VCJC News & Notes 12/19/2025

 

Van Cortlandt Jewish Center

News and Notes

Here's this week's edition of the VCJC News and Notes email. We hope you enjoy it and find it useful!

Reminders

2. Shabbos schedule
   
   
   Shabbos information is, as always, available on our website, both in the information sidebar and the events calendar.
   Here are the times you need:  
   Shabbos Candles Friday 12/19/25 @ 4:13 pm
   Shabbos morning services at 8:40 am.  Please join the services if you can do so safely. 
   Shabbos Ends Saturday 12/20/25 @ 5:16 pm

   If you require an aliyah or would like to lead services, read from the torah or haftorah please speak to one of the gabbaim.

   
   

   Join us for the services and stay to enjoy our enhanced kiddush.

   
   

3. Candle Lighting time corrections to the Center Light

   There are some errors in the calendar in the Center Light for December. A corrected calendar was emailed out.
   The Erev Shabbat, Friday candle time for this week, 12/19, is 4:13PM, not 4:10PM.
   The end of Shabbat for 12/27 is 5:20PM, not 5:22PM.

4. Shabbos parsha

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   Parashat Miketz 5786 / פָּרָשַׁת מִקֵּץ

   20 December 2025 / 30 Kislev 5786

   Parashat Miketz is the 10th weekly Torah portion in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading.

   Torah Portion: Genesis 41:1-44:17; Numbers 28:9-15, 7:42-47

   Miketz (“After”) follows Joseph as he interprets Pharaoh's dreams and rises to become second-in-command to Pharaoh. When Joseph’s brothers come to Egypt seeking food during a famine, Joseph accuses them of spying. He insists that they return with their youngest brother, Benjamin, and later plants a goblet in Benjamin’s bag. [1]
   
   

5. Please help with information about buildings

   As part of rebuilding the membership and congregation, the Board of Trustees would like your help. There are a lot of either new or renovated buildings being put up in our catchment area. We would like to seek the cooperation of the owners / developers of those properties in publicizing these opportunities to live near an orthodox synagogue.  If you are aware of any of these buildings, please provide what information you can about them.  This could include the address, any contact information that might be posted, and any information about the building itself (size, type, etc.). Additionally, if you are aware of vacancies in existing buildings or of houses for sale, please let us know about that as well.

   
   

   
   

6. 3rd annual Community Cleanup Day for MLK Day
   We received the following in an email and are passing it on for your information.

   “My name is Spence Weitzen, and I work for GrowTorah, where we do experiential & environmental Torah education. I hope you're doing well!

   
   

   I'm reaching out as we're hosting our 3rd annual Community Cleanup Day for MLK Day with the UJA Federation of NY & Westchester Parks Foundation on Monday, January 19th, which also happens to be Rosh Chodesh Shevat! Here's a link to the event page.

   
   

   The event will take place at the Bronx River Pathway. We've had hundreds of participants collect hundreds of pounds of trash in the past while honoring the legacy of Dr. MLK Jr. and preparing for Tu B'Shvat.”

   
   

7. An Appeal from the Met Council for SNAP help

   
   

   See the VCJC blog post from the Met Council’s announcement.

   
   

Our mailing address is:
Van Cortlandt Jewish Center
3880 Sedgwick Ave
Bronx, NY 10463