We hold Shabbat celebrations twice a month on Friday evenings from September to July. Services are at 7:30pm.
We meet at the 14th Street Y, 344 East 14th St., between 1st & 2nd Ave.
Guests are
always welcome at our programs.
Three Different Formats Bring Your Own Dinner Pick up your own dinner in the neighborhood and arrive for an informal gathering at 6:30pm. Shabbat service at 7:30pm followed by a Cultural Program and dessert. Click here for a list of convenient neighborhood restaurants.
Shabbat with Catered Dinner ($17/adult, $7/child - ages 4-13) We'll start out out with Shabbat blessings at 6:30pm and then share a tasty catered meal. Arrive after 6:15pm. Shabbat service at 7:30pm followed by a Cultural Program and dessert.
Shabbat with Pot-Luck Dessert Shabbat Service at 7:30pm followed by a Cultural Program and Pot-Luck Dessert. Members and guests are encouraged to bring enough dessert for themselves and one other person. We won’t complain if you bring more.
Children’s Program
For kids ages 5 and older pending sufficient enrollment. Please let us know by the Wednesday prior to the Shabbat if you are bringing a child or children with you. No charge.
Reservations are required with payment for meals by the Tuesday prior to Shabbat. Call 212-213-1002.
All dates and programs are subject to change. To confirm events and for more information, contact the office at 212-213-1002 or info@citycongregation.org.
Friday, September 24 Shabbat Service and Cultural Program at 7:30pm followed by Pot-Luck Dessert
I’M RIGHT, YOU’RE RIGHT, HE’S RIGHT TOO: Multiple Perspectives in Jewish Humor and Folklore
Steve Zeitlin is the founding director of City Lore, an organization that preserves New York City’s cultural heritage. He is the author of numerous books on America’s folk culture and has recorded and fallen in love with carnival pitches, Jewish humor, children’s rhymes, family stories, subway stories, ancient cosmologies, and oral poetry traditions from around the world.
This program is funded in part by the New York Council For The Humanities.
Friday, October 15 Shabbat Service and Catered Dinner at 6:30pm followed by Cultural Program at 8:15pm
WHERE LEHMAN BROTHERS AND GOLDMAN SACHS COME FROM: The Journey From Pack Peddler To International Banker
Kenneth Libo teaches American Jewish History at Hunter College. He was a co-author with Irving Howe of World of Our Fathers, How We Lived, and We Lived There Too: Pioneer Jews in the American West. His latest book is Lots of Lehmans: The Family of Mayer Lehman of Lehman Brothers.
This program is funded in part by the New York Council For The Humanities.
Friday November 5 Shabbat Service and Catered Dinner at 6:30pm followed by Cultural Program at 8:15pm
“REMEMBER THE SABBATH AND KEEP IT”: What Does Shabbat Mean To Us As Secular And Cultural Jews?
The essayist and philosopher Ahad Ha’am famously said, “More than Israel has kept the Sabbath, the Sabbath has kept Israel.” What sense does this saying have for us as secular Jews? How do we understand this weekly holiday and its rituals? Program and discussion led by Rabbi Peter Schweitzer.
Friday, November 19 Shabbat Service and Cultural Program at 7:30pm followed by Pot-Luck Dessert
THIS I BELIEVE: City Congregation Members Join the Conversation – Round Two
For years on NPR, and in the 1950s on Edward R. Murrow's radio show, celebrities and ordinary people have participated in an extraordinary conversation about their core values. More than 60,000 of these three-minute talks – ranging in title from There Is No God (by Penn Gillette) to An Idea of Service to Our Fellow Man (by Albert Einstein) to Be Cool to the Pizza Delivery Dude – are now collected on the This I Believe website (thisibelieve.org).
In our program an eclectic group of City Congregation members will offer their own three-minute reflections. Moderated by Carol Sternhell, TCC member and professor at the NYU Arthur L. Carter
Journalism Institute. This was such a successful program last year that we are repeating it this year.
