AllJewishLinks.com Newsletter Issue # 60 – December 12, 2012

A Jewish cultural and religious center will be opened in the city of Trancoso the first of its kind in Portugal in more than 500 years. The Isaac Cardoso Center for Jewish Interpretation will include an exhibition about the Jewish history of Portugal and the renewal of Jewish life in the region in recent years.

Months of hard work by hundreds of RCCS volunteers, culminated for a seven-hour fund-raising marathon, simulcast through teleconference and live streaming. The RCCS live auction performance, which has now become an anticipated annual event, was all that it claimed it would be.

Jews around the world ushered in the eight-day Hanukkah festival Saturday evening, lighting the first candles of ceremonial lamps that symbolize triumph over oppression.While in Israel, families gathered after sundown for the lighting, eating traditional snacks of potato pancakes and doughnuts and exchanging gifts.

Chanukah in Yeshivas Lubavitch S. Paulo starts weeks before the date on the Calendar comes around. To spread the light of Chanukah throughout the city the Talmidim HaShluchim put together an unbelievable week of Chanukah Mivtzoim kicking off with a grand Parade throughout the city.

Last weekend two talented Jewish women make memorable art from their family stories. On Friday night, the legendary folk venue in Harvard Square, to hear Lucy Kaplansky. Her set mixed old favorites with songs from her new CD, Reunion.

The holiday of Chanukah is celebrated annually to commemorate the rededication of the Holy Temple of Jerusalem. On the third anniversary of the Temple’s defilement through pagan sacrifice at the hands of Jewish Hellenizers, the Temple was restored to pristine Jewish worship of God in accordance with the Torah’s commands.

Although children did not come easily to me, thank G-d I now have three school age children. Sometimes I can’t help feeling like I’m neither here nor there not really immersed in child-rearing to the exclusion of everything else, but not entirely free to go back to school to pursue my interests.