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Most Shabbat Services will be led by Rabbi Harley Karz-Wagman and by Mt. Sinai's lay leaders. Please see calendar listing for the specific services led by the Rabbi.
Wednesday, May 22 - 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM - 'Men's Wednesday Lunches' at Perkins Family Restaurant at 1730 Dell Range Blvd.
Wednesday, May 22 - 7 to 8:30 PM - Board Meeting
Thursday, May 23 - noon to 1 PM - Torah Thursday. For more information, please contact Rabbi Harley Karz-Wagman.
Thursday, May 23 - 7 to 8:30 PM - Cheyenne Interfaith Council (CIC) Spring Community Series - "Who do they say I am?" - A Muslim Perspective, presented by Mo Salih. First of Four sessions. Please click here for more information.
Friday, May 24 - 7 PM - Shabbat Evening Services followed by Oneg sponsored by the Sisterhood.
Saturday, May 25 - 9:30 AM - Shabbat Morning Services with Torah Study, followed by Oneg sponsored by the Sisterhood.
Wednesday, May 29 - 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM - 'Men's Wednesday Lunches' at Perkins Family Restaurant at 1730 Dell Range Blvd.
Wednesday, May 29 - 6 to 7 PM - Hebrew Prayer: The Meanings Behind the Words. Please click here for more information.
Thursday, May 30 - 7 to 8:30 PM - Cheyenne Interfaith Council (CIC) Spring Community Series - "Who do they say I am?" - A Jewish Perspective, presented by Rabbi Harley. Second of Four sessions. Please click here for more information.
Friday, May 31 - 7 PM - Shabbat Evening Services led by Rabbi Harley Karz-Wagman, followed by Oneg sponsored by the Sisterhood.
Saturday, June 1 - 9:30 AM - Jim and Therese McKinnon wish to invite everyone to their Bar/Bat Mitzvah. There will be a party in the Social Hall following the service. Please come join them on this joyous occasion.
Sunday, June 2 - 9:30 AM to 12 noon - Mt. Sinai Religious School.
Wednesday, June 5 - 6 to 7 PM - Hebrew Prayer: The Meanings Behind the Words. Please click here for more information.
Wednesday, June 5 - 7 to 8 PM - The Holocaust - Lessons for Today and Tomorrow. First class in a three class series. Please click here for more information.
Thursday, June 6 - noon to 1 PM - Torah Thursday. For more information, please contact Rabbi Harley Karz-Wagman.
Thursday, June 6 - 7 to 8:30 PM - Cheyenne Interfaith Council (CIC) Spring Community Series - "Who do they say I am?" - A Unitarian-Universalist Perspective presented by Rev. Audette Fulbright. Third of Four sessions. Please click here for more information.
Friday, June 7 - 7 PM - Shabbat Evening Services followed by Oneg sponsored by the Sisterhood.
Saturday, June 8 - 9:30 AM - Shabbat Morning Services with Torah Study, followed by Oneg sponsored by the Sisterhood.
Saturday, June 8 - 7 PM - Movie Night!! Please join us to view "The Other Son", a poignant, well acted and thoughtful French and Hebrew language drama with English subtitles. The story follows 2 young men, one Israeli and one Palestinian. As Joseph prepares to join the Israeli army for his national service, he discovers he is not his parents’ biological son, but that he was inadvertently switched at birth with Yassin, the son of a Palestinian family from the West Bank. This revelation turns the lives of these two families upside-down, forcing them to reassess their respective identities, their values and their beliefs. Click here for more information.
Sunday, June 9 - 11 AM to 5 PM - Boulder Jewish Festival, Boulder County Courthouse Lawn and Pearl Street Mall. A one-day celebration of Jewish culture, featuring live entertainment, fine art and Judaica, ethnic food, community organizations and activities for all ages. For more information, please go to http://www.boulderjewishfestival.org/
SAVE THE DATES
Wednesday, June 12 & June 19 - 7 to 8 PM - The Holocaust - Lessons for Today and Tomorrow, a series of three classes.
Thursday, June 13 - 7 to 8:30 PM - Cheyenne Interfaith Council (CIC) Spring Community Series - "Who do they say I am?" - A Christian cross-cultural Perspective presented by Rev. Jose F. Morales. Fourth of Four sessions. Please click here for more information.
