Kids at the JCC East Bay
Dear Interfaith Families and Friends,
Last week I talked about Jewish community as a bit if an oddity sandwiched in side American culture. If you put on your anthropology hat and look at the many cultures that you encounter everyday it all begins to make sense. But for a child it’s not so clear. Kids’ brains are still growing. They don’t understand all the nuances that you do. They learn by experience that which you may learn through words. If you want to give them an experience of Jewish community - why not try camp?
Jewish Community for Kids
Summer brings a terrific opportunity for children -- SUMMER CAMP!
Camp offers something that is rarely experienced in America - Jewish emersion. Doing Jewish all day! I have had adults from interfaith families tell me that camp is one of their happiest memories. It’s where it all comes together and you just get to BE.
Do kids from Jewish - Jewish parents say it’s terrific too? Sure. I just want to assure you that kids from multicultural, interfaith families feel right at home.
Occasionally a parent will tell me that they want to be sure their child experiences the diversity of American culture and doesn’t grow up thinking that there are only Jewish people. Unless you live in Crown Heights – no worries. Is your child allowed to walk around your neighborhood? Watch TV? Listen to the radio? This is Christian America - even if much of it is not religious, it is a Christian culture.
So don’t be afraid to give your child a taste of Jewish life. At camp they will observe a rousing Shabbat with songs, dancing, food. They’ll have a Jewish flavor to all their activities AND it will still be camp – kids hiking, swimming, making things from wood and clay.
What Camps are Out There?
All around the bay there are summer camps getting underway this month.
The JCC of the East Bay has:
Camp Tzofim
Our Oakland-based summer camp starts up June 23. In our summer program kids-ranging from those entering kindergarten to tenth graders-explore nature, make friendships and engage in arts, sports, and social activities. Our camp also emphasizes Jewish culture, designating a Jewish topic each week, around which camp activities and projects are based.
Contact camp director Josh Kramer at joshk@jcceastbay.org or 510.530.9222 for more information about Camp Tzofim.
Other JCCs around the bay are:
Albert L. Schultz Jewish Community Center, Palo Alto
Osher Marin JCC, Marin
Peninsula JCC, Foster City
San Francisco JCC
JCC of Silicon Valley, San Jose
An example of a regional sleep away camp is:
Camp Tawonga
Office: 131 Steuart Street, San Francisco,CA 94015
(415) 543-2267
www.tawonga.org
Contact: Ann Gonski
At Tawonga, the focus is on group-building. Next to Yosemite National Park. Grades 2-12. Backpacking, Judaic programming, ropes course, arts and crafts. Teen Travel quests go all over the West, Canada and Israel. CIT program. Family camp weekends.
Camp Kee Tov is the summer camp of Beth El Congregation in Berkeley.
http://www.campkeetov.org/
Camp Kedima in Pleasanton is associated with Beth Emek. See them at:
http://www.campkadima.bethemek.org/
Each of the Jewish synagogue movements have summer camps as well.
Some camps have a Family Camp Week. That’s a great time to give the kid in you a class on drumming or painting, to refresh your s’mores making skills and to tell stories by a campfire.
Not sure what is available near you? Call the maven of Jewish information, Gail, at Jewish Community Information and Referral, 415-777-4545.
The next holiday is Shavuot
Shavuot begins Sunday at sundown. It is one of the three pilgrimage festivals. It is commanded in the Torah and was observed as a pilgrimage - all Jews were to travel to the Temple in Jerusalem to offer a sacrifice. It is described in the Torah as a natural and agricultural occurrence.
MyJewishLearning..com says this:
Deut. 26:1-11 specifies that every Israelite must offer the first fruits of his crop to the priests of the Temple. Traditionally on the second day of Passover(Nisan 16) a sheaf of barley was given. Shavuot was also known as the festival of the first fruits (HAG HA-BIKKURIM); this pilgrim festival was a time for making the offering. Although this practice ended with the destruction of the Temple, first-fruit celebrations still take place in the State of Israel.
