april 2008 ~ adar2 - nissan 5768

THANK YOU to...

Our board President JACK FENDER for repairing the pilot light in the water heater in the kitchen
All of the volunteers at Community Builders for sprucing up our grounds in front of our synagogue
ANNE WOODS for continuing to maintain our beautiful website
BERRINE DeCARMO for continuing to keep out kitchen spotless
and to IRWIN KELLER for providing the weekly Torah portions for our Dor Hadash teffilah

News from Dor Hadash Religious School

Dear Chevre,

Our younger children are learning the building blocks of Judaism - the Hebrew alphabet, songs and stories. And they are an impressive group of kids who really do know the aleph bet. Our older children - the 5th and 6th graders already know how to read Hebrew. As they began the coursework for their Bar and Bat Mitzvah preparation, it was enthusiastically noted that their Hebrew surpassed expectations. So what is next?

In Dor Hadash, as in the rest of the world, we have been exploring the Torah portions in the book of Vayikra. There are lots and lots of rules about how to do things - how to pray, how to make offerings, how to deal with the offenses of others and this week we explore how and what to eat.

As Reconstructionist Jews of Northern California in 2008, we must admit that we are a group of people who are not inclined to just follow the rules. And our kids question as well. "How does this apply to our lives?" they wisely ask. And we must struggle to answer them. Many of the answers come in the form of questions back to them - What is important to you? What do you have to offer? What sort of friend do you want to be? What sort of friend do you want to have? What sort of community would you like to live in?

And so it is our ongoing challenge to meaningfully engage this group of smart, lively, engaged young people. What an honor to be doing the work of constantly engaging their minds, their bodies, their hearts, and their souls. This Dor Hadash, this new generation of Jewish people, is our future. And in these challenging times, it is more important than ever to attend to them. As we feed them, so we feed our own futures. As we think about the rules laid out in the Torah, and what meaning they have to our lives today, we must keep searching until we find meanings that speak to us, and more importantly we must keep searching until we find the meanings that speak to the children.

Dor Hadash meets at 10 AM on the following days in April:
Sunday, April 6
Sunday, April 13
Sunday, April 20
Sunday, April 27

Many blessings,
Shari Brenner, Education Committee
Pamela Pepper, Education Committee

Board News

Dear Members of Ner Shalom,

It is with pleasure that I announce some new additions to the Board and regret that a long-standing member has resigned.

New to the Board, but not new to Ner Shalom is Barbara Lesch McCaffry who brings a deep love for our shul and long-standing support and activity as Personnel Director.

Barkat Ferar is also a long-standing member who hopes to bring her own skills and knowledge to serve on the Board.
Lastly, we welcome Anna Belle Kaufman, new member to Ner Shalom, as well as the Board.

Sadly, we must say adieu to Will Rogers who has served the Board with dedication and has been an huge asset to Ner Shalom. He will, however, continue to work closely with the Board as an advocate for Ner Shalom and its future.

I would like to acknowledge and say a special "Thank You" to the team of volunteers from Community Builders who provided their skills and hard labor to benefit the Shul.

Many of you may have already noticed that the exterior landscaping of Ner Shalom has a new look. These volunteers spent an entire weekend weeding, removing several bags of weeds and cleaning the debris from around the building. Afterwards, a weed barrier was laid down and "gorilla hair" was then distributed to leave a clean and maintenance-free look to the front and side of the building. They also provided Ner Shalom with 3 gallons of primer paint and 3 gallons of finish color matched for the exterior trim.

I hope that some members with some painting skills will be able to join me on a work day in the near future, to finish cleaning and painting the windows around the building.

May you and your families enjoy the week of Pesach.

B'shalom,
Jack D. Fender
Board President

MEMBERS OF THE BOARD

Jack Fender 588-8824
e-mail: fenderola@yahoo.com

Berrine DeCarmo 588-9088
e-mail: berrine1988@sbcglobal.net

Barbara Lesch McCaffry 585-2291
e-mail: mccaffry@sonoma.edu

Nancy Rapp (415) 897-5090
e-mail: rappwayne@prodigy.net

Ellyn Lazar 838-4785
e-mail: emlazar@sbcglobal.net

Anna Belle Kaufman 824-2997
e-mail: rxarts@gmail.com

Barkat Ferar 765-1844
e-mail: ferarfamily@yahoo.com

Renee Kramer 823-9555
e-mail: reneek777@sbcglobal.net

COMMITTEE CHAIRS

Education - Co-Chairs Pamela Pepper 588-8824
e-mail: p.pepper@yahoo.com
and Shari Brenner 575-5863
e-mail: sbrenner@sonic.net

Personnel - Barbara Lesch McCaffry 585-2291
e-mail: mccaffry@sonoma.edu

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

Membership - Nancy Rapp (415) 897- 5090
e-mail: rappwayne@prodigy.net

Building and Maintenance - Jack Fender 588-8824
e-mail: fenderola@yahoo.com

Newsletter - Pamela Pepper 588-8824
e-mail: p.pepper@yahoo.com

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

Dor Hadash Education Director - position open

No-Cost Fundraising - Anna Ghandour 584-4829
e-mail: huskyanna@yahoo.com

Visioning Committee - Co-Chairs A.J.Levis 480-6010
e-mail: ecocontractor@earthlink.net
and Jerry Green 824-4344
e-mail: yitzak@medagree.com

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

Birthdays and Anniversaries ~ April

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

MICHELLE LAZAR ~ APRIL 9
EVAN PEPPER-TUNICK ~ APRIL 14
PAUL LICHTMAN ~ APRIL 16

Please e-mail Pamela Pepper p.pepper@yahoo.com with your birthday and anniversary dates so we can wish you a happy celebration!

