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updated
9/1/2010 |
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Tabling for Rosh
Hashanah |
Although tabling access is
somewhat limited because of the Campus Center construction, L'chaim and
Shabbos House and Hillel will be out there tabling before the first Hillel
Dinner and with Rosh Hashanah awareness and information. Most students will
be headed home for the especially long extended weekend, but
Shabbos House will be hosting Rosh Hashanah services for those up here.
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Holiday Packets |
In record time attendees at
the 5:45 Torah-Tuesday session packed nearly 1800 Holiday Packets. Each one
has a card with upcoming holiday info and 2 Laffy Taffy's, and our best
wishes for a HAPPY (hence Laffy) SWEET (therefore Taffy) and HEALTHY (so
only two..) NEW YEAR! We'll be bringing the Holiday packets to the Quad
Dining Halls between Wednesday evening and Thursday morning. |
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First Torah-Tuesday |
Every semester brings
something different to Torah-Tuesdays. This semester the participants seem
about equally divided between the first (5:45) and the second (8:45)
learning sessions. It all depends on people's schedules. This week Rabbi
Mendel presented a few neat computer analogies and their connection to
the High Holidays. |
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Mendel's Manhattan
Mondays |
A number of alumni have
been asking for some time to get together and have a NYC version of
Torah-Tuesdays for alumni. It took more than a year until we got it off the
ground, thanks to a push from Rabbi Yosef Wilhelm of Upper East Side Chabad
Young Professionals www.ChabadYP.org
who invited us to use his weekly spot at Galil's Moroccan restaurant on
Lexington and 85th. About 25 alumni came (including a few that we haven't
seen in a few years) plus a few regulars from Rabbi Wilhelm's class. It was
a great evening, and we look forward to doing a few of these each year, if
you'd like to host/arrange, please be in touch with Rabbi Mendel. |
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Opening Weekend Freshmen
Shabbat |
Wow! 14 tables for freshmen
weekend is amazing! We prepared food for 10 tables, and somehow made it
stretch. It's a good problem to have. Thank G-d, the space is no longer an
issue with the new Shabbos House. We got to meet many wonderful freshmen
students and look forward to a great year... and no doubt we'll meet many
more fine students in the weeks and months ahead. |
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updated
8/24/2010 |
Student Leadership Lunch
8/24/2010 |
Freshmen begin move-in this
Wednesday! Students on Empire have been moving in since the weekend. The new
year is indeed around the corner! On Monday Hillel hosted a day-long
leadership workshop for those of the Jewish student groups already up here.
On Tuesday, Chapel House hosts a team-building training and leadership
exercises, with the Jewish student leaders coming to Shabbos House for a
Lunch & Study. This year's topic: "Coming & Going" with four applied
interpretations. |
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Untimely Passing and
Funeral of Jack Lauber |
Some of those involved with
Israel programming on campus, and certainly those in the community would
remember Jack Lauber (Yaakov Dov). He was knowledgeable (in environmental
engineering, history and anything Israel-related), concerned, passionate,
articulate and vocal, toiling endlessly for Israel and always standing up
for the land and its people in defense and advocacy. Unfortunately, Jack
passed away before his time after a sudden, major stroke. The funeral will
be held at Beth Israel on Eastern Parkway in Schenectady (where he was an
active member) on Wednesday 8/25/2010 at 10am. May his family and friends
find comfort and solace in his many good works and efforts. |
Moshe's Back Home
8/23/2010 |
It's great having Moshe
back from camp, now our family is complete again. Bluma has been anxious for
his return, calling "Moysh" a number of times a day. When he returned she
went back to sleeping in her own bed in his room, as she did before he left
for camp a month ago. Moshe was excited to share stories, experiences and
funny lines from camp. |
The Two Weddings Trip
8/22/2010 |
On Sunday, Raizy and Mendel
headed down the (clogged) Thruway to two alumni weddings (the first was only
here for a semester or two, but she's local so we know her and the family
well) the first Arial W. in New Windsor/Newburgh and the second, Sam G's in
the Great Neck Synagogue. At both weddings we saw alumni friends who we
haven't seen in quite some time. We stayed overnight and early the next
morning picked up Moshe from camp in the Catskills on the (out-of-the-) way
home. |
The Last Cozy-Shabbat
Summer 2010
8/20-21/2010 |
It's been a great run of
Cozy-Shabbat weekends, we did at least 10 of the summer weekends, maybe more
- between graduation weekend in mid-May and opening weekend at the end of
August. We had Dr. Levy, the Chaikens, Sheryl's dad, plus the summer student
regulars who are still up here, as well as a few returning student up early
for res-life, student association or other jobs. We had a Minyan Friday
Night, and did informal davening and some Parsha on Shabbos morning.