Later tradition linked the holiday to the giving of the Torah at Mt Sinai. This rabbinic teaching developed the tradition of an all night study in an expression of the longing for Torah.
I got all the quotes below from Arthur Waskow's book, Seasons of our Joy. It's a terrific resource for all the holidays.
In Exodus 23:16 the Torahs states: Israelites shall hold a festival for the Feast of the Harvest, of the first fruits of your work, of what you sow in the field..
You shall bring from your settlements two loaves of bread as a wave-offering...baked after leavening, as first fruits to Adonai...On that same day you shall hold a celebration; it shall be a sacred occasion for you; you shall not work at your occupations. Lev 23:17-23
You shall observe the Feast of Weeks for Adonai, offering your freewill contribution according as the Holy One has blessed you. You shal rejoice before God with your son and daughter, your male and female slave, the Levite in your communities, and the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow in your midst, at the place where Adonai, your God will choose to establish God's name. Deut. 16:10-11
EVENTS
Family Shabbat Services and Shavuot Harvest Dinner (San Leandro)
Tikkun Leyl Shavuot: An All Night Study Session (Berkeley)
Tikkun Leil Shavuot (Palo Alto)
Tikkun Leil Shavuot (Oakland)
Never again, Again? Stopping the Genocide in Darfur (Richmond)
Who Wrote the Torah? (El Cerrito)
L'Chaim-The Spirituality of Wine and The Kiddush (Berkeley)
Come with Me to the Movies! (Berkeley)
Fifth Annual PicnicFest (Oakland)
Family Shabbat Services and Shavuot Harvest Dinner
Family oriented services begin early, are shorter, and have a book or story instead of sermon.
A kosher dinner prepared by temple members follows services at 7:15pm.
Date: Friday, June 6
Time: 7:15pm
Place: Beth Sholom, 642 Dolores, San Leandro
Charge is $10 per adult and $5 per child over the age of 5.
Please RSVP to the temple office at 510-357-8505.
Tikkun Leyl Shavuot: An All Night Study Session
A unique community-wide celebration and night of Torah study a spiritual journey bringing together Jews with varied perspectives and affiliations. Stay for an hour or stay until dawn. We will be led in study by teachers from our diverse Jewish community. Celebrate Shavuot!
Date: Sunday, June 8
Time: 6:45pm until dawn
Place: JCC of the East Bay, 1414 Walnut St, Berkeley.
Co-Sponsored by many great community partners! For more information, contact Robin Braverman or Erica Zilbermann at 510.839.2900 ext. 235 or email tikkun@jfed.org
Tikkun Leil Shavuot
A COMMUNAL NIGHT OF STUDY! On Sunday, June 8, our Peninsula Jewish community comes together at Congregation Kol Emeth for an invigorating and meaningful night of study. Starting at 8 p.m. with a brief evening service, we will celebrate z’man matan Torateinu, the time of the giving of our Torah. Drop in anytime for nosh & coffee through the night & dairy breakfast at 1:30 a.m. Study sessions begin at 9 p.m. Teachers from the community include Rabbis Janet Marder, Josh Zweiback, Adam Allenberg, David Booth, Sarah Graff and Ari Cartun. Sessions go all night long so feel free to drop-in anytime (and go home to go to sleep anytime!).
Date: Sunday, June 8
Time: Begins at 8pm
Place: Kol Emeth, 4175 Manuela Ave., Palo Alto
Co-sponsored by Congregations Kol Emeth, Beth Am, Etz Chayim and Keddem.
For information call 650-493-4661
Tikkun Leil Shavuot
Temple Beth Abraham and Temple Sinai will be observing Shavuot together again this year. Join us as we celebrate the Giving of the Torah by staying up all night (until about midnight) or as long as you can last.
Date: Sunday, June 8
Time: 8:00pm
Place: Beth Abraham, 327 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland
for more information call either Beth Abraham at 510-832-0936 or Temple Sinai at 510-451-3263.
