The Shofar Vol. 90 Issue 1 (Published Monthly)

Congregation B’nai Israel: A Traditional Conservative Synagogue 45 Twombly Ave., Staten Island, NY 10306 Tel: (718) 987-8188 Fax: (718) 987-7870

Rabbi Pinchas Pearl 718-769-1454 , 718-564-5518, lamdan453@gmail.com

Email: Office@sicbi.com, web site: sicbi.com., Facebook: Congregation B’nai Israel, NY

Preschool and UPK 718-987-6200, cbiacademy123@gmail.com

January 2018

January 2018

בס''ד

2 From the

Desk of

Rabbi Pearl

January remains a quiet month on the Jewish calen-dar, with one exception. January 31 marks Tu B’She-vat, New Years Day for the trees. The Talmud marks four distinct “Rosh HaShanot” (new years) in the course of the year, and Tu B’Shevat is one of them. An online guide defines the day, as follows: “Tu B'Shevat (15

th day of the month of Shevat) is

the new year for the purpose of calculating the age of trees for tithing. See Lev. 19:23-25, which states that fruit from trees (in the Land of Israel) may not be eaten during the first three years; the fourth year's fruit is for G-d, and after that, you can eat the fruit. Each tree is considered to have aged one year as of Tu B'Shevat, so if you planted a tree on Shevat 14, it begins its sec-ond year the next day, but if you plant a tree two days later, on Shevat 16, it does not reach its second year until the next Tu B’Shevat.” It is customary to eat a new fruit on this day, or to eat from the Seven Species (shivat haminim) de-scribed in the Bible as being abundant in the land of Israel. The shivat haminim are: wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates (Deut. 8:8). Another, which has caught on in recent years, is to have a Tu B’Shevat Seder, where the aforemen-tioned fruits are eaten. In addition, special readings and prayers appropriate for the day are said. To me, the meaning of Tu B’Shevat can be found in a story that I was told long ago, by a German Jew, a survivor of the Nazis, who had escaped from his native Nuremberg across the Swiss border. The Swiss promptly locked him up, along with other refugees, in a more benign version of a concentration camp. Condi-tions were not brutal; they were housed and fed de-cently, and young men like himself organized a yeshiva to continue their studies. On Tu B’Shevat the refugees Continued on page 2

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Fri. Jan. 5/Tevet 18 Light candles, 4:25 p.m.

Services, 8 p. m.

Sat. Jan. 6/Tevet 19 Rabbi’s class, 8:40 a.m.

Services, 9:20 a.m.

Fri. Jan. 12/Tevet 25 Light candles, 4:32 p.m.

Services, 8 p.m.

Sat. Jan. 13/Tevet 26 Rabbi’s class, 8:40 a.m.

Services, 9:20 a.m.

Fri. Jan. 19/Shevat 3 Light candles, 4:40 p.m.

Services, 8 p.m.

Sat. Jan. 20/Shevat 4 Rabbi’s class, 8:40 a.m.

Services, 9:20 a.m.

Fri. Jan. 26/Shevat 10 Light candles, 4:48 p.m.

Services, 8 p.m. Tu B’Shevat seder, p. 2

Sat. Jan. 27/Shevat 11 Rabbi’s class, 8:40 a.m.

Services 9:20 a.m.

Other dates to keep in mind (see also, p. 4) Jan. 2 - Tues. Ritual Committee, 8 p.m. Jan. 7 - Sun. Rabbi’s study session, 10 a.m. Sisterhood meeting, 11 a.m. Jan. 10 - Wed. Fun Night Out, 7:30 p.m. Jan. 13 - Sat. Movie, 7 p.m., see p.4 Jan. 14 - Sun. Rabbi’s study session, 10 a.m. Jan. 16 - Tues. Finance Committee, 7:15 p.m. Board of Trustees, 8 p.m. Jan. 21 - Sun. Rabbi’s study session, 10 a.m. All Rabbi’s study sessions are preceded by ser-vices at 9:15 a.m. followed by a light breakfast.

