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Campus Status Update
We are so grateful for the care and concern of our incredible members and colleagues from all around Los Angeles and beyond. As of now, though our campus is secure and has sustained no damage, we are still awaiting clearance from officials so that we may return.
No matter the circumstances, there will be Shabbat services on Friday evening and Saturday morning with your Stephen Wise Temple clergy. Whether services will be held on our campus or whether we will be graciously hosted by one of our sister congregations, we will gather together to celebrate the peace and hope of the Sabbath in sacred community.
We will make an announcement via email and social media about the location and timing of our Shabbat services no later than Friday afternoon at 2 p.m.
As always, you may continue to follow our progress on social media and on our web site.
FACEBOOK
INSTAGRAM
TWITTER
WEB SITE
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 Holy Fire
By Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback
Sometimes in the midst of destruction, there is holiness. Sometimes in the smoke and ashes, there is kindness, love, and meaning. And so let us be consoled. What has been destroyed will be, with our help, with our hearts and hands, rebuilt. Those who have been affected by these fires will be comforted in the arms of friends and in the embrace of a loving community.
READ MORE |
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Fire Support
We have set up a special email address ([email protected]) for those offering support or in need of support during this difficult time. Whether you are able to provide evacuation assistance or housing; or whether you are seeking help because of the fires, you may email [email protected] and our staff and clergy team will connect you with other members of our community. You may also contact us by phone at 310.476.8561
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Cancellations and Closures
Wise School will be closed on Friday, December 8.
Tot Shabbat will be canceled on Friday, December 8.
We will update CYE families about Sunday activities prior to Sunday, December 10.
Please note the worship schedule below for information about Shabbat Services.
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Sifrei Torah Assistance
We are so incredibly grateful to our friends at Valley Beth Shalom Synagogue for taking care of our Torah scrolls. They are generously housing 13 from Wise, 8 from Leo Baeck Temple, and 2 from Milken. Our prayers are with all of our neighbors, colleagues, and friends.
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| Worship |
| This Week’s Torah Portion: Vayishev
As noted above, we will announce locations and times for Shabbat services with your Wise clergy no later than 2 p.m. on Friday afternoon.
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Learning Opportunities with Clergy
Talmud Study with Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback: Wednesday, December 13 at 12 p.m. | Taub Annex
Bible Study with Rabbi Ron Stern: Monday, December 18 at 9 a.m. | Temple Conference Room
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| Wise at Biennial: URJ conference unites 6,000 Reform Jews |
 Many of our clergy and staff are in attendance the Biennial conference of the Union for Reform Judaism. This year’s conference is being held in Boston and brings together 6,000 Reform Jewish clergy, staff, and lay leaders for a week of learning, worship, song, and meaningful connection. Pardon our kvelling as Rabbi Sari Laufer teaches Torah this Saturday morning and as Cantor Emma Lutz leads learning and singing on Thursday afternoon and Friday night.
Follow along with our Wise team via social media: #WiseAtBiennial #URJBiennial
Facebook: Stephen Wise Temple
Instagram: @StephenWiseTemple |
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| Hannukkah With Wise |
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 Shabbanukkah
Friday, December 15
Part Hanukkah. Part Shabbat. All awesome.
5 p.m. | Family-friendly latke nosh with music and dreidel games
6:15 p.m. | Hanukkiyot Lighting and Shabbat Services
7:30 p.m. | Dinner
REGISTER FOR DINNER |
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Enjoy Our #WiseLights on Campus During Hanukkah!
Weeknights during Hanukkah at 4:30 p.m.
Join our clergy and staff on Nahmias Plaza outside the Katz Family Pavilion to light our community Hannukiyah during the festival of lights! Enjoy prayers and meaningful words as we celebrate the season of spreading light and hope.
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| Center For Tikkun Olam – Give Back Guide |
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 50 Families Need Your Support This Holiday Season
LA Family Housing helps thousands of people transition into permanent housing. We are looking for our community to make this season bright for 50 families-in-need by providing Holiday Kits filled with household goods, holiday decorations, and Ralphs/Target gift cards by December 10. Our community involvement will enable these families to more fully experience this holiday season.
Here are the ways you can make an impact:
1. Donate funds towards Holiday Kits. Your contribution of $150 supplies a family with needed items, including household goods, holiday decorations and Ralphs/Target gift cards. UPDATE: Thanks to the generosity of Wise families, we have already collected funds to provide 15 families with Holiday Kits. With your support, we can still reach our goal of 50 kits.
2. Donate funds towards gift cards. Your contribution of $40 or $80 will go towards the purchase of Ralphs/Target gift cards needed for Holiday Kits.
3. Sponsor a meal. Your contribution of $500 pays for a meal served by LA Family Housing during the month of December.
4. Volunteer on Sunday, December 24 from 3pm – 6pm with Cantor Emma Lutz. Join her and other members of your Wise community in preparing dinner for families at LA Family Housing.
