Synaplex Shabbat Alive Services,  our jazz and pop service with a band, led by Rabbi Rachlis and Cantor Braier, during which Academy Award-winning writer/director/producer, Adam McKay, will speak on "Cinema and Social Change. A new group of Merage Israeli Executive Fellow, whose specialty is Medical Devices and Life Sciences, sponsored by the Merage Foundation, will briefly introduce themselves. Our Shabbat Alive musicians are sponsored by Gilbert Gluck and Catherine Bradley. 

Mr. McKay made his name in the comedy world when he served as head writer for Saturday Night Live and later co-wrote and directed numerous iconic comedies such as Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (which was named one of the WGA’s 101 Funniest Screenplays), Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby and Step Brothers.

Mr. McKay's latest feature, Don’t Look Up, received four Academy Award and BAFTA nominations, including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay, as well as a WGA Original Screenplay. Don't Look Up is one of Netflix’s most successful films of all time.

His 2018 feature, Vice, received eight Academy Award nominations, six Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations, a WGA nomination as well as earned WGAW’s 2019 Paul Selvin Award for his screenplay, and a DGA nomination.

In 2015, he and Charles Randolph adapted Michael Lewis’s New York Times best-selling book, The Big Short where he earned Academy Award, BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations for Best Director, and they won Best Adapted Screenplay at the Academy Awards, BAFTA, WGA and USC Scripter Awards. In 2021, The Big Short was named one of WGA’s 101 Greatest Screenplays of the 21st Century (*so far).

Other recent work includes his role as a producer on Searchlight Pictures' social thriller Fresh and he also served as an executive producer on Booksmart, Netflix’s Dead to Me and Hustlers.

For television, Mr. McKay is an executive producer on the critically acclaimed HBO show Succession and directed the pilot for which he won the 2018 DGA Award for Drama Series. The show won the 2019 BAFTA for Best International Series and the 2020 EMMY and Golden Globe for Best Drama Series and most recently, he executive produced and directed the pilot of HBO’s drama series Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty.

He is also an executive producer on HBO's late night series Game Theory with Bomani Jones. His upcoming work includes the HBO limited series inspired by Bong Joon Ho's Academy Award Best Picture Parasite, a limited series based on Miami Herald investigative reporter Julie K. Brown’s book about Jeffrey Epstein and an HBO anthology series adapted from David Wallace-Wells’ The Uninhabitable Earth.

Mr. McKay’s production company, Hyperobject Industries, has a wide-ranging focus, from comedies, dramas, horror, documentaries, and documentary-series, that cover politically charged and challenging subjects with which he has become synonymous. Sponsored by Dr. Miriam Piven Cotler.

All those celebrating September birthdays and anniversaries will be honored.

In-person Shabbat services are open to members and non-members who have been fully vaccinated*. Please register below. 

• Masks are required to be worn properly at all times while inside the building in any space. N95 or KN95 masks are strongly recommended. The use of cloth masks is discouraged.
• Please be prepared to show your CDC card, or a picture of it on your cell phone, showing that you have been fully vaccinated* to be admitted to the building.
• Only those with registrations will be allowed to enter the building.

*The definition of “fully vaccinated” at University Synagogue means any person who is age eligible and five months (Pfizer/Moderna) past their original fully vaccinated status will need to have received a third shot (booster) of either the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine and be one week post injection in order to be considered “fully vaccinated.” Johnson & Johnson recipients will need to have received a second shot (booster) if they are two months past their original fully vaccinated status.

• Most onegs will be held outdoors, where masks are strongly advised.

Enter names of all attendees in the Notes section.