The Boomers of East End Temple (BEET) is a chavurah (group) formed to build connections among the baby boomer (officially defined as born between 1946 and 1964) community. We look to schedule programs that may interest the generation who grew up through massive social changes which strongly influenced who we are today. During these programs, most of which are open to the general baby boomer community, we enjoy sharing special memories unique to our generation as well as educating and supporting each other as we continue on our current life’s journeys. One of our most popular events is our intimate (members-only) Friday, Shabbat potluck dinners where we share our thoughts on a boomer-related topic, ensuring that everyone gets to know something about each other.
The Sisterhood of East End Temple brings together women in all stages of life in friendship, leadership, and intellectual and spiritual growth. We listen to women’s voices and promote their interests, passions, ideas, and concerns. Together we engage in tikkun olam by producing timely and relevant programming, fundraising, and advocating for social justice, while nurturing the life of the congregation, its leaders, and the community at large.
Join Sisterhood today!
We are happy to announce that we can offer a few different options to make an annual dues donation to Sisterhood:
To pay online, by credit card or e-check (must be logged in to your ShulCloud member account for e-check option), please click here. As the temple does pay a fee for all online payments, we do ask that you include any fees in your payment, although not required. You will receive a receipt of your donation by email.
To pay with a paper check, please click here. Your cancelled check is your receipt.
As we adjust to our changing circumstances, such as meeting virtually versus meeting in person, we will continue to update this page with locations and links. Programs are open to all and will take place at the temple (as per any updated Covid-19 guidance), unless otherwise specified. Please send any questions and RSVPs to sisterhood@eastendtemple.org, except where noted.
Ongoing Programs
Food For Families Will return in Fall 2023 For almost 30 years, multiple generations of our community have made meals to feed hungry New Yorkers. Advance sign-up will be required (look for the link in an upcoming eblast). All participants must be age 12 or older (ages 12-15 must be accompanied by an adult) and must observe COVID safety rules, including: — wearing masks and maintaining appropriate distancing — showing proof of vaccination Each participant should bring five loaves of whole wheat bread and 16 pieces of fruit (preferably apples and oranges) and wear a hat to comply with Department of Health regulations. We’ll be making sandwiches to donate along with fruit to City Harvest to feed hungry New Yorkers.
Getting to Know You — First Wednesdays Lunchtime Speaker Series(Zoom) Will return in Fall 2023
Women’s Rosh Chodesh Study and Discussion (Zoom) Will return in Fall 2023 Sarah, prophetess and first matriarch of the Jewish people is legendary for her enduring faithfulness to God and her commitment to her husband Abraham. She is also the only woman in the Torah whose name gets changed by God! Explore the life and times of our first matriarch as our Women’s Rosh Chodesh Study and Discussion gets under way this season, with some fresh perspectives on the “Sarah Story.” Enjoy your favorite morning beverage as we share readings and lively discussion led by Fern Stampleman, Elissa Macklin and Laurie Treuhaft. No prior knowledge necessary! Registration required. All reading materials emailed to registrants in advance of each date.
Stitch-A-Thon ~ will return next year ~ Gather for a while with other stitchers. Show off your latest projects; get help from our experts; make a hat or scarf for our Cold Weather Project for donating to New York’s needy.
Mah Jongg and Potluck Brunch Wednesday, June 14: Brunch at 10:30am, Play from 11:00am-1:00pm (in person)
Interested in learning to play mah jongg or finding people to play with? As part of our last game for this program year, we are inviting you join us before play for a potluck brunch. Besides indicating whether you can play, please let us know if you will be joining us for brunch and what you would like to bring.
Please bring a cash donation of $5 to play or $10 for a lesson, as well as a 2023 mah jongg card
Coffee and tea will be available. Masks are recommended but not required.
Sisterhood Board Meetings (Sisterhood members only) Wednesdays at 6:30pm: June 7. Times are subject to change; be sure to RSVP All Sisterhood members are invited to join our bi-monthly board meetings when we share thoughts about our upcoming and past events, social action initiatives and what we can do to support each other and the EET community. RSVP requested to sisterhood@eastendtemple.org.
Scheduled Programs
Helene Spring Library Event Our annual celebration of our beautiful library includes a featured author speaking about their book, followed by a book sale and signing, and our always-popular homemade dessert buffet. Our featured author for the 2023 Helene Spring Library Event was Lynda Cohen Loigman, whose novel, The Matchmaker’s Gift, is an intriguing, delightful dual-timeline story with a dose of magical realism.
