From the Rabbi's Deskpage 2

Cantor's Notes page 3

Nominating Committeepage 5

Perelmuter Weekendpage 8

Weinstein Weekendpage 11

Purim page 15

Shabbat Servicespage 20

Volume 39 Number 7

Inside

March 2009

Adar/Nisan 5769

Friday Evening, March 13th at 8:00 p.m.Shabbat Service, Award Presentation and Lecture

"Shekhinah: The Feminine Half of God"

One of the most radical contributions of Kabbalah is the idea that God is equally male and female. Dr. Matt will briefly trace the development of Kabbalah and then focus on the concept of Shekhinah, the feminine aspect of God, from its rabbinic origins to its full flowering in the Zohar, where the Shekhi-nah is identified with the Sabbath Bride.

Saturday Afternoon, March 14th at 1:00 p.m.Lecture/Study Session

"Raising the Sparks: How to Discover God in the Material World"

How can God be encountered in our daily life? Dr. Matt will explore this question with us by teaching passages from Kabbalah and Hasidism on the nature of God and the universe, the act of Creation and the challenge of discovering God in the material world.

Sunday Morning, March 15th at 10:30 a.m.Lecture

"God and the Big Bang: Discovering Harmony between Science and Spirituality"

Explore the parallels between Kabbalah and contemporary cosmolo-gy. How does the mystical understanding of Creation compare with the modern theory of the origin of the universe? Is there a way to harmonize these two approaches - the scientific and the spiritual?

KAM Isaiah Israel honors the memory of Rabbi Perelmuter, 1914-2001, beloved teacher, friend, and spiritual leader, with an award in his name presented to an individual or organization that exemplifies the values he transmitted and represented in his devotion to the Jewish faith. The week-end and the mini-course are open to the public and we encourage you to invite others to join us.

The Rabbi hayim GoRen PeRelmuTeR

memoRial awaRd weekend

FRiday, maRch 13 To Sunday, maRch 15, 2009

daniel c. maTT, Ph.d.

2 KAMII

From the Rabbi's DeskSome of my favorite Purim memories:

• Winning a goldfish at the Purim carnival when I was ten….

• Dressing as the Tin Man from the Wiz-ard of Oz (including silver face paint) ….

• Designer hamantaschen in Jerusalem including blueberry and halvah fillings …

Purim is one of the most universally loved holidays in the Jew-ish year. It gives us a chance to be our most creative and outra-geous as we retell the story from year to year. A few reflections as we prepare for Purim this year at KAM Isaiah Israel.

Purim of Empowerment. I loved Purim when I served North Shore Synagogue in New York. It was a time of engagement for the religious school students. The most unique feature was that the carnival was by children for children. Instead of the professional game equipment, each class in the religious school designed and ran its own booth. It was always a joy to see the way the 5th and 6th graders cared for the younger children who played the games and the pride of each class as they ran the car-nival. Purim was for everyone.

Purim of Tradition. Chester, Connecticut featured a wonderful Purim tradition. The school had eighty-five children and each year every student from grade three and up had a part in the Purim shpiel. The starring roles were always reserved for the seventh grade. In this congregation the children remembered the shpiel year after year … it was a wonderful example of “it takes a village to raise a child.” People traveled to this temple from twen-ty miles in any direction; the teachers were temple members, and every child was known and nurtured by the community.

Israel and the Mitzvot of Purim. Israel comes alive at Purim. Stores at the shopping malls have displays of costumes, and hamantaschen are features at bakeries for a month before the holiday. Two of the mitzvot for Purim are especially meaningful: shalach manot–gifts of sweets to friends and family, and shalach o-ne-im–tsedakah to people who are in need. Shalach manot is well-known to most people - giving baskets with at least two types of food and usually hamantaschen. We are also instructed to give tsedakah on Purim. The tradition of my community was to have boxes for five different tsedakot in the synagogue during the service; after the davening one person would take the donations directly to the people who would be helped.

Purim and Nursery School Children: A Rabbi’s Dilemma and Solution. While we affirm the joy, Purim also presents a dilemma for me with young children. When I retell the story, the choice of Esther because of her beauty always troubles me. Here I take a liberty with the story … instead of physical beauty I say that the

king was attracted by her kindness and because she was a good friend. The year of the controversy at Harvard about women and sciences I also added, “Esther was good at math!”

The Purim Miracle: Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav. Rabbi Nach-man wrote about miracles in relation to the holidays. He spoke about two different types of miracles; those that are public and those that are hidden. The parting of the Red Sea was a public miracle as God directly acted in history. Chanukah and Purim are called “hidden miracles.” For Purim the courage of Esther and Mordecai to oppose Haman represents the subtle ways we experience the Divine in the world. Purim reminds us of the tre-mendous inner strength that is needed to confront oppression.

Our KAM Isaiah Israel Purim Celebration. This year we will celebrate Purim on Monday, March 9th. We are planning a special evening with KAMII traditions. Here are some of the highlights:

• 6:00 p.m. Purim Dinner and Our Favorite Songs. Please join us for a special dinner to celebrate the holiday … Cantor Eske-nasy will lead us at the end of dinner with songs to celebrate the holiday.

• 7:00 p.m. Purim Shpiel 2009-5769. Rachel Havrelock, Yuri Lane, and our high school students are planning the Purim play. Enjoy the show!

• 7:45 p.m. Megillah 2009-5769. We will share a special read-ing of the Megillah this year. It will include an English text with the selections that highlight the story and a taste of the chanting of the scroll.

• 8:30 p.m. Oneg: Hamantaschen and Klezmer. Hamantaschen and our own klezmer band … an evening doesn’t get any better.

I hope you will join us for this year’s celebration. We want to share the joy of Purim with children and adults of all ages!

PuRIM: MIRAClES, MEMORIES, AND JOy

EDITOR’S NOTE:

The KAM Isaiah Israel Congregation’s Bulletin is pub-lished monthly. The deadline for receiving articles for the following month’s issue is the 5th of the month. Any ar-ticles received after that date may have to be held for future issues. Thank you in advance for your prompt submis-sions. Keep the good news coming! Please e-mail your articles to Karen Finesilver at kfinesilver@sbcglobal.net.

3MArch 2009

Notes from the Cantor

These past few months we seem to have been focusing our attention to the TORAH.

Congregants or I chant Torah ev-ery Shabbat, we study Torah sev-eral times a week and recently, at Rabbi Crystal’s suggestion, some congregants have undertaken to inspect all of our Torah scrolls….a fascinating project in itself.

Here are some facts about the Torah:• The root of the word is YUD, REISH, HEY – which as a

verb means “to teach” and as a noun is commonly accepted as “law”.

