Synagogue Updates

Last year, we were pleased to present Brad Aronson, author of Human Kind, as a speaker. I still highly recommend reading the book, and having your family members read it, I found it very inspirational. We are exploring how we can 'systemize" acts of kindness/hesed. How do we get the requests for help, how do we activate our volunteers, what actions should we take?

Here are three examples of how this can play out: 

Thanks to our fabulous challah bakers (sign up to bake here, sign up to receive here), we were able to deliver challah to a family that just moved to the neighborhood. One of our new neighbors is the executive director of another synagogue, we have no expectation that they will join our shul, but they are our neighbors and we were happy to take the opportunity to welcome them. We want to explore how to do this for all new neighbors, Jewish and nonJewish.

Recently, you might have heard about the tragic loss of life of a Penn Wynne firefighter.  The synagogue made a donation to the fundraising campaign because we are so grateful for the work and support of our local firefighters and all first responders.  While the synagogue does not normally donate money to fundraising campaigns, this extraordinary situation was an example that it made sense. 

Before covid, the synagogue would deliver soup to those that we knew were sick. Imagine a situation where a congregant could call up to have soup delivered to a friend in the area that needed.  

Our world and community needs more kindness. Our congregants are our priority, but we have an important role to play in the greater community as well. To do so, we need your support. We need you to share information about new neighbors, we need you to volunteer to bake, cook, deliver, and we need your ideas. Today, begins the Hebrew month of Elul where the shofar is blown each morning (nonShabbat). Elul is designed to be a wake up call to us before the High Holidays to think about how we are living our lives. Help us choose kindness. Have ideas or want to help us plan this (and we NEED planners), or to in general help with our hesed outreach for our congregation, send me an email please. 

On Friday, we sent out an email to the congregation with our High Holiday Covid-19 protocols, our working HH schedule  and a survey to the community about which services you were currently planning on attending. I want to strongly urge each of you to fill it out. This survey, while only a snapshot in time, will best help us to plan for the holidays. 

This coming weekend is going to be exciting. We are bringing back our Midsummer's Night Shabbat to welcome in our Rabbinic Intern and to celebrate the last day of camp. Join us on Friday night for good appetizers, a festive, family friendly outdoor service and dessert. Able to help out? We will be serving the appetizers to people. Let us know that you are coming. 

COVID-19 numbers and hospitalizations are still on the rise. If you need help with anything, please do not hesitate to be in contact with us. 

Wishing you a week filled with kindness!

Ken
513 503 9559