Sholem Community

Sunday School + CA Ballot Measures Forum with Mona Field
2024-10-06
CA Ballot Measures Forum
w/ Mona Field, Professor Emerita, Political Science

We are delighted to have longtime Sholem member Mona Field back to lead one of her always popular and informative pre-election forums. Mona will help explain the measures and share who is supporting and opposing each. Participants are welcome to bring their sample ballots, political junk mail, thoughts and questions so we may analyze our choices together.
Mona is past President of the Board of the League of Women Voters of Greater Los Angeles and Professor Emerita of Political Science. She literally wrote the textbook on California politics, California Government and Politics Today, now in its 15th edition.
This will be a nonpartisan conversation – NOT about candidates.
Sunday, October 6, 2024
Come at 10am for bagels & coffee
Program 10:30 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.

Short Avenue Elementary School
12814 Maxella Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90066
(Plenty of free street parking)
FREE to Attend – All are welcome!

Questions: info@sholem.org

Rosh Hashana/Rosheshone in the Park
2024-10-03
The Sholem Community’s holiday observances draw from Jewish history, folk traditions, contemporary readings, and social justice themes. Our secular humanistic adaptations of Jewish holidays are creative and imbued with a sense of relevance to the concerns of our modern times.
Welcome the Jewish New Year with stirring readings, literature, and poetry based in our Jewish heritage and our secular, progressive values.
Please plan to bring your own picnic lunch and a dessert to share.
Apples and honey will be provided.
Free to attend – donations appreciated.
11:00 a.m. at Clover Park
2600 Ocean Park Blvd, Santa Monica CA 90405

Sunday School
2024-09-29, 2024-09-15

Sunday School - Open House
2024-09-22 | Short Avenue Elementary School, 12814 Maxella Ave, Los Angeles, CA, 90066, United States
Our School Principal, Ross Helford, will discuss the importance, urgency, and value of a secular Jewish education. We will also have an overview of our school, curriculum, philosophy and classes, as well as our bmitsve program, teen/belfer program, and our multigenerational community offerings.
The presentation will be followed by a tour of classes, and then an opportunity for some community building amongst adults.
Sholem Open House
Sunday, September 22
10:00 a.m. Bagels, Juice & Coffee
10:30-11:30 a.m. Program
Help spread the word. Invite friends.
All are welcome!
Questions: ross@sholem.org

Sunday School - 1st day of 2024-25 school year
2024-09-08
Are you culturally Jewish but not religious?
Would you like your children (or grandchildren) to connect with their Jewish identity?
Do you have an intercultural family?
Sholem’s secular Sunday school engages children 4-17 years old in an exploration of Jewish identity, history, culture and traditions of social justice.
Classes meet 10:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
at Short Avenue Elementary School
(12814 Maxella Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90066)
most Sunday mornings during the school year.

Click here for more information about our school
All prospective families are welcome to come check out a class.
We offer rolling admissions.
Contact our principal Ross Helford ross@sholem.org, so he may plan to greet you.

Sunday school
2024-05-19, 2024-05-12, 2024-05-05, 2024-04-28, 2024-04-07, 2024-03-17, 2024-03-10, 2024-03-03 and 6 more dates
Are you culturally Jewish but not religious?
Would you like your children (or grandchildren) to connect with their Jewish identity?
Do you have an intercultural family?
Sholem’s secular Sunday school engages children 4-17 years old in an exploration of Jewish identity, history, culture and traditions of social justice.
Classes meet 10:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
at Short Avenue Elementary School
(12814 Maxella Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90066)
most Sunday mornings during the school year.

All prospective families are welcome to come check out a class.
We offer rolling admissions.
Click here for more information about our school
Contact our principal Ross Helford ross@sholem.org, so he may plan to greet you.