Friday, December 3 Chanukah Service, Menorah lighting and Catered Dinner at 6:30pm followed by Game Night at 8:15pm
JOIN US FOR THE THIRD NIGHT OF CHANUKAH! CHANUKAH CELEBRATION WITH MUSIC FROM THE TCC CHOIR DELICIOUS CATERED DINNER
Following dinner, it will be GAME NIGHT! Parchesi. Pinocle. Bridge. Checkers. Plus, of course, Dreidl Spinning!
Friday, January 7 Shabbat Service and Catered Dinner at 6:30pm followed by Cultural Program at 8:15pm
THE THREE MOSES: Maimonides (1135-1204), Mendelssohn (I1729-1786), and Montefiore (1774-1885)
We’ve named hospitals after two of these people and the grandson of the third put his name to well-known symphonies. Come find out about the famous Medieval Jewish Philosopher, the German Jewish Philosopher, and the British Jewish financier and philanthropist. Presented by Rabbi Peter Schweitzer.
Friday, January 21 Shabbat Service and Cultural Program at 7:30pm followed by Pot-Luck Dessert
PEOPLE OF THE LIBRETTO: 1960 to the Present
A sequel to last year's popular and entertaining People of the Libretto program! TCC members Jack Lechner and Peter Mones will provide commentary, and Trudy Elins, Michelle Lang Zalph, Anne Shonbrun and Dan Wyman will sing, accompanied on the piano by musical director Louise Moed. This year's presentation will pick up where the last one left off, bringing the history of the Jewish composers and lyricists who played a central role in creating American musical theater from 1960 up to the present.
Whereas last year's program covered the work of Broadway's Jewish founding fathers -- Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Loewe, George and Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin -- this year's program will look at Sondheim, Adams and Strouse, Kander and Ebb, Jonathan Larson, Steven Schwartz, and many others. It will also feature a special musical number by some TCC KidSchool students. Come enjoy the music!
This same production will also be performed at our Sunday Adult Perspective on January 23.
Friday, February 4 "Bring Your Own Dinner" & Shabbat Blessings at 6:30pm, Shabbat Service at 7:30pm followed by Cultural Program and dessert
SING-A-LONG TO YOUR FAVORITE SONGS: American and Jewish, with Michelle Lang Zalph
Adults and kids are invited to join us for a fun-filled evening singing familiar and favorite songs from our American and Jewish heritage. No experience needed. Lyrics will be provided.
TCC member Michelle Lang Zalph is our Shabbat songleader. She has performed for many years and led sing-a-longs and music workshops for all ages.
Friday, March 4 Shabbat Service and Cultural Program at 7:30pm followed by Pot-Luck Dessert
THE HEBREW ACTORS UNION: Caretakers of Yiddish Theatre
Uncover the ghosts of Yiddish theatrical greats such as Jacob Adler, Boris Thomashevsky, and Molly Picon on an armchair tour through the remnants of the first actors union in the United Stated – the HAU on East 7th Street.
David Freeland is the author of the books Ladies of Soul and, most recently, Automats, Taxi Dances, and Vaudeville: Excavating Manhattan’s Lost Places of Leisure, which won the Victorian Society’s Popular Culture Publication Award for 2009.
Friday, March 18 "Bring Your Own Dinner" Arrive at 6:30pm for dinner together, Shabbat Service at 7:30pm followed by Cultural Program and dessert JOIN US FOR OUR ANNUAL PURIM CELEBRATION WE’RE HAVING A COSTUME BALL! Let’s make it a Festive Party! Please Come in Costume!
In honor of Queen Esther, we will celebrate the role of Jewish women by selecting one for a special tribute honoring A Woman of Valor. Also: TCC Unplugged: First Annual TCC Variety Show.
Friday, April 1 Shabbat Service and Cultural Program at 7:30pm followed by Pot-Luck Dessert
COMMEMORATION OF THE TRIANGLE SHIRTWAIST FACTORY FIRE: The 100th Anniversary
Nearly closing time on Saturday afternoon, March 25, 1911, a fire broke out causing the deaths of 146 garment workers, mostly young women.
Join us for a special Memorial Program that will include music and readings from the time of the fire. Richard Greenwald will examine how this terrible tragedy had a profound impact on United States politics and the labor movement. The resulting reforms and political realignments remade both the labor movement and the American political system.
