Metro Briefs March 31

The community is invited to join Beth El Congregation of the South Hills on Friday, April 1 at 6 p.m. at 1900 Cochran Road for a Shabbat experience of music and joy during its new Friday Night Live evening. New York based artist Sheldon Low will be back performing with Rabbis Alex and Amy Greenbaum and Cantorial Soloist Sara Stock Mayo.

This evening is for people of all ages and will include a free community pizza party at 7 p.m. The evening is sponsored by South Hills Jewish Pittsburgh. Visit bethelcong.org for more information and to RSVP for dinner in advance or call 412-561-1168.

The Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh’s Big Night 120 Years: Celebrating Yesterday, Imagining Tomorrow will celebrate its two big anniversaries, its 10th Big Night and 120 years of existence, on Saturday, April 2 at 7:30 p.m.

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Landau Eugene Murphy Jr., winner of the 2011 “America’s Got Talent” will perform. The evening will include dining, dancing and toasting the next 120 years. Basketball fans can track the big game in the Final Four Lounge sports bar.

Big Night raises a large portion of the money needed to provide scholarships and support for essential programs from early childhood education to older adult activities.

Tickets are $120 per person and will include dinner and drinks; the event is for persons ages 21 and over. Contact Big Night customer service at 412-697-3510 or visit onlineedge.jccpgh.org for more information and to purchase tickets.

The Rauh Jewish History Program and Archives at the Heinz History Center will present Every Town Had a Community: Celebrating Jewish Life in the Small Towns of Western Pennsylvania on Sunday, April 3 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the in the Detre Library & Archives

Stories and voices from the Small Towns Jewish History Project, featuring congregations in Donora, Latrobe, New Castle, Sharon and Farrell, and Uniontown will be presented.

Refreshments will be served. Dietary laws will be observed.

Contact David Schlitt at dmschlitt@heinzhistorycenter.org or 412-454-6402 for more information and to register.

Tickets for the 23rd Annual JFilm Festival, which runs from April 7 to April 17, are now available. Visit JFilmPgh.org for an overview of the 11-day festival, including film descriptions and trailers, guest speakers, and ticket/venue information.

Ordering advance tickets online is encouraged. Phone orders are taken at 412-992-5203 Monday through Friday, from 10 a.m. to noon only.

Pittsburgh 10 + Friends, an Art for a Cause exhibit of new work will open on Thursday, April 7 through Friday, May 27 at the Berger Gallery in the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh, Robinson Building in Squirrel Hill. The exhibit is free and open to the community during regular JCC hours.

The exhibit includes 12 professional artists with extensive exhibition experience. The works are contemporary in character, from abstract expressionism to realism, and represent painting, photography, fiber, mixed media and more. Participating artists are: Pittsburgh 10 member artists Zivi Aviraz, Lila Hirsch-Brody, Kathy DePasse, Joel Kranich, Lilli Nieland, Phiris (Kathy) Sickels, David Sparks, Susan Sparks, Dirk VandenBerg and Francine VandenBerg and guests Tina Williams Brewer, and Mark Panza.

All works presented by the artists in this exhibit are original and for sale. A percentage of all sales will go to the JCC to support the Zola Hirsch Special Needs Fund and other JCC arts programming.

The opening/artists reception will be held Thursday, April 14, from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.

A series of four Artist/Gallery talks, each one featuring three of the participating artists, will run from 1:15 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. on April 19, April 25, May 5 and May 9.

The Pittsburgh 10 takes its name from the Philadelphia Ten, a group of women artists from the Philadelphia area that broke rules and exhibited together between 1927 and 1945. This was one of the first significant steps toward integrating women into the art world. The Pittsburgh 10 borrows from this group by having six women artists at its core who break the rules in their own works, and often do so to support a cause. The group donates a percentage of sales to a cause or project.

Contact Sybil Lieberman at 412-697-3514 or slieberman@jccpgh.org or Susan Sparks at 724-575-0210 or suzi.sparks@gmail.com for more information.

Chabad of the South Hills will offer a model matzoh bakery on Sunday, April 10 from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the South Hills Jewish Community Center, 345 Kane Blvd. in Scott Township. 

The even will include matzoh making from start to finish and interactive Passover games. The cost is $5/child. 

Contact riki@chabadsh.com or call 412-344-2424 to register.

Women of Temple Sinai will once again be baking homemade matzoh brittle for Passover and will be selling 1-pound boxes of either chocolate ($15), plain walnut ($16) or chocolate with walnuts ($16). All proceeds help support the scholarship fund.

Deadline for orders is April 10 and pickup will be Sunday, April 17 from 9 a.m. to noon at Temple Sinai.

Contact wotsbrittle@gmail.com for more information.

Temple Sinai Brotherhood invites the community to hear two experts answer the question: “How do we raise Jewish kids in 2016?” at a brunch and lecture with Drs. Jonathan Weinkle and Deborah Gilboa on Sunday, April 10 from 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. Weinkle and Gilboa, physicians at the Squirrel Hill Health Center, will provide strategies for raising children who are respectful, responsible and resilient people who feel connected to their Judaism.

Weinkle is a general internist and pediatrician. In addition to his work at the SHHC, he is an assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics at his alma mater, the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

Gilboa, aka “Doctor G,” is a family physician, speaker, author and TV personality. A regular contributor on NBC’s “Today Show,” she is also the author of “Get the Behavior You Want … Without Being the Parent You Hate! Dr. G’s Guide to Effective Parenting.”

The cost, including food, is $10 in advance and $12 at the door.

Preregistration is due by Wednesday, April 6.

Call 412-421-9715 for more information.

Chabad of the South Hills in Mt. Lebanon will hold a pre-Passover luncheon and model seder for seniors on Tuesday, April 12 at noon. There is a $5 suggested donation; the building is wheelchair accessible. Contact Barb at 412-278-2658 or barb@chabadsh.com to RSVP or for more information.

The Diller Teen Fellows Program is Pittsburgh’s leadership development program for Jewish teens in grades 10 and 11 and is funded by the Helen Diller Family Foundation and the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. The program’s goal is to develop future generations of active, effective leaders with a strong Jewish identity, commitment to the Jewish people, respect for pluralism and love of Israel.

Parents and teens are invited to learn about the program at upcoming Pittsburgh Diller information meetings being held at Temple Emanuel of South Hills on Monday, April 18 at 5:45 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.; North Hills on Tuesday, April 19 from 7:p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at 6009 Stratford Court, Pittsburgh 15237; and at the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill, second floor of the Robinson Building on Sunday, May 1 from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. Visit jccpgh.org/children-teens-family/teens/diller-teen-fellowship for more information.