Jewish Arts Monthly (JAM) is a new collaborative festival of the arts in Portland. The festival will kick off with a “Pre JAM Slam” party at the MJCC on February 24th, and continue with events through April 25th. Events including the visual arts, music, dance, theater, film, poetry and more will be held around the city. To learn more about their events, click here: JAM Calendar (link)

Insights into the Modern Spiritual Search from Ancient Mystical Sources, taught by Rabbi Ariel Stone and hosted by the Mittleman Jewish Community Center. The class will be held on Wednesdays at 7pm, February 3-March 24, 2010.

Join Rabbi Ariel Stone for eight fascinating weeks of exploring talmudic, medieval, and early modern Jewish sources offering insights into our own modern Jewish spiritual journey.  No Hebrew necessary. $36 per person.

Because of the burden the recession has placed on us all, this class is deliberately underpriced. Please send tzedakah in any additional amount that you believe the class is worth to the beneficiary of your choice.

Everyone who attended last year’s Tu B’Shvat celebration probably remembers how we built this wonderful and unusual seder around a lot of fun music, drawn from various traditional Jewish and non-Jewish sources.  Click here (link)  for a PDF of the songsheet for the seder, which we will be using again this year.  Don’t worry about printing it out; Bev and I will bring color copies.  For more information on our Tu B’Shvat music and links to recorded versions, go to our new Zemirot(link) page.  Bev and I are very much looking forward to celebrating this most Portland friendly of Jewish holidays with all of you!  – J.D. Kleinke

Join us on January 30 from 5-7pm at Bridgeport for Shir Tikvah’s Annual Tu B’Shevat Family Seder, led by Bev Guttag and JD Kleinke. The seder will be followed by a potluck supper, featuring the seven sacred varieties of fruits and grains which represent Israel’s fertility.

For the potluck, please bring:
Last names A-F = bread and olives
Last names G-L = dessert featuring or containing honey
Last names M-R = main dish or salad containing barley or figs
Last names S-Z = main dish or salad containing wine, grapes,and/or pomegranates

BYO wine and/or grape juice. Please bring equal amounts of white and red, as they are central to the seder.

Please RSVP to both adminasst.shirtikvah@gmail.com and thefam@easystreet.net by January 27.

“Safety, Empowerment, Healing and Hope–A Community Responds to Domestic Violence” will be the topic for Shir Tikvah’s upcoming Fourth Friday.  Presented by Rebecca Norman, Community Partnership Coordinator for Bradley Angle, the discussion will focus on the challenges faced by victims of domestic violence and how a caring community can respond. 

Join us this Friday, Jan 22 at 7:00 pm at Bridgeport. Speaker follows our regular erev Shabbat service.