Community Announcements

You Are Invited - Please Join Us
To learn about Progressive Jewish Alliance (PJA) and meet PJA's Bay Area Regional Director, Rachel Biale
When: Thursday, April 3rd 7:00-8:30 PM
Where: The home of Barbara Levinson & Eric Anderson
323 Boas Drive, Santa Rosa, CA 95409
Hosts:Pam Adinoff, Bernice Fox, Carolyn Metz, Judi Rosenthal, Barbara Tobin, Barbara Tomin
Light refreshments provided
Come schmooze with old friends, meet new ones, and learn about the exciting new presence in the Bay Area that The Forward called, "... a new model for an aggressively liberal and unabashedly Jewish grass-roots urban activism."
PJA is a non-profit, inter-generational organization for people committed to social change. We are activists and academics, artists and businesspeople, agnostics and rabbis. Our goal is to educate, advocate and organize, and we are making a difference!
Please bring your checkbook; one of our goals is to sign up 18 (Chai) new members.
Individual membership starts at $36
Household membership starts at $72.
RSVP: Barbara Tobin, 829-2119, barbaratobin@juno.com
For more information about Progressive Jewish Alliance go to www.pjalliance.org

The Jewish Community Free Clinic is now accepting donations of toys and children's books. Please bring them to the Jewish Free Clinic located at 6307 Commerce Blvd., next door to Summit Bank.

JFCS RIDES hits the road to help seniors go to medical appointments, shopping, personal care appointments, and local community events.
Please check our website nershalom.org for more information.

OPEN YOUR HEART TO A WAITING CHILD
Sonoma County has a serious shortage of caring foster families.
Foster parents are needed for children and youth of all ages and ethnic backgrounds.
Please check our website nershalom.org for more information.

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

ASK JCI & R...

Warming up for Passover? Want to host or learn more about the Seder? You can ask JCIR more than four questions:
Ask us about:
*The Four Questions, Dr. Seuss style
*Top ten places to hide (and find) the afikomen
*Passover humor, rebus, skits and games to encourage participation
*E-cards
*Medieval, traditional and original Passover songs
*Passover food, including international charoset recipes
*Places to buy Seder plates, haggadot, matzah and Passover foods
*Community Seders, nearby, and out of town

For more information about Passover and connecting to Jewish life, or for your free copy of Resource/A Guide to Jewish Life 2008/5768 (which has a Yiddish section), call JCI & R at 415/777-4545 or local toll-free 877- 777-JCIR (5247)
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 at: www.JewishNfo.org or bayarea.planitjewish.com

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.
For more information please check their website at: hebrewfreeloan.org

Yom Hashoah ~ Sunday, May 4

&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp"Dor L'Dor", Passing the Flame of Memory to the Next Generation" is the theme for the Holocaust commemoration of the Jewish Community of Sonoma County. The annual event, which celebrates the lives of Holocaust survivors and honors those who were lost, will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday, May 4 at The Friedman Center, 4676 Mayette Avenue in Santa Rosa.

Featured guests will include Dr. Debbie Findling and Miriam Susan Dregey. Dr. Findling a noted Holocaust and teen educator, is co- author of Teaching the Holocaust. She led "March of the Living" educational groups to Poland and Israel for 10 years. Her theme will be creating the connection between memory and action. Dregey of Santa Rosa will talk about her family's experience during the Holocaust years, which she survived as a hidden child.

The event will also honor the teen winner of the Suzy Raful Essay Contest, established by the Santa Rosa resident's children to honor their mother, who survived both concentration camp and a death march.

"This is an opportunity not only for honoring the survivors, but also for our young people to be honored themselves for accepting the legacy of Holocaust remembrance. For this reason we urge the entire community to participate, as an expression of intergenerational continuity," said Gesher Calmenson, event chairperson and Jewish family educator. He is also co-founder of Remember Us, the national Holocaust B'nai Mitzvah project that invites children who are preparing for Bar or Bat Mitzvah to connect with the memories of children who were lost in the Holocaust.

Activities will include a candle lighting ceremony by local survivors, a remembrance pledge by local youth, and music provided by the area's liturgical soloists Leira Satlof and Fredi Bloom. Musician Gale Kissin will provide interludes of Yiddish music in honor of the culture decimated by the Holocaust.

The event is sponsored by the Jewish Community Agency of Sonoma County, with the cooperation of the Alliance for the Study of the Holocaust, all Sonoma County Synagogues, and the Jewish Community Federation.

For more information, phone (707)528- 4222 or visit www.jccsoco. org.

Donations Make a Difference!

Donations to Ner Shalom Make A Difference!

*Building Repair Fund
*Dor Hadash School
*General Fund
*Music Fund
*Teen Fund
*Tikkun Olam Fund
*Written Word/Torah 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.

eScrip and more...

Do you need new tires or more for your vehicle? If you do, than check out the participating merchants in the eScrip (two are Big O Tires and Pep Boys) www.eScrip.c om and Communitysmart (such as McLea's Tire) www.communitysmart.com programs. All it takes is having work done at one of these merchants and then when you go to pay for it present your Communitysmart card or use your credit/debit card linked with eScrip. Its so easy to make your vehicle safe and provide a donation to your community.

eScrip shoppers please make sure you keep your credit/debit cards up to date. Just go on-line to www.eScrip.c om and check out "my escrip" to see what your expiration dates and card numbers are on their records.

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.Al bertsons. com or using a tan and white Community Partners card Anna can provide you.

Raley's users just need to obtain a Raley's partner's card from Anna 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 Anna Ghandour a call at 584- 4829 or e-mail her at huskyanna@yahoo.com and let her help you make a difference today.

Newsletter Guidelines

1. Deadline will be at 2:00 p.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.

Contact Information

email: p.pepper@yahoo.com phone: (707)664-8622 web: http://www.nershalom.org