Congregation Rodeph Sholom has gone “virtual”—all of our services and programs are streaming online only. But that doesn’t mean we have stopped providing spaces for us to learn, grow, and connect together! We are still here for you, and still ready to be your congregation—your spiritual home—even in these uncertain times.
Most of our virtual events will require registration and/or the use of a password. An added benefit of registering ahead of time is that you will receive an email reminder and have the option to add the event to your personal calendar. Please refer to your weekly CRS Live email for information about how to access events that require a password.
If you have any questions, please email info@crsnyc.org.
Please join the Caring Community for coffee, conversation and connection! Stay for the hour or drop by to say hello—there is no formal agenda, just a chance to catch up and be together.
Register here for the Zoom meeting. If you register in advance, you’ll also have the option to add it to your calendar and receive an email reminder.
See you soon!
Closed Captioning: We are pleased to offer this link to Web Captioner, a web-based speech recognition tool that displays a real-time transcription in your browser. It’s free and works with a microphone and any system running Google Chrome. You will need to turn the audio volume on your computer to 100% in order to improve accuracy of the captioning.
Two Bam! Six Crack! Mah Jongg at CRS continues online.
Register here for the Zoom link.
As a reminder, here’s what you will need to participate:
- Zoom: This will work best on your computer rather than an iPad. On your computer you will be able to play the Mah Jongg game while being on a zoom call with others in our group. Links to register for the zoom meetings are included below.
- An account on realmahjongg.com: This site offers a 2-week free trial. After the free trial, there is a small fee to continue to play on this site. It would be great if you could go online and explore this website before your first game with CRS so you are familiar with the site. It is so easy—even easier than playing in person since the computer doesn’t let you make certain moves that aren’t kosher!
- A 2019 Mah Jongg Card: Because everyone does not have their 2020 card yet, we’ll start play with 2019 cards. If everyone at your “virtual table” has 2020 cards, you are welcome to play that.
- Players will be assigned to a “virtual game room” within the first 10 minutes. Please plan to join us at the start time. We understand that some players may need to leave early.
- All players in our virtual games should have some experience playing Mah Jongg. We hope to offer online Mah Jongg lessons in the future. If you are interested in learning how to play, email mahjongg@crsnyc.org and we’ll add you to our list.
If you have any questions, please email mahjongg@crsnyc.org.
Book Group gathers the first Thursday of each month to discuss books (or plays or poetry) written by a Jewish author or that have a Jewish theme. See a book that interests you, read it, and join us for the discussion. Come when you’d like, skip as you choose.
December’s book is Here All Along: Finding Meaning, Spirituality, and a Deeper Connection to Life—in Judaism (After Finally Choosing to Look There) by Sarah Hurwitz
Known primarily as head speechwriter for First Lady Michelle Obama and as a senior speechwriter for President Barack Obama, “Sarah Hurwitz writes beautifully about her journey from Hebrew school dropout to thoughtful commentator on her heritage. She shows how this system of thought, founded in the time of shepherds, can be surprisingly relevant to modern life, with wisdom on such contemporary topics as mindfulness, gratitude, work/life balance, and politics. I recommend this book to all, no matter where you lie on the religious spectrum.” (A.J. Jacobs)
How can I get this book?
- Some libraries are open; please check yours for their most up-to-date opening hours. Even if your local library is closed, you can still usually borrow e-books or audiobooks.
- Abebooks.com, thriftbooks.com and amazon.com offer books for purchase. Amazon also offers audiobooks (Audible) and e-books (Kindle).
- Please consider supporting your local bookstores through bookshop.org.
Questions? Please contact bookgroup@crsnyc.org.
We will begin our journey as we learn about the Jews of the Mediterranean both past and present from Professor Jessica Marglin of USC, California. Professor Margolin is Associate Professor of Religion and Law, and the Ruth Ziegler Early Career Chair in Jewish Studies at the University of Southern California. She earned her PhD from Princeton and her BA and MA from Harvard. Her research focuses on the history of Jews and Muslims in North Africa and the Mediterranean, with a particular emphasis on law. She is the author of Across Legal Lines: Jews and Muslims in Modern Morocco (Yale University Press, 2016) and the co-editor, with Matthias Lehmann, of Jews and the Mediterranean (Indiana University Press, 2020).
Please join the Caring Community for coffee, conversation and connection! Stay for the hour or drop by to say hello—there is no formal agenda, just a chance to catch up and be together.
Register here for the Zoom meeting. If you register in advance, you’ll also have the option to add it to your calendar and receive an email reminder.
See you soon!
Closed Captioning: We are pleased to offer this link to Web Captioner, a web-based speech recognition tool that displays a real-time transcription in your browser. It’s free and works with a microphone and any system running Google Chrome. You will need to turn the audio volume on your computer to 100% in order to improve accuracy of the captioning.
