august 2005 ~ tammuz - av 5765

> From the Rebbe
> Gifts of Light
> News from Dor Hadash
> eScrip and more...
> Board News ~ President's Letter
> Community Announcements
> Etz Chaim ~Tree of Life
> Jewish Family and Children's Services
> Donations Make a Difference!
> Newsletter Guidelines

Chevre and Friends...

Announcements:

MISSING - Siddurim - Their numbers are dwindling and we need to have them brought back home. Please check around as you clean up this summer, especially those of you in our past B'nai Mitzvah classes. Please take an extra look around for a borrowed book and return them.

Rabbi Elisheva is on Sabbatical and will return September 15th.
If you need assistance please contact the office at 664-8622.
If you have an emergency, please contact Rabbi George Gittleman at 578-5519.

From the Rebbe

Dear Hevre,

Rabbi Elisheva is on Sabbatical and will return September 15th.

Gifts of Light

MEMORIAL DONATIONS...
ALAN & ADELE ZIFF, a donation in memory of Joseph Nadler
MICHELLE MARKS, a donation in memory of Martin Eimer

OFFERINGS...
ARIANA ELSTER, a donation in honor of Barbara & Cass Tobin-Smith's generous auction donation
FLORENCE & WILLIAM WALDMAN MEMORIAL JEWISH COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF SOUTHERN ARIZONA, a donation to the General Fund
ELIZABETH LANDERS, a donation in honor of the hard-working board members who keep the synagogue alive
GEORGE TRIEST & MARGO NORMAN, a donation toward the synagogue's operating expenses

THANK YOU...
To LIZ HAGEN, for her great job as Vice President

News from Dor Hadash

Shalom Chevre,
I just returned from my first trip to Europe. Even though I lived in Israel for over a year, many years ago, I never had the opportunity to return to my parents' birthplaces in Germany. They both escaped with their immediate families, but left behind many relatives who were lost in the Holocaust. In June, I was fortunate enough to return with both of my parents, to Wurtzburg and Stuttgart. I will look forward to sharing my experiences of the remaining Jewish communities of Germany and Italy as an adult education class sometime in the fall. I also have some good books on traveling Jewish in Europe if you are interested.

School will begin before we know it so here are some dates to be aware of:
August 20, deadline for Ner Shalom members to receive an early bird Dor Hadash discount. (Non-members do not receive the early bird). Mail in your registration before this date and save!
August 22,24,25 and August 29,31, and September 1st Hebrew Intensive at Ner Shalom 4:00 - 5:30 pm.
September 18, 10:00am, First day of Dor Hadash School

We have an exciting new Judaic Curriculum that Rabbi Elisheva has created during her sabbatical, and a new Hebrew Curriculum that teaches much more modern Hebrew. Karen will continue her wonderful singing with us, and we will be happy to welcome families once a month for family education days.

If you have any questions about the school program, feel free to contact me at: lgattmann@msn.com. Enjoy the rest of your summer, and we look forward to seeing you in September.

B'shalom,
Leslie

"The most direct means for attaching ourselves to G-d from this material world is through music and song. Even if you can't sing well, sing. Sing to yourself. Sing in the privacy of your own home. But sing."
Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav

eScrip and more...

Do you buy GROCERIES??

If you do, than you can participate in the mitzvah of no-cost tzedakkah, because almost every Grocer other than G&G belongs to one of the many no-cost tzedakkah programs. Most of these programs allow you to split your tzedakkah between multiple organizations, so why not spread a bissel to the Ner Shalom/Dor Hadash community?

Safeway, Whole Foods and about 30 other markets belong to the eScrip program. You just go on-line to www.eScrip.com and register. If you are a current subscriber please take a moment to make sure you renewed your Safeway commitment and that your credit/debit card numbers/expiration dates are up to date. Once you sign-up your credit/debit cards and Safeway Club card your contributions are automatically noted at Safeway and any other merchant non- Grocer member of this program.

Oliver's and about 9 other markets belong to the Communitysmart Card program. Oliver's shoppers please note this major change!! To join this program you can: instantly join by asking for a card at Oliver's checkout counter; call COMMUNITYsmart at 568-4995 or go on-line to www.communitysmart.com. When you check out at one of the participating merchants, you slide your Communitysmart card just like a debit card to get credit for your transaction. This program requires that a certain minimum be spent but then we receive a greater rebate (for Oliver's you need to spend $25 for a rebate of 5%).

Albertson's shoppers can participate by connecting your blue and white Preferred Savers card to Ner Shalom by going to www.Albertsons. com or using a tan and white Community Partners card Michelle can provide you.

Raley's users just need to obtain a Raley's partner's card from Michelle and activate it through their website (Raleys.com). Using the card without activating it for Ner Shalom will leave those rebates in suspense.

