H eadlines
Tu B’Shevat More Than Just a New Year For Trees
L OCA L
SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
AMID WINTER IN North
America, celebrating new plant
growth seems unfathomable,
but Tu B’Shevat, the Jewish
celebration and “New Year” for
trees, celebrated on Jan. 16-17
this year, approaches anyway.

Even in a period where so
many trees lie fallow, area Jews
still believe there’s plenty to
celebrate, reflecting in the host
of events being held over the
holiday. “The day you plant a tree
is not the day you enjoy and
eat the fruit,” said Zalman
Wircberg, director of the Old
City Jewish Arts Center.

During another COVID-era
Tu B’Shevat, just because
there are fewer opportuni-
ties to spend time outside of
one’s house or with loved ones
doesn’t mean internal growth
isn’t occurring, Wircberg said.

Themes of internal sowing
and change are reflected in
OCJAC’s two Tu B’Shevat
exhibits by Elkins Park-based
artist Diana Taflin Myers
on display until Jan. 20:
“Branching Out: A Celebration
of Trees” and “SOS:2020.”
Myers’ collections of more
than 20 pieces are composed
mostly of natural materials and
found objects, such as twigs,
branches and wooden puzzle
pieces. “Branching Out” was inspired
by the Tu B’Shevat celebrations
she experienced while living in
Israel in the ’60s and ’70s.

“It’s not only work with
branches, but it was also an
opportunity for me to branch
out — challenge myself in the
art to see how many things I
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the type of wine drunk and
fruits and nuts consumed,
represent physicality, thought,
spirituality and emotionality.

“Any ritual is always greater
than the sum of its parts,”
Goldsmith said. “All this can
be explained, but it’s really
magic what happens when you
get into it.”
Information on
the Weitzman’s events can be
found at nmajh.org.

Below are additional area
Tu B’Shevat events:
Alliance Community Reboot will host a ramp cultivating workshop led
by gardener Ahron Moeller.
Courtesy of Ahron Moeller
could do with branches and
trees and natural pieces,”
Myers said.

“SOS: 2020,” displayed
alongside “Branching Out” is
an examination of the themes
from the early days of the
pandemic: isolation, racial strife
and preservation of democracy.

In one piece, “Sheltering in
Place,” Myers uses chess pieces,
small toys and teeth separated
into little boxes to represent
families in isolation. Her other
pieces, “Life Reimagined”
and “I Can’t Breathe,” address
the political climate of early
summer 2020.

“Those are pieces really
meant to be a tool for social
change for people to see and
hopefully, react,” Myers said.

The Artist’s Reception for
the exhibits is on Jan. 16 from
2-4 p.m. at OCJAC, 119 N.

Third St., Philadelphia.

For those looking to find
meaning in the holiday, The
Weitzman National Museum
of American Jewish History
is hosting a set of programs
designed to celebrate the
“mystical” nature of the holiday,
Weitzman Director of Public
Programs Dan Samuels said.

The Weitzman will host a
tree tour of West Laurel Hill
Cemetery, led by Arboretum
Manager Aaron Greenberg, on
Jan. 16 at 1 p.m.

“It’s a pretty cold time of
year — maybe not everyone’s
JEWISH EXPONENT
favorite time to go outside, but
there’s actually a lot going on
inside of trees around here this
time of year,” Samuels said.

“What does it mean for it to be
a new year for the trees?”
The tour will focus on the
hidden biological processes
trees undergo during the
winter, as well as the history
of the arboretum on which the
trees are located.

Beyond the hidden growth
trees undergo during Tu
B’Shevat is also a hidden
mystical meaning, observed
in a Tu B’Shevat seder held
in partnership with the Rising
Song Institute.

The Musical Tu B’Shevat
Seder, led by Rebekka
Goldsmith, Batya Levine, Jessie
Reagen Mann and Rabbi Micah
Shapiro, will be held virtually on
Jan. 16 at 8 p.m.

“Tree time is slow time,”
Goldsmith said. “There are
changes and growth [that is]
not even perceptible to the
human eye, and yet over time,
we see big changes happen.

For me, when we slow down,
and we open up with sound,
sound is the same thing. There’s
change that happens when we
sing together.”
The seder, similar to the
Passover seder, features a
meditation through the four
“worlds” outlined in Kabbalistic
texts, Goldsmith said. Each
world, marked by changes in
Alliance Community Reboot
Tu B’Shevat Winter Garden
Jan. 17, noon; virtual
Join ACRe gardener Ahron
Moeller and team on Facebook
Premiere for an experiment
in cultivating wild ramps and
preparing the Passover garden
for the new Alliance Historic
Model Farm.

Tribe 12 Breathe In & Branch
Out: A Guided Meditation/
Reflection Jan. 17, 6:30 p.m.; virtual
This Zoom meditation for
LGBTQ+ Jews in their 20s and
30s allows attendees to reflect
on the ideas of privilege and
oppression at the intersection
of Tu B’Shevat and Martin
Luther King Jr. Day.

