News from the MENsch Club

Jaime Lowenstein, MENsch Club Chairperson

We hope that you had the opportunity to join us during our May event when we viewed the movie “Above and Beyond”, the documentary about a group of Jewish American war pilots who flew for Israel during its War of Independence in 1948. The events shown in the movie gave birth to the Israeli Air Force. It is a moving story which shows the strong bond that America and Israel share and we encourage you to view it with your family. During the evening, we were honored to hear from Mordecai Kalmanov. Mordecai, a resident of Heritage Pointe, the Jewish home in Mission Viejo, shared some of his story with us. During our conversation, Mordecai proudly displayed his Israel Air Force cap and a photo of himself in his air force uniform! Mordecai was inducted into Lehi (known as the Stern gang, a Zionist paramilitary organization), in 1944 at the age of 14. During Israel’s War of Independence, Mordecai enlisted in the air force and worked on radar development in the Negev. It was truly wonderful to have this modest freedom fighter join with us and share his experiences! We hope that you will be with us on July 29th when we meet with Jewish vintners of the Napa Valley. We’ll hear their stories and learn how they became involved with the wine industry. More information to follow on this, but please save the date! MENsch Club will have 3-4 major programs throughout the year. In between, to keep us connected and to strengthen our relationships, we are working on presenting a variety of affinity groups beginning with outside activities. Stay tuned for more information on this.

And don’t forget our mentoring and career pathing program. If you need some job coaching, resume writing assistance, are a high school or college student seeking information on various career paths, we’d love to hear from you. Text Jaime Lowenstein and he will connect you to a mentor.

MENsch Club is also proud to present traveling candlesticks to our recent and upcoming B’nai Mitzvot. Mazal tov to the families of Abigail Imley, Hannah Bazo, Danielle Gross, Hayley Klein and Olivia Loubert!

We look forward to your joining with us at our upcoming programs. MENsch Club is a great way to meet new friends and strengthen friendships. It’s another way to enhance our commitment to Temple Beth El and to make our relationships more meaningful. We welcome you and your involvement!

For more information about the MENsch Club, please text Jaime Lowenstein, MENsch Club chair, or email opentent@bethelsp.org