Monthly Mitzvah Project – January
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.
January – New and gently used socks for Janus Youth Programs
College Info Night & Fair
Calling all teens and parents! Curious to know what your options are after high school graduation? Interested in learning more about Jewish life on college campuses? Join Julia Surtshin from College Ahead, as well as a wide array of other professionals who will share the ins and outs of life after high school. Come learn about the college admission process, financial aid, as well as non-traditional post-high school program opportunities.
Free and open to the community.
All teens and parents curious about options after high school graduation are invited to the program. Join Julia Surtshin from College Ahead, as well as a wide array of other professionals, who will share the ins and outs of life after high school. Come learn about the college admission process, financial aid, as well as non-traditional post-high school program opportunities. Learn more about Jewish life on college campuses too. Presenters/booths include: Julia Surtshin, College Ahead; Tim Tank, Morgan Stanley Financial Planning; Andy Gitelson, Oregon Hillel; Hannah Sherman, PDX Hillel; Dov and Chani Bialo, Chabad at Reed College; and Rabbi Ozer Moskowski, Akiva at University of Oregon.
Additionally, information about two gap year programs will be available. Adinah Miller will be on hand to discuss Tivnu, a Jewish building and social justice gap year program based in Portland. Materials from Masa Israel will be available for gap year programs in Israel.
Her novel alternates between late medieval Spain and Portugal during the traumatic time of the Inquisition, and a very small town in New Mexico in 1992. The modern New Mexican characters are Catholics with peculiar habits. Nobody in town eats pork but they don’t know why. It is likely they are the descendants of conversos, Jews who converted during the Spanish Inquisition. The story weaves a connecting thread from the Iberian Peninsula to Mexico City and then on to the original settlers who moved into what is now the American Southwest. Five hundred years later, a young amateur astronomer wonders about the secret of the town he grew up in: Entrada de la Luna, or Gateway to the Moon.
Morris’ previous work, The Jazz Palace, won the Anisfeld-Wolf Book Award for important contributions to the understanding of racism in 2016. She also writes short stories and travel memoirs. Her many novels and story collections have been translated into six languages. She lives in Brooklyn, New York and teaches writing at Sarah Lawrence College.
Doors open at 4:00 PM to meet and greet the author. A one-hour author reading and discussion will follow beginning at 4:30 PM. Light refreshments will be served. Admission is free.
Co-sponsored by the Beit Am Jewish Community and the MJCC. Grassroots Bookstore will be there with copies of the paperback edition of Gateway to the Moon for sale and author signing.
Each month the MJCC and PJA communities will collect items for the monthly mitzvah. Drop off items in the blue bin in the MJCC lobby. Check the display for how you can participate and donate to these worthy causes.
This project reflects 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.
January
New Socks for teens and families living on the streets or in shelters
• Portland Homeless Family Solutions
• Janus Youth Programs