Friendship Circle of Atlanta

Two things are true!

We are hard at work readying the calendar for this upcoming school year! I hope you’re ready for continued amazing fun with friends!

We also miss seeing our friends all the time!
Count down to seeing each other next is so ON.

Throwback to our first Sunday Circle of this past year.

Don’t tell this to the campers. Or counselors.
But in addition to the campers coming to have a great time in a way that is friendly to their needs, and in addition to the counselors furthering their leadership in providing those needs in a warm, judgement-free way, is what’s pictured here:

Over an hour into camp starting, two moms are still bonding outside, connecting and relating and empathizing in ways not all of their friends can.

This is Friendship Circle: facilitating interactions between Jews of all abilities. And through that, friendship is found.
Between kids, teens and their buddies, teens and fellow Jewish teens from different schools, adult community members and the parents!

No interaction is small.
No connection is overrated.
No friendship leaves your life unaffected!

Shabbat shalom, beautiful community of friends.
Xoxo,
Chanky

Candle lighting time tonight is 8:34 pm ✨

These lights are shining bright this month!

Happy birthday to our June friends!
We wish you a most fabulous year, one filled with fun, Jewish pride, and a whole lot of friendship!

We hope you feel seen and celebrated, on your special day, and every other day!

Candle lighting time tonight is 8:32 pm
Shabbat shalom, friends ✨

Remember standing next to each other?
We were all there.
At Mount Sinai.
When G-d gave us the Torah and chose us to be His nation, the Jewish people.

The soul of every Jew was there, all future souls, all future converts.
We stood as one and were given both a great privilege and great responsibility.

At the core of it all, we are one nation.
All of us, with our differences, our abilities, our diverse family units, our physical, mental, spiritual hurdles we face.

Standing together at Leaders of Light (pictures), we reminded ourselves of this. We tune into the center core value that we are only complete as a nation when we are al included.

This is Friendship Circle: showing up to someone’s house to be a friend, joining a group program to be a friend, saying hi to that family at synagogue, standing up when classmates pick on someone they deem to be less cool.

This Shavuot holiday let’s let that true, real Jewish pride rise to the surface, the one that sees beyond those differences, the one that understands that the whole world needs to be Friendship Circle. And that it starts with us. With one step. With one gesture. With one hello. With one shift in thinking.

Feeling on board and inspired just still unsure what’s next?
Let’s talk!

Xoxo,
Chanky

Shavuot begins Tuesday night and ends on Thursday night.
Holiday candle lighting time tonight is 8:31 pm ✨

Hope to see you at Ice Cream & 10 Commandments tomorrow!

Camp Friendship.
Succinct. Accurate.
Spot on.

Camp brings up feelings of fun, spirit, sun on your face and in your heart.
Friendship brings up feelings of being seen without judgement, being celebrated for who you are inside.

Camp Friendship was all that!
Jewish friends of all abilities having fun, feeling the sun on their faces and in their hearts, enjoying activities as they are.

Led by teens Ari Gordon and Oliver Mason, they recruited friends to be the counselors and bring all the joy and friendship to those who often struggle harder to find it on their own.

Shout out to the amazing group of counselors who were so calm, confident, responsible, patient, enthusiastic and such great friends!
Haiden Jacoboff, Lila Smolensky, Leah Wolf, Rachel Ruback and of course, Oliver and Ari!!

This energy will carry us through the summer until we see each other again.

Xoxo,
Chanky

Candle lighting time tonight is 8:29 pm
Shabbat shalom ✨

Wherever you’re spending the day, know we are thinking of our May birthday friends!

We wish you all a most wonderful year, full of fun adventure, Jewish pride, and a whole lot of friendship!

We’re lucky to call you friend 💗

Happy birthday to all the friends born in May!

Josh wanted to hear all about Lee’s flying career.

Josh and Lee met at the Purim Celebration. Josh was slightly disappointed to hear that it was in fact Lee’s Purim costume, but they struck up a conversation about flying and how Lee has a virtual flying simulator.
That sounded so exciting to Josh!

Lee and Josh arranged for him to come over and check it out.
And they’ve been getting together ever since!

Josh’s mom, Tracie, put it so well.
“The kids with special needs are small and cute and adorable. The special needs don’t disappear when they turn 18. But people stop paying as much attention.
When you look for similarities rather than differences, friendship can be found. And I can’t tell you what it means for Josh to have a friend, a mentor, a role model, to feel part of the community.”

This is Friendship Circle.
Connecting Jews of all abilities through friendship.
Creating awareness about our similarities, not our differences.
Creating community where Judaism and friendship is available for every chromosome, diagnosis, for every parent, child and sibling.

They met at Friendship Circle.
And now they are friends.

Shabbat shalom!
Wishing us all a Shabbat of light, bringing with it a week of light.
Candle lighting time tonight is 8:21 pm ✨

Here’s a question that might keep you up at night.