• Ancient tradition claims that the Torah existed in heaven not only before God revealed it to Moses but even before the world was created. Different philosophers and learned sages have differing opinions about the origins of the Torah. Here are some interesting ones…

o Simeon Ben Lakhis (third century CE) taught that the Torah preceeded the world by 2000 years and was written in black fire upon white fire.

o Rabbi Akiva called the Torah “the precious instrument by which the world was created”.

o Saadia Gaon rejected literal belief in the pre-existence of the Torah.

o Judah Barzilai of Barcelona raised the problem of place. Where would God have kept a preexistent To-rah? He believed that the Torah existed only as a thought in God’s mind.

o Judah Halevi believed that God created the world for the purpose of revealing the Torah.

Here are some reasons for the Torah’s existence….• Inheritance to the congregation of Jacob (Deut. 33:4)

• To make Israel a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Ex. 19:6)

• “the commandment is a lamp, the Torah is light” (Prov. 6:23)

• Psalm 119 is a song of love for the Torah whose precepts give peace and understanding

• Torah is identified with wisdom

• The Torah is law

• Often compared to fire, water, wine, oil, etc.

Plato’s concept of Torah’s relationship to nature: “The world is in harmony with the Torah and the Torah with the

world, and the man who observes Torah is constituted there-by a loyal citizen of the world.” Josephus, the historian, emphasized the moral and uni-versalistic aspect of the Torah: The Torah promotes piety, friendship, humanity, justice, charity, and endurance under persecution. Saadia Gaon expounded a rationalist theory according to which the ethical and religious-intellectual beliefs imparted by the Torah are all attainable by human reason. Revelation of the Torah was needed because while reason makes general demands, it does not dictate particular laws. Israel is a nation only by virtue of the Torah. Hasdai Crescas, a Jewish philosopher, taught that the pur-pose of the Torah is to affect the purpose of the universe. By guiding man toward corporeal happiness, moral and intel-lectual excellence, and felicity of soul, the Torah leads him to love of neighbor and, finally, the eternal love of God, which is the purpose of all creation. Spinoza was the first to maintain that the Torah was not written by Moses but rather by various authors living in differ-ent times. He considered it primitive, unscientific, etc. Luzzato believed that the foundation of the whole Torah is compassion. Skipping a few – we get to the Zionist view that the Torah was not revealed by God, but is the product of the national life of ancient Israel. What do you think? Drop me a line….and let me know.

As the deadline for the March Bulletin is the day before my installation, and the Bulletin appears in March (well after my installation), I want to take a moment here to thank everyone who will have participated in this wonderful event and for giving me the Kavod of being your Cantor. I will work very hard to fulfill the mission with which I have been entrusted. Thank you.

Cantor Miriam Eskenasy

Thank you!

4 KAMII

From the President

The watchword of the day is: Adjust to new realities. Whether it is a re-duced income, an adult child who

moved back home, or a less secure retire-ment, each of us is feeling the impact of the economic slowdown and market devalua-tion. Our congregation is no exception. The membership dues that we expected and the supplemental contributions that we counted on to put together an annual bud-get have not materialized. We will econo-mize as much as we can this year but the funds that can be generated in the middle of a year are limited. We will be calling on all of you to help in whatever way you can. Volunteer to sponsor an Oneg Shab-bat. Notify the office if you are willing to receive most of your Temple communica-

tions by email. If you have not completed your dues payment for the year, please do it now. Consider whether you can afford a higher level of dues payment. The most difficult issue is how to plan for the years ahead. Over the next few months the Board of Directors will be trying to balance our desire for a robust Temple life with the need to act in a finan-cially responsible manner. Nothing would solve our financial problems better than 100 new full dues paying members and we should each be promoting the Temple to all of our non-affiliated friends. But can we attract those members if we do not have the staff and program that have been the hallmarks of our congregation for genera-tions?

It won’t be easy. Some tough choices will have to be made. Your suggestions are welcome and if you want to get more deeply involved in helping to guide the congregation during these difficult days, I urge you to let me know how you would like to contribute. Difficult times bring out the best and worst in each of us. Let us approach this challenge calmly and constructively. This is not the time for hysterics, histrionics or hyperbole. It is a time for wisdom. And, by all means, if you have the financial ca-pacity to go beyond your previously level of giving . . . this is the time to do it.

REfORM IN ACTION IN ISRAEl Ask a typical Reform Jew what Reform Judaism stands for. Chances are she'll say, "Tikkun Olam!" She may not know how to translate it (it is Hebrew, by the way, and it means "Repair of the World") but that this notion, also referred to as Social Ac-tion, is central to Reform Jewish life is clear. We serve in soup kitchens, raise money for Katrina Relief, support environment projects, and raise our voices on causes ranging from reproduc-tive rights to equal housing to prison reform to the separation of Church and State. But how do we extend our passion for Tikkun Olam to Israel? One way is through supporting the IRAC, or Israel Religious Action Center. The IRAC is a project of the Israeli Reform Move-ment, and is roughly the Israeli equivalent of the Religious Ac-tion Center (RAC) in Washington. But while the RAC is mainly

involved in lobbying, the IRAC's attorneys litigate cases directly in the Israeli courts on a wide range of issues. • questions of equal state support of Reform and Orthodox institutions (recently, four Reform congregations received pre-fab synagogue buildings from the Israeli government, whereas previously only Orthodox congregations received such build-ings) • questions of who is entitled to citizenship under the Law of Return and Naturalization • issues of the rights of new immigrants and foreign works • and much more. The IRAC provides legal counseling services for new immi-grants, foreign workers, and others whose rights are jeopar-dized. It has recently begun to work on behalf of Israel's Bedouin Arab citizens, many of whom live in "unrecognized villages" and are thus denied access to the national water supply and electri-cal grid. And it runs Keren B'kavod, a Tzedakah fund aimed at combating hunger among all of Israel's inhabitants, Jews and non-Jews alike. These and other projects make the IRAC the core of the Reform Movement's Tikkun Olam agenda in Israel. The single largest source of funding for the IRAC comes from ARZA, the Association of Reform Zionists of America. ARZA is our Movement's national membership organization that con-nects us to Israel. Each time a family joins ARZA and pays its $36 dues, $5 goes immediately to support the work of the IRAC. So join ARZA, pay your dues, and extend your dreams of Tikkun Olam to Israel too.

5MArch 2009

Congregational Retreat

• A charade of “Murder on the Rue Morgue” and “Inchworm Inchworm”, whose last words are still a mystery.

• A yoga version of the morning blessings.

• Sledding on the Bayit Hill, an activity whose participants included people ranging from a kindergartner to a grandmother.

• A close reading of the Joseph story spread over several sessions and with different partners. Games of Set and Scrabble.

• The children picking out letters from the Sefer Torah before Rabbi Crystal read it.

• Singing “Lo Yisa Goy” and “There's a hole in the bucket” and about 100 more with Shari Granat and Cantor Miriam.

• Learning that the motzi does not apply to chocolate donuts (there is a special bracha for pastry).

