‘Tis the Season

Chanukah and beyond - Just in time to buy an old world or new-fangled menorah, Rabbi Yisroel and his wife Chani Stone opened Jewdaica, a new Judaica Gift Shop, in Chabad House LES. If you missed the opening the Sunday before Chanukah, not to worry. Jewdaica’s stocked with mezuzahs, magnets, candles, candlesticks, jewelry for buying throughout the year, and there’s always future Chanukahs. Jewdaica has menorahs for kids, painted glass menorahs, dreidels, as well as Jewish magnets, and Hasidic figures, including a silver Fiddler on the Roof. The catalog’s online: /media/pdf/1173/TEto11737323.pdf

For prices, call, 212-473-0770, or go to Jewdaica at 37 Essex St., btwn Grand and Hester Sts.

Lucky pets, lucky people - PetSmart Charities has awarded a three-year grant, totaling $400,000, to three NYC-based organizations as part of their Preserving Families Initiative. Search and Care, which is based on the UES, is one of the recipients. Search and Care was founded in 1972 as a church outreach program with a mission to seek out vulnerable older New Yorkers who need help managing their daily activities or accessing essential services. Included in their myriad of services is medical escorting, PET (Pets + Elders Together) which is the beneficiary of PetSmart’s grant. www.searchandcare.org. Well-deserved kudos to Robin Strashun, Search and Care’s Outreach and Volunteer Coordinator. And thanks to PetSmart for the grant to recipients PAWS, www.pawsny.org, and Animal Haven, www.animalhaven.org.

Zooming in on an American Sculptor - Edmonia Lewis, considered to be the first professional BIPOC - Black Indigenous People of Color - sculptor and the first to achieve international acclaim. On Dec 15 from 1 to 1:40 p.m., the downstate Committee to Honor Edmonia Lewis is having a presentation featuring Dr. Caitlin Beach, Assistant Professor of Art History at Fordham University, who will discuss how Lewis used her art to depict the stories of women and Indigenous people with reverence and beauty and how her shattering of gender and racial expectations in the 19th century makes Lewis’s life story a testament to the ability to succeed despite adversity. Special shoutouts to local community leaders for their participation in bringing attention to Edmonia Lewis’ work: Michelle D. Winfield, Louise Dankberg, Claude L. Winfield, and Dr. Rob Snyder, Manhattan Borough Historian.