There is a lot going on today, so I am going to try to be brief (not my strongest suit)
Clubhouse is an audio social media app that has been making waves in recent months. I have become obsessed with one room over the past few days: Meet Palestinians and Israelis. This is a moderated room that allows Palestinians and Israelis to tell their personal stories. It is a place where people are asking challenging questions, sharing their personal stories and actively humanizing each other. A common refrain that I have heard is from people that have stated they have never actually met someone "from the other side". It is hard to listen to, sometimes it makes me want to shout, and it is critically important. Here is an article about it. I recommend checking it out.
Last week, I shared the Hartman podcast that I found to be very helpful. I thought this week's was just as good - created before the cease fire was announced.
Today is a big day here and in many ways it represents the start of a return to "normal" life. We have back to back to back events. From Hebrew School in the morning to supporting the Israel rally downtown (please send me an email if you are attending, we are trying to connect all of our people) to our spring celebration this evening we are coming together in meaningful ways. If you are comfortable, we highly recommend starting to come back to join us for Friday night (outdoors) or Shabbat morning (indoors) services. Email me if you would like to attend.
I started writing these Sunday check-ins over a year ago working to arrange shopping for congregants that needed it. A year later, the needs of our community have changed, but what still remains is the need for connections. To that end, we are bringing back our summer challah baking/delivering/receiving program. Would you be interested in baking challah for someone or receiving a challah from a fellow congregant this summer? Included this time is even a week for those at the shore! Requests will be due each Monday, but you are able to sign up for the whole summer at one time. Last year, we found that this program was great at allowing congregants to meet each other informally, encouraging families baking challah together and helping to enhance everyone's Shabbat experience.
As a part of our return to normalcy, this week we will be mailing out both our Annual Meeting letter with our Board of Directors slate and our May Membership packet. I hope you are able to look at each of them. We are so grateful for your membership and support this past year. We need each of you so that we can thrive as a community and to that end - a reminder to please take a few minutes to fill out our survey for areas of involvement. We have a good response thus far, but I would like an additional 25 people to fill it out if possible.
I hope you have a great week as we head into Memorial Day weekend!
Ken 513 503 9559
Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El 1001 Remington Road Wynnewood, PA 19096