• Learning to decode the cantil-lation, like listening to the music in a Hitchcock movie.

• Snacks of many types. • The company of 8 children of whom

none whined or cried all weekend. • The company of many grownups

of whom none whined or cried all weekend. • A sneak preview of a chance to

buy $1.87 gas on the way to and from OSRUI. • Shabbat Shalom – a Shabbat

without washing machines, dishwashers, or cars.

Come next year and add to the pleasure for

all of us!

KAM ISAIAh ISRAEl’S ANNuAl CONgREgATIONAl RETREAT – JANuARy 23-25Th

What did you miss if you missed the retreat?

The Nominating Committee is charged with selecting and nom-inating temple members to serve on the Board of Directors for 2009-2010. We'll be selecting 8 candidates for Directors and 6 for Officers. Elections take place at the Annual Meeting in June, and the new terms begin July 1. The slate must be prepared by the end of March. Your suggestions of possible candidates for these positions are the best starting point for our committee. Our leaders must rep-resent the views of our members. We hope that everyone will

participate in the process of developing the synagogue's steward-ship for the future. If you are interested in serving, please don't hesitate to suggest yourself. You may also contact the temple office at 773.924.1234. Please send us an e-mail at nomcom@kamii.org. You may also e-mail us anonymously via kamii@kamii.org, and your name will not be forwarded to the committee. You may also contact any member of the committee to discuss the process, ask questions or make suggestions. The members are:

Yali Amit - amit@marx.uchicago.edu, 773-955-5369Charlie Firke - firkefamily@sbcglobal.net, 773-268-9223Jane Heron - jshkwt@att.net, 773-342-5669Isaac Kirstein - Isaac.kirstein@mac.com, 773-752-3903

Gary Laser - glaser@kentlaw.edu, 312-738-7336Joan Pomaranc - jpomaranc@sbcglobal.net, 312-692-1902Ellen Rosendale - erosendale@childrensmemorial.org, 312-268-2449Judith Simon - heymsim@att.net, 312-226-5855

Nominating Committee

Today’s Parasha, one of the most morally disturbing in the Torah, recounts the last of the plagues and forecasts the Passover cel-ebration. At its heart is the passage I chose to chant, the horrific slaying of the first-born of Egypt. Perhaps we can approach the moral am-biguities of the parasha best by starting from a moment in the seder – the moment when, in the middle of the retelling of the Exodus story, we spill drops of wine from our glasses for each of the ten plagues visited by God on the Egyptians. Why do we do this? The story of the Exo-dus is the story of the cruel treatment of the Jewish people at the hands of their Egyptian masters, and of the just punishment visited on the Egyptians by God. Throughout the seder, we are encouraged to rejoice in the punishment of those who dealt unfairly with the Jewish people, and to admire God’s ex-travagance in punishing them so thoroughly. Many parts of the seder encourage such re-tributive joy: the humorous byplay among the rabbis as they attempt to escalate the num-ber of plagues suffered by the Egyptians; the song “Dayenu,” where we tell God that we would have been content with a lesser gift of retribution but have received even more than we prayed for; above all the narrative itself, which emphasizes the suffering of the Jews and the obtuseness of the Egyptians, making their eventual punishment seem right and just. There are also, however, aspects of the narrative that ought to disturb us. The plagues strike all Egyptians, not only those who were directly involved in Pharoah’s cruel policies. They are grotesque, horror-movie fantasies of bodily torment. They are truly cataclysmic, culminating in the mass killing of innocent children. They seem even to go beyond the hardships inflicted by the Egyptians, in their awful images of bodily torment. The Rabbinic tradition is divided over the understanding of the plagues. A part of the tradition does stress just punishment, thus fit-ting the narrative into the standard model of retributivism. Abarbanel, the great Spanish-Jewish Biblical commentator and statesman, explains that “God watches over the ways of men and metes out reward and punishment to each according to his desserts.” In various ways, midrashim on the plagues stress the

proportionality of God’s punishment: dark-ness for the Egyptians’ spiritual darkness, blood for the way Israelite blood had been spilled. One midrash sees the turning of wa-ters into blood as a proportional punishment for the way in which the Egyptians ordered male children of the Israelites to be cast into the river: so, they had already made water into blood, and now this is visited back upon them. Another major strand in the tradition emphasizes the pedagogical purpose of the plagues: to reveal God’s power, forcing from the Egyptians an acknowledgment of that power. Rashi refuses to explicate the plagues in retributive, punitive terms and argues that they must be seen as education produced out of God’s compassion. However, whether we see the plagues as proportional retribution or as education, they are deeply disturbing. They remind us of so many ways in which people seeking justice do harm to innocents, and some of these ways have to be in the forefront of our minds this week, as we wrestle with what appear to be excesses of Israel’s actions in Gaza, the destruction of livelihood for a people, the kill-ings of many innocents. Even if we should grant that the Gaza campaign is a just one, its excesses have become disturbing to us all, and have caused some initially support-ive voices in Israel, particularly the Meretz party, to drop support. So let’s step back and think about both retribution and educa-tion, focusing on the death of the first-born, to see whether the parasha can help us with the issues that we must confront as Jews. Anger and the desire for retribution are problematic emotions. Aristotle defines an-ger as a desire to right the balance, stimulated by the awareness of an insult or wrong. In other words, it looks both backwards and for-wards: back toward the wrong and the pain it inflicts, and forward toward an event that sets things aright, some sort of rectification. Seen this way, anger clearly has a positive side: it is a valuable part of our psychologi-cal equipment for responding to injustice. If people don’t get angry when they are treated wrongly -- treated like slaves or people who lack the rights and privileges of others -- we usually think that this is a bad thing. It means that they are so used to being put down and abused that this experience has deformed their personalities, making them lose all self-

respect. So, anger is closely connected to self-respect, and it’s better to have it than not to have it, when one has been seriously wronged. Anger of this type has been a creative force in history, closely linked to the de-mand for justice. What happened during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, for example, was that lower-class people, who had been told for centuries that they were vassals and of no account, started to ques-tion the ideology of feudalism and began to demand equal respect for their humanity. This demand unleashed a torrent of anger that swept across the world, and this anger was creative, making modern democracies possible. More recently, when women began to reflect about their second-class status and to demand political, social, and marital equal-ity, they became more angry, and this an-ger caused pain in many families around the world. And yet, this anger was also creative, fueling the demand for fairer workplaces and governments, and for families that would be homes of equality rather than schools of des-potism. So, anger can be creative. I have saved for last the most remarkable example of creative anger in recent Ameri-can experience, the anger of African-Amer-icans and concerned whites against racial segregation and racism, which has proven an enormous force for social good. I saved it for last because we can see clearly that it had the creative power that it had, leading us to the political moment we now inhabit, only because leaders of the African-Ameri-can community, and Martin Luther King, Jr. above all, made it very clear that anger, though legitimate, must not lead to violence, but rather to a non-violent attempt to change unjust institutions. King saw both the good and the bad in anger, and it is to that bad side that I now turn. Anger can defile. Whether we are think-ing about political anger or marital anger, we know all too well that anger at an injustice that is real enough can also seep into the fabric of the personality, making it impos-sible for the parties in the conflict to find a harmonious solution to the original problem. The difficulty comes, it seems, when we take

