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Dec 1, 2009Tuesday, December 1, 7pm, Toy Wrapping Party Join SVYAD, Jew's Next Dor and Jewish Family Services for our annual gift wrapping party! Starting October 6, new toys for ages 0-17 in their original packaging, are being collected in the lobby of the Levy Family Campus (14855 Oka Road, Los Gatos CA 95032) and Congregation Beth David (19700 Prospe […]
Dec 9, 2009Wednesday, December 9, 7pm, Meet & Greet @ Cafe Baklava "Because Middle Eastern Food, is like home" Come to the Jews Next Dor Meet and Greet at Cafe Bakalava, 341 Castro St, Mountain View, CA Great food and awesome friends, what more can you ask for? We'll be enjoying these vegetarian/dairy treats. Please let us know your prefer […]
Dec 12, 2009LIGHT IT UP! Young Adult Hanukah Party Saturday, December 12, 2009 9pm Oshman Family JCC 3921 Fabian Way, Palo Alto, CA 21+ Open Bar Support Second Harvest Food Bank to Win Raffle Prizes 1 ticket/non-perishable item $10 Advance http://www.paloaltojcc.com/light $15 at The Door Brought to you by: Hillel of Silicon Valley, Hillel of Stanford, Jews’ […]
Dec 15, 2009Tuesday, December 15, 2009 Jews' Next Dor invites you to a Hanukkah House Party, bring your Hanukkiah (and candles), and a potluck vegetarian/dairy (fried or not) dish to share to celebrate the 5th night of Hanukkah. Try your hand at dreidel and more. RSVP to JewsNextDor[at]beth-david.org for the San Jose address. Join us at 7pm on Tuesday, […]
Nov 30, 2009A fun phonathon? You may think that it's an oxymoron, but Emanu-El will be holding four phonathon parties in November and December as part of the Annual Giving Campaign. As you may know (or may not know), membership dues cover only 40% of the cost of providing services to our members, and, therefore, the Annual Giving Campaign is a crucial p […]
Dec 18, 2009Put a different spin on your Chanukah Join singles & couples from around the Bay Area for a Young Adults' Shabbat experience in Palo Alto. Spend time in the community, meet new people, and just relax! Shabbat dinner, lunch and classes are included. Home hospitality available and the there are numerous hotels and motels located within min […]
Dec 19, 2009Jews' Next Dor invites you to a blind taste test of a bunch of brews. $10 a person. Please RSVP by December 16, for the Sunnyvale address to JewsNextDor[at]beth-david.org.
Dec 24, 2009Thursday, December 24, 4pm, Volunteer to Serve the Hungry Jews Next Dor is helping to serve needy families on Christmas Eve (in connection with CBD's Social Action Committee) at Men / Women EHC LifeBuilders James Boccardo Reception Center (BRC), 2011 Little Orchard St, San Jose. Come be a part of this mitzvah and enjoy the company of other J […]
We truly loved the Baked Brie, we couldn’t get enough. We’re sure your friends, family, and guests will love it as well. It’s great for Rosh HaShanah and all year ’round.
Be sure to submit your recipes today for this year’s contest happening Monday, August 31st.
You can also find Jews’ Next Dor mentioned on Faith’s Blog Appetit, where the recipes are featured as well.
Enjoy these recipes in good, health, happiness and sourounded by loved ones. Have sweet new year from Jews’ Next Dor.
It’s that time of year again. The High Holy Days are just over a month away. While we begin to modes to prepare for these mentally and spiritually. It’s also time to reserve tickets.
Jews’ Next Dor hopes you’ll join them at Congregation Beth David’s Kehillah Ketanah service.
Here’s CBD’s Ticket Costs (even if you’re getting the FREE tickets, you need to reserve them).
FREE- Young Adults Under age 33 for Kehillah Ketanah
$110- Young Adult main service
$220- Main service for members (for additional tickets for guests)
$250- Kehillah Ketanah non-member over age 33
Call the Beth David office at 408.257.3333 for your tickets. Or you can join Congregation Beth David as High Holy Day tickets are included in your membership.
