PicoEgal

09/20/2017

For those looking for a spirited, egalitarian HHD service, with full traditional davenning, please check out our friends at Shtibl Minyan -- on FB or on the web.

Shanah Tovah to all!

If you’re in Los Angeles and looking for a lay-led minyan with spirit and a welcoming warm community, we invite you to daven with us! For the High Holidays, we are holding traditional, egalitarian services on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. All events are free; no tickets required. We meet at the Work...

08/18/2016

Chevre,
More than 10 years ago, a group of people seeking spirited, halakhic and egalitarian davenning formed a new voice on the Los Angeles Jewish scene: PicoEgal. PicoEgal has always emphasized its commitment to participatory and inclusive tefillot — as a kahal where people came together to learn together and lead together, sharing words of Torah and the music of nusach, marking holidays and life cycle moments together.

Jewish life in Los Angeles is vibrant, evolving in myriad ways. Over the past decade, the Pico-Robertson/Carthay neighborhood has seen its share of that change too. Sadly for those of us who so love the community at PicoEgal, not all of those changes have been positive. Some people have moved on from Los Angeles to other parts of the country and the world, while others have found other places here that, for now, are making their prayers resonate more powerfully; at the same time, PicoEgal has not connected with enough of those who are new to Los Angeles to replace the numbers - and the skills and contributions and commitments - of those who spend Shabbatot and Chagim elsewhere.

And so, with much sorrow and regret, we have to inform you that PicoEgal is on an indefinite hiatus as an active davenning community. We will not be resuming Shabbat tefillot in the fall, nor will we be organizing any High Holy Day events (services, meals or break-fast).

We did want to share with you that we can offer you one option for Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur. Temple Beth Am has told PicoEgal that Temple Beth Am will be able to make available a limited number of seats (on a first-come, first-served basis at the various Beth Am minyanim) for the members of the PicoEgal community to daven with TBA. If you would like to attend High Holy Day services at Beth Am, please contact them (by email to Ariana Shane, Temple Beth Am’s membership coordinator, at [email protected]) directly, no later than 12 noon on Friday, September 16 (please note that this is the final deadline; tickets may run out sooner). You can request tickets to either the Sanctuary Service, the Library Minyan or BAIT Tefillah, but each venue has limited availability and TBA cannot guaranty anyone’s first choice of service even if you respond by September 16.

While Temple Beth Am is generously making these tickets available without charge, we at PicoEgal would appreciate it if you would contribute to TBA at least as generously as you would have contributed to PicoEgal (we asked a minimum contribution of $18 - by contrast, TBA sells its tickets for $200 or more). Also, please note that on the High Holy Days, tickets for TBA are required for all attendees, and there is a separate registration process and charge for the child care and youth services. Ariana can provide you with information about that as well.

All of us who have had the privilege of helping to coordinate PicoEgal over the past 11 years are honored to have been in this community with each of you. If we can be of assistance in suggesting other ways to connect with Jewish life in Los Angeles, please be in touch with us.

We wish you a Shanah Tovah u’Metuka - a sweet and happy New Year.

The PicoEgal Coordinators

Bill Seligman Jodi Shapiro Marnie Stiglitz

05/17/2016

PicoEgal congratulates Rabbi Jeremy Markiz, Rabbi Becca Walker and Rabbi Adir Yolkut on their ordination this evening from the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies!

We will miss you all, and wish each of you well as you begin your rabbinate.

05/15/2016

PicoEgal congratulates Rabbi Megan Brudney on her ordination this morning from HUC-JIR.

We will miss you, and wish you success in your Rabbinate!

05/08/2016

For those who were not with us on Shabbat Acharei Mot, we share with you the final words of the Dvar Torah from Marnie Stiglitz, and some important news on the future of PicoEgal.

When PicoEgal began, we met in people’s apartments. After a couple of years, the community had grown so much that we didn’t have many members who had homes large enough to hold all the people who came to daven, so we began renting space from Temple Beth Am. Then people felt it was maybe a little too institutionalized, so to reclaim our feeling of haimish community, we started having monthly Friday night services and potluck dinners in people’s homes. Over the years, the PicoEgal community has evolved, and the davening community around us has evolved. We no longer seem to be meeting a need for many people on Shabbat. Attendance has dwindled both on Shabbat mornings and Friday nights. There are fewer and fewer people who want to leyn Torah or lead davening. Other options in the community have become more compelling to more people. None of this is a bad thing – it’s a good thing that we live in a place with so many options. But since the walls of our space can’t contract to make it feel crowded with only a dozen or so people, the Coordinators and Gabbaim feel it’s time to reassess when and how PicoEgal will meet in the future. Today will be the last Shabbat morning we have on the calendar for now. We’ll be having some conversations with the community about going forward – perhaps with Shabbat minha services and picnics, High Holidays, and maybe some other sacred times that we haven’t yet considered. We are so grateful to all of you who are here today, and to everyone who has been a part of this minyan and community in the past. And we look forward to maintaining the bonds of this community in some new form going forward. Our community now is different from what it was before. But consider, as we read this morning: Zeh le'umat zeh asa Elokim. “God has made the one as well as the other.”

We hope that you will all continue to be part of the conversation and community that is PicoEgal, and look forward to hearing your thoughts and sharing Torah and Jewish living with you.

05/04/2016

We are looking forward to davening together this Shabbat morning at 9:30am in the Library at Temple Beth Am - and hope you can join us. Kiddush following services, as always!

03/31/2016

Unfortunately, we are not going to meet this Shabbat, April 2nd. We do look forward to seeing you at our Friday night services and dinner on April 15th.

03/03/2016

We are looking forward to davening together this Shabbat morning at 9:30am in the Library at Temple Beth Am - and hope you can join us.

If you haven't had an Aliyah to the Torah recently, and would like one, please message us via FB...or see one of the Gabbaim before 9:45am Shabbat morning.

Kiddush following services, as always!

02/21/2016

Hi all --

A new member of the PicoEgal & LA Jewish community is looking for an apartment share, as of June 1.

She's studying in the education & management programs at HUC. No requirements re vegetarian/kosher kitchens. She says that - in what spare time HUC allows - she enjoys watching movies, running, baking, reading, and doing crafts.

Contact her directly at [email protected] with any leads.

02/11/2016

02/01/2016

We are looking forward to davening together this Shabbat morning at 9:30am in the Library at Temple Beth Am.

If you haven't had a chance to lead or leyn recently, and would like to, please message us via FB -- we have openings for someone to do Haftarah this week, and to lead Musaf (Birkat haChodesh + full repetition).

Kiddush will be sponsored by Marnie & Steve Stiglitz, in celebration of the birth of their younger daughter!

01/08/2016

Congrats to PicoEgal Gabbai Marnie Stiglitz and Steve Stiglitz, on the birth yesterday of a daughter!