SPRING BRUNCH, MEETINGS TO PLAN OUR FUTURE, THE HASSAN FAMILY Upcoming Shabbat - Kabbalat Shabbat, Text & Torah, Tot Shabbat It s Spring! Time for Bagels, Lox, Fruit & Friendship! Small Group Meetings to Plan Havurah s Future Annual Congregational Meeting Music Notes 5 Tikkun Olam Stories - Special Drive for Homeless Women, Cultural Navigator Trainings, Meet the Hassan Family, Portland Homeless Family Solutions, Good Deeds Day 2 Shabbat School Stories - Deadline for 2016-17 Shabbat School, RSVP for Shabbat School Summit Community Seder is on April 23 Song of Miriam Awards Accepting Applications for Rabbi UPCOMING SHABBAT Kabbalat Shabbat Service Friday, April 8 7:30 to 8:30 pm Havurah Shalom Sponsored by our Tikkun Olam Committee in preparation for Passover, this Friday's Kabbalat Shabbat Service will focus on refugees and immigrants. The service will be led by Rabbi Joey and Havurah musicians Margie Rosenthal, Scott Snyder, Steven Sandberg-Lewis, Chaim Wolin, and Larry Reichman.
Text & Torah - Special Shabbatot Before Pesach Saturday, April 9 10:00 am to 12:00 noon Havurah Shalom Join us for bagels, lox and coffee and an animated discussion of special Shabbatot before Pesach led by Diane Chaplin. We'll have a short morning service after the discussion, with Diane Chaplin, Sam Sirkin, Marty Brown, and Rabbi Joey leading and leyning. Tot Shabbat Saturday, April 9 10:30 to 11:30 am Young children (0-5) and their parents celebrate Shabbat with singing, movement, blessings, and storytelling. We touch on the main highlights of the Shabbat morning service: wonder, fun, song, listening to the world, dance, and Torah. Afterward we enjoy an informal oneg nosh and the chance to play and schmooze. Led by Jared Goodman. RSVP here. Tot Shabbat is free and all are welcome. Above photo is from Wikimedia.
IT S SPRING! TIME FOR BAGELS, LOX, FRUIT & FRIENDSHIP If you re new (or newish) to Havurah and would like to learn more about our community, please join us for a spring brunch at Havurah this Sunday from 10 am to noon. Enjoy bagels, lox, fruit and friendship! While you nosh, you'll have a chance to meet other Havurah members and to hear from our Rabbi, our education programs, Tikkun Olam leaders, and more. Please RSVP here by Thursday, April 7 so we know how much food to prepare. Thanks! Above photo is from Wikimedia. SMALL GROUP MEETINGS TO PLAN FOR HAVURAH S FUTURE Please plan to join your fellow Havurahniks for an important round of small-group
discussions focusing on how to ensure Havurah Shalom s long-term sustainability as a beautiful, vibrant Jewish community. These meetings will not be fundraising events. They are designed for information gathering and will take place throughout April, May and June at people s homes and at Havurah. We need your ideas on how to put our congregation s education, religious, and community programs on a more secure footing for the future. Funding is such a challenging issue! Rabbi Joey has been emphasizing the need for a Havurah endowment to provide an additional stream of operating funds each year to supplement dues and regular fundraising. How can we insure that the endowment campaign honors Havurah s unique fundraising tradition and remain true to the egalitarian, respectful relationships that serve as our community s foundation? At the small group meetings we will brainstorm and deliberate, working together to refine community-building ways to sustain Havurah Shalom. The discussions will inform how we conduct our Give Back to the Future! endowment campaign. Learn more here and register for a meeting near you! ANNUAL CONGREGATIONAL MEETING Sunday, April 17 10:00 am to 12 noon Havurah Shalom All Havurah members are invited to our Annual Congregational Meeting on Sunday, April 17. We have a lot to discuss! You'll find the meeting s discussion points here. MUSIC NOTES We will meet for the second in our series of Passover sing-alongs at Havurah on Wednesday, April 13, at 7:00 pm. We had a great sharing session on the 5th and look forward to singing our way through seder. Traditional, contemporary melodies and parodies galore! Please come!
FEMALE HYGIENE PRODUCTS DONATIONS DRIVE FOR HOMELESS WOMEN, APRIL 4 MAY 4 Women living on the street do not have dependable access to clean and sanitary female hygiene products. These items are in high demand, but service providers and shelters rarely receive them as donations. Collecting in-kind and monetary donations for hygiene products will help homeless women in Portland stay clean and healthy while they are menstruating. Transition Projects will distribute the items to women who use the organization's services. Monetary donations can also be made directly to Transition Projects. A donation barrel is located in Havurah's coat room to collect donations. Please make a point of bringing hygiene products with you each time you come to Havurah. At the end of the drive, Danielle Cogan will document the amount of products received and transport them to Transition Projects. For more information or questions, contact Danielle Cogan at dpcogan@gmail.com. CULTURAL NAVIGATOR TRAININGS Information Session & Training for Cultural Navigators Tuesday, April 26 6:00-9:00 pm Havurah Shalom Please join us on April 26 to hear from Catholic Charities about the Cultural Navigator Program. This is an opportunity to learn more about the program and answer questions you might have.