DONATE NOW
RSVP TO VOLUNTEER
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 Help Formerly-Homeless Veterans Furnish Their New Homes
Donate Funds for Furniture and Appliances
Homes for Heroes partners with local veterans groups, including the VA, to help furnish new apartments for previously homeless vets. Your donation helps our team purchase furniture and appliances as well as toiletries and “welcome home” basket items. We also gladly accept donations of new items large and small: household appliances, toiletries, and other sundry items to make our veterans feel at home right away. You may bring donations to the Wise administrative office!
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 Light Up Literacy
Give the gift of reading during the Hanukkah season to benefit Reading Village, which provides brand-new books to eager children in Guatemala. Book donations are now being accepted in the Wise School office.
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Adopt a Family and Help Make the Holidays Bright
Wise congregant and Children’s Law Center attorney, Bo Lundy represents abused, neglected, and abandoned children in the LA County juvenile dependency court. Many of her clients are in group or foster homes or very low income families. She invites us to participate in her organization’s “Adopt-a-Family” drive which bring much needed cheer and joy to the children. She has invited us to adopt a family or young person for the holidays. If you’re interested, please visit www.clccal.org/adoptafamily or text “clcadopt” to the number 41444.
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| Upcoming Events |
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Please join us for the Wise School and Stephen Wise Temple Gala on February 3, 2018 at 7pm located in the Katz Family Pavilion. This event celebrates 40 years of Jewish Education with an elegant affair, Black Tie Optional attire. We will be honoring Lori & Robert Goodman, the Katz Family, Ronald Katz, Dana & Todd Katz, and Kathy & Randall Katz, Deena & Edward Nahmias, Wendy & Ken Ruby, and Lori & Leandro Tyberg.
RSVP HERE
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 Wise Years
Thursday, December 14
Registration begins at 9:30 a.m.
Program begins at 10 a.m.
Stephen Wise Temple’s Artist-in-Resident Mario M. Muller will provide fascinating insight into the artistic process. UCLA Doctoral Student Max Daniel will discuss the rich history of the Sephardic Jewish community in Los Angeles. After a buffet lunch, enjoy a screening of the film Loving Leah (2009) or play games.
LEARN MORE AND REGISTER FOR LUNCH |
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Dafna Presnell Memorial Service
Sunday, December 17 at 11:30 a.m.
It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Dafna Presnell, the Director of our Early Childhood Center for more than three decades, as well as the founding principal of our Day School. Dafna touched the lives of countless children, as well as their parents, through her passionate love of every child, her insight and sensitivity in guiding parents through their most challenging moments and, most importantly, through her deeply human and humane presence. She was the early childhood educator par excellence, whose warmth infused the very heart of Stephen Wise Temple in its formative years and over the course of our growth. Donations in tribute to the legacy of her work may be made to our Early Childhood Center or Parenting Center.
RSVP HERE |
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 Center for Jewish Life presents:
Classical (Siddur) Hebrew, Beginning 2
10 Mondays: January 8 – March 26 (No class on 1/15, 2/19)
7 – 9 p.m. at Stephen Wise Temple
Instructor: Alisa Lottati, American Jewish University
This class is for students who completed Beginning 1 or can read at a beginners level. The class focuses on improving reading skills and understanding the prayers.
REGISTER HERE
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 Center for Jewish Life presents:
The Writings of Elie Wiesel
with Rabbi David Woznica
Tuesdays, January 9, 16, 23
6:30 – 8 p.m.
Elie Wiesel survived Auschwitz and became a witness for the six million who perished. He was a leading international Jewish and beloved to the Jewish people. Through his books, his teaching and his speeches he reached tens of millions around the world. We will read and analyze three speeches of one of the most important Jews in modern history.
REGISTER HERE
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 Wise Family Camp
Friday, January 26 – Sunday, January 28 | Camp Ramah
Unplug, recharge, and connect with us in Ojai. Take a break from the busy-ness of life, and spend quality family time with your own family and your Stephen Wise Temple family. Whether it’s a Friday night song session with Rabbi Yoshi, the ropes course, hiking with Rabbi Stern, a Havdalah dance party, or just the chance to relax with a glass of wine, a good book and good friends – Wise Family Camp is made for YOU. Parents and young children will stay in comfortable rooms and kids in grades 2 through 12 will bunk in cabins with trained and beloved Camp Wise staff.
REGISTER NOW – spots are filling up fast! |
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 Men’s Ski Trip
February 23-25, 2018
Hit the slopes with the guys of Wise! This is an incredible getaway for a limited group of Wise guys including Rabbi Yoshi and Rabbi Stern! We spend two days enjoying the mountains and snow of Mammoth Mountain, the services of our own personal chef, Shabbat, great camaraderie and some awesome skiing. Even if you’re not a skier, Mammoth offers great winter activities from snow-mobiling to snow-shoeing and we’ll have access to the spa and gym at the Snowcreek mountain center.
