Light a Candle, Spin a Dreidel, Fry a Latke

Bring your best menorah and your favorite apron to the Chanukah services on Friday night, December 15. During the services, the Rabbis will be inviting everyone to bring their menorahs onto the bimah for a communal lighting -- it should be beautiful.

And then, after services, Brotherhood and Sholom Women are jointly producing the annual Latke Fry & Dreidel Spin. We'll be wielding the spatulas, while a festive time is had by all!

Alan Zeichick
Brotherhood Board

Please help with the Chanukah Toy Drive

Reposted from Fred Sturm's article in the November PTS Bulletin:

Our annual Chanukah Toy Drive is November 19 through December 7. Please bring new or gently used, unwrapped toys to the lobby of the Temple or to the entrance to the Torah Center (religious school). The toys will be taken to Jewish Family & Children's Services.

Last year we had two large SUVs filled with toys! Let's go for three loads this year.

What's with this blog?

I’m proud to publicly unveil our new PTS Brotherhood Blog, which the board will use to communicate more frequently with all Brotherhood members and the community — without filling up your mailbox.

This blog will:

* Tell you about events, both before & after
* Tell you what the Board is doing and thinking
* Provide an opportunity for you to leave feedback

Will the blog replace the Bulletin or our member e-mail notification list? No. But it will augment them both.

In today's society, people use multiple modes of communication. Some of you may like to read the Bulletin. Some of you may prefer e-mail, blogs, RSS feeds, etc. Our goal is to communicate in the way that works best for you.

If you use an RSS newsreader, you can subscribe to the blog at http://ptsb.blogspot.com/rss.xml

Alan Zeichick
Brotherhood Board

(PS: If you don't know what an RSS newsreader is, feel free to ask me about it at our next board meeting on Dec. 4th. Here are two Web-based newsreaders that I can recommend: NewsGator and the SF Chron's MyFeeds service. There are also many desktop news readers for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. I use NetNewsWire for the Mac.)

A great member's event

Last night, members of the PTS Brotherhood enjoyed a fascinating (and delicious) evening with Roxy Bernstein, the voice of the Florida Marlins baseball and Univ. of California Golden Bears basketball teams.

Roxy, who lives in the Bay Area and was raised at PTS, told excellent stories about his rapid rise as a sports broadcaster, from his love of sports as a child to his heroes in the industry. (Cantor Reich, stopping by before the program, recalled that Roxy ended his Bar Mitzvah speech with “Go Bears.”) He’s an eloquent and passionate speaker. It seemed like he was doing a live “play by play” right from the PTS social hall.

The Brotherhood also conducted a raffle, giving away two autographed SF Giants baseballs, two sets of tickets to Giants games, and a set of tickets to an SJ Sharks game. We appreciate the generosity of the donors of those prizes.

Thank you, Roxy, for a great evening.

Our next PTS Brotherhood board meeting is Monday, Dec. 4th, 6:30 pm, at the Gau Poang Chinese Restaurant in San Mateo. All Brotherhood members are welcome to attend – no RSVP necessary.

Alan Zeichick
Brotherhood Board

Next board meeting: Dec. 4th

Join the PTS Brotherhood Board at the Gau Poang restaurant on Monday, Dec. 4th, 6:30 pm. We'll have a full agenda -- including talking about exciting upcoming events for the first half of 2007!

The Gao Poang Chinese Restaurant is at a new location: 1208 South El Camino Real, San Mateo (cross streets: 12th/Hobart).

If you're a Brotherhood member, or are a Temple member thinking about becoming involved with PTS Brotherhood, we'd love to see you there. No RSVP required.

Alan Zeichick
Brotherhood Board

Have a hot dog, meet Roxy Bernstein!

Dear Brotherhood member,

Please accept our invitation to the PTS Brotherhood annual paid-up members event on Thursday, Nov 16th. Dinner @ 6:30 pm and speaker @ 7:15 pm.

Roxy Bernstein, life-long PTS member, has been the radio voice of the University of Calif. Golden Bears basketball team for the past ten years.

In addition, for the past two years, Roxy (pictured) has been the voice of the Florida Marlins baseball team. Join other members of our Brotherhood for a very entertaining evening of great stories and a behind-the-scenes look at the world of sports. Be sure to bring some questions for Roxy.

A fun 'sports' dinner is being provided by Max’s. Best of all, if you are a paid-up member of PTS Brotherhood, the evening is free to you.

(If you’re a new member who joined PTS this past year, you are automatically a paid-up member of Brotherhood for the first year, so come join us, and meet your fellow Brotherhood members!)

Hope to see you there.

Fred Sturm
Brotherhood President