The Temple Torat Emet Men’s Club of Boynton Beach, FL was recently honored by the Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs (FJMC) to receive a Silver “Torch Award” for their innovative World Wide Wrap programming. Men’s Club President Ira Brandell explained the details of Torat Emet’s innovative approach World Wide Wrap 2017 in his club’s Torch Award application:
“Our annual World Wide Wrap program has grown over the last few years and brought in new energy and excitement, and expanded our Temple community. The goals of the Wrap were and continue to be to make our students aware of the mitzvah of Tefillin, and to remind our older Temple and Men’s Club members of and experience the mitzvah. The culmination of the event is the experience of being together as a community with the intention of fulfilling the mitzvah and of feeling the tefillin on our minds and next to our hearts.
Our 2017 World Wide Wrap program consisted of several threads of outreach – to our religious school older grades, to the “minyanaires” who wrap every day, connecting via Skype to the Olkalou Kasuki Jewish Community of Kenya, our Temple community, and of course to our Men’s Club members, several of whom have not wrapped tefillin since their Bar Mitzvah.
This year, we further expanded the reach of the World Wide Wrap as a Temple Torat Emet cruise was going on at the time of the World Wide Wrap. On the cruise, we were joined by one of the ship’s officers and were able to provide a minyan for someone saying Kaddish for Yartzeit. We also coordinated a three way Skype conference between Temple Torat Emet in Boynton Beach, the Olkalou Kasuki Jewish Community of Kenya and a Royal Caribbean cruise ship docked in Haiti. For this event the Olkalou Kasuki had forty sets of tefillin which allowed their youth to also practice wrapping tefillin. During the Skype conference we joined to say the prayers together. Yehudah Kimani, leader of the Olkalou Kasuki, spoke briefly about what was happening in his community, including plans for building a new Bet K’nesset to have a permanent building for prayer and study.
Meanwhile back in Boynton Beach, our Hebrew School children were taught about tefillin in class and they learned a RAP to sing that was performed after the service. We coordinated with our religious school to have classes come to the sanctuary to be taught and practice wrapping tefillin. We also coordinated with our Temple community to have the Sunday morning minyan start later than normal so that there was time for the “minyanaires” to teach and assist the students and other temple members with wrapping. We printed as a large poster the Tefillin-cheat sheet we borrowed from another club, as well as small cards for people to keep with their tefillin. We created large tefillin centerpieces to be used on the tables during the our post-Wrap brunch; attendees signed one of the centerpieces and we later mounted our photograph of participants on one side of the centerpiece. This became a new yearly tradition at Torat Emet.”
Yasher Koach and Kol HaKavod to the Temple Torat Emet Men’s Club of Boynton Breach, Florida on this well deserved honor for creating a true “World Wide Wrap” program connecting Boynton Beach Florida to Haiti and Kenya in real time – no small feat for 2017.
February 9, 2025
The World Wide Wrap is an international, coordinated minyan encouraging Jewish men and women to learn about and participate in one of the basic mitzvot, or commandments, in the Torah: the wrapping of tefillin. The next World Wide Wrap will take place on Superbowl Sunday, February 9, 2025. Be counted and be part of World Wide Wrap 2025, register your Men’s Club’s, Brotherhood, Sisterhood, Synagogue or register as an individual and be counted as part of World Wide Wrap 2025. For more information and to register visit: https://wrap.fjmc.org/.
Men’s Club is Brotherhood. Club President Ira Brandell invites you to learn more about the Temple Torat Emet Men’s Club and become part of a group of great people that contribute to the growth and prosperity of temple life. Learn more about the Temple Torat Emet Men’s Club at https://templetoratemet.org/mens-club/ or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/TTEMC.
The Temple Torat Emet Men’s Club of Boynton Beach is a proud member of the Florida Region of the Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs (FJMC). We serve the needs of affiliated Men’s Clubs and Brotherhoods throughout the State of Florida. Learn more about the FJMC Florida Region and our growing network of Jewish Men’s Clubs and Brotherhoods at: www.floridaregionfjmc.org and please visit & LIKE our Facebook Group at: www.facebook.com/FloridaRegionFJMC.
The FJMC is a confederation of over 200 Jewish Men’s Clubs and Brotherhoods representing over 20,000 members across the United States, Canada, Latin America, and beyond. Learn how YOUR Jewish Men’s Club or Brotherhood can affiliate with the FJMC at: https://fjmc.org/for-clubs/affiliating-with-the-fjmc/.
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