Not sure where you stand with all these programs? Give Michelle Marks a call at 778-6346 or e-mail her at Steven.Marks@prodigy.net and let her help you make a difference today.

Recycling.... Don't forget to continue to save all your spent laser and inkjet cartridges this summer!!
We can do tikkun olam (repairing the world) and give some tzedakkah at the same time if we recycle. I hope to have our first shipment off in the next few weeks and will let you know what your efforts meant to our world and local community.

Board News ~ President's Letter

This month I would like to share with you an article from Reconstructionism Today. Each member of Ner Shalom should be receiving this periodical in the mail. If you aren't, please phone or e-mail the Ner Shalom office to make arrangements to have it sent to you.

By Rabbi Toba Spitzer: "A Receptive, Responsive Vessel"

I'm never quite sure what people mean when they say "spirituality". For too many folks I've met, it points to some kind of unattainable (or irrational or undesirable) emotional state that just has nothing to do with them.

Instead of "spirituality", I prefer to speak about the life of the spirit, and of spiritual practice. Each of us, whether we're a hyper- rational pragmatist or a neo-Hasidic mystic, has a spirit. Each of us has a spirit that we experience in moments of awe and of connection, in moments of gratitude and of heartbreak. Each of us has a spirit that, when we are responding to it properly, prompts us to act in the world in healing and constructive ways. We have spirits because we're alive, because we are conscious, because we are connected at the most fundamental level with that which is Ultimate, the Source of all life.

Spiritual practice, for me, has been the work of nourishing and refining the life of my spirit. At some point, a number of years into my meditation practice, I realized that spiritual practice is not about achieving an emotional or psychic "high", even though I've been blessed with some powerful moments of that sort. It's not about being happy all the time, or floating away on a boundary-less pool of bliss. Rather, it's about learning to live in the world with a certain kind of awareness. My spiritual practice - meditation, saying blessings, davenning, trying to live mindfully - helps me see myself and the world around me with greater clarity and compassion (at least on the good days!). It helps me maintain a sense of balance and groundedness in a world that assaults me constantly with an overwhelm of information, misinformation and bad advice. And while my practice has brought me much joy, it has helped me most profoundly in hard times, in times of grief and despair.

At its greatest depth, my spiritual journey has been about working to make myself into a receptive, responsive vessel for a Power that I experience as outside of myself but which works in and through me. Some of my most powerful spiritual moments have come when I have sat with someone who has come to me for guidance and I've been able to be that kind of vessel for them. In those moments, I find that I am able to say and do the right thing, to help the person sitting across from me even when they speak of a problem of which I have no personal experience. It is truly an awesome and humbling experience, and also a deeply connection one. Perhaps this, then, would be my definition of "spirituality" - each of our personal journeys to become a channel, a vessel, for the special Torah that is meant to come through us, in service to something that is beyond any one of us.

Rabbi Toba Spitzer (RRC '97) serves Congregation Dorshei Tzedek in West Newton, Massachusetts.

Blessings,
Ariana

OFFICERS OF THE BOARD

President - Ariana Elster 824-5609
e-mail: aelster@comcast.net

Vice President - Your name here

Secretary - Anna Ghandour 584-4829
e-mail: huskyanna@yahoo.com

Treasurer - Michele St.Clair 433-8090
e-mail: msaintc@comcast.net

COMMITTEE CHAIRS

Education - Liz Hagen 829-3031
e-mail: lizhagen@earthlink.net

Finance - Michele St. Clair 433-8090
e-mail: msaintc@comcast.net

Religious Practices - Ari Kimiti Wang'oo 239- 9615
e-mail: kimitiwangoo@yahoo.com

Building Maintaince - Mark Cohen 792- 4368
e-mail: mcsax420@netscape.net

No-Cost Fundraising - Michelle Marks 778- 6346
e-mail: steven.marks@prodigy.net

Personnel - Anna Ghandour 584-4829
e-mail: huskyanna@yahoo.com

Membership - Sally Churgel 823-0541
e-mail: churgel@pacbell.net

Newsletter - Pam Pepper 588-8824
e-mail: twinsushilover27@yahoo.com

Publicity - your name here

Website - Anne Woods
e-mail: rainywoods@yahoo.com

Rabbi: Elisheva Sachs Salamo 664-8622

Dor Hadash Education Director: Leslie Gattmann
e-mail: lgatttmann@msn.com

Cantor: Bella Bogart

Office Manager: Carol Vanek 664-8622
e-mail: shalom@sonic.net
Office Hours: Tues.-Fri. 9:00 AM- 2:00 PM

Community Announcements

Jewish Reconstructionist Federation West Coast Region website: www.jrf.org/westcoast

Ongoing Toy and Book Drive for Jewish Community Free Clinic
Donations of gently used toys and/or books can be brought to Free Clinic on ongoing basis at 421 E. Cotati Avenue, Suite C, or call 792-1932.

