httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJoYnMkeUYMWe had a terrific Chanukah party this year with about 60 adults and children. It began with a short Shabbat service led by yours truly, followed by the kinder lighting the candles and all chanting the blessings.Latkes were perfect (thanks Sandy- Fresh From the Garden), challah and desserts were enjoyed by all.Carol Pescaia read an enchanting Chanukah story to the kids after which they decorated Chanukah cookies pre-made by Lisa Splittstoesser and Andrea (Icing on the Cake) Quinn.The evening ended too soon with all looking forward to next year's Chanukah festival.Chag Urim Sameach
Video by Jeff
Chanukah Greetings
JCK Chanukah ShabbatAs a reminder, we will be celebrating with a special party and look forward to your attending:
- Friday night, December 11, 6pm.
- St. Michaels, Lihue.
- Click on the highlighted link above for all of the details and cost.
- Latkes and beverages will be provided. Please bring a potluck dessert.
- Reminder: Please bring canned food for the food outreach program. We're collecting gifts for the children at KEO's Christmas dinner; you may bring an unwrapped gift to our party if you wish.
Regency Puakea Chanukah PartyJCK is again helping sponsor the 2nd annual Chanukah party for the residents, families and friends of seniors living at Regency Puakea in Puhi. All are welcome!Here are the details:
- 2pm Sunday December 13 at Regency Puakea.
- Children from the Jewish Community will join with residents in games and candle-lighting.
- Latkes are being provided by Regency Puakea.
JCK's KEO Christmas Dinner
The Jewish Community of Kauai is again providing a Christmas dinner at Kauai Economic Opportunity (KEO) for the homeless shelter and transitional housing families. The event will take place on December 25th and we still need volunteers to help cook turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, and green beans. The food may be cooked at home and delivered around 4:30pm to KEO for the dinner.We are also collecting gifts for the children there -- you may bring an unwrapped gift to this Friday's Chanukah party if you wish to donate to a great cause.You may contact me via e-mail at lsplitts@yahoo.com or cell phone at 634-7006.Please comment here.
Community Chanukah Celebration
Please join us in celebrating Chanukah on December 11, 2009, from 6-7:30PM at St. Michael’s in Lihue.Marty will lead a short Shabbat service, and then we’ll light the menorahs and enjoy potatoes latkes. Please bring your menorahs so we can light them all together and create a beautiful beacon of unity. We will have candles available.We ask that you bring a pot luck dessert to share, as well as a donation of $10/$5 for children. Although JCK has in past years covered the cost of the Chanukah party, we are not able to do so this year; your donation will help defray the cost.If you plan to attend, please RSVP no later than December 8 in email or by phone: Carol 651-8623 or Marty 652-7297.Chanukah is the Feast of Lights or the Feast of Dedication. The celebration comes from the story of the Maccabees in 165 BC. After a three-year struggle led by Judah Maccabee, the Jews in Judea defeated the Syrian tyrant Antiochus and held festivities in the newly rededicated Temple in Jerusalem. According to legend, when the Jews cleaned the temple of Syrian idols, they found only one small cruse of oil to light the holy lamp, but miraculously, the oil lasted for eight days, enough time to get more holy oil. That is why we light candles for eight nights and remember the miracle that happened there. It is also a way for us to commemorate religious freedom and tolerance today.