We have heard from several of you that you are interested in working with a small group of Havuraniks to support a refugee family as they settle in Portland. And that is great! Others still have questions about whether this is a volunteer role that they can take on at this point, but want to find out more. Either way, please join us. This session will help answer questions, provide background information on the refugee resettlement process, and meet the training requirement for those of you who decide to volunteer. If you can t make it on April 26, don t worry. Catholic Charities has regular trainings at their SE offices, so we can help you get that information. Please RSVP to Rebecca Darling-Budner. Above photo is from Wikimedia. MEET THE HASSAN FAMILY Through Catholic Charities, Havurah was recently matched with the Hassan Family from Somalia. Amina and Adan Hassan have two children, a four year old daughter,
Someya, and a two year old son, Abdinajib. They arrived in Portland last Monday, and are currently staying with Adan s brother. Catholic Charities is looking for housing for them, but there are other families ahead of them on the list, so we don t know how long it will take. Once there is an apartment, we will put out a call for any remaining gaps in what we ve already collected, and help them move in and get settled. Read more here. PORTLAND HOMELESS FAMILY SOLUTIONS (PHFS) You can volunteer at Goose Hollow without attending a PHFS orientation. The "meal provider" position requires the help and hands of several people. Only one person in this group needs to have attended a PHFS orientation! Len and Elayne Shapiro have been spearheading the meals for several months. Interested in helping them? Please contact Len Shapiro. Two more Solutions Salon opportunities at Goose Hollow. Lunch and a discussion about the homeless state of emergency in Portland. Special guests will include Community Alliance of Tenants Executive Director, Justin Buri, and Street Roots Executive Director, Israel Bayer. Wednesday, April 13, noon-1:30 pm Monday, May 23, noon-1:30 pm RSVP to emma@pdxhfs.org or 503-504-5902. For more information about Havurah's involvement with PHFS, contact Gloria Halper at losninos6@gmail.com. REGISTER FOR GOOD DEEDS DAY BY FRIDAY, APRIL 8 Good Deeds Day is a day for volunteering with family and friends in our community at the MJCC/Schnitzer Family Campus, 6651 SW Capitol Highway. Havurah is sponsoring a family friendly activity from 2 3:30 pm to make welcome banners and cards and to collect helpful hints for arriving refugee families. Join Havurah s activity or pick from the other available options. Register here by this Friday. Sixth through 12th graders are invited to sign up for J-Serve Day of Teen Service at Cedar Sinai Park. Good Deeds Day is presented by the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland in partnership with the Mittleman Jewish Community Center (MJCC) and many project
sponsors and community supporters. For questions about Havurah s project, email Chris. DEADLINE FOR 2016-17 SHABBAT SCHOOL To register a child for Havurah s Shabbat School, the family must be Havurah Shalom members and must register for Shabbat School by May 1. If you have friends or acquaintances who are considering our Shabbat School program, please alert them and have them contact Stacy Hankin as soon as possible. Read more here. SHABBAT SCHOOL SUMMIT Kids will gather for special programming while parents discuss general Shabbat School topics. Then parents will meet in grade groups to plan summer activities and teaching for the upcoming year. At least one parent from each family should attend; two are better if you have children in multiple grades. RSVP by May 13 with the names of adults and children attending, as well as children s ages. Childcare for children 0-5 years old is available with prior reservation. Read more here.
COMMUNITY SEDER Led by Adela Basayne and a team of Havurahniks, with music by the talented Beth Hamon, this year's community seder is sure to be engaging and meaningful for people of all ages. Join us for this engaging seder with tasty vegetarian entrees provided by Barbara Block and her team, who cater our Kabbalat Shabbat Dinners, and inspiring music and good company! Watch next week s community email for seder material about refugees and immigrants from our Tikkun Olam Committee. Register here. Above photo taken at a Havurah community seder. SONG OF MIRIAM AWARDS Mazel tov to Havurah s 2016 Song of Miriam Award recipient, Susan Lazareck!
Please join your fellow Havurahniks to honor Susan at the 24 th Annual Song of Miriam Awards Brunch on Sunday, June 5. The brunch will be from 10:00 am to 12:15 pm, at the MJCC. Please use this form to register. NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS FOR RABBI Havurah Shalom is inviting resumes for the job as Rabbi. The start date will be August 1, 2017. Please see our job description here. Applications for the job will be accepted April 1, 2016 through June 30, 2016. All inquiries about the job are to be directed to Rabbi Joel Alpert, Director of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Placement Center. His contact number is 215-576-0800 ext 304. Please do not send resumes to the committee. An evaluation matrix based on the job description and information from the focus groups will be used by the Rabbi Search Committee to evaluate the resumes. The committee will determine who will be invited for a skype/phone interview in early Fall 2016. Based on the results on the phone interviews, a few candidates will be invited for a long weekend. Currently on the Havurah Shalom calendar we have three weekends scheduled for candidate interviews: December 1-4, 2016; December 8-11, 2016; January 5-8, 2017. Please see our timeline here. If you have any questions about the job application process, please contact the Rabbi Search Committee at rabbisearch@havurahshalom.org.