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𝗖𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗢𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗛𝗮𝘃𝗱𝗮𝗹𝗮𝗵
𝗦𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝗔𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗹 𝟲, 𝟳:𝟯𝟬 𝗽𝗺
𝗪𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗥𝗮𝗯𝗯𝗶 𝗠𝗲𝗻𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗺
𝗕𝗲𝗶𝘁 𝗬𝗶𝗰𝗵𝘂𝗱, 𝟲𝟵𝟯𝟮 𝗡. 𝗚𝗹𝗲𝗻𝘄𝗼𝗼𝗱, 𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗴𝗼

Come explore the spiritual meanings of this ancient ritual which started as bringing a measure of Spring barley to the Temple in Jerusalem.

Counting the omer starts at Passover, and ends at Shavuot.

Most of us are not growing barley, and none of us are bringing barley to temples. But the practice persists. What can we as modern Jews get from it?

Most recent Shabbat Services
Friday, March 1, 7:30 PM
led by Rabbi Menachem and Layni Katz Myers
BUMC, 3338 N Broadway

We experienced Rabbi Menachem’s funky Judaism
and Layni’s unique vocal and musical stylings
The weekly Torah portion was Ki Tisa.
The Israelites build the tabernacle, they worship the golden calf, then Moses smashes the tablets.

Recently at Makom Shalom:

We celebrated Purim, including Makom Shalom - Mitziut Merger Celebration
Saturday evening, March 23

— The winning costume was Haman, dressed like Zorro with a wicked mustache.
— The winning Hamantaschen were gluten-free.

— The symbolic wedding was under a Tallit chuppah (see picture), with special versions of the blessings, smashing a styrofoam cup.

We celebrated Tu B’Shvat
The New Year of the Tree(s)
With a Conscious Eating Seder
January 24
Hosted by Makom Shalom Mitziut and Beit Yichud

Here is a great resource for said eating. B'te'avon! http://neohasid.org/resources/tu_bishvat/

𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗰𝗹𝘂𝗯: 𝗗𝗮𝘃𝗶𝘁𝗮'𝘀 𝗛𝗮𝗿𝗽 𝗯𝘆 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗶𝗺 𝗣𝗼𝘁𝗼𝗸
(Book club has been postponed to a later date)
Hosted by Linda and Joe Touchstone.

It is the 1930's, Ilana Davita is the daughter of mixed-marriage between a Jewish mother from Poland and an upper class old New England family father. Seeking constancy and comfort in an unsettling turbulent world, Davita takes up Judaism, while her parents plunge into Communism. It is a complex and moving saga.

Shiviti Drum Circle and Hanukkah
led by Al Goldberg
Sunday, Dec 10, 2:00 PM
Beit Yichud, 6932 N. Glenwood
Shviti Drum Circle on Facebook

“When we drum, chant, dance, we may be able to create a confluence of Nefesh, Olam and Shanah and maybe, if we can can, experience a taste of unity, connection, oneness.”

Shabbat Services
Fridays: Dec. 15 and Jan. 19
led by Rabbi Menachem and Rhonda Levy-Wehner
BUMC, 3338 N Broadway

Hanukkah Party
with Maxwell Street Klezmer Quartet
Saturday evening, December 9
At Brookdale home, on Sheridan Road in Chicago

Discussion of Israel-Gaza war
led by Rabbi Chava Bahle
Sunday morning, December 10, 10:30 AM, a Zoom event
We processed our feelings and ideas about the conflict
and our relationship to it as Jews and as citizens of the the world.

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For the 2023-24 year dues are an affordable sliding scale, for individuals and for families.
Information is on the membership page.

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May 5784 be a good year for you!

We held High Holidays in conjunction with Mitziut.

Our second in-person high holidays since 2019, in collaboration with the Mitziut community.
Rabbi Menachem Cohen with Cantors Layni Katz-Myers and Anita Silvert led services, at BUMC.
Services were hybrid, simultaneously available over zoom

In addition to Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur religious services, we had:
— Rev. C.J. Hawking, of Arise Chicago, brought us up to date on justice for marginalized workers in Chicago. In accordance with the Yom Kippur parasha from Leviticus: You shall not defraud your fellow person. You shall not commit robbery. The wages of a laborer shall not remain with you until morning.
— Ascher Levy led an experiential meditation on forgiveness.
— We had a pre-yizkor remembrance event
— The story of Jonah was hilariously rendered in verse, by Steve Herman

During High Holidays Rabbi Menachem led:
Labryinth Walk and Tashlich.

• Slowly, meditatively, walking a labyrinth is a thousands of year old spiritual practice.
  Benedictine Sisters of St. Scholastica generously let us walk their labyrinth

• Tashlich is the traditional Jewish ceremony of cleansing yourself of your transgressions, casting them into the water. At the lakefront near Greenleaf.

After High Holidays Maggid Al Goldberg hosted:

Sukkot Celebration: Welcoming The Ushpizin Meditation

We met in the sukkah to engage in the ritual of Welcoming The Ushpizin (The Holy Guests) with a guided meditative experience based on the Hebrew Archetypes of the Sephirot and acknowledging that these holy guests, both male and female, are with us at all times.