A Word of Thanks
Todah rabah to Rabbi Mark Shapiro, for leading our congregation during the High Holidays this year. The results of our web survey indicated that 80% of the people who responded voted the services good to excellent. An 80% satisfaction result from our community is quite unusual.Here's my note of thanks to Rabbi Mark and his response to us.Dear Rabbi Mark,I want to express our sincere thanks for leading the congregation on Kauai for the High Holidays this year. I really enjoyed Rosh Hashanah services and it was regrettable I was on the mainland for Yom Kippur. From all of the feedback I've received, you were warmly received by our diverse congregation. From all past experience, that is no small thing! Blessings to you and Hanna for a healthy and happy new year.Shalom,Marty Dear Marty:Thanks for your nice note.Hanna and I enjoyed our time on Kauai, and especially meeting the people who were very warm and hospitable.We spent a wonderful morning with quite a few children of the congregation--or those who are connected in one way or another. The food was great and so were the beaches. Our Israeli friends loved everything, and I even convinced Sharon to talk to the congregation about Israel during the Yom Kippur break.Regards to the other folks in leadership and of course to your family.With affection,Mark Stanley Shapiro
New Kitchen Korner
New Community Food Section on JCK's website.Together with our technology guys, Rob and Jeff, I've undertaken a new feature on our website, which I've affectionately named "Kitchen Korner." This is a compendium of community recipes.As always one good thing leads to another and so with us. If congregants are willing and interested in sharing kitchen hints and recipes and such things as places to buy special ingredients , we will add these to the Kitchen Korner.I've started by adding the four recipes below, and looking forward to adding many more:
- Turkey Gumbo Soup
- Citrus/ginger Cranberry Sauce
- Spicy Cranberry Sauce
- Noodle Kugel
As we acquire more recipes we'll proceed to put them into categories such as Holidays (Passover, Chanukah, High Holidays, etc.), and of course just plain easy local foods. So put on your thinking caps and start sending them online or email them to me via the Kitchen Korner page.Todah Rabah - Thanks for supporting our efforts.Other JCK food news:1. Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Announcing The one and only Hawaii finalist in the Pillsbury BAKE OFF:ILLUSTRIOUS BAKER - LENORE KLASS(Bob Klass - Official Taster)Her winning and obviously fabulous recipe will appear in our Kitchen Korner. Look forBanana Peanut Butter Cream Tarts.2. Be prepared! Chanukah starts 12/11!!!If you have any holiday recipes to share, especially of our most favorite food, potato latkes, please submit them online or email them to me via the Kitchen Korner page.3. High Holidays food review.The Jewish Community was treated to a beautiful "Break the Fast" catered by Sandra Jennings and supplemented by generous members of the community. Our sincere thanks to Diane Chait, Nellie Foster, Greg Meyers, Kuulei Johnson, Icing on the Cake and of course for her constant help, Esther Soloman.By request, Diane offered to share her delicious Noodle Kugel recipe with us and it is now on the Web Site.I look forward to hearing your thoughts. Click here to add your comment.
St. Michael's Benefit
St. Michael's is having a Benefit Concert and Silent Auction to raise money for the good work they do in the community. Since the JCK has been so warmly received there and has been allowed to worship in the sanctuary for so many years, it would be a mitzvah if we as individuals could contribute items for the silent auction.Donation details:Donate services, items, trips, etc. This needs to be done right away. Contact Marilyn Allen. Email Performcoach@gmail.com. Cell 651-9333. Here is the silent auction donation form.Event details:Friday November 13, 2009, 7pm.
The date of the event is Friday, Nov. 13. Plan on being there if you can
"New Jews" Keep Faith Relevant and Accessible
Emergent General X and Y (post Baby Boomer) Jews are reconnecting with their faith through unconventional means. They are donning tattoos, playing hip-hop music and authoring interesting new websites. They are rabbis, religious educators, and others knowledgeable about Judaism, who aren't interested in fitting into prior molds and terms like Reform, Conservative or Orthodox.I read an interesting article on CNN (for iPhone) last weekend entitled "New Jews stake claim to faith, culture." As someone who has had a hard time relating to Judaism and thus has been in a secular, cultural relationship therewith, this fascinating input revitalizes my interest in my ancestors' religion. I subscribed to a number of these sites, which I think you may also enjoy. My fun favorite is the first one below, g-dcast.com, with its Torah Parsha cartoons and music.Additional resources to check out:
- g-dcast.com. The Torah portion in 4 minutes with different narrators each week. Cartoons, hip hop, musicals, and spoken word. Follow on Twitter, Fan on Facebook, or Subscribe in Google/RSS.
- jstreet.org. "Political arm of the pro-Israel, pro-peace movement." Follow on Twitter, Fan on Facebook or Subscribe in Google/RSS.
- jwrecords.org. Innovative Jewish music, community, and cross-cultural dialogue. Follow on Twitter or Subscribe in Google/RSS.
- Heeb magazine. Brooklyn's Heeb magazine is a "take-no-prisoners zine for the plugged-in and preached-out. Covering arts, culture and politics, Heeb has become a multi-media magnet to the young, urban and influential". Follow on Twitter, Fan on Facebook or Subscribe in Google/RSS.
- Jewish Jumpstart. A thinkubator for sustainable jewish innovation. Follow on Twitter, Fan on Facebook or Subscribe in email.
- Jewish Ecosystem. Resources for the emergence of a new Jewish landscape. Subscribe in email.