And don’t forget to join us for:
Sunday, September 27, 1pm-5:30pm, Feast Before You Fast & Kol Nidre Services (6:15pm)
1pm–Prepare and cook dinner at a private Cupertino home.
3:30-5:30–Fill your tummy with something yummy
6:15pm–Kol Nidre Services
Cooking and eating will take place at a home in Cupertino. Please RSVP to JewsNextDor[at]beth-david.org for the address, if you’re coming to cook, or just to eat. Also, let us know if you’d like to help with the menu plan, shopping or cleaning up. Please arrive no later then 5pm if you’re coming just to eat. Our host is being honored with holding a Torah during the opening Kol Nidre prayer, thus must be on time for services.
Please join our host at Kol Nidre Services at Congregation Beth David’s Kehillah Ketana Service at the Ascension Church (across the parking lot from CBD) Services begin at 6:00pm. Free tickets for those 33 and under are available by calling the Beth David office at 408.257.3333.
Project Isaiah: Inspired by a line in the Halftorah for Yom Kippur the annual Food & Clothing Drive organized by CBD’s Social Action committee will again take place. Please consider bringing a bag of non-perishable food to donate to Feeding America, America’s Second Harvest. There will be collection barrels outside of the building before entering services.
If you’re coming to cook and plan on joining us for Kol Nidre Services we recommend bringing a change of clothes. You’ll be able to change at our hosts. It is traditional to wear white, a symbol of purity and mercy as well as not wearing leather or gold.Following these traditions is optional.
We bring you the last Jewel of Elul for this year on this 29th day of Elul as Rosh HaShana approaches, fittingly by Rabbi Jacob Pressman, the father of Congregation Beth David’s Rabbi Daniel Pressman. As a congregation we all think about Rabbi Jacob Pressman on Erev Rosh HaShanah as for years we’ve heard his remarks read to us from the pulpit. They are full of humor yet very practical and grounded words of wisdom and wishes for the past and future. Enjoy his words in this Jewel of Elul as you prepare for Rosh Hashanah tonight.
Elul 29 To Thine Own Self Be True by Rabbi Jacob Pressman
I entered the Seminary in September of 1941. On December 7, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, and we were at war. That very day, all the Seminary boys told Chancellor Louis Finkelstein that we were quitting to go fight the Nazis. He begged us to stay put because Jews had to provide hundreds of chaplains for the Armed Forces.
My very first service was a graveside funeral for a month-old baby. I was driven to the cemetery by the mother, the father being overseas in the Service. I stood, my heart in my mouth, waiting for the hearse. Finally, I timidly asked, “Where is the casket?” The mother pointed to a tiny pink box lying level with the ground and promptly collapsed into my arms. I conducted the brief service, weeping, no longer pretending to be a rabbi. For in that moment, I had truly become a rabbi, and I never turned back.
Over the years, I opened myself totally to my congregation. One Kol Nidre night, I had the nerve to say to them, “I have asked myself: could I preach to you and would you listen, if I were stark naked?” I answered myself, “Yes, I could, because the robe does not the rabbi make. Besides, I have the pulpit in front of me.”
So as a rabbi, I say: In all your pursuits in life, use all your God-given talents and be yourself. Don’t pretend or you will always be fearful of having your real identity exposed. And if you are true to yourself, you will fulfill my favorite words in the Talmud: “His inner self is the same as his outer self.”
And if Talmud is not your thing, take my favorite words from Shakespeare’s Hamlet when Polonius says to Laertes, “This above all, to thine own self be true. And it must follow as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.”
Jacob Pressman is Rabbi Emeritus at Congregation Beth Am in L.A. www.pressmanacademy.org
Here are all the recipes from our first Jews’ Next Dor Apples & Honey Cook-off. We’ve included them on our Recipe Exchange as well. Have a sweet new year!