President’s message

Thank you all for the confidence that you have placed in me by reelecting me as president. I appre-ciate the patience that you have shown while I have been battling various ailments. As most of you know, I was born in this synagogue, as my parents were members, and despite the other calls on my time, C.B.I. still retains a special place in my heart. Having said, and meant, that, however, I can-not resist making a plea for other people to assume leadership positions. I recognize that it is not healthy for the same people to stay at the helm for too long a time, neither for our synagogue, nor for them. Continued on page 2

OFFICERS OF CONGREGATION B’NAI ISRAEL RABBI Pinchas N. Pearl Chairman of the Board of Trustees Norman A. Kanter President Charles Greinsky Executive Vice President Barry Kashubo First VP Roger Lader Second VP Martin Eisenberg Third VP Kevin Brosnick Treasurer VACANT Financial Secretary Susan Finkelstein Recording Secretary Rita Eisenberrg Sisterhood Presidents Zoya Khalfin Sandy Levy Editor Norman A. Kanter —————————————————–———————————

There are several ways you can remember a loved one or commemorate a special occasion. Here are some ideas: Call the Synagogue office (718) 987-8188: to schedule a Bar/Bat Mitzvah or Baby Naming to dedicate a Chumash ($75) or Siddur ($36) to sponsor an Oneg or Kiddush to make a donation to the Hebrew School to reserve a date for a special function to dedicate a leaf on our Tree of Life to plant a Tree in Israel Call Dr. Selman Berger (718) 948-5447 for infor- mation about our cemetery plots Call Scott Diamond (917) 674-3317 for information about a Memorial Plaque ___________________________________________________‘ President’s letter (continued) I have the authority to appoint non-voting members to the Board of Trustees, where their opinions would be heard by the people who make the decisions. I would be happy to exercise this authority if you will contact me or the office. Speaking of long-serving people, the rest of the officers qualify in that category. They have served multiple terms and I am grateful for their willingness to continue despite the fact that some of them have physical problems of their own. Also deserving of our gratitude are three mem-bers of the Board of Trustees who were reelected, Stuart Goldstein, Norman A. Kanter, and Zoya Khal-fin. They also have served long and honorably, and I appreciate their support. Two other members have joined the Board, Ilene Greinsky and Jerry Clifford. Ilene, my wife, is an independent woman with a back-ground that will serve her well. Jerry is a younger man who can be counted on. We look forward to benefiting from their intelligence and enthusiasm. By now, you have gotten the message behind my message. We have good people doing excellent work, but we need others as well. I am asking you to be one of them. It will not take much of your time and will be of great help to our synagogue. Yours in fellowship, Charles Greinsky President

Rabbi’s message (continued) were able to obtain some fruits and had a holiday cel-ebration. When my acquaintance was called on to give a Dvar Torah, he said: “Our lives right now are like the trees outside this window, covered with ice and snow. We are not free, and we don’t know what our future will be. That’s why we celebrate New Year’s for the trees in the middle of winter. Even under ice and snow, sap is flowing, there is life, and there will be a springtime of hope and renewal for all of us here.” That young man survived the war, came to America, and rebuilt his life successfully in every way. That is the message of Tu B’Shevat for all of us. Even if, right now, all is cold and frozen, and we are living in bleak winter, surrounded by problems and de-void of hope, there is movement that we don’t see. Hope is there, renewal is there, and a brighter spring is coming, even in the midst of hard times. Happy Tu B’Shevat! Shalom. Pinchas N. Pearl

Rabbi Annual meeting

All the officers and trustees nominated were unanimously elected at the annual meeting. The officers are listed elsewhere on this page. Elected for a three-year term on the Board of Trus-tees,, ending December 31, 2020, were Jerry Clifford, Stuart Goldstein, Ilene Greinsky, Norman A. Kanter, and Zoya Khalfin. We congratulate all of the officers and trustees and wish them well in their service. Also discussed at the meeting was the Golden Book. After a lively exchange of views, it was decided that only those who bought High Holiday tickets or made an equivalent donation for the Holidays could list names. The listing is limited to direct family mem-bers or those for whom no one else is saying yizkor. The names will be read just before the yizkor service begins.

