FYI Ocotber 2008

Inside This Issue:

Holiday Toy Drive

Special Needs Programs

Leagues Starting

Richard Skipper as Carol Channing

Festival Events

Agency Calendar:

Tuesday, Nov. 4 Election Day open

Thursday, Nov. 27 Thanksgiving open 8am-1pm

Dec. 22-29 Chanukah open

Thursday, Dec. 25 Family Day open 8am-5pm

Wednesday, Dec. 31 New Year’s Eve Day open 6am-5pm

Thursday, January 1 New Year’s Day open 8am-1pm

Festival Events
Friday, October 31 Saturday, November 1 Sunday, November 2
Shabbat Across Riverdale
Chabad Lubavitch of Riverdale
Saturday, November 1, 9 am Service with special d'var Torah dedicated to Shabbat Across Riverdale
535 West 246 Street, (718) 549-1000

Congregation Shaarei Shalom
Friday, October 31, 6:30 pm Interactive children's Shabbat service (age 7 and younger, and
their families); 7:30 pm Shabbat service with the music of Shlomo Carlebach. Both services
led by Rabbi Steven D. Burton and Cantor Ronald J. Broden at PS 24 on West 235th Street off Independence Avenue(entrance opposite the Spuyten Duyvil library.) (718) 796-0305

Congregation Tehillah
Friday, October 31, 6:00 pm Potluck dinner, music and davening with Rabbi Linda Shriner-
Cahn. Call for location (718) 884-4389

Conservative Synagogue Adath Israel(CSAIR)
Friday, October 31, 5:35 pm Artists Beit Midrash Exhibit: Kabbalat Shabbat Service followed by a "wine and challah" reception in honor of the artists who participated in last fall's Artist's Beit Midrash. See works of art in a variety of media created by members of the community, based on the theme of Darkness and Light in Jewish sources. Service 5:35 pm (the only service that night); Reception: 6:45-7:15 pm; Dinner: 7:15 pm. Open to all. Reservations required for dinner. Call the office to arrange for pre-payment.
475 West 250 Street, (718) 543-8400

Hebrew Institute of Riverdale (HIR)
Saturday, November 1, 5:30 pm Seudah Shlishit, Jen Taylor Friedman, will talk about The Intersection between Art and Halakha: a Scribe's Reflections on Writing Megillah Scrolls.
3700 Henry Hudson Parkway, (718) 796-4730

Riverdale Jewish Center
Friday, October 31 Service followed by Community Dinner at Riverdale Jewish Center (call the synagogue for time).
3700 Independence Avenue, (718) 548-1850

Riverdale Temple
Sunday, November 2, 9 am A morning of "The Art of the Torah," with a guest Torah scribe. Learn how and why Torah scrolls are made. There will be hands-on activities for children and adults of all ages - art projects, calligraphy demonstrations, text study and refreshments.
4545 Independence Avenue, (718) 548-8300

Young Israel Ohab Zedek of North Riverdale
Saturday, November 1, 11:00 am with special d'var Torah on the arts and Judaism by Rabbi Shmuel Hain.
6015 Riverdale Avenue, (718) 548-0105

Movie: Arranged 8:30 pm
Two young women - one an Orthodox Jew, the other Muslim - meet and become friends as first-year teachers at a public school in Brooklyn. Over the course of the year they learn they share much in common, not least of which is that they are both going through arranged marriages.
ARRANGED is based loosely on the experiences of Yuta Silverman, an Orthodox Jewish woman from Borough Park, Brooklyn. Seeing the Israeli film USHPIZIN, produced by Orthodox filmmakers, gave her the courage and inspiration to try and tell one of her many stories.
With no connections or experiences in the film world, and working from a directory on the Independent Feature Project's website, she began making random calls to New York-based production companies. She reached Cicala Filmworks in November, 2005. During a series of meetings - in which she used a pseudonym - she told Stefan Schaefer about her experiences of going through an arranged marriage process and also about her friendship with a Pakistani Muslim woman.
Stefan, although he found the story elements very promising, would often remind Yuta that he was a man and non-Jew. He offered to write the treatment and then pass it along to his good friend, the director Jessica Sharzer. Yuta responded: "If she's not Orthodox, it makes no difference to me, you may as well direct it."
As the months past, Yuta convinced Stefan to write the screenplay on spec. He did and, at a certain point, discussed the possibility of producing it through his company Cicala Filmworks, with his partner Diane Crespo as a co-director. Yuta said she could bring some financing to the project and, together with the HD camera package and production services Cicala could provide, the three began to consider shooting the film over the summer. Yuta showed the screenplay to her rabbi and, though he wouldn't bless it, he did say he was not going to forbid her from moving forward.
Meet the movie's director, Stefan Schaefer, at a post-movie audience Q&A.
8:30 pm $10 per person