Here’s another entry in our 2008 Apples & Honey Cook-off, complete with edible bees.
Honey Nut Cookies
(CONTAINS NUTS)
Ingredients
1 cup margarine
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
6 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups almonds, finely chopped in a food processor
Directions
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2.Cream the margarine and sugar with an electric mixer.Add eggs, 6 tablespoons of honey, and 1 teaspoon vanilla and blend until smooth. Into this mixture, add flour and baking soda. Mix into a thick dough. Fold in chopped almonds. Chill dough until firm, preferably in freezer, approximately 2 hours.
3.Pull off small pieces and roll into 1-inch balls. Place on ungreased cookie sheet.
4.Bake for 10 to 15 minutes. Drizzle sticky honey glaze over top of warm cookies (see recipe below).
Sticky Honey Glaze
Ingredients
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup honey
6 ounces chocolate chips, finely chopped
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
Directions
To make the glaze, bring the water and honey to a boil in a saucepan, then turn off the heat and add the finely chopped chocolate, swirling it around to melt in the hot liquid. Leave it for a few minutes, then whisk together. Add the sugar through a sieve and whisk again until smooth.
Divide the marzipan into 6 even pieces and shape them into fat, sausage-like bees’ bodies, slightly tapered at the ends. Using a wooden skewer, paint the marzipan bees with 3 stripes and two dots (for eyes) with the sticky honey glaze. Carefully attach two flaked almonds at an angle to make the bees’ wings.
Join the Congregation Beth David community as we symbolically cast our sins into the flowing stream as a physical gesture of our sincere desire for repentance and renewal. Some have the custom of throwing breadcrumbs,
representing our sins. Don’t miss this symbolic enactment of our wish to “cast away the crumbs of last year’s leftovers.”
Location: We’ll meet at Calabazas Park (by the creek) – 1233 S. Blaney Ave,
San Jose, CA 95129.
Have you not yet gotten around to joining a synagogue? Will you be away from home on the High Holidays? Are you looking for someplace where you can pray, reflect, and worship surrounded by other Conservative Jews? If the answer is yes (to any of these)– USCJ has a program for you!
Project Reconnect, United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism’s official alumni association for anyone who was a member of any of the Conservative movement’s youth programs, and NAASE, the North American Association of Synagogue Executives, are joining for the second year to offer “Come Home for the Holidays.”
Here’s a list of United Synagogue-affiliated congregations (Including Congregation Beth David) that offer free High Holiday seats to young adults who grew up in the Conservative movement and don’t have a synagogue to go to this year. The synagogues on the list wish to extend their personal welcome to you.
When you get in touch with a synagogue, please mention that you saw this listing on Project Reconnect’s website. Please be sure to contact the synagogue first before showing up to services. (High Holiday Service Times for Congregation Beth David)
If you have not yet signed up as an alumnus of the Conservative movement through Project Reconnect, please do so. To receive information about events such as these, and to be able to reconnect with many of your old friends, just go to www.projectreconnect.org
And from Project Reconnect, NAASE, USCJ and all of our participating Conservative synagogues,
*At these times, Kehila K’tana services will be held at Ascension Church (across the parking lot from CBD) in parallel with Kehila Gadola services in the Sanctuary / Social Hall.
Congregation Beth David is offering free high holiday tickets to young adults!
If you’re between 19 and 33, a student, or military personnel, call the Beth David office at (408) 257-3333 to get your ticket.
If you have never had your own lulav and etrog set for Sukkot, maybe it’s time to do so! This is the time of the year to fulfill the Mitzvah – learn and say the blessings and share holy time with family and friends. This year we are offering two sets* to choose from: Junior, $50 or Mehudar (premium), $90. To order, complete and return an order form to CBD, along with your payment, or contact Barbara at 408.366.9106 or biran@beth-david.org. Deadline is September 12. Forms can be found at the CBD office or by clicking the link above.
*The difference in cost per set is due to size of etrog and pitom