7 (Tiferet), 14 (Netzach), 21 (Hod), 28 (Yesod); Jun. 4 (Malchut) Led by Andrine de la Rocha.
(ZM) Book Group: Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders Tuesday, Apr 30th 7:00p to 8:30p February 1862. The Civil War is less than one year old. The fighting has begun in earnest, and the nation has begun to realize it is in for a long, bloody struggle. Meanwhile, President Lincoln’s beloved eleven-year-old son, Willie, lies upstairs in the White House, gravely ill. In a matter of days, despite predictions of a recovery, Willie dies and is laid to rest in a Georgetown cemetery. “My poor boy, he was too good for this earth,” the president says at the time. “God has called him home.” Newspapers report that a grief-stricken Lincoln returns, alone, to the crypt several times to hold his boy’s body.
From that seed of historical truth, George Saunders spins an unforgettable story of familial love and loss that breaks free of its realistic, historical framework into a supernatural realm both hilarious and terrifying.