Preschool news

In January, the Pre-K for All class will be discussing modes of transportation and safety. Our youngest learners will be continuing the thematic unit entitled “Winter Fun.” Registration continues for the remaining of this school year and registration for the 2018-2019 school year begins next month. Congratulations to the winners of our raffle, Sy Levine, Patrick Monagran, Jonathan Gallo, and Jay Goretsky. Thank you to all of you who participated in this project. We wish everyone a happy New Year1 The C.B.I. Academy Preschool Team

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Yahrzeits This Month Yahrzeits start on the evening before the date

given. For additions or corrections to this list, please contact Scott Diamond at (917) 674-3317, or

slzdiamond@hotmail.com If you need to say kaddish for a yahrzeit, please call the office two weeks before, and we will try to arrange a minyan. It would be helpful to bring a few family members and friends to the service to make sure of a minyan as it is not always possible to ar-range one from our congregants. Many congregants come to services Friday night to say kaddish. PLEASE JOIN US TO MAKE SURE IT IS POSSIBLE. Jan. 1/Tevet 14

Bertha Cohen, mother of Rae Ganzman Helen Katz, mother of Jack and Otto Katz Delia Sotland, mother of Lillian Brosnick

Jan. 2/Tevet 15 Miriam Epstein, mother of Rita Hauser

Jan. 3/Tevet 16 Fran Berger, wife of Dr. Selman Berger

Max Poris, father of Steven Poris Jan. 4/Tevet 17

Roman Rapoport, brother of Sophia Cohen Gert Wolff, mother of Barbara Kanter

Jan. 6/Tevet 19 Sid Wool, uncle of Norman Olinsky

Jan. 7/Tevet 20 Florence Herzekow, mother of Diane Schwartz

Jan. 8/Tevet 21 Emil Shrentsel, father of Milla Abidor

Jan. 9/Tevet 22 Betty Bergman, mother of Dr. Steven Goldstein

Jan. 10/Tevet 23 Isaac Reznova, father of Rita Timmer

Teddy Silverman, brother of Judy Weisberg Jan. 11/Tevet 24

David Sapolsky, father of Eugene Sapolsky Jan. 12/Tevet 25

Aaron Herzekow, grandfather of Diane Schwartz Jan. 13/Tevet 26

Sam Rapoport, father of Sophia Cohen

Jan. 15/Tevet 28 Rukhle Manket, grandmother of Leonard Valdberg

Jan. 17/Shevat 1 Rose Goldberg, mother of Joel Goldberg

Beverly Mayle, wife of Harold Mayle Alex Orshansky, father of Marcia Jacobson

Jan. 19/Shevat 3 Rachel and Murray Dovdavany, parents of

Michael Dovdavany Arnold Graham, father of Joel Graham

Jan. 20/Shevat 4 Evgeniy Manket, grandfather of Leonard Valdberg

Herbert Rosner, father of Scott Rosner Jan. 21/Shevat 5

Ira Greinsky, father of Charles Greinsky Betty Kudler, mother of Charles Kudler

Jack Lader, father of Roger Lader Jan. 22/Shevat 6

Gussie Fingerman, mother of Estelle Goldberg Louis Goldberg, father of Alice Grey

Jan. 23/Shevat 7 Louis Epstein, grandfather of William Marin

Aaron Davis, father of Sandy Gosoff Shirlee Solomon, mother of Adrienne Lowe

Jan. 24/Shevat 8 Ida Imberman, mother of Marvin Imberman

Gussie Kalifowitz, grandmother of Eileen Cooper Rachil Reinish, great-grandmother of

Monique Datnova Jan. 25/Shevat 9

Marcia Lader, mother of Roger Lader Jan. 26/Shevat 10

Aaron Feldman, nephew of Ana Cramer Jan. 28/Shevat 12

Abraham Friedman, father of Natalie Fox John Gussow, husband of Robin Gussow

Jan. 31/Shevat 15 Tema Gittle Gilden, grandmother of

Cheryl Guterman

Watch for these special events On Friday evening, January 26, Rabbi Pearl will con-duct a Tu B’Shvat Seder after services. There will be an interesting program in which we, through pray-ers and shared thoughts, learn more about this spe-cial day on the Jewish calendar. Please join our Book Club for a discussion on

the interesting history of American Jewish resistance to the Nazis. See p. 4 for details. Our next movie night will be Saturday, Janu-ary 13 at 7:30 p.m. for Woody Allen’s “The Front.” The film is a dark comedy about the McCarthy hear-ings of the '50s and the subsequent Hollywood blacklisting. Woody Allen plays a bookmaker who becomes "a front" for a group of blacklisted Holly-wood screenwriters..

