VBI President's Message

Shalom everyone,
Surprise, surprise!! It’s here, I’m finally on board. Your president, me, has finally gotten his act together. After raving about getting this newsletter to you through the internet and not having my message included I have forced myself to get this one done albeit just a day or so late.

The month of October was really busy with holidays: Selichot, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot and then the conclusion of the holiday period with Simchat Torah. I saw many of you at services but wasn’t able to personally say “Happy New Year” to many because by the time I was able to get out of the choir loft you were gone. Let me extend a belated wish for a happy, healthy and prosperous new year to each and every one of you from both Mona and I and our family.

I am excited about the prospects for this new year of 5777. As I mentioned in my Yizkor appeal those 777’s are going to bring us a good year at Valley Beth Israel.

Ron

Ron Trachtenberg
VBI President





















 

October Calendar

 

Our Former Students

by Gloria Sheftel

For the past several months Rebecca Goldman has given reports of varying events regarding Israel.  These very interesting reports were given to the Synagogue Board.

In September, her report centered around the parents of children serving in the Israeli army.  Having young people going into the service is a trying and emotional experience.  What caught my eye, and ear, was the author of this article.  Rabbi Mark Cooper was a student in our religious school many years ago.  He enjoyed his Bar Mitzvah in our Synagogue. 

Excerpt from Rabbi Mark Cooper's article:

There is something authentically Jewish, even spiritual, about serving as a soldier in Israel's army.  This is a Jewish army.  Israel's army is different from other armies in the world because it exists to defend the Jewish people, and that should mean something to us as Jews.  It is an army that is built to defend not only Israelis but Jews everywhere in the world from the dangers of the present and from the humiliations and agony of history.  Tzva Hagana L'Yisrael - Israel's army - has a sacred duty to keep the Jewish people safe in the land of the Jewish people.  This is the army that will ensure that Jews have a safe place to live, unthreatened by those who seek to harm us precisely because we're Jewish.

While the parent in me wishes that Josh could be exempt from any form of danger, the Jew and Zionist in me understands the meaning and importance of what he's about to do.

I'm proud of my son.

Torah Fund - October 2016

Welcome back to an exciting year for Torah Fund.   We have a new theme – P’ri Yadehah which means “the fruit of her hands” a phrase in the Book of Proverbs (31:31).    In the 100^th  year of Women’s League for Conservative Judaism, and the 75^th year of the Torah Fund Campaign, we celebrate women’s achievements and creativity – the fruit of her hands in the family, in the workplace, in the home, in the synagogue, in the community, as dedicated volunteers, as leaders in the Jewish world and the secular world, as scholars, scientists, artists, business leaders, and more. 

Women’s League Torah Fund Campaign is committed to assuring that Conservative Judaism will remain an option for our children, grandchildren and their children’s children.   Just as we save to put our children through college, a gift to Women’s League Torah Fund offers others the opportunity for a top-notch Jewish education which strengthens and perpetuates Conservative/Masorti Judaism throughout the world. 

100% of the monies donated to Torah Fund support and sustain the needs of the multifaceted community of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in Los Angeles and the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York by providing scholarships and facilities for our educators.  Torah Fund also supports the Schechter Institute in Jerusalem and the Seminario in Argentina, and the new Zacharias Frankel College in Potsdam, Germany.    

Donations may be made by check to the Valley Beth Israel Sisterhood Torah Fund.

Thank you for your support of Torah Fund. 

Bobbie Cohen

Torah Fund V. P.
(818) 782-2281

______________________________________________________________________

Sisterhood Reminders

 

Dues for the current year were sent to all sisterhood members.  Dues are paid by the Temple to the National Women's League.

 

If you have not already done so, please send your check for $15 payable to VBI Sisterhood. 

 

Thank you.

Ruth Lenorovitz, Chairman

BEHIND THE HEADLINES - October 2016

by SELMA  ALPERT

 

Happy New Year to all.  May the coming year be full of blessings for all.

 

FIRST  U.S. JEWS. A group of 23 Jews set foot in New York in 1654.  That same year, Jews in New York established the first synagogue in the colonies, Congregation Shearith Israel.  It was the only place Jews could get kosher meat till 1813.  By the late 1800’s there were over 5,000 kosher butchers in New York.  Amazing.

