Holiday & Center Celebrations

The Bender JCC celebrates Judaism throughout the year with a variety of holiday celebrations and observances, family and community gatherings, and festive workshops.

Center Celebrations

Center-wide and festive for the entire family, Center celebrations incorporate the entire Bender JCC community for celebrations featuring activities for all ages.

 

Questions about Bender JCC holiday and Center celebrations? Contact us!

Good Deeds Week Sunday, April 7th -
Bim Bom Bag (Passover) Wednesday, April 10th -
Passover Little Noshers Sunday, April 14th - 10:00-11:00 AM
Community Playhouse Build Sunday, May 5th - 1:00 PM
IMAGINE Monday, June 10th - 6:30PM

Good Deeds Week

Sunday, April 7th

Federation’s Sara & Samuel J. Lessans Good Deeds Week
Be the GOOD you want to see in the world!

This April 7 – 14, The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington’s Sara & Samuel J. Lessans Good Deeds Week will once again bring together 60+ community partners and thousands of participants across DC, MD, and Northern VA to address pressing needs across our region.

Explore the many ways in which you can do good and care for others, including helping refugee families build a new life, filling the shelves of local food pantries, cleaning up waterways and community gardens, gathering supplies for unhoused individuals, and more.


Summer Fun Stuff Project

April 10, 2024 | 3:00-5:30 PM

Free RSVP

Summer Fun Bag Packing for Underserved Kids in the DMV.

Every child deserves a summer of fun and enrichment. The Bender JCC’s Delivering Good Network and KindWorks (https://www.dokindworks.org/) are collaborating to help enrich summertime for local kids by providing Summer fun bags with creative and recreational items.  Join our volunteer team to help us pack these much-needed bags of fun and make a huge difference in your community!

Click here to see the wish-list and donate needed items to Summer Fun Sacks:

Items should be new, gender neutral, and culturally appropriate.

Federation’s Good Deeds Week is made possible by Drs. Ellen & Stuart Lessans, in loving memory of Sara & Samuel J. Lessans.

For more information, please contact Lauren Dworkin at ldworkin@benderjccgw.org.

Bim Bom Bag (Passover):  Explore Jewish Themes & Holidays with the Bender JCC!

$18/members | $20/public (Please purchase 1 ticket per bag)

The Bender JCC presents a bagtastic and exciting opportunity to learn about Jewish customs and holidays through arts & crafts, stories, and discussions. When you sign up, we will hand-deliver Jewish-themed arts & crafts activities to your door to work on independently with your kid(s).

  • Sign up deadline: Wednesday, April 10
  • Receive your bag by: Tuesday, April 16

Contactless deliveries are for Montgomery County zip codes only. If we cannot access your home from the outdoors, please email Jennifer Radosh at jradosh@benderjccgw.org and we will make arrangements.

If you have any questions, contact Jen Radosh at jradosh@benderjccgw.org.

All Bender JCC programs are open to everyone. Contact Kate Falls, Director of Inclusion, at kfalls@benderjccgw.org or 301.348.3767 to discuss support and accommodations.

Presented by the Bender JCC, The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, and PJ Library.

 

Passover Little Noshers

Sunday, April 14th
10:00-11:00 AM

Purchase Tickets

Sunday, April 14

10:00 – 11:00 AM | $10/child | $5/adult | Pavilion

Passover is one of the yummiest and most fun holidays of the year!  Join the Bender JCC in a party for your taste buds even your littlest ones will love. Especially because food will be handed out by one of your favorite furry cookie-loving monsters!!!!

We’ll also learn fun Passover facts, create crafts, and enjoy PJ Library storytime. We invite you to keep the fun going at outdoor playground.

This program is also a great opportunity to share food with others. In partnership with Good Deeds Week, we will be collecting fruit for Jewish Social Service Agency (JSSA) Meals on Wheels. JSSA currently delivers to 70 individuals in Montgomery County through their Kosher Meals on Wheels program. The older adults they serve would love to have some fresh fruit such as mandarin oranges, oranges, apples, kosher fruit cups, and kosher applesauce cups to enjoy along with their meals from the Hebrew Home.

For questions, please contact Jennifer Radosh at jradosh@benderjccgw.org.

All Bender JCC programs are open to everyone. Contact Kate Falls, Director of Inclusion, at kfalls@benderjccgw.org or 301.348.3767 to discuss support and accommodations.

Presented by the Bender JCC, Good Deeds Day, The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, and PJ Library.

 

Federation's Sara & Samuel J. Lessans Good Deeds Week

 

 


 

Community Playhouse Build

Sunday, May 5th
1:00 PM

Register

Join Bender JCC and Habitat for Humanity Metro Maryland for an interfaith community-wide playhouse build. Teams will work together to raise a minimum of $2,000 to sponsor a single playhouse. Teams can have up to 10 participants.

Playhouses bring smiles…and money raised provides critical funding to help build affordable homes for lower-income families in our local community.

Habitat for Humanity Metro Maryland supports the notion that good, stable housing matters for neighborhoods.  Better quality of living leads to stronger citizens and families.  Habitat for Humanity is changing lives, one home at a time.

Many children of Habitat homeowners have never had a safe place to play or a stable place to call home. The playhouses we build together will help provide a safe place for Habitat children to play and grow.

