Arnie Goldfein, past President of JACS, and Rabbi Nahum Simon of S. Florida JACS, Co-Executive Directors of

Rodfei Shalom Fellowship, Inc.

      Recovery Events for Jews of All Denominations in ALL 12 Step Recovery Programs.

COMBINING RECOVERY (Heart) AND SPIRITUALITY (Soul) WITHIN JUDAISM

 WEEKLY NEWSLETTER – 1/8/08

Hi Family,

I don't even know where to begin this week. We had the Spiritual Day with Rabbi Abe yesterday and besides that the turnout was beyond anything any of us expected the day of recovery was even better. I left feeling uplifted and renewed after listening to Rabbi Abe who was exceptional on Sunday!! Our participants were moved and touched by his presentation. Listening to Rabbi Abe is such a treat. Including all the people who walked-in we had over two hundred people there.

I would like to take this opportunity to personally thank Rabbi Abe for being there. As always, you touched a part of my soul that needed to be touched yesterday, and for that alone I am eternally grateful.

Glenn K Audio was also there and he taped Rabbi Abe and our second speaker Rabbi Nahum. We now have those CD's available for sale for only $14.95 each or $25.00 for the both, plus $7.00 shipping. What a wonderful way to keep the day alive. Great gift idea!! To order, simply send us your credit card information (name, CC number, expiration date, CCV #), check or money order in full payment and we will get the CD out to you within 10 days.

Please help us spread the word!!! This is our only means of communications.

Visit or website for more information at:   www.rodfeishalom.org

1)     Our weekly call-in meeting continues on Wednesday nights, from 9:00 PM – 10:00 PM EDT, for the meeting and ½ hour or so afterwards for fellowship.  To join us, simply dial 218-486-1300 and enter the participant bridge code of: 933051.  Please join us and share your wisdom and experience. There have been a few problems with people being able to dial in the required participation code, but this past week it seems the problems may have been resolved.   Please note: If you have unlimited long distance this is a FREE call!!        

2) UPCOMING EVENTS:

       Midwest Retreat:

We will be putting on our Midwest Spiritual Retreat Recovery Weekend at the Perlstein Retreat Center in  Denton , WI (about 70 minutes from Madison , WI ). The food is Glatt Kosher and under the supervision of the CRC.  The event will take place March 7 – March 9, 2008, and promises to be very exciting and wonderful. If the Florida retreat is any indication what this event will bring – you can look forward to a warm wonderful, exciting, growth-filled weekend in a safe environment.

We have already received inquiries about transportation to the event, so here's the scoop: Getting there is totally on you (sorry, but we haven't gone into the travel business, yet!) The best airport to fly into is Madison , WI . The location is approximately 70 minutes from Madison . If we get enough inquiries, we will attempt to hire a bus from any of the airports. As we get a little closer I will keep you informed as to the feasibility and cost.

I am also pleased to inform you that we will be able to accommodate triples for this event and at a lower room rate. Overall the event will be limited to a maximum of 125 people. This way we will be able to maintain a small and intimate event. So, since space is limited, register early!!  Brochure & registration form is attached.

          In the planning stages for 2008: All kind of good events and stuff. Details to follow shortly.

            3) Special Thoughts:  Congrats to Arnie G. who celebrated 22 years Friday Jan 4.

4)     Spiritual Thought(s) for the Week :

The four hardest tasks on earth are neither physical nor intellectual feats, but spiritual ones: To return love for hate; to include the excluded; to forgive without apology, and to be able to say 'I was wrong'. -- Author Unknown

5)    New feature: Mitzvah of the week: I find it amazing how Jews in recovery find ways to freely give back that which was freely given to them. One of our members has offered a pair of Tefflin for anyone who is in recovery who promises to put them on at least once a week. So, we are going to try something new. If you are interested in this Mitzvah, please contact us and we will try and arrange it for you. It is not limited to only one person, but it is a limited offer.

6) Recovery joke of the week: Ok, as a continued attempt to bring a little smile and laughter I am going to continue a little tongue in-cheek-humor by publishing a joke here and there. Although I know that what is funny to one person is not to another, please be advised that I am doing this all in good humor and NOT to make fun of or criticize anyone, their programs, their beliefs, age, sex or whatever – com'on I wanna have a good time here!!!

A 65-year-old woman gave birth to a baby boy. When she was discharged from the hospital and went home, her relatives came to visit. ''May we see the new baby?" one asked. "Not yet," said the mother. "I'll make coffee and we can visit for a while first." Thirty minutes had passed, and another relative asked, "May we see the new baby now?"  "No, not yet," said the mother. After another few minutes had elapsed, they asked again, "May we see the baby now?"  "No, not yet," replied the mother. Growing very impatient, they asked, "Well, when can we see the baby?" "WHEN HE CRIES!" she told them. "WHEN HE CRIES?" they demanded to know why. "Why do we have to wait until he CRIES?" "BECAUSE, I forgot where I put him!"           7) We are in need of someone in marketing and advertising that can help us move forward. If any of you has these talents and passion to volunteer to assist us, please get in touch with me and let me know.

8) After much discussion and thanks to Sam S., we have decided to find alternative ways of fund raising besides the raffle and 50/50. It seems that we were insensitive to our brethren in GA and we apologize for anything that we may have done to make any of you uncomfortable.

9) If any of you receive a duplicate copy of the newsletter, please let me know. We had a slight bump in the road with our email list and a few addresses were duplicated. Its easier to ask you to let us know versus one of us going thru thousands of email addresses.

Anyway, that's all for this week. For more information about any of our activities or events, feel free to call me at 718-261-4049 or email me at arniegoldfein@gmail.com. To have your name added to our email list, simply email me and I'll be more than happy to subscribe you. And, you can visit our website at www.rodfeishalom.org.

 Have a great One Day – just for today.

 Arnie

PS - Oh yeah, just a reminder again, Gmail kinda messes up the format of these Word documents that we spent a long time preparing with pretty little fonts and pictures. So, if you see a kind of misaligned document without pictures, it is probably due to Gmail. Sorry.