High Holidays with Makom 5777/2016

Posted on September 19, 2016 by Makom Toronto in Past Events | Comments Off

Makom is delighted to offer WARM, SPIRITUAL, and PARTICIPATORY High Holiday services fusing TRADITION & CREATIVITY, MUSICALITY & REFLECTION.

For our fifth year, we’ll be gathering in beautiful Hart House for Rosh Hashanah on October 3 and 4 and for Yom Kippur on October 11 and 12.

Services will be led by Rabbi Aaron and our returning guest prayer leader Steven Goldstein. Steven’s husband, Rabbi Steve Greenberg, will also inspire us with his thoughtful teaching.

Click here to purchase tickets!

High Holiday Schedule for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur 5777

NEW! FAMILY SERVICES

This year, we’re excited to offer FAMILY SERVICES on the first day of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur day. Led by Rabbi Julia Appel, Makom’s Director of Education and Family Programming, Family Services will include prayers, songs, and stories to meaningfully engage adults and children together. Family Services are egalitarian with mixed seating, 11-12pm both days.

KIDS’ PROGRAMS

We’ll also be offering children’s programming on both days of Rosh Hashanah and on Yom Kippur, 10am-11am. Our educators will lead engaging, thoughtful, and fun activities, divided into older and younger age groups, to explore the meaning of the holidays. Parents are welcome, but not required, to attend children’s programming with their kids.

CHILDCARE

Full childcare will be provided throughout adult services on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Younger and older children will play in separate rooms under our babysitters’ supervision.

TICKETS

High Holiday tickets are fully tax deductible and you’ll receive a tax receipt for their full value.Ticket sales help cover the costs of putting on High Holiday services. That said, we don’t want anyone to be unable to attend services due to financial constraints. If the cost of tickets is financially prohibitive, please contact Rabbi Aaron in confidence.

DONATIONS

You can also pledge an additional tax-deductible contribution when you purchase tickets. (It won’t be included in your ticket transaction; we’ll contact you shortly about it.)

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

We need volunteers for logistical and ritual roles. Please contact Jo Frisch if you can help out!

Makom’s adult services need a minyan to start, so we encourage you to come on time. Both women and men lead services and read Torah and there is a low partition between women’s and men’s seating; children are welcome on both sides.

Purim 2016!

Posted on March 17, 2016 by Makom Toronto in Past Events | Comments Off

PURIM!

Wednesday, March 23
@ KIEVER SYNAGOGUE
25 Bellevue Ave
Bring $ for Tzedakah + Makom

Celebrate Purim with a full evening’s line up for kids and adults! Bring cash to donate for the mitzvah of matanot le-evyonim – Purim Gifts for the Poor – and also to help Makom cover the evening’s costs ($10 suggested contribution for each).

Come in costume!

PURIM PUPPET SHOW + LIGHT DINNER

5:45 – Doors Open & Light Dinner

$9/adult, $5/child – Dinner REGISTRATION REQUIRED by Tuesday, March 22

Join Makom for a light family dinner before our Makom Families Purim Puppet Show. Enjoy kid-friendly cheese pizza and falafel with salads, plus hamantaschen, of course! Takes the pressure off making dinner for your family before coming to celebrate! Register and submit payment here.

6:15-7:00 – Purim Puppet Show

Puppeteer and children’s educator Hugh Phillips presents The Story of Queen Esther! Bring your groggers and boo the evil Haman in this puppet adaptation of the Purim story. $10/family requested contribution – register and submit payment here.

PURIM GAMES + TRIVIA for AGES 8-12

7:15 – Doors Open

7:30-8:00 – Purim Games + Trivia

MEGILLAH READING + GAMES NIGHT

8:00 – Doors Open

8:15-9:15 – Megillah Reading

9:15-11:00 – Games Night

$10/person requested contribution –pre-register and submit payment here.

Hear the scroll of Esther chanted by members of the Makom and Kiever communities. Both women and men will read megillah; mixed seating.

Hamantaschen, B.Y.O.B. + schmoozing

Bring board + card games to play

Bring cash to donate for the mitzvah of matanot le-evyonim – Purim Gifts for the Poor $10 suggested min. contribution. Sorry, we can’t accept donations for matanot le-evyonim online.

Volunteers Needed! Email Rabbi Aaron to help with the festivities.

Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur 5776

Posted on August 4, 2015 by Makom Toronto in Past Events | Comments Off

Makom High Holidays, Makom Rosh Hashanah, Makom Yom Kippur, Makom 5776

photo: Sabrina Malach, Shoresh

* CLICK HERE for the detailed schedule of services *

Need last minute tickets? available here

Makom High Holidays
Sept 14-15 & 22-23

Makom is once again delighted to offer warm, meaningful, participatory and song-filled Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services.