6 KAMII

D'var Torah - Martha Nussbaum

Nussbaumcontinues on next page

7MArch 2009

D'var Torah

our original anger as a license to focus obses-sively on punishment and retribution. Anger says, “You have wronged me, and you ought to suffer for what you have done.” The problem comes in the demand for suffer-ing. Surely we can hardly deny that people who have wronged us ought to have some-thing happen to them. They should not be able to go about their business as if they had done nothing wrong. But what should hap-pen? We certainly find ourselves wishing horrible ugly things to happen to the person or people who have wronged us, whether the offender is an unfaithful spouse or a criminal or a contemptuous ruling class or an aggressive nation. The ten plagues, with their grotesque physical features, express a dark side to our imagination of the other’s pain, and often we really do want all those things to happen to the person, or group, who has inflicted pain on us. Then they will know with whom they are dealing, we think; then they will finally acknowledge us. But we need to think further: is this really a good way to go into the future, both with oneself and with the other person? We all know people who are hooked on the glee of retribution: who spend years con-testing and then recontesting a divorce settle-ment, just in order not to let the other person off the hook; who use children as hostages in the battle. We also know people whose reaction to a tragic crime is to obsess about the punishment of the offender, giving victim impact statements in court and even watch-ing the execution. Such obsessive anger is bad for the self, and it can also lead to the choice of highly immoral actions, from di-vorce litigation that inflicts horrible pain on children to violent mass rioting that kills in-nocent bystanders (the sort of rioting King successfully prevented). Nations can behave this way too, focus-ing on punishing other nations or groups for the wrongs they undoubtedly did, rather than moving on to the creation of a future in which both can live together in peace. Very often this focus on anger expresses it-self in inappropriate acts of violence. The excesses of modern nationalism often derive from a sense of humiliated smallness – often stemming from a genuinely serious original

wrong -- that connects easily to an outsize concern with revenge: by getting back at the group that wronged us, we show that we are large and tough and masculine, rather than small and weak and feminine. Whatever we think about the events in Gaza, even as-suming for the sake of argument that the war itself is a just war, we have to see its de-structive and excessive side, which has led to the deaths of many innocent people and has removed many possibilities of normal commercial and daily life for the Palestin-ian inhabitants. Indeed we can see many Is-raeli policies, from the way the checkpoints operate to the two-tier system of roads, as problematic in this way: they sort of look all right if we focus on the way in which Israel has undoubtedly been wronged, but they surely have their excessive aspect, and they cannot but make things much more difficult going into the future. To put it another way, good negotiation is a combination of sticks and carrots, punish-ments and incentives. When people focus obsessively on the retributive, they often fail to offer reasonable incentives to develop a workable common life in the future. Now of course we might say that all this is totally irrelevant to our parasha. Here in our parasha we are dealing with God’s justice, not human justice, with divine not human retribution. In some theological traditions, that simply means that the whole question of moral assessment is off the table. Whatever God does is by definition just, and we must not inquire further, or debate from our flawed human viewpoint. But this very common Christian attitude is only one strand in the Jewish tradition, and our Reform tradition, which puts the moral at its core, discourages the thought that moral questioning is ever inappropriate, even for the actions of God – recounted, as they always are, by defective human beings within defective cultural and historical traditions. What about the education side: the pun-ishments are a demonstration of God’s power, designed to show the Egyptians that power? I think the same moral critique ap-plies to this project: either power is mere power, or it is moral power. God’s power, as I would understand and care about it, is moral power, and this story, which repre-sents the power as excessive and amoral, is a vestige, I would say, of a culture in

which moral power was understood in an inadequate way, a way too tinged with re-tributivism and the willingness to sacrifice innocent life. Incidentally, we could give an education story about Gaza too: the point was through shock and awe to demonstrate Israel’s power – and we live in a culture to-day that has all too much fondness for such educational demonstrations of power. But let’s try to think beyond shock and awe and to ask what moral power looks like in in-ternational relations. Even if nations surely can achieve some of their ends by showing their power in an amoral way, through ex-cessive force, that does not mean that this use of power is moral. Even if Gaza should prove to have succeeded in that sense, it doesn’t make the excesses right. I realize that there will be many different views on these matters in this group. But whatever we think about the excessiveness of the punishments God meted out to the Egyptians – and one of the great strengths of our tradition is that it does encourage us to debate the rightness of God’s actions -- we should at least ask ourselves whether celebrating those excesses is a good thing to do when we celebrate Passover. Let me then conclude by returning to my starting point, the drops of wine that we spill for the plagues at the seder. Here, in a late addi-tion to the ritual, we clearly see a moment of ambivalence in the tradition, in which the issues I’ve raised were at least acknowledged. With profound wisdom, the Haggadah asks us to look at things differently for a moment. We stop in the midst of our joy for a mo-ment of empathy and mourning, spilling on our tablecloth drops of wine that cannot help reminding us of drops of blood. In this moment the Egyptians, typically cartoons of human beings in the Exodus story, become full and complex human beings, human be-ings of flesh and red blood, who suffered in those plagues as we would have suffered had they been visited on us. Dropping their blood upon our table, we acknowledge that revenge is morally problematic even when it is just, that it always makes innocent people suffer, that even the guilty are not inhuman monsters, and that even the celebrators are not free of guilt.

Martha NussbaumJanuary 30, 2009

Nussbaumcontinued from previous page

8 KAMII

Jewish Learning

Daniel C. Matt, Ph.D. will speak at the annual Perelmuter Weekend on March 13, 14 and 15 at KAM Isaiah Israel. Daniel C. Matt is one of the world’s leading scholars of Kabbalah and the Zohar. He has pub-lished ten books, including the best-selling The Essential Kabbalah (translated into six languages); Zohar: The Book of Enlightenment; Zohar: An-notated and Explained; and God and the Big Bang: Discovering Harmony between Science and Spirituality. He also edited a volume devoted to his father entitled: Walking Humbly with God: The Life and Writings of Rabbi Hershel Jonah Matt. Daniel is currently engaged in an immense project of translating and annotating the Zohar, the masterpiece of Kabbalah. This is the first translation ever based on a critical Aramaic text of the Zohar, established by Dr. Matt from nu-merous original Zohar manuscripts. So far, four volumes of The Zohar: Pritzker Edition have been published by Stanford University Press, and the fifth volume is scheduled to appear in September 2009. The complete project is ex-pected to encompass twelve volumes. For this work, Daniel has been honored with a National Jewish Book Award and a Koret Jewish Book Award. The Koret award called his translation “a monumental contribution to the history of Jew-ish thought.” Dr. Matt received his Ph.D. from Brandeis University and for twenty years served as profes-sor of Jewish Studies at the Graduate Theologi-cal Union in Berkeley, California. He has also taught at Stanford University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. From 1998-2002 he lived in Jerusalem while working on the first vol-umes of his Zohar translation. He has been featured in Time Magazine, has appeared on National Public Radio and the History Channel, and has received fellowships and awards from, among others: the American Council of Learned Societies, the Institute for Advanced Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the John M. Templeton Foundation, and the National Foundation for Jewish Culture. Dr. Matt knew Hayim and Nancy Perelmut-er when they were all involved in the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California.