Lilith Seder (in person) Will return in April 2024
We look forward to praying, singing and dining together as we all participate in the telling of Passover story, with a focus on the women’s role in that story. We will sing songs written by Debbie Friedman, pray with personalized prayers and feminized language from our own Haggadah and honor four women of valor. Open to all members of the Sisterhood of East End Temple, who may bring one guest over the age of 13. For more information, please click here.
Sisterhood Shabbat (in person and Livestream) Will return in Spring 2024
Engaging in tikkun olam – our fundraising and advocacy programs Sisterhood supports a number of worthy causes for those in need as well as temple staff, clergy and building projects. If you are interested in donating to any of our funds and/or honoring a loved one, please refer to the Contribute page.
Birthday Fund In its 10th year, Jodi Malcom chairs this outreach fund supported by donations honoring Sisterhood member birthdays, the birthdays of their loved ones, and other life events. Monies are directed to two local organizations selected annually that support the lives of women and girls. Last year, donations were given to Hot Bread Kitchen‘s Bridge Training Services; and CASA-NYC, court-appointed special advocates which give free legal help to vulnerable children within NYC’s Family Court/Foster Care system.
Food For Families Funds Led by a team of Sisterhood women for almost 30 years, we gather to make meals to feed hungry New Yorkers, which are picked up and distributed by City Harvest. Donations to these funds are used to buy the meal-making ingredients and materials.
Helene Spring Library Fund A jewel of the temple, our library houses an extensive collection from which temple members may browse and borrow. Named for one of EET’s founding members, who is both a past temple president and Sisterhood president, we raise funds to keep our library beautiful and well-stocked.
Sisterhood Leadership Development Fund We are dedicated to creating leaders who can develop programs to enhance our EET community and to raise funds to support meaningful projects. Women of Reform Judaism, along with other leadership organizations, provides us with access to many development tools, from conferences to training presentations. Monies in this fund will be used to take advantage of those tools in order to support the enhancement of leadership skills of current Sisterhood members and to develop future Sisterhood leaders.
East End Temple’s Young Professionals meet monthly for Shabbat services and a dinner conversation, connect for Jewish holidays, and gather socially at each other’s homes. This growing constituency is comprised of people who want to be Jewishly involved, Jews by choice, people in relationship with Jews, and those who are Jewishly interested and seeking meaning amid busy lives.
Get connected
Email Rabbi Josh Stanton, jstanton@eastendtemple.org. And to receive the EET Weekly Eblast so you are up-to-date with what’s going on across the Temple, send your email to EET office at info@eastendtemple.org.
Our
mission is to cultivate relevant Jewish life through connected
community. We seek to expand avenues into Torah (Jewish learning and
practice), God (all forms of spiritual connection) and the Jewish people
(locally and globally) to help one another live lives of meaning.
We do this through:
Our Diversity: Betzelem Elohim, In the Image of God
We
welcome all in the Jewish community: young and old; single, partnered
and married; LGBT and straight; interfaith families; Jewish-born or
converted; those with and without mental and physical disabilities;
financially struggling or well-off. If you choose us, we choose you.
Our Accessibility: My House Shall be a House of Prayer for All People
We encourage full participation, enfranchisement and leadership through education and relationship-building.
Our Intimacy: Face to Face
We strive to know and care for one another through the cultivation of relationships between and among members.
Our Giving and Receiving: As Your Heart is so Inclined
We
aspire to a high quality of synagogue life, and give of time and
resources to create that quality. Our members who derive the most from
their East End Temple experience are often those who give the most.
Social Justice is a key tenet to living a meaningful and responsible Jewish life. East End Temple participates lives out social justice in myriad ways. Within the past year, we have:
Prepared and packed thousands upon thousands of meals for the needy with our monthly Food for Families program.
Learned about the immigration crisis with activist Ravi Ragbir and Professor Alina Das from the NYU School of Law.
Hosted Accompaniment Training sessions with the New Sanctuary Coalition, in support of immigrant rights.
Proud members of the Synagogue Coalition on the Immigration and Refugee Crisis (with one of our community members being appointed its Vice President!)
Became one of 100+ congregations in the Reform Movement to sign a Brit Olam in dedication to social justice in key areas.
Signed onto multiple amicus briefs in support of immigrant rights and opposing the construction of the border wall.
Joined RAC-NY and its efforts to pass Green Light NY.
Redoubled interfaith collaboration in our area, including an interfaith Seder with the Cordoba House (Muslim community) and St. Francis Xavier (Catholic community).
Taken part in, cosponsored, and led numerous rallies in support of immigrant rights and against the separation of families.
