Chag Sameach! Welcome to an annual time of rededication, liberation and seeing light in the darkest of times! Here are some resources to help bring warmth, meaning and new light to this ancient holiday. Wishing you much joy as we join with Jews celebrating Hanukkah around the world, and wish the best for many other faith traditions and peoples, celebrating their own festivals of light at this time of year!

• One for Each Night: A Hanukkah Study Guide for a Brighter Future
• Rabbi Steve Segar: The United States of Channukkah
• Rabbi Jeff Eisenstat and Lighting the Hanukkiah
• Rabbi Toba Spitzer: Hanukkah: December and Dedication
• Recon educators debate how to teach Hanukkah
• Jewish Parenting at Hanukkah
• Family Guide to Spiritual Celebration of Hanukkah
• Hannukah and Global Climate Change Initiative
• COEJL: Hanukkah and Environment Resources
• Rabbi Shawn Zevit: Light One Candle in the Dark
• Who Can Remember?

Yom HaShoah/Holocaust Remembrance Day

Yom HaShoah
by Ilana Streit

There is a gaping hole
in the body of the Jewish people

about fifty years old
and slowly healing

Some try to cover it with bandages
but the wound needs to breathe

Some try to fill it with Land
but I’m afraid it will get infected

Doctors estimate that within one hundred years
scar tissue will begin to form

There is a gaping hole
in the soul of the Jewish people

Some try to fill it with words

Yom HaAtzmaut/Israel Independence Day

Israeli Independence Day Ceremony
By Rabbi Rebecca Lillian

Prayers and Songs for Israel
By Rabbi Amy Klein

PEARL Webinar on Israel and Yom Ha'atzmaut

Israel Resources from the JRF Resources Library - This broad collection of articles, bibliographies, lesson plans, activities, divrei Torah, and frequently asked questions is a rich resource for congregations in approaching the topic of Israel.

http://jrf.org/Women-of-the-Wall

Israel at 60

Don't miss out on the great Purim resources from our resource library!

Purim FAQ by Rabbi Shai Gluskin

Purim Customs Around The World by Rabbi Amy Klein
How are customs from other countries similar or different from the way you celebrate Purim with your family, school or congregation?     

A compilation of Reconstructionist and Reconstructionist-compatible books for teaching Purim

Esther Chapter 1 - What Does It Mean? by Rabbi Shai Gluskin
A lesson plan about Megillat Esther and Satire

Lyrics to the famous Reconstructionist Purim song "She Said No (to the King)! by Miraj

Rhyming Introductions For Megillat Esther Chapters by Rabbi Laurie Zimmerman 

Here's Looking at You, Esther - A Purim play for 4th-6th grade students by Larry Smith

Communal Mishlo'ach Manot Project by Rabbi Shai Gluskin & Betsy Teutsch
A model mitzvah project for our congregations

Purim Shpiel Acts by Rabbi Shoshana Hantman

Check out these great JRF Purim articles from past years…both silly and serious: http://jrf.org/purim

Divrei Torah

A Reflection on Power by Rabbi Lewis Eron

A Time to Challenge Distinctions by Rabbi Steve Segar

Four Lessons We Learn from Purim by Rabbi Elliott Tepperman

Let's Reconstruct Purim to Become a Celebration of Feminism by Barbara Carr

Click here for Reconstructionist movement and other general resources for living a sustainable, Jewish life!

http://jrf.org/Sustainable_Synagogue_Resources

http://jrf.org/Jewish-Climate-Change-Initiative

A flyer describing a variety of High Holiday and post-High Holiday programs, both ritual and social

A flyer describing a variety of post-High Holiday programs, both ritual and social 

Shannah Tovah! The JRF website contains numerous resources for Rosh Hashannah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Shmini Atzeret and Simchat Torah. Simply enter any of these holiday names in the search box on the left side of any page and enjoy and rich and expansive set of audio programs, articles, texts and stories on the Days of Awe and Sukkot. Wishing you all the most inspiring, healthiest, joy-filled and meaningful sweet new year. Welcome to 5770 from the staff and lay leadership of JRF!

SHAVUOT (The Feast of Weeks) is so called because it completes seven weeks from the second day of Passover on which the omer (a measure) of the new barley was brought to the Temple. This holiday celebrates the early wheat harvest in Israel. It commemorates the covenant at Sinai between God and Israel, and the giving of the Ten Commandments. (From the Recon Press pocket calendar)

Please take advantage of JRF's Shavuot Resources:

RT Article: Shavuot: The Harvest Festival of Torah
By Rabbi Emanuel S. Goldsmith

Audio Interview: Shavuot
By Rabbi Shai Gluskin, Rabbi Linda Potemken, Rabbi Shawn Zevit
Rabbi Shai Gluskin and Rabbi Linda Potemken explore the history and meaning of the Jewish spring festival, the counting of the Omer, and the time of "receiving of the Torah."

