Racial Justice Committee Monthly Meeting
7 pm to 8:30 pm, Thursday, December 14 – Zoom Room Bet
Join the Racial Justice Committee Monthly meeting. Join us this month for time to reflect, hear some updates of what we have been up to and help us plan an event in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr Day!
Shabbat Morning with Bar Mitzvah of Bennet Aliyar
10 am, Saturday, December 16 – Havurah Shalom and Zoom Room Aleph
Please join us for Shabbat morning services, including welcoming Bennet Aliyar as a Bar Mitzvah and member of our community. All are welcome.
Hakol Submission Deadline: Thursday, December 21
Havurahniks, click here to learn more on submitting short articles for the next issue of our monthly synagogue newsletter, Hakol. The deadline for the January 2024 Hakol is Thursday, December 21.
Havurah Community-wide Meetings on Gate Proposal for Courtyard and Kearney Street
There will be three Havurah community-wide meetings (one-hour long): 5 pm on Thursday, December 21; 6 pm on Thursday, December 28; and 7 pm on Thursday, January 4 – Havurah Shalom and Zoom Room Gimel
At the December Steering meeting, the Gate Resolution Work Group (GRWG) proposed that Steering approve installation of a gate in the courtyard entrance walkway and one at the Kearney Street alcove. Proposal details will be shared in a stand-alone email to the community on Thursday, December 14. A Steering vote on the proposal will take place on January 9, 2024. Members can attend three community-wide meetings at Havurah and on Zoom-—December 21 at 5 pm, December 28 at 6 pm, and January 4 at 7 pm—to offer input and ask questions before the vote. The GRWG will reach out starting this week to committees and groups who use the building regularly for input. Contact David Kertzner, Co-President with questions. Havurah members, click on the links to RSVP for the hybrid, Havurah community-wide meetings on Dec. 21 at 5 pm; Dec. 28 at 6 pm; and/or Jan. 4 at 7 pm.
Havurah Office Closures: Administrative Holidays
The Havurah Shalom office will be closed on Monday, December 25 and Monday, January 1.
Havurah Book Group Discussion: The Promise by Damon Galgut
7 pm to 8:30 pm, Tuesday, December 26, 2023 - Havurah Shalom and Zoom Room Bet
2021 Booker Prize winner The Promise, by Damon Galgut, charts the crash and burn of a white South African family, living on a farm outside Pretoria. The Swarts are gathering for Ma's funeral. The younger generation, Anton and Amor, detest everything the family stands for—not least the failed promise to the Black woman who has worked for them her whole life. After years of service, Salome was promised her own house, her own land...yet somehow, as each decade passes, that promise remains unfulfilled. The narrator's eye shifts and blinks: moving fluidly between characters, flying into their dreams; deliciously lethal in its observation. And as the country moves from old deep divisions to its new so-called fairer society, the lost promise of more than just one family hovers behind the novel's title. In this story of a diminished family, sharp and tender emotional truths hit home. Confident, deft and quietly powerful, The Promise is literary fiction at its finest. Fiction: 293 pages Discussion led by David Newman. Nonmembers welcome. RSVP for Zoom info for this hybrid meeting on Dec. 26.