Support the MJCC and PJA communities by donating books for our annual Used Book Sale.
Book Collection Drive: January 14 – March 15. Donate your used books to the MJCC. Drop off at the front desk. Need a pickup? Email pjabooksale@gmail.com to schedule pickup. No encyclopedias, please.
The Book Sale will be at the MJCC March 31 – April 2
Free and open to the community.
Monthly Mitzvah Project – February
Each month, the MJCC and PJA communities will collect items for the monthly mitzvah. These projects reflect the Jewish commitment to Tikkun Olam (repairing the world), providing opportunities to give back to our community.
Please drop off items in the blue bin in the MJCC Lobby.
February – Lunch + snack items for Portland Backpack
Welcome Shabbat with Congregation Neveh Shalom’s Rabbi Eve Posen with music and stories. Potluck dinner to follow. Contact Rabbi Eve Posen for location: eposen@nevehshalom.org
Co-sponsored by PJ Library.
Young children (0-5) and their parents celebrate Shabbat with singing, movement, blessings, and storytelling. We will touch on the main highlights of the Shabbat service: wonder, fun, song, listening to the world, dancing, and Torah. Afterward we will enjoy an informal oneg nosh and the chance to play and schmooze. Please RSVP here.
Chag Purim Sameach
Happy Purim!
The CST Sisterhood Needs Your Help This Year!
Our Sisterhood is about to embark on the annual hamentashen baking and sale. We have customers from all over Portland who buy these tasty treats and in turn Sisterhood funds many wonderful aspects of our community. Our hardworking bakers are about to start a multi-week process that will eventually make about 30,000 hamentashen! This is a wonderful, community-building endeavor.
Jobs include: rolling dough, shape balls of fruit, knipping the edges of the hamentashen (the best part!), egg washing, baking, packing and more. It’s great fun, and a great community builder. Everyone is invited to help, including children 12 and over.
Lunch is provided free for all volunteers each day of baking. We have aprons available in our kitchen; feel free to bring your own apron if you’d like. Questions? Email sisterhood@shaarietorah.org.
JAM Art Show + Sale
March is Jewish Arts Month but the show starts in late February! Enjoy a rotating exhibit in the MJCC lobby. Members of ORA: Northwest Jewish Artists will answer questions, accept commissions, and sell their art. A portion of the proceeds benefits the MJCC.
Pre-Order your hamantashen before March 8!
In the 1950s, Shaarie Torah Sisterhood began its most famous fundraiser, the baking of hamantaschen, and in its first year sold 100 dozen. In the warm, noisy kitchen, experienced cooks teach the novices how to roll dough, shape balls of fruit, knip, egg wash, bake, and pack. Last year the Sisterhood made over 2,500 dozen with the help of over 100 volunteers. They are shipped all over the world.
Rabbi Gary Ellison, who was the rabbi at TBS for 11 years, has offered to teach a 10-part class that he offered at Willamette University for all those who feel they would benefit from an introduction to Judaism course.
If you are interested in this course, please contact Rabbi Eli at rabbi@tbsholom.org.
This class will require a serious commitment from students: $200 for TBS members ($300 for non-members) and attendance at all 10 classes. There will be one textbook (Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, Jewish Literacy, $35 new/$8.50 or more used) required for the course.
Needs-based scholarships will be available upon request.
Class will begin on Sunday, January 27 at 11:00 am.
Every Monday night, come together and study our heritage and Torah. No matter what background or affiliation, join together and let’s unite!
Come and join, bring a study partner or you can request one at https://portlandkollel.org/partners/
Everyone loves a good story and in 2019 with the help of storyteller Cassandra Sagan, Maggid-Educator, OJMCHE is going to be storytime headquarters. Cassandra will be working with community members from across cultural and social service agencies to polish their stories for sharing and the audience will also have the opportunity to share in an open mic segment.
In this second of three story swaps, Marc Blattner and Rachel Nelson, of the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland, and Sankar Raman and Wafa Almaktari, from The Immigrant Project, will share their stories.
The series will conclude March 19 with Stories of Resistance: featuring Mike Murawski, Portland Art Museum, Bobbin Singh, the Oregon Justice Resource Center, and Erin McKee, co-founder of OJRC and co-director of OJRC’s Immigrant Rights Project.