Adult Ed: Messianism
05/31/2023 01:51:31 PM
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Join us Saturday, June 3rd, after Shacharit as we open up the conversation on Jewish views of the Messiah.
Sundays, June 11th and 18th, will be taught by a special guest teacher with expertise on this subject.
Some pre-readings on the subject:
Jewish Virtual Library's brief explanation of historical views about the Messiah
My Jewish Learning's selection of verses and quotes specifically about the Messiah...Read more...
Book Club: June
05/31/2023 01:31:12 PM
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Join us on Zoom at 10:30 the last Wednesday of every month. This month we are reading and discussing our next Book Club choice, The Thread Collectors by Shaunna Edwards and Alyson Richman.
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Book Club: May
04/28/2023 10:09:25 AM
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A startling and profound exploration of how Jewish history is exploited to comfort the living. Renowned and...Read more...
Book Club: April
03/29/2023 11:29:52 AM
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On April 26th at 10:30 via Zoom we will meet to discuss The Ritual Bath by Faye Kellerman.
"Detective Peter Decker of the LAPD is stunned when he gets the report....Read more...
Adult Ed: Sexual Ethics
03/15/2023 12:32:40 PM
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Adult Ed: Sexual Ethics
03/08/2023 12:56:04 PM
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This month, we are studying Jewish sexual ethics through a Reform Lens. Using the book Sacred Encounter: Jewish Perspectives on Sexuality by the CCAR Press, and it's study guide (though in an abbreviated form), we are looking at the issues of Marriage, LGBTQIA inclusion, Healthy Relationships, Modesty in the Modern World, and Sexual Desire.
While folks are certainly welcomed to try to read along with me, Sacred Encounter is a bit dry...Read more...
Book Club: March
02/22/2023 11:33:22 AM
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Our next read will be All the Rivers by Dorit Rabinyan, and we are meeting to discuss on March 29th at 10:30 via Zoom.
A controversial, award-winning story about the passionate but untenable affair between an Israeli woman and a Palestinian man, from one of...Read more...
Book Club: February
02/06/2023 01:13:43 PM
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On the last Wednesday of February (the 22nd) we will be meeting at 10:30 am via Zoom to discuss our next book, Then She Found Me by Elinor Lipman.
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Adult Ed: Crash Course in Jewish History
12/11/2022 02:39:50 PM
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Join us for our final session of the NJOP Crash Course in Jewish History! We pick up where we left off last session, at the brink of WWII, and continue onward to today.
Lesson 5 PowerPoint
Lesson 5 Outline
Read more...Adult Ed: Crash Course in Jewish History
12/04/2022 02:27:33 PM
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On December 11th we will meet for our 4th and penultimate class on Jewish History. We continue our timeline from the 1700s-1900s, focusing mostly on Enlightenment and Emancipation, and the beginning of Modernity.
Lesson 4 Timeline
Lesson 4 PowerPoint
Lesson 4 Outline
Read more...Book Club: December
11/30/2022 11:44:16 AM
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Our "December" book club meeting is pushed back a week to accommodate our holiday travels! Join us this first Wednesday in January at 10:30 on Zoom to discuss In Memory of Memory by Maria Stepanova.
Shortlisted for the 2021 International Booker Prize, In Memory of Memory...Read more...
Adult Ed: Crash Course in Jewish History
11/20/2022 03:07:17 PM
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We did not end up meeting on 11/27.
Please join us 12/3 for our third installment of Jewish History.
This class will pick up with the turn of the millennia (the tenth century) and bring us up to just before the Enlightenment.
Lesson 3 Outline
Lesson 3 Timeline
Lesson 3 PowerPoint
Read more...Adult Ed: Crash Course in Jewish History
11/14/2022 02:13:16 PM
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This week's session on Jewish history covers the period of the united Israelite Kingdom through exiles and into the beginnings of our thriving diaspora community (approx 1000 BCE-1000 CE).
Lesson 2 Timeline
Lesson 2 Outline
Lesson 2 Powerpoint
Read more...Adult Ed: Crash Course in Jewish History
11/13/2022 11:56:19 AM
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Throughout the next five weeks, we will be going through the NJOP's curriculum for a Crash Course in Jewish History: 4,000 years in five one-hour sessions.
This first week will focus on the Biblical period: creation to the First Temple.
Timeline for Lesson 1
Lesson 1 PowerPoint
Lesson 1 Outline
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Book Club: November
10/26/2022 07:45:56 PM
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Book Club: October
09/28/2022 11:53:16 AM
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Our Book Club will next meet on October 26th to discuss Nathan Englander's What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank.