 

GREAT MOU.  An Israel-U.S. Memo of Understanding (MOU) has been signed that will increase U.S. aid to $38 billion in security assistance to Israel through 2028, the largest U.S. aid package ever.  It recognizes the  huge defense needs of Israel, faced with thousands of thousands of rockets aimed at Israel from Lebanon and Gaza.  The MOU requires eventually that all the money must be spend on American-made products, equipment and programs.  Israel and the U.S. have several joint research and development projects that benefit both countries.

 

“SMELLY” JEWS?  When Israeli Knesset member, Tzipi Livni, spoke at Harvard Law School, the leader of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) asked her why she is “smelly.”  The student, Husam el-Qoulaq, also helps lead the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement at the college. SJP is “the central engine of the BDS” at U.S. colleges and worldwide..  Anti-Zionism/anti-Israel movements are seen as “veiled anti-Semitism."

 

TWITTER  TWEETS. Twitter has suspended 360,000 accounts that promote terror and violence since mid-2015.  The suspensions began after Twitter was sued for allowing terrorists to spread their propaganda by the widow of an American killed by terrorists in Jordan.  Google should follow Twitter’s example but Google still lets the worst anti-Semitic groups and terrorists use it to recruit and motivate Jew-haters. Jewish groups protest but to no avail.  

 

MUSLIM  VOTERS.  The number of Muslim registered voters increased by 324,000 since the last presidential election.  November 8^th is the Big Day.

 

Yahrzeit, Tributes, and Honorable Menchen

Yahrzeit

October 7, 2016

Issie Liss                       Rose Rosenblum                   Rose Harris                      Anna Kaplan            

Samuel Borokoff        Samuel Mazo                       *Nachman Greenberg    *Barry Cohen          *Frances Farber        *Sadie Price                           *Hilda Jubas                     *Helen Kubernek             *Charles Schwager   *Yitzchak Haas                      *Mendel Schneider        *Max Skolnick

*Barbara Pava           *Benjamin Minz                   *MaryAnn Aaron             *Tibor Neuman

*Samuel Farkas         *Bessie Gold                          *Emma Mane                   *Abraham Nagel  
*Phillip Hochberg     *Eleanor Sommers               *Rebecca Komen             *Benjamin Haas
*Esther Burns            *Sidney Goldsmith               *Mollie Rosenberg         *Theresa Youngman      *Phillip Stein             *Alexander Friedberg          *Mailec & Pearl Serber 

October 14, 2016

Lottie Brown             Minnie Friedberg                  *Ida Cohen                     *Earl Lovett               
*Steven Ostroff       *Michael Shaftel                   *Morris Steinberg         *Leonard Rosenberg     
*Frances Bielsky      *Simeon Gelfasnd                *Lawrence Berger          *Anna Saltz                       
*James Shannon      *Rose Steinberg                   *Helene Gastwirth         *Harry Korman                
*Ben  Byer                 *Louis Gerson                       *Adina Senensieb          *Pesach nyder

October 21, 2016

Marvin Flagg               Edward Rosenblum             Morris Goldstein         Irving Rosen                       Lucille Schenker         Frederick Friedman              Israel Hackel                Seymour Seid                    *Aaron Weiler            *Rose Balfour                      *Abraham Neuman     *Nathan Youngman       *Samuel Freedman   *Ruth Green                         *Beatrice Parker          *Harry Berger                   *Lena Seligman         *Steven Stanford                 *Oscar Sommers         *Lederich Family Martyrs
                                                                       
                                                                          October 28, 2016

Jennie Goldfarb            Aaron Fuhrman                      Edith Lumer               Fred Robbins                     Rose Katz                       Louis Brown                            David Gordon          *Gabriel Kaczor                *Hyman Litwin             *John Sheftel                        *Mary Schwartz        *Robert Bobiner              *Anna  Novatt              *Riva Cofsky                         *Ralph Raiken            *Jennie Schatz                  *Morris Olshan            *Gabriel Glassman              *Samuel Scharf          *Louis Cohn

 *Denotes Memorial Plaque

Tributes

 

Get well cards have been sent to ELAINE RUBINSTEIN, and to DORA KRASNER (mother of Marina Krasner).