We will be returning as a community to the beautiful Hart House space on the University of Toronto campus to meet the Yamim Noraim (Days of Awe) with joy and awe.

Services will be led by Rabbi Aaron and returning guest prayer leader Steven Goldstein. He’s on faculty at the New England Conservatory of Music and a long-time member of The Carlebach Shul in New York, and we look forward to Steven helping us elevate our Days of Awe prayers with his beautiful voice and extensive repertoire of participatory melodies.

Steven’s husband Rabbi Steve Greenberg will also be present to inspire us with thoughtful teaching. Steve is Senior Teaching Fellow at CLAL: The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership and a founding Co-Director of Eshel: Community for LGBT Orthodox Jews. Author of the award-winning book Wrestling with God & Men: Homosexuality in the Jewish Tradition, he has worked to make communities around the world more inclusive.

Full childcare provided throughout services – and we also offer engaging, thoughtful, and fun services for children, in two age groups. Parents are welcome but not required to attend the children’s services with their kids.

You can purchase tickets online here.

Want to plan a break-fast? Read Torah? Schlepp stuff? Set up or Tidy up? Anything else? We need volunteers for both logistical and ritual roles. Please let us know how you can help.

Tish`ah be-Av Eve

Posted on July 16, 2015 by Makom Toronto in Past Events | Comments Off

Saturday, July 25

**Join Makom and the Kiever to usher in Tish`ah be-Av, the ninth day of the lunar month of Av.**

This date marks the destruction of the Temples in Jerusalem and other tragedies in Jewish history. It is traditionally observed by fasting, refraining from wearing leather, and other mourning customs. For more background, see here.

10pm – Doors Open
10:15 sharp – Services Start
11:30pm – Program Ends (approx.)

Location:
The Kiever Synagogue
25 Bellevue Ave., Toronto

* BRING FOOD + A FLASHLIGHT

We’ll pray the brief evening service (including an abridged havdalah to end Shabbat) and listen to the Biblical book of Eikhah (Lamentations), hauntingly chanted by a number of community members.

It is customary to sit on the floor of the synagogue with the lights dimmed, so please BRING A FLASHLIGHT. We’ll also sing some songs, kinnot (elegies), and niggunim (wordless melodies).

If you’d like to chant a chapter of Eikhah, please contact Rabbi Aaron ASAP.

Please BRING ONE OR MORE FOOD ITEMS for the St. Stephen’s Community House Corner Drop-In kitchen, in keeping with the spirit of Isaiah 58:6-7, “This is the fast I desire … It is to share your bread with the hungry.”

Fresh vegetables, grains, and canned or boxed foods are all welcome.

FYI, the fast begins Saturday at sunset, 8:48pm, and ends Sunday at nightfall, 9:38pm. There will be a low partition between women’s and men’s seating for the evening service, which will be removed for Eikhah and the rest of the evening’s program.

Purim 2013: Illuminated Megillah

Posted on March 7, 2013 by Makom Toronto in Past Events | Comments Off

Before Purim, community members were invited to explore the themes and scenes in Megillat Esther (the scroll of Esther) and then paint or draw their own visual depiction (whether figurative or abstract) of the theme or scene of their choice. The art was photographed and the images projected as a slideshow during the corresponding part of megillah reading on Purim, creating our community’s own live performance, “illuminated manuscript” megillah. We’ve turned this Illuminated Megillah into a Slideshare presentation for you to enjoy.

A Makom Hanukkah Story

Posted on January 9, 2012 by Makom Toronto in Past Events | Comments Off

A Makom Hanukkah Story

In the traditional Hanukkah story, the Maccabees are dismayed to find that the Temple has been ransacked and there is only enough oil to light the menorah for one night. Never a nation willing to let minor obstacles get in their way, the Jews optimistically light the menorah and are rewarded when the oil burns for eight days instead.

Leading into Hanukkah, Makom has also been taking stock of its supplies. And what we’ve found is that the money that allows us to keep the proverbial candles lit is getting a bit low. Wanting to preserve miracles for those occasions that really require one, we are instead asking for the Makom community to throw a little gelt our way this Hanukkah.

Speaking of miracles, you can make your donation right from the comfort of your couch, desk, meeting, classroom, or wherever you are reading this message. Simply go here on the Canada Helps website and be sure to include a message that your donation is for Makom (since our donations are tax deductible through Toronto Partnership Minyan). Thanks so much for helping Makom stay alight.

May all our lights continue to shine brightly,
The Makom Leadership Team.

P.S. To learn more about how giving to Makom supports the revitalization of downtown Jewish life, suggested donation amounts, and other ways to donate, please see our donate page and video.

Past Events

High Holidays with Makom 5777/2016

Purim 2016!