In This Issue:
- MRJ WEBINAR: RABBI RICK JACOBS – WE FEB 18
- MOTAS SEDER – SU MAR 8 – SIGN UPS OPEN
- DINING OUT – LEMON ZEST – TU MAR 10
- RSVP TO THE MAN OF THE YEAR DINNER BY MAR 12
- MOTAS POKER TOURNAMENT – SU MAR 22
- NCAA SQUARES SALES NOW OPEN
- MOTAS MARCH MEETING – SU MAR 15
- DONATE TO THE MOTAS ANNUAL APPEAL
- IN CLOSING
(* indicates updated items)
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. During the summer, when there are not a lot of events, the weekly will appear … less than weekly. If you know of someone who should be getting the weekly, of if you had this forwarded this to you and you want to get on our sublist, please drop a note to cybermaven@tasnorthridge-motas.org and we’ll add you.
1. MRJ WEBINAR: RABBI RICK JACOBS – WE FEB 18
On Wednesday, February 18, 2026 at 5pm PACIFIC, MRJ will be hosting a webinar with the President of URJ, Rabbi Rick Jacobs. The subject is described as “Who are we, where are we, where are we going? A candid conversation with Rabbi Rick Jacobs, President of the Union for Reform Judaism.”
A longtime and devoted creative change agent, Rabbi Jacobs spent 20 years as a visionary spiritual leader at Westchester Reform Temple (WRT) in Scarsdale, New York. Before that, during his tenure as the rabbi of the Brooklyn Heights Synagogue, he created the first homeless shelter in a New York City synagogue. He’s a tireless advocate for an Israel that is secure, Jewish, democratic, and pluralistic, with a vibrant Reform Jewish community. Rabbi Jacobs has studied for two decades at Jerusalem’s Shalom Hartman Institute, where he is a senior rabbinic fellow.
To register for the webinar, click here.
2. MOTAS SEDER – SU MAR 8 – SIGN UPS OPEN
On Sunday, March 8 at 5pm, you are invited to join the Men of Temple Beth Hillel and the Men of Temple Ahavat Shalom as we come together for a special joint Men’s Seder. This special service and dinner, modeled after the traditional Passover Seder, provides a comfortable and ‘safe’ space for our brotherhoods to explore and celebrate what it means to be a contemporary Jewish man. The Seder will be hosted this year at Temple Beth Hillel in Valley Village, and tickets are $50. For more information, see https://wp.tasnorthridge-motas.org/activities/mens-seder/; you can sign up directly through Ticketleap. Note that Ticketleap provides 3 options: (1) pay NOW via credit card (has extra fees); (2) pay before the event via check, zelle, or venmo; and (3) pay at the door. For options (2) and (3), registration is free, and you must follow up with payment. Paid (credit card/Zelle) reservations are due by Friday, March 6 at 6PM Pacific. Reserve and pay at the door as late as Sunday at 8am. Walkups are subject to the organizer’s discretion.
3. DINING OUT – LEMON ZEST – TU MAR 10
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 March Dining Does Good” will be Tuesday, March 10 at Lemon Zest Northridge, 9610 Reseda Blvd, Northridge, CA 91324, (818) 818-6164.
How do you get a flyer? You can find a flyer for the event at https://wp.tasnorthridge-motas.org/activities/dining/ (click on the image of the flyer) or download PDF from our Google Drive . From there, just click on the printer icon to print, or the three dots to download.
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.
4. RSVP TO THE MAN OF THE YEAR DINNER BY MAR 12
Larry Hoffman was honored at the January MoTAS Shabbat as our 2026 Man of the Year. The MRJ Man of the Year Dinner, where our honoree will be feted, together with the honorees from other MRJ congregations from the MRJ Pacific Southwest region, is Saturday, March 21, 2026 at Temple Beth Hillel in Valley Village. The cost of the dinner is $50 if you are paying by cash, check, Zelle, or Venmo; $50 plus TicketLeap fees if you are paying by credit card. You can RSVP or pay online at https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/tasnorthridge-motas/26-03-man-of-the-year-dinner. RSVPS are due by March 12, 2026 at 6:00PM.
5. MOTAS POKER TOURNAMENT – SU MAR 22
The MoTAS Annual Poker Tournament is coming on Sunday, March 22. The Poker Website is now updated, and you can go there to learn about the event, register online, or print off the form and register offline via Zelle, Venmo, or check. Visit https://wp.tasnorthridge-motas.org/activities/poker/ for more information.
Note: To avoid Ticketleap and Credit Card fees, print out and mail/email the registration form on the page, and send your payment via Venmo or Zelle.
6. NCAA SQUARES SALES NOW OPEN
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 download and then print, and a link if you wish to order your spaces online (note: there are two options here: pay online via credit card (adds processing fees), or register online and pay offline via check, zelle, or venmo. Registration closes Tuesday, March 31, 2026 at 6pm, unless otherwise announced.
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.
7. MOTAS MARCH MEETING – SU MAR 15
Our April Membership meeting will be Sunday, 3/15, at 8:45am. A full breakfast, including bagels, lox, and eggs, will be available starting at 8:45am. After a brief membership meeting, we’ll be preparing the Yom HaShoah candle mailing. As Roger is unavailable, the Breakfast Crew can use some additional support. If you can help shop and prepare breakfast, please coordinate with Howard Schnee <Haschnee106@gmail.com> and Chuck Mondras <cmondrus@gmail.com>
For those that wanted a copy of January’s presentation on recommended maintenance items, you can find it in our Google Drive Share.
7. DONATE TO THE MOTAS ANNUAL APPEAL
The MoTAS Shabbat marks the start of the Annual Appeal, which continues until the end of May. We have the official letter from our President; but we still have to print, stuff, and send the appeal mailing. But you can, so to speak, “jump the gun”. MoTAS depends 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 or go directly to https://wp.tasnorthridge-motas.org/about/support-motas/. The online direct donation page is here; the link to our Google Drive account with the downloadable PDF form is 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 