Congregation+Shaarei+Tefillah,+Newton+Centre+MA

﻿ ﻿Congregation Shaarei Tefillah (Modern Orthodox) Newton Centre, MA

Rabbi Benjamin Samuels ravbensam@shaarei.org President: Mr. Bruce Micley Family Educator: Ms. Shira Starobinski Administrator: Ms. Dinah Moeller [|www.shaarei.org]


 * Project Dorot: Intergenerational Community Building Through Torah Learning and Tikkun Olam **

Project Dorot: Intergenerational Community Building Through Torah Learning and Tikkun Olam is a year-long program beginning and ending on //Simchat Torah// of creative, interdisciplinary, community building project to attract and involve our entire membership through integrative and intergenerational learning and service. Project Dorot has three components: 1. Regular congregational Torah learning on Friday nights and Shabbat mornings. 2. Regular //chesed///service projects on Shabbat and Sundays. 3. An ongoing, fun and enduring community art project that will literally and figuratively knit together the diverse members of our community. This art project will yield a c//huppah// for use as a ritual canopy over our community’s children for //Kol ha-Ne’arim/ot// on //Simchat Torah// symbolizing our communal unity and our responsibility to our shared Jewish future.

**//Concise Schematization of Project Dorot: //**
 * Program begins and ends on //Simchat// //Torah// 5771/2010 and 5772/2011, a holiday that celebrates generational interconnectedness and the transmission of tradition.
 * Program year will be divided into five thematic units corresponding to each of the five books of the Torah. The meta-theme will be “//Dorot// – Generations,” and each of the five thematic units will study an aspect of the relationship of intergenerational community and Jewish destiny. Our first unit, “The Genesis of Generations,” will include a study of the //Avot// and //Immahot// (Patriarchs and Matriarchs) during the period in which //Bereishit///Genesis is read. During the period in which //Shemot///Exodus is read, the unit “From Sinai to //Saba// and //Savta//” will study the chain of Jewish tradition. “Training Up the Next Generation: //Chinukh Banim uVanot//,” will be studied during the period of //Vayikra///Leviticus, and “Between Parents and Children: A Study of Intergenerational Tensions” will be explored during the period in which //Bamidbar// /Numbers is read. We will conclude our curriculum during the period of //Devarim// /Deuteronomy with “From Journey to Promise: Visions of a Shared Destiny.” All educational units will focus on traditional texts, but also evoke contemporary issues within the world at large and within our synagogue.
 * For each unit, we will have, at least, one Friday night “//Leil Limmud//: //Davening//, Dinner and Learning Program,” and one “//Shabbat Limmud//: Community //Beit Midrash//.”
 * For each unit, will also have, at least, one Shabbat and one Sunday Jewish Service (//Chesed/Tikkun Olam//) activity.
 * Each unit’s study and service programs will be documented by both adult and child participants on squares of fabric, which will ultimately be quilted around two extra-large //tallitot// to be used as a //Chuppah// canopy over the children of our community during //Kol ha-Ne’arim/ot// on //Simchat Torah//.
 * Our congregational learning, social justice and community art project will integrate our members across generational lines. We will especially outreach to and involve our families with young children and our senior members.
 * Over the course of the year, we will host three guest teachers – a scholar, artist and social activist-in-residence, to link our communal activities of “Project Dorot” with spiritual practices in the larger Jewish world.
 * Project Dorot Pride-wear (tee-shirts & hats) will nurture communal pride and increase excitement about our ongoing activities.

**Actions:**
On Shemini Atzeret/Simcaht Torah 2010, in our new Shul sanctuary to a full house, Rabbi Samuels dedicated his sermon to Project Dorot, its programmatic goals and communal aspirations. Our Shaarei Tefillah Crafters Committee is in formation and will begin the first phase of Project Dorot's commnutiy art project.

Project Dorot Update in the shul's newsletter

We have scheduled our first series of Congregational Torah Study Sessions, one on Friday night and the other, a community Beit Midrash after davening on Shabbat morning to learn and discuss <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 30px;">“The Genesis of Generations,” as described above. <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 30px;">Jan.7 Davening and Festive Friday night dinner in shul followed by Torah study on Breshit: "Genesis of Generations." <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 30px;">[|ProjectDorotUpdate.jpg]

<span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 30px;">Jan. 8 Group Leaders Get Together Lunch and Limmud [|01.jpg] [|02.jpg]

Feb. 4 - Torah Study on Shemot: " From Sinai to Saba and Savta"

[|Announcements 2-4-11.docx]

March 12-13 Torah Study on Vayikra: "Training Up the Next Generation: Chinuch Banim Ubanot" Social Justice Activist in Residence, Dyonna Ginsburg

[|Announcements 2-25-11.docx]

**Publicity / Marketing Materials**:


Feb. 4 Scholar in residence, Rabbi Francis Nataf. Community Beit Midrash study on Shemos/Exodus: From Sinai to Saba and Savta



March 12 Social Justice Activist in Residence, Community Beit Midrash study on Vayikra/Leviticus: Training Up The Next Generation- Chinuch Banim Ubanot"

[|VayikraLimmud.jpg]

[|SocialJusticePanel.jpg]

**Educational Materials:**
Breshit: Genesis of Generations (Limmud for Adults) [|1.jpg] [|2.jpg] [|3.jpg] [|4.jpg]

Breshit: Genesis of Generations (Limmud for Kids) [|5.jpg] [|6.jpg] [|7.jpg] [|8.jpg] [|9.jpg] [|10.jpg]

Shemot/Exodus: From Sinai to Saba and Savta (Limmud for Adults by Rabbi Francis Nataf) [|Nataf1.jpg] [|Nataf2.jpg]

