I thought I'd draw your attention to a few events upcoming that might be of interest to readers in the area. After a long summer of not much going on, there's a lot on the schedule for October all of a sudden. I try to keep the Event Calendar populated as I receive things. Here are a few highlights. There are more details on the calendar, and more events as well that I'm not mentioning. And, by the way, all the information is thought to be correct at the time of posting, but may change without notice. I also guess as to the end time most of the events, putting it at a point 2 hours after the start of most events if not noted in the event announcement. If you see something interesting, go track it down on the sponsor's site to confirm the details, especially if you have to travel far. I also realize the formatting isn't great, but you should be able to glean the necessary info.

Tomorrow, Oct. 14 at 7:45pm, the amazing Barry Rubin will be at Congregation Beth El - Atereth Israel, 561 Ward Street, Newton Centre with a talk entitled 'ISRAEL AND THE US: A NEW ERA? How Western Policies are Heading for Disaster in the Middle East'.

On Thursday the 15, Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor will be at Temple Israel, 477 Longwood Avenue Boston at 7:15pm and...

JoAnn Magnuson and Esther Levens will be at Ahavath Torah Congregation 1179 Central Street, Stoughton, discussing Building Christian-Jewish Understanding and Pro-Israel Partnerships, at 7:30pm.

This weekend, at The Head of the Charles, the Israeli Consulate will have a table. They send the following along (this is the only thing not on the event calendar because it's a weekend-long thing):

A free trip to Israel! That might make me actually brave the crowds down at Harvard Square...OK, maybe not, but YMMV.

There are several great events on Sunday the 18th. Here are two:

Christians and Jews United for Israel will be holding their Genesis Awards at Temple Emeth, 194 Grove St., Chestnut Hill, MA starting at 3:30pm. Honorees include Esther Levens, Ron and Bev Gerstenberger, and Laliv Gal. Speakers include Pastor Ricardo Miranda, Charles Jacobs, Rev. William Adams, Pastor Scott Smith, and JoAnn Magnuson.

The Russian Jewish Community Federation will be holding their 5th Anniversary Charity Ball at Lombardo's in Randolph at 5:30pm. You can read all about this amazing event and their celebrity guests in this highly recommended Boston Globe article: Cry of liberty - Foundation will honor refuseniks whose 1970 attempted hijacking drew world attention to the Soviet Union's oppression of Jews

On Monday the 19th Yaakov Kirschen, Mr. Dry Bones, will be at Temple Emanuel, 385 Ward Street Newton, MA at 7pm.

I was alerted by a reader to a young Newton Congregation that might be of interest, Or Yisrael. They sound as though they are socially liberal, but perhaps not a "PAC for J Street and the Obama Administration," at least not in a knee-jerk way. They are also very pro-Israel (check the links on their site). They are having an open house Fri, October 23 at 7pm at The Meetinghouse at Andover Newton Theological School, 210 Herrick Road, Newton Centre (they don't have their own building). May be of interest to you Shul shoppers.

Finally, CJP is sponsoring a terrific-sounding event called "Israel in High Definition" on Sunday the 25th at the Florence & Chafetz Hillel House, Boston University, beginning at 12 and running until 7pm. The keynote is being done by Reverend Fumio Taku, President, Christians and Jews United for Israel, and there are breakout sessions being run by CAMERA, The David Project, the ZOA and many others.

More details on these and many other events on the Boston Event Calendar.