Monday

Chabad’s Talmud Study, The Laboratory of Jewish Law at 1:00 pm in the at the CU Center For Community.

Tuesday

Chabad’s Learn to pray and your chance to put on Tefillin, at 8:00 am with bagels and lox at the NEW Chabad House. New Chabad house is located at 909 14th St.

Chabad’s “Ethics of our fathers”  at 12:30 pm. The cornerstone of Jewish thought and a powerful guidepost for every Jew attempting to perfect his or her character and behavior at the CU Center For Community.

Hillel’s weekly Tuesday night dinner at 6:00 pm. Hillel is located at 2795 Colorado Ave.

Wednesday

Chabad’s Advanced Studay of the Weekly Torah Portion at 11:00 am in the at the CU Center For Community.

Hillel’s “Free Jewish Advice” from 11:00 am – 2:00 pm at the CU Center For Community – Colorado Room.

Thursday

Help bake challah for Challah For Hunger at Hillel from 7:30 pm – 10:00 pm.

Chabad’s 13 Principals of Faith, what do Jews believe? Featuring guest speaker Rabbi Chaim Miller at 7:30pm at the NEW Chabad House. Dinner will be served.

Chabad’s Weekly Torah Study at Starbucks at University at 8:00 pm.

Friday

Hillel’s Shabbat Conservative Shabbat services are at 5:30 pm, followed by Torah reading at 6:10 pm. Reform services at 6:15. Dinner is at 7:00 pm.

Chabad’s Shabbat services are at 7:00 pm. Dinner is at 7:30 pm. Chabad is located at 775 17th Street.

And speaking of snowy day, if you have time and are looking for something interesting to watch, be sure to check out Limmud Rabbi Smackdown – Video Update and watch the whole Limmud session with Rabbis Goldfeder, Soloway and Rose.

Welcome to February in Boulder; stay safe and warm!  Enjoy this week’s stories, and we’ll see you after Shabbat at Reflections!

Updated Editor’s Note: Stan Kreis, a regular BJN contributor, took video of this Limmud Colorado panel with Rabbi Gavriel Goldfeder, Rabbi Marc Soloway, and Rabbi Josh Rose, which we link to below.  BJN appreciates Rabbi Soloway’s introductory remarks as well!

Thanks, Stan!

Editor’s Note: One of the participants at Limmud Colorado “live-blogged” the morning discussion among Rabbi Gavriel Goldfeder, Rabbi Marc Soloway, and Rabbi Josh Rose.

We are certain this is not the last we’ve heard in this engaging discussion. However, we are most appreciative to Chaviva Galatz for her diligence in capturing the discussion.  Check it out on her blog, The Kvetching Editor.

If you haven’t met her yet, learn a little about her in this video from Ignite Chanukah. Thanks, Chaviva!

What made you choose to attend CU, all the way from Boston?

When I originally applied to colleges, I was set on getting a degree in environmental engineering. There were only a few places to apply to because CU is one of the few schools in the country to offer it. Then, instead of coming straight to CU after high school, I took a gap year to Israel on the Nativ College Leadership Program. By the time I got to CU I no longer wanted to do engineering and I am now leaning towards journalism and Jewish Studies.

What are your goals this semester as the CU intern at BJN?

Well, of course, I want to help Boulder and CU residents know what is going on in the Jewish world here at CU. But, specifically this semester I want to expand the Boulder Jewish News Mitzvah Project Directory. The directory highlights different mitzvah projects that students or classes did. They can range from one time Bar or Bat mitzvah projects to a weekly class event. The idea is to not only share the good things going on around Boulder, but give people new ideas on how they can help out. If anyone needs any help submitting their project to the directory feel free to contact me at Steven.Kreimendahl@colorado.edu.

How do you feel about the current Jewish community here at CU?

I thought at a school of 30,000 it would be hard to meet other Jews, and boy was I wrong. I am now on Hillel’s student board and I attend there and Chabad weekly for Shabbat services or other events. I am also becoming a brother at Alpha Epsilon Pi, the Jewish fraternity on campus.

Who will be Super Bowl XLVI champions, Patriots or Giants?

Patriots for sure! I am from Boston and have to stick with my home team.

There is more history coming up this weekend, as the Boulder JCC commemorates the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War with an evening looking at Jewish life in America in the 1860′s.  The event, Sunday night, includes a book discussion, a film, and a meal based on Jewish and American dishes of the period.

As we look back at Rosh Chodesh Shevat in the week wrapping up, and Rosh Chodesh February in the week to come, the Boulder Jewish News wishes you all a chodesh tov, a good month.

So, we can gather information from the heavenly bodies, but the Torah suggests a way of looking at that information as suggestive but not determinative.

With that in mind, each Lunar Month has its own sign which approximately aligns with the Zodiac. As we enter the new month of Shevat, which begins Tuesday night/Wednesday, we enter into the sign called, in Hebrew, D’li, which means Bucket. This is obviously related to the Zodiac sign of Aquarius, which also begins right about now: Aquarius is the water-carrier. D’li is the Bucket that carries the water.

