MAY 2013 EVENTS

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

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26 27 28 29 30 31

Minyan 9:30 am

Minyan 9:30 am

Israel Day parade

Minyan 9:30 am

Komen Race for the

Cure

Minyan 7:00 am

Mens Club Board

Meeting 7:00 pm

Minyan 7:00 am

NO SERVICES

Minyan 7:00 am

Minyan 7:00 am

Mens Club Steak

Night 6:00 pm

P/S Lag BOmer

Picnic 10:30 am

Shabbat Syn*Ergy

6:15 pm

Services 9:30 am

Minha Services

5:00 pm

Bar Mitzvah of

Josh Stern

Services 9:30 am

Shabbat Spirit

Services 11:00 am

Honor Thy Mother

and Father

Services 6:15 pm

featuring our P/S

Senior classes

NO SERVICES

1001 Paper Mill Road Erdenheim, PA 19038 215-836-5677 215-836-0211 fax e-mail: office@btbj.org www.btbj.org

Minyan 7:00 am

Last Wednesday

Religious School &

Teens Together

Hay Move-Up Day

6:45 pm

BTBJ University

7:30 pm

Tikun Leil Shavuot

9:00 pm

Shavuot Services

10:00 am

Confirmation

Dinner 6:15 pm

Services 7:30 pm

Services 7:30 pm

Mens Club Trip

Services 6:15 pm

featuring our Freshmen

and Junior classes

Last Tuesday

Religious School

Minyan 7:00 am

Ladies Vendor and

Bingo Night 7:00 pm

Last Sunday

Religious School

Annual Meeting

10:30 am

Picnic 11:30 a.m.

Monday, June 3 Sisterhood End of Year Dinner

Thursday, June 6 Last Day of Preschool

Friday, June 7 Preschool Graduation 10:00 a.m.

Monday, June 10 BTBJ Executive Committee Meeting - 7:30 p.m.

Friday, June 27 BTBJ Board Meeting - 7:30 p.m.

Have a Great Summer!

SAVE THESE JUNE 2013 DATES

Minyan 7:00 am

Sisterhood Board

Meeting 7:00 pm

Shavuot Services with

Yizkor 9:30 am

MAY 2013

Volume 9

Issue 4

IYAR - SIVAN

The Ruach!

Services 9:30 am

Last Saturday

Religious School

Jr. Cong. 10:30 am

Erev Shavuot Shavuot Shavuot

Minyan 9:30 am

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On Tuesday evening May 14th, we will cele-

brate the festival of Shavuot, commemorating the

season of Zman Matan Torateinu, the Giving of the

Torah. Tuesday evening @ 9 10:30 PM, we will

gather to welcome Shavuot, study and discuss

Jewish texts and eat the traditional dairy foods. On

Wednesday morning, we will read the Aseret

HaDibrot, the 10 Commandments, in honor of

Revelation and the original giving of the Torah on Mt.

Sinai in the 13th century BCE. On Wednesday

evening, we will hold our annual Confirmation pro-

gram and service (7:30 PM) in recognition of those

Hebrew students who have continued their education

for 3 years past their Bnai Mitzvah. On Thursday

morning, the 2nd and final day of Shavuot, we will

gather (9:30 AM) for services including Yizkor

Memorial Services to memorialize our loved ones

who have passed on. Along with lighting Yom Tov

candles on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, we

light Yizkor candles on Wednesday night too.

We learn: The Torah is comprised of 600,000

letters. The Jewish People gathered at Mt. Sinai

numbered 600,000 strong. As the Torah cannot be

complete and holy if even one letter is missing, so too

every Jew is needed to strengthen and complete the

Jewish people. From this we learn that there is great

importance to the presence of each and every

Hebrew letter of Torah and each and every Jew.

Each one of us counts! Each one of us makes a dif-

ference! Each one of us brings something to our peo-

ple that no one else can bring! Therefore, I hope well

each recognize and feel our individual worth the next

time we conclude, I dont need to be there and con-

tribute because after all, I am only one person. Each

letter of Torah and each member of our congregation

and community truly makes all the difference

between us being lacking or complete!

Last month, we celebrated Pesach with our

family and friends around the Seder tables. We

recalled the ancient story of how our ancestors were

slaves in Egypt for 400 years, until God & Moshe lib-

erated and redeemed them with great signs and out

Shavuot: Celebrating

the Holiness of each

Torah Letter & Each

Jew in our People

In memory of Carmen

Weinstein

stretched arms. Every year at Pesach time, every

day in our prayers do we remember our Egyptian

ordeal and how we were blessed to gain our free-

dom, Torah and the Promised Land!