From Goodreads:
These eight new stories from the celebrated novelist and short-story writer Nathan Englander display a gifted...Read more...
Book Club: September
09/01/2022 02:53:40 PM
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Join us on us on the last Wednesday of every month for our zoom book club meeting.
This month we are reading The Girl in the Middle: Growing Up Between Black and White, Rich and Poor
by Anais Granofsky
https://images.shulcloud.com/613/uploads/thegirlinthemiddle.jpg
In this poignant and timely memoir--written with the searing power of Beautiful Struggle and Born a Crime--Degrassi Junior High star Anais Granofsky...Read more...
Book Club: August
08/17/2022 10:45:56 AM
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We will meet on August 31 at 10 AM on Zoom to discuss this month's read: Maggie Anton's The Choice.
From Goodreads: A powerful love story with a purpose: to...Read more...
Book Club: July
06/30/2022 02:05:06 PM
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Adult Ed: Talmud
06/19/2022 03:31:46 PM
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Our last two weeks in this course (6/26 and 7/3) we will jump to Masechet Yevamot and check in a bit on what most other Talmud-studiers around the world are reading this week.
Here's a little primer on what to expect from Yevamot as a whole, and here is the text of Yevamot 107-108 (what we will be reading the next two weeks) from the indispensable Sefaria.org.
Please Note that the July 3rd, the class will meet at 11 AM rather...Read more...
Adult Ed: Intro to Talmud
06/08/2022 10:15:22 PM
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This Sunday at 1 pm we are continuing our study of Talmud, this time diving into some text!
If you missed last week's class you can always go back and watch our recording, or check out the resources below:
Steinsaltz tells us "What is Talmud?"
My Jewish Learning breaks it down further
A Reform Perspective
Read more...Book Club: June
06/02/2022 07:48:14 PM
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According to Amazon.com, the book is about: The moving story of Joana Halevi – one brave woman who was...Read more...
Shavuot Tikkun: How do Reform Jews decide which Mitzvot to follow?
05/23/2022 05:12:29 PM
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On Leil Shavuot, we will discuss around the campfire the topics of Reform Judaism's relationship with mitzvot. Here are some links and talking points to prepare you for our communal discourse.
We often hear that there are "613 commandments." That's not quite true: https://www.thetorah.com/article/the-origins-and-use-of-the-613-mitzvot
There is perhaps no...Read more...
Book Club: May
05/04/2022 08:45:55 PM
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What if there was a town that history missed?
For decades, the tiny Jewish shtetl of Kreskol existed in happy isolation, virtually untouched and unchanged. Spared by the Holocaust and the Cold War, its residents enjoyed remarkable peace. It missed out on cars, and electricity, and the internet, and indoor...Read more...
Book Club: April
04/06/2022 11:14:31 AM
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Adult Ed: Zohar
03/25/2022 08:33:46 AM
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Sunday, March 27th, we are learning with and from Rabbi Justin Jaron Lewis (https://justinjaronlewis.wordpress.com/) as he guides us through a lesson about the Zohar - the most prominent book of Jewish mysticism.
Justin Jaron Lewis is a rabbi, Jewish Studies professor, and storyteller who loves the imagination and emotional richness of the Zohar. He is the author of Imagining Holiness: Classic Hasidic Tales in Modern Times and...Read more...
Jewish Baking
03/13/2022 09:47:21 AM
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The Origins of Challah
American Challah: A People's History
Purim Cookies: Are they Haman's ears, pockets, or hat?
History of Hamantaschen
Read more...Adult Ed: Mikveh
03/04/2022 08:47:12 AM
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For One Class Only!
3/6 1:00pm Everything you wanted to know about Mikvah but were afraid to ask
Learn about the history, purpose, and modern potential of the mikveh with Rabbi Lizz! If there is interest in a follow up, and covid restrictions allow, we may take a "field trip" at a later date to the community (non-Orthodox) mikveh in DC.
Source Sheets on Mikva'ot:
The...Read more...
Book Club: March
02/28/2022 12:40:57 PM
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The scene is Otisville Prison, upstate New York. A crew of fraudsters, tax evaders, trigamists, and forgers discuss matters of right...Read more...
Adult Ed: Jewish Humor
01/27/2022 11:01:13 AM
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Our fifth and final class on Jewish Humor will discuss contemporary Jewish comedy and where it looks like the future of American Jewish Comedy is headed.
Rachel Bloom is a musical theatre and literary nerd who embraces her Jewishness in a deep and very visible way with her songs such as Remember that We Suffered (with Patti LuPone and Tovah Feldshuh), The JAP Battle, and the JAP Battle Reprise.
Jessica Kirson, slightly older...Read more...
