In This Issue:
- Drivers Needed to Deliver High Holiday Gift Bags to TAS Members ~ SEPT 1
- IT’S FOOTBALL SQUARES SEASON AGAIN
- September Monthly Meeting – First Meeting of 2020-21 – SEPT 13
- First Day Of Religious School Pancake Breakfast Update
- Sukkah Building UPDATE
- MRJ SPEAKER: Akiva Tor on SUN SEP 13 – Despite a Pandemic, the Holy Fire Will Burn
- IN CLOSING
1. Drivers Needed to Deliver High Holiday Gift Bags to TAS Members ~ ASAP
The clergy is sending out personal gift bags to each of our members. Additional volunteers are needed to deliver 15-20 bags in a localized area. If you would be willing to help deliver the gift bags Between Friday August 28 and Tuesday Sept. 1, your help would be appreciated. Please call Laraine Miller at (818) 993-0796 if you would be willing to help out. Earn a gold star for helping the temple.
2. IT’S FOOTBALL SQUARES SEASON AGAIN
Please join MoTAS in our very popular fun-raiser, now in its 9th year. It is a very important program, which raises funds for temple projects that are not able to be done because of budget limitations. Much of the money is used primarily for education projects.
You don’t need to know anything about football, or even like football. It’s all about helping TAS. For one entry, you participate in the entire 16-game season!
The rules are the same as last year, except that 1) if a Monday game is canceled or rescheduled, a game from Sunday will be used instead, and 2) if the season is shortened, adjustments to payouts and refunds will be determined at that time. The entry fee remains $50 per square. If you wish to pay by check, please mail it directly to:
Roger Lowe
10659 Desplain Place
Chatsworth, CA 91311
(Mark “Football Squares” on the envelope.)
Please also send an email to Bob with your name(s) and # of squares you wish, so he can place you on the grid board (limit 2 per individual or 4 for couple).
For more information and to sign up, go to squares.tasnorhtridge-motas.org or email Bob Levine, tasboblevine@gmail.com
3. September Monthly Meeting – First Meeting of 2020-21 – SEPT 13
Our first meeting of the 2020-2021 programming year will be Sunday, September 13 at 9am. For our meeting introductions, please email Howard (hmiller12@socal.rr.com) with a secret clue about yourself, something most people don’t know about you. It may be a specific talent, an experience, someone you met, etc. Howard will read it and the group will try and guess who you are. If it is juicy, we promise not to pass it on.
In our post-meeting program, William Moalem will talk about growing up in China, life in a Japanese concentration camp during WWII (1942-1945), how he was liberated and what life was like afterward.
4. First Day Of Religious School Pancake Breakfast Update
MoTAS will not be holding our annual free pancake breakfast. We were ready to flip 300 hotcakes but, since there will be no opening day of school this year, we would have been left with a ten foot stack of pure carbs. Instead, MoTAS will be contributing a family pancake breakfast package to religious school families via Rabbi Becky’s Rosh Hashana gift bags to members. It will include a note of best wishes to our students.
5. Sukkah Building UPDATE
MoTAS offered to build the Sukkah this year, even with masks and gloves. However, we could not get the necessary permits without adding air conditioning, air scrubbers, water fountains and Covid19 inspection stations. We were willing to try but it was pointed out that the Torah explicitly forbids the use of electrical power. After all, Moses never stayed in the same place long enough to pay his water and power bills.
6. MRJ SPEAKER: Akiva Tor on SUN SEP 13 – Despite a Pandemic, the Holy Fire Will Burn
Listen to Akiva Tor’s interview with Media Line about a fiery Christian Orthodox ritual uninterrupted for ‘at least the last couple of centuries: the “Holy Fire” ceremony on April 18 at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Christian Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City. The Media Line interview explores the annual ritual – and how it has been changed by Coronavirus. Akiva Tor is the head of the Bureau of World Jewish Affairs and World Religions of the Israeli Foreign Ministry.
After listening to the interview, join MRJ as we host him for a conversation on Sunday, September 13th at 1 p.m. ET. Register today.
Akiva Tor is the Head of Bureau for World Jewish Affairs and World Religions at the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Previously he served as Consul General of Israel for the Pacific Northwest, Director of the Israel Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei, Deputy Director for Palestinian Affairs in the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and as World Jewish Affairs Adviser to the President of Israel in which capacity he began the organization of the World Jewish Forum, an initiative for creating a pan-Jewish strategy for stemming assimilation and decline in Jewish life.
Akiva is a graduate of the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government, and holds an MA degree from Hebrew University in Jewish political thought and a BA from Columbia University in general philosophy. He has written and lectured on Jewish values in the foreign policy of Israel and on ethical considerations in international relations. He served as a paratrooper in the Israel Defense Forces and as an infantry captain in the IDF reserves. He is interested in running, mountain biking and ascending high places. Akiva is married to Naomi, a community social worker. Their home town is Beit Shemesh, near Jerusalem, and they have four children – Yonah, Zohar, Yehudah and Roni.
Read his blog pieces in the Times of Israel, including “Building a Bridge Over Troubled Waters.” You can also read his piece, “Pope Francis in Israel.”
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 