May Birthdays
5 Zoey Brown
13 Micah Young
15 Doreen Glotzer
20 Susan Cohen
21 Stuart Wolf
Wyoming's oldest synagogue prepares a metal pot for Passover with a torch
Wyoming's oldest synagogue "Kashering for Pesach"
Wyoming's oldest synagogue prepares surfaces which cannot be Kashered with fire for Passover
Wyoming's oldest synagogue prepares glassware for Passover
Wyoming's oldest synagogue prepares metal counters and sinks for Passover with a torch
Weekly Message from our Board President
May 20, 2013
Well, that was fun! We had more than 500 people walk through the doors of the Synagogue for the Yiddish Food Festival on Sunday. They came, they ate, they danced, they took tours of the Synagogue, they listened to the band, and watched our Israeli folk dancers. And when they left, they had big smiles on their faces as they walked out the doors carrying bags of food for home.
There were a number of very special moments that took place during the festival. For example, two Jewish couples live in Torrington. They knew each other (Torrington is a small town, after all), but only discovered they were Jewish at the Synagogue on Sunday. This means the couples can now get together for the holidays if they want, or at least wish each other a Shabbat Shalom when they see each other around town.
Here’s another one – a young man and his wife and infant son moved to Cheyenne from Los Angeles about a year ago. Their first time inside the Synagogue was on Sunday, and they were thrilled to find the Jewish community in Cheyenne. When you think of first impressions… imagine how we looked. The Social Hall was filled with people, the food booths lined the walls, the dancers performed in the front of the room, and everyone was celebrating and enjoying the Yiddish Food Festival.
And this one – a crowd gathered to hear Jason Bloomberg blow the Shofar in the Social Hall to officially start the festival. Later, he stood outside the front doors of the Synagogue and blew it again. His comment as he came back in the door… “Well, that scared all the cats in the neighborhood…”
Special thanks to Jim McKinnon for organizing the Festival this year. He added a lot of very nice new touches – from new signs, a printed program, soliciting sponsors, and more. Great job!
We’d like to think that Jim and Therese McKinnon are now going to take a break and rest from all their work preparing for the festival. Nope! Instead, they are hard at work preparing for their B’nai Mitzvah! Can anyone remember the last time we had a husband and wife celebrate a Bar and Bat Mitzvah together? Has it ever happened? It’s definitely a reason to celebrate! The B’nai Mitzvah will be Saturday, June 1 at 9:30 A.M. (during Shabbat services, of course). The entire congregation is invited. Mazel Tov in advance!
The Warriors at Ease Yoga program in the Synagogue is being put on hold. Yoga instructor Natalie Vernon says the classes will be suspended until mid-June. If you are interested in Natalie's other Yoga classes in the interim, please email Therese McKinnon at tkaymac@aol.com.
The Mt. Sinai Board of Directors is meeting this Wednesday, May 22. The Rabbi’s Covenant of Holy Partnership was set to end on June 30, 2013, and we’re deciding whether to extend it. The Board will make its decision at that Board meeting. Board members have been calling the congregation to get input, but if they missed you, or it turned into a game of phone tag, here’s how to get in touch:
Dave Lerner, President – 772-4466 or dlerner@wyomingnetwork.com
Phyllis Bloomberg, Vice President – 630-7729 or pbloombe@gmail.com
Stuart Wolf, Treasurer – 632-8318 or marvsplace@sisna.com
Donna Pepper, Secretary – 637-7367 or dpepper1@gmail.com
Sherri Means – 742-9018 or slmeans57@yahoo.com
Jeff Weinstein – 634-5395 or j.weinstein@bresnan.net
Carol Fischer – 637-5089 or CAF2941@aol.com
Mark Goldberg – 638-6377 or wyodrifter@msn.com
We are getting quite a lot of buzz about our next movie night. The movie is called “The Other Son”. It tells the story of two boys switched at birth. One is raised as an Israeli, and the other a Palestinian. The mistake is discovered when they are in their late teens. The movie will be shown on Saturday night, June 8, at 7 PM. It’s in French, with English subtitles.
Sabrina Westover will be the valedictorian at the Central High School graduation this year. Mazel Tov to the Westover family! Nice achievement!
Special note about Marshall Brown. He did a great job as the annoying sibling in the Cheyenne Little Theatre Player’s production of “Cheaper By the Dozen”. (Think his younger sister was taking notes on how to be annoying?)