Volunteer Opportunities
Vision Urbana Every Monday at 9:30am Help pack and give out food, in support of the Vision Urbana food pantry. Meet at 65 Norfolk Street (in the courtyard of the Seward Park Extension NYCHA housing complex). This effort will continue every Monday — for questions, please email Rabbi Josh (jstanton@eastendtemple.org).
Repair the World Repair the World is an organization the helps Jewish communities to pursue making this world a better place. They have volunteer opportunities for kids and adults. To find a local project to participate in, visit: https://werepair.org/brooklyn/
Support for Turkey and Syria
Following the devastating earthquake the struck Turkey, Syria and surrounding countries, United Hatzalah of Israel is sending a team of medics, paramedics, doctors, and members of the Search and Response and Psychotrauma units to Turkey to provide emergency rescue and medical aid to people in the worst-affected areas. Support their emergency response efforts: https://israelrescue.org/earthquakeresponse
Contact your state and local representatives and let them know you support the strongest measures possible to constrain Ukraine’s aggressors. Find your congressional representatives with this link.
Take part in a community rally to protest Putin’s actions against Ukraine. List of rallies.
Donate to an organization with an established track record of assistance (see below).
How can I help?
The Afya Foundation (our partner organization for whom we have collected medical supplies for many years) has an Amazon wish list of urgently needed items. The items will be sent directly to Afya, and they are packing pallets of supplies to send to Ukraine.
The World Union for Progressive Judaism has launched the Ukraine Crisis Fund to support the Ukrainian Jewish community. To learn more and/or to make a donation: https://wupj.org/give/ukraine/
The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee is working on the ground to deliver social services to the Ukrainian Jewish community and their neighbors. You can give directly through the JDC website, or through a contribution to your local Jewish Federation, many of which have created local crisis funds.
The new CD is here! Cantor Shira Ginsburg Sings the Songs of Michael Hunter Ochs is available at East End Temple, and on all digital streaming services as of December 4. To pre-save the album on Spotify, click here. To purchase the digital album (including a bonus track), click here.
Click here to listen to Cantor Shira Ginsburg’s CD, A New Light, which is also available to pick up at EET for free.
Join the Cantor and sing your heart out at Shira with Shira. Shira with Shira is a group of congregants who sing with our fabulous Cantor Shira Ginsburg. We have several sessions about three times a year (not unlike the approach to adult ed), and we occasionally sing at services, the annual Holocaust Observance in the City, and the like. The next sessions of Shira with Shira will take place in November, on three successive Tuesdays, the 5th, 12th and 19th. We rehearse in the sanctuary from 6:30 to 7:45 pm, and we will be preparing for a joint interfaith Thanksgiving service on November 26 with singers from the Village Temple. We hope you can join us. Singing with Shira with Shira is an opportunity to spend time with Cantor Shira and up to as many as ten or more congregants who love to sing and learn about singing with the Cantor.
Hashkiveinu, East End Temple Composer in Residence Project with Cantor Shira Ginsburg and Michael Hunter Ochs
Songbook Sessions: Adon Olam with Cantor Shira Ginsburg and Composer in Residence Michael Hunter Ochs
Songbook Sessions: L’cha Dodi with Cantor Shira Ginsburg and Composer in Residence Michael Hunter Ochs
Songbook Sessions: Mi Chamocha Freedom Song with Cantor Shira Ginsburg and Composer in Residence Michael Hunter Ochs
Mourner’s Song East End Temple Composer in Residence Project with Cantor Shira Ginsburg and Michael Hunter Ochs
Songbook Sessions: Adon Olam With Cantor Shira Ginsburg and Composer in Residence Michael Hunter Ochs
Enjoy our newsletter, Templet. Stay up to date on the latest events, activities and stories at East End Temple. You can download recent editions of the Templet by clicking the links below.
We are grateful for your support. Tzedakah, or charity, fulfills some of Judaism’s strongest traditions. It also powers the activities and well-being of East End Temple. You may make a contribution in honor of a person or an event, in memory of someone, or just because you care about the EET community.
HOW TO GIVE
Click on the following links for convenient ways to support East End Temple:
Members, please click here. If you would like to contribute by check, please mail to: East End Temple, 245 E. 17th St., New York, NY, 10003, or to East End Temple, P.O. Box 418, Montvale, NJ 07645. Please note the fund on the memo line.
Guests, please click here to complete the necessary information to process a contribution. A description of our giving opportunities is listed below.
