FYI Day
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Purchase Scrip (Gift Cards) From TBI
The TBI Scrip Gift Card Program is a way for all of us to support TBI without dipping any further into our household budgets. This is because scrip income comes from the money we already spend on goods and services every day. You can buy scrip gift cards for your own use or to give as gifts. The scrip gift card order form is below, but there are many other scrip options available; please contact the TBI Office for more information. You can order scrip by contacting the TBI Office or Sunday mornings at the scrip table when Beit Sefer is in session. An online option is at www.escrip.com. Go to “sign up” and then register your grocery and credit or debit cards. TBI will automatically get a donation from the stores that you use that are part of the scrip program. You may find them at the “Family of Merchants” on the website. BUY SCRIP FOR THE “3Gs” (GAS, GROCERIES, GIFTS!)
Bouquet of Books Sponsorship Program
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Community Space
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Rental Spaces for Meeting and Celebrating Serving the Pomona and San Gabriel Valleys
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| Be sure to check out and tell your friends about TBI’s rental business, The Community Space. We offer low cost spaces for rent to parties of all backgrounds, and would love for you and your friends to use them! The Community Space can be used for board and group meetings, team gatherings, art exhibitions, educational purposes, birthdays, special events, holiday parties, B’nei Mitzvah, and various other events. |
| TBI Mitzvah Opportunities |
TBI Archive
THE TEMPLE BETH ISRAEL (TBI) ARCHIVE
Because TBI supports contributing to its own future and preventing the irretrievable loss of an important asset, the TBI Archive Committee has been established to take steps now and in the years ahead to appraise, catalog, organize, digitize, and process historical and current records and/or artifacts. This will arrest, where possible, the physical deterioration that threatens the integrity of these records.
The scope of archival activities consists of collecting, preserving, digitizing, exhibiting and making available records for research and education. We accept additional material that will enhance our holdings. Through our collections, educational programs, oral histories, and media we become a link with the total educational resources of TBI, e.g., library, lifetime learning, etc. Additionally, the Archives may collect, preserve, exhibit and makes available to researchers and educators the materials related to the establishment and growth of the Pomona Valley Jewish community, such as Jewish businesses, institutions and organizations. Although we serve primarily the TBI congregation, we may serve as mentor and guide to other synagogues, both locally and nationally, in the creation, preservation and protection of congregational archives.’
TBI ARCHIVE
TIPS FOR PRESERVING YOUR OWN MEMORIES
Many people hold on to mementos throughout their lives, but few of them keep the records in conditions that ensure survival. The TBI Archive can help preserve your documents, photographs, and media. If you have questions or want to make donations, please call (909) 626-1277 or email, volunteercomputertbip@gmail.com.
To protect your personal archive:
1. Store documents in cool and dry place with stable temperature and humidity. Ideal temperature is 68 F and humidity is 40% (give or take couple degrees and percentages). Light is damaging to photographs, paper, and disks, so limit light exposure.
2. Keep like items together. Chemicals from one type of paper can be absorbed by other types and cause deterioration. Newsprint is acidic and unstable. It is better to photocopy clippings onto acid-free paper, or bring the documents into the TBI Archive and have us scan them.
3. Handle with care.
a. Make sure the enclosure you choose can support what you are storing.
b. Do not use conventional cardboard; it contains chemicals harmful to materials. Acid-free boxes and folders are available from many different sources on the Internet. They are not inexpensive but they will save documents for future generations.
c. Boxes should be sized according to what you want to store.
d. When you handle photographic prints, wear lint-free cotton gloves. If gloves are not available, eliminate oils and grime from your hands by washing thoroughly before touching photographic objects
4. Digital information requires more ongoing attention than paper documents or photographs. Removable media (such as floppy disks, USB drives, CDs, and DVDs) are fragile, and they tend to fail (including CDs and DVDs labeled “archival quality”). Make duplicate copies on disk, back it up on a hard drive, or use a service that backs up files in “the Cloud.”
Remember to enjoy your memories! Just because an object or document is old, does not mean you can’t look at it or handle it. Take time to share the memories with your family members, or consider donating to the TBI Archive.
Leah at Beit Sefer
Read weekly letters from Leah below, and please visit our blog to see and read more about the activities in our program.
Dear Beit Sefer Families,
Why do we read Torah on Shabbat? Why is the Torah the center of what we do at the Saturday service? Why is it featured so prominently in our Beit Sefer curricula?
Growing up and studying Torah as a puzzle in a logical and methodical way was interesting. But, I felt like I was a witness to something that happened outside of me, separate from me. Torah was interesting to encounter, when a good teacher talked about it. It wasn’t something for me to do myself.
It was later as an adult when I was teaching Hebrew school and tutoring for B’nei Mitzvah that I encountered Rabbis and synagogues that had a different approach to studying Torah. Through my work with those leaders in those settings, my relationship to Torah shifted from being something apart from myself to feeling that I was a part of the tradition and more importantly, I was teaching that tradition of interpretation to my students. Since then, it has been important to me to work with students to feel that the process of studying Torah includes them, that the tradition invites them to take ownership and make Torah personal, and that we can connect with words that are thousands of years old.
I have recently recommitted to this part of our curriculum and to putting Jewish text study at the center of our community and learning. As part of this effort, I have been doing more of my own study, including the parashah drashes that you have seen in this space. I have modeled teaching for our teachers and am working with the teachers and madrichim to enliven this aspect of our curriculum.