DANIEl C. MATT TO BE fEATuRED SPEAKER fOR PERElMuTER WEEKEND

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congregants learn about Kaballah in preparation for the Perelmuter Weekend speaker Daniel c. Matt, Ph.D.

March 2009

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9:30 am

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11MArch 2009

Jewish LearninghyDE PARK MuNCh AND lEARN

All meetings are at noon in the KAM Isaiah Israel library.

You may have wondered about the change from an “L” to an “M” in the title of our monthly gathering. No, it’s not a typo—it’s the result of a lawsuit threat. Apparently this very popular title used by many

different organizations has been copyrighted. How’s that for chutzpah! So from now on look for “Munch & Learn” which probably most accurately describes this wonderful

gathering the 2nd Tuesday of the month where we stretch our minds and our belts.

May we take this opportunity to thank Alan Golden who has provided the delicious baked goods for many of our meetings. Todah Rabah.

Nancy Perelmuter, Deloris Sanders and Marlene RichmanMunch & Learn Facilitators

We look forward to seeing you at our meetings this spring, and if you have ideas for next year’s meetings, please let us know!

TuESDAy, MARCh 10 AT NOON: Mitchell Brown will continue his exploration of the Jewish aspects of "The Great American Songbook." Come and enjoy another magical program listening to selections from Mitchell's personal collection.

TuESDAy, APRIl 14 AT NOON: Cantor Miriam Eskenasy, “The Music of Passover” Growing up in Romania and Israel, Cantor Eskenasy has a wide background in the music of our people from the Balkan area. She'll share some of that experience and more with us including selections from the Song of Songs. We will all be in for a holiday treat.

TuESDAy, MAy 12 AT NOON: Lois Gordon will speak on “David in Art: Diverse views of the biblical David as interpreted by artists of many periods”. We look forward to Lois’s return. Last year she introduced us to “Marc Chagall & the Jewish Theater Murals.”

Bring your lunch and we’ll supply the “munch”. If you need transportation, please call the Temple Office.

SuNDAy lECTuRES AT 10:30 A.M.

MARCh 1 Orit Bashkin Topic: 'Jews of Iraq - A Model of Tolerance' Orit Bashkin is Assistant Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, University of Chicago

MARCh 8 Daniel hornung, 'Idealism in Action Series' Mr. Hornung will share his experiences on the Obama campaign trail.

MARCh 15 Daniel C. Matt, scholar-in-residence - Perelmuter Weekend

MARCh 22 Dr. geoff Emberling, Director, The Oriental Institute Museum at the University of Chicago, 'Archaeological Research and Experiences in Sudan'

MARCh 29 Dr. Eli Shai Shabi, guest of the Jewish-Muslim Initiative at University of Illinois Chicago, 'The Esoteric Kabbalah-Sufism Connection

SAVE THE DATE

JACOB J. WEINSTEIN WEEKENDAPRIl 10, 11, 12

Special Weekend at the Movies,A. O. SCOTT Film Critic,

The New York Times

Friday evening: lecture & discussionSaturday evening: Movie NightSunday morning: conversation

Check your mailbox for

details!

12 KAMII

Nursery SchoolThe Nursery School children continue to grow, learn, and make friends.

Nursery School 3-MorningFirst Row, Sitting: Samuel, audra, Tess, StellaSecond Row: chloe, gia, betty, calvin, Joshua, haleyThird Row: Sol Ji, lauren, Janean, KamilTeachers: alyssa and laura

Nursery School 5-MorningFirst Row, Sitting on Floor:

benjamin, William, harrySecond Row, Sitting on chairs:

Jane, hannah, ellerie, imanin climber Door: Ryan

On climber: Mekhi, akselThird Row: colin, colin, Taewon,

belle, georgiaFourth Row: antonio, ava,

Teachers: Fran and Tiauna

Anthony McGill and Itzhak Perlman, both featured in Janowski Young Artist concerts in KAMII's past, were members of the quartet that performed at President Barack Obama's in-auguration on January 20th. Perlman's resume and story are well known. McGill, a Chicago native, attended Merit School of Music and is the winner of an Avery Fisher Career Grant. He currently serves as principal clarinet of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.

TWO JANOWSKI yOuNg ARTISTS PERfORM AT OBAMA INAuguRATION

13MArch 2009

Nursery School

The Nursery School Concert with Susan Salidor on January 18 was a suc-

cess! Everyone was able to participate and we made a profit while hav-ing a great time. The success of this concert was due to the families that came, sold tickets, made donations, and advertised, as well as the sponsors of the event. A special thank you to the Hyde Park Bank, Shore Bank, Cole Taylor Bank, and Century 21. The Nursery School sponsored a Community Open House on January 15th. Many neighboring schools participated in this event. Parents were able to talk with school representa-tives and take home information about all of the schools. It was an easy way for everyone to make connections. The school representatives had a light dinner together be-fore the event so they could have a chance to get acquainted. It was a great evening.

Our annual Stone Soup Party was enjoyed by the Nursery School children and their families. This

has always been a wonderful event. The chil-dren brought their own vegetables which they chopped and cooked. We provided the perfect stone, which has been used for 14 years! We hope to use it for many years to come. I hope that you have had a chance to see

the beautiful ice sculptures the children made and placed

in the atrium. We are having fun watch-

ing them change shapes as they melt.

Fran Gordon

OThER NEWS fROM ThE NuRSERy SChOOl Our student Ryan and his family moved to Washington, D.C. Ry-an’s dad, Arne Duncan, has been named the Secretary of Education. We are all excited and wish them the best of luck. Ryan’s mother, Karen, has been a wonderful parent volunteer. She started our Mystery Reader program which is a great way for the parents to participate in the program. The parents are able to sign up for a time to read one of their favorite books to the class. The children guess who the reader is and are so happy to have someone in their family reading to everyone. We have had several readers so far this year including Arne, and also a first grader, Max. Max is Georgia’s big brother and a former Nursery School student.