WHERE TO GIVE
TEMPLE FUNDS
EL EMET FUND: helps beautify and maintain our temple, underwrite holiday festivities, projects. In honor of a simchah, a mishebeirach, yahrzeits. $10.00 minimum
CANTOR’S DISCRETIONARY FUND: used for charitable giving, enrichment of the congregation and community. $36.00 minimum
FUND FOR THE FUTURE-75th ANNIVERSARY: helps ensure future growth in all temple activities. $75.00 suggested
HAMERMESH MUSIC FUND: provides special music programs and resource materials. $18.00 minimum
LEONARD SPRING MEMORIAL FUND: dedicated to supporting unfunded projects to benefit EET. $18.00 minimum
RABBI’S DISCRETIONARY FUND: used for charitable giving, enrichment of the congregation and community. $36.00 minimum. (Separate check required)
SARA A. SPENCER CHILDREN’S EDUCATIONAL FUND: provides educational materials for the Religious School. $18.00 minimum
SIMCHAT SHABBAT FUND: provides musical Shabbatot, diverse community programs. $54.00 minimum
SOCIAL JUSTICE FUND: supports the Social Justice work of EET, including refugee/asylum-seeker assistance and other projects
East End Temple — 75 Years Together
In 1948, a community of World War II veterans came together to found East End Temple. Through leadership, innovation, and dedication to community, our congregation has grown and flourished.
To launch EET into our next 75 years, we have launched a campaign, 75 for 75, in which we look to raise $75,000 to fund our future and initiatives currently being developed by clergy, Board members and congregants. To donate, please choose Fund for the Future-75th Anniversary.
Legacy Circle
It is thanks to the foresight and generosity of those who came before us that EET has entered its eighth decade with strength and vibrancy. We are grateful to them for establishing a spiritual home that cultivates relevant Jewish life through connected community. Now it is our turn to make certain our tradition continues for generations and that EET continues to be a beacon for downtown Jewish life.
The EET Legacy Circle will bring together members like you and us, who are eager to help ensure our Jewish community’s future for generations to come by naming East End Temple as a beneficiary in their estate plans. Planned gifts of all sizes can play a significant role in sustaining our Temple. If you have already included EET in your estate plans, as we each have, please email Judith or simply send this form back to the temple office.
And if you are thinking about including EET in your estate plans, we would love to talk further with you. Please feel free to contact either of us or Rabbi Josh Stanton (jstanton@eastendtemple.org) for a confidential discussion. We are truly grateful for your consideration.
L’Dor V’Dor, From Generation to Generation
L’shalom, Rebecca Shore and Brian Lifsec, Co-Presidents Judith Sussman, Chair, The East End Temple Legacy Circle
For the following gift/naming opportunities, please contact the EET office via phone or email:
Floral (Flowers for the service)
$75
Kehilla Plaque on Sanctuary Lobby Wall
$5,000 min.
Memorial Board Plaque
$720
Oneg/Collation
$400 / $250
Simcha Tree Leaf
$234
HIGH HOLY DAYS (HHD) purchases/giving: HHD Pledge, HHD Ticket (Member), HHD Ticket (Non-Members), Yizkor.
SISTERHOOD PROGRAMS
Donations to one of the Sisterhood-sponsored programs can now be made online, using one of the above links, under HOW TO GIVE. However, if you prefer to send a paper check, please make your check payable to EET Sisterhood, indicate the name of the fund(s) and send it to the temple office. Your canceled check is your receipt.
FOOD FOR FAMILIES: Led by a team of Sisterhood women for almost 30 years, we gather to make meals to feed hungry New Yorkers, which are picked up and distributed by City Harvest. Donations to these funds are used to buy the meal-making ingredients and materials. $18 minimum
FOOD FOR FAMILIES DAY SPONSOR: Contribution designates you as sponsor for the day. $360 minimum
HELENE SPRING LIBRARY: helps purchase new and archival books, library equipment and additional materials for our library. $18 minimum
SISTERHOOD BIRTHDAY FUND: contributes to a social action fund benefiting women and girls to be selected annually. $18 minimum
All contributions to East End Temple or Sisterhood will be acknowledged to the person(s) for whom you make a donation, as well as noted in our monthly newsletter, Templet.
Shira with Shira is a group of congregants who sing with our fabulous Cantor, Shira Ginsburg. We have several sessions about three times a year (not unlike the approach to adult ed), and we occasionally sing at services, the annual Holocaust Observance in the City, and the like.
The next sessions of Shira with Shira will take place in November, on three successive Tuesdays, the 5th, 12th and 19th. We rehearse in the sanctuary from 6:30 to 7:45 pm, and we will be preparing for a joint interfaith Thanksgiving service on November 26 with singers from the Village Temple. We hope you can join us.
Singing with Shira with Shira is an opportunity to spend time with Cantor Shira and up to as many as ten or more congregants who love to sing and learn about singing with the Cantor.
