This month's Short Schrift is an on-line edition only!
B’Yachad: Together!
What a difference a month makes! The cover of last month’s Short Schrift featured Blintzapalooza. The rest of the newsletter included all our scheduled activities, classes and meetings. A month ago, “zoom”, for most of us, was a word used as a sound effect. That feels like a lifetime ago.
Our hearts go out to all those around the world who are ill with COVID-19. May they make a swift and complete recovery. And we collectively mourn with those who have lost their loved ones during this pandemic.
As challenging as this time is, it has also shown us the best in humanity: our resiliency in the face of adversity, and willingness to reach out and help those in need. These positive attributes are fully evident here at TBH.
TBH on Zoom Thanks to Rabbi Seth, Kayla and Catherine (who are each working from home), we made a swift transition from in-person to Zoom gatherings. Services, classes and meetings; all are happening on this digital platform.
Surprisingly, I am enjoying the Zoom experience. I wonder how I’ll be convinced to leave my home to attend a meeting ever again! Services have been lovely, with the added benefit of lighting Shabbat candles with our TBH friends. If you haven’t tried it out yet, I encourage you to follow the link included in this newsletter, for a brief Zoom tutorial. If you need additional support, please contact Kayla at tbh@bethhatfiloh.org. She is patient and has helped others, even self-professed technophobes, learn how to Zoom.
Chesed: Loving Kindness Chesed, Loving Kindness, is a central value in Judaism. It is alive and well at TBH! Board members have been contacting folks to find out your needs and how your congregational community can help. We received more offers of assistance than requests for help! Right now, over 30 of your fellow TBH members are ready to deliver groceries, pick up prescriptions, do check-in phone calls, whatever you might need. Kayla is matching volunteers with those who need help, so please contact her at the email address above. She is working from home and does not have easy access to the TBH voicemail system.
I am so deeply proud to be a member of this congregation, and truly grateful for each of you.
We are in this together, and together we will get through this! B’Yachad!
Short Schrift: April 2020
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Virtual Community Seder
Celebrate Passover as a community! Join Rabbi Seth for a virtual Community Seder on Thursday, April 9 at 6:00 p.m. While we can not join together in person, we will make connections in new and innovative ways via the Zoom videoconferencing platform as we join together to celebrate the Festival of Freedom!
Registration is required—there is no fee, but it will make planning easier. Please register here. Once you register, you will receive an email about joining the meeting.
By the time you read this, you may have already received an electronic ballot and an informational packet regarding the parking lot adjacent to TBH. The new owners have presented us with a proposal: We would lease and manage the parking lot, with an Option to Buy it at the end of the lease period. Details are included in the packet. We will hold a congregational meeting via Zoom on Sunday, April 12 at 10 a.m. to answer any questions you may have.
In the meantime, our bylaws are clear: only members in good standing can vote! In order to be a member in good standing, you would need to make your membership pledge for this fiscal year, which began on July 1, 2019. If you haven’t yet done so, please click here for a Membership Renewal Form, and then email the completed form to Kayla at tbh@bethhatfiloh.org.
Gala Update Everyone has been anticipating the event of the season, commonly known as TBH Spring Gala. Unfortunately, nature had other plans for us, so we will be postponing the Gala this year and plan to hold it in May 2021 instead. Special thanks to members of the Gala Committee for all their hard work: Edie Bean, Beth Dubey, Leslie Goldstein, Sue Goldstein, Felicia Hanig, Kayla Iverson, and Michele Jackman.
We are still considering ways to do virtual fund-raisers, so stay tuned on that count. Meanwhile, let's all take care of ourselves and each other (while remaining 6 feet apart!)
TBH Volunteers TBH Members have been signing up to assist their community members! We have over 30 people who have volunteered their services and time to support members of our community that may be higher risk or in need of assistance.
Some of the services that are available:
Item delivery/pick-up
Grocery Shopping
Prescription pick-up
Exercise companionship
Mental Health support
End of life services
Regular email and phone check-ins
Healthcare navigation assistance
Technological support
Meal drop-off
Email Kayla at tbh@bethhatfiloh.org if you would like to be connected with a volunteer, or if you would like your name added to our volunteer corps.
Please make sure to check the weekly email for regular updates on other virtual TBH programming!
Awakened Heart Shabbat Saturday, April 4, 10:30 am Awakened Heart Shabbat is a TBH Shabbat program that started this year. The focus is to experience the joy of Shabbat in community through song, stories, blessings, teachings, and experiences that open up our hearts to a connection with the sacred, however it may be imagined by each of us. This is part of the Jewish mystical tradition.
