News & Announcements

This is personal for me. Not only have I, along with the rest of the world, been cooped up away from people due to the pandemic for two years, but I also recently joined the widow's ranks. During both of these passages, my synagogue has become a most important community. Lately, though, with the approaching reopening of stuff, I imagined that having a specific social group connected to my synagogue could be a welcome addition to my currently very limited social life. Consider that 45% of PJTC families have at least one family member over age 55. And because 68 people already signed up and/or also responded to the online interest survey, there's no question that I am not alone in having a desire to be part of a special community within our PJTC community, a community that is primarily for fun and devoted to the interests of  the 55+ age group.

In response to this, PJTC with the  guidance of Melissa Levy, Director of Congregational Engagement, is reinstituting a specific social group to be facilitated by its own participants for fun, comaraderie, and entertainment as well as for educational and spiritual opportunities. I am very excited about being involved in this project. It will be what we all make of it, together!

Since PJTC is a member congregation of United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism (USCJ) which provides programming and other assistance to member congregations, we have reached out for ideas and organizational help. Under the programming umbrella of USCJ, PJTC will continue to use its prior group' s name, "HAZAK." HAZAK, translated as meaning  "being strong," is actually an acronym for three Hebrew words: hokhma ( wisdom), ziknah (maturity) and kadima (looking ahead). PJTC's HAZAK will begin sponsoring events and activities that reflect recent PJTC online survey results. These will include dinners in homes, museum visits and concerts, theater and hosting speakers.  

Our first event is planned for Sunday, March 20 at 4:30, outdoors on Katz Terrace at PJTC. We would like to use it as a welcome back meet and mix event. Light supper will be available in compliance with health and safety standards,  Please RSVP here: https://www.pjtc.net/form/hazakopeningevent.

Questions? Please email Carol at carolsofer@yahoo.com or melissa@pjtc.net.  We hope to see you there.

by Carol Sofer