Richard Greenwald is Dean of the Caspersen School of Graduate Studies, Professor of History at Drew University. He is the author of The Triangle Fire, the Protocols of Peace and Industrial Democracy in Progressive Era New York and is the co-editor of Sweatshop USA: The American Sweatshop in Historical and Global Perspective.
This program is funded in part by the New York Council For The Humanities.
Friday, April 29 Shabbat Service and Cultural Program at 7:30pm followed by Pot-Luck Dessert
YOM HASHOA - HOLOCAUST COMMEMORATION Co-sponsored with The Generation After / Holocaust Survivors USA
Memorial Candlelighting Ceremony, Music from the TCC Choir
PRIMO LEVI'S VIEW OF THE WORLD: Tragic, Comic, Darwinist, Magical, Secular, Jewish, and How it Evolved
Primo Levi is best known for his memoir, Survival in Auschwitz, but he was also a scientist, fiction writer, and poet who did not want to be known exclusively as a Holocaust writer. Sam Magavern, author of Primo Levi's Universe, will offer a multi-faceted portrait and fresh sensibility to the way we think about Levi based on the full range of his writings.
Sam Magavern is a writer and public interest lawyer, currently serving as co-director of the Partnership for the Public Good. He also teaches at the University at Buffalo Law School. His work has appeared in many journals, including Poetry, The Antioch Review, The Partisan Review, and The Paris Review.
Friday, May 6 "Bring Your Own Dinner" Arrive at 6:30pm for dinner together, Shabbat Service at 7:30pm followed by Cultural Program and dessert JEWS AND ROCK AND ROLL: From Behind the Scenes to Out in Front on the Stage
Susan Ryan, TCC member and popular culture/rock music maven, will explore the Jewish contribution to the genre, from the dawn of rock and roll to today's songwriters and performers. Who are the Jewish managers, promoters and songwriters? Who is on your top ten list of Jewish rockers? Come, enjoy the talk, and sing along!
Friday, May 20 Shabbat Service and Cultural Program at 7:30pm followed by Pot-Luck Dessert
EVERYONE HAS A ONCE UPON A TIME: Stories that Make you Care as well as Laugh
Roslyn Bresnick-Perry is a celebrated storyteller whose stories span decades of the twentieth century and great distances, from a Belarus shtetl in pre-Holocaust Europe where she spent her childhood, through immigration, to post-war New York City, and her years in the garment industry as a senior designer. She has appeared at the Victory Theatre on Broadway, represented New York City at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, and told stories at the Library of Congress. Her books include I Loved My Mother on Saturdays, and other tales from the shtetl and beyond and Leaving for America.
Friday, June 3 Shabbat Service and Cultural Program at 7:30pm followed by Pot-Luck Dessert
SHAVUOT CELEBRATION: In Honor of Our Collective Literature Traditionally, this holiday commemorates the giving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai. As Humanistic Jews, we use this occasion to celebrate all of our collective literature.
FACES OF JEWISH HUMOR: The Saga of the Shlemiel and the Shlimazel
Ruth Adler, professor of Jewish Studies and Comparative Literature at Baruch College, CUNY, will describe the travails of the shlemiel and the shlimazel as they have been depicted in the writings of the three major East-European writers, Mendele, Sholem Aleichem, and Peretz, and also explore their appearance in earlier periods.
Ruth Adler is the author of Women of the Shtetl - Through the Eyes of Y.L. Peretz - A Socio-Psychological Study. She has often challenged prevailing stereotypes and widely-maintained misconceptions, and has been cited for countering the myth of the Jewish Mother. This program is funded in part by the New York Council For The Humanities.
Friday, June 17 Catered Dinner and Shabbat Blessings at 6:30pm, Shabbat Service at 7:30pm followed by Cultural Program and dessert END-OF-YEAR CELEBRATION and KIDSCHOOL GRADUATION
Join us for our annual tribute to our special volunteers, board members, and leaders of the congregation. Celebrate the Graduation of our KidSchool Students. Then test your Jewish knowledge! See how much Jewish trivia you know!