Please join the Caring Community for coffee, conversation and connection! Stay for the hour or drop by to say hello—there is no formal agenda, just a chance to catch up and be together.
Register here for the Zoom meeting. If you register in advance, you’ll also have the option to add it to your calendar and receive an email reminder.
See you soon!
Closed Captioning: We are pleased to offer this link to Web Captioner, a web-based speech recognition tool that displays a real-time transcription in your browser. It’s free and works with a microphone and any system running Google Chrome. You will need to turn the audio volume on your computer to 100% in order to improve accuracy of the captioning.
Two Bam! Six Crack! Mah Jongg at CRS continues online.
Register here for the Zoom link.
As a reminder, here’s what you will need to participate:
- Zoom: This will work best on your computer rather than an iPad. On your computer you will be able to play the Mah Jongg game while being on a zoom call with others in our group. Links to register for the zoom meetings are included below.
- An account on realmahjongg.com: This site offers a 2-week free trial. After the free trial, there is a small fee to continue to play on this site. It would be great if you could go online and explore this website before your first game with CRS so you are familiar with the site. It is so easy—even easier than playing in person since the computer doesn’t let you make certain moves that aren’t kosher!
- A 2019 Mah Jongg Card: Because everyone does not have their 2020 card yet, we’ll start play with 2019 cards. If everyone at your “virtual table” has 2020 cards, you are welcome to play that.
- Players will be assigned to a “virtual game room” within the first 10 minutes. Please plan to join us at the start time. We understand that some players may need to leave early.
- All players in our virtual games should have some experience playing Mah Jongg. We hope to offer online Mah Jongg lessons in the future. If you are interested in learning how to play, email mahjongg@crsnyc.org and we’ll add you to our list.
If you have any questions, please email mahjongg@crsnyc.org.
Book Group gathers the first Thursday of each month to discuss books (or plays or poetry) written by a Jewish author or that have a Jewish theme. See a book that interests you, read it, and join us for the discussion. Come when you’d like, skip as you choose.
January’s book is Sisters in Law: How Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg Went to the Supreme Court and Changed the World by Linda Hirshman
Linda Hirshman’s dual biography tells the fascinating story of how the relationship between Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg—Republican and Democrat, Christian and Jew, Western rancher’s daughter and Brooklyn girl—transcends party, religion, region, and culture. Sisters in Law combines legal detail with warm personal anecdotes that bring these very different women into focus as never before. Meticulously researched and compellingly told, it is an authoritative account of our changing law and culture and a moving story of a remarkable friendship.
How can I get this book?
- Some libraries are open; please check yours for their most up-to-date opening hours. Even if your local library is closed, you can still usually borrow e-books or audiobooks.
- Abebooks.com, thriftbooks.com and amazon.com offer books for purchase. Amazon also offers audiobooks (Audible) and e-books (Kindle).
- Please consider supporting your local bookstores through bookshop.org.
Questions? Please contact bookgroup@crsnyc.org.
Book Group gathers the first Thursday of each month to discuss books (or plays or poetry) written by a Jewish author or that have a Jewish theme. See a book that interests you, read it, and join us for the discussion. Come when you’d like, skip as you choose.
February’s book is The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman
In Berlin, at the time when the world changed, Hanni Kohn knows she must send her twelve-year-old daughter away to save her from the Nazi regime. She finds her way to a renowned rabbi, but it’s his daughter, Ettie, who offers hope of salvation when she creates a mystical Jewish creature, a rare and unusual golem, who is sworn to protect Lea. Once Ava is brought to life, she and Lea and Ettie become eternally entwined, their paths fated to cross, their fortunes linked.
How can I get this book?
- Some libraries are open; please check yours for their most up-to-date opening hours. Even if your local library is closed, you can still usually borrow e-books or audiobooks.
- Abebooks.com, thriftbooks.com and amazon.com offer books for purchase. Amazon also offers audiobooks (Audible) and e-books (Kindle).
- Please consider supporting your local bookstores through bookshop.org.
Questions? Please contact bookgroup@crsnyc.org.
Book Group gathers the first Thursday of each month to discuss books (or plays or poetry) written by a Jewish author or that have a Jewish theme. See a book that interests you, read it, and join us for the discussion. Come when you’d like, skip as you choose.
March’s book is Conan Doyle for the Defense: The True Story of a Sensational British Murder, the Quest for Justice and the World’s Greatest Detective Writer by Margalit Fox
Alternate title: Conan Doyle for the Defense: How Sherlock Holmes’s Creator Turned Real-Life Detective and Freed a Man Wrongly Imprisoned for Murder
After a wealthy woman was brutally murdered in her Glasgow home in 1908, the police found a convenient suspect in Oscar Slater, an immigrant Jewish cardsharp. Though he was known to be innocent, Slater was tried, convicted, and consigned to life at hard labor. Outraged by this injustice, Arthur Conan Doyle, already world renowned as the creator of Sherlock Holmes, used the methods of his most famous character to reinvestigate the case.
