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From Rabbi Fenton
Welcome to the March edition of the online newsletter of the APJCC Center for Jewish Life and Learning! We hope you will enjoy this opportunity to learn more about our classes, workshops, programs, and guest presentations and special events.
This monthly publication highlights the diversity and appeal of all the educational experiences our Jewish community has to offer, as well as information about some of the organizations in our community which make Jewish life richer in Silicon Valley.
Please feel free to share with us your favorite CJLL experiences or ways in which your participation in our programs has enriched your lives.
Looking forward to Living and Learning with you!
Rabbi Joshua Fenton, Director
APJCC Center for Jewish Life and Learning
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| Happy Purim!
Purim Sameach! |
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Celebrate Purim:
Mon-Wed, March 9-11, 2009 
Purim is right around the corner. Children are planning costumes. Synagogues are getting ready for Purim carnivals, and a general air of celebration can be felt throughout the Jewish world.
Purim is the holiday of the month of Adar, the month that promises an increase in joy and happiness according to our tradition. Purim is a holiday typically associated with sweet foods, parties, costumes, gifts, and parties. Hardly a serious religious holiday it would seem. There is even a halakha (law) that it is incumbent upon all adults to get drunk on Purim; every year, from Jerusalem to San Jose, it's a big party.
Yet there is a deeper meaning to Purim.
Purim reminds us of our obligation to enjoy. There is a famous story from the Talmud Yerushalmi, that in the world to come we will have to give an accounting of every good thing we saw and denied ourselves. On Purim we celebrate God in the world through enjoying the physical. We eat, drink, sing songs, make jokes and generally speaking, abstain from seriousness at all costs. |
| Chocolate Seder |
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Celebrate Passover the Chocolate Way on March 29th
 If you like chocolate, you'll love the JCC's Chocolate Seder on Sunday, March 29th from 1:00pm-3:00pm! This is a family-oriented event that introduces children to the Passover holiday and is 100% melt-in-your mouth delicious. Cost for JCC members is $20 for a family of up to 5 people, and $3 for each additional person. Cost for non-members is $30 for a family of up to 5 people, and $4 for each additional person. For more information or to RSVP, contact Nadine Batya at nadine@svjcc.org or 408.357.7499. |
| Teva to You |
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Agricultural Partnership:
Your Fruits & Veggies, Delivered. 
Join people from throughout the South Bay as we take ownership of the impact our own eating has on the world, our bodies, and our fellow women and men.
Teva To You is Jewish CSA (community supported agriculture), in which JCC families have partnered with a local organic farm and made the commitment to eat locally. This commitment, to use the weekly box of produce delivered to the JCC for each participating family, will become the focus of our diet for the growing season, March-October.
To join this program and have a box of locally grown, organic produce delivered to you each week at the JCC, fill out an application, available by clicking here or contacting CJLL@svjcc.org or 408.357.7430.
CSAs support local farmers by selling shares of their harvest. The food that they will grow is sold before the harvest begins to guarantee both a market share for the farmer and inexpensive, locally grown organic produce for the share-holders.
We see participating in such a program as an expression of our Judaism. We have responsibilities to the world and when we buy food grown in Peru or Ecuador, for example, we hurt local business, contribute to the destruction of our environment through demanding food be transported halfway around the world for us, and further disconnect us from the process that yields food for people, farming, which is holy work.
Teva To You is helping folks take a second look at their eating habits and ask themselves, what are the values that I am implicitly expressing through the food I eat. This of course extends into a conversation about the clothes I buy, the places I visit, and in general the way I live in this world. There is a always a first step and we are making that first step Teva To You.
Throughout the summer there will be programming for the community to both educate and celebrate this process. Seminars on home gardening, compost, eating rituals, and what is kosher are just some of what you can expect. With 30 spots already filled up, act now. |
| Host a Farm Animal for a Week! |
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"There's a Goat on my Couch!"
Adopt an Animal 
The Florence Melton Adult Mini-School will be partnering with Two Small Farms, the organic farm the JCC is working with in the Teva to You program (see above), in creating a program in which Silicon Valley families will be adopting a farm animal for a week.
The goal of the program is to bring a little of agricultural life into your home. Every Melton student has graciously volunteered to host either a chicken, rooster, calf, goat, or horse.
Judaism teaches us that we are not just tenants in this world but stewards as well. This program "There's a Goat on My Couch" is the first step to realizing the role we as Jews should play in the world. Feed will be provided for all families hosting animals except for those who will be hosting one of the goats. We assume you can find something for a goat to eat out of your own home.