1:00 PM: Check-in
1:15 PM: Welcome & Introduction
1:30 – 6:00 PM: Playhouse Build

All are welcome to create a team! This event is suitable for ages 10+.

This meaningful volunteer experience is suited for school groups, faith communities, families, friends, non-profit partners and corporate/foundation sponsors.

For more information, please email jccplayhouse@habitatmm.org.

IMAGINE

Monday, June 10th
6:30PM

Purchase Tickets

IMAGINE What Is Possible

Please join us for a very special evening celebrating civic leadership with a fireside chat between David Rubenstein and Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat, followed by the presentation of the Benjamin Ourisman Memorial Award for Civic Achievement to Dana Marlowe, Founder and Executive Director of I Support The Girls

Funds raised from IMAGINE support scholarships at the Bender JCC, reducing financial barriers and creating an inclusive community.


Fireside Chat featuring:

 

 

David M. Rubenstein

Co-Founder and Co-Chairman, The Carlyle Group
Click here to David’s biography

David M. Rubenstein is Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of The Carlyle Group, one of the world’s largest and most successful private investment firms. Mr. Rubenstein is Chairman of the Boards of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Council on Foreign Relations, the National Gallery of Art, the Economic Club of Washington, and the University of ChicagoMr. Rubenstein has served as Chairman of the Boards of Duke University and the Smithsonian Institution, Co-Chairman of the Board of the Brookings Institution, and as a Fellow of the Harvard Corporation. Mr. Rubenstein is an original signer of The Giving Pledge, and received the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy, and the MoMA’s David Rockefeller Award, among other philanthropic awards. Mr. Rubenstein is a leader in the area of Patriotic Philanthropy, having made transformative gifts for the restoration or repair of the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial and, Jefferson Memorial, among other documents, buildings and monuments that are tangible reminders of the history and heritage of our country.Mr. Rubenstein has also provided to the U.S. government long-term loans of his rare copies of the Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Emancipation Proclamation, the 13th Amendment, the first map of the U.S. (Abel Buell map), and the first book printed in the U.S. (Bay Psalm Book). A Baltimore native, Mr. Rubenstein is a 1970 magna cum laude graduate of Duke University, where he was elected Phi Beta Kappa. He graduated in 1973 from the University of Chicago Law School, where he was an editor of the Law Review.From 1973-1975, Mr. Rubenstein practiced law in New York with Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. From 1975-1976, he served as Chief Counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments. From 1977-1981, during the Carter Administration, Mr. Rubenstein was Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy. After his White House service and before co-founding Carlyle, Mr. Rubenstein practiced law in Washington with Shaw, Pittman, Potts & Trowbridge (now Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman).

 

 

 

Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat

Chairman, United States Holocaust Museum 
Click here to read Stuart’s biography.

Ambassador Eizenstat is a senior member of Covington & Burling LLP’s international practiceHis work at Covington focuses on resolving international trade problems and business disputes with the U.S. and foreign governments, and international business transactions and regulations on behalf of U.S. companies and others around the world. During decades of public service in five US administrations, Ambassador Eizenstat has held a number of key senior positions, including chief White House domestic policy adviser to President Jimmy Carter (1977-1981); U.S. Ambassador to the European Union, Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade, Under Secretary of State for Economic, Business and Agricultural Affairs, and Deputy Secretary of the Treasury in the Clinton Administration (1993-2001). He also served as a member of the White House staff for President Johnson (1967-1968). Much of the interest in providing belated justice for victims of the Holocaust and other victims of Nazi tyranny during World War II was the result of Ambassador Eizenstat’s leadership of the Clinton Administration as Special Representative of the President and Secretary of State on Holocaust-Era Issues (1993-2001). During the Obama Administration, Ambassador Eizenstat served as Special Advisor on Holocaust-Era Issues to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of State John Kerry (2009-2017). Ambassador Eizenstat is currently serving as Special Adviser to Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Holocaust issues in the Biden Administration. President Biden recently named him the Chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

 

 


2024 Benjamin Ourisman Memorial Award for Civic Achievement:
Dana Marlowe

Dana Marlowe, founder and executive director of global nonprofit I Support The Girls (ISTG), is driven by the belief that if we aren’t willing to talk about periods or bras, we can’t help girls, women or people who menstruate live their lives with dignity. What seems at the moment an ordinary question – “What can I do with my old bras?” – led Dana to “accidentally” launching ISTG and providing free undergarments and menstrual hygiene products for people in distress, including those experiencing homelessness, victims of natural disasters, and domestic violence survivors, among others. Since 2015, ISTG has donated 25+ million products through 5,000 social service agencies and 53 affiliates around the world. 

Whether it’s through her work with ISTG, on social media or speaking at conferences and events, Dana fiercely advocates in support of menstrual equity and human health rights for the most invisible populations. She is also founder and principal partner of Accessibility Partners, an IT firm focused on digital accessibility for people with disabilities.  

Her passions extend beyond social entrepreneurship: she is a mother to tween and teen boys, and can often be found with a good book, at an early morning dance rave, or seeing her favorite indie bands live. 



Meet Our Past Benjamin Ourisman Memorial Award Winners