On Our Minds

Details: Written by Joanne Wallenstein; Published: 26 February 2014; Created: 26 February 2014; Last Updated: 26 February 2014; Hits: 5831

rabbijacobs Westchester Reform Temple (WRT) in Scarsdale will celebrate their 60th anniversary with three weekends for both congregation members and the greater Scarsdale community; A weekend of prayer and learning (February 28 – March 2), a family Purim and birthday celebration (March 16), and a festive gala (March 22).

"Westchester Reform Temple has played an important role in Scarsdale and our surrounding communities for the last 60 years. In keeping with our longstanding tradition, all related services, events and programs are open to the public - celebrations that reflect our commitment to reach beyond," said temple president, Helene Gray."

The festivities begin on Friday, February 28 at 7:45 pm with a Celebratory Community Service featuring remarks by WRT's Rabbi Emeritus Richard Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, the congregational arm of the Reform Jewish Movement in North America, as well as reflections and reminiscences of Rabbi David Stern, Senior Rabbi of Temple Emanuel in Dallas, TX, and Dr. Elsie Stern, Professor of Bible at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Wyncote, PA. Rabbi Stern and Dr. Stern are two of the children of Rabbi Jack Stern, WRT's stern spiritual leader from 1962 to 1991. Music for the service includes an uplifting musical retrospective with liturgical favorites, a special musical composition by WRT's beloved pianist and conductor, Pete Malinverni, and an intergenerational chorale. .

Rabbi Stern and Dr. Stern will remain with the congregation for a weekend of learning as part of WRT's annual Scholar-in-Residence program. Saturday, March 1 at 10:30 am, they will lead a joint program entitled, "21st Century Judaism: The views from Dallas and Philadelphia," and on Sunday morning, at 9:30 am, Dr. Stern will conclude the weekend with a talk entitled, "Forbidden Fruit or Fallen Angels?: Ancient Jewish Perspectives on Free Will and Evil." This weekend is funded in part by Morgan and Marjorie Miller.

"It is wonderful to kick-off the 60th anniversary celebration with a heartfelt service and a weekend of learning. Worship and learning are two of the pillars at the core of our congregation," said Senior Rabbi, Jonathan E. Blake. "We feel so very proud of what we have accomplished in our first 60 years and I look forward to building our Jewish future during the next 60 and beyond."

legocake The celebration will continue the morning of Sunday, March 16, with a Family Purim Celebration and WRT's 60th Birthday Party. The program will begin at 10:00 am with a Megillah Reading, Purim Spiel and Costume Parade in the sanctuary, followed at 11:00 am by a Carnival and Celebration including the return of "LEGO-Man," Stephen W. Schwartz AIA, Architect, who will help participants construct WRT's giant LEGO Birthday Cake! Tickets are $18 in advance per child ($20 at the door); Adults are Free. Tickets will be available online at http://bit.ly/1nzp4XG.

The series of celebrations will conclude on Saturday, March 22 at 7:00 pm when WRT will celebrate 60 years with the music of the 60s. "Peace-Love-Party" will feature a live concert by the Eturnity Band, including Motown, Rock n'Roll and a choreographed show that will get everyone on their feet! Tickets and e-journal dedications are being accepted online at www.wrtemple.org. Proceeds from the evening support the congregation.

Westchester Reform Temple is located at 255 Mamaroneck Road in Scarsdale, NY. For directions or wrt60 more information, please call the temple office at 914-723-7727, email to office@wrtemple.org, or visit www.wrtemple.org.

Details: Written by Joanne Wallenstein; Published: 11 February 2014; Created: 11 February 2014; Last Updated: 11 February 2014; Hits: 4580

Gilad1 Documentary film "Gilad Shalit–The Interview" (Israel, 2012; Hebrew with English subtitles) will have an exclusive Westchester screening in the JCC of Mid-Westchester's Bendheim Theatre on Thursday, February 27 at 7:30 pm.

