New Programs

To order any of these "New for 5766" files, contact your regional USCJ director by e-mail.

Increasing Your Congregation's Effectiveness

(These hardcopy items can be ordered from USCJ Central Office. Prepayment needed.)

1. Reaching Out/Holding On - Recruiting and retaining synagogue members. Department of Congregational Programming, Revised 2001; Appears in two booklets. $7.50
2. The Learners Minyan - Opening new Ports of Entry to those who are not familiar with prayer services. First copy free. $3.00
3. Magnet Synagogues: A New ook at Synagogue Singles Programming - by Rabbi David A. Kunin. $5.00
4. The Ideal Conservative Jew: Eight Behavioral Expectations, Dvar Torah - by Rabbi Jerome M. Epstein. Free
5. Jewish Living Now: The Ideal Conservative Jew - Brochure, Free.
6. Building a Conservative Jewish Lifestyle - Free
7. Making a Decision to Make a Difference: Tzedakah - by Rabbi Jerome M. Epstein. Brochure, Free.
8. Traveling Tefillot: A Bracha Card That Fits Your Wallet - by Lois Goldrich (brochure). Free
9. There's Still Time: Doing Teshuvah, Beginning New Mitzvot - by Rabbi Jerome M. Epstein. Brochure, Free.
10. Choosing the Life - by Rabbi Jerome M. Epstein (brochure)
11. If You Will It, It Is No Dream - by Rabbi Jerome M. Epstein. Free

Program Suggestions

Hard Copy - $2.50 each. PDF file free when you order from your regional office.

1. 5750 - Twenty-Five Programs: The Synagogue as a Beit Tefillah, Beit Midrash, Beit Knesset - Rabbi Moshe Edelman
2. 5751 - The Centrality of Mitzvot: Mitzvot Bayn Adam La-Makom & Bayn Adam L?Chavero - Rabbi Barry Starr
3. 5752 - Community & Spirituality: Eight Significant Programs - Rabbi Barry Starr
4. 5753 - Tradition, Commitment & Change: Enhancing a Synagogue's Religious Program. Eight Areas and Themes
5. 5754 - Deeds of Loving Kindness: Practical Social Action Programs - Eight Themes and Projects. Janet Dundee
6. 5755 - A Shared History Based on Jewish Knowledge & Experience - Nine wonderful projects that build personal observance from memories and history. Harlene Winnick Appleman
7. 5756 - Jewish Living Now: Kashrut & Shabbat Program Ideas - Rabbi David A. Kunin
8. 5757 - Jewish Living Now (Year 2): Program Ideas for Tefillah, Synagogue, Tzedakah - Ideas include Mezuzah Challenge, Bracha Day, "Try Shabbat", "Freshman Orientation", Jewish Family Day, Pushke Program. by Rabbi David A. Kunin
9. 5758 - Family Jewish Education: Integrating the Generations. Wimpel Project, Arts, Zimria. Lonna Picker
10. 5759 - Mitzvah Goreret Mitzvah - Mitzvah of the Month, A Three-Year Cycle of Learning and Doing - Amy Jackson
11. 5760 - Fundraising Programs - Successful samples from our congregations
12. 5761 - Adult EducatioN: A Resource of Scholars-in-Residence - Rabbis, Cantors, Entertainers
13. 5762 - Mitzvah Day and Beyond - Social Action, Social Justice, Mitzvah Day Programs (48 pages)
14. 5763 - Home Education Library Program - Booklets/Synagogue Management Forms. Rabbi Paul Drazen

Use this as an order form. Check off items desired. Enclose pre-payment and mail to:

USCJ Book Service
155 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010

Or order free through regional USCJ Director and receive an Adobe Acrobat .PDF file.

Timely Program Ideas

The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, Department of Congregational Programming publishes Timely Program Ideas. These provide congregations with specific programming suggestions to spark new and original program ideas. What follows is a list of available Timely Program Ideas (TPI?s), any of which can be ordered from USCJ, at no charge. Use this sheet as an order form. Circle those desired. Order from your regional USCJ office and receive a PDF file.

