Kehilat Nitzan Weekly Update Wednesday October 15, 2014 Shemini Atzeret/Yizkor: Thursday Shul Services: 9:30am Yizkor around 11:15am Erev Simchat Torah: Thursday Night Candle lighting: NOT before 8:18pm At 8:15pm- Quick Ma'ariv, then singing, dancing, food and drink; see below for more details... Simchat Torah, Friday Morning 9:30am Shul Services with more singing, dancing, food, and drink and honouring our Chatan Torah and Kallat Bereishit; See below for more details... Friday Evening Services: 6:30pm (6:30 will be the start time until we change the clocks again next year) Shabbat candle lighting: 7:21pm Saturday morning services: 9:30am Shabbat ends: 8:20pm Kiddush Roster Thank you to Miriam Faine, Sally Freeman, Judy Winikoff for setting up for Simchat Torah and Carin Goldwaser for setting up for Shabbat. Torah, Tefillah, & Cake Each Shabbat, 9:00-9:30am This week, we'll continue with Rabbi Stein studying the Shulchan Aruch on kiddush and the beginning of Shabbat. Watch this space for a series on the Psalms of Shabbat morning. Children's Shabbat - This Shabbat, 10:00 - 10:30am Please join us for our first renewed children's Shabbat activity for children aged 6 and under. Run by parents, there will be stories, games, activities, fruit and challah, with time for families to stay and shmooze afterwards, or join in the main shul service. We will have a special Simchat Torah theme and will be loads of fun! Kiddush Sponsorship for Simchat Torah The kiddush this Friday is kindly sponsored by John Rosenberg and Janice Gelb in honour of being Chatan Torah and Kallat Bereishit. Simchat Torah - Thursday/Friday, 16/17 October Come and join in the Simchat Torah celebrations commencing Thursday October 16 @ 8.15pm. Singing, dancing, food, and drink both Thursday night and Friday morning! Special Hakafot for the children during the morning service on Friday October 17. Services start at 9:30am, hakafot will probably be around 10:30am. In honour of the occasion, the community is invited to a Simchat Torah Kiddush following the morning services, to honour our Chatan Torah and Kallat Bereishit: John Rosenberg and Janice Gelb. Teen Shabbat Lunch! - 25 October Busy with high school? Had it with homework? Who said there’s no such thing as a free lunch? Enjoy a Noam seudah sheni with other teens at Beit Stein! Kehilat Nitzan is joining in with the Shabbat Project in offering a Shabbat lunch at the home of Rabbi Adam, Tamar, and Eli, in honour of the madrichim who helped make our High Holidays such a great success. Lunch will follow services (and a walk to the Rabbi's home) on 25 October. Please RSVP to the office for catering purposes by Wednesday, 21 October. From Rabbi Stein Moadim l'simcha! (That's the traditional greeting for the intermediate days, chol hamo'ed, of Succot and Pesach.) We've had a wonderful Succot at Kehilat Nitzan... Around 60 adults and children participated in our first day Succot service followed by our annual community lunch in the beautiful succah. Everyone enjoyed chatting, the Israeli style catering and the sunshine in the courtyard. Many thanks to Claire Morton, Pam Gelfand, Miriam Faine and everyone else who helped. I just posted my most recent blog post about a rabbi of a large Conservative congregation in the US (Washington DC) who last week announced that he is gay. His congregation and family will have a time of transition, to be sure, but they are going about it in a very mature way. Click here to go straight to my blog and find out more. Keep checking or subscribe if you enjoy my thoughts on the Jewish world. The Shabbat Project is looking to be a wonderful event for Melbourne and hundreds of communitites around the world. You can see just above that Amy Bachrach and I are planning a teen Shabbat lunch for that Shabbat. I also encourage you to invite family and friends (perhaps more than usual if you already do) for Shabbat dinner or lunch. If you can invite congregants, please let me know, and if you'd like to be hosted, just get in touch with me. Theshabbatprojectmelbourne.com.au is the website and they have a Facebook page as well. And one more thing... I would like to again urge you all to consider attending our first Masorti Australasia Conference. We've included the information in the weekly news email over the past few weeks, and flyers are available at services. It's going to be a wonderful