Beth Sholom Congregation
Virtual Israel Tour
Jan. 17, 7:30 p.m.; virtual
Take a virtual tour of Israel
to gain a better understanding
of the country’s green energy
sources, bird migration and
initiatives to plant new trees.

Congregation Kol Ami
Virtual Seder
Jan. 19, 7 p.m.; virtual
This Zoom seder will
feature the three types of fruits
eaten on this holiday. The
grocery list and details for the
seder can be found by emailing
kolamirabbi@gmail.com. l
srogelberg@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0741
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



H EADLINES
z ‘Beloved Community’
Prioritized on MLK Day
Certain restrictions apply. Offer ends February 12, 2022
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SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
PHILOSOPHER-THEOLOGIAN Josiah Royce coined the term
“beloved community” in the
early 1900s, but the phrase
gained popularity when it
was used frequently by the
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

in his call to transform his
community with “an all-inclu-
sive spirit of brotherhood and
sisterhood” and eradicate the
violent racism still prevalent in
U.S. society.

On MLK Day, Jan. 17, Jewish
Community Relations Council
Director Jason Holtzman hopes
to strive toward a beloved
community through JCRC’s
programming and community
partnerships. “It’s important for us to
show up for other commu-
nities because we want other
communities to show up for
us,” Holtzman said. “We want
to create a more just society,
a more equitable society,
that off ers fair treatment and
opportunities for everyone.”
JCRC will co-sponsor
Global Citizens’ 27th annual
Greater Philadelphia Martin
Luther King Day of Service,
which has more than 160
in-person and virtual volunteer
opportunities on this year’s
theme of “Combatting Racism
& Building Community.”
Th e organization, part of the
Jewish Federation of Greater
Philadelphia, is participating
in and inviting community
volunteers to a cleanup of the
Finley Recreation Center in
East Mount Airy. Th e cleanup
will take place from 8 a.m. to
noon on Jan. 17, followed by
three city-wide youth basket-
ball games at the center.

Th e clean-up eff ort affi rms
recreational centers as places
for community gatherings
and face-to-face interaction,
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Main Line Reform Temple in Wynnewood, a partner of Alliance of
Trust, collaborated with Taylor Tabernacle Church in West Philadelphia
to collect and donate masks and hand sanitizer in October 2020. The
pair also worked to distribute election information to local residents.

Courtesy of Alliance of Trust
Holtzman said.

“If you look across the city,
over the past year, there’s been
such a high rise in crime, such
a high rise in gun violence,”
Holtzman said. “It’s very
important that there are fl our-
ishing recreation centers for
youth to turn to the commu-
nity to go to.”
Global Citizens President
and King Day of Service
Founder and Director Todd
Bernstein affi rmed the event,
along with the additional
programs, as “a vehicle to build
bridges” that goes beyond just
showing up to volunteer.

“We very actively and very
intentionally have folks that are
very diff erent from one another
— have diff erent experiences
or [who are] diff erent racially,
religiously or geographically —
doing projects together for that
very reason of fi nding common
ground and building ongoing
relationships,” Bernstein said.

Th e event will have enforced
COVID protocols, such
JEWISH EXPONENT
as required mask-wearing
and social distancing when
possible. Sign-up slots for the
event are limited.

JCRC also will host a
session on Jan. 14 at 1 p.m. with
Alliance of Trust called “Th e
Role of Sports in Combatting
Racism and Antisemitism:
Women in Sports.”
Panelists include Joanne
Pasternack, co-founder of
Athlete’s Voices and former vice
president of philanthropy for the
San Francisco 49ers and Golden
State Warriors; Kendyl Moss,
former president of communi-
cations for the Atlanta Falcons;
and Odessa Jenkins, founder of
the Women’s National Football
Conference. Th e virtual event will be the
third installment in Alliance
of Trust’s “Role of Sports”
panel series, which is intended
to illuminate the perva-
sive discrimination in sports
history and the resilience
demonstrated by Black and
Jewish athletes to overcome
that adversity.

“Sports is the great equal-
izer,” said Alliance of Trust
co-founder David Edman.

“When you’re on the playing
fi eld, and you got teammates,
and you’re trying to win, the
color of someone’s skin is
irrelevant.” Alliance of Trust began
three years ago in response to
community members’ desire
to revamp the now-defunct
Operation Understanding,
a partnership between the
American Jewish Committee
Philadelphia/South Jersey and
the Urban League of Greater
Philadelphia. Th e organization, which
kicked off public programming
two years ago on MLK Day,
aims to build Black-Jewish
solidarity in an increasingly
divisive political climate.

For more information on
Global Citizens’ MLK Day of
Service, visit mlkdayofservice.

org. To register for Alliance of
Trust’s “Role of Sports” panel,
visit allianceoft rust.org. ●
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