Shalom Chaverim,
Thank you to all who attended the Library Minyan's Annual Meeting following Kiddush on Shabbat January 26. We heard from all members of the Steering Committee, who ensure our community's continued vibrancy. Thanks to Anita Happel, we have an active education calendar in the coming months, and to Diane Herman, along with Deborah Blum and Michelle Wolf, because of whom we have engaging social and hospitality events coming up. And we expressed gratitude to Essia Cartoon-Fredman, our Ohel Patuach coordinator, for ensuring that home hospitality can be offered to those in need of a holiday meal, and to Batya Ordin, Chesed coordinator, for getting the community engaged in providing meals to our members in times of need, whether it be a birth, or sickness or a loss.
Ritual Chair Bill Seligman noted that we continue to meet every Shabbat and all holidays and daven, leyn Torah and chant haftarah (thanks to Paul Miller and Fran & Bob Malina for recruiting volunteers) and hear stimulating drashot (with thanks to Alisa Shudofsky for her work in recruiting darshanim). Carl Sunshine has filled our Shabbatot every month and more with a robust Kiddush and maintained communications with all Minyaners through the website, managed by Bob Roosth, and this Minyan Monthly, edited by Rabbi Susan Laemmle. Sandra Lepson keeps us all young with the presence of children each Shabbat and we will look forward to graduation Shabbatot in June.
As Membership Chairs, Jerry Krautman and Jackie Weiss have engaged several new TBA members who are finding the Library Minyan to be a welcoming home. We all have appreciation for Allan Kokin and the gabbai'im who keep our Shabbat services running smoothly and on time, even as we rotate between Adelson and the Dorff Nelson. And Norm Green, assisted by Dale Bodenstein, keeps us living within our financial means.
Our kahal is blessed to have so many capable and willing volunteers. Even then, we can use some more volunteers. The Steering Committee will soon be giving consideration to the importance of sustaining and growing our leadership. So please, if you are at all inclined, volunteer for an area of interest. I can assure you we will be calling on you to step up and help!
Purim begins on Wednesday evening March 20 and the Library Minyan will have a Megilah reading in the Dorff Nelson Chapel. For the last several years, the Library Minyan has planned the Purim Seudah for the wider TBA community. It will take place this year on Thursday March 21. Sandra Lepson has coordinated this and she would welcome any and all assistance in planning the Seudah, which can include a Purim Spiel. So please reach out to her.
See you in Shul!
— Melissa Berenbaum
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Here is the annual financial report prepared by our long-time Treasurer, Dale Bodenstein. 78% of the Minyan’s income is dedicated to co-sponsored Kiddushim; 88% of our expenses go toward Kiddushim, but some funds are expended for other purposes too, more in some years than in others.
Thanks to all of our donors, and special thanks to Kiddush Chair Carl Sunshine, who has arranged many Sabbath Kiddush lunches for the Minyan.
| Beginning balance 1/1/2018 |
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$9,773 |
| Income |
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15,782 |
| Donations to co-sponsored kiddushim |
12,307 |
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| Miscellaneous donations |
3,475 |
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| Expenses |
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14,420 |
| Kiddushim |
12,749 |
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| Donation to SOVA |
500 |
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| Purim Seudah expenses |
200 |
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| 2nd day Shavuot expenses |
60 |
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| Raise the Roof film |
562 |
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| Luchot |
315 |
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| High holiday printing |
35 |
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| Ending balance 12/31/2018 |
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11,134 |
If you need a reminder on how to donate to the Library Minyan, click HERE.
— Norm Green, Finance Committee Chair |
Touring the LA Public Library with Hannah Kramer |
Oh, what a busy Sunday! On January 13, 2019, nineteen members of the Library Minyan came to tour the Central Library with me as the docent. The approximately 540,000 square foot library is located at 5th and Flower Streets at the center of the financial district. It is an architectural jewel and a garden oasis in the sea of high rises which frame it. The architect Bertram Goodhue wanted to bring an atmosphere of contemplation into the busy metropolis of 1920s Los Angeles. So he created an early Art Deco library, adorned with iconography, sculpture and murals, in a park surrounded by trees and contemplation pools. Our Central Library is #46 on the National Register of Historic Places and is protected from replacement by another tall building.