weekend here at Kehilat Nitzan, and there are already over 20 Sydneysiders who've made arrangements to come down here! This can be a really great opportunity for us and the Masorti@Emanuel in Sydney crowd to connect, get to know each other, and deepen our connection to and knowledge of Masorti Judaism. Please see below for more details... HERE is a link to a PDF with the program and registration. Check it out; the program and speakers are great! KN Women’s Group - Thurs., 23 Oct., 7:30 - 9:00pm at the shul A personal approach to Tikkun Olam - throwing light on a little known Jewish heroine, Ernestine Rose. We are inviting you to consider how, in Melbourne in 2014, our Judaism informs our roles as women and how our roles as Jewish women informs our approach to Tikkun Olam. Looking forward to a lively discussion and sharing stories and experiences. Joint Program with Mormon Church - Sunday, 26 Oct., 4:00pm We are hosting a 'get to know you' session with the Mormon church across the road from KN and learn more about our respective places of worship and traditions. We will be meeting at KN at 4:00pm for a tour, then walk across to Latter Day Saints around 4:45pm. There will be light refreshments at 5:30pm at Kehilat Nitzan and Q & A/informal discussion until 6:00pm. Please ring or email the office with your interest so we can gauge numbers. Chat Matters (Chinuch and Tarbut - Education and Culture) A Weekday Iyun Over Lunch? A few of our members have proposed that we schedule Iyunim during the week over the lunch period (say 1-2 pm) from time to time. A sandwich lunch and tea/coffee would be provided. We suspect that retirees, people working part-time and those who can take off an hour and a bit with advanced notice might want to participate. This addition to our regular CHaT activities would mean that guest speakers who cannot contribute on Shabbat or Sunday mornings would do so in this new slot. In fact, both Waleed Aly and John Faine were delighted when we invited them to address us, but indicated that weekends were sacrosanct (“my family takes priority”); on the other hand, they would be able to make a luncheon time. We need to know what size audience we could attract. Please email Sidney Bloch (Chair, CHaT Committee) at s.bloch@unimelb.edu.au if you are interested in principle. We would require you to register for the event via the shul office for catering purposes. Beginner Hebrew? If you've never learned Hebrew before, you may have a chance now! The new conversion class is just starting up, and a couple members have asked to join for the Hebrew portion (7-7:45pm most Thursdays). If you're interested, the conversion class will welcome you during their Hebrew learning, and we can accommodate one or two more. Inaugural Masorti Australasia Conference 2014 - MELBOURNE For registration details please click here for the conference program and registration form. Please complete the registration form a.s.a.p. and email it direct to Masorti Australasia at info@masorti.org.au. Please also arrange to pay the appropriate registration fee by the due date using one of the alternatives described on the program. Contact masortiaustralia@gmail.com for more information or if you have any questions. Date: Venue: Friday 31st October, 2014 to Sunday 2nd November, 2014 Here at Kehilat Nitzan! Please join us in Melbourne for our first Masorti Australia National Conference. Our movement now has a presence in the Australian Jewish community and has also achieved vital recognition by Masorti Olami (World Masorti). Our next step is to consolidate our existing kehillot, both Sydney and Melbourne. Not just as separate congregations but as two arms of one national movement. To be effective we need to get to know each other, strengthen our connections and together consider what is the nature of Australian Masorti and what we would like the future Movement to look like. You have made the very important decision to embrace Masorti Judaism. We are intensely traditional but with our minds and our hearts clearly focused on the 21st century. This is your movement and we need your involvement and contribution if we are to make Masorti a force in the community. By spending a weekend together with visiting congregants of Emanuel Synagogue Sydney you will deepen your understanding of Masorti and also be able to participate in the shaping of our movement.