To live as a Jew in a city like Portland is a blessing in many ways - there is celebration of diversity here, and tolerance of many different ways of life. When people can bicycle naked through the night, or stroll downtown with a spiky foot-high Mohawk haircut, I feel pretty unremarkable walking around in my kipah on our city streets.

But on a day like Christmas, living in a small Jewish community can make one feel small and very insignificant. We wish our Christian friends and neighbors well, but this is not our holiday. Our holiday is Shabbat, and on this night and tomorrow morning it will feel especially welcome to have a chance to create a Jewish space among all of us who gather.

Join us on this Shabbat - observe Shabbat at home or with us at shul - and celebrate the diversity that allows us to be different by expressing it - and in so doing, help to build your kehillah kedoshah, your holy community, with your own hands.

Shabbat shalom,
Rabbi Ariel Stone

One more bonus for braving all those quiet streets and coming out to Erev Shabbat services this Friday (Dec 25, 7 pm)…we’ll be thinking our own turn-of-the-season thoughts as the secular new year approaches, with the lovely “Overjoyed” by Christine Kane.

The lyrics are posted here (link.) Rabbi Ariel and JD Kleinke usually sing and play this in the key of F. (I actually play it with a capo on the third fret, so it looks like we are doing it in the key of D. - JD) And if you remember from last year, the chorus is easy - and meant to be sung out long, wistful, and sweet.

Due to a weather advisory, the Hannukat haYeladim and Latke Fest will NOT be held tonight. Instead, we will celebrate next erev Shabbat at Bridgeport at 6:30pm. We’ll have the same latkes, the same Hanukkah fun with our menorahs and dreidels, and the same Dedication of the Children who are new to the Nashira Project this year!

Transforming America’s Israel Lobby: Prospects for Peace & the Role of the American Jewish Community (link)

Dan Fleshler, media and public affairs strategist, will speak at Congregation Neveh Shalom on Sat, Dec 19 at 7pm.

Come celebrate our Kehillah Kedoshah at Shir Tikvah’s annual Hannukat haYeladim and Latke Fest on Dec 12 from 5-7:30 at the Bridgeport Building! We will  honor the teachers who help us fulfill the mitzvah of v’shinantam l’vanekha, “you shall teach your children,” and welcome children new to our Nashira Education Project. There will be singing, games, Hannukiyah lighting, and more! For more information, click  here (link).