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December 2020
Chanukah Sing Along and Concert
This year we may be physically apart, but we still have the power to bring light and joy into each others’ homes and hearts. Fry up some latkes, set your menorah by the computer and bring a musical instrument to play along, if you like. Hazzan Natasha Hirschhorn, Shirei Chesed Community Chorus singers and special musical guests, JTS Cantorial students Ingrid Barnett and Josh Ehrlich, and our cantorial intern Daniella Risman, invite you for a rousing Chanukah sing-along from around the world.…
Find out more »Chanukat HaBayit: Dedicating the House
Jews celebrate Chanukah by remembering how our ancient predecessors restored the “Bayit,” literally “the house.” While that phrase refers to restoring the Jerusalem Temple, perhaps we modern Jews can hear on our holiday a call to dedicate ordinary homes as well. Please join Ansche Chesed and All Angels Episcopal Church for Habitat for Humanity-NYC's Building on Faith Holiday Webinar. We will share the holiday season with our Christian neighbors with an interfaith discussion of affordable housing in New York and…
Find out more »“Come Light the Menorah”: Communal AC Candle Lighting
Let’s brighten up the Upper West Side as a community! We will gather together (masked and socially distanced, of course) on the steps of AC on West End Avenue between 100th and 101st for a communal Hanukkah candle lighting. The early bird gets the latke!
Find out more »Greeks and Jews In the Ancient World (it’s not just the story of Chanukah.)
The Greek general Alexander’s conquest of the Near East in the 4th century B.C.E. introduced Jews to Greeks, and Greeks to Jews. It was sometimes an uneasy and violent political confrontation (think of Judah Maccabeus and the story of Hanukah), but it just as often gave rise to a cultural interaction that forever changed the subsequent history of Jewish engagement with the intellectual traditions of the Greek world. The Jews living in Greek-ruled Palestine may have been waiting for the…
Find out more »January 2021
Serve our Community in Honor of Martin Luther King Day
ONE BLOCK is a non-profit, formed this summer in response to the massive cuts to the Department of Sanitation budget. Upper West Side residents commit to clean their block or side streets 1 or 2 days a week, and there are weekly group cleanups as well. Through donations, ONE BLOCK also pays for 3 ACE Programs for the Homeless employees to clean Amsterdam, Broadway, and Columbus Avenue 5 days a week. DETAILS ARE AS FOLLOWS: Warmly dressed volunteers should meet…
Find out more »Love and Rebuke: Social Protest and the Legacy of Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King's advocacy of non-violent protest was deeply rooted in a Christian love ethic that demands love of the enemy. Join Rabbi Bill Plevan to look at some of the most daring of King's interpretations of this love ethic and consider how Jews might view the relationship between love and non-violent social protest. In particular we will look at the relationship between love and rebuke in Leviticus 19:17-18 and its meaning for the challenges of our times. Rabbi Bill…
Find out more »WAR OF SHADOWS by Gershom Gorenberg
Join us as we welcome author and journalist Gershom Gorenberg live from Israel as he discusses his newest book War of Shadows:Codebreakers, Spies, and the Secret Struggle to Drive the Nazis from the Middle East. War of Shadows is a a true-life spy thriller: the story of the World War II espionage affair that brought Germany's Erwin Rommel to the very brink of conquering the Middle East - bringing with him the S.S. officer already responsible for the murder of…
Find out more »Tu B’Shevat Scavenger Hunt in Riverside Park
Join AC Family Program Director, Emily Cobert, in a celebration of nature and Tu B’Shevat. We will learn about Tu B’Shevat, experience nature, go on a scavenger hunt and create our own art piece! (Enter Riverside Park on 100th street and walk towards the entry to the Hudson River). (Geared at Kids ages 3-7 and their parents)
Find out more »The Czech Scroll Story: from WWII to the Diaspora
A series of miracles allowed a huge hoard of Czech Torah scrolls to survive the devastation of the Shoah and stand as a testament to the communities that perished. The Memorial Scrolls Trust is committed to maintaining the legacy of these scrolls by dispersing 1400 of them around the world on permanent loan from our collection. To those who were entrusted with the scrolls, they are a symbol of hope as well as sorrow. The hope pushed forward an ongoing…
Find out more »February 2021
Purim’s Serious Sacred Silliness: Communal Study in memory of Solomon Fishman z’l, father of Eric Fishman
From the outside, Purim seems to be all ribald farce and dark humor. When you look deeper, you may find that the carnival encloses weightier religious reflections on God's absence and human suffering. Please join neighboring synagogues of Ansche Chesed and Ramat Orah to reflect on Purim with rabbis Aviad Bodner and Jeremy Kalmanofsky and with each other for Zoom-based learning. JOIN VIA ZOOM Meeting ID: 819 2027 5295 Passcode: purim
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