Please remember kosher policies of the JCC still apply in your home when feeding any goats in the program. If you are interested in adopting a farm animal and are not a Melton student, please contact the Center for Jewish Life and Learning at CJLL@svjcc.org or send a carrier pigeon to the Levy Family Campus.
"It is not your job to finish, but neither may you desist" -Pirke Avot |
| Torah Slam |
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The Rabbis Debate 
Judaism and "The World to Come"
Thursday, March 26th, 2009,
7:30 pm at the JCC
Free and Open to the Public
You are invited for the 3rd and final community event as part of the One Community One Book program. Join Silicon Valley's rabbis for a spirited discussion and debate on "Judaism and the World to Come."
A Torah slam is similar to a poetry slam or a literary salon, where several rabbis discuss and debate a topic. We are excited to welcome rabbis Melanie Aron, Daniel Pressman, and Simcha Green to discuss Judaism and the World to Come as reflected in ancient Rabbinic Text.
This is an opportunity to listen to and be part of an exciting dialogue among three eminent rabbis as they grapple with the mystery of death, the nature of the soul, and the world to come. |
| Mothers' Circle |
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 March toward Purim and Pesach
Wednesdays 9:30-11:00am
March 11, 18 and 25, 2009
Party April 1, 2009
Help your kids celebrate freedom from oppression -- with happy holidays marked by fun and food: Purim and Pesach.
Facilitator: Heidi Livingston Eisips Free to Members and Non-Members |
| Melton for the Mind |
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Study, Explore, Discuss, Enjoy!
Four text-based courses make up the sequential two-year curriculum written by a team of experts at the Hebrew University's Melton Center for Jewish Education.
Schedule, Year One:
Rythms and Purposes
Schedule, Year Two: Ethics and Dramas
We also offer a special version of the Melton program designed for parents who want to create meaningful Jewish experiences for themselves and their families: the Melton Parent Education Program. One of the most popular offerings of the JCC's Center for Jewish Life & Learning, the Melton Program brings together inquiring minds, knowledgeable leaders, wit as well as wisdom, and a fascinating journey into the subtleties of Jewish learning.
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| On the Calendar |
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Connections: "The Essence of Woman"
Jewish Federation of Silicon Valley Women's Philanthropy
Thursday, March 12, at 6:30 to 9:00pm
Club Regent, Fairmont Hotel, San Jose
Couvert $72/person
Speaker: Iris Krasnow, Journalism Professor at American University, author, TV personality. Janet Berg Award Recipient: Eleanor Weber Dickman.
Small Plates, High Spirits and All That Jazz
Jewish Family Services of Silicon Valley
Sunday, March 22 at 4:00pm
Honoring community volunteers Steve Schleimer (President of JFSSV's Board of Directors) and Cyndi Sherman (Director of the APJCC Preschool)
Conversations in Jewish Learning
Congregation Beth David
Thursday, March 19 at 7:30pm
Lou Dombro will discuss "The People of the Hook: Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean."
Jewish Themes in Movies
Shir Hadash Scholar in Residence Program
Friday, March 20 through Sunday, March 22
Janis Plotkin, who programmed and produced the SF Jewish Film Festival from 1982-2002, will present three programs over the course of the weekend. Friday, 8:00pm: In The Beginning: Jewish Immigrants and American Cinema. Saturday, 8:00pm: Artists and Activists: The Jewish Image in Independent Cinema. Sunday, 10:00am: Across the Racial Divide: Depictions of Blacks and Jews in American Cinema. Info: 408.358.1751.
Grandparent's Circle Course
Congregation Shir Hadash
Sunday evenings on March 22, April 5 & April 26, at 7:30 - 8:45pm
Are your grandchildren being raised in an interfaith household? Would you like to share Judaism with them, without intruding or alienating yourself from your own child and from your son or daughter-in-law? Free. Info: 408.358.1751, x5
Interfaith Couples Workship
Congregation Shir Hadash
Sundays, March 29, April 19 & May 17 at 4 pm
Co-led by Rabbi Melanie Aron & social worker Eleanor Intrator, a Shir Hadash member, the overall purpose of the group is to provide a safe forum to explore and discuss issues facing couples with different religious backgrounds. Rabbi Aron often educates the group on Jewish views of particular issues, and both Eleanor Intrator & Rabbi Aron endeavor to be open and non-judgmental about whatever is shared in the group. Info: 408.358.1751, x4. Fee: $15 for the series. | |
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