• TPI #1: Shabbat at Home - Programming for Friday night at home.
• TPI #2: Putting Mitzvah Back Into the Bar/Bat Mitzvah - Programs for the Bar/Bat Mitzvah students focusing on continued learning and fulfillment of the Mitzvot.
• TPI #3: The Family Bar/Bat Mitzvah - Programs that stress the Bar/Bat Mitzvah for both the students and their families.
• TPI #4: Autumn: The High Holidays and Beyond Programming from Selichot through Sukkot.
• TPI #5: Making Each Day Count - Programs focusing on the counting of the Omer and Tikun Leyl Shavuot, the traditional study session, on the first evening of Shavuot.
• TPI #6: Keeping Shabbat - Programs focusing on the Shabbat day, both in the synagogue and at home.
• TPI #7: Sukkot in July - Includes how to prepare both physically and spiritually for the holiday of Sukkot as well as some Sukkot programming ideas.
• TPI #8: Building a Morning Minyan - How to encourage congregants to attend a weekday Minyan and how to make new/potential members feel comfortable in the synagogue.
• TPI #9: Let All Who Are Hungry Come and Eat - How to incorporate tzedakah and hospitality with the Passover holiday.
• TPI #10: Shalach Manot - How to set up a congregational Shalach Manot program on Purim.
• TPI #11: Fundraising in the Congregation - A step by step guide to successful fundraising, including some creative fundraising ideas.
• TPI #12: Setting Up a Jewish Home: Guide for Jewish Soon-to-be-Weds - A description of important items that are vital for a Jewish home.
• TPI #13: Mitzvot: How Much Do You Know - Two matching exercises that test knowledge in Kashrut and a Jewish wedding. The ritual/religious committee should discuss the answers and then develop programs for the congregation.
• TPI #14: Instant Siyum: Simhatorathon, A Program for Sukkot or Shavuot - Includes details of a Torah learning program that involves the entire congregation as both students and teachers.
• TPI #15: Fixing the World: Tikkun Olam - Holding a Social Service Fair - A program that is meant to make the congregation aware of opportunities to help in their community and to participate in tikkun olam.
• TPI #16: Tzedakah: Caring About Our Community: Holding a Charity Fair - A program that allows the congregation to creatively allocate tzedakah that has been collected from congregants? individual tzedakah boxes.
• TPI #17: Involving the Post Bar/Bat Mitzvah Students in Synagogue Life - Programs that encourage and reward post Bar/Bat Mitzvah students for their continued involvement.
• TPI #18: Dress Up Jewish - A project for clergy and Ritual Committees to teach the Mitzvot of Talit and Tefillin. Many suggestions. Rabbi Jay M. Stein
• TPI #19: Virtual Visit To Synagogue/No Strings Attached - A membership outreach concept with a website tour of your synagogue and a good feeling series of outreach ideas to newly affiliated congregations.

Confronting the Challenge Series: Assuing a Vibrant Jewish Community

Available only as hard copy texts through USCJ Book Service (800) 594-5617.

• Intermarriage: Our Grounds for Concern, 14 Questions - 14 Answers by Alan Silverstein poses the questions that someone contemplating the issues of interdating and intermarriage would ask, and then proceeds to provide thoughtful answers to these questions based on the values of Conservative Judaism. This is an invaluable guide for discussion leaders. $3.75
• Interdating, Intermarriage, Intervention by Edward Edelstein is a complete program guide to help confront this critical issue. It describes in detail how to administer programs on interdating and intermarriage prevention geared to teens and/or parents. This publication is meant to be used in conjunction with Intermarriage: Our Grounds for Concern.
• Intermarriage: What Can We Do? What Should We Do? Is filled with concrete advice and practical guidance for congregational leaders -- both lay and professional -- as how synagogues can respond to the multi-faceted dimensions of the problem.
• A Return to the Mitzvah of Endogamy by Jerome M. Epstein presents the position that given the limited resources within the Jewish community, prevention of intermarriage must be a higher priority than keruv. Statistical data supporting this approach is included. $2.50
• Principals and Compassion: Guidelines and Casebook for Teaching with Children of Intermarried Parents in Our Synagogue Schools by Shelley Kniaz is designed for rabbis, principals, teachers, and lay leaders. It includes recommended policies and procedures as well as 20 case studies for staff discussion and training, with analyses and suggested responses. $9.50
• Future Thinking: The Effects of Intermarriage by Greta Bernard Brown, a 10-lesson module for pre- and post-Bar/Bat Mitzvah classes and older students, includes a teacher's guide with lesson plans as well as a student notebook. Teacher's Guide: $5.50,Student Notebook: $1.25, 15 or more: $1.10
• "It All Begins With A Date: Parent/Young adult Dialogues About Interdating" by Alan Silverstein, poses nine common, challenging questions young adults ask when seeking to know why parents object to interdating. The piece is intended to assist dialogue about interdating in intergenerational settings of parents and their children or with groups of parents or teens. $5.00
• It All Begins With A Date: Jewish Concerns About Intermarriage by Alan Silverstein offers answers to the myriad of questions that arise from interfaith marriage. The material appeals to Jewish people of all stages of life and at all levels of religious practice. It is intended to empower American Jews to seriously identify and confront the problems intermarriage poses to Jewish continuity. $22.50
• Preserving Jewishness in Your Family After Intermarriage Has Occurred by Alan Silverstein. If intermarriage has occurred does this necessarily mean no future efforts should be made to preserve Judaism in One's family? The answer of this volume -- most emphatically -- is NO! $24.95
• Why Be Jewish? What's the Gain, the Pride, the Joy? by Alan Silverstein helps parents think about why being Jewish is important to them and to speak about it to their young teenagers. $5.95

