Weekly Message from the Board President

We’re going to take you behind the scenes at Mt. Sinai and let you know about some of the things we are working on.  But first, a couple of quick reminders.  Our first Shalom Dinner of 2026 is this Wednesday, January 14.  We have reservations for 6:30 PM at Olive Garden at Frontier Mall.  Come join us for dinner!

Second, the See’s Candy sale may be officially over… but you can still get some of treats that are left.  Click on the link on our website.  We have seven different varieties of candies left, but once they’re gone, they’re gone.  The prices have been marked down, too.  And we can say the candy tastes just as good as it did a couple of weeks ago.

And we have our combination Kugel cookoff and Jewish Blues concert coming up the weekend of January 23^rd.  Saul Kaye will be leading services Friday night and Saturday morning and then holding a concert Saturday night.  The Kugel Cookoff will take place during the concert.  The entire event is free, so come and enjoy!

In the meantime, the search committee is continuing to work on the search for a new religious leader to serve Mt. Sinai.  Our job listing is still running online and we are getting new applicants.  The search committee will be interviewing some of the applicants in a few weeks and then inviting a few of them to come to Cheyenne for a Scholar in Residence weekend.

It may be a little confusing, because the Ritual and Liturgy Committee is trying to bring someone out for a Scholar in Residence weekend every month.  But the people coming out are not necessarily candidates for our religious leader position.  Some are being brought to Cheyenne because we think they will offer an interesting service or class.  Saul Kaye is a good example.  He’s a rabbinical student, but he is also a musician and singer.  So we’re getting a combination of Shabbat services, a class, and a concert all in one weekend.  Saul Kaye is not a candidate for the religious leader position.

We’ll let you know when a Scholar in Residence is also being considered to serve our community long term.

Also behind the scenes, the Building Committee is working on plans to replace the Synagogue roof.  The roof was not damaged by a hailstorm… however, it is old and starting to leak due to normal wear and tear.  The roof is made up of a rubber membrane, and the membrane is covered with rocks.  The rocks hold the roof down and also protect it from hail.  In fact, the only damage to the roof from last summer’s big hailstorm was to the copper flashing on the edges.  The flashing is not covered with rocks, so it is exposed to the sky.  Insurance paid to replace the flashing, but it will not cover the roof, since the hail didn’t damage the roof.

We’re getting bids on replacing the roof, but they are expected to be more than $300,000.  We’ll have to use the Synagogue’s “life savings” to pay for it.

Another behind the scenes item… the library committee is still hard at work on the Synagogue library.  The entire library had to be shut down and moved when we repainted the social hall.  We received several large donations in the meantime, so things have to be reorganized and put back on shelves.  We also expanded the space used by the library (we had to because of the extra materials we received).  So the library is growing and getting reorganized at the same time.

We also updated the Previous Religious Leaders page on our website.  We added as many as we could find in our history… going all the way back to Rabbi Gershon Immerman, who was our Rabbi in 1903.

So that’s some of the things we’re working on that you may not have heard about. 

Remember, next up is our Shalom Dinner on Wednesday at Olive Garden.  See you then!

Here’s our Yiddish Phrase of the Week:

Tsulib a gloz milkh darf men nit koyfn a gantse ku.
For a glass of milk you don’t have to buy a whole cow.      

Shalom,

Dave Lerner
President
Mt. Sinai Board of Directors

Community Partner with Family Promise of Cheyenne

January Birthdays

1              Chanie Mendelsohn

2              Jacob Westover

5              William Lucero

11           Stephanie White

12           Laurie Lerner

15           Steve Lerner

16           Zalman Mendelsohn

22           Thomas Silliman

25           Donna Pepper

26           Jacob Means

26           David Young

27           Erin Brown

28           Leo Wolfson

29           Howard Rodack