Grow your club - Embrace Shabbat!
Register Your Men's Club's Shabbat. REGISTER HERE.
What is Men's Club Shabbat?
Men’s Club Shabbat is an opportunity for Men's Club members to lead the Shabbat service(s). Engage your members as leaders. Expand their comfort level by asking men to do something they have not done before - like reading Torah or leading a Hebrew reading.
- Introduce niggunim that breathe new life into your service and community.
- Invite those "on the fringe" who do not frequently participate by giving them honors and/or a role in planning your event. Be innovative.
- Plan and advertise alternative services.
- Introduce topical discussions.
- Present awards for youth.
- Attract a whole new audience.
- Be creative - but most of all, have fun.
- Bring the feeling of convention to your synagogue.
For some, Men's Club Shabbat is Friday night services; for others it’s Saturday morning, and in still others it's both. There are also clubs that expand their Men's Club Shabbat observance to include a program on Sunday morning and others make an entire Men's Club Week. Grow Your Club: Embrace Shabbat!
Contact Men's Club Shabbat Coordinator, Evan Rumack (evanrumack@fjmc.org) for assistance and to discuss ideas and themes and to help provide resources.
Planning Men’s Club Shabbat
The FJMC has provided a generic Men's Club Shabbat Planning Guide that will help you plan the weekend (see link below). This isn't like a Sunday morning speaker breakfast that you can put together in a matter of days. It might well take months to plan! After all, you need to talk over your plans with the rabbi, assign the various parts to Men's Club members and print a hand-out listing the participants. Perhaps arrange for an outside speaker. Arrange for the Oneg Shabbat or Kiddush. Do your advertising.
That doesn't include the planning necessary if you also hold a Friday night Shabbat dinner in the synagogue or have other programs that weekend.
MC Shabbat Programming Suggestions
Easiest:
Our goal is to give clergy a well-deserved day off and highlight the participation of Men’s Club in the religious life of the temple, as well as promote Men’s Club within the synagogue. Men’s Club takes responsibility for Friday Night and Saturday services. Temple Beth Shalom - Livingston, NJ Barry Wolfe
Middle:
The Northwest Suburban Jewish Congregation Safer Haftarot Scroll/ Shabbat Torah Service was developed based upon the first visit of the Safer Haftarot Scroll to our synagogue. Our Men’s Club took this opportunity to invite all current Men’s Club members to a Men’s Club sponsored Shabbat service at which the Safer Haftarot Scroll would be at our synagogue and the torah service would be performed by Men’s Club members. This first service was the impetus for developing a semi-annual Saturday morning Men’s Club Shabbat Torah Service in order to involve more men in service participation. This initiative has now become a regular part of our annual activities and has also resulted in more frequent Shabbat attendance. Northwest Suburban JC - Morton Grove, IL (Merged w/Beth Shalom in NB) Stu Simon stusim1972@aol.com
Hardest:
For our Annual Shabbat Program, we used drama and song, blended into the regular Friday night service, to portray incidents that made a difference. Valley Beth Shalom Men's Club- Encino, CA Murray Geller
When is it held?
Men's Club Shabbat is traditionally scheduled on Shabbat Hachodesh each year. Shabbat Hachodesh was chosen because it commemorates our beginnings and signifies a time of fulfillment. The dates for coming years are:
- Sat, April 02, 2022 (1 Nisan, 5782)
- Sat, March 18, 2023 (25 Adar 5783)
- Sat, April 6, 2024 (27 Adar II 5784)
- Sat, March 29, 2025 (29 Adar 5785)
- Sat, March 14, 2026 (25 Adar 5786)
Is it that date or not at all?
No. In fact, only a fraction of Men's Clubs actually hold their Men's Club Shabbat observance on those weekends. That's because their synagogues have a Bar or Bat Mitzvah or some other event scheduled then. You can hold your Men's Club Shabbat whenever it's convenient for your or your congregation. You might consider scheduling your Men's Club Shabbat for Hol haMoed Pesach and mincha/havdalah services, when b'nai mitzvah are not usually scheduled.
Once you have selected your date, please share the mitzvot. Register your Men’s Club Shabbat here.
How do we start planning?
The FJMC has provided a generic Men's Club Shabbat Planning Guide that will help you plan the weekend regardless any specific theme for that year.
Contact:
The Men's Club Shabbat Coordinator, Jeff Litt for assistance and to discuss ideas and themes and to help provide resources.