Founding Rabbi: Rabbi Joel I. Wittstein (z"l - of blessed memory)
A Warm Welcome ...
Temple Israel is a community of approximately 160 families. It is a positive and strong Reform Jewish presence in the London community, with a Religious School, Pre-School Experience, an active program of Adult Education, Social Action, Outreach, and social events. Our Shabbat Services, holiday and life-cycle observances are warm and inspiring. We welcome Jewish and interfaith couples, traditional and non-traditional families, singles, LGBT, and people of every age, race and ethnicity. Whether you are new to Judaism or a learned scholar, you will find a warm welcome and a comfortable home at Temple Israel.
Explore our website, join us for services, classes, and programs, meet our members, visit our library and gift shop. You will find many opportunities to enrich your experience of Judaism. If this is your first visit, we hope you will come back often. Membership information can be found in the "About Temple Israel" section.
Note: Most items on our website can be clicked for more information.
If this is your first visit to the Temple Israel website, please note that a summary of all announcements and upcoming events (for the next 60 days) appears on the homepage. Announcements and upcoming events for specific categories of events (eg: youth education, adult ed, social action etc.) also appear on the page for each topic. The "Programs and Special Events" page has details for future events.
Lev HaDavar
Lev HaDavar is Temple Israel's monthly bulletin. Click to view or download the CURRENT ISSUE. (No password required.) Past issues of Lev HaDavar are available in the Members' Lounge (Username and password required.)
This Week at Temple Israel
THIS WEEK AT TEMPLE ISRAEL
The May 2012 issue of Lev HaDavar is now available via the Temple Israel website homepage:templeisraellondon.ca
10:00am - Shabbat Morning Service led by Rabbi Debra Dressler. Vena and Sid Presner will sponsor the Kiddush in memory of their parents, Mary and David Blustein, and Lillian and Samuel Presner.
6:30pm - The Daily Bread Program, Soup and Sandwich Dinner at London Club
Tuesday, May 15:
9:30am - AJE@JCC
Wednesday, May 16:
7:30am - Morning Minyan Service, followed by breakfast
12:00pm - Lunch and Learn
Thursday, May 17:
7:00 - 8:30pm - Soup Group (7:00-7:45) followed by Social Action Meeting (7:45-8:30) at the home of Leora Swartzman and Allan Shapiro
Friday, May 18:
7:30pm - Shabbat Evening Service led by Rabbi Debra Dressler. Gail Bass will sponsor the Oneg in loving memory of her mother, Sia Silverman.
Saturday, May 19:
10:00am - Torah Study at TI, followed by Shabbat Book Chavurah (The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman). All are welcome, whether you have read the book or not.
Monday, May 21
Temple Israel will be closed for the Victoria Day Holiday
Mazel Tov to Svetlana and Dan Makriach
on the birth of their son, Daniel, on Saturday, May 5th!
Special Events Reminder
DON'T FORGET...
There are lots of great programs coming up soon.
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"Jewbilation" Fun Day & Golf Tournament Sunday, June 3 at East Park 12:00noon to 10pm
"TI: The Next Generation", a new page on our website, will feature web links to interesting projects, activities, awards, and accomplishments of the teen and adult offspring of our members. We rely upon parents to send a brief paragraph and optional URL to <webmaven@templeisraellondon.ca> for display on our website.
The page is now in the "About Temple Israel - History" section of our website.
Temple Israel Library Catalogue online
- photo by Rael Wienburg
Thanks to the hard work of Lisa Manax, Sandra & Art Benjamin, Joanne Kearns, Thelma Llewellyn, Lana Koslow, Tom Casler, Sharon Marks, Louise Shanfeld, and Wally Zimmerman, Temple Israel's library catalogue is now available online via LibraryThing.
You can search the catalogue by title, author, or tag (=subject) or browse through the catalogue in any order you wish.
About 80% of our books have been catalogued thus far. More books are being added all the time.
You can't check out books online, but the online catalogue is a very useful resource for discovering books in our collection.
Plan to visit the Temple Israel Library (2nd floor) any time our building is open.
Labels on the shelves make it easy to find books by subject.
To borrow a book, use the slgn-out sheet (book title, your name, your phone number).
To return a book, place it in the "Returns" box.
Adopt-A-Garden 2011
Adopt-A-Garden
Temple Israel's grounds have six flower beds, which, with some TLC could be very beautiful. If you have a green thumb and would like to take care of one of these gardens for the summer, please contact the Temple Office (519-858-4400)
This could be a project for individuals, families, or groups. Each flower bed will be prominently labelled with the gardeners' names.
What an opportunity to exercise your creativity and enhance the beauty of our synagogue!
ARZA News
ARZA News has moved from our homepage to our new Israel and ARZA page. In future, this link will appear on the "About Temple Israel" menu.
Please Help Keep Temple Israel Nut-Free
Just a reminder that Temple Israel is striving to be a Nut-Free Zone. To protect those with nut allergies, your co-operation is needed. When bringing in food for potluck dinners, minyan breakfasts, Lunch & Learn, oneg Shabbat or kiddush snacks, etc. please be careful not to bring items that contain nuts.
If you can’t drive in the dark, or you’re without a car (or license) and you want to come to Temple for any reason (a program, a service) please call the Temple Office with as much notice as you can, but even if it’s for the same day, please call.