Dvar Torah: Ruth, the First Convert
By Rabbi Richard Hirsh
We celebrate Shavuot, called in tradition "zman matan Torataynu", the season of the giving of our Torah, and by reading the book of Ruth.

Shavuot
Audio Program: Rabbi Shai Gluskin, Rabbi Linda Potemken, Rabbi Shawn Zevit
We explore the history and meaning of the Jewish spring festival, the counting of the Omer, and the time of "receiving of the Torah". An episode of Heart, Mind and Spirit.

Omer Project: Tikkun L'eyl Shavuot: The Many Paths to Revelation of Torah
Session Presenters: Rabbi Leila Gal Berner, Janet (Shifra) Tobacman, Rabbi Shawn Zevit
In this preparatory session for Shavuot, we will look at the spiritual practice of studying sacred text, with emphasis on the traditional themes of revelation (both of the earth's bounty and of Torah from a Reconstructionist perspective), of faith (The Book of Ruth) and how we come "down from the mountain" of peak experiences to live ethical and spiritually conscious lives in connection with our faith communities and the world-at-large.

Here is an excerpt from Rabbi Steve Booth's Rosh Hashanah sermon from this year. Download the complete sermon.

A couple summers ago, I was sailing a large rented sailboat on Lake Dillon with Rabbi Soloway from Boulder. I was thrilled to discover he was as experienced and skilled a sailor as I, as he grew up ocean racing in England. It was just the two of us, a somewhat blustery late spring day, but we were doing fine. As the wind slowly built up however, I was steering, and I said: “Marc, I know its a pain, but if we reefed the main down a bit, it would be easier to steer and we’d have more control.” He agreed, and we did it.  read more »

As he finished with the sail and looked back to me from the deck, as we both started to nod that yes, this was better, ....BOOM! -- ....we heard something pop....

This year, the Muslim holiday of Ramadan began on the first night of Rosh Hashana.
The Detroit News reported how Jews and Muslims in the Detroit area are using this rare occurrence to build bridges between their communities.

Read the attached report of a Muslim-Jewish Friday night dinner hosted by members of the Ann Arbor Reconstructionist Havurah.

Caught Dovening

Growing up in a non-Jewish area was always awkward around holidays. These were not days of reflection and celebration that they were meant to be, but instead, holidays were a time when I was elected by my non-Jewish peers as the resident rabbi. As one of the few Jewish kids in my high school of 2,200 students, my non-Jewish peers were a pretty large demographic, and like me, knew next to nothing about Jewish culture, religion, and history.  read more »

Since I was a “graduate” of Judaism, having been Bar-Mitzvahed, I did know more than most, but ‘most’ was a high school filled with kids whose reaction to my Jewishness was, “Oh, so you don’t celebrate Christmas?” In this question lay the core of what a Jewish kid was to most other kids in a non-Jewish area—that poor soul, who, running down to the menorah on Christmas morning, finds nothing but coal.

Rabbi Shai Gluskin blows the shofar in Elul, 5767 in advance of the New Year of 5768.

The sounds are: 1 Tekiah, Shevarim, three mournful tones, Teruah 9 staccato notes, and finally one Tekiah. Each of the four (Tekiah, Shevarim, Teruah, and Tekiah) should consist of one "measure" taking up the same amount of time.

Video taken by Joe Getzoff.

There is a gaping hole
in the body of the Jewish people

about fifty years old
and slowly healing

Some try to cover it with bandages
but the wound needs to breathe

Some try to fill it with Land
but I’m afraid it will get infected

Doctors estimate that within one hundred years
scar tissue will begin to form

There is a gaping hole
in the soul of the Jewish people

Some try to fill it with words

Peach from Australia at Tu Bishvat Time: from my garden in Adelaide[Check out Rabbi Kaminsky's blog. Ed.]

It’s Sunday morning here in Adelaide; at 11:45 a.m. it’s already 102 degrees. Heat is expected to break tomorrow night, and we’re anticipating that with great eagerness.  read more »

A visitor to our congregation several months ago wanted to know if people in the Southern Hemisphere reschedule Jewish holidays for six months later than the Northern Hemisphere. It’s true that it’s been an adjustment to think of the High Holy Days as falling in the spring, and to attempt to reimagine Pesach as a fall holiday.

Please explore these resources for Hanukkah from our online resources library.