Carmen Weinstein, zl, was 82 years old

when she died last month in Egypt. Remembered as

the Iron Lady leader of Egypts tiny remaining

Jewish community, Carmen was buried in the

Bassatine cemetery in Cairo, the place she had

worked so hard to save since 1978.

Jews were once prominent in the Egyptian

Communist Party which was outlawed under

President Gamal Abdel Nassar in 1958. Once num-

bering more than 80,000, the exodus of Egypts Jews

began with the establishment of the State of Israel in

1948, which is currently marking its 65th year of mod-

ern existence. Many Jews fled Egypt to escape

attacks and persecution on the community around

the time of the 1956 Sinai Campaign War, when

Israel invaded the Sinai Peninsula and regained con-

trol of the Suez Canal. Today, the Egyptian Jewish

community numbers less than 100, divided between

Cairo and Alexandria.

Barry Friedman, a US Jew living in Cairo,

eulogized Carmen by saying, She was a very digni-

fied woman who was very committed to the existing

Jewish community. She was a real asset. She

stayed here when many other people left over the

years.

Weinstein helped preserve the Egyptian

Jewish heritage by helping to keep over 100 Torah

scrolls in Egypt from being transferred to the

Brooklyn-based Historical Society of Jews from

Egypt in 1997.

Desire Sakaal, the director of the society said,

She (Weinstein) came back with a letter saying that

those items are like the pyramids and the Sphynx and

should not be moved. She later turned over the items

to the Egyptian Department of Antiquities.

Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi paid

tribute to Weinstein in a statement, calling her a ded-

icated Egyptian who worked tirelessly to preserve

Egyptian Jewish heritage and valued, above all else,

living and dying in her country, Egypt.

Weinstein diligently protected the Jewish

cemetery of Bassatine in Cairo, where she was laid

to rest before a crowd of 100 including US and Israeli

diplomats, against vandalism for many years.

Zichrona Livracha, may this Jewish heroine rest

in peace!

At Shavuot time, we are encouraged to re-

embrace and appreciate the many gifts of Torah. As

we gaze upon the sacred letters that comprise the

FROM THE DESK OF RABBI SAUL I. GRIFE

Rabbi Grife Rabbi Grife (continued) (continued) ShavuotShavuot Shabbat SShabbat Spiritpirit Annual MeetingAnnual Meeting

3

words, verses, parshiyot (weekly portions) and

books, let us remember that each and every letter

has a critical and singular role to play in telling our

story and inspiring lives of kedusha, holiness! As

we gaze upon our fellow Jews at BTBJ and around

the world as well as at ourselves, let us remember

that each and every one of us is kadosh (holy),

worthwhile, needed and capable of making great con-

tributions to the Jewish people and humanity! May

the life and legacy of Carmen Weinstein be treasured

for all that she did for the Egyptian and worldwide

Jewish communities. So too, like Carmen, may we

become Iron men, women and children in our own

right to protect and enhance the Torah, our heritage

and all that is beautiful and true in the eternal fight

against hatred, violence and evil in our world in pur-

suit of liberty and peace for all.

AMEN!!

Our Annual Tikkun Leyl ShavuotStudy Session

Tuesday, May 14, 20136 Sivan 5773

9:00 PM---------------------

On this first night of Shavuot, whenwe join to celebrate Zman Matan

Torateinu, the season of the Givingof the Torah, join us to study &explore the wisdom of Torah!!

Dairy refreshments will be served

Get the Shabbat SpiritHappy Mothers and

Fathers Days

Honor Thy Mother and Father

Saturday, May 11, 201310:00 a.m. - 12:00 noonCelebrating May, June, July and

August Birthdays andAnniversaries

Bagel brunch and Extended Kiddush

BTBJ Annual Meeting

Sunday, May 5, 20139:30 a.m. Minyan

10:30 a.m. Annual Meeting11:30 a.m. Picnic

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NOTES FROM HAZZAN NOTES FROM HAZZAN ARLARLYNE UNGERYNE UNGER Social Social ActionAction

Hazzan Arlyne Unger,

Hazzan and

Educational Director

Recently the religious school children participated in

experiential programs to better understand the holi-

day of Pesach. The Mechina and Aleph students

enjoyed a round-robin program in which they went to

four different stations with various activities, each

based on a different name for the Passover holiday.

The four names are Pesach (passing over the