A Big Thank You!

By Peter Goldfein - While many of the melodies are still echoing in my head, I would like to share just a few words with everyone following our recent observance of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.  Mainly I would like to thank everyone who contributed to making our 5786 High Holidays such a success.

What struck me was the warm atmosphere, the collective energy of being together in larger numbers than usual, the many new faces of visitors, potential and newly joined members, and some old faces not seen for a long time, plus the warm, cooperative welcome from our hosts who allowed us a place of worship away from our normal synagogue, and  how smoothly everything came together in execution.

None of this would have been possible without the hard work and commitment of a large number of volunteers.  While it is true that « many hands make light work » in this case it involved many hands and for several it was quite a lot of work.

So I would like to extend my thanks to everyone who helped bring us together as a community and especially to those who made it possible for us to observe the holidays, worship and celebrate together.  I will surely not be able to list everyone who helped, but would like to thank Peter DB who led the planning and overall organisation, Rabbi Brian who led the services, Cantor Marty who made the services so special, Anneke who leyned exquisitely from the Torah on Rosh Hashanah, to the gabbaim, to Hila who made sure our administrative and security needs were met, to Mark who gathered all the food for Rosh Ha-Shana lunch, to Sarah Al-J who took charge of many things including management of the break the fast meal, the crew who helped us load everything up at Beth Hillel and bring it over and the crew who at the end did the whole process in reverse, to Sarah W for eloquently telling her story and encouraging us to contribute to our Annual Appeal, and all of my fellow Board members for all the ways they contributed, and including Maria who got the ball rolling earlier this year to arrange access to our location.

Thanks also to those who have contributed to our Annual Appeal, and to those who have pledged to contribute.  For those of you who have not yet done so, please do consider contributing an amount within your means.  It makes a difference.

I hope everyone who joined some or all of the events enjoyed them as much as I did, and for those of you who were unable to join us this year, I hope you will be able to do so l’shana h’ab’ah. 

So thanks again!  I find it truly energizing to see how much we can do and how well we do it when so many of us are involved.

Peter is IJC President