It’s Fabulous, It’s Shabbat at LifeTown

Friday nights are getting even more fabulous as Friendship Circle welcomes families and the community to celebrate the beauty of Shabbat at LifeTown.

Fabulous Friday Nights, currently being offered several times a year, allows people to gather and experience an authentic Shabbat evening. The festivities begin with candle lighting to usher in the day of rest, a lively prayer service, amazing Shabbat dinner and more. All the while, kids will be engaged with games and activities in the gym and the indoor playground. 

This meaningful program was created in memory of Barbara Zinbarg, a Jewish day school educator and LifeTown volunteer who passed away in May. 

“Barbara loved Shabbat,” said her husband, Ed Zinbarg. “When she was a teacher at Solomon Schechter School, now Golda Och Academy, she taught secular subjects to third-grade children, but she wanted to get them excited about experiencing Shabbat. So she instituted ‘Mrs. Z’s Fabulous Friday.’ Each week she had a surprise for the children on Friday and all week they excitedly awaited Friday.”

Because Barbara also volunteered at LifeTown and told her husband that “she got her greatest sense of doing something that matters for people’s lives when she met with the kids at LifeTown,” Zinbarg thought a merger of two of her passions would be a wonderful way to honor her memory and Fabulous Friday Nights at LifeTown was born. 

The inaugural Fabulous Friday Night was held in late August and more Fabulous Shabbat programs are in the works!