Also, congrats to Nate Weinstein and Board President Dave Lerner. Both landed the role of Sigmund Freud in the Melodrama this summer. They are both working on their German accents and comparing notes. The Melodrama uses two full casts, so there are two actors for every role.
Shalom!
Dave Lerner, President
Mt. Sinai Board of Directors
Rabbi Column 5-20-13 How to Read a Paper
First and foremost, yasher koach to Jim McKinnon and the dozens of incredibly hard working volunteers on our amazing Yiddish Food Festival. If Jeff and Mary every count their hours here, they might be scared. We should be grateful to them and to all of you who put forth such astounding efforts. For those who think about rushing to pick apart one flaw or another, please consider waiting a week or so, to let those who sweated and succeeded so well to bask in the glory of the moment.
Now, for an ongoing concern. Religion/ faith/ faith communities are supposed to help us deal with the most fundamental and significant questions in our lives. Here is one. How can we cope with the barrage of daily news, whether we see it in the paper, on TV, or on a screen?
We might begin with a typical day’s news. We see: national scandals, and/or witch hunts; the latest Cindy Hill conflict; more hard to explain deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan; and harder to explain stories of mass deaths of American children from suicides, car accidents, and drugs. We do not see significant background stories, such as the thousands of deaths, each day, of kids, ages 5 and under, from hunger. and the similar number of deaths, each day, from the disease pandemics of malaria, tuberculosis, and AIDS. It feels overwhelming, and I already feel overwhelmed by: my jobs, kids, wife, dogs, friends, other family, and my own health. By the way, I consider my life an easy one, compared to most of the people I meet and read about.
So, if you are still reading and have not turned to sports or “reality” shows, what can we do? A bit of escape is not a bad idea, and we should not feel guilty about it. After the front section leads me to want to go hide under my bed covers, I may avoid despair or panic, by reading about the Rockies. Not only does escape enable us to cope, escape/ pleasure should provide an end in itself. We need a Shabbat, at least every 7th day. We all deserve breaks.
Religion may feel like it adds to our burdens. A Methodist colleague described many faith communities as: “guilt, with holidays.” Yet, faith might also relieve our burdens. Our faith may help us understand that we humans are only “dust and ashes.” We might learn to keep our expectations realistic, for we can only do what one individual can do.
On the other hand, within our limits, we have phenomenal power to fix or heal our world, to perform “tikkun olam.” We are capable of acts of ‘creation,” which, in religious settings, often does not mean “making something,” but “making something better” (improvement). We may not be able to eliminate world hunger, but we can provide food for some hungry people and maybe provide the means for them to grow their own food or earn the money to buy their own. We may not be able to stop all the deaths from malaria, tuberculosis, and AIDS, but we can, even by a small donation, provide some medicine to cure some people and some vaccine to prevent others from getting sick.
When I read beyond the front page, I find reason for hope. Rotary, foundations, such as Gates, and even our much maligned government keep making successful strides in reducing AIDS and malaria. Churches and neighbors band together to help someone facing a health or financial crisis. People still care, and we individuals, who also care, succeed in our efforts, often.
Besides, we need not act just on a global level. We might just help one child or friend or even ourselves. That constitutes tikkun olam as much as fighting global hunger or disease.
At the end of the day, the overwhelmedness of reading the paper transforms a sense of satisfaction that we can make a significant dent in even the most massive problems. So, the next day, I start again with the front page.
Happy summer reading.
L’shalom,
Rabbi Harley Karz-Wagman
Additional Information
Please click here for a podcast of the 2013 Cheyenne Interfaith Holocaust Commemoration.
Welcome to Mt. Sinai Religious School. We create individual learning plans for each student, so they can achieve goals and curricular objectives. We meet Sunday mornings, 9:30 to Noon. We hope that many of our activities will involve the entire family. Our primary teacher and Principal is Rabbi Harley Karz-Wagman (910-431-9976). Parents and congregants will help teach during the year.
All movies are shown at Mt. Sinai at 7 PM on the “big screen” and with surround sound. Refreshments and drinks provided. Come join us for any or all of our upcoming movies.
Mah Jongg
Have fun playing this traditional Jewish game combining luck and skill. Don't know how to play yet? Come and learn with Mt. Sinai member Lila Gallensky and other experienced players. Check the calendar section for specific dates.
