NEW! “So You Think You Can Dance?” Bring the whole family for our Simhat Torah celebration, starting with appetizers, Caesar salad, deli platters, fruit & more (alcohol will be offered). At 6:13pm, share in CAI’s traditional Hakafot as we celebrate with Israeli singing and dancing, and refreshments (there will be a children’s holiday-related activity in another room). Get a guided tour from Creation to Mt. Sinai as the Torah is completely unrolled to encircle all who attend! THERE IS NO CHARGE TO ATTEND DINNER; however, reservations are required by Oct. 2.
The celebration continues with a festive service geared toward families with children. At 9:30am, the Sifrey Torah are taken out of the Ark. The children parade behind, then go up on the Bimah and are blessed.
NEW! In the Cantor Falkow Lounge, we offer a special program for children to include stories, singing, seriously silly snacks and shenanigans with Rabbi Ruven Barkan. We’ll then rejoin the congregation, followed by lunch in the Rabbi Breger Hall (a potato bar with Russet & sweet potatoes & lots of toppings, an array of salads, & sweets). THERE IS NO CHARGE TO ATTEND LUNCH; however, reservations are required by Oct. 2
Celebrate the New Year and Shabbat in style – come dressed in your finery for this festive Shabbat. We start with a champagne, cheese and fruit oneg at 5 pm, then Rabbi Samuel M. Cohon leads a festive, musical hour-long Shabbat evening service at 5:45 pm. All are welcome.
Celebrate Tu B’Shevat Wine Tasting Seder at 5:30 pm with premium French kosher wines, fruits and nuts, and rituals, followed by a festive dinner. Then at 7:30 pm Shabbat Shirah – the Sabbath of Song, celebrating the music of Jewish composers. All are welcome. Childcare available with RSVP by 1/20.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee & Temple Kol Ami cordially invite you to Israel in the Media: Beyond the Headlines featuring author and journalist Matti Friedman.
Matti Friedman is the author of Pumpkinflowers: A Soldier’s Story, a war memoir of the often forgotten events that took place in the 1990s at the Pumpkin, a small military outpost in Lebanon. His first book, The Aleppo Codex, won the 2014 Sami Rohr Prize, the American Library Association’s Sophia Brody Medal, the Canadian Jewish Book Award and other honors. It was published in Israel, Australia, Holland, France, Germany, the Czech Republic, Russia and South Korea.
Friedman’s reporting has taken him from Israel to Lebanon, Morocco, Moscow and the Caucasus, and his writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post and elsewhere. He is a former Associated Press correspondent and a regular contributor to Tablet Magazine. Two essays he wrote about media coverage of Israel after the 2014 Gaza War, for Tablet and The Atlantic, triggered intense discussion and have been shared together on Facebook more than 100,000 times. He was born in Toronto and lives in Jerusalem.
Join us for a fascinating lecture and discussion at Temple Kol Ami.
Please visit www.aipac.org/PHXEOC/ to register or call 602-277-3318.
Event Details
Cost: $18 (Advanced registration required: please RSVP by September 8)
Date: Wednesday, September 14
Location: Temple Kol Ami (15030 N 64th Street, Scottsdale, AZ 85254)
Time: 6PM Registration & Reception | 6:30PM Program
The evening includes a wine, cheese and dessert reception; Havdallah program “Areshet S’fateinu … May the Words of our Lips … Translating Prayer into Song”; the changing of the Torah covers and a moment to honor our Minyan; followed by the opening service to the High Holy Days, Selihot, at 10:00pm. No charge; however, reservations are requested by Sept. 19.
Even if your loved ones are not buried in CAI’s Cemetery, you are encouraged to participate in the service and pay your respects to your dearly departed. The 30-minute service includes a special booklet of prayers.
The Center for Holocaust Education and Human Dignity of the East Valley Jewish Community Center will host a daylong program commemorating the victims of the Holocaust in observance of Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Registration is required for all programs. To register, click here. All programs are free except for the Open Beit Midrash guided tour, which includes a kosher lunch. To make a payment, click here.
- Self-guided tours (Noon-3 p.m.): “Through the Eyes of Youth: Life and Death in the Bedzin Ghetto” is an exhibit created by the Martin-Springer Institute at Northern Arizona University that tells the story of young people in the Jewish ghetto of Bedzin, Poland, before, during and after the Holocaust. Reservations are required.
- Guided tour and lunch (11 a.m.): Bjorn Krondorfer, director of the Martin-Springer Institute at Northern Arizona University, will lead a tour of the above exhibit as part of Open Beit Midrash. The cost is $14, which includes a kosher lunch following the tour. Reservations are required by April 29.To register, click here. To make a payment, click here.
- Screening of “Shalom Italia” (1 p.m.): This documentary by Tamar Tal Anati tells the story of three Italian Jewish brothers set off on a journey through Tuscany, in search of a cave where they hid as children to escape the Nazis. Their quest, full of humor, food and Tuscan landscapes, straddles the boundary between history and myth, both of which really, truly happened. Reservations are required.
- Teacher’s workshop (4-5:30 p.m.): In this free workshop, Bjorn Krondorfer, director of the Martin-Springer Institute at Northern Arizona University, will lead a tour of the exhibit and discuss how to approach stories from the Holocaust with students. The program is geared toward teachers who teach high school or college students. Reservations are required.
- Yom Hashoah ceremony (6 p.m.): Procession of survivors and their descendants and a candle-lighting ceremony; presentation by Holocaust survivor Marion Weinzweig, author of “Lonely Chameleon”; presentation by Bjorn Krondorfer, who will share his story about finding out as an adult that his father was a German soldier at a slave labor camp in Poland; and reading of names, Mourner’s Kaddish, El Maleh Rachamim led by Rabbi Michael Beyo. Reservations are required.
Partners of this East Valley JCC program include The Martin-Springer Institute of Northern Arizona University, Temple Emanuel of Tempe, Temple Beth Sholom of the East Valley and the Sun Lakes Jewish Congregation.
Join the East Valley JCC for Conversations with the Rabbi, a new series featuring Rabbi Michael Beyo, EVJCC CEO, and local faith leaders.
On Sept. 15, Rabbi Beyo will speak with Imam Faheem Arshad of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community about being a minority religion in America. They will explore maintaining religious identity, raising children within faith, addressing discrimination and persecution, obligations beyond our communities, and more.
For more information and to register, visit https://www.evjcc.org/conversation