Sunday, November 2
Klezmer/Gospel Get-Out-the-Vote Brunch
11:00 am Tickets: $12 for adults /$6 for children (12 and younger)
Gospel and Klezmer Get-Out-the-Vote Brunch Celebrate American
democracy less than 48-hours before the historic 2008 presidential elections
with a fun and inspirational family-friendly brunch!
The program includes: Rousing performances by the Green Pastures Gospel Choir and Metroplitan Klezmer.
Inspirational words from Yeshiva University President Richard Joel and Lehman College President Ricardo R. Fernandez. Strategies to encourage your friends and neighbors to exercise their right to vote on Election Day.
Delicious all-you-could-eat kosher breakfast buffet.

International Mask Making Workshop
We invite kids ages 7 and older to create international masks with textiles, beads and other media, following the styles of masks from Africa, Venice, South America, Japan and other cultures, led by the Y's Visual Arts Director Janine Intervallo.
1:30-3:00 pm Tickets: $5

Family Concert: Hayes Greenfield, Music for a Green Planet
Interactive jazz for children ages 3 and older, and their families. Hayes Greenfield involves the audience in learning scat and other foundations of jazz. His Music for a Green Planet is full of joyful and witty jazz tunes that celebrate the environment and every human being's part in saving it. Many songs play on classic children's songs and have been given new lyrics and a jazzy update; for instance, "This Old Man" has morphed into "This Green Man," with a soulful sax accompaniment and a chorus about hybrid cars and compact fluorescent light bulbs. "Catch the man who's making jazz cool for kids" says New York Magazine. "The true pied piper of jazz," says Philip Glass.
3:00 pm Tickets: $5

Community Drumming Circle
Join us in the Y's lobby -- and bring your percussion instruments! This has been a highlight of the Y's Jewish Festival of the Arts each year. Don't miss this high-energy, fun and creative community event. 4:00 pm FREE!

Dr. Ruth Westheimer and HBO's In Treatment and Israel's Betipul
7 pm, FREE! Come watch two episodes of the hit series In Treatment and then watch the Israeli show, in Hebrew with English subtitles, upon which it was based. Followed by a discussion of therapy and culture, US and Israel, led by local mental health experts, moderated by Dr. Ruth Westheimer.

Monday, November 3
Shalom Ireland 2008 An Evening of Dance and Dialogue
Note: This unique event is back by popular demand for the third year in a row - Shalom Ireland 2006 and 2007 both sold out in record time!
Celebrate Jewish and Irish heritage and enjoy dance performances by the Parparim Ensemble and the Keltic Dreams. The Parparim Ensemble is a spirited and captivating dance company formed by Ruth Goodman to help demonstrate the diversity of the Jewish people. The Parparim Ensemble will perform a show entitled Kaleidoscope - an exhilarating program which reflects the multiplicity of ethnic influences inherent in Jewish dance and modern Israeli culture.
The Keltic Dreams is an Irish dance troupe conceived by Caroline Duggan, a music teacher from Dublin who transformed PS 59 in the Bronx, an elementary school that is 71 percent Hispanic and 27 percent black, by turning her students on to the joys of Irish dancing. The Keltic Dreams will perform traditional Irish dancing infused with elements of hip-hop, salsa and African dance.
The dance performances will be followed by a panel discussion, exploring the similarities between the Jewish and Irish cultures.
Guests will then be invited to conclude their evening upstairs at the Y's "McJerusalem Pub" featuring kosher beer and Irish food along with instructor-led folk dancing.
7:00 pm $5
Sponsored by the Riverdale Jewish Community Council with the generous support of Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz and the Riverdale Y