If you were not included in the Caring Committee's "Gems Program" last year, now is the chance to change that. If you were married in 1999 this will be your Silver Anniversary year. This is the beginning year for inclusion in the Gems program. If you are married longer than 25 years and were not included last year, you can still be included this year. Please send the date of your wedding and if you have a wedding picture please email it to us. Please send the information to Marci LeVine at admin@rsholom.org or to Shelly Pozin at shelltpa@aol.com. This year's Gems program will be held on February 24. Thank you for your interest in this program! Rodeph Sholom Caring Committee
Born in Kolkata India, author Jai Chakrabarti’s fourteen short stories take a bit of patience to unspool. Not easily distilled, a hybrid of Indian/American immigrant experience, the book’s title suggests the time spent to understand the work is but A Small Sacrifice For An Enormous Happiness. Chakrabarti’s inventive plot lines and varied characters are as colorful as Indian cuisine and some as spicy.
Nikhil and Sharma are young lovers. But being gay in “modern’ Calcutta is no picnic. Bending to social dictates, Sharma marries Tripti, an uneducated peasant from a nearby village. The bride would be an ideal surrogate to produce a child for the two men to raise. But when Nikhil offers Tripti the promise of a good life and “enormous happiness” in exchange for motherhood, Tripti reveals plans of her own. And none include bearing children.
American Shira and Herold travel to Calcutta to pick up their adoptive baby boy. Ready to sign the final document they notice a street urchin scarred with “undefined origins”, clinging to the baby. She won’t be separated. They are told, Lila’s the baby’s sister. Without valid birth certificate Harold is convinced Lila’s story is a “scam and a hoax” invented by the director of The Daisy Lane orphanage to extract money from naïve Americans. Shira has doubts as well.
Malini, a Hindu woman and her three year old son Amar are guests at a Seder. Before her husband Neel succumbed to a devastating disease he wished to have a Hindu religious ceremony. Now , since meeting Stephen Cohen, Malini has all but forgotten her husband’s Hindu legacy. When her future mother in law asks Malini to “consider conversion” to Judaism, Malini readily acquiesces. But she surprises everyone with a spectacular tribute that links Amar to his father’s rich heritage.
Leah and Mendel have been married for 29 years. Lea never missed her mikvah appointments. She wore her “shaytl” (wig) daily and “turned two chaiyas” their two sons, into decent men. Mendel, on the other hand, married only, “because he wanted to touch a woman.” After 29 years “husbandhood did not suit him.” He wanted the appearance of being married but at the same time the freedom to live in separate spaces. And so he built a wall of gypsum and sheetrock to divide their home. Leah consulted a Rabbi. And she began looking into the window of Sunset Salsa Dancing Club for beginners. Would she enter? What did the Rabbi advise?
Chakrabarti crystalizes the moral ethical dilemma within each of his characters but he never assigns meaning nor provides a simple interpretation for the reader. A bit of a slug to unravel the short stories, persisting with Chakrabarti’s fascinating compilation is indeed A Small Sacrifice for An Enormous Happiness.
January 20 Carin Zweibel Ronald Pross Michael Kass Galina Smirnov
January 22 Jared Harris
January 23 Fran Lepow
January 24 Gabriel Daniels Harold Ewen
January 25 Jan Wuliger
January 21 Nicole and Michael Mezrah
January 25 Michele and Craig Montgomery
YAHRZEIT OBSERVANCES
Daniel Deutsch Beatrice G. Polakow Herman Smith Herman Swarzman William Silverman Morris Mezrah Pauline Rophie Jack Sandler Grace Katz Nicholas Polanco Leo Chaitow
Howard Margol Elizabeth Plevinsky Sylvia Moskowitz Leah Fineman Helen Stein Marcus Freundlich Henry Stein Ida Jaffe George Bercu Herman Siegal Arthur Irving Berck
If you would like to honor your loved one with a Yahrzeit Plaque, please click on the link below.
Tampa Jewish Memorial Gardens Plot space is available at the Tampa Jewish Memorial Gardens operated by Congregation Rodeph Sholom (formerly the New Rodeph Sholom Cemetery). Rodeph Sholom Members $3,000 and Non-Members $3,500 per plot. Price includes perpetual care. Interfaith family section available. Payment plans may be arranged. Please contact the synagogue office at 813-837-1911 or email at info@rsholom.org.
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