Inevitably, our students will not remember the many stories, characters, and all the information we give them at Beit Sefer; but they can learn how to pick up a text, how to read it, reflect upon it, connect to it, and find insight and meaning in it. As they learn this, they become part of the tradition, and part of the ever-changing nature of Torah study. I look forward to the day when our students are presenting their insight and interpretation about the parashah on these pages.
I think that Torah is at the center of our observance because it is the tradition of Torah study and Jewish text study that gives us a way of simultaneously connecting with the past, present, and future while exploring the meaning of life.
From Rabbi Florence at Beit Sefer
Read weekly letters from Leah below, and please visit our blog to see and read more about the activities in our program.
Dear Beit Sefer Families,
When I was a young girl, I lived in a community that did not provide a full Jewish education for young women or the opportunity to become bat mitzvah. So I pursued Jewish learning on my own.
As I grew more mature, I continued that search. If there was a class available – I attended it, always trying to find my place. It wasn’t until I moved to California and joined University Synagogue that I found a home. I made up my mind to become bat mitzvah as an adult and in March 1993, I did!
But it didn’t stop there. Although it took me a long time to decide whether or not to enter rabbinic school, when I finally “signed up” I knew it was the right decision. Though I always loved being Jewish, it wasn’t until I started at AJRCA that I really fell “in love” with Judaism.
That love is what I hope to convey to the students in our Beit Sefer. As I integrate that love into my work at TBI, I look forward to involving parents and families right from the start as we develop ways to ensure our students are excited about coming to Beit Sefer and come to see it as a place to explore their own feelings about our faith and traditions and gain insight into our rich heritage.
Early Childhood Education at TBI
From the Preschool Director
TBI Preschool has maintained a strong foundation of developmental learning in a nurturing environment for all children. The special dimension of being a Jewish preschool enables us to incorporate Jewish traditions, celebrations and experiences into our general programming. Our young children’s preschool experiences are enhanced by this extra dimension. We’ve even had a number of preschool parents who are clergy and chaplains of other faiths who choose to have their children attend TBI Preschool, with appreciation of the values that we try to introduce and share with the children.
We have often heard the adage “All people smile in the same language.” This universal expression is regularly experienced at Temple Beth Israel Preschool. Young children often begin school with little language or without the clarity of language. It also happens that we have young children who begin preschool without even knowing English. Their native language could be Hebrew, Russian, Spanish, Chinese, or Farsi, among others. In all these instances, the communication that teachers initially rely on is body language, gestures, holding hands, a kind tone of voice, guidance, and above all, a smile on a friendly face. This is what comforts a child and helps them feel safe in a brand new environment. The language then develops, meaningful communication emerges, and with time we often forget the absence of spoken language when the school year began.
Language acquisition happens regularly at TBI Preschool, as new children enter our program and as children who have been in the program continue to grow. It is in a safe, secure environment that a child’s learning flourishes and the child blossoms. Our wonderful preschool staff gets to witness this on a daily basis, and we welcome volunteers at TBI Preschool to help us facilitate our program.
There are only a few requirements for volunteers. They include being 18 years of age and older, having patience, the physical ability to move around with young children, a few hours a week and, of course, a smile.
Please contact the Preschool Office, 909-626-6937 or send us an email, if you’d like some more information about volunteering. I’d be happy to have you visit our program and see what area you’d like to help in.
Rabbi’s Corner
From the Rabbi
An Introduction to Purim:
They Tried to Destroy Us. We’re Still Here. Let’s Eat!
Jews often joke that the title above is the theme of every Jewish holiday. However, it really does fit for the joyous and fun holiday of Purim, which commemorates a time when the Jewish people, living in Persia, were saved from extermination. The story is told in the Biblical book of Esther, whose heroes are Esther, a beautiful young Jewish woman living in Persia, and her cousin Mordechai, who raised her as if she were his daughter. Esther was taken to the house of Ahashverosh, King of Persia, to become part of his harem. King Ahashverosh loved Esther more than his other women and made the beautiful Esther his queen, but the King did not know that she was a Jew.
The villain of the story is Haman, an arrogant, egotistical advisor to the king who hated Mordechai because he refused to bow down to Haman. Insulted by Mordechai, Haman plotted to destroy the Jewish people. In a speech that is all too familiar to Jews, Haman told the King, “There are certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your realm. Their laws are different from those of every other people’s, and they do not observe the King’s laws; therefore it is not befitting the King to tolerate them.” (Esther 3:8). The King gave the fate of the Jewish people to Haman, who planned to exterminate all of them. Mordechai persuaded Esther to speak to the King on behalf of the Jewish people. After fasting for three days to prepare herself, she went to the King, revealed herself as a Jew, and told him of Haman’s plot against her people. The Jewish people were saved, and Haman was hanged on the gallows that had originally been prepared for Mordechai.
Today, Purim is a time of fun, family, community, unity, and food—celebrating the resilience and survival of the Jewish people. The primary commandment related to Purim is to hear the reading of the Book of Esther, known as the Megillah. It is also customary to wear costumes, hold carnival-like celebrations, and to perform plays and parodies called Purim shpiels, a Yiddish word meaning play or skit. Purim shpiels date back to Europe of the 1400s when Ashkenazi Jews celebrated Purim with silly monologues—generally rhymed paraphrases of the Book of Esther, parodies of holy texts, or funny sermons whose purpose was to entertain audiences.Today a Purim Shpiel is performed at TBI and at many synagogues and communities around the world.
The Jewish people has seen so much adversity in our history, and we are still here—let’s eat! Join us for our TBI Purim celebrations.
For more information on learning more about Judaism or exploring the possibility of becoming a Jew, please contact Rabbi Kupetz.