It’s still cold out but Spring is getting closer. How do I know this? I know it because Purim planning is on and the Purim program is being prepared! Our lyricist, Rabbi Daniel (Hamlisch) Polish, has been busy creating great lyrics for an Interactive Purim Service and Celebration on March 14. We will also have the premiere of a comedy skit written by Robbie Schiff and played by past Purim stars. Don’t miss the fun!
The annual and very successful Spring Fling will be on Saturday, April 26 at the Artist’s Palate. Again this year, in addition to enjoying great food and wine, we will be dancing to the music selection of our resident D.J., Irwin Goldberg. As a new and special attraction, we will be presenting a Comedy Show with professional performers to enhance evening festivities. There will be a raffle, laughter and merriment, as well as beer and wine, through out the evening. Please reserve the date, ask a friend or two. Last year’s event was enjoyed by all. This year’s will be even better . More details will follow—watch your emails!
Planning for the concert on May 17th is in full swing. It will again be held at Poughkeepsie Day School’s James Earl Jones Theater. This year’s concert and entertainment is again in the capable hands of Gloria Goverman, Please save the date of May 17th for an Evening on Broadway.

There is movement on the building. Michael Rothman and Lindsey Turner are working with the Town Board. Please check on the building committee report in this bulletin. Please remember that on March 2 and March 9 the Rabbi and Reverend Paul Lent will continue their discussion on How the Bible is  Understood by Both Christians and Jews.

As for me, spring is almost here and the golf courses are calling, so if something needs discussion, call me before the ice and snow melt!
~Vic Feit
Rebef2@cs.com | 914-474-0680

Are you tired of being snowed in for weeks on end? Of having school cancelled? Shoveling your sidewalks? Clearing snow off your roofs? What about skidding on black ice when you have to make a desperation run to the grocery store for milk? Not that the severity of this winter is in any way related to global climate change, perish the thought. But it has been a hard winter. So we, who are usually cushioned from the brutalities of the elements, can get a small taste of what our ancestors who lived in more rudimentary conditions faced on a regular basis.

All of which brings us to what?

To Purim.

I suppose I could go to great lengths to try to convince you of the historicity of the story of Esther. Or failing that, to at least try to provide some kind of historical context for a book which may, in fact be less historical than a), above, would have you believe. Or present some grand mythic archetype in which the Megillah participates. But instead I would remind you that Purim comes just at the time when we, like our ancestors who were even more impacted by the elements, are finally freeing ourselves from the oppressions of winter.

Like them we can feel giddy and exuberant not to be burdened by the cold and discomfort, the gray skies, and the general unpleasantness of this “season of our discontent”. What would make more sense than to throw off our constraints and repressions; to just revel in  foolishness and outlandishness?

Which brings us back to Purim: which was for them, and can be for us, a time of untrammeled silliness and general uninhibitedness. This year at Shir Chadash we will be celebrating Purim on Friday night March 14 (same Shir Chadash time, same Shir Chadash place). But please read the following terms and conditions: we are abandoning the old, outmoded models of Purim of the Past. Yes! We are trying a new tack. Out with the old, in with the new. Responding to the general cultural context of this moment we are dispensing with the staid, passive, frontal, top-down, model of the anachronistic “shpiel”. In its place we will be sharing a new, twenty-first century, up to the minute model of Purim 2.0 — an interactive Megillah experience*. Come be part of it. You won’t know what you are missing unless you are there
       ~Rabbi Polish

*Of course there will be lots of singing, a costume parade (so please come even more  ridiculously attired than usual — in other words, wear a costume), and plenty of hamantaschen.

March 28th at 7:30
Kabbalat Shabbat
Service led by BILL ANSHEN &
Cantorial Soloist LISA KIPEN-HERSHENSON

March 29th at 9:00 am – Sharing Shabbat
School for the kids (snow day make-up session!)
Torah Study led by MICHAEL ROTHMAN & JEFF LASH
Shabbat morning service led by Cantorial Soloist LISA KIPEN-HERSHENSON
D’var Torah by LARRY SOLOMON

FRIDAY, MARCH 14

PURIM ~ THE MOST SOLEMN DAY ON THE JEWISH CALENDAR

(or maybe not so much)

 Bring your groggers and funny hats and high spirits.   Listen to the Megillah and pound the floor with your feet when Haman’s name is mentioned! Watch,  listen and get involved with an interactive Megillah Experience.  This is Purim 2.0 at its most innovative!   Come for the hamantashan, stay for the drama, add to the hijinks!  You’ll never be the same.

Neil Berg’s One Hundred Years of Broadway!!

Saturday May 17 @ 8:00 PM

 Poughkeepsie Day School

Save the date ~ More details to follow

Rabbi Polish and Pope Francis greet each other at the Vatican in July 2013 when the Pope met with representatives of the Jewish community.

The Board of Congregation Shir Chadash is pleased to announce that in our 2014/2015 year, we will be welcoming back Cantor Gail Hirschenfang.  Cantor Hirschenfang will start the Jewish New Year in observance of Rosh Hashannah with the congregation by leading us in song and prayer for the High Holy Days.

Welcome back Cantor Hirschenfang – and here’s to new beginnings with old friends.