Your JUF update

During these uncertain times, it's more important than ever to come together as a community. With this email, we hope to provide you with resources, moral support and other ways to adjust to this temporary “new normal.”  

Visit our JUF Coronavirus Community Resource Page where you’ll find links to more resources, info on JUF initiatives and ways to help or donate. And be sure to check JUF's Facebook page for daily updates.

Kvelling with Emmy winners

Join JUF for JFNA’s Communal Kvell event! Celebrate with Dan, Eugene & Sarah Levy from the Emmy Award-winning Schitt’s Creek! Plus, enjoy special guests and musical performances and connect with Jewish communities from around the globe.

Jewish "Say So" singer scores a special award

Singer and rapper Doja Cat won the MTV Video Music Award for Push Best New Artist last weekend. Best known for her songs “Moo” and “Say So,” she thanked her Jewish mother in her acceptance speech.

Safe High Holiday traditions for a sweet new year

Is it safe to attend in-person services or sukkah hops? How about breaking the fast on Yom Kippur? Learn the best ways to keep you and your family safe during this High Holiday season.

Never too late to celebrate

While many bat mitzvahs happen at 12, the number took on new significance this week for a dozen women ages 72 to 100 who celebrated their special day. Mazel tov!

TikTok mashup: sea lions vs. shofar

With the High Holidays going virtual this year, people are flocking to online platforms with creative new takes on the new year. Ring in 5781 with this unique TikTok mashup of sea lion calls and shofar sounds.

A moment of reflection with Rabbi Samuel N. Gordon

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel taught us that Jews sanctify time, not space, yet how do we do so when time seems so unsettled? Our core observance is Shabbat, the completion of the six days of creation from Genesis. In creating our world from chaos, God separated and categorized. There was light and darkness, day and night, dry land and waters. After the six days of creation, there was Shabbat, an antidote to the chaos that existed prior to creation.  

Since March, time has become confused. If we are not mindful, one day simply blends into the next. But our traditions allow us to separate ordinary days from sacred time. We now enter an intensive period of sacred time—the Days of Awe—a time to renew the cycle of the year.   

When the world seems out of our control and we can barely separate day from night, let us discover how these sacred occasions can help prepare us for the task of creating a sweet New Year.

Rabbi Samuel N. Gordon, Congregation Sukkat Shalom