Selected Makom Shalom events during the past year:

We had our Makom Shalom COMMUNITY SEDER
2nd Night of Passover, April 6, at BUMC., led by Rabbi Menachem Cohen.

It was a Pesach evening filled with spirituality, conviviality, good food, and quite a bit of wry humor from Makom Shalom’s haggadah. Joined by Rev. Alka Lyall and congregants from Broadway United Methodist Church, as well as members of the Mitziut community.

Shabbat by the Beach (in the park)

Twice! Friday August 4 and June 30.
Rabbi Menachem and Rhonda Levy-Wehner
Lakefront east of Greenleaf in Rogers Park

We had our Makom Shalom Annual Picnic, Saturday, July 29 Millennium Park.

Meeting and schmoozing with people we haven’t seen in a while. Followed by Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus concert of Broadway music.

We celebrated 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝘃𝘂𝗼𝘁, Friday evening May 26.

Shavuot is the festival for when the Torah was gifted to the Jewish people and all humanity.
We all brought a Bit of Bible. It was a variety from the sublime (the commandments to forgive debts and take care of the needy) to the opposite (the story of Abraham, Pharaoh, and Sarah used as property).

Shabbat Services with Rabbi Menachem Cohen and Layni Katz Myers
Saturday morning, May 13, at Broadway United Methodist Church
In-person and on zoom.
Warm and wonderful.

Ascher Levy led The Four Worlds and Shabbat
Finding and experiencing the spirituality within Shabbat morning prayers.
The World(s) according to Rabbis Rachel Barenblat and Marcia Prager
Sunday, March 26 on zoom.
Part 2 is coming up.

Shabbat evening service at BUMC
led by Menachem Cohen and Rhonda Levy-Wehner
Friday, April 28 at BUMC

From traditional nigguns to bouncy modern melodies, Rhonda Levy-Wehner moved us through states of happiness and prayerfulness.

We had Shabbat Morning Service at BUMC
Saturday, March 11
Led by Rabbi Menachem Cohen and Cantor Layni Katz Myers
It was so wonderful to sing along with Layni

Shabbat service and social action program on homelessness
Friday, February 17, Led by Dr. Steve Rothschild
We learned about the Bring Chicago Home initiative to increase government policy responses to homelessness, and also how our own person conduct could be aligned with the rules laid out in the week’s Torah portion.

Rabbi Menachem Cohen led a
Tu Bishvat Seder
at BUMC and on Zoom.
The birthday for trees: a spiritual metaphor and an intensely
practical part of all that is good in the world.

Shabbat evening service at BUMC led by Menachem Cohen and Anita Silvert
A Renewal service with Rabbi Cohen’s kind and humanistic drash
and Anita Silvert’s homey and participatory music.
Simultaneously broadcast on zoom.

Torah study at BUMC: Parashat Re-eh.
Reva Freedman led the discussion on parashat Re-eh, a truly juicy portion. Moses gives the Israelites instructions on many issues, including those pertaining to idol worship (forbidden), the laws of kashrut (no blood!), tithes on produce, treatment of slaves, and pilgrimage festivals. We finished with a blessing for the month of Elul, followed by a prayer for healing and Kaddish. And then the traditional hearing of the first blowing of the shofar.

Simchat Torah 5783 at BUMC
Encountering both the text of the Torah and a physical Torah itself.
Everybody had a chance to read a few words from the scrolls.
Led by Reva Freedman

Antisemitism in the Modern Context

Ruth Kaan led a discussion of antisemitism in our modern world.
People related their own experiences with the sometimes amusing, sometimes quite disturbing, ways they have encountered non-Jewish attitudes towards Jews.

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Book and Movie Club

Recent movie club discussion: Disobedience
led by Ruth Kaan.
A woman returns to the observant community in London she grew up in, for her father’s funeral, and stays with old friends.

Recent book club: Mr. Perfect on Paper by Jean Meltzer.
Dara Rabinowitz, daughter and grandaughter of Jewish match-makers,
is the successful entrepreneur founder of online dating site J-Mate.
Not that she’s had a lot of success in her dating life.
led by Linda Touchstone

Predecessor book: The Lost Shtetl by Max Gross
A story of a Jewish town in the forests of Poland, left alone by
modern world for nearly a hundred years. Until they were found!
Which turned out to be a mixed blessing.

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Music, Jewish learning, and schmoozing with your Makom Shalom community: all very traditional ways to celebrate the holidays

For both visitors and members, Makom Shalom is a place of deep and abiding hope that inspires us to be our best selves. Our services will elevate you at the end of a long work week, with song, meditation, and prayer.  

Our synagogue shares a commitment to Chicago and to racial and economic justice in our city. We do this work as a Jewish, spiritual practice in deep partnership with other faiths. This is how we honor Tikkun Olam, healing the world.

What makes Makom Shalom special?
Our members use these words to explain!

About Makom

Click here to learn more about our community, mission, and advocacy work.