- Limmud. "Jewish learning without limits." A network of conferences/festivals/gatherings of Jews from all walks of life, backgrounds, lifestyles, and ages. Lummud has been in existence for 27 years and has many conferences. Follow on Twitter or Subscribe in email/RSS.
- E-Jewish Philanthropy. An on-line publisher and a facilitator of resource mobilization serving the Jewish communal world since 2007. Subscribe in email/Google/RSS.
- Here's a Twitter list of emergent Jewish resources. Follow on Twitter.
I look forward to hearing your thoughts. Click here to add your comment.Jeff Tucker is a board member of the Jewish Community of Kauai, and co-creator of this new website. Look for further posts on how to use these new technologies, like Facebook, Twitter, and RSS.photo credit: http://www.jewishecosystem.org/
Kol Nidre: A Hitchhiker's Guide
I was on the mainland with family and unable to attend Kol Nidre and Yom Kippur services on Kauai.Sinai Temple, Springfield, MAFortunately, Carole and I were was able to attend Erev Yom Kippur Kol Nidre services here, a beautiful Reform temple. By a strange set of circumstances, the officiant was Rabbi Mark Shapiro! - obviously not the same person who lead our services on Kauai, but a colleague in the Reform movement.A Hitchhiker's Guide to Yom Kippur Kol Nidre 5770
I thoroughly enjoyed his Kol Nidre sermon and spoke to him about it afterward (while of course bringing greetings from our Rabbi Mark Shapiro on Kauai). I believe you will find it most enlightening too.Quotes from the sermon:
"...don't Jews and Jewish identity come in all shapes and sizes? One Jew's defining passion might be Torah Study. Another's Jewish passion might be Jewish fiction. Some Jews see Judaism as a call to social justice. Others love Israel above all else. Others speak Hebrew as their way of being Jewish. Some love Jewish food. And others tell Jewish jokes or laugh at them."
"It's important to note all these expressions of Jewish identity because, on a night when so many of us come together to form a Jewish community, I'm quite sure we aren't all on the same page when it comes to our Judaism."
"If you wonder about God's existence or if you wonder what a service is supposed to accomplish, you may wonder if you aren't a slight impostor sitting here among the faithful."
"Here's my secret. For many years, I suspected I might be the only rabbi who was uncomfortable with the all-powerful, all-knowing God in our prayer book. But this winter I learned something quite unexpected. I was invited to a rabbinic conference on the High Holiday prayer book. (It turns out that our Reform movement is actively planning to revise Gates of Repentance.)"
"What counts for right now, however, is what I heard around the table at the meeting. Lots of rabbis struggle with the imagery of God in the prayer book..."
If you find these thoughts intriguing and provocative I know you will enjoy the rest of this discourse (with permission).Let me know your thoughts by adding your comment here.
PBS: The People vs. Leo Frank
From JCK member Roberta Weil:
I highly recommend the viewing or recording of this program, at 2:00am on November 4. Besides its place in our country’s history it has great significance to the Jewish community as it was one of the causes of the founding of the anti-Defamation League and is a prime example of the effects of anti-Semitism.We have met the filmmaker and Paul and I supported the production of the film.The 1913 murder of 13-year-old factory worker Mary Phagan and the resulting trial and 1915 lynching of Leo Frank, the factory's superintendent, are recalled via dramatic re-creations with actors Seth Gilliam and Will Janowitz and documentary segments.Links related to the film:Leofrankfilm.com.PBS link.Facebook fan page. If you would like to leave a comment, please click here.
David Walters
David E. Walters, husband of Lucette Walters from Princeville passed away last week. He is also survived by his daughter Crystal, mom Edith, sister Betty, and brothers Ron, Larry and Kirk.David was born in Iowa in 1943, grew up in Idaho, and was a home and resort builder on Kauai since 1974.They have been very generous to the Jewish community and we send our sincere sympathy to his family.May the memories of David give his family strength and continue to be a blessing throughout their lives.
Third Annual KEO Christmas Dinner
This year marks the 3rd Christmas dinner which JCK will be hosting at KEO (Kauai Economic Opportunity). We serve those in the emergency shelter as well as transitional housing (typically around 40 people).I will be looking for volunteers to:
- Cook (at their home and bring food to KEO on Christmas)
- Help with set up
- Serve dinner
In years past, we have also collected presents for the children at the emergency shelter and transitional housing; I am hoping to do that again this year.If you are interested in volunteering, I can be reached via e-mail at lsplitts@yahoo.com.