In This Issue:
- LAST CHANCE – RSVPS DUE 4/4: MOTAS/TBH BROTHERHOOD SEDER – SUN APR 7
- FINAL EXTENSION TO 4/4 9AM: NCAA (BASKETBALL) SQUARES
- APRIL MEMBERSHIP MEETING: SUN APR 7
- HELP SUPPORT MOTAS: ANNUAL APPEAL TIME
- MAY MEMBERSHIP MEETING ON HILLEL818 – SUN MAY 5
- YELLOW CANDLES: TELLING OUR STORIES
- IN CLOSING
1. LAST CHANCE – RSVPS DUE 4/4: MOTAS/TBH BROTHERHOOD SEDER – SUN APR 7
THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE TO RSVP/SIGN UP: THE RSVP/SIGNUP DEADLINE IS THURSDAY, APRIL 4!
Our annual Men’s Seder, which will be joint with Temple Beth Hillel and held at Temple Ahavat Shalom, will be Sunday, April 7 at 5pm. Information on the Seder, including how to register, may be found at http://seder.tasnorthridge-motas.org. This special service and dinner, modeled after the traditional Passover Seder, provides a comfortable and “safe” space to explore and celebrate what it means to be a contemporary Jewish man. Our liturgy also explores Passover traditions, new and old, from around the world, that you might bring back to your home seder. The event will take place at Temple Ahavat Shalom. The menu will consist of traditional Passover foods as well as MoTAS’s traditional Seder foods of Bar-B-Que from Stonefire Grill, with Ice Cream and Fruit for dessert. The cost of the meal is $25.The RSVP / Sign Up deadline is April 4.
2. FINAL EXTENSION TO 4/4 9AM: NCAA (BASKETBALL) SQUARES
This is the final call for players for our March Madness basketball tournaments fun-raiser. The board is not yet full — you can still join in the fun. In fact, we are opening the board if you wish to have more spaces than you originally obtained. Since it is very likely that we will be using our tie-breaker system for the unsold squares, we need your number, which is the total number of points scored in a game (both teams, 85-67 = 152). You get one tie-breaker for each named player (a couple gets 2).
Since the tournament starts this weekend, it is very important that you let Bob (tasboblevine@gmail.com) know not later than Thursday morning by return email that you wish to play, purchase more squares, etc. We know we can trust you to send in your check or pay online. We have also extended the online signup at http://squares.tasnorthridge-motas.org/, where you’ll find the instructions, a sign-up form you can print, and a link if you wish to order your spaces online. NOTE: If you are registering and paying online, please specify your tiebreaker as your middle initial.
To summarize: each name on the board can have up to 3 spaces. The squares are priced at $36 each. The game is for both the men’s and women’s tournament (semifinal two games each, and final games), so there are 12 opportunities to be a winner, since there is a winner at the half and final score. If the board is fully subscribed at all 100 spaces, the payout is $150 per win. Once again, we’ll use our “tie-breaker” method to determine a winner if a winning square is unsold (If there are unsold squares, the payouts will be adjusted.) The tie-breaker is your prediction of the total number of points both teams will score in any game, for example, if you think the final score will be 82-61, your number = 143. Here’s a hint for those who are unfamiliar (or don’t really care….): the average score for the men’s tournament for the last two years was 147, and the average score for the women’s tournament was 134. You get only one tie-breaker per person, so choose wisely.
3. APRIL MEMBERSHIP MEETING: SUN APR 7
Due to the fact that the Temple will be closed on our normal April and May meeting dates. we’re moving the meeting to the first Sunday of each month: April 7 and May 5.In April, after our usual scrumptious breakfast at 845am, we’ll be having our short business meeting where the slate of candidates for our May elections will be announced. After the business meeting, we’ll do some initial seder preparation to make our lives easier in the evening.
4. HELP SUPPORT MOTAS: ANNUAL APPEAL TIME
In 2012, the Men of TAS eliminated the dues requirement for membership. We moved to an inclusive model where every man in TAS is part of the Men of Temple Ahavat Shalom. Since we don’t have dues, we don’t have steady revenue. So, every year Men of TAS asks you to support our work financially.