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On-Order |
In preparation for the new
year, Shabbos House ordered the following - to arrive before the students do
(hopefully):
1) Small Tote-Bags that read: "Some of the best courses at UAlbany are
served at Shabbos House." It has a place-setting design with our logo in the
plate.
2) More than 3700 Laffy-Taffys (think of all the jokes) will be making their
way here so we can pack them in a Rosh Hashanah packet with our best wishes
for a "Happy and Sweet New Year!" get the connection?
3) We have 3-custom aluminum lawn-signs with directional arrows pointing
their way to Shabbos House from University Drive, down Great Dane Drive to
Fuller Road. |
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updated
8/16/2010 |
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Filing...
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Shabbos House is kind of a
home-business (non-profit, of course), so there's quite a bit of paperwork
(as well as computerwork) to be organized and filed. We spent much of Monday
8/16 getting that organized in the new Shabbos House office. We're also
doing some prep for the new year, which is rapidly approaching.
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Sunday at the Shalom
Festival in Saratoga
8/15/2010 |
We had a wonderful time at
Saratoga Chabad's annual Shalom Festival in historic and beautiful Congress
Park. The weather was so-so, but aside for an occasional drizzle the rain
held off until after 4pm when the festival was over. Mushky and Chani helped
with the crafts and the orange-squeezing booth (and there's a great photo of
Bassie operating the orange-juicer). See the
Shalom Festival 2010 photos on
www.SaratogaChabad.com |
Interesting Mix at
Cozy-Shabbat
8/13/2010 |
We had quite the
interesting mix of people on Cozy-Shabbat, many were in "sets". Around the
table we had two soon-to-be-married couples (one this month, one in a few
months), a father of one graduate student and the mother and sister of
another, an RPI college professor, some Cozy-Shabbat summer regulars and a
few guests, a businessman Chassid from Brooklyn... thanks to all for a very
special Shabbos. |
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Online Vote Update |
1) Many, many thanks to all
of our Shabbos House friends who votes for the Maimonides School in the
recent $20K Chase Bank Facebook Community Giving vote. Our small,
out-of-town school was only able to secure 74th (out of the top 200) place
thanks to the votes of friends, and the friends of friends. It's amazing
that our (kids') school won, and we're very grateful for everyone's votes.
2) Kohl's put out a
bigger stakes vote this summer, giving away $500K to 20 top schools. Our
school gave it a small shot, but realized that we don't have enough
stake-holders to garner enough votes to get into the top 20. Plus, we're
hesitant to nudge our friends repeatedly for these online votes. But Raizy's
sister in Texas (they're the ones who drove 3600 miles round-trip to attend
Chani's Bas-Mitzvah) are trying hard to get into the top 20 slots, they've
been in the top 50 for a while now. You can give them up to 5 votes, visit:
www.VoteTexasKids.com Thanks for
helping them get a leg-up.
3) The Federation's
Jewish Heroes Vote is back on. Last time, thanks to our many friends we got
up onto the leaderboard and held onto a top 5 slot. Unfortunately, despite
our high ranking we weren't selected. But we got excellent PR and we
appreciate all the support... the good news is that since we were a top 20
finalist we aren't eligible this time, so relax and chill. We can't go for
it, even if we wanted to! |
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updated
8/12/2010 |
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Bassie's 5th Birthday |
Many of us remember the
distinct circumstances of Bassie's birth (think the student-prepared
Shabbat, the onion-y kugels, Raizy returning to a crammed house full of
students on Friday Night, the start of a new year...) and now it's five
years later and she's about to enter Kindergarten. Camp had a year-end BBQ
on the night of her birthday, so we came home tired and didn't plan on doing
much, when a few students popped in to celebrate with her. Thanks to them
Bassie had a memorable party, with apple pie and pareve ice-cream, and
Lchaims on sparkling grape-juice. The next day we made nosh bags for her
bunkmates, and we also plan a celebration for Bassie at this week's
Cozy-Shabbat. |
Mushky & Chani home from
JGR
8/11/2010 |
Mushky and Chani are home
now from 3-weeks at the Jewish Girls Retreat summer program. The staff came
from as far away as Vienna, Moscow and Australia, and as close as Troy NY
where the camp is based. It's good to have our big kids home again. Now,
Moshe is the only Rubin Kid away at summer camp. |
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updated
8/9/2010 |
A Shabbos House Catering for a Touring
Group
8/8-9/2010 |
Some years ago, the touring
group from KAJ's Washington Heights Breuer's congregation did some
sightseeing and activities in this area and ate their meals at Shabbos
House. This year they came back to visit museums and venues in the
Berkshires and again ate their meals with us (two in-house, and two meals
were packed to go). It was a fine and dignified group of people, who were
