Beit Cafe

Last night was our first Beit Café, a combination talent show/tzedakah auction/potluck dinner on the lawn overlooking the Old city. I was tapped to be on the planning committee and jumped in with a ferocity in event planning I didn’t know I had in me. Normally, I’m content to let other people plan big group events, it just isn’t my thing. After having done Beit Café, and even though it was a huge success, I’m totally content to not do hard-core event planning for a long, long time.

I was in charge of the auction/Tzedakah/money/alcohol part of the evening (it was a potluck dinner, with a 20 NIS entrance fee, including an open beer/wine bar). Good jobs for me. The money rasied from the entrance and auction was going to the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism (IMPJ) who is in a huge financial crush and unable to pay the progressive Rabbis in Israel. It wasn’t too much work putting everything together (a silly skit in front of our class, some e-mails, making some lists, calling a few people), until the day before when everything exploded. Getting the booze. Making silent auction sheets. Cataloging the items. Setting stuff up.

The evening itself was a lot of fun. I have a lot of talented classmates. It was nice, for part of the evening, after collecting money and setting up the auction, to not have to do anything, and just be able to eat and enjoy the show. Our MCs were awesome, hilarious; they wrote a parody song to the tune of “Under the Sea” called “At HUC.” There was some beautiful singing, a very creepily-neat retelling of Poe’s “The Raven,” and I told The Clown Joke. It went over okay; I think people either were too sober (it was towards the end of the evening, and people were tired too) or the general sense of humor/patience is not at the same level as The Clown Joke. I’ve also never told it on a stage, and I think it works better in a small group setting. But that was a lot of fun.

There was also a moment when Amy, a friend and our “resident pervert,” secretly raised 200 NIS for me to take my shirt off. And so, like a good sport, I did. Thanks Amy.