Written by Tony® Award winner Terrence McNally, It’s Only a Play is a celebration of theatre at its best and theatre people at their not-so-best. The show takes place on opening night of Peter Austin’s new play. At the home of his wealthy producer, Peter is joined by his best friend, the show’s aging starlet, the director, and a drama critic, as the unlikely group anxiously awaits the late-night newspaper reviews. It’s Only a Play promises kooky characters and big laughs in a rare comedy that’s as smart as it is funny!

Learn the Mishnah every morning with Rabbi Israel Becker, Monday-Friday 6:15 AM, Shabbos 8:15 AM and Sundays and Major Secular Holidays 7:15 AM.

Join us every Friday morning for a fun and interactive, parent-child class at Temple Kol Ami’s Early Childhood Center. Mommy & Me Rock Shabbat is a wonderful opportunity for parents and tots to have fun and spend quality time together in a warm Jewish environment.

Mommy & Me Rock Shabbat is open to all moms and their children ages infant to 2 years.

More than just a play group or social event, this teacher-led class offers a wealth of opportunities for moms to connect and share experiences with each other while their children learn and grow.

Typical Mommy & Me activities include:

• Jewish themes & songs
• Music & movement
• Arts & crafts
• Interactive, developmentally-appropriate Tot Shabbat

Come meet other moms while kids learn about group dynamics and prepare for pre-school.

Mommy & Me classes are just $5 per class (or $35 for a 10 class pass) for Temple Kol Ami members.

Non-members pay $10 per class (or $75 for a 10 class pass).

For registration or more information, please contact Temple Kol Ami Early Childhood Center at 480-951-5825. You may also feel free to email tkaecc@templekolami.org.

About the Teacher: Highly-experienced educator Rachel Schneider (our Rabbi’s wife!) leads Mommy & Me each week. Rachel has been teaching for nearly 20 years. She has taught preschool through 12th grade, most recently at Pardes in Scottsdale. She holds two master’s degrees: one from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and one from the University of Southern California. Rachel and her husband, Rabbi Jeremy Schneider, have four children ages 8, 6, 2, and 4 months old.

As a musician with German-Jewish origins, Carolyn is deeply interested in exploring the history of assimilation and conversion behind the Mischlinge and bringing to life the stories of people like her father and godmother with music, art, literature, and film. Carolyn’s Mischlinge Exposé weaves a multimedia tapestry around a little-known aspect of the Holocaust: the Mischlinge (a derogatory Nazi term for those neither fully Jewish nor fully Aryan). Interweaving video and audio testimony from Carolyn’s godmother and her father (both labeled Mischling, Grade A by the Nazis), with the music of composers from the salon period who converted to Christianity in the decades before the war, and works reacting to questions of identity after the war, the program vividly illustrates what it was like to be between worlds in Germany in the first half of the 20th century.

Southwest Torah Institute’s

Along The Talmudic Trail

FREE SHABBATON EXPERIENCE

For Men 18 – 40

Friday Jan 26^th 5pm through Saturday Jan 27 6:30pm

Great Wine, Great Food, Great Comraderie, Great Learning

Pre-Registration Required

Contact: Brian Singer

Bsinger321@email.arizona.edu

The West Valley Jewish Film Festival returns to Beth Emeth Congregation at 13702 W. Meeker Blvd. in Sun City West from Jan 26 to 28.

The three films shown at this year’s festival are “Heading Home: The Tale of Team Israel,” “Three Identical Strangers” and “The Samuel Project.”

For ticket information, call 623-584-7210 or visit bethemethaz.org.

Heading Home: The Tale of Team Israel

Israel’s national baseball team competes in the World Baseball Classic for the first time. Teammates included many Jewish-American major leaguers – most with a tenuous relationship to Judaism – having never been to Israel.

The film now takes them on their first journey to Israel (from Tel Aviv and Jerusalem) where they discover, “What it means to be Jewish.”

Visiting Israel and representing it on a world stage in Seoul, Korea defies the world’s expectation. With Mensch on a Bench as their mascot and a pride in representing Israel, they finished in sixth place.

Three Identical Strangers

On July 12, 1961 triplets were born in New York to a single mother and then separated at birth and adopted by three different families of different economic levels. Then in 1980, these three complete strangers accidentally meet and discover that they are identical triplets.

This movie follows their reunion and their incredible story. Once an unimaginable secret is revealed, the emotional impact is stunning. This is one of the most fascinating stories ever told where the truth is stranger than fiction.

The Samuel Project

Hal Linden as grandfather Samuel becomes the subject of his grandson Eli’s animated art project in the sharing of history between generations.

As Samuel, a San Diego dry cleaner and Eli, an outcast high school teen, work together on Eli’s art project, they get to know each other for the first time. Eventually, Eli learns how his grandfather was saved as a boy in Nazi Germany.

The result is a story Samuel hasn’t told in 75 years, and one that allows three generations of Eli’s family to finally connect.

Written by Tony® Award winner Terrence McNally, It’s Only a Play is a celebration of theatre at its best and theatre people at their not-so-best. The show takes place on opening night of Peter Austin’s new play. At the home of his wealthy producer, Peter is joined by his best friend, the show’s aging starlet, the director, and a drama critic, as the unlikely group anxiously awaits the late-night newspaper reviews. It’s Only a Play promises kooky characters and big laughs in a rare comedy that’s as smart as it is funny!

Learn the Mishnah every morning with Rabbi Israel Becker: Monday-Friday 6:15 AM, Shabbos 8:15 AM, Sundays and Major Secular Holidays 7:15 AM.