Never go to bed mad.
Stay up and fight.
Phyllis Diller
|
Never go to bed mad. Stay up and fight.
Phyllis Diller |
|
April 13, 2006 - 15 Nisan 5766
Volume III, Issue 7
[Services] [Pesach] [Torah Restoration] [Interfaith] [T-shirts & Totes]
Who would have expected one series of amazing firsts after another?
Here’s one for you: Jackie Kessler, our Director of Adult and Social Programming, the creator of Havurat Olam’s Most Amazing Goody Bags and Party Decorations, is about to become an adult-born Jew. After months and months and months (and years and years and years) of hanging about with the People Israel, studying and learning and studying some more, it will be made official. She’s ours, now.
Gosh, we hope we earned her!
We’ll celebrate Jackie’s conversion both at and after our Friday night service; please join us for this thoroughly joyous occasion.
During the service we’ll ask the hard question our haftorah for that week presents: why do difficult things turn out to be easy? And at this month’s children’s service, our Kehilla Kids will start our service outside, and answer their critical question: why does the Sabbath start later in spring and summer? Parents, please bring a bough of something sweet-smelling and spring-like for your child to carry. Then join us for a mini-service sing-along featuring every last Shabbat song the kids have learned this past year. Our children’s service begins at 6:30, Kabbalat Shabbat (welcoming Shabbat) will continue at 6:50, and adult services will get into full swing by 7 p.m. We will meet, as usual, at McGill Baptist Church in Concord.
|
Event: |
Friday Night Services |
 |
|
Date: |
April 28, 2006 | |
|
Time: |
6:30 p.m. children 7:00 p.m. adults |
|
|
Location: |
5300 Poplar Tent Rd. Concord NC 28027 -9757 map > RSVP < |
 |
We need a head count! How many folks are hopping in to our Most Amazing Family Seder complete with frogs, mysterious envelopes, and the newly minted Haggadah Olam? There’s still time to let us know if you plan to attend that night, how many people you are bringing, and whether you would be prepared to bring drinks, food, paper goods, or your pet frog to the festivities. We’ll ask for $10 per family and $5 for individuals to help cover costs. [Reply] |
|
Event: |
Community Seder |
 |
|
Date: |
Wednesday, April 19, 2006 | |
|
Time: |
06:30 - 08:30 p.m. |
|
|
Location: |
5300 Poplar Tent Rd. Concord NC 28027 -9757 map > RSVP < |
Torah, Torah, TorahOur Torah restoration is very nearly finished! We’ll celebrate that fact on May 19 with a special program and rededication service together with New York’s most amazing scribe, Neil Yerman. Please join us as we take the opportunity to learn how a Torah is made, and with what beautiful devotion it is cared for and restored. Every heard a sofer sing the Aleph Bet? (Neil has a very fine voice…) We’ll update you on time, though our location is set (McGill Baptist Church in Concord – now how did you guess?). |
 |
|
Event: |
Friday Night Services and Torah Rededication |
 |
|
Date: |
Friday, May19, 2006 | |
|
Time: |
to be announced. |
|
|
Location: |
5300 Poplar Tent Rd. Concord NC 28027 -9757 map > RSVP < |
Havurat Olam Fosters Religious and Ethnic Diversity(And Religious School Students Explain the Meaning of Pesach)A Message from Barbara Thiede,Rabbinic Intern |
 |
Dear All,
I hope some of you saw the story of our joint trip to see the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit at Discovery Place with McGill Baptist Church, Mt. Hermon Lutheran Church, and Trinity United Church of Christ? If you didn’t, it was published in the Concord Standard and Mt. Pleasant Times on April 5.
The joint excursion seems to have gone quite well. After seeing the exhibit, we all got together for a wonderfully pleasant dinner and discussion (and a little Jewish music). One woman’s straightforward reaction to our program? “We are all children of the same God,” she said.
I visited the next evening with a small group of women from St. James Lutheran to talk about the role of women in Judaism and Christianity. Not surprisingly, women are facing similar challenges in church and synagogue. Our conversation revealed (as interfaith dialogue can) that we have, in some cases, more similarities than we have differences.
Havurat Olam’s presence at the Martin Luther King breakfast this past year has helped us forge links to the African-American community in Cabarrus County. As a result of our efforts, I was asked to serve as a panelist for the Youth Voices and Vision town hall meeting this April. Youth Voices and Vision is a leadership development program for minority youth, and is one of the programs developed by the Young Women of Promise.
But you really know that your congregation has been noticed when the mayor calls. Seriously! Concord Mayor Scott Padgett asked if the rabbinic intern could give the invocation at an upcoming city council meeting. I privately advised her to say yes, so she did.
The bigger point here? We have been, it seems, made welcome in our larger community for work that needs doing. If anyone wants to help support our efforts toward tikkun olam, please let us know. Just reply to this email, and we’ll send your name to President Brian Cutler.
A most important note needs adding here.
I have the privilege of teaching our havurah children, and they say some pretty amazing things. On one recent Sunday morning, I gave the children a most miserably boring task (to “build” granaries from torn bits of paper for the Pharaoh). They were understandably annoyed. I stopped them after about five minutes of “slave” labor.
“Why did I do such a thing?” I asked. Don’t I usually try to find fun things for us to do together?”
Young Simon Post explained. I made the kids do the work in order “to teach how the hateful world would feel.”
This Pesach, we may need to remember that our own freedom has yet to be matched by a universal one. The “hateful world” continues to exist. Our motto, “Havurat Olam: Making a World of Difference,” indicates our commitment. May we live by it.
Hag Sameach, everyone!
T-shirts and TotesOrder Now! Fashion Fun from Havurat OlamHonestly, we made a splash at the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit with our elegant Havurat Olam t-shirts (and it was easy to find the kids, too...). Just $10 for the T-shirts and $12.00 for the totes. Be a member of the best-dressed Jewish congregation in seven counties (okay, okay, we exclude Mecklenburg...) > order form < |
 |
Membership information and form.
T-shirt / tote bag order form
|
Shalom, Chaverim! Feel free to contact us with questions. We take two questions and three opinions per person every month. |