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News about our members Mazal tov to Jay Goretsky on the birth of a grand-daughter, Maya Addison to his children, Pamela and Robert.Goretsky. Our congratulations also go to Josh Khalfin, and his parents, Zoya and Marat, on his ac-ceptance to NYU Dental School

Thank you for your contribution Contributions received after December 15 will be

acknowledged in the February issue Flora and Miron Berenshteyn Vlad Cohen Brenda and Marvin Cooper in memory of Herman Perl Ana and Mark Cramer in memory of Max Besen D.C. 37 Retirees Association Estelle and Arnold Dunn in memory of Gail Siskind Dr. Jacob Goldberg in memory of Abraham Goldberg Gloria Hirsch in memory of William Hirsch Barbara and Norman A. Kanter in memory of Morris Kanter Barry and Gail Kashubo in memory of Isidore Kashubo Alla and Vladimir Klevanskiy Norman Levine for sponsoring a kiddush in memory of Lenore Levine William S. and Ina Levine Foundation Sandy Levy in memory of Jack Springer Lillian Phillips in memory of Emanuel Goldklang Roberta and Eugene Sapolsky in memory of Gladys Streger

Book Club news The next book to be discussed by the Book Club is “Hitler in Los Angeles -How the Jews foiled Nazi plots against Hollywood and America,” by Steven J. Ross. This book discusses the little-known story of the rise of Nazism in Los Angeles, and the Jewish leaders and spies they recruited, who stopped it. No American city was more important to the Nazis than Los Angeles, home to Hollywood, the greatest propaganda machine in the world. The Nazis plotted to kill the city’s Jews and to sabotage the na-tion’s military installations. Plans existed for killing 20 prominent Hollywood figures, such as Al Jolson, Charlie Chaplin, and Samuel Goldwyn; and for blow-ing up defense installations and seizing munitions from National Guard armories along the Pacific Coast. U.S. law enforcement agencies were not pay-ing close attention, preferring to monitor Reds than Nazis, and only Leon Lewis, the man the Nazis would come to call “the most dangerous Jew in Los Ange-les,” ran a spy operation comprised of military veter-ans and their wives, who infiltrated every Nazi and Fascist group in Los Angeles. Often rising to leader-ship positions, this daring ring of spies uncovered

and foiled the Nazi’s disturbing plans for death and destruction. Featuring a large cast portraying Nazis, under-cover agents, and other colorful supporting players, “Hitler in Los Angeles” by an Steven J. Ross, tells the story of Lewis’s daring spy network in a time when hate groups had moved from the margins to the mainstream.

More pledges redeemed Our thanks to the following who have redeemed their pledges in recent weeks: Sophia and Al Cohen Estelle and Joel Goldberg Ella Ligay Bonnie and Scott Rosner Helen and Dr. Stuart Suss

Sisterhood news Despite the previous evening’s snow, Sisterhood held its monthly meeting. We happily welcomed back our beloved, and greatly missed member, Rita Eisen-berg. Sandy Levy read last month’s minutes, and dis-cussed our financial situation. Some of our members went to The Poor People's Dinner, in support of Pro-ject Hospitality. Thank you Barbara Smith for a most enjoyable Card-Making evening, which involved schlepping, your patient instructions, and all of the wonderful supplies that you provided. Future plans for Sisterhood are as follows: 1. Since the card-making class was such a success, consideration was given to the possibility of another one, inviting the Hebrew School children, and their parents. It would be on a Sunday afternoon, and lunch would be included. 2. Looking ahead to Spring, Marty Eisenberg,(soon to be known as Chef Marty), will teach how to make hamantashen to the Hebrew School during one of their sessions. 3. We are looking for ideas for a March fund raiser. Suggestions are invited.. 4. The trip to The Jewish Heritage Museum will be on April 22. 5. Our co-president, Sandy Levy, is looking into the possibility of getting an author to discuss his or her book.