The crowd at The nursery School concert featuring Susan Salidor.

nikki and Fred Stein enjoy the concert with

their grandchildren.

14 KAMII

Religious SchoollET’S TAlK ABOuT hEBREW SChOOl… The goal of our Hebrew program is to help our students de-velop a literacy level in Hebrew to be able to participate in Jew-ish worship wherever their path takes them in life. In 2 hours per week we cannot teach them to speak Modern Hebrew, but our teachers do spend some time introducing Hebrew as a lan-guage to our students. We teach that Hebrew words are made up of (usually) a three letter root (shoresh) and from that root one can make many words based on the same meaning using prefixes, suffixes and different vowel combinations. We often use this knowledge when we discuss the meanings of prayers in the classrooms, which helps to connect Modern Hebrew with our prayers. While we hope that the introduction of Hebrew as a modern language will perhaps instill an interest to learn more at another time, our goal is more focused on reading Hebrew, prayer book literacy and being able to read from the Torah. These are skills that can be used throughout their Jewish lives. We begin to teach letter recognition in 2nd Grade, although Hebrew is used orally beginning in B’yachad (our Sunday morn-ing preschool class) in songs and blessings, which continues throughout our school years. In 3rd Grade our students begin to come on Wednesday afternoons as well as staying an hour longer on Sunday mornings to allow more time to concentrate on learning Hebrew. We continue this through 6th grade, which is the final year before the B’nei Mitzvah year in 7th Grade. While having a Bar/Bat Mitzvah is a wonderful life cycle event and I am always proud of the work that our students put into the learning process and preparation for their special day, Bar/Bat Mitzvah should not be considered either the end of their Jewish learning or the ultimate reason to learn Hebrew. Learning to read the language of our people is a crucial piece in our goal to create educated young Jews, which is why we consider our

school to be ONE school, not two separate schools: Religious and Hebrew. The Hebrew teachers and I would like to thank our parents for their commitment to their children’s Jewish education. We know that life is busy and filled with many distractions and in-terests and that it is often difficult to make this commitment. Hebrew is not an easy language to learn and it does take time and effort on the part of the students. Being in class consistently and regularly makes both the teacher’s job and the student’s job much easier!

RElIgIOuS SChOOl SPRINg SChEDulE

March 18 to 29: No Religious or hebrew School, Spring Break

April 8 to 15: No Religious or hebrew School, Passover Break

May 17: last Day of

Religious School

The city of Faith christian church children joined KaMii 4th-5th graders as poetry pals

Religious School class

Purim

PuRIM PlAy REhEARSAlS

Sundays at 1:00 p.m. March 1 & 8

EVERYONE WELCOME • PARTS FOR ALL AGES!The Story of Esther

(with Contemporary Political Overtones) An original production, written by our own Rachel Havrelock,

Assistant Professor of English & Jewish Studies at UIC

hyDE PARK JCC PuRIM CARNIvAl!Join us after Sunday School at

Hyde Park Jewish Community Center5200 S. Hyde Park Blvd. 773.753.3080

Sunday, March 8 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Games & prizes! Costume parade!

Lunch for sale!

15MArch 2009

Enjoy a delicious meal, laugh along with your friends at the brand-new Purim play written by Rachel Havrelock, boo Haman at the Megillah reading and break out your family Hamantashen recipe! We especially need Hamantashen bakers, so please call or email the office at 773.924.1234 or kamii@kamii.org.

MONDAy, MARCh 9

Costumes & Instruments encouraged!

6:oo p.m. - Persian Dinner in Shushan with Sing-alongReservations required. Call the temple office at 773.924.1234

7:00 p.m. - Story of Esther (with Contemporary Political Overtones)

7:45 p.m. - Megillah Reading

8:30 p.m. - Homemade Hamantashen Tasting while you tap your feet to the KAMII Klezmer Band. Bring a plate of your

favorite Hamantashen recipe to share!

✡16 KAMII

Upcoming Events

yOM hAShOAh PROgRAM Of REMEMBRANCE This year's program of music and reading in re-membrance of the Shoah, sponsored by the Hyde Park Kenwood Council of Jewish Organizations, will again be at KAMII. The date is Monday, April 20th at 7 p.m. While staying warm indoors this frigid winter season did you uncover some long lost letters or other family memorabilia relating to the years of the Holocaust? Do you have something you would like to share? Please contact Ruth Bloom at lsbr-wb@yahoo.com, 752-5868. Each year a group of volunteers from the vari-ous organizations meets to select readings and plan the one-hour program. This year the planning meetings will be held at 8PM on three Wednes-days, February 25th, March 11th and March 25th. All meetings are at KAMII. Please join us!

Creating a Women of Reform Judaism Sisterhood takes a lot of hard work, time and patience. Many women have asked, "Why do we need a sisterhood, one more committee, one more meeting to go to,

more time taken away from my family and obligations?" My answer is that we, the women of KAM Isaiah Israel, need to establish a venue for ourselves where we can create a community built on relationships with other women of all ages and interests, provide service to our synagogue, grow spiritually as we enhance our understanding of the richness of Judaism, and have fun together . On Sunday, February 1, 2009, a day filled with many, many places to go and things to do, a group of women of various ages and interests met and approved the following mission statement for our sisterhood: "The mission of KAM Isaiah Israel Women of Reform Judaism is to serve our congregation, strengthen its spirit of community, and build ties of friend-ship across generations of women at our congregation rooted in our shared Jewish heritage and values." We felt that this mission statement captured the suggestions and requests that many of you, at various previous meetings have suggested. In March we plan to present a program entitled "Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow" which will talk about the history of sisterhood at both KAM and Isaiah Israel congregations, where we are today, and what our hopes and dreams are for the future. Joan Pomaranc, a historian, will be helping to put this program together. If you would like to participate, please contact Rosalie Fruchter (rfruchter@sbcglobal.net or 773-684-2488) or Joan Pomaranc (jpomaranc@sbcglobal.net or 312-692-1902). I look forward to hearing from all of you with your ideas and suggestions for making KAM Isaiah Israel's WRJ Sisterhood a wonderful part of our KAM Isaiah Israel community.