Directed and produced by Tal Goren with Tamar Pross, the film features the first and only interview with Gilad Shalit, former Israeli soldier abducted by Palestinian militants, talking about his experiences during five years of captivity in the Gaza Strip.

This singular opportunity to view this film in Westchester is followed by an intimate audience Q&A session with Westchester's Israel Shaliach (emissary) Yoav Cohen, an officer in the Israel Defense Forces at the time of Shalit's capture in Gaza during a cross-border raid in June, 2006. Held in an unknown location in the Hamas-ruled Gaza strip, Shalit said that although he was treated mostly well by his Hamas captors, he was fearful that he would never be released. "I tried to be optimistic," he told interviewers. "I tried to focus on the little, good things I had there." Shalit was released on October 18, 2011 as part of a controversial Palestinian prisoner exchange.

Filmmaker Tal Goren was given exclusive access to Shalit's family throughout his captivity and was on hand for the preparations for Shalit's homecoming. His film is a historical documentation of the soldier / child / captive describing what he has been through. Emissary Cohen, who served in the IDF at the same time as Shalit, will host this special opportunity to hear his side of his story. "I am honored to bring my Westchester neighbors the chance to watch this exclusive in-depth interview and to hear about on life in the IDF and about what happened 'that day in June'," says Cohen.
General admission is $15; or $10 for Hillel students and Engage volunteers*. Tickets are available online at www.jccmw.org.

The JCC of Mid-Westchester, 999 Wilmot Road, Scarsdale, a proud beneficiary of UJA-Federation of New York, is a non-profit organization dedicated to enriching the community by providing cultural, social, educational and recreational/fitness programs, human services and Jewish identity-building opportunities to people of all ages and backgrounds without regard to race or religion. www.jccmw.org.

Details: Written by Ali Farfel; Published: 27 January 2014; Created: 27 January 2014; Last Updated: 27 January 2014; Hits: 4644

sower The Southern Westchester Food & Wine Festival will be back this year from September 19 to 21 and will feature a September weekend of outdoor culinary events. This past September, SOWE attracted over 7,500 attendees to an epicurean celebration, featuring over 100 sponsors, 75 restaurants, celebrity chefs, and more.

"Last year's festival was so well received, and the feedback was so strong, we had to expand the schedule and programming to accommodate everyone," stated Richard Baumer, Founder of SOWE. "Every restaurant, vendor, attendee, sponsor, media partner, chef, and charitable organization, expressed an interest to participate on an ongoing basis." Last year's Festival took place in a fully tented Scarsdale Village, featuring the best Westchester food, wine, beer, music, kid's activities, chef demonstrations, book signings, and celebrity meet & greets.

The weekend's festivities will showcase gourmet food samplings from hundreds of Southern Westchester's top restaurants, caterers, bakeries, and pit masters, plus over 300 award winning wines and craft beers from around the world. Attendees will also experience celebrity-chef cooking demonstrations, product displays, book signings, live music, children's activities, and more!

Weekend events will include:
• Friday, Sept 19, 2014: SOWE Best Chef Battle
• Saturday, Sept 20, 2014 SOWE BBQ & Jazz Bash
• Saturday, Sept 20, 2014 SOWE Concert and Food Truck Parade
• Sunday, Sept 21, 2014 SOWE Grand Tasting Village

This year's program will include an outdoor concert in Harbor Island Park (Mamaroneck, NY), a chef competition, a BBQ tasting competition, and well as a chance for restaurants, wineries, pit masters, cheese mongers, breweries, and specialty culinary providers, to distribute tastings.

Ticket sales will begin in June, 2014.