Use this as an order form. Check off items desired. Enclose pre-payment and mail to:

USCJ Book Service
155 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010

Jewish Living Now

Material only available as hard copy texts.

A thought provoking and useful series of booklets on Jewish Living Now from the Department of Congregational Programming. Based on the Biennial Convention Jewish Living Now seminars. Providing thought provoking discussions and program suggestions for congregations.

• The Synagogue, a House of Study, Rabbi Ronald Isaacs. A strong Jewish Community requires a laity which is both Jewishly committed and educated. This booklet examines ways that we can develop and/or strengthen our adult education programs -- what we can do to meet the educational needs of our members and to encourage them to participate in our programs.
• A Strategic Plan for the Synagogue, Rabbi Alan Silverstein. The synagogue is the central institution of the community. It provides the leadership and sense of community essential for Jewish survival. This booklet suggests a program plan which can help synagogues to better fill the needs of the community of the present and the future.
• Living a Life of Prayer, Rabbi Brad Artson. Judaism requires us to engage in prayer throughout our lives. Synagogues must therefore provide opportunities to help enhance congregants? prayer experiences. This booklet presents ideas to enable synagogues to encourage congregants to make prayer part of their everyday lives.
• The Synagogue as Bet Nissim, A Place of Miracles, Danny Siegel. Jewish Living requires serious engagement in tzedakah. This booklet examines the many opportunities that synagogues have to interest and engage their members in projects for the betterment of the community.
• Making "Shabbes", Dr. Ronald Wolfson. Shabbat plays a central role in shaping our identity and our approach to the world. This booklet presents ideas for congregations to excite their members about observance of Shabbat.
• Kashrut. Adding Holiness to our Lives, Rabbi Jack Moline. Kashrut has been a defining Jewish ritual since biblical times. It is impossible to separate Kashrut from living a Jewish life. This booklet presents programs designed to excite congregants about Kashrut and to encourage them to observe it in their own homes.
• Reaching Out to the Jewish Community, Rabbi Avis Miller. A strong and vibrant Jewish community depends on the full participation of its members. This booklet examines programs to enable synagogues to reach out to unaffiliated Jews to encourage them to participate as full and committed members of the community.

Special rate for the full series: $12.00

Name ____________________________________________________________________________________

Address ____________________________________________________________________________________

City _______________________ State/Province ___________

Zip/Postal Code _________________________

Check enclosed for $_______________ Made out to USCJ. (Prepaid orders)

Return to:

Department of Congregational Programming
The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism
155 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
ATTN: Rabbi Moshe Edelman

Jewish Living Now Materials

Material available only as hard copy texts.

The Jewish Living Now booklets have spun off this exciting series of pamphlets. Perfect for a congregational mailing, for a class, or for adult education. Fits into a #10 envelope or as an insert to your bulletin.

Other Materials

1. Jewish Living Now: Tikun Leyl Shavuot. A program guide and Biblical/Talmudic/Halakhic texts for all night study. Focus areas of Kashrut, Shabbat, Tzedakah, Community ($5.00 per copy). Not available as PDF. #_______ $__________
2. The 54 Parshiyot of the Torah: Tikun Leyl Shavuot. A verse from each Torah portion; Midrashic sources, Zohar commentary; discussion question. Prepared by Rabbi David Kunin. $5.00 hard copy; PDF file free. #_______ $__________

Name ____________________________________________________________________________________

Address ____________________________________________________________________________________

City _______________________ State/Province ___________

Zip/Postal Code _________________________

Check enclosed for $_______________ Made out to USCJ. (Prepaid orders)

Return to:

Department of Congregational Programming
The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism
155 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
ATTN: Rabbi Moshe Edelman

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