Read the May 2017 bulletin.
Irwin Friedman
About Irwin Friedman
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Steering Committee Report – April 2017
In the second week of March the Boards of Trustees of all three congregations voted to approve the Letter of Intent to finalize a merger of our Congregations, effective July 1, 2017.
We still have considerable work to do to prepare for the merger, which will include drafting the formal Merger Agreement and setting up six Task Forces.
A new Board of Trustees must be seated. We will have 7 members on the 23 member Board. Each Congregation will have 3 members on the Executive Board. We are forming our nominating committee and will have a slate of candidates for our Board’s approval at our April meeting.
We are in agreement that the High Holy Days services will be at TAS. Rabbi Harari, Rabbi Caplan will be officiating along with Cantor Bard. The choir will be directed by Lisa Kristina.
The religious school will continue to operate at TAS for the 2017-2018 school year. TAS is seeking to have its tenant, Homewood Christian Academy, to continue renting classrooms for the coming year.
TAS has a committee to market its property. The first step of the committee is to have a discussion with the local Olympia Fields governmental authorities to assess their interest. If they are interested, further discussions will begin as soon as possible. If not, the newly formed Real Estate committee will identify a real estate agent, determine a listing price, and begin the marketing the TAS property.
The Task Forces referred to above and listed below need your assistance. If any of them interest you, please let Carole Fefferman know asap. We need to hit the ground running. We expect to have a congregational meeting to vote on the merger on June 4. It is not expected that the work of the Task Forces will be completed in that short time.
Ritual Artifacts
Governance and Leadership
Personnel
Real Estate
Finance
Facilities (including remodeling and consolidation)
Interfaith Hunger Project BYBS and TMC – Muslim-Jewish Cooperation
BYBS members helped to make 300 meals for south suburban and Chicago needy senior citizens on April 2. This project was a part of our continuing interfaith bridge-building, social service and social justice work, with our new friends at The Mosque Cares. Get involved in our commitment to fighting hunger, as part of our growing Muslim-Jewish cooperation with our neighbors. Contact Brian Zakem to hear more about this continuing project.
School News April 2017
We have been filled with wonderful activities for the last three weeks. We had a very nice Havdalah service, pasta dinner and dessert auction. Our dessert auction was very successful under the direction of our auctioneer Rabbi Caplan. We raised over $1800.00 to be split between Leo Baeck school in Haifa Israel and Beit AmiChai. Thank you to Tommie Gbur for heading up a great evening along with her hard working committee of, Deb Feingold, Quynh Kirschner, Robin Latman and Sigy Rafalovitz who cooked a wonderful dinner enjoyed by all!
On Saturday, March 4th our Hebrew School students did a fantastic job leading Shabbat services. They worked very hard to prepare and it sure showed that morning! Thank you to our amazing teachers, Vivian Zimmerman, Rabbi Harari, Rabbi Caplan and Eden Caplan for getting them ready for the service.
This year we hosted Purim on March 12th. Temple Beth-El and Congregation Beth Israel both from Munster attended this year’s Megillah reading and carnival. It was wonderful having so many people join together for the fun! I am so proud of our second and third year Hebrew students and our seventh grade who read the Megillah; they did an awesome job! Thank you to Rabbi Caplan, Rabbi Harari and Nancy Friedman for leading the Megillah and singing portion of the morning. Thank you to Tommie Gbur and our great committee of parents, Debbie Berman, Quynh Kirschner, Joel Williams, Robin Latman and Sigy Rafalovitz for all the hard work you put into setting up and cleaning up the carnival. Jay Zoline and the TAS Men’s Club worked hard to help us ensure a great event.
Thank you teachers and students for working at the carnival. We couldn’t have done this without our incredible students and former students who worked the booths! Louie Berman, Melinda Berman, Justin Johnson, Tyler Burnett, Meira Burnett, Olu Akujieze, Aliyah Moore, Hannah Landsly, Emma Landsly, Aaron Latman, Matthew Stempel, Daniel Stempel, Lauren Williams, and Mandy Sigale. Your hard work made our carnival a success!
Our Spring Break will coincide with Passover this year. We will be off from Sunday April 9th through Sunday, April 16th.
April 2017
Read the April 2017 bulletin.
School News March 2017
On Sunday, February 5th, our third through seventh grade students participated in the World Wide Wrap. Thank you to Ron Rutzky for organizing this for us. Rabbi Caplan, Rabbi Harari and Ron along with members of Am Echad worked with groups of Beit AmiChai students to teach them about Tefillin and how to put it on. Thank you to all who participated and helped make this a wonderful experience!
Thanks also to Quynh Kirschner, Robin Latman, Joel Williams and Tracey Levy for preparing platters for the Tu B’Shevat Seders that our Sunday School classes had.
We had our annual Havdalah service, pasta dinner and dessert auction on Saturday,February 25th at 6:15 p.m. at B’nai Yehuda Beth Sholom. This year our dessert auction will benefit both our own Beit AmiChai school and Leo Baeck school in Haifa Israel.
We hope many of you will join us on Saturday,March 4th as our Hebrew School students lead the Saturday morning service. Services begin at 10:00 a.m. at Temple Anshe Sholom. We will also have the privilege of hearing Rabbi Gary Zola speak that morning.
We will be celebrating Purim at Temple Anshe Sholom on Sunday morning March 12th with the students from both Munster Congregations. We will begin at 10:30 a.m. with a short Megillah reading, Purim shpiel and songs. Everyone is then invited to have food, fun and games in our carnival. We will end our morning at 12:30 p.m