Shemot/Exodus: From Sinai to Saba and Savta (Limmud for Kids) [|Exodus.jpg] [|Exodus1.jpg] [|Exodus2.jpg]

Vayikra/Leviticus: Seeing the Trees and the Forest: Ethics, Ritual & Halachic Discourse (Limmud for Adults by social activist scholar in residence, Mrs. Dyonna Ginsburg) [|Ginsburg1.jpg] [|Ginsburg2.jpg]

Vayikra/Leviticus: Training UP the Next Generation; Chinuch Banim Ubanot (Limmud for Kids) [|Vayikra.docx]

**Social Action:**










All donations go the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter in Cambridge, MA (see attached right photo)

[|hcs.harvard.edu/hshs/]

**Family Table**
[|Family Table Collection Drive.docx]
 * [|FamilyTable.docx]**

= **[|Cook-A-Thon for Ronald MacDonald House.docx]** = = = =<span style="background: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 16.2pt;">The Ronald MacDonald House in Brookline is a place where families of sick children stay when they come to Children's Hospital in Boston. Families might stay for a few nights or up to several months while their child receives treatment. Our friend and member, Leanne Shamash is organizing a cook-a-thon for meals for families of sick children residing at the Ronald MacDonal House at Shaarei Tefillah **this Sunday, April 3d at 5:00 pm.** The group will meet at the kitchen at Shaarei and cook a variety of foods to bring over to the Ronald MacDonald House. This project is occurring under the guidance and supervision of Rabbi Samuels, with Bill Feld being present in the kitchen as mashgiach. =



Newton Food Pantry Donations April 4-18
== ==

**Art Project:**
[|Quilt_projectDorot.docx]

[|Announcements 2-18-11.docx] <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">

In July, we held our thematic Project Dorot Lunch and Limmud featuring Rabbi Danny and Rabbanit Shoshana Simons. Rabbi Danny Simons was born in Australia, learned for Smichah in Israel and two years ago, with his wife Shoshana and their children, became the Rosh Kollel of the Torah MitTzion Kollel at the Nozick Synagogue in Warsaw, Poland. Mrs. Shoshana Simons was born in Chile to a Catholic family, her sister moved to Australia under political asylum and Shoshana went also. There they both discovered Judaism and converted and joined the Jewish community. Shoshana met Danny after her conversion and their journey now continues in Eastern Europe. They were a great scholar-in-residence couple for the Jewish Journey as highlighted in Sefer Bamidbar. Rav Danny spoke on Shabbat morning about reemerging Jewish life in Poland and the fascinating account of individual stories that have come to his attention, very much stories of parents and children, the tensions between them and the continuity of the generations. We had a beautiful community lunch at which there was singing and divrei Torah and Rav Danny spoke once again in the afternoon before Minchah and Mrs. Simons told her Jewish Journey story at Seudah Shelishit.



Our Community art project proceeds and to help frame it, we had out third special study weekend (we had previously had a Torah scholar, a Social-Activist in Residence) which we devoted to a discussion of Art and Jewish Law and Thought. We hosted Rabbi Aryeh Klapper and his coed collegiate Summer Beit Midrash. On Shabbat morning of Shabbat Chazon, we had no drasha, but our shul convened in our new social hall for a Shabbat Lunch and Limmud with Beit Midrash learning. 170 people of all generations sat around tables, enjoyed a delicious summer lunch and studied in small groups and chevrutot source sheets considering whether Judaism and Art are compatible or not. After 3 minutes of study, two of the participants in the summer beit midrash debated the topic and then we solicited questions and comments from the participants and had a lively discussion. The artists in our community (both visual and musical) especially contributed to a robust discussion of spirituality and artistic expression.



The next two documents are the sources that were studied.





Before Minchah, a member of our Shul, Prof. Alan Feld delivered a 30 minute talk to 75 participants on the topic of Art and the Law, a topic he teaches at BU Law School. He dealt with issues of property rights concerning abandoned Jewish art during the Holocaust. Then Rabbi Aryeh Klapper presented a theological argument for artistic express within Jewish law and thought

At Seudah Shelishit, one of the participants in the Summer Beit Midrash delivered a talk on the mitzvah to emulate guide and its relationship to artistic expression.



For our Bamidbar Summer Social Justice activity, we are doing a clothing and toy drive for an orphanage in Ghana, Africa.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Project Dorot Binyan Tzedek – Social Justic Opportunity: **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"> During the summer, Talya Brettler has been working with the Worcester Free Medical Clinics, which serve the uninsured patients in the Worcester area. The Akwaaba free clinic primarily serves Ghanaian immigrants, and one of the people who works with her there is collecting various items for an orphanage in Ghana, and hoping to fill a "lift" (large shipping crate) which she will send once she has enough things. She is specifically collecting used **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">clothing **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">, **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">children's books **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">, and **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">toys. **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"> If you are doing some summer cleaning, have some things lying around the house that you've been meaning to donate, or you have clothes that no longer fit you or your children, please consider donating them to this cause. Winter coats will not be collected, as they are not necessary in the Ghanaian climate, but otherwise clothes for all seasons are fine. **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">There is a box/bin at the entrance at the shul **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">. If you have many items that you would like to donate, please be in touch via email, and I can pick them up from your house.

Finally, our technology team has made final strides toward revamping our shul website with special focus on using our website better to deliver educational opportunities such as video and audio recorded shiurim, divrei torah archive and other opportunities. We have signed a contract with a web designer and look forward to moving this along.



At the beginning of September, we will continue to our community learning and chesed projects for the book of Devarim and complete our community art project in making our Chuppah for Kol HaNearim and Kol HaNearot.