Fri, June 9 2023
20 Sivan 5783
Upcoming Events
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Saturday ,
JunJune 10 , 2023
Shabbat, Jun 10th 7:00p to 10:00p
Join us at a Ner Shalom wine tasting Saturday June 10, 7pm. The wine will be supplied by Chateau O'Brien Winery. There will also be snacks, non alcoholic beverages and good company. . Please join us in wishing the Levy family "zol zayn mit mazl" as they prepare to leave Virginia for their new home in Florida. There is a $10 charge per person for this wonderful evening. There will also be wine for sale Please RSVP by June 1. Questions? Contact Debby at ekibbitz@nershalomva.org -
Sunday ,
JunJune 11 , 2023
Sunday, Jun 11th 1:00p to 2:00p
Join us as we learn about Jewish ideas of the Messiah, the Messianic Age, and how it has evolved over the last 5,000 years. -
Friday ,
JunJune 16 , 2023
Friday, Jun 16th 7:30p to 8:30p
Erev Shabbat Services most Friday nights at 7:30 in the sanctuary -
Sunday ,
JunJune 18 , 2023
Sunday, Jun 18th 1:00p to 2:00p
Join us as we learn about Jewish ideas of the Messiah, the Messianic Age, and how it has evolved over the last 5,000 years. -
Friday ,
JunJune 23 , 2023
Friday, Jun 23rd 7:30p to 8:30p
Erev Shabbat Services most Friday nights at 7:30 in the sanctuary -
Wednesday ,
JunJune 28 , 2023
Wednesday, Jun 28th 10:30a to 12:00p
Join us on Zoom as we discussed our next Book Club choice, The Thread Collectors by Shaunna Edwards and Alyson Richman. 1863: In a small Creole cottage in New Orleans, an ingenious young Black woman named Stella embroiders intricate maps on repurposed cloth to help enslaved men flee and join the Union Army. Bound to a man who would kill her if he knew of her clandestine activities, Stella has to hide not only her efforts but her love for William, a Black soldier and a brilliant musician. Meanwhile, in New York City, a Jewish woman stitches a quilt for her husband, who is stationed in Louisiana with the Union Army. Between abolitionist meetings, Lily rolls bandages and crafts quilts with her sewing circle for other soldiers, too, hoping for their safe return home. But when months go by without word from her husband, Lily resolves to make the perilous journey South to search for him. As these two women risk everything for love and freedom during the brutal Civil War, their paths converge in New Orleans, where an unexpected encounter leads them to discover that even the most delicate threads have the capacity to save us. Loosely inspired by the authors' family histories, this stunning novel will stay with readers for a long time. -
Saturday ,
JulJuly 1 , 2023
Shabbat, Jul 1st 10:00a to 11:00a
At the synagogue! -
Friday ,
JulJuly 7 , 2023
Friday, Jul 7th 7:30p to 8:30p
Erev Shabbat Services most Friday nights at 7:30 in the sanctuary -
Wednesday ,
JulJuly 12 , 2023
Wednesday, Jul 12th 6:30p to 8:00p
On Zoom with Captions provided as an option. Explore and discuss samples of poetry from modern poets with poet & visual artist & teaching artist, Liz Mariani. Join us as we embrace this sacred storytelling tradition in this month of Av. Poetry is a Lion's Roar. Enter open for anything. Leave inspired. Liz Mariani, MFA (they, she) is a queer poet born in Buffalo, NY. They earned an MFA in Poetry from Mills College. Linktr.ee/liz.mariani.poetry & @liz.mariani.poetry on Instagram. https://www.pw.org/directory/writers/liz_mariani Open for 8 Adults, so please register in advance for this meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAtcuyqrD8uHNUCJ56mMk2jyN0zrcVlmp3L -
Friday ,
JulJuly 21 , 2023
Friday, Jul 21st 7:30p to 8:30p
Erev Shabbat Services most Friday nights at 7:30 in the sanctuary
Ner Shalom in the News
- Washington Jewish Week - June 30, 2020
CNS Branded Masks Save Lives
- Prince WIlliam Living - September 20, 2019
Annual Patriot Day Shabbat
- Prince William Living - August 26, 2019
Learn About the Jewish High Holidays!
- Prince William Living - July 16, 2019
Synagogue in Summer
- Prince William Living - May 16, 2019
Seasons of Our Joy
- Prince William Living - March 20, 2019
- Learning About Jewish Traditions
- Building an Inclusive & Vibrant Community
- - Prince William Living - December 14, 2018
- The Future of the Community
- - Prince William Living - November 20, 2018
- Coming Together After a National Tragedy
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