Programs & Events
There is something for everyone at CSFA. Periodically throughout the year we hold Shabbat and Holiday dinners and celebrations; lectures on topics of interest to the Jewish community; and 'just plain fun' concerts and other entertainment. We also have regularly scheduled, ongoing activities that will appeal to a wide variety of people in our diverse community. See below for a listing of our currently scheduled activities and events.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Rafflemania at CSFA!!!!
Don't miss the drawing of our yearly Purim Raffle, an important fundraiser for the shul. Make sure you buy tickets and please also sell them to others; the more the merrier! The grand prize is $1000 and the second prize is $500; all in all, not a bad return on a $100 investment. The drawing will take place during our Purim festivities on Saturday evening, February 27th.
The joyous holiday of Purim is celebrated on February 27th and 28th. We begin with a family Purim party and Minchah/Maariv services at 6:30 p.m. and continue with the first Megillah reading at 7:00 p.m. Make sure you are there to be part of the Rafflemania drawing and to enjoy the singing, grogging, hooting and hollering, eating and drinking that are part of Purim celebrations.
We continue the next morning (Sunday, the 28th) at 9:00 a.m. with services, Torah reading and the second Megillah reading. This is the 'grownup' version of Purim: more spiritual, with fewer 'spirits.' Services will be followed by a brunch.
Don't forget that it is customary to personally give tzedakah—charity, whether food or money—to needy people as part of this holiday season. At this time of economic stress, the needy in our community are not hard to find; and we must not neglect this obligation.
Shabbat Across America, a program of the National Jewish Outreach
Program, is on March 5th and 6th. Imagine an entire Friday evening devoted to people
who want to know more about Judaism! It’s an inspiring prayer service and a joyous Shabbat dinner complete with song, ritual and lively discussion. It’s a fun-filled evening of camaraderie that unifies Jews everywhere as one people. Tens of thousands of Jews at hundreds of locations across North America will celebrate Shabbat together on March 5, 2010, many for the first time! Flyers and reservation forms have gone out; please reserve your place by March 1st if you have not already done so. We look forward to seeing YOU there!
Passover is fast approaching, and we are beginning our preparations. We
search for Chametz in the evening of Sunday, March 28th, and the first Passover Seder is on Monday evening, March 29th. As always, CSFA is holding a Second Night Passover Seder, which will take place on March 30th at Abigael’s Restaurant, 1407 Broadway. Flyers and reservation forms are going out; please make your reservations ASAP. This is a great way to celebrate Passover along with other members of the CSFA ‘family.’
Also, we hold morning services on all of the Passover Yom Tovim: March 30th and 31st, and April 5th and 6th (Yizkor will be recited on April 6th). Please try to join us for these weekday services even if you cannot take the entire day off from work, so that we can celebrate the holiday with the proper ruach of a true Jewish community. Come enjoy the Hallel prayers and other elements of the service that are not recited on Shabbat!
Mother's Day Weekend is Anfang Weekend at CSFA, and as always we are anticipating an educational, inspiring lecture and a sumptuous Kiddush in honor of Harold Anfang’s late mother, Sadie Anfang. This year’s speaker will be Ruth R. Wisse, the Martin Peretz Professor of Yiddish Literature and Professor of Comparative
Literature at Harvard University.
Originally from Montreal, Canada, Wisse earned her PhD from McGill University in 1969. Prior to joining the faculty at Harvard, Wisse was a professor at McGill, Stanford,
New York, Hebrew and Tel Aviv Universities. While teaching at McGill, she developed an innovative graduate program in Jewish studies. Professor Wisse received one of the 2007 National Humanities Medals, and has written four books and edited and translated a number of others. Her work has done much to bring the Yiddish language and literature to the attention of the world, and to show the centrality of European Jewish culture to a comprehensive understanding of modern history.
Please mark your calendar now for May 9th, and be sure to join us for this most festive day every year at CSFA.
ONGOING PROGRAMS
Book Review Club
Book Reviews are held in the on the third Tuesday of each month, at 7:30 p.m. We are currently on summer hiatus, but see below for our Fall 2009 book list. Books can be obtained at a discount from Rozanne Seelen at 212-944-0599.
- Soldiers and Slaves by Roger Cohen. American POWs trapped by the Nazis’ final gamble. (March)
- All Other Nights by Dara Horn. A novel about the Civil War and the role and relationships of Jews in the North and South, is likely to provoke conversation around many seder tables. (April)
- Sotah by Naomi Regan. (May)
- The Nazerine by Sholam Asch. (June)
And may we also suggest...
- People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks. Factual and fictional stories of the Sarajevo Haggadah are testaments to the people of many faiths who risked all to save this priceless work. The Sarajevo Haggadah is one of the earliest Jewish volumes ever to be illuminated with images.
- Her First American by Lore Segal. The relationship of a young refugee with a black intellectual is humorous, tone-perfect and wise.
MINYANNAIRES / CROSSFIRE
Two Sundays each month we hold morning minyan services at 9:00 a.m., followed by dairy brunch and a discussion on a topic of interest to the Jewish community. This is an ideal time for those who have never put on tefillin to learn how—and for those who have forgotten how, to re-learn.
CSFA'S TALMUD STUDY CIRCLE meets on Thursday evenings at 7:00. Under the leadership of Yehuda Hausman, a student at the Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School, we recently began a new tractate, Rosh HaShanah, which focuses on the Jewish calendar. This is an ideal time to join our group and enter the world of study and informed debate that has nourished Jewish life and culture for centuries. No Hebrew knowledge needed—beginners welcome!
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