How can I get this book?
- Some libraries are open; please check yours for their most up-to-date opening hours. Even if your local library is closed, you can still usually borrow e-books or audiobooks.
- Abebooks.com, thriftbooks.com and amazon.com offer books for purchase. Amazon also offers audiobooks (Audible) and e-books (Kindle).
- Please consider supporting your local bookstores through bookshop.org.
Questions? Please contact bookgroup@crsnyc.org.
Book Group gathers the first Thursday of each month to discuss books (or plays or poetry) written by a Jewish author or that have a Jewish theme. See a book that interests you, read it, and join us for the discussion. Come when you’d like, skip as you choose.
April’s book is House on Endless Waters by Emuna Elon
In this novel, the protagonist Yoel Blum is an author who reluctantly agrees to visit his birthplace of Amsterdam to promote his books, despite promising his late mother that he would never return to that city. While touring the Jewish Historical Museum with his wife, Yoel stumbles upon footage portraying prewar Dutch Jewry and is astonished to see the youthful face of his beloved mother staring back at him, posing with his father, his older sister…and an infant he doesn’t recognize. Part family mystery, part wartime drama, House on Endless Waters is “a rewarding meditation on survival.” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review)
How can I get this book?
- Some libraries are open; please check yours for their most up-to-date opening hours. Even if your local library is closed, you can still usually borrow e-books or audiobooks.
- Abebooks.com, thriftbooks.com and amazon.com offer books for purchase. Amazon also offers audiobooks (Audible) and e-books (Kindle).
- Please consider supporting your local bookstores through bookshop.org.
Questions? Please contact bookgroup@crsnyc.org.
Book Group gathers the first Thursday of each month to discuss books (or plays or poetry) written by a Jewish author or that have a Jewish theme. See a book that interests you, read it, and join us for the discussion. Come when you’d like, skip as you choose.
May’s book is We Love Anderson Cooper: Short Stories by R. L. Maizes
In this quirky, humorous, and deeply human short story collection, Pushcart Prize-nominated author R.L. Maizes reminds us that even in our most isolated moments, we are never truly alone. In We Love Anderson Cooper, characters are treated as outsiders because of their sexual orientation, racial or religious identity, or simply because they look different. As NPR reviewed this collection, “Maizes’ admirable achievement in these charmingly offbeat stories is to balance fascination with sympathy and gravitas with humor.”
How can I get this book?
- Some libraries are open; please check yours for their most up-to-date opening hours. Even if your local library is closed, you can still usually borrow e-books or audiobooks.
- Abebooks.com, thriftbooks.com and amazon.com offer books for purchase. Amazon also offers audiobooks (Audible) and e-books (Kindle).
- Please consider supporting your local bookstores through bookshop.org.
Questions? Please contact bookgroup@crsnyc.org.
Book Group gathers the first Thursday of each month to discuss books (or plays or poetry) written by a Jewish author or that have a Jewish theme. See a book that interests you, read it, and join us for the discussion. Come when you’d like, skip as you choose.
June’s book is The Mathematician’s Shiva by Stuart Rojstaczer
Alexander “Sasha” Karnokovitch and his family would like to mourn the passing of his mother, Rachela, with modesty and dignity. But Rachela, a famous Polish émigré mathematician and professor at the University of Wisconsin, is rumored to have solved the million-dollar, Navier-Stokes Millennium Prize problem. Rumor has it that she spitefully took the solution to the grave. To Sasha’s chagrin, a ragtag group of socially-challenged mathematicians arrives in Madison and crashes the shiva, vowing to do whatever it takes to find the solution, even if it means prying up the floorboards for Rachela’s notes. As The New York Times Book Review said, “You can never really complain about a book being too alive, too curious, too alert, too true to itself….The novel works for the same reason the humor does: It is smart and brutally honest.”
How can I get this book?
- Some libraries are open; please check yours for their most up-to-date opening hours. Even if your local library is closed, you can still usually borrow e-books or audiobooks.
- Abebooks.com, thriftbooks.com and amazon.com offer books for purchase. Amazon also offers audiobooks (Audible) and e-books (Kindle).
- Please consider supporting your local bookstores through bookshop.org.
Questions? Please contact bookgroup@crsnyc.org.
Phone: (212) 362-8800, Fax: (212) 877-6526, Email: info@crsnyc.org
Emergency Call Number: (917) 902-6103 V2