Strike 1 for PaL!

Shoppers at the Kosher Kingdom store in Golders Green will be getting a free gift from PaL in the run up to Chanukah, thanks to our special in-store Chanukah promotion. We'll be inviting customers to 'light up their lives' with PaL by giving away handy Chanukah matchboxes at the till. 

If you know someone who would benefit from exploring their Jewish heritage in more depth, why not take Chanukah as your springboard and invite them to have a look at our website? The eight-day festival has strong associations with the rededication of Jewish learning, so it's the perfect opportunity.

Have a freilichen Chanukah and a fantastic month.

Judy Silkoff

Programme Coordinator 

Try something new...

The Jewish month of Cheshvan is unique in that no festivals or fasts fall during these few weeks. But our Sages tell us that the 27th of the month is the date when Noach left the ark and the earth 'dried out' after the Great Flood. It would seem that Cheshvan provides us with the perfect opportunity to branch out and try something new - both in terms of its association with renewal and rebuilding after the flood, and by dint of the fact that it offers us a long stretch of time to really get our teeth into something!

If you and your PaL are coming to the conclusion of a topic or book you've been exploring for a while, don't hesitate to give us a call in the office to discuss suggested resources for you to move on to! Alternatively, why not take a look at one of the new Jewish book releases out this month, or the courses and events on offer at other institutions local to you.

Have a wonderful month!

Judy 

Everyone a PaL....

In the last few weeks I've had the opportunity to meet many of our PaL tutors and partners face-to-face. Many attended our two pre-Rosh Hashanah events with Rabbi Paysach Krohn of course; it's always exciting to see PaL partners and tutors making arrangements to meet up and come to the shiur together. A couple of other PaLs introduced themselves to me in shul on Rosh Hashanah as well - I discovered that my 'Where will you Find your PaL' bag is just the right size for carrying a machzor and assorted toddler snacks - and thus I became a walking advertisement for Phone and Learn!

It occurred to me that you never know who might be a PaL - it could be the woman sitting across the table from you at a wedding, the man davening next to you in shul, or the person in front of you in the queue at Tesco! And they might be a partner, a tutor, or even both. There is no way of identifying a PaL from the outside - but what brings us all together is our common goal to deepen our connection to Judaism and learn more about our heritage.

Are you a PaL too? And if not - why not?!

NB: Following our successful evenings with Rabbi Krohn I am happy to inform everyone that both lectures are now freely available on the PaL website to stream or download - www.phoneandlearn.org/events.php

A video of the Kinloss event will also be available after Succos. 

Wishing you all a chag sameach!

Judy 

Reaching out, living and giving - Ellul at Phone and Learn!

September is the busiest month at Phone and Learn! Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Succos 

are just around the corner of course and as always we will be sending out our pack of learning material for the Yamim Noraim very shortly to everyone who is currently learning with a PaL. 

This year we have an additional treat to include with the partners' pack - an exclusive short film produced by 'Torah Live' on the topic of Succos. 'Torah Live' creates entertaining and informative videos with the goal of fusing the power modern technology with authentic Torah wisdom. We are thrilled to have had the opportunity to work with them!

The main focus of the first part of the month is of course our annual visit from Rabbi Paysach Krohn, the founder of PaL.  This year we are offering a double-helping of Rabbi Krohn. On Monday 10th September both men and women are welcome to attend our event in Finchley United Synagogue where Rabbi Krohn will be speaking on the topic of 'Reaching Upwards, Searching Inwards; Connecting to the Yemei HaDin.  And on Tuesday 11th September, the yahrzeit of the Chofetz Chaim, there will be another opportunity for the ladies of the community to hear a second shiur, entitled 'To Live is to Give', in North London this time. All details can be found in the flyers below. Alternatively please contact me on 0800 055 3276 or email judy@phoneandlearn.org for more information.

As in previous years, the first night's lecture will be recorded and will appear on our website (www.phoneandlearn.org) in both audio and video format shortly afterwards.

Wishing you all a kesiva v'chasima tova and looking forward to seeing you at one or both of our events!

Judy

Click to chat!

We live in a world of instant communication these days - from online shopping to bbm messaging to live bus arrival updates, you can usually get the information you want or need, at the click of a button, within minutes if not seconds. 

Of course, at PaL, we're offering Jews of all ages to the opportunity to connect with a heritage that is ancient in its roots, but timeless in its reality. And our aim is to make sure that we utilise the latest technologies and innovations available to make that heritage as accessible as possible to all. 

The latest addition to the PaL toolbox is the option for visitors to our website to have an online chat with one of the team. If any questions occur to you while browsing the site 

or completing an online registration form, just click and ask!

PaL partners can also look forward to some exciting new multi-media material coming their way before Rosh Hashanah.

Hoping to see you all at our annual event in September - click here for more details. In the meantime, have a wonderful summer. 

No Brain Drain at PaL

Have you ever heard of “summer brain drain”? It’s the expression used to describe the learning loss experienced by school children and university students during the long summer weeks of hanging out and doing not very much in the way of educational activity.    

The fact that PaL offers a completely flexible programme – you don’t even need to pack it in your suitcase to continue your learning while away on holiday! – means that, hopefully, summer brain drain is not something our partners and tutors will be experiencing.

But if you are interested in a bit of a shake-up in your PaL routine during July and August, here is a helpful list of reminders about the learning resources we can offer you!

• Foundations course – PaL edition. Five week course created by seed on the Foundations of Judaism.
• The Shabbos Kitchen
•  The Kosher Kitchen
• Roadmap to Prayer
• All of the courses above can be distributed by email or CD, free of charge 
• Jewish Pathways courses – www.jewishpathways.com – ten different online study courses to choose from to learn with your PaL
•  Hebrew Reading – for those who can’t access a face-to-face crash course, we can offer one-to-one Hebrew reading over the phone through PaL

In addition to all this we can also offer tailored advice on books to study – don’t forget your 10 percent discount at Torah Treasures in Golders Green!