Rosalie K. Fruchter

SPECIAl MARCh BIRThDAySJonathan lipman, March 1; Adrien Bledstein, March 4; hannah gillespie, March 5; Joshua Paul Seeger, March 7; Ann Rothschild, March 8; Dr. Richard Evans, March 12; Tom levinson, March 12; francesca gosset, March 16; Maryellen Begley, March 18; Elizabeth hurtig, March 18; leila garfinkel, March 23; Zoe garfinkel, March 23; David Tucker, March 24; Daniel Rubin, March 26; Sarah Arkin, March 28; Edmond Zisook, March 29

SPECIAl MARCh ANNIvERSARIESAlan and Paula Berger, 45 years, March 22

SPECIAl APRIl BIRThDAySSteven Sibener, April 3; Dr. freda B. friedman, April 12; Nancy Perelmuter, April 12; Miriam Elson, April 14; Dr. Shelley J. Korshak Sode, April 23; A.K. Allender, April 24; Elizabeth Whitehorn, April 25; Peter Edgerton, April 27; Sarah-Anne Schumann, April 27; Irene goldman, April 29

SPECIAl APRIl ANNIvERSARIESvincent and Beverly Nathan, 50 years, April 1; Ivan R. Dee and Barbara Burgess, 20 years, April 15

A NEW PASSOvER TRADITION The congregation will not be hosting a Second Seder this year. We hope to foster a similar sense of community by matching up members who have space at their table with members who are eager to participate in a Seder, whether on the night of Wednesday, April 8 or Thursday, April 9. This is a wonderful chance to get to know your fellow congregants better and to share Passover traditions. If you would like to participate in this Passover Exchange, please contact the Temple office and we will make the arrangements.

yOuTh gROuP SPAghETTI DINNER AND DESSERT AuCTION

Coming Soon to KAMII!!Watch for more details!

In the Community

17MArch 2009

yxxx Adult Study Opportunities in Israel The Union for Reform Judaism is presenting its third an-nual Israel Kallah May 14-24. The program includes 10 days of travel, study, and prayer. Participants will spend 5 nights in Jerusalem and 3 nights in Tel Aviv, and will also visit Kibbutz Yahel, Kibbutz Lotan, and the city of Eilat. Study sessions in Jerusalem will include prayer workshops with Rabbi Levi Weiman-Kelman (a cousin of Rabbi Wolf). The program cost of $1,800 includes room and board but not airfare. To register or obtain more information, call 212.650.4110 or go to educate@urj.org. URJ is also offering the EIE Summer Institute for Adults in Israel July 22-August 5. Modeled on the success-ful NFTY-EIE High School in Israel program, the institute offers a unique living, learning, study, and travel experience. Participants will explore the history of Israel through lec-tures, text study, and visits to historical sites. They will live on Kibbutz Tzuba 20 minutes from Jerusalem. The cost, including airfare from New York, accommodations, and 2 meals per day, is $4,595. If you prefer to make your own international flight arrangements, the cost is $2,750. To register or obtain more information, call 212.650.4110 or go to educate@urj.org.

yxxx Explore Chicago's Jewish History On Tuesday, March 17, at 6:00 p.m., the Newberry Li-brary and the Chicago Jewish Historical Society are present-ing Walter Roth speaking on his new book, Avengers and Defenders: Glimpses of Chicago's Jewish Past. There is no charge for this program, which will take place at the Newberry Library, 60 W. Walton Street.

yxxx Help the Poor Celebrate Passover Maot Chitim of Greater Chicago is recruiting volunteers to pack and deliver Passover food packages for needy Chi-cago Jews on Sunday, April 5. Call 847.674.3224 or visit maotchitim.org for more information about this mitzvah op-portunity. To volunteer to pack or deliver food packages, email volunteer@maotchitim.org.

yxxx This Month at Spertus On Wednesday, March 4, 6:00 - 8:00 p.m., Laura Fran-kel, executive chef for Wolfgang Puck at Spertus, is offering Passover Boot Camp. For $18, you can learn the basics of Sephardic and Ashkenazic food traditions for the holi-day, as well as discover global ingredients to add interest to Passover meals. Reservations requested by March 3. Call 312.322.1773. Dr. Gary Porton will offer a mini-course on Compara-tive Judaism on Thursdays during March, beginning with March 5, from noon to 1:30 p.m. He will examine the views of the major movements within American Judaism on Americanization, Israel, Torah/revelation, gender roles, and Jewish law. The cost is $150, $125 for Spertus members,

and includes a kosher lunch. Please reserve by March 2 at 312.322.1773. On Monday, March 23, 3:00 - 4:30 p.m., come to Sper-tus for Burnham's Bold Plans & Rosenwald's Unconven-tional Philanthropy: Improving the Quality of Life. After a docent-led tour of the exhibition, A Force for Change: African American Art and the Julius Rosenwald Fund, you can hear Ken Dunn, founder of the Resource Center, speak about green initiatives around the city. The cost is $15 per person, $12 for Spertus members, and includes tea. Reser-vations are requested by March 17. Call 312.322.1773. On Wednesday, March 25, noon to 1:30 p.m., Rabbi Vernon Kurtz will discuss Judaism and the Challenges of Modern Life, edited by Donniel Hartman and Moshe Hal-bertal. These essays address how Jewish moral, spiritual, and historical values must be read with new eyes to address today's realities. The cost is $25, $20 for Spertus mem-bers, and includes a kosher lunch. Please reserve by March 20. Call 312.322.1773. On Thursday, March 26, at 7:00 p.m., Dr. Jon Levenson of Harvard Divinity School will deliver this year's Joseph Cardinal Bernardin Jerusalem Lecture, Monotheism and Chosenness: The Abrahamic Foundation of Judaism and Roman Catholicism. This program will be held at DePaul University's Lincoln Park Student Center, 2550 N. Shef-field, Room 120 A&B. Admission is free, but reservations are requested at 312.534.5325 or eia@archchicago.org. On Sunday, March 29, at 2:00 p.m., doctor and an-thropologist Melvin Konner will discuss his new book, The Jewish Body. He looks at views of Jewish physiology held by non-Jews and the way these views seeped into Jewish thought. He also explores the subtle relationship between the Jewish conception of the human body and a bodiless God. The cost is $20, $15 for Spertus members, $10 for students. Call 312.322.1773. Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies is located at 610 S. Michigan Avenue.

yxxx More Election Tidbits Our congregation and its members continue to feature in articles about the presidential election campaign and its aftermath. Abner Mikva and Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf z"l have been mentioned in too many articles to count. Par-ticularly noteworthy was a page in the January/February is-sue of Moment magazine that was devoted to Abner Mikva: "Mikva was one of the key people with whom Obama met when deciding in 2006 whether to run for president. Since some called Clinton the first black president, Mikva has dubbed Barack Obama the first Jewish one." In the January 16 issue of the Chicago Jewish News, editor Joseph Aaron talks about how Obama has been a friend of the Jews and how Ab Mikva and Rabbi Wolf were among the "top Jews [who] got to know him, believed in him, backed him, helped him, endorsed him."

By Grace Wolf

18 KAMII

TributesWe thank all contributors for their generosity and support of our synagogue family.

