This Sunday evening we usher in the holiday of Sukkot, a week long harvest festival, in which we remember the exodus from Egypt and the 40 years of wondering in desert. Traditionally, each household will build a Sukkah – a ritual booth. This holiday has both historical and agricultural significance. A holiday with many names, it is known as the “Festival of Booths,” the “Festival of the Ingathering,” and the “Season of our Joy.” Sukkot starts this Sunday night October 13 and runs through October 20th. The temporary huts we build during this time remind us both of the abundance of nature, and the precariousness and preciousness of life on earth. We celebrate Jewish peoplehood and shared history and welcome ancestors and friends, dwelling in our Sukkot, eating festive meals, singing and reveling in the autumn sounds and smells. If you don’t have a Sukkah, please join us in ours!! Both the Park Heights and the Owings...
JCC Blog
What are your kids up to after school this Fall?
If you haven’t done so, stop by the Rosenbloom Owings Mills JCC and meet Tracey Pyser, our J Kids coordinator. Tracey will get your children started in one of the J’s amazing “J Kids” afterschool programs.
Swimming, dancing, youth fitness - Call Tracey!
STEM, professional tutoring, outdoor adventure – Tracey’s got it!
Any or all of the above – Call Tracey!
The J has so much to offer your children after-school, and on weekends too; Tracey will get your family’s J journey started.
This Fall, Tracey will oversee J Kids afterschool and weekend enrichment programs (for ages 3 through 8th grade). Now you can drop off your children for an afternoon of fun or choose the transportation option which includes one enrichment class per day as part...
Chef Dan’s Café, Upgraded Pool and More!
The Weinberg Park Heights J has come a long way since it opened in 1960. Many of you have seen significant changes in the past 15 years, but according to JCC CEO Barak Hermann, we are about to embark on a multi-year improvement plan transforming much of the building and some of the services we offer.
“Over the next two years you will see a major growth of LifeBridge Health wellness programing tailored to the needs of the frum community.” announced Barak. “Rooms and offices will be moved around and redesigned to accommodate LifeBridge and numerous new fitness opportunities. People who haven’t visited in a while won’t believe their eyes!”
Adds Barak, “The Weinberg Park Heights J is a truly unique JCC, as it is the only JCC in the country that primarily serves an...
Playwright Suzanne Bachner explains her journey
Award-winning New York City playwright Suzanne Bachner had huge questions to wrestle with when she first began searching for her birth parents 13 years ago.
When an adoptee chooses to search for their birth parents, Suzanne explains, “You have to consider, do you want to stay with a simpler, incomplete identity, or do you want to move forward towards embracing a dual identity and integrating those identities into one that reflects your true self?”
“When you don’t know where you came from or what happened to you from conception through adoption, you feel removed from human...
Designing a J for the 21st century
As a longtime board member of the JCC, Randi Buergenthal is used to fielding questions. Usually, she knows the right professional to ask or where to find information.
But there’s one question that made her stop and think.
"Why should I belong to the JCC? What’s in it for me?"
Today, as the new chair of the JCC board, Randi partners with a board of directors and JCC staff to answer these questions. They recognize the JCC of today and tomorrow must reimagine the JCC experience. Fortunately, the group has done their homework. For several years, Randi worked with other board members and J professionals to take a hard look at what happens when someone participates in the J’s programs, whether at the Weinberg Park Heights JCC, Rosenbloom Owings Mills JCC,...
New Chief Arts Officer at the JCC
Sara Shalva’s enthusiasm about her new position as the JCC’s Chief Arts Officer is palpable and contagious. In fact, it’s impossible to speak with Shalva for more than a few minutes without getting excited about the future of the J’s already excellent arts and culture programming.
“What could be better than a job that allows me to provide opportunities for people to be moved by music, dance, theater, learning and visual arts? It’s totally inspiring,” says Sara, whose plans for her new position include creating strategic partnerships, focusing on Israel as a platform for arts and culture programming, expanding adult enrichment opportunities and designing arts, culture and history oriented trips for adults.
Born in Managua, Nicaragua, Sara grew up in Northern Virginia. She was always drawn to the performing arts and as a...
A Message From Barak Hermann, JCC CEO on 9/11
Today, on September 11, Patriots Day, we remember the victims of the terrorist attacks that forever changed our country on September 11, 2001.
I personally could not believe that planes hijacked by terrorists would crash into the World Trade Centers, the pentagon in DC, and that a fourth plane was taken down in a field in Pennsylvania by the passengers trying to avoid additional bloodshed. So many lives were tragically lost, families thrown into upheaval, and our country had to wrestle with a new level of growing security concerns. Xenophobia became a new word in my vocabulary and drove my thinking as a Program Director at the time on types of programs that could...
By Rabbi Jessy Dressin
In many ways we are coming to the end of the year…the end of a period of time in which we learned together, celebrated together and shared lots of great times and experiences as a community.
There is a famous Israeli song with the words that read: “Shalom Shalom, Shalom Shalom. It means hello and welcome home. And when you want to say goodbye, we use the words Shalom as well.” How great that the same word we use to say goodbye is also the word we use to say hello! It’s like one big circle! Or spiral!
The Jewish calendar also moves according to cycles. We celebrate the same set of holidays year in and year out and yet each year we are in a little bit of a different...