How can the Torah say that Man was created in the image of G-d, when it also says that G-d has no image?

Ok, I don’t really want to take away your sleep, so how’s this reconciliation:
That’s exactly it. We, like G-d, for we were made by Him, have no image.
We are never fixed.
We are never defined or limited by any specific factor in our lives, past or current.
Our physical image, our bodies, our abilities, our status, our accomplishments, our financial successes, fill in the blank! Those are not what determine our worth, our value.

The only thing that is fixed is that we were created by G-d, in His image; He created us with the ability to choose, to redefine, to do differently. What we did today that we’re not most proud of, we can do differently tomorrow.
How we looked at and judged people today, we can do less of tomorrow.
How we relied on those above descriptions of ourselves as our safety, our protection, our most prized attributes or aspects about ourselves, we can understand more deeply tomorrow.
That it’s you, it’s your soul, it’s the very fact that you are alive and breathing. You have infinite worth and value for being you on this earth.

When you next encounter someone who looks or feels differently about this, have compassion.
They might still be stuck in the fixed mindset.
Spend some time with your like-minded friends and you’ll feel that alignment return.

Shabbat shalom, friends.
It’s a most beautiful circle of friends indeed.

Xoxo,
Chanky

Candle lighting time tonight is 8:16 pm ✨

Smiles. S’mores. Slam dunks.

This is Friendship Circle.
Bringing Jewish friends of all abilities together to get to know each other, to enjoy fun activities together, to form friendships that enrich the lives of everyone involved.
This is inclusion.
And it rests on each of us to create the community we want to be.

What a smashing way to close out the Sunday Circles for this year.
Hearing the memories, seeing the joy.

What is life without friends!

Feeling so grateful for our friends, for the memories we created this year.

As you light Shabbat candles tonight, take a moment to appreciate the light our friends bring to our life, and the light we bring to others by being a friend.

Candle lighting time tonight is 8:11 pm
Shabbat shalom! ✨

Xoxo,
Chanky

Can we get three cheers for the set up crew?

We are up and ready for the final Sunday Circle of this school year and we need to take a moment to thank the girls who put in effort to pitch in each month and get programs ready for friends to come together and enjoy.

We couldn’t do it without them and are so grateful!
You know who you are 💞

(Can you tell it’s in the shape of a key?)

There is a custom to make challah in the shape of a key (or wrap one in foil and place under a regular challah) the Shabbat following Pesach. It is a symbol of our prayer to G-d for sustenance, for abundance, for Him to open the gates of blessings for us.

On so many levels, this resonates.
We spent the whole Pesach switching from a slavery mindset to a freedom mindset, a fixed mindset to a growth mindset, a past mindset to a future mindset. We spent eight days liberating ourselves from our personal Egypt.

It makes so much sense to follow that with a request for abundance, now that we’re living in an abundant mindset.
Perhaps, we’re also asking for the key in general.
Now that we’ve flexed this muscle of feeling empowered to break through whatever is holding us down, we’re asking for continued access to this key, to be able to unlock our innermost, truest self and let it shine uninhibitedly.

We all know the areas of our lives we seek the key for.
I pray we find access to that key, and more importantly, I pray we know enough to know it is inside us.

Candle lighting time tonight is 8:05 pm.
Shabbat shalom ✨

It doesn’t quite feel like the holiday of freedom this year.

Every year when Passover comes around, there’s the celebration of a past exodus, and the personal Egypts we are constantly trying to leave behind and break free of.

This year, having been through, and going through, what our People are now experiencing, it feels hard to celebrate redemption and freedom.

But perhaps that’s only if we’re focused on past stories of freedom and redemption.
Perhaps the whole Seder is focused on future stories of freedom, redemption, liberation; individually and as a People.

Perhaps we are spending the night in hope and prayer, taking steps and filling the world with resolve to get us closer to that moment, both individually and as a People.

As a nation, we are hoping and praying for our brothers and sisters being held hostage, we are hoping and praying for safety and freedom to celebrate for Jews all over the world. We await the day when the world will all recognize G-d and live their lives in peace, and fill the world with goodness.

As an individual, we are hoping and praying to find strength to leave our personal Egypt, our personal pitfalls that keep us enslaved. Whether that’s financially, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, relationships, I hope you find it!

And I invite you to include in there leaving the Egypt that holds us back from reaching out, from saying hi, from including our fellow Jews of different abilities into our circle. Saying hi, leading with curiosity, makes all the difference to make a person or family feel embraced and equally a part of their Jewish community. A play date, a Shabbat meal, initiation, would all be one step towards inclusion.

I have no doubt how liberating that would be for both parties!

Wishing us all a meaningful, redemptive Passover, individually and as a People!

Candle lighting time tonight is 7:57 pm.
Enjoy the matzah!!