The tour included only one side of the 4 sculpture-filled sides of the Library and ended after an hour in the Rotunda.
We viewed the Flower Street Gardens, sculptures of Phosphor and Hesper each holding a scroll which includes Moses and Hillel, the Light of Learning torch, the tiled sunburst on the pyramid shaped roof flanked by statues of Shakespeare and Goethe, a Latin inscription by Lucretius, and a relief of two helmeted riders passing the Torch of Life. When we entered the Library, we saw the black Belgian Marble Sphinxes who guard the Female Statue of Civilization, the ceiling décor by the famous Garnsey family, and several mural-filled rooms. Everyone on the tour was amazed by the murals, sculptures and iconography.
It was fun having all of you on the tour. I hope everyone returns to see the other three sides of the building and browse its many collections. Admission is free to all.
— Hannah Kramer, Library Docent |
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Rabbi Cantor Chorny Thanks Library Minyan |
The Shabbat of January 19 was a true high in our community, sharing the resources and beauty of TBA with more than 100 lay and clergy leaders from across the country participating in Kol Tefilah. It was also a morning of tightly shared spaces.
I want to personally thank those who were in the Library Minyan on that Shabbat morning for the graciousness you extended. Even when the drums were going strong across the way. Even when the walls of Pilch were opened. And especially when the Shabbaton service broke into Mourners Kaddish and, even though LM had already ended, you all went quietly enough that someone said, "you could have heard a pin drop."
Thank you for capturing the feeling of radical welcome for everyone who joined us over Shabbat. I spoke to our guests with great pride about our community and included in that praise just how wonderful it is that excellence is happening even when we're not in the room to see or hear it.
Yishar kocheichem. And thank you.
— Rabbi Cantor Hillary Chorny |
| Feb 2 |
DPL Havdallah Game Night, 7-9:30 |
| Feb 9 |
Co-sponsored Kiddush |
| March 8 |
DPL Friday Fun Oneg Night, 8-9:30
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| March 16 |
Torah Club |
| March 20 |
Operation PB&J following Purim Megillah Reading |
| March 30 |
Co-sponsored Kiddush |
| March 31 |
Jewish World Watch Walk to End Genocide |
| April 7 |
Docent-led tour of La Brea Tar Pits & Museum with Zwi Reznik |
| June 1 |
12th Grade Graduation Shabbat in LM |
| June 8 |
8th Grade Graduation Shabbat in LM |
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VISIT US ONLINE
VISIT US ON SHABBAT
Mishna study 9:20
Tefillot begin 9:45
Temple Beth Am
Dorff-Nelson Chapel
1039 S. La Cienega Blvd, 90035
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Plan Ahead for Social Justice Events |
The Annual Operation PB&J (no peanut butter will be used) will take place at TBA on March 20 following the Megillah reading. Join in the opportunity to fulfill the Purim mitzvah of "Matanot L'evyonim" by assembling survival kits for the homeless and making sack lunches. The following day you will have a chance to meet and give out the kits personally to the homeless or to bring the bags to organizations that provide social services.
The Jewish World Watch Walk to End Genocide will take place on Sunday, March 31, from 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM, including an educational fair, at Pan Pacific Park. Registration for Team Temple Beth Am/Tiyya is now open. The Walk raises awareness of, and funds to combat, the devastating consequences of genocide and mass atrocities. Go to walktoendgenocide.org/la. If you cannot walk, join as a walker in spirit. As well, share this event with non TBA members. All are welcome to join our team.
Contact Dianne Shershow, Team Captain, at dfshersh@aol.com if you have any questions. |
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