Susan Glait, our Programming VP has been, in her words: "busy, busy and more busy (and enjoying the results)." BUT, she can't do it all on her own. So, if you can help with either of the following, let Susan (susang@templeisraellondon.ca) or the Temple Office (519-858-4400 or office@templeisraellondon.ca) know:
• Make calls or email for sponsors for Kiddushim and Onegs on an every other month basis.
• Help pitch in for our Congregational Kabbalat Shabbat dinners
The current issue of Temple Israel's bulletin, Lev HaDavar, is now available on the TI homepage -- LOGIN NOT REQUIRED. You may read Lev Ha-Davar online, or print it, or save it to your computer for fast future access. (Use Print or Save options in Adobe Reader.) NOTE: Past issues continue to be available in the Members' Lounge (Login required).
Please consider dedicating one (or more) of our new prayer books to honour a special occasion or the memory of your family and friends. Details on the Donations page.
For the sake of our custodian, Paul Gerster, please ensure that, at any Temple function, if you move chairs from one floor to the other, you return them to their original level. Thank you.
Members of Temple Israel take turns providing refreshments for Oneg Shabbat or Shabbat Kiddush. A great opportunity to honour a yahrzeit, a simcha, or other special person or event. Contact Temple Office.
EVERY TEMPLE ISRAEL HOUSEHOLD SHOULD BE RECEIVING – AND READING – REFORM JUDAISM MAGAZINE! It is an excellent resource which links us to the broader Reform Jewish world…and it is part of your membership package! If you do not receive REFORM JUDAISM MAGAZINE, call the Temple Office, please. Stop missing opportunities for Jewish growth!
Do you have a suggestion? A brilliant idea? A comment? Send it in to the new Temple Israel suggestion box. Email suggestion.box@templeisraellondon.ca or use the convenient blue button on this page.
Managed under the London Jewish Community Foundation, all contributions to this Fund are held in perpetuity, and the interest income will be provided each year to Temple Israel to help support our growing needs. [MORE INFORMATION ON THE DONATIONS PAGE]
Thank you to Rael Wienburg for setting up a page for "Temple Israel of London, Ontario, Canada" on Facebook:
http://tinyurl.com/nr76qw
Look for the convenient blue Facebook button on Temple Israel's homepage.
Temple Israel now has a presence on Google Plus. Find us at http://tinyurl.com/TIonGPlus Google+ pages for nonprofits are brand-new, and new capabilities are still being added. Join Google+ as an individual, then follow our page by putting it in one of your circles. Include Linda Zimmerman in one of your circles, and I will let you know when TI "hangouts" (group video chats) or other TI discussions will occur. This is completely optional. Our website templeisraellondon.ca remains Temple Israel's primary means of sharing information with our members.
Please join us for any Shabbat or Holiday service, for High Holy Days, and for any program that interests you. Contact office@templeisraellondon.ca or 519-858-4400.
A lasting way to honour the memory of your loved ones. Information about Temple Israel's Yahrzeit (Memorial) Board is now on the Donations page. Click "More Information"
Registration required: 6 weeks / $99 per student.
The World of Western Opera: The Jewish Experience - Facilitator: Joe Gilbert
Jews have participated in Western opera, as composers, writers, and performers, for more than four centuries.
This course will explore many facets of this experience, including ways in which Jews have been portrayed in
the works of non-Jewish composers, operas with “Jewish” subjects (e.g., the Golem, the Dybbuk), the fate of
both Jewish composers and their works during the period of Nazi ascendancy, and trends in this art form as seen
in works by contemporary composers in North America and Israel.
CANCELLED: Israel - A Lyrical Culture - Facilitator: Ayala Reshef
The lyrics of Israel's popular music often give voice to its national and cultural mindset. An in depth exploration of the lyrics of various popular songs will provide us with a frozen moment in time where political, emotional, and cultural trends can be detected and analyzed. Listen to the music, explore the lyrics, gain some insight into the Israeli frame of mind.
Time is approximate -- Shabbat Book Chavurah will follow Torah Study. We will be discussing The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman. All are welcome, even if you have not read the book.
Please note that Lunch & Learn has moved to Wednesdays. Bring your lunch (nut-free) and come to study and join in a lively discussion. All are welcome.
We will be screening Echoes That Remain, a warm and rich
documentary portrait of Eastern European Jewry before the Holocaust. This brief (60 minute) film from the Simon Wiesenthal Center combines hundreds of rare archival photos and previously unseen film footage
with live action sequences shot on location at the sites of former Jewish communities in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and Romania. A discussion and pot-luck dessert reception will follow the screening, introduced by Temple's own Michael Bernstein. Please, RSVP including what you will bring) to the Temple Office at 519-858-4400/office@templeisraellondon.ca
Please note that Lunch & Learn has moved to Wednesdays. Bring your lunch (nut-free) and come to study and join in a lively discussion. All are welcome.
Please note that Lunch & Learn has moved to Wednesdays. Bring your lunch (nut-free) and come to study and join in a lively discussion. All are welcome.
Please note that Lunch & Learn has moved to Wednesdays. Bring your lunch (nut-free) and come to study and join in a lively discussion. All are welcome.
Please note that Lunch & Learn has moved to Wednesdays. Bring your lunch (nut-free) and come to study and join in a lively discussion. All are welcome.
Please note that Lunch & Learn has moved to Wednesdays. Bring your lunch (nut-free) and come to study and join in a lively discussion. All are welcome.