(contributions received January 5 - February 5 are listed)

Blanche and Philip Brail Social Action fund In Memory of Aaron Hilkevitch In Memory of Rachel Helstein Eugenie Mirelowitz

Cantor’s Discretionary fund In Memory of Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf Grace Wolf In Memory of Joe Kaufman Liz Hurtig

general fund Debra Stulberg In Memory of Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf Emily Barr and Scott Kane Arlene and Marshall Bennett Lisa Borowitz and Family Leigh Breslau and Irene Sherr David and Debbie Chizewer Catherine H. Curran Philip and Deborah Halpern Kurt and Theresa Hansen Miriam Hansen and Michael Geyer Kineret Jaffe and Morton Silverman Nancy Joseph Liz Hurtig and Sheila Kaufman Melanie Haas Kucherlapati Gary and Joan Laser Joan Levin Rita Lucas Harriet Nathan Seth Restaino and Anne Scholes Dr. Joseph Schmaltz Jodi and Scott Schumann Arthur and Helene Segil Melvyn and Sheila Shochet Carolyn Tatar and Joel Rosenbacher Temple Judea Mizpah Clergy Barbara and Bob Wagner Henry Webber and Christine Jacobs Ursula Winter Michael and Jessica Young Robert and Gloria Yufit In Memory of Betty Hilton Nancy Joseph In Honor of Cantor Miriam’s Installation Leigh Breslau and Irene Sherr

Jacob J. Weinstein fund In Memory of Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf Alma and Ray Kuby

Memorial yahrzeits In Memory of Emma Fisher Shirley Fisher In Memory of Dr. Hans Wachtel In Memory of Hilda Gadiel Susan and Jerrold Levine In Memory of Izaak Wirszup Carolyn Tatar and Joel Rosenbacher

Music Enhancement fund In Memory of Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf Gloria and Al Needlman In Memory of David Levitin Eugenie Mirelowitz

Nursery School fund In Memory of Joe Kaufman Gloria and Al Needlman

Prayerbook/Chumash fund In Honor of Ernestine Austen’s Bat Mitzvah Rosalie and Marvin Fruchter Hannah Metzger Norman and Eve Weinberg

Rabbi Arnold J. Wolf Adult Education fund In Memory of Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf Helene and Ray Groban Jane Heron Esther Menn Eugenie Mirelowitz

Rabbi’s Discretionary fund In Memory of Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf In Memory of Joe Kaufman Roberta and Richard Evans Liz Hurtig

Stolz-levi Walter Jacobs Memorial library fund In Memory of Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf Deborah Gordon Friedrich, Joan Friedrich, and

Katherine Friedrich In Memory of Joe Kaufman Deborah Gordon Friedrich

19MArch 2009

Tributes

WinTeR in The KaM iSaiah iSRael aTRiuM

Temple Operating funds Discretionary Funds: q Rabbi’s Fund q Cantor’s Fund q Other ___________________q Landmark Preservation Fundq Stolz-Levi Walter Jacobs MemorialLibrary Fundq Music Enhancement Fundq Prayer Book/Humash Fundq Religious School Fundq Nursery School Fundq Kathrynn W. Rosenbluth Flower Fundq Harold A. Rosenstein Temple Fundq Blanche R. Stolz Scholarship Fundq Jacob J. Weinstein Fundq Youth Activities Fundq Youth Group Israel Scholarship Fund

Restricted foundation fundsq Blanche and Philip Brail Social Action Fundq Julius J. Browdy Scholarship and Education Fundq Agnes Davis Memorial Fundq Ruth Diane Davis Scholarship Fundq Maurice L. Heller Memorial Camp Scholarship Fundq Gretel and Max Janowski Fundq Babette and Irving H. Mann Educational Fundq Necheles Scholarship Fundq Rabbi Hayim Goren Perelmuter Fundq Beatrice K. Schneiderman Social Action Fundq Michael and Rebecca Schneiderman and Family Scholarship Fund

q Ezra Sensibar Fundq Harvey Shapiro Memorial Scholarship Fundq Esther Rosalie N. and Theodore Stone Chapel Fundq William and Bernard Weinberg Scholarship Fundq Rabbi Arnold J. Wolf Adult Education Fundq Other _________________________

KAM ISAIAh ISRAEl CONgREgATION TRIBuTE fuNDS

Donor __________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Address _________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I/We contribute $ ______________________ Date ______________________________

Acknowledge to ___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Address _________________________________________________________________________________________________________

In Honor Of __________________________________________ In Memory Of _____________________________________________

Please make checks payable to:KAM Isaiah Israel Congregation

1100 East Hyde Park Blvd.Chicago, Illinois 60615-2899

Contributions are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law

Shabbat Services

PERIODICALPOSTAGE

PAIDAT

CHICAGO, IL

Kehilath Anshe Maarav Isaiah Israel Congregation (USPS) (289-000) published monthly from August to June, free to the membership, by Kehilath Anshe Maarav Isaiah Israel Con gregation, 1100 E. Hyde Park Blvd., Chicago, IL 60615. Periodicals Postage paid at Chicago, IL. Postmaster: Please send changes to Kehilath Anshe Maarav Isaiah Israel Con gregation, 1100 E. Hyde Park Blvd., Chicago, IL 60615.©KAM Isaiah Israel Congregation, 2008

K.A.M. ISAIAH ISRAELCongregationFounded in 1847

1100 E. Hyde Park Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60615Telephone 773.924.1234 • Fax: 773.924.1238

info@kamii.org • www.kamii.org

Lawrence S. Bloom ...................................................... PresidentDarryl Crystal ......................................................... Interim RabbiMiriam Eskenasy ..............................................................CantorDeborah Bard ..................................................... Cantor EmeritaShari Granat .................................Director of Religious EducationFran Gordon .......................................... Nursery School DirectorLinda Ross ...................................................... Executive DirectorKaren Finesilver ................................................................ EditorAbigail Allison ..................................................... Assistant EditorJessica Cavanagh ................................................ Assistant Editor

March 2009 Vol. 39, No. 7

Shabbat Zachor: Parashat Tetzaveh Exodus 27:20 -30:10

friday, March 6Congregational Potluck Dinner at 6:00 p.m.

family Shabbat Services at 7:00 p.m.Oneg following services – celebrate the birthdays of

members born in March!

Saturday, March 7Tot Shabbat at 9:00 a.m.

Families with children under 5Shabbat Services at 10:30 a.m.

Shabbat Ki Tissa – Parah: Exodus 30:11 - 34:35friday, March 13

Shabbat Services at 8:00 p.m.

Saturday, March 14Shabbat Services at 10:30 a.m.

Shabbat Vayakhel – Pekudei: Exodus 35:1 – 40:38friday, March 20 at 7:00 p.m.

Kol Sasson v’Kol Simcha Shabbat Service

Saturday, March 21Shabbat Services at 10:30 a.m.

Shabbat Vayikra: Leviticus 1:1 – 5:26friday, March 27

Shabbat Services at 8:00 p.m.

Saturday, March 28Shabbat Services at 10:30 a.m.

Torah Study at 9:30 a.m. every Shabbat morning.Transportation to Shabbat evening services is always available.

Please call the office.