Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and the Brooklyn Jewish Heritage Committee recently hosted the annual Brooklyn Jewish Heritage Night Salute to Israel ceremony and reception at Brooklyn Borough Hall.
The morning rain ended, the clouds disappeared and the day began to look brighter as the Early Learning Center students lined up for the annual Yom Ha’atzmaut Parade! The children, dressed in blue and white, waved their Israeli flags and carried original banners as they marched to the spirited music played by Morah Sima Goldofsky. With the addition of Dr. Ruth Katz, Head of School, ELC/ES/MS; Rabbi Avi Bodlander, Assistant Principal and Mrs. Ruchie Czermak, Director of ELC, the parade was complete. An impressive parent audience clapped enthusiastically as the children sang a repertoire of Israeli songs accompanied by adorable choreography. The icing on the cake was actually a cake! A seven-foot-high birthday cake was brought into the gym as the children sang Yom Huledet Sameach to culminate all that they had learned about Israel.
The clouds may have been out, but there was no raining on this parade. A jolt of positive sunny energy was humming within, from the sunny color scheme to the yellow orchids; it was simply paradise on Avenue K at Barkai Yeshivah’s Annual Bake Sale, which took place at the home of Mandy and Michael Cohen. The house was buzzing from nine in the morning until way after school buses took over the side streets.
Kol Israel Congregation commemorated Yom Hashoah with an evening honoring the memories of the six million souls lost to the Holocaust, as well as the survivors that have lived on to tell their stories.
The evening began with an austere candle lighting ceremony, led by the youth of the congregation. Six candles were lit for the six million lost.
“We join our souls with the souls that are no longer with us. We have a commitment to ourselves to do something positive, and to better ourselves. We should be thankful for what we have, the strong ties within our families and friends,” said Rabbi Besser, of Kol Israel Congregation.
Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day, is a day that students at Yeshivah of Flatbush always look forward to. After the heartbreaking programs of Yom HaShoah and the emotional ceremonies of Yom Hazikaron, it’s a joy to celebrate the fact that for the past 61 years, the State of Israel has belonged to the Jewish people. And celebrate is exactly what students did.
The alluring beauty, pristine beaches, ideal climate and music festivals make Barbados one of the world’s top tourist spots. What’s more, this easternmost Caribbean island offers Jewish visitors Kabbalat Shabbat services in an exquisitely reconstructed historic synagogue; a new interactive Jewish museum; and a recently excavated mikveh, the oldest known in the Western Hemisphere.
These achievements of the island’s 16 Jewish families are all the more remarkable when you discover that the legacy of Barbados Jewry almost disappeared without a trace.
This pizmon was written in the 1950s by a fine gentleman named Eziekel H. Albeg, a hazzan, Torah reader and the editor of our High Holiday prayer books. He wrote the song for Charles A. Serouya, one of the most influential and colorful men of our great community.
Charlie, as everyone called him, founded the Young Magen David Congregation on 67th Street next door to the “big shul,” which is what we called the Magen David Synagogue. It was the forerunner of the Youth Minyan today, but it really stood all by itself as a self-governing congregation.
While in Paris last March celebrating his wedding anniversary, Jacques Baghdadi set in motion another kind of shidduch. Like many in the community, frustrated with the high cost of yeshivahs in Brooklyn, he knocked on the door of Alliance Israelite Universelle, an organization with 150 years of experience providing high-quality, affordable Jewish education worldwide.
One year and one more trip to Paris later, Baghdadi’s journey has come full circle; the Yeshiva of Manhattan Beach (YMB) became the first American school to partner with Alliance in an effort to expand the school and enhance the curriculum while keeping costs down. This convergence was possible because both institutions have a common mission.
Recently, Fuel Fitness and Yeshivah of Flatbush collaborated to create a unique and innovative reading program for the students in lower division. Franci Cohen, owner of Fuel Fitness, together with Mr. Leonard Zeplin, lower division principal, carefully designed a program to help foster a love of reading through fitness. It succeeded beyond their wildest dreams! Over the course of two weeks, each grade had an opportunity to partake in the program.
Each day, an entire grade was bussed to Fuel Fitness for a fun-filled day of group fitness, silent reading and healthy snacks, rock climbing, and reading games. They began jumping on trampolines doing various aerobic movements. Then the Fuel Fitness staff dimmed the lights, and added glow-in-the-dark light sticks for an extra bonus. The children loved every minute! They learned the martial art of kickboxing, and much more!
The Middle Eastern Sephardic Jewish community has a unique tradition of using a different maqam (Arabic: melody type) each Shabbat for the Shaharit (morning) prayer services. The melodies used in a given maqam aim effectively to express the mood throughout the prayers. The maqam that will be used is based on the theme of the parasha.
The main maqamat generally used are: Rast, Mahour, Ajam, Nahwand, Saba, Sigah, Bayat, Hoseni, Rahawi/Nawah and Hijaz.
Have you heard the buzz about the little pouches the women of our community have been walking around with? Rebecca Kraiem, Barbara Haber, Jane Choueka and Loraine Mishan have been busy handing out these little pouches or (as they like to think of them) personal tzedakah boxes, to be used to collect money on a monthly basis to be allocated to a community charity in crisis that month.
It started with a community yeshivah in crisis that needed to raise immediate funds. They called upon one of their supporters asking for a large donation. The husband discussed it with his wife and realized that they just couldnt do it, but she couldnt get the phone call off her mind. She truly wanted to help them and other institutions in need. She spent a lot of time thinking about it and decided to call a few friends.
In just one year, Deal Sephardic Network (DSN) has transitioned from a group of dedicated parents with a few amazing ideas to over 500 children participating, on a monthly basis, in our sports leagues (baseball and football), Sunday Mania, Travel Mania, open center nights, and holiday trips. Although the focus of DSN in the infancy stage was on the children, the breadth and wealth of what is being offered is limitless. As we grow, our mission and vision will be to provide social and recreational programming to the entire community. From parenting classes to Daddy and Me, from sports leagues for boys, girls, and adults, to women’s fitness classes, from cultural trips for kids and adults to card tournaments and ballroom dancing—our family events will be remembered for their quality and for their ability to bring the community together as one big family!
On August 3, 4 and 5, the historic Paramount Theatre will host ENCORE ’09, where community members will enjoy a dynamic showcase of talented performers. The Paramount Theatre is Asbury Parks’ most enduring Beaux Arts building. This theatre has undergone recent multi-million dollar renovations.
From the Marx Brothers to Lou Reed to Green Day, it seems that anybody who’s anybody has played at either Convention Hall or the Paramount Theater since the venues first opened in 1930. Located on the historic Asbury Park boardwalk and connected by a grand arcade, the two venues have characters all of their own. Convention Hall has a wood-floored ballroom that’s a great setting for harder rocking shows; the Paramount retains the warm feel of an elegant theater from a bygone era and hosts performers such as Reed and Levon Helm.
For tickets to ENCORE, call (718) 627-4300.
Recently, my father took me to a big event by the Jersey Shore—Birkath Hachamah. Birkath Hachamah is a big event because it happens every 28 years and you have to say a brachah hachama, because the sun and the planets are lined up the same way they were when they were created. The mitzvah cannot be fulfilled if it’s a cloudy day and you cannot see the sun.
