Beit+Knesset+Ashkenaz+-+Buchman



Beit Knesset Ashkenaz, Buchman - Modiin Nachal Tzalmon #23 Modiin, 71700 ISRAEL (Mailing address: Yossef St. #5, Modiin, 71700, ISRAEL) Tel: +972-54-922-2189 Fax: +972-8-970-0311 www.bkabuchman.com

Shlomo Sobol, Rabbi, sobols1@hotmail.com President, Noah Lasson, noah.lasson@verint.com Chair, Project Implementation Committee, Daniella Hellerstein, daniella@modiinfo.com Immediate Past President, J.J. Sussman, jsussman1@yahoo.com Grant Coordinator, Rabbi David Fine, rabbidavidfine@gmail.com

**Synagogue Mission** to build and maintain a torani-dati-leumi synagogue and to promote the spiritual and general welfare of the members and residents of the Buchman neighborhood and surrounding community through social, educational and charitable activities.

**Project Title** Abraham meets Dorothy: There’s Nothing Like Coming Home Family Education and Chessed Project

**Concise Description of Proposal** “//Home! And this is my room – and you are all here! And I am not going to leave here ever again, because I love you all! And – Oh, Auntie Em --- there’s no place like home!//” (Dorothy, The Wizard of Oz)

//Now the Lord said to Abraham, “Go from your country and your kindred, and your father’s home to the Land that I will show you….So Abraham went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him// (Genesis 12:1,4)

Beit Knesset Ashkenaz, Buchman, Modiin is home to 619 Jews from all corners of the world and is just under 4 years old. A great majority of our members are “Anglo-Saxons” having made Aliyah in the last 5-10 years. Our initiative is based upon the fundamental assumption that most of our members have left their home of origin in order to settle in the national historic Home of the Jewish people. We have all made the move from Dorothy to Abraham, so to speak. Our initative is centered around the theme of the “many homes we live in as Jews.” What are the homes that we live in? What are our obligations to the our other family members in all of these differt homes? How do we created new Jewish homes? These are some of the questions we plan to explore. The project will be an integrated and systemic family education program and will combine study both formal and experiential, social action and touring (with Israel as our “playground”). We will explore our obligations to our fellow family members by utilizing the central Jewish lifecycle events as a springboard to impart core Jewish values such as Tzedaka, Bikkur Cholim, Chessed, etc.

**Full LHIP Application (Winter 2009)**

**Publicity and Programs (including program materials)** 1. Initial Letter to community

2. Official "Kickoff" of Grant Project, Shabbat Breishit, a time of new beginnings and ongoing classes

3. Monthly Shabbat Family Learning Part of our Shabbat Breishit program was an introduction to our new onthly Shabbat Family Learning. Each Shabbat Mevarchim, we prepare and send guided learning sheets that are connected to our theme for families to learn at the Shabbat table. Shabbat Breishit: Shabbat Chayei Sarah: Shabbat VaYeishev (Chanukah):

4. Horim Ve-Yeladim On Motzaei Shabbat we "kicked off" our new, weekly, "Horim Ve-Yeladim (Parent-Child)" learning program. This introduced our Chessed trip to Yad Eliezer where over 40 of our members (children and parents) went by bus to the Yad Eliezer (the largest food relief https://ssl.wikicdn.com/i/c.giforganization in Irsael - [|Yad Eliezer] ) warehouse in Jerusalem to pack food boxes to be distributed to the poor. The "Horim Ve-Yeladim" program has continued successfully on a weekly basis. Here is the flier that we have hung up in shul and send out by email every week:

Here are the source sheets that we have used. We have connected each week with our themes: Noach: Lech Lecha: VaYera: Chayei Sarah: Toldot: VaYetze: Chanuka:

5. New Member Melava Malka and Game Night We had a first ever Melava Malka welcoming our new members to their new homes (right in keeping with our theme)

Flier for event:

6. Chanuka Tiyul One of the main elements of our grant is using Israel as our classroom and using tiyulim as another modality of education. On Chanukah we went on a tiyul in the area surrounding Modiin. We learned about the Gevurah of the Chanuka story (connected to our monthly theme of Gevruah) connected to the Gevurah of the founding of the State of Israel, our national home.

Chanuka Tiyul Flier:

7. Hosting Converting IDF Soldiers This Shabbat, Parshat Va-Yigash, our community will be hosting IDF soldiers who are in the midst of a conversion process to experience the "Simcha" (our new monthly midda) of Shabbat in our homes as they prepare for their lives in their new Jewish homes.



**Pictures** We have been trying to direct our congregants and friends of the congregation to our websites for many different reasons. We have set up a link on our website for pictures of these various events. Here is a selection of our photos:

Horim Ve-Yeladim and Trip to Yad Eliezer : http://www.bkabuchman.org/content.php?pg=Trip_to_Yad_Eliezer_--_and_Parent/Child_learning&ID=267

Melave Malka/Game Night : http://www.bkabuchman.org/content.php?pg=New_Member_Melave_Malka_Game_Night&ID=271

Chanuka Tiyul : http://www.bkabuchman.org/content.php?pg=Chanukah_Tiyul_5770_--_Gevurah_around_us&ID=272

<span style="background-color: #0000ff; color: #ff00ff; display: block; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: left;">**Additional Educational Materials**

In discussions with members of our synagogue, the rabbi determined that people had a strong desire to learn practical Halacha in a professional, organized fashion. The desire to learn Halacha in this manner is in order to build our homes according to the Torah. Subsequently, the rabbi chose to acquire the "Tzurba" (http://www.tzurba.org/) curriculum which is widely used in Orthodox communities. throughout Israel.

Here is one example of a Tzurba weekly source packet on the topic of the recitation of the Amidah:

<span style="background-color: #0000ff; color: #ff00ff; display: block; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: left;">**Process**