Creativity Kabbalah with Izzy Green & Michael Gest
Summer meetings of the Ner Shalom study group will occur in a private home in Sebastopol. Click onto our website for more information. nershalom.org

Gan Israel Preschool - Petaluma
Programs for Children Ages 2-5
Call for a tour and more information-763- 5136.

Interested in an Interest-Free Loan?
The Hebrew Free Loan Association provides interest-free loans to Jewish residents in Northern California needing assistance with personal or financial matters. Types of loans include: Student, Emergency, Adoption, Personal, Business, First-time Home Buyer, Life Cycle, Debt Consolidation, Institutional (for Jewish communal agencies and synagogues) and Special Needs (for emotionally and physically challenged people).

Since 1897, the Hebrew Free Loan of San Francisco has provided vital assistance to more than 50,000 families. Each year, we help more than 350 people to reach their goals and pave their way towards financial security and future success.

We offer a helping hand, rather than a handout. Whether we're providing people a way out of their financial distress, or helping them to realize a lifelong dream, our recipients maintain dignity and self- sufficiency as they repay their interest-free loans.

If you, or someone you know, needs financial assistance and would like to apply for an interest- free loan, please contact us by phone (415-546- 9902) or e-mail info@hflasf.org.
Check out our website: www.hflasf.org.

GE FREE SONOMA will present The Future of Food, a highly acclaimed 90-minute documentary on the dangers of genetic engineering, and the power of corporations to control what we eat. The film will be shown on Thursday, August 11th at 7 pm at Congregation Ner Shalom.
Speakers from GE Free Sonoma will be present to answer questions and speak about the November 8th ballot initiative to put a 10-year moratorium on GE organisms in Sonoma County. The event is free of charge, although donations will be gladly accepted. For further information on the subject, go to www.gefreesonoma.org.

ASK JCI & R
JCI&R has information to share regarding socializing, schmoozing and support to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals and families. Please call us for referrals to:
. Social happenings and synagogue chavurot
. Support groups for families
. Services for LGBT seniors
. Adoption questions
. Parents of LGBT Jews "PFLAG"
. Scholarship fund for children of LGBT parents
. LGBT organizations and projects in Israel
. Volunteer leadership
. Complementary DVD: Out of the closet and into the Streets of Tel Aviv, a peek at freedom and acceptance in the Middle East

For more information about connecting to Jewish life, call JCIR 415/777-4545 or local toll-free in the Bay Area 877-777-JCIR (5247) or e-mail Info@JewishNfo.org

Jewish Community Information and Referral is a service of the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin, and Sonoma counties. Visit our websites www.JewishNfo.org and www.jholidays.org

Etz Chaim ~Tree of Life

Etz Chaim - Tree of Life
Our Tree of Life in the Oneg room began as a way to thank those in our community who worked so hard to establish our permanent home in Cotati.
It will now be used to help Ner Shalom continue to flourish through the celebration of life events. A simcha leaf to honor a special life event and a pomegranate to commemorate the seeds of our community's hard work, our B'nai Mitzvahs, can be obtained through a donation of 10 Chai or $180 To mark your special occasion with a simcha leaf or pomegranate please contact the office.

Donations Make a Difference!

Donations to Ner Shalom Make A Difference!

*Building Repair Fund
*Dor Hadash School
*Etz Chaim (Tree of Life)
*General Fund
*Music Fund
*Rabbi's Discretionary Fund
*Teen Fund
*Tikkun Olam Fund
*Written Word/Torah Fund
*Waldman Challenge Fund

Honor some one; remember an event or a special person. Donations (minimum of $6 {1/3 Chai} per listing) will be listed in the Gifts of Light section of the next newsletter. Send the donation to the office with the appropriate designation or call the office at 664-8622 for more information. Your generous support of Ner Shalom is greatly appreciated.

Memorialize the memory of a loved one with a Yahrzeit Plaque on our Wall of Remembrance. The cost of a plaque and inscription is $200 Please contact the office at 664-8622 for more information.

Newsletter Guidelines

*1. Deadline will be at 2:00p.m. on the first Friday of every month (unless arrangements have been made with the editor of the newsletter.)

*2. All submissions should be sent to the editor via e- mail with the subject heading: NL submission.

*3. Editor will change, edit, or delete any or all portions of submission(s) as deemed necessary without prior approval of the author.

*4. Editor is not responsible for retrieving submissions from other sources. It is the responsibility of the author to submit all necessary components to the editor by the deadline.