The following people have volunteered to do the shopping for Onegs and Kiddushes: Eileen Cooper, Susan Finkelstein, Bette Goldstein, Laurie and David Raps, and Janice Rappaport. Watch your mail for the Shabbat Across Amer-ica Dinner. It will take place sometime in March. Our monthly "Fun Night Out" will be Wednes-day. Jan.10, 7:30-9:30 p.m. and the next Sisterhood meeting will be Sunday, Jan. 7, 11 a.m. Be sure to join us at these events.

Shop Amazon and help C.B.I. Amazon will donate a percentage of the cost of all eligible items to C.B.I. if they are purchased on its special site, AmazonSmile.com. The only difference between this site and the Amazon site is that on Am-azonSmile, you can designate Congregation B’nai Israel to be a recipient of the donation. The prices are the same, the features are the same. However, using this site enables C.B.I. to benefit from your pur-chase. Here’s your chance to help our congregation without any cost to you.

Just for the fun of it Judith meets Isaac at a dance and they seem to hit it off quite nicely – so much so that they agree to go out for a meal the following night. Isaac says he will pick her up at her house at 8 p.m. The following evening, Judith spends quality time getting herself set for what she hopes will be the start of a new romance. Finally, she is ready. She walks over to the mirror and looks at herself. What she sees is an attractive, sexy, well made-up young woman, wearing a low-cut but very chic evening dress, matching satin shoes, and the vintage pearl necklace and matching ear-rings that her grandmother gave her. She is pleased with what she sees and sits down to wait for Isaac. But she is very disappointed when 8 p.m. ar-rives and there’s no sign of him. She continues to wait in hope, but there’s still no Isaac. At 9.30 p.m., Judith gives up. Crying, she runs upstairs to the bath-room and roughly wipes off all her make-up, smudg-ing her lipstick over her mouth. But she doesn’t care. She goes into her bedroom, changes out of her lovely dress and puts on her dressing gown. Finally, she takes off her shoes, puts on her slippers and goes downstairs to watch TV. But as soon as she sits down, the doorbell rings. When Judith opens it, there stands Isaac with a bunch of flowers in his hand. He looks at Judith with a worried look on his face and says to her, "Judith, what’s going on? I’m nearly two hours late, …. and you’re still not ready?"

In Case Of...

By following these guidelines, you will help your-self and your family in times of great joy, or G-d for-bid, moments of crisis and stress. As rabbi, it is my desire to attend to your life-cycle needs. These include births and weddings, fu-nerals, and hospital and home visits to the ill. In order for me to be of help, I must be kept informed. Please take a moment to read through these steps and always keep this page in a handy place for quick reference. Rabbi Pinchas Pearl

Illness In case of illness or hospitalization, please notify the synagogue office at (718) 987-8188.

Death Even before making funeral arrangements, notify Rabbi Pearl at the synagogue office (718) 987-8188) or on his cell (718) 564-5518). He will assist and guide you in making the appropriate arrangements for the funeral. If you cannot reach the rabbi, contact the Jew-

ish funeral home and begin to make your arrange-ments. Please, if Rabbi Pearl is going to officiate at the funeral, do not set a time until the rabbi has con-tacted you. At most, this will be a very short while. If

the rabbi is on vacation, other local rabbis are on call. Simchas

For your joyous occasions in life, please share your nachas with the rabbi by informing him about births, engagements, weddings, and other notewor-thy moments in the life of your family. The rabbi will arrange for a baby-naming, provide information re-garding a mohel (for newborn boys), coordinate a pidyon haben (the redemption ceremony for first-born males), schedule an aufruf (to celebrate a forthcom-ing marriage), perform a wedding, and bring the rich-ness of Jewish traditions and mitzvot into your sim-cha.

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