Interestingly, Wikipedia lists the key phrase of Aquarius as “I serve humanity.” This is almost aligned with the D’li, whose mantra could be “I serve the water.” One Chassidic master suggests that the water being spoken of is the Torah. Aquarius and D’li both suggest that this month is an opportunity to focus on how we serve a greater purpose beyond ourselves, and how we can empty ourselves out in order to serve that purpose all the better. Whether we serve humanity or G-d, or both, we can serve more fully the emptier we are.

Interestingly, this month features the holiday of Tu B’Shevat, the New Year of the Trees. Beyond its legal ramifications – any fruit that formed before this date is tithed in the previous year, and any fruit that formed after this date is tithed in the coming year – it is a celebration of The Tree, the Tree of Life, from which we all gain our nourishment. So, in this month, we are the Buckets that bring the water to water the Tree which feeds us all.

This is a good opportunity to meditate on questions like: What am I serving? How available am I to serve the good? How do I know if I am doing a good job? How could I get better at it?

Chodesh Tov – a good month to everyone.

“We thought they were going to ask us to serve on a committee or run a program,” Danny recalls. “We were shocked and surprised when they asked us to be honored at  Reflections.”

It’s fitting that the Tumble Room was the setting for the Sherwinters’ invitation to be this year’s “Rising Stars,” along with “Bright Stars” Audrey and Andy Franklin.

“We love the Tumble Room,” Karli says. “We’re there all the time and we have all our kids’ birthday parties there.”

It’s also fitting that the Sherwinters were chosen to be honored by the Boulder JCC, which has become a second home for the family since they moved here in 2005.

“We grew up at our JCCs,” Karli explains. “I was in the JCC plays and attended the JCC camps. So from the beginning we felt comfortable at the Boulder JCC.”

The Sherwinters met in 2000, when they were both college seniors. Karli, who attended CU, went on a Birthright trip with Wendy Aronson, now the JCC assistant director. “We were singing all the time on the trip, and when we got back Wendy invited me to sing with her Jewish a cappella group at Hillel.”

Karli attended a Jewish a cappella conference in Chicago, where she met Danny, a senior at Washington University who was also there with his group.

After graduating, Danny got a job in St. Louis, while Karli was awarded a Fulbright fellowship to study in the Philippines and then a Bronfman fellowship that took her to Washington, D.C.

Following a courtship delayed by distance, the couple married and moved to Boulder, where Karli became the Hillel program director and Danny graduated from law school and began working as a patent lawyer. Kayla was born in 2007 and Reuben was born in 2009, and the family became even more deeply immersed in Jewish life.

“Our kids probably know more than we do,” Karli says of her children. “Havdalah dance parties are Rueben’s favorite thing.”

While Karli’s Birthright trip was the catalyst for her deep involvement in Jewish life, Danny had discovered a strong Jewish connection when he attended a program in Israel between high school and college. When he came back he decided to continue keeping kosher and observing Shabbat.

“I just kept going, and am still going,” he says of his deepened commitment to Judaism.

For Karli, all roads led to the Boulder JCC. As program director of Hillel, she came to the JCC in a professional capacity to collaborate on programs. As a founder and first employee of Limmud, Colorado, she quickly became friends with board director Mark Loewenstein, whose wife Linda Loewenstein was the JCC’s executive director at the time.

When Kayla was born, Karli started attending PAL classes and Shalom Baby programs and then enrolled her in the preschool.

“We made a ton of friends right away,” she says. Karli applied for a grant to start a Havurah for families with young children and invited everyone she met to join. Much to her surprise, many of the families most interested in participating were previously uninvolved in Jewish life.

The Sherwinters also like to have guests for Shabbat and to host large holiday celebrations, and are always searching out people who are not otherwise connected to the Jewish community.

Karli is currently busy planning the Purim Carnival for the second year, along with Jodi Basch. She also has been active introducing the national Ayeka “spiritual tune-up” program to Boulder.

Danny was a founder of the Jewish CSA, and the couple has become increasingly involved with Hazon, attending the national food conference as a family.

They are currently members of Bonai Shalom and associate members of Aish Kodesh. “And we go to Har HaShem whenever there’s a kids event we like,” Karli adds. “We do a lot of shul hopping.”

Although they were surprised to be honored at Reflections, they say that there has been an even more unexpected response from other young families they know.

People tell us they are so happy that someone they know is being honored, someone they feel they have something in common with. They are excited because they know us, and we’re like them.”

Danny says he’s also excited about the honor because of the timing. “This is such an exciting time for the JCC. It isn’t just another year. It feels amazing because of what’s happening as the plans for the new JCC have become concrete. It’s even more of an honor.”

“I’m also excited that Karli is being honored. It can be thankless of spend hours creating programs, from being the visionary to being the one who takes care of all the logistics. If it’s done well no one knows you are doing it.”

The Sherwinters believe that people who are already engaged in Jewish life should take responsibility for creating programs that serve their needs and the needs of people like them.

They are happy to serve as an example. Although it takes some juggling – Danny rushes home from Talmud class so Karli can attend a board meeting – they prove that even busy young families can make a difference in their communities. And be honored for it.

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