In This Issue:
- NCAA BASKETBALL SQUARES NOW ON SALE
- DINING DOES GOOD – TUE 3/28 AT EMLE’S NORTHRIDGE
- MOTAS ANNUAL APPEAL TIME
- TAS LIVE THEATRE – ‘YAACOBI & LEIDENTAL’ @ THE ODYSSEY, SAT 4/8 @ 8PM
- MRJ CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION – JUN 23-25
- IN CLOSING
From the Editor: The goal of the Weekly is to get MoTAS members the information they need on upcoming activities, and then get out of the way. If you have any information on MoTAS activities you need to get out to the membership, please contact the Weekly Editor at cybermaven@tasnorthridge-motas.org.
1. NCAA BASKETBALL SQUARES NOW ON SALE
Now that football season is officially over, it’s time for basketball and the craziness known as the Final Four, in early April. Once again, MoTAS is happy to offer you the opportunity to help raise some needed funds for special TAS projects, and maybe you’ll earn some $$ along the way. In other words: NCAA Squares are now on sale. To get all the information (and in some cases, more than you could ever want), go to 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.
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.
2. DINING DOES GOOD – TUE 3/28 AT EMLE’S NORTHRIDGE
“Dining Does Good” has returned. Things have gotten more complicated since the pandemic with all the delivery apps and such, so this is DINE IN or PICK UP only. Let’s support MoTAS, and all show our smiling faces at Emle’s in Northridge on Tuesday, March 28.
Would you like an easy way to help MoTAS financially? How about taking your family to dinner. The MoTAS “Dining Does Good” allows you to go out to dinner, and have the restaurant donate a portion of your check support the Men of TAS. Our February Dining Does Good” will be Tuesday, March 28 at Emle’s Restaurant at 9250 Reseda Blvd #1, Northridge, CA 91324, (818) 772-2203. You can find a flyer for the event at https://wp.tasnorthridge-motas.org/activities/dining/ or download it directly from our Box account . We really encourage you to come and support these events: we raise a little extra funds for our work, but more importantly, we come together and break bread as a Temple family on a regular basis. It is a real joy to walk into a neighborhood restaurant and see your Temple friends, to sit down and share a table and talk. This is the heart and goal of MoTAS: Building Relationships.
3. MOTAS ANNUAL APPEAL TIME
MoTAS is currently in the middle of our annual appeal. The appeal email has gone out. MoTAS does not collect membership dues — we depend on contributions from our membership to do what we do, and to help Temple Ahavat Shalom. To contribute online or to print a donation form, just visit support.tasnorthridge-motas.org.
4. TAS LIVE THEATRE – ‘YAACOBI & LEIDENTAL’ @ THE ODYSSEY, SAT 4/8 @ 8PM
The TAS Live Theatre group has scheduled its next outing, and you’re invited.
- Show: US Premier of Yaacobi & Leidental
- Where: Odyssey Theatre Ensmble, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., West Los Angeles, 90025
- When: Saturday 4/8 @ 8pm
- Tickets: call (310) 477-2055 or go to OdysseyTheatre.com . We have a promotional code set up for that weekend — good for that weekend only and tickets will only be available based on a first come first serve basis. Tickets will be $27 each and will not have any additional fees upon checkout. The code is YL27. When you ticket, please let Daniel (faigin@cahighways.org) know.
About the Show: Odyssey Theatre Ensemble presents the U.S. premiere of Yaacobi & Leidental, a funny, provocative romp with music written by Israeli playwright Hanoch Levin and featuring songs by Alex Kagan. An absurdist tale about a love triangle gone wrong, Yaacobi & Leidental is a comic escapade through the failings of friendship and love. Even as we laugh at the antics of the brash Yaacobi, the insecure Leidental and the not-as-sweet-as-she-looks Ruth Shahash, we are reminded of our own shared human frailty in the face of desire and suffering. Show page link: https://odysseytheatre.com/whats-on/yaacobi-leidental/
Levin, who died of cancer in 1999 at the age of 56, remains one of Israel’s most prolific and controversial playwrights. His artistic legacy includes 56 plays and political satires, two books of prose, two collections of sketches and songs, a book of poems, and two books for children. Yaacobi & Leidental premiered in 1972 as a co-production between Tel Aviv’s Tzavta and Cameri Theatres, and was the first of Levin’s plays that he directed himself. Since then, it has had several revivals in Israel and has been produced in Germany, France, Spain, England, Poland and Romania.
“It’s as if a cast of Sholem Aleichem characters that didn’t quite make the final cut ran off and joined the circus, only to settle in an apartment block somewhere in south Tel Aviv,” wrote Tal Kra-Oz in a Tablet article about Levin’s work.
5. MRJ CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION – JUN 23-25
MRJ is celebrating its 100th birthday at a special convention and conclave the weekend of June 23-25, 2023 at Temple Beth El in Providence RI and at the Graduate Providence. Some highlights of the event:
- Our guest of honor and keynote speaker Shabbat evening, Rabbi Rick Jacobs, President of the Union for Reform Judaism.
- Special morning session – Indigenous People/Native Lands. The lands where Temple Beth-El sits as once the lands of the Masswascut—The Land between the two rivers, and the territory of the Meschanticut, which are the ancestral homelands of the Narragansettt, Pokanoket and Nipmuc peoples.
- There will be a special program on Implicit bias, which refers to attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner without awareness, intention, or control.
- MRJ Award Ceremony. Awards range from “service to the Temple community” to “intergenerational” and “adult Jewish Education. To apply, click here.
To register for the event, click here. To register for the hotel, click here.
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. Join the MoTAS Google Group at https://groups.google.com/g/tas-motas (you may need to be logged into your Google account, if you have one). Come be part of the Men of Temple Ahavat Shalom!
Men of Temple Ahavat Shalom 