Musical Shabbat tomorrow 4:30 pm location TBD depending on weather + WV family retreat May 16th

[Sara Schoen]

With sincere apologies to anyone who doesn't check email on Shabbat, we are postponing our location decision for tomorrow's Musical Shabbat until tomorrow to see if the weather will accommodate us meeting in Rock Creek Park instead of indoors.  We will email again before 4 pm tomorrow to announce the location as either Rock Creek Park Picnic Grove 9 or 1416 Montague St NW.

RSVP by replying to this email (it's literally never too late to RSVP, including after the event), and please invite anyone you'd like.   All welcome - ages 0-120, Jewishness, theism, and kids all completely optional.  

Family Retreat in West Virginia: Musical Shabbater Simcha Levental is organizing a family retreat in Buffalo Gap, WV on May 16th for two nights. The 9 families who are currently confirmed to attend are families that speak Hebrew with their children, but non-Hebrew speakers are very welcome to join the retreat and can choose to participate in some Hebrew-oriented programming or just relax, play, and enjoy the beautiful campus.  More details and registration info can be found at this link: https://form.everestwebdeals.co/?form=de4ec0a8c8071747c047ab51ae3075d4.  Please reach out to Simcha with any questions at 857-636-1087.  

Musical Shabbat scheduling note: Just today, we moved the planned May 10th Musical Shabbat to May 17th.  So the retreat above now conflicts with Musical Shabbat unfortunately.  We'll miss anyone who enjoys a weekend away and hope to see you at the May 31st Musical Shabbat!

Upcoming Musical Shabbat gatherings:  May 17 & 31, June 14 & 28 in Rock Creek Park (or 1416 Montague if it rains)

The Musical Shabbat Google Calendar has the RCP picnic sites we've reserved for May - June:  VIEW it here  SUBSCRIBE to it here

Join the Musical Shabbat email list here: https://groups.google.com/g/dc-musical-shabbat

If you don't yet receive PJ Library books, which celebrate Jewish values and culture for families with children from birth through 12 years old, sign up for free here.

Ways to support Musical Shabbat:

• Bring instruments (kid or "real"); Play and/or sing along; Lead a song or Kiddush. Songsheet with words, chords, and links to audio.
• Bring fruit or other food to share.  

• Help clean up.

• Share ideas, feedback, requests, suggestions, or any other offers of help.
• Contribute financially: As of July 2023, DC Musical Shabbat is funded by The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington. Please continue to support Musical Shabbat both financially and in other ways to help it continue!

      -Easiest way to contribute financially: PayPal shirsh...@gmail.com.

      -Easiest tax-deductible way to contribute financially: Scroll to the bottom of this evite to contribute via Pledge.

      -Tax-deductible via amkolel.org/donate: In step 4 (Additional Information) under "How would you like your gift applied?", select "One of Am Kolel's donor-designated funds" and then "DC Musical Shabbat".   

Shabbat shalom,

Sara

FAQs:

Q: How did this start?
A: My (musical) husband Ari helped volunteer lead services over many years with various congregations around DC. As far back as 2016, we hosted some informal kid Jewish holiday and shabbat gatherings at our house with friends both in Petworth (pre-covid) and then after we moved to 16th St Heights in 2021. Ari had always told me he that wanted to lead with other musicians, so in May 2021 I reached out to Aaron Shneyer, a Takoma DC dad and professional musician and service leader we’d met a couple times at a mutual friend’s birthday parties. Turned out that he and his wife Lula had talked about organizing uptown shabbat gatherings, and Lula also used to organize informal shabbat gatherings in Adams Morgan when they lived there. Thankfully they were up for joining forces even though we barely knew each other :). The first Musical Shabbat happened just over 9 months later on March 5th, 2022.  Am Kolel kicked us off with a generous grant, and from March 2022 until July 2023, Musical Shabbat met once a month. In June 2023, DC Musical Shabbat was awarded Federation funding, enabling us to increase to twice a month starting in September 2023. We are very grateful for the support.

Q: Is DC Musical Shabbat organized by Am Kolel?

A: Am Kolel is DC Musical Shabbat's fiscal sponsor (a role Am Kolel has fulfilled for many startup Jewish groups) but does not organize DC Musical Shabbat.  When Am Kolel offered fiscal sponsorship for what was then just an experiment, we jumped at the opportunity to be able to collect tax-deductible contributions (including from Ari & me) without setting up a separate nonprofit entity. 

Q: What is Shir Shalom?

A: Just a made-up placeholder name that we used at the beginning of this musical shabbat experiment.