Of course, it’s also only a few short weeks until Rabbi Paysach Krohn once again steps up to the dais to deliver our annual pre-Rosh Hashanah lecture. Save the date in your diary (10^th September 2012 at Finchley United Synagogue) as it’s sure to be as inspiring, exciting and thought-provoking an event as always.

Like One Man, with One Heart

One theme that is especially prominent during the forthcoming festival of Shavuos is that of achdus, Jewish unity. 

At Har Sinai, the entire Jewish nation stood together, as Rashi comments, ‘like one man with one heart’. It seems particularly appropriate therefore that the run-up to Shavous represents a date in the PaL calendar when we work closely together with a number of other Jewish institutions and organisations.  Our mutual goal of bringing Jews together from across the spectrum of the community, to learn Torah and strengthen their connection to their Jewish heritage, is a deeply rooted and binding one.

On May 14^th, just 10 short days before Shavuos, I will once again have the privilege of representing PaL at the Tribe ‘Closing the Gap’ dinner in Jerusalem. There, I will offer returning gap year students the opportunity of signing up to PaL on their return to the UK, ensuring that their Jewish journey doesn’t end when the plane lifts off from Ben Gurion airport. During the same trip, I will also visit a variety of different seminaries to sign up new volunteer tutors to the PaL programme. These young women have had the benefit of a rich and long-standing Jewish education, and their enthusiasm for sharing their knowledge with others is one we are extremely grateful for.

Finally, I will also be paying a visit to the Jerusalem office of our sister organisation, the USA-based Partners In Torah, with whom we work very closely as their ‘European branch’.

If you know anyone who is spending the year in Israel and would be interested in meeting with PaL there to find out more about what we do, and registering as either a partner or a tutor, please don’t hesitate to get in touch!

Wishing you a chag sameach

Judy 

Bring the Community Together!

It was wonderful to meet so many different people from accross the spectrum of the UK's Jewish community at the Jewish Living Expo in March! There were thousands of men, women and children browsing the many stalls and PaL was certainly one of the more high profile exhibitors. Everywhere we turned we could see people using their 'Where will you find your PaL' bags to store literature and sample goodies as they took in  everything on offer! 

Visitors to our stand included the Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks and his wife Lady Sacks, as well as Tribe's Chief Executive Rabbi Andrew Shaw and our very own Rabbi Harvey Belovski.

Now as our thoughts turn to Pesach, the holiday that represents the birth of the Jewish nation, it's good to reflect on a day that united the Jewish community with such warmth and enthusiasm. Wishing you all a chag kasher vesameach!

GOAL!!!!!

In his best-selling book “The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People”,  author Stephen Covey identifies the setting of goals, and in particular mini-goals, as a key method of achieving successes in life.

When one reaches a goal in Torah Learning – completes a sefer, finishes a parsha or even masters the letters of the aleph beis – the Jewish thing to do is to make a siyum. A siyum (which literally means ‘finishing’) is akin to a graduation – a way of recognising the fulfilment of a significant goal. And of course, one can never really come to the end of one’s Jewish learning (there is always more to learn!) so in essence a siyum represents the marking of a mini-goal – another small step on the long road to achieving our full Jewish potential in life.

PaL is proud to be teaming up with our sister organisation in the USA, Partners in Torah, to celebrate the 12^th Siyum HaShas in August 2012. The Siyum HaShas, which was inaugurated in 1923, represents the completion of the entire Babylonian Talmud, page by page, day by day, in a seven-year cycle. This year’s Siyum HaShas will be a historical event; a world-wide celebration of Jewish learning, and we would like to invite you to be part of it!

All you need to do is choose a siyum-focused topic to learn with your PaL and aim to finish in time for August 2012. We will bring you details of the UK Siyum HaShas in due course – but in the meantime feel free to explore the dedicated website www.mysiyum.com for more information.   

The signposts are already there – so where will you find your PaL?

The term ‘the lost generation’ historically refers to young people who came of age during World War I. Recently though, it’s being increasingly used to describe a generation of people who have ‘lost their way’ – rising unemployment, a financial recession and lack of something meaningful to hold onto has a tendency to set people on a depressing course, wandering through life without marrying, building a family or even purchasing their own homes. In his introduction to our 2011 PaL Profiles booklet (click here) the Chief Rabbi, Lord Jonathan Sacks, offers a Jewish solution to similar problems within our own community. He writes: “One of the most effective ways...to ensure the survival of Judaism...is to provide opportunities for Jews, young and old, to...understand their Jewish heritage”.

This provides a very strong argument for why PaL will be heavily represented at the Jewish News and Media Group’s Jewish Living Expo in March, under the strapline of ‘Everything for Everyone Jewish’. An event endorsed by the Chief Rabbi , the Expo promises to provide the UK Jewish community with just such an opportunity to ground itself, as well as being a real celebration of everything Jewish.

PaL has big plans for the Expo, including an incredible prize raffle where you can win an iPhone 4s, Kindle 3G and £100 of Amazon vouchers – the perfect package to get you started on ‘Phoning and Learning’!  We’ll also be bringing along some fun ‘must have’ freebies, publicly launching our first ever promo video -  and of course giving people the opportunity to sign up to what is arguably the most flexible, innovative and – yes - the ‘most free’ Jewish learning programme out there!

 Tickets for the Expo are already on sale – to get a 10% discount on your entry fee, go to www.jewishlivingexpo.com and quote PAL03 at the checkout.  

We’re looking forward to seeing you there – don’t lose your way!