Mysticism offers insights into an expanded awareness. We can experience the unity of all Being when we open our hearts to the mystery and awe in our world and within ourselves. Scientists are realizing more and more that the earth is a whole system way beyond the individual parts. They search for a unified Theory of Everything that reaches beyond the world we know. These ideas have been expressed through the teachings, poetry, and mythology of our tradition. Just as we are amazed by new information about trees communicating in multiple ways, so we can expand our perception of reality on a personal or soul level.
The Hasidic masters gave us teachings and stories to help us on our journey. New teachers have come forth to transform these ideas for our times. I often share their words during our gatherings. Among my teachers are Arthur Green, Shefa Gold, David A. Cooper, Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, and others. Their books are quite accessible and available, should you be interested. There is also info online to explore.
Our next Awakened Heart Shabbat gathering will be by Zoom on April 4 at 10:30. Deepening our experience of Passover will be a focus this month.
Meeting online will be a challenge for me. I ask for your patience and understanding in advance!
-Nancy
Short Schrift: April 2020
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From Catherine Carmel
Family Life & Learning Director
Shalom y'all,
It feels like a million years since the last time I wrote a Schrift article. I was writing about Purim and the value of bringing people together to strengthen our community. The kids were making hamentaschen and packing shalach manot for members of our community. The Purim party was close behind and while we were planning for a full house, we were talking about what might happen if COVID-19 crossed into our space. Jewish life is full of opportunities and obligations to be present with one another. Now that Purim has passed and COVID-19 has, in fact, become part of all our lives, bringing people physically together is fraught with danger and everything we know about doing the most basic things is being questioned and reconsidered. How do we pray together? Study together? We have even been asked to consider how we wash our hands.
Cancelling everything was unsettling. It created a huge gap in our lives that we weren't really sure how to fill. There is a real advantage to trying to keep a schedule as close to the previous schedule as possible. After all, won't we more easily fall back into it when this is all over? But that gap also opened up an exciting opportunity. We now have the advantage of stopping to reconsider what is meaningful. How many times in life have you been given an opportunity to hit a pause button on your life, knowing everyone else is doing the same thing? I never have. Even the times when things changed so drastically that I was reeling from it, life went on for others around me and eventually I had to run to catch up. This time, we're all hitting pause together. Yes, it's scary. Yes, it is creating challenges for people. But we're all in it together. Whether it is the neighbor you walk your dog by each day or the Facebook friend you rarely see anymore, we are all affected by the same pandemic. We all have something in common.
This pandemic has given us each a chance to define our community and the things in which we choose to participate as broadly or as narrowly as we want. To this end, I am working towards giving the Beit Sefer families as many opportunities as possible to connect their lives in Jewish ways. The virus has revealed a collective hope and interconnectedness that has always been the source of our strength. All Jews are beholden to one another and as our physical separation grows, we are throwing out lifelines to maintain the connections. Some organizations we work with to create Jewish educational programming for families have opened up and shared content in a multitude of ways. Jewish families suddenly have daily opportunities to connect to story times, song circles, craft ideas and virtual moments in Jewish time. In addition, we have more local connections, like opportunities to do mitzvot for families here and virtual connections with friends. Like many other things in life right now, we have the opportunity to choose what lines to grab, when and where to connect, to try some things on for size and discard what doesn't fit us personally. Hopefully, as we will walk out of this challenging time, we will do so stronger and more connected to the values and traditions that define not only us as a people, but our individual Jewish lives.
L'shalom,
Short Schrift: April 2020
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FORKids Food Packing Thanks to the 10 people who volunteered on Tuesday, March 10, at the Thurston County Food Bank in Tumwater, again filling two pallets of almost 600 bags of food that will be distributed within the Thurston County. The volunteers who were TBH members or friends or family of members included Richard and Michele Jackman, Brad Smith, Paige Brown, Beth Dubey, Laura Hurtado-Webb, Sue Goldstein, Betty Goldstein, Bernie Friedman and Emily Chadwick. We will not be filling bags on the second Tuesday of April, April 14 at 3:30 p.m. because the schools are closed and likely will be closed through the end of the school year. We will let everyone know if we are needed to fill gages before next September. If you have any questions, please contact Elie at 360-357-8160 or email Elie at ehalpern7379@gmail.com.
Green Team Update
We have no news to report this month for TBH. So, we want to share this: Carbon emissions across the world have been dramatically reduced as people stay home. We already seeing effects: the air has cleared up over China, the canals in Venice are cleaner, the contrails have lessened in our skies. This has occurred in less than a month. We do have the power to make a difference. What changes have you noticed in your energy use during this time?
