Archive for year: 2012

Volunteers Needed to Help Make Geneva Beautiful!

May 19, 8 a.m.

FVJN volunteers (and friends!) are needed to help with planting on Saturday, May 19, starting at 8 a.m.

The גָן we are responsible for is on the southwest corner of State St. (Rt. 38) and Third St., in Geneva.

You can just show up or contact our volunteer garden coordinator, Marci: marci@worddesigner.net.

If able, bring gardening gloves, shovel, trowel, clippers, etc.

Swedish Days 2012

Planning for this year’s FVJN booth at Swedish Days (June 19 – 24) has begun!

Our FVJN Swedish Days committee members are:

• Mike Yackley, chairperson
• Dan Simon
• Kimberly Fivelson
• Dave Larson

This is one of our biggest fundraisers, and you can help out and have a lot of fun at the same time! Contact Mike at: Mikey@fvjn.org to volunteer at our booth!

FVJN Lazarus House Volunteer Project

Volunteers needed once a month!

FVJN individuals and families are needed to provide dinner the first Wednesday of each month to the guests of Lazarus House, a shelter located in St. Charles. Please consider helping with this FVJN Volunteer Project and sign up, now! Volunteers are currently needed for May, June and July.

Past FVJN families who’ve prepared and provided dinners include the Weinbergers, the Kurals, and the Evans families.

For info, tips and more, please RSVP to Bethany at: bkural73@hotmail.com, 630-208-6301.

 

Tzedakah Charity Gardening

Calling all FVJNers who love to garden and help provide healthy food to people in need!

When: 5-7pm Wednesday Evenings

Where: Pushing the Envelope Farm, 1700 Averill Road, Geneva

What: Come and help out at Pushing the Envelope Farm’s Tzedakah Charity Garden. Volunteers help us plant, maintain, and harvest food for the Northern Illinois Foodbank. Drop ins welcome, or call 607.654.8244 for more details.

About Us: Pushing the Envelope Farm is a Jewish educational and community farm. The farm grows and sells organic produce and has milking goats, laying chickens, and honey bees.

Yom HaShoah

Included in the Jewish calendar are three modern holidays: Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), Yom HaZikaron (Israel’s Memorial Day), and Yom HaAtzma’ut (Israeli Independence Day).

The first of these is Yom HaShoah, which falls on Wednesday, April 18, this year.

 

http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/us/yom-hashoah

 

Many people in the United States observe Yom Hashoah, which is also known as Holocaust Remembrance Day. It commemorates the lives and heroism of Jewish people who died in the Holocaust between 1933 and 1945.

What do people do?

Many people in the United States, including those with Jewish ancestry or connections, observe Yom Hashoah on the 27th day of the month of Nisan. Many Jewish communities hold commemorative ceremonies or events to remember Holocaust victims who died during World War II. Activities may include lighting memorial candles and reciting the Kaddish, which is a prayer for the departed.

The Masorti (Conservative Judaism) movement in Israel created Megillat HaShoah, a scroll and liturgical reading for Yom HaShoah. This is a joint effort between Jewish leaders in Israel, the United States and Canada. Rituals associated with Yom Hashoah are still being made and suggested. These rituals vary among synagogues in North America.

Educational programs about the historical events associated with Yom Hashoah are shown around this time of the year, particularly to students learning about Jewish history. These programs may include a documentary featuring Holocaust survivors’ stories, as well as a Holocaust-themed film.

Public life

Yom Hashoah is not a federal public holiday in the United States. The state of Israel moves the observance of Yom Hashoah when the actual date falls on a Friday or Sunday. It is then observed on the preceding Thursday or following Monday, respectively. Some communities in the US also follow this tradition, and there might therefore be some discrepancy about the actual date Yom Hashoah is observed in the US.

Background

Israel’s Knesset (parliament) established Yom Hashoah, also known as Holocaust Remembrance Day, as a memorial to about six million Jewish people who were slaughtered by the Nazis between 1933 and 1945. It is observed on the 27th day of the month of Nisan, which marks the day when Allied troops liberated the first Nazi concentration camp at Buchenwald, Germany, in 1945. The full name of the day is Yom Hashoah Ve-Hagevurah, which means the “Day of (remembrance of) the Holocaust and the Heroism.”