March 7, 2024

Shalom Chaverim (Dear Friends),

I am writing this to you as I leave for Cuba in the morning with my wife Lori and another 28 fellow Adolph & Rose Levis JCC travelers, including our Board Chair, Steve Clarfield and his wife Dana. I feel fortunate that we can all bring important items such as band aids, Bacitracin, toothbrushes, toothpaste, guitar strings and bubblegum to make life more pleasant for the 800 or so Jews still residing in Cuba. I look forward to telling you all about the trip in next week’s missive.

Back home at the Levis JCC, on the eve of my departure, my wife and I joined nearly 100 Dream Builders at The Addison of Boca Raton for A Special Night for Special Needs. This wonderful event celebrated the generous support of the life-changing and critical programs presented by the Helene & Roy Schwedelson Special Needs Department. We honored Yad B’ Yad – Hand in Hand Teen Leadership Award Recipient Romy Green for her dedicated work with our special needs department. If you’d like to find out more about our special needs programs click here.

In addition, our Engagement team has recently launched JBiz, a new business to business networking program, which held its first event on February 22 at Farmer’s Table and it was a sold-out success. Our second JBiz meeting, featuring Renia M. Orr, Business Coach and Brand Strategist will be held on March 19, once again at Farmer’s Table, and we have expanded the space in anticipation of another sold out event - it is already at 50% capacity so register soon at levisjcc.org/jbiz.

This week’s double Torah portion is Vayakhel (And He Gathered)/Shekkalim (Israel’s Currency) in the book of Exodus, the second in the 5 books of Moses. In it, the Israelites donate the required materials in abundance, bringing gold, silver and copper; blue, purple and red-dyed wool; goat hair, spun linen, animal skins, wood, olive oil, herbs and precious stones. Moses has to tell them to stop giving. Even after all of these thousands of years, our Levis JCC Cuba group is excited to live within the same tradition and spirit of giving as our ancestors.

Light Shabbat candles Friday evening at 6:08 pm
Shabbat Ends Saturday night at 7:07 pm

Am Yisrael Chai!
Shabbat Shalom

If you would like to support the Levis JCC and its programs and services, click below.

Marty