REGISTER HERE |
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| Community Calendar |
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Jewish Federation of Los Angeles presents
20th Anniversary of Twinning: A Celebration of Meaningful Connection
Sunday, December 10 at 4:30 p.m. | Katz Family Pavilion
The Federation’s Global Teen Twinning Program turns this year! Join hundreds of program alumni, families, and educators to celebrate Twinning’s meaningful impact on thousands of teens and their families over the past two decades — in Los Angeles, Tel Aviv, and Vilnius.
LEARN MORE AND REGISTER HERE |
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West Coast Jewish Theatre presents
New York Water by Sam Bobrick and directed by Howard Teichman
Playing now through December 17 | Pico Playhouse
Linda and Albert are a New York couple who have just met and feel they have been held back by the city. Follow them as they try to make a go of it in Davenport, Iowa, Los Angeles and then, no longer together, wind up meeting back in New York. This madcap journey of love stars Ross Benjamin and Bridget Flanery.
PURCHASE TICKETS |
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 Get Ready for Hanukkah Temple Gift Shop!
Hanukkah is just 6 nights away! The Temple Gift Shop is offering 20% off all Hanukkah merchandise. Don’t forget about candles and gelt, as well as gift items.
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| Lifecycle • Yahrzeits |
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We remember with love those who died in recent days and weeks:
Aaron Cohen, Richard Alan Fisher, Gail Friedman, Gerald Gross, Peppa Kahane, Huguette Nadjar, Arthur Siegel
We observe the yahrzeits of:
Abe Dorfman, Abe Orbuch, Andrew Milkes, Ann Gernhardt, Ann Spiegel, Doris Olden, Earnest Leewong, Eileen Flexer, Ernie Balachio, Evelyn Caplan, Gertrude N. Caine, Habib Famili, Ida Campanella, Ida Lewis, Isabelle Freedland, Isidor Gross, Jack Scapa, Joseph Herons, Joyce Greenstein, Judith Kerzin, Lawrence Storch, Lee Singer-Sporina, Leon Block, Lillian Hoffman, Lillian Newman, Lucille Rosen, Marion Schwartz, Marjorie Samuels, Martin Kahlenberg, Miriam Shain, Mortimer S. Green, Muriel Gordon, Nellie Geldin, Nina Fisher, Norman Gable, Phyllis Angrisane, Rose Dorfman, Rose Finkel, Rose Rubin, Sadie Breitman, Sophie Bernstein, Stuart Kayland, Sylvia Gram, Ted C. Levy, Vicky Eichelbaum, William Joseph, Yahzgel Harovnian, Benjamin Feldman, George Rosenstein, Irene Crane, Nathan Strommer, Sam Fisher, William Lewis, Yehatgel Harounian
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| Lifecycle • Condolences |
| We reach out as a community and offer our support and deepest sympathy to those among us who are mourning the loss of a loved one.
Justin and Allison Fisher and Alissa and Mike Moran on the loss of Alissa’s and Justin’s father Richard Alan Fisher.
Stephen Kahane and Janet Wells-Kahane on the loss of Stephen’s mother Peppa Kahane. Condolences also to Peppa’s granddaughter Rebecca Kahane.
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| Lifecycle • Mazal Tov |
| Shehechianu Moment
Do you have a milestone birthday or anniversary approaching? We’d like to celebrate your special day on the bima during Friday evening Shabbat Services! Invite your family, join your Wise community, make it a “shehechianu moment” – a time to give thanks for life, health, and the blessings that enable you to reach this great moment in your life. Let us know by emailing Arlene Spiegelman or calling 310.889.2272 and she’ll make sure to schedule a date that works for you. We’d love to share your celebration!
To our B’nai Mitzvah — may the Torah guide and inspire you every day of your adult life.
Mazal tov to:
Nasi and Babak Bamshad On their son James becoming Bar Mitzvah
Paola and Alvaro Gancman on their daughter Sabrina becoming Bat Mitzvah
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| Thank You |
| We appreciate our wonderful volunteers:
Nosh Volunteer:
Susan Firestone
Gift Shop Volunteers:
Terrie Baumann
Emil Cobar
Rochelle Fox
Lori Rubin
Carol Sookman
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| A Welcoming Community |
Have a great idea? Share it with us by submitting it to our online suggestion box.
SUGGESTIONS
Do you want to reach us?
CONTACT LIST
Are you having a lifecycle event? Or would you like to be added to this email list?
LET US KNOW
Would you like to get involved? Check out upcoming Temple and School events.
VIEW CALENDAR |
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Shabbat Shalom
Stephen Wise Temple | 15500 Stephen S. Wise Drive | Los Angeles, CA 90077
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