The producers of SOWE are looking for volunteers who want to help make this year's event even better. They are seeking committed part time volunteers from January until September, .Schedule is flexible and can accommodate kids pick-up times, etc. If you would like to be part of the team to plan the 2014 program email SB@sowefwf.com

To sign up for email alerts visit: www.sowefwf.com. For more information contact Rich Baumer at rb@sowefwf.com or 917-733-3900

Details: Written by Joanne Wallenstein; Published: 02 February 2014; Created: 02 February 2014; Last Updated: 06 February 2014; Hits: 7744

TrustBees The Fourth Annual Friends of the Scarsdale Library Spelling Bee had all the elements for a dramatic evening .... great expectations, spelling starlets, returning champions and the promise of youth.

Four swarms , each with five cleverly-named teams of spellers competed in the first rounds, followed by a final round with the four finalists. PTA moms entered as the "Bee Tee Council and the "PT Bees", returning champions Lucas Meyer and Esther Sloan were joined by Robert Berg in "Hip to Bee-Square, MeyerB and "The Presbeeterians with Heather Gilchiest Meili and Stephen Meili were back to see if they could repeat their success from prior years. Trigens, Brian Guggenheimer and Randy Guggenheimer with Stephie Miller were also former players as well as the Library Trustbees, Terry Simon, Florie Wachtenheim and Seth Ross --who won last year with different teammates. Five teams of Scarsdale High School students also showed great promise. Fresh from reviewing their SAT words, these teens were forbidding challengers.

Following introductory remarks Spelling Bee Co-Chair Renu Lalwani and Library Director Beth Bermel, Co-Chair Sara Werder introduced the judge :Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, Village Trustee Jon Mark and eagle-eye Margaret Smith from the Spelling Bee Committee.

PTBees2 Voice of the Mets Ed Coleman began the games opening with the word P-A-V-I-L-I-O-N. Two teams were out immediately, including a second "L" to write P-A-V-I-L-L-I-O-N. The remaining teams, save The Presbeeterians, had a quandary over the word Q-U-A-N-D-A-R-Y and Swarm A was over after just four words.

However Swarm B was just the opposite and proved to be the longest in the history of the Bee as the teams went through seventeen words before Seth Ross, Terry Simon and Florie Wachtenheim emerged the victors.

One team was eliminated after they spelled J-A-C-K-K-N-I-F-E with one K (fooled me!) and two more teams fell on the word P-L-E-B-E-I-A-N –(who knew there was another E, following the B?)

The remaining three teams all misspelled Rorschach, so they all stayed in until the Trigens were BJudges eliminated by the word D-Y-B-B-U-K (an evil spirit in Jewish folklore) and the remaining team failed to spell Q-U-I-D-N-U-N-C correctly. No surprise as I had never even heard the word "quidnunc" before, no less spelled it. I later found out it means "a person who knows the latest news or gossip," and had a good laugh. The Library Trustbees emerged the winner of that most-difficult round.

Onto Swarm C where the word P-A-S-T-I-M-E quickly knocked out one team who included a second "T" in the center, with the others falling away on H-I-R-S-U-T-E,
and S-A-C-R-I-L-E-G-I-O-U-S leaving the PTBees, Ronit Fisher Angela Manson, Neela Mathias to go onto the final round.

Bsharps In Swarm D of SHS students, three teams were quickly knocked out by the word A-B-S-C-E-S-S and the remaining teams spelled macabre, lacquer and feign correctly until the double H in B-E-A-C-H-H-E-A-D left the B Sharps with Harry Chalfin, Justin Cooper and Charlie Musoff to battle the adults in the finals.

After refreshments and a wonderful trivia quiz for the audience led by Carolyn Mehta and Christine Bensche, the four finalists were back to see who would take the title for 2014. While in the previous round teams wrote the words on erasable boards and held them up for the judges to review, this round was done orally with a representative from each team taking the mike without notes to spell the word.

