Odds & Ends

The winter 2010 edition of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection’s P2 View newsletter is now available at http://www.ct.gov/dep/lib/dep/p2/newsletter/p2viewwinter10.pdfWhat’s Inside? Here are some of the topics: Turf's up! Learn about DEP's organic land care program for municipal playing fields. Find out how one Manchester couple is getting "smart" about their electric bills. What's in your recycling bin? Find out what's new in Connecticut’s recycling universe. Planning on doing some home remodeling? Find out where to get inexpensive and unique building materials! Water, water everywhere at St. Vincent's Hospital, but nary a bottle to be found! Eartha tackles a smelly problem.Thanks for your interest in pollution prevention!

The first sign of progress, like the soon expected snowdrops of Spring, have poked their heads from the dirt of USCJ bureaucracy. With the consolidation of multiple offices in Canada, the Northeast and New York, all synagogue members have been invited to receive information directly. Northeast District is made up of the Canadian, Connecticut Valley, Empire, and New England regions. It includes Ontario and the Canadian provinces to its east, New England (except Greenwich, Connecticut), and New York state north of the New York City metropolitan area."While it is vital for the lay and professional leadership of our synagogue to be subscribed to this list, we encourage you to let your entire congregation know that they can be part of this community. Here’s what one needs to do in order to subscribe to this list:" 1)           Go to http://uscj.org/scripts/wa.exe?A0=NORTHEAST-ANNOUNCE 2)           Click on “Join or Leave NORTHEAST-ANNOUNCE” 3)           Enter your Name…

The Solomon Schechter Awards program is one of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism's longest continuously running programs and is a fitting tribute to the memory of Solomon Schechter. When Dr. Schechter founded the United Synagogue in 1913, he hoped that our congregations' standards of our congregations would rise continuously. Since 1949, several hundred congregations have been recognized for excellence in various aspects of synagogue life. Dr. Schechter's stress on meaningful synagogue activity and his emphasis on the synagogue as one of Judaism's core institutions are reflected in general in our mission as a movement, and in particular in the selection and presentation of these awards. The Solomon Schechter Award rewards extraordinary characteristics and certain unusual and outstanding aspects or achievements that go beyond the expected norms. Award winners deserve recognition for the originality and quality of their programs, for their presentations and achievements. We congratulate them, as well as…

January 2010The following is the first of several updates from the “Northeast District” on the transformation of four regions of USCJ into the Northeast District. The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism held its Biennial Convention in Cherry Hill, NJ. from December 6-10, 2009. New by-laws for USCJ were adopted (http://uscj.org/images/bylaws_2009.pdf), approving the phased implementation of the reduction of our current 15 Regions into 6 Districts, in order to provide member congregations with better services by both professional staff and lay leaders.In our area, the Connecticut Valley, Empire, New England and Canadian Regions will be combined into the Northeast District. The past president, president, and president-elects of these four Regions have formed a transformation steering committee to implement the transition to the Northeast District, to be completed by December 2010.The following are milestones in the transformation process important to all synagogues in the new District. In January the transformation steering committee…

By Janet S. TigerThe Jews settled the moon in 2053, just about five years after the end of the Islamic Wars of the 40s, where the Middle East, and Israel, of course, had been obliterated by nuclear weapons. The two million Jews remaining throughout the rest of the world – less than 100,000 total in all the Islamic countries- banded together and purchased the dark side of the moon, which no other companies or people wished to colonize. Great transports were arranged via the 62,000 mile space elevator and the Space Shuttle and every Jew on Earth – including anyone who claimed any Jewish heritage whatsoever – left to go to a place where no one could blame them for anything. The Earth rejoiced – happily rid of all Jews. All friends of the Jews had 'disappeared' and there were huge parties throughout all of Sweden and the rest of…

From The Times December 19, 2009 Culture is the glue to unite the numerous strands of Jewishness. Who is a Jew? The recent Supreme Court ruling has highlighted the deep differences between the many ways of answering that simple question. (John Rifkin) The focus of legal controversy: the JFS, formerly the Jews' Free School The Supreme Court ruling this past Wednesday upheld the previous Appeal Court ruling about eligibility for entry into the Jewish Free School (JFS). It not only highlights the difficulty in answering the question “Who is a Jew?” but may also have made history by giving a brand-new definitional twist of Jewishness — ie, Jewish by ethnicity. In refusing a place at the JFS on the basis of a pupil’s parental descent, the Supreme Court ruled that the school has been guilty of ethnic prejudice, which in turn contravenes UK racial laws. The president of the Supreme…

A Ghostly Trace of the Jewish Occult By Nathaniel PopperA newly discovered piece of stained, wrinkled paper conjures up the details of a Jewish exorcism that appears to have been performed sometime in the 18th or 19th century. Courtesy of The University of Manchester A Prayer: A text fragment from a ceremony held in the 18th or 19th century and recovered from the Cairo Geniza. The ghostly document details the prayers that were performed on Qamar bat Rahmah to try to rid her of the spirit of her dead husband, Nissim ben Bonia. According to the handwritten but well-preserved Hebrew text, the rabbis asked the ghost to “leave this woman, Qamar bat Rahmah, [and forgo] all authority and control that it has over her; and Nissim ben Bonia shall have no more authority and control whatsoever over Qamar bat Rahmah in any form or manner at all.” The 150-word text…

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USCJ Centralizes Operation To Assert Stronger Role C. SCOTT WEINER All About the Future: Conservative leaders discuss the movement’s future during a panel dis- cussion. They are, from left, Rabbi Julie Schonfeld of the Rabbinical Assembly; Cantor Stephen Stein of the Cantors Assembly; Rabbi Steven C. Wernick of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, and Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies. By Josh Nathan-Kazis Published December 09, 2009 Cherry Hill, N.J. — Some of Conservative Judaism’s top leaders found little to criticize within their own movement when they gathered together December 7 for a panel discussion on the future direction of their troubled denomination. The plenary forum at the biennial convention of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism saw one panelist tout renewed involvement by rabbinic spouses in congregational life as a crucial tonic. Another lamented that the movement’s “detractors” failed to recognize Conservative Judaism’s…

End-of-Year Tax Planning Considerations Last Updated: 12/8/2009 4:27:24 PM As the New Year approaches, taxpayers around the nation are thinking about making gifts or other financial moves before January 1 that will benefit them come April 15, 2010. Here are some year-end considerations of particular interest to seniors. A Reprieve on RMDs Last year, as the stock market plunged and the economy teetered on the brink, Congress suspended the penalty for seniors who fail to take the required minimum distribution (RMD) from their IRA and employer retirement accounts in 2009. There is normally a penalty for failure to withdraw once the account owner reaches retirement age -- after age 70 1/2. Taxpayers generally must begin taking annual distributions from their retirement accounts by the April 1 occurring after they reach age 70 1/2 or pay a whopping 50 percent excise tax on the amount that should have been distributed but…