very impressed and appreciative of our new facility, the services and the
wonderful meals Raizy prepared. We did a number of catering jobs this
summer, which helped our bottom line. |
Mazal Tov Efraim & Menucha
8/8/2010 |
Mendel's brother Efraim is
engaged to Menucha Chazzan from Manchester England. We wish them and their
families much happiness and nachas and look forward to a wedding this Fall (TBA),
may we always celebrate Simchas.. They had an engagement celebration in NY
(in the same small synagogue in Crown Heights where Raizy and Mendel did the
same) but unfortunately we were unable to attend due to our prior commitment
to do an extensive catering job at Shabbos House for the visiting group from
Washington Heights. |
Visiting Moshe at Camp Gan Israel
8/8/2010 |
While Raizy was busy
preparing meals here at Shabbos House, Mendel took Bassie, Bluma and Sara
(and Raizy's brother Shimon) down to just outside Liberty NY in the Catskill
Mountains to visit Moshe in Camp Gan Israel. Thank G-d, Moshe is comfortable
and happy in camp, well-integrated and excited with his bunk, learning class
and camp activities. While at visiting day we were lucky to meet up with
cousins and family whom we haven't seen in a long time, and meet their kids
who we haven't yet had opportunity to meet. It wouldn't be a complete
visiting day if we wouldn't take Moshe off camp grounds. We went for a quick
hike on Walnut Mountain, where we saw an old log-cabin and also found pieces
of red-slate and wrote with it on a big rock. |
Away for a Shabbos
8/6-7/2010 |
This summer, we happened to
do Cozy-Shabbat most weekends. Aside for one weekend we spent with Mendel's
parents in the Albany community, and another weekend with alumni in the Kew
Gardens Hills neighborhood of Queens, and one final weekend off in Saratoga.
No, we did not go to the track, but we did enjoy a park or two.
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A Day of Alumni Couple Visits
8/3/2010 |
In addition to the alumni
reunion we very much look forward to opportunities to get together with
alumni friends. On this particular day we visited old alumni friends (dating
back to 2001 and earlier) with a full day of driving from Coram in Suffolk
to Rockville Center in Nassau, went for Pizza (with a current student) in
West Hempstead, then off to Scarsdale, and Monsey after that, before
returning home late that night. One alumni family came in from Israel, and
the other we haven't seen for nearly a decade. |
A Day in NY with (some of) the
Kids
8/2/2010 |
With Mushky and Chani at
the Jewish Girls Retreat (JGR) Camp in Troy for three weeks, and Moshe away
at Camp Gan Israel in the Catskills for four weeks, we became a smaller
family, with the special opportunity of having Sara as our oldest, and
Bassie a close second. Even Bluma blossomed with the extra attention, and
started chatting up a storm (mostly non-comprehensible). We took our Monday
in NY to spend time with them, in the shops on Kingston Avenue in Crown
Heights and for a very nice outing to the Prospect Park Zoo on a gorgeous
afternoon. |
NYC Summer Alumni Reunion
8/1/2010 |
About fifty alumni came to
this year's NYC summer alumni reunion. It was held at the new Chabad Loft at
144 5th Ave, which is a more intimate and warmer setting than the bright,
airy old Chabad Loft at 182 5th Ave. There's an entire wall of exposed
brick, a split-level library, kitchen-nook area... We played a powerpoint
game called "Triggers!" Mendel put together a slideshow of random Shabbos
House photos over the years, and we went around the room with each person
sharing what that specific photo shown during their turn brings to mind.
Each alumni got a CD (with Chani's Bat-Mitzvah presentation, select
Torah-Tuesday PDFs of this past year, and photos from the new Shabbos House
Opening Day celebration last year), an invite to Mendel's Monday in
Manhattan - first of several annual study sessions to be held at Galil's
middle-eastern restaurant (back room, free hors d'oeuvres) Lexington and
85th on Monday August 30th in conjunction with Chabad of the Upper East Side
Young Professionals, and a few other items. Some folks at the reunion we
have seen recently at Simchas or other occasions, and others we haven't seen
in years. |
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updated
7/27/2010 |
JGR Comes for Dinner
7/27/2010 |
The Jewish Girls Retreat (JGR
for short) based in Troy NY (where Chani and Mushky enjoy their summers) had
a camp-style supper here at Shabbos House tonight. Raizy cooked soup, fish,
potatoes, made salads, cut up watermelon, served ices... and they also did
their Mincha prayer and Night-Activity here as well. Raizy spoke to them
about life at Shabbos House and the unique experience of serving as a Chabad
on Campus Shlucha for college students. |
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Starting Fresh...
7/27/2010 |
Looking for last year's
News in the Family? See this "News
in the Family INDEX page" for news pages and links in the years
before that. We apologize for the long lapse in website updates since
February 2010, and look forward to consistent updates starting August 2010.
Of all our online pages "News in the Family" is one of our most updated, so
check back each week.
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