Never again, Again? Stopping the Genocide in Darfur
The Jewish Mandate to Pursue Justice for All Human Beings"
Rabbi Lee T. Bycel (who taught at Beth Hillel many years ago) and is now the Executive Director, Western Region of American Jewish World Service (AJWS), will speak.
Date: Sunday, June 8
Time: 10:30-12:00noon
Place: Temple Beth Hillel, 801 Park Central St., Richmond
Directions: Hiiltop exit off 80, East then first Left, Left again into parking lot
Bagel brunch ($5.00 suggested donation)
For more information, please contact June Mayberry at junemayberry@iglide.net
Who Wrote the Torah?
Was it God? People? Does it make a difference?
If people were involved, who were they?
Join us to explore these questions and share a no-experience-necessary Shabbat dinner, eat, laugh, and learn. All are welcome.
Date: Friday, June 13
Time: 6:15pm
6:30 - Candle lighting and dinner
7:30 - Rabbi Bridget Wynne will lead a lively interactive teaching
8:30 - Dessert and schmoozing (time to hang out and chat)
Place: Jewish Gateways' cozy home near El Cerrito Plaza and BART station
Childcare: available by reservation
Space is limited, so RSVP is required.
Please contact Rabbi Bridget Wynne at Jewish Gateways, (510) 559-8140, or rabbibridget@jewishgateways.org, for more information, and to make a reservation and get directions and your food assignment. If your schedule doesn't allow you to bring a dish to share, we offer you the option of contributing $7 toward the dinner.
www.jewishgateways.org
L'Chaim-The Spirituality of Wine and The Kiddush
In this delightful afternoon program, learn how to use the Kiddush, the Jewish blessing over the wine, as a delivery system for Kadosh, "to make the moment holy." Join with Chochmat Halev for a special wine tasting in the garden and conversation with Rabbi David White who will share a taste of WineSpirit Vintage Judaism and his teachings on wine's connection with spirituality and opening up to spiritual access points throughout the day. Wine and cheese included!
Date: Sunday July 13
Time: 4-6pm
Place: Chochmat HaLev, 2215 Prince Street, Berkeley, CA
Price: $15 for one adult, $25 for a couple or family:
Please RSVP to 510-704-9687 by Wednesday, July 9 so we know how much
wine to bring.
Come with Me to the Movies!
Join me, Dawn, at the Jewish Film Festival. We’ll go out for dinner first and then head over to the Rep in Berkeley to see:
Strangers
Israel, 2003, 85 min., color, Hebrew w/ Eng. subtitles
When handsome Eyal (Liron Levo) and knockout Rana (Lubna Azabel) are seated across from each other on the subway in Berlin, their backpacks are mixed up, leading to a chance meeting. He’s Israeli and she’s Palestinian, but they both came to Berlin for the World Cup and are immediately swept up in the dual frenzies of soccer mania and desire. After the tealights have burned out in their rented Berlin love nest, they realize that the fact that she is from Ramallah and he is from the north of Israel means they have different views of the world. Strangers is a crisply written, top-notch love story that crosses international borders and explores the boundaries of nationality, culture and the heart.
Date: Saturday, Aug. 9
Time: 8:15pm
Place: Berkeley Rep’s Roda Theater, 2025 Addison, Berkeley
RSVP - call or email me so I’ll know how many reservations to make for dinner.
You’ll pay for your own dinner and tickets.
Co-presented by Building Jewish Bridges: Outreach to Interfaith Couples; Interfaith Connection of the JCCSF; and Project Welcome
Box office opens June 24th. For tickets and more information call 925-275-9490 or go to:
www.sfjff.org
Fifth Annual PicnicFest
Join 1000 Jews for free beer, free ice cream, Israeli entertainment and child activities.
Date: Sunday, Sept. 7
Place: Joaquin Miller Park
Save the date. Look for more information on the Federation website - www.jfed.org