LittleBees Unfortunately the pressure of the oral presentation was too much for the teen team who was knocked out when they forgot the "A" in
D-I-A-P-H-R-A-G-M though they remembered the "G." The Presbeeterians lost the contest by including an "I" rather than an "E" in
C-U-R-V-A-C-E-O-U-S leaving the Library Trustbees to battle the PT Bees for first place. They traded some difficult works including "grosgrain" "inchoate" and "chartreuse" until the PT Bees tripped up by using a "U" rather than a "Y" in D-I-P-T-Y-C-H (a pair of painted or carved panels that are hinged together). Seth Ross of The Library Trustbees advanced to the mike to spell M-I-S-C-H-I-E-V-O-U-S and won the contest for the TrustBees for the second year in a row. (Last year's winners included Ross, Barbara Josselshon and Warren Breakstone.)

MichelleB Awards were announced by Christine Bensche and presented by three adorable little B's. Everyone in the audience was smiling and had visions of letters dancing in their heads.

Friends of the Library Say Thank You!

To the Editor: On behalf of the Friends of the Scarsdale Library, we would like to express our gratitude to so many in the community for making our fourth Spelling Bee a tremendous success. The funds raised will be used to upgrade the Library's lobby and entryway.

Our congratulations to all the team members and particularly to our winning team, the Library Trust-Bees (Seth Ross, Terri Simon, and Florie Wachtenheim)!

We would like to thank our fantastic emcee Ed Coleman; our judges NYS Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, Deputy Mayor Jonathan Mark and Spelling Bee Committee member Margaret Smith; our photographer Larry Smith; our tech crew including Steve Bogardus, Dave Berry, and Kamal and Rohan Mehta; and our many "worker bees" who helped out during the evening.

Please support our generous sponsors: Platinum: Thomson Reuters; Diamond: Mercedes-Benz of White Plains, Paul Hastings LLP, and Sara & Rick Werder; Gold: Country Bank, Houlihan Lawrence, Julia B. Fee Sotheby's International Realty, Drs Renu & Anil Lalwani, and Margaret & Laurence Smith; and Silver: Christine & John Bensche, Buzz Potential Inc, Coldwell Banker, Linda & Jonathan Flaxer, Frank's Home Improvements, Drs Lopa & Mantu Gupta, Prudential Centennial Realty, Rachele Rose Day Spa, William & Cynthia Roberts, Vintology, and A.G. Williams Painting Company. Numerous "Friends of the Bee" also made donations to help us achieve our goal.

Our heartfelt appreciation to TestTakers for donating an SAT study course; our other auction and raffle donors (Pole Position Dance & Fitness, Rachele Rose Day Spa, Skin TheraP, SoulCycle, Steve Sohn's Jujitsu Concepts/Krav Maga, and Yoga Station); our team prize donors (BlueQ.com, Chat, Eastchester Fish Gourmet, Masala Kraft, Moscato, and Patisserie Salzburg); and our refreshment donors (DeCicco Family Markets, Fresh Market and ShopRite).

And we are BEEholden to our unBEElievable committee: Christine Bensche, Liz Blagg, Ellen Brodsky, Mona Longman, Carolyn Mehta, and Margaret Smith.

Sincerely,
Renu Lalwani and Sara Werder, Spelling Bee Co-Chairs

Details: Written by Administrator; Published: 21 January 2014; Created: 21 January 2014; Last Updated: 21 January 2014; Hits: 4451

ChelseaJump Looking for a Bar or Mitzvah destination that is sure to thrill the thirteen year-old guests? Chelsea Piers – now with two locations, Manhattan and Stamford, Connecticut offers state-of-the-art sports facilities and expert instructors and is an ideal setting for unique and exciting activity-based parties. Kids can enjoy basketball, soccer, dodge ball, flag football, rock climbing, batting cages, ice skating and more. The Stamford facility also offers a super fun Trampoline Center. Experienced party facilitators oversee the kids' activities, allowing adult guests to relax and watch the action while enjoying cocktails and hors d'oeuvres. Finish off the night with dinner and dancing in one of the dedicated party rooms or, in New York, the popular Sunset Terrace with Hudson River views. Experienced event managers customize each celebration, ensuring a perfect unique and affordable celebration you and your guests will never forget.