Hershl Hartman Celebration of Life
2024-05-04 13:00 - 16:00 (America/Los_Angeles)
This Saturday, the Sholem Community, together with his family, invite you to join us for a Celebration of the Life of Hershl Hartman (1929-2023), our esteemed Mentor, Principal, Education Director, and Vegvayzer.
Saturday, May 4, 2024
Hershl Hartman (1929-2023)
Celebration of Life
1:00 pm-4:00 pm PST (4:00-7:00pm EST)
The Church in Ocean Park
235 Hill Street, Santa Monica. CA 90405
Light refreshments will be served afterwards.
Please allow extra time for parking, which can be tricky. There are large public lots a few blocks west.
For those who are unable to attend in person, please join us via Zoom:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89161724903
Memorial contributions may be made to the Sholem Community:
www.sholem.org/donate-now
Questions:
regan@sholem.org
Hershl Hartman and his late wife, May Hartman (née Stein), were the only two graduates to hold degrees in both Jewish Education and Yiddish Journalism from the former School for Higher Jewish Education of the Jewish People’s Fraternal Order, International Workers Order (IWO) in New York. The Jewish People’s Fraternal Order focused on Secular Jewish culture and celebration, mutual support especially in health insurance coverage, and anti-fascist activism. The IWO, made up of 15 ethnic societies, also gave particular emphasis to supporting the rights and interests of African Americans.
Hershl was the first native-born Yiddish reporter in the U.S. (MorgnFrayhayt — Morning Freedom, 1947-1951) and was the principal of the secular Sholem Educational Institute (1967-1985) and Education Director of the Sholem Community (1985-2023) in Los Angeles.
Hershl’s Yiddish/English translations include many scores of Yiddish poems and essays and handwritten letters and manuscripts including an undated notebook of Isaac Bashevis Singer outlining a never-written trilogy of novels. Among the many full-length books he has translated are, most recently: a collection of essays by a prominent Yiddish humorist who survived the khurbn (holocaust), immigrated to the U.S. and satirized Jewish American lifestyles and Anglicized “Yinglish;” the text for a comics collection, A Bunch of Jews and Other Stories; the memoirs of the late L.A. Yiddish poet/journalist Moyshe Szklar; Itsik Manger’s Megile, and a translation commissioned by the Getty Museum, the 1915 verse-novel Shikhes Khulin — Mundane Matters by poet Moyshe Broderzon, illustrated by the major artist El Lessitsky.
Hershl was the co-editor of the UCLA on-line anthology of L.A. Yiddish literature and was associate editor with Harvey Pekar and Paul Buhle of Yiddishkeit: Jewish Vernacular & the New Land.
Hershl, a progressive secular Jew, was passionate about providing secular Jewish education to both children and adults. A Sholem member for close to 60 years, he served as a lecturer, school principal, education director, leader of adult discussions, creator of Sholem’s alternative bmitsve program, student mentor, guide for humanistic Jewish holiday observances, and much more.
Hershl was a founding member of the Congress of Secular Jewish Organizations (now the Cultural and Secular Jewish Organization) and the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism. He was also active in numerous other nonprofit organizations including the SoCal Arbeter Ring/Workers Circle, Yiddishkayt, People for the American Way, Democratic Socialists of America and Bend the Arc.
Hershl was the Convener of the L.A. Secular Yeshiva which has trained 10 vegvayzer/madrikhot(im)/Leaders as officiants for holiday observances and life-cycle events. His publications include many booklets on Jewish holidays and texts for the secular observance of those and other holidays.
In Hershl’s 9-to-5 corporate career, “Harold” Hartman was the Director of Communications for two leading firms in the plastics building materials industry, one of which gets the credit for bringing him to L.A. from New York. He served an unprecedented two terms as Chair of the Fiberglass-Reinforced Panel Council, helping to write consumer-friendly product standards as well as plastics flammability tests for the American Society for Testing and Materials. With many friends among the unionized, striking workers at one firm, he turned down management’s request that he join the sales force on the production line as a scab — “temporary replacement” — proposing instead, with the union’s agreement, to be a standby photographer on the picket line. The strike was won within a week.
Hershl’s wife May died in 1994. She and Hershl had been married for 44 years but knew each other for at least 50. Hershl is survived by his children Gail Hartman and Shawna Hartman Brotsky, son-in-law Daniel Brotsky, and grandchildren Leanne Brotsky and Jenna Brotsky.
# # # # #

Model Secular Seder - Community Potluck Luncheon
2024-04-21 11:00 - 14:30 | Farragut Elementary School, 10820 Farragut Dr., Culver City, CA, 90230, United States
Sholem’s non-religious cultural celebration of Passover acknowledges the holiday’s origins as a spring festival and honors the tradition of “Exodus” as a symbolic tale of freedom. This communal event will feature readings from Sholem’s secular family Hagada, a potluck luncheon, singing & musical accompaniment, with plenty of opportunities for children to participate.
Model Secular Seder
Community Potluck Luncheon
Sunday, April 21, 2024
(the day before the 1st night of Passover)
11:00 a.m. Doors Open
12:00-2:30 p.m. Program
Veterans Memorial Building
Rotunda Room
4117 Overland Avenue
Culver City, CA 90230
1) CLICK HERE
to reserve your seat(s)
and
2) CLICK HERE
to choose your potluck item(s)
Please invite family & friends
Please share/forward this notice
ALL ARE WELCOME!

Sholem’s secular Hagada
Click here to download a PDF

Field Trip Day
2024-04-14

Spring Break - No Sunday school
2024-03-31

Sunday school (Purim)
2024-03-24

Presidents Day - No Sunday school
2024-02-18

Sunday school (Tu Bishvat)
2024-01-28

MLK Day screening and assembly
2024-01-14 | Short Avenue Elementary School, 12814 Maxella Ave, Los Angeles, CA, 90066, United States
Sunday, January 14, 2024
This Sunday at Sholem, to commemorate MLK Day, we will have a special screening and assembly. As our long time education director Hershl Hartman was fond of saying, at Sholem, Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a Jewish holiday.
A year and a half ago, as we were still coming out of the pandemic, Sholem students Zion Gertz and Iden Stein opted to make a movie of their barmitsve presentations, which was professionally produced. As of yet, we have never screened it for our community. At some later date, we hope to find a time to screen Iden’s presentation.
This Sunday, we will screen Zion’s presentation, What It Means To Be a Black Jew in America.
In addition to an in-depth, informative, and highly personal presentation, Zion also interviewed three Black Jewish Sholem grads.
Following the screening, we’ll have an MLK Day assembly, featuring Hershl Hartman’s story about the day he met Martin Luther King Jr.
Sunday, January 14, 2024
10 a.m. Doors Open, Coffee & Bagels
10:30 a.m. Presentation
12:15 p.m. MLK Assembly
Guests are welcome!
RSVP to regan@sholem.org
Families interested in learning more about Sholem’s secular Jewish Sunday school and our bar/bas/b’mitsve program may contact ross@sholem.org.
– – – – –
[Photo: ‘Leaders of the protest, holding flags from left Bishop James Shannon, Rabbi Abraham Heschel, Dr. Martin Luther King and Rabbi Maurice Eisendrath.’ Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Arlington Cemetery, February 6, 1968. Photo by Charles Del Vecchio/Getty Images]

Winter Break - No Sunday school
2023-12-31