By now, you should have received our Annual Appeal letter. You can also find the message on our support page at http://support.tasnorthridge-motas.org/. On that page, you can find a printable donation form that you can mail in, as well as a link to contribute online. It is through your contributions that MoTAS is able to do that work that we do for the congregation. Please think about how much MoTAS means to the congregation, and how much the relationships you have with MoTAS mean to you. Then add 20%, and make a donation :-). Seriously, the MoTAS leadership works hard to make MoTAS valuable to you and the congregation. This is your chance to let us know what we mean to you.
See your friends and fellow congregants that have really stepped up to support us on our website’s Wall of Honor at http://wallofhonor.tasnorthridge-motas.org/. Join the Wall of Honor yourself by donating $100 or more. Your generous gift will provide fun events for all Temple members, kids to adults, teachers and staff. Continue to repair and improve our facilities. Most importantly, it will help us continue teaching and living the Jewish values that guide and enrich all our lives.
5. MAY MEMBERSHIP MEETING ON HILLEL818 – SUN MAY 5
Our May meeting will be a speaker meeting. The topic is Working with Hillel 818. As our speaker wrote, “Today, while many of our students live at home, they are still searching for meaningful communities and they are eager to find their place on campus. At Hillel 818, we are creating a not-so-far-“home away from home” for students on all three of our valley campuses! From Pierce in Woodland Hills, to CSUN in Northridge, and finally, to Valley College in North Hollywood, we are finding meaningful ways to create communities and strengthen our students connections to their Jewish identities.” Our speaker is Gary Cohn, Senior Vice President, Israel and Global Philanthropy, for The Jewish Agency for Israel.
Gary began a fifteen year career in banking in 1977 and worked in several banks including Manufacturers Bank, Los Angeles, Bank Leumi, Union Bank and served on the Northern California Advisory board for City National Bank. From 1991 until 2007, Gary was the Executive Director of Temple Emanu-El in San Francisco, a 2,500 member congregation. In 2008 he joined American Technion leading the Pacific Northwest Region for Technion University in Haifa. He joined the Jewish Agency in 2018 where he heads major gift development primarily in California. Gary serves on board of Hillel 818 and previously on the boards of the Union for Reform Judaism, Wilshire Blvd. Temple Camps, The San Francisco Food Bank, Bentley School, and the National Association for Temple Administration. Gary graduated from Cal State University at Long Beach in Business and was awarded the 2009 Distinguished Alumni in the College of Business.
6. YELLOW CANDLES: TELLING OUR STORIES
By now, you should have received your Yom HaShoah Yellow Candles in support of the observance of Yom HaShoah 2019/5779. MoTAS mails the Yom HaShoah candles to all members of the congregation; we depend on your support — either by a Yellow Candle donation or donating to our Annual Appeal, to cover our costs in doing so. The Yom HaShoah candle program is an effort of the Federation of Jewish Men’s Club (the Conservative Men’s Club organization), working with the Men of Reform Judaism.
New in 2019: the FJMC Yom HaShoah Yellow CandleTM program requests your participation in a new project to shed light on what the Holocaust means to us. Lighting Yellow Candles honors the Six Million Jews who perished in the Holocaust through home and community observance. Telling our stories is important, as each of our stories is unique and taken together all of these stories provide a powerful lesson to coming generations. Zachor! Never Again!
To honor the Holocaust and teach about it, we are asking you to tell your story: write, or make, or share videos about what the Holocaust means to you. If your family immigrated before the Holocaust but had family members who did not and were murdered in Europe, please contribute your thoughts as well. Pictures of family members including second generation (2Gs); third generation (3Gs) the grandchildren of survivors; and now we have the fourth generation great-grandchildren (4Gs) and family heirlooms can be included as well.
Post on the Shoah Yellow Candle Facebook Page, on your own social media feeds accompanied by the hashtags #yellowcandle #neveragain and #fjmc_hq, and/or send them to FJCM via e-mail at info@yellowcandles.org and we can post for you, all leading up to Yom HaShoah, May 2, 2019.
IN CLOSING
As always, remember that the Men of Temple Ahavat Shalom is *your* organization. Keep up to date on our activities at http://www.tasnorthridge-motas.org/ and participate. Sign up for our action alert list at http://tinyurl.com/motas-action-alert. We want to serve all the men of Temple Ahavat Shalom and welcome new participants from the TAS membership. Join our Facebook group and “follow” our website. Come be part of the Men of Temple Ahavat Shalom!
Men of Temple Ahavat Shalom 