Our next Green Team meeting will be by Zoom on Tues. April 21st at 5:45. Everyone is welcome. Contact tbh@bethhatfiloh.org with any questions or information.
Sanctuary Task Force Update We appreciate the concern so many of you have expressed for the welfare of our Sanctuary guests. We have been working hard to honor the necessity for “social distancing” as ordered by our Governor to slow the spread of COVID-19 and to meet the ongoing needs of our guests at this particularly challenging time. Our guests are safe, healthy, and well cared for.
Midwood Postponed
The concert with Jake Shulman-Ment is postponed. It will hopefully be rescheduled for later this year.
Olympia Sisterhood
Sisterhood will be passing over the month due to the Passover holiday. All please be safe and well
April Yahrtzeits
1 Al Levinson 1 Ronald Philip denitz 1 Joseph Shill 2 Mary Ambercity Stoneman 3 Irving Glickman 3 Jules Bank 4 Sue Endres 5 Rachel Asner Blatt 5 Edith Mollan 6 Margaret Stoneman Smith 6 Leah Herenzon Yakimovsky 7 Jonathan Michael Oren 7 Robert Mann 7 Janet Wortman 9 Morris Halpern 9 Irvin Gottfeld
10 Ruth Samsky 11 Morris Rivkin 12 Gerard Herman 13 Evelyn Friedman 13 Betty Robinson 14 Helen Pollock 16 Barbara Jean 16 H. Clinton Smith 19 William Mann 20 Rose Siegel 20 Max Bard 20 Bella Wirth 21 Ann Okun 21 Sylvia Weiner 23 Joseph Jenkins 24 Rose Rome
24 Rabbi Myron Kinberg 24 Belle Rubenstein 25 Reta Nightingale 25 Irving Samsky 25 Mary Godden 25 Paul McCrea 26 Joseph Kolker 26 Nancy Mandeberg 26 Paul Holman 28 Michael Schon 28 Gale Matis 28 Julius Sokoloff 29 Ada Blanke 29 Sam Stein 29 Judah Ben Rosen 30 Leonora Leizerman
These names will be read from the bimah at Shabbat services before and after the yahrzeit. Bold type denotes those inscribed on a plaque on our Memorial Wall. Please send any corrections and addtions to the Yahrzeit listings to tbh@bethhatfiloh.org.
Short Schrift: April 2020
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Happy Birthday | Yom Huledet Sameach
1 Jacob Weiss 1 Juliet Van Eenwyk 3 Daniel Stein 5 Shayna Gaines 7 Melanie Israel 7 Nicole Breuer 8 William Gallin 10 Judith Barnes 10 Andrew Iverson
13 Thomas Taylor 14 Alan Reichman 15 Marilyn Gisser 15 Victor Kogan 16 Max Selwitz 17 Gail Pollock 20 Abigail Jenkins 20 Sally Reichlin 21 Karen Greene
22 Barak Gale 22 Ed Adelson 23 Beatrice Reynolds 25 Anne Laderman 25 Simon Trobman 26 Rebecca Rutzick 27 Eliana de Jesus 29 Ken Berg 30 Jill Rosenkrantz
Thank You For Your Contributions
Blintzapalooza Diane Dakin Bill Lynch & Jane Habegger Sue Goldstein Jean Mandeberg & Joel Greene St. Benedict's Episcopal Church Robert Perretz-Rosales Kathleen Heiman Beth Dubey Leslie Goldstein Marcia David & Howard Goldberg Ellen & Carl Wolfhagen Russell Lidman in memory of Nathan Lidman Melinda Holman & Barnett Kalikow Len Trabka Brian Boyd Anonymous Donor Esther and West Kronenberg Jodie Holway Nancy Snyder & Gary Schneider Bernie Friedman Roxane Waldron Pamela Stuart Ann Essko Molly Knox Susan Finkel Lucas Trerice Susan White Christina Meserve
Blintzapalooza (cont.) Karen Farber Meryl Birn Debra Janison Katherine Ransom Jonathan Grosvenor Ginny Codd Casey Lalonde James Stanton Goldberg Fund Beth Dubey Immigration & Sanctuary Robert B. Godwin Mark Kaufman Sheryl Dorney Rabbi's Discretionary Fund Paul & Rosemarie Marchant Sustaining Fund Julie Russo & Melissa DiFilippi Share It Now Beth Dubey in memory of Ruth & Irving Samsky William Caslar Russell Lidman in memory of Stan Finkelstein Patrick Sullivan Jill Rosenkrantz & Jay Goldstein Frank Herman in memory of Gerard Herman Edie Bean
