We signed two very important contracts last week.  First, the contract for Rabbi Mitch Delcau to serve Mt. Sinai Congregation was signed yesterday.  Rabbi Declau will start work with us on June 1^st, although we will probably see him at the Synagogue earlier than that.  That means he will be here during the Yiddish Food Festival, which is June 7.   One of the more popular features of the Festival is an “Ask the Rabbi” program, where guests can ask the Rabbi any question about Judaism.

Here is a photo of Rabbi Delcau, his wife Kelly, and their daughter Lili just after the contract was signed.

We are also talking with the Rabbi about holding a formal installation and welcoming him with a party.  Since the Festival is coming up quickly, those events may wait until later (our annual 4^th of July picnic, which will take place on Sunday, July 5, might be a good time for our welcoming party.)

The other major contract we signed was for a new roof.  Inman Roofing won the bid.  The new roof will cost the Synagogue $252,563.03.  The new roof will come with a 20-year warranty.

You may remember that after the big hail storm last summer, we filed a claim with our insurance company.  The insurance company determined that the copper flashing around the edges of the roof was damaged and gave us a check for about $46,000 to cover that damage.  We put the money into an interest bearing account, and it has earned about $500 so far.  The new roof will include new flashing, so the insurance money will be used to pay for part of the roof cost.  That still leaves about $206,000 we will have to pay for.

We applied for a grant to cover that cost, or part of it.  However, we won’t know if we won the grant until mid to late June.

The bottom line is that the Synagogue is going to have to pay for a new roof, and it will cost a lot.  The good news is that decades of carefully saving money have built our Endowment and Trust funds to a point where we can pay for a new roof without having to take out a loan or put a mortgage on the building.  But it will be a huge hit to those funds.

The Yiddish Food Festival is our biggest fundraiser of the year.  There is still time to become a sponsor of the event.  Sponsorships are $250 and are one of the main reasons we make money from the Festival.  Hiring a band, paying for security, buying the food, and even renting refrigerators all affect our bottom line.  We will be printing the names of sponsors on large signs that we hang in the social hall during the Festival.  The signs have to go to the printers soon, so please get your sponsorships to the Synagogue office right away.

Cooking is underway for the Yiddish Food Festival and we need volunteers!  We’re cooking Thursday evenings at 5:00 and Sunday mornings at 10 AM.  There’s a lot of food to prepare, so come join Jeff and Mary Weinstein and their team of volunteers.  We need a hand!

We are featured in a new website.  Jay Abramson emailed us, asking for pictures of our Torahs and information about our history for his website at www.OldTestamentReadings.com.  We obliged, and he wrote a nice article about us.  You can read it here:   https://www.oldtestamentreadings.com/post/mt-sinai-congregation-wyoming-s-oldest-synagogue.

Gayle Wagner and Courtney Schlisserman have been hard at work planning our next Women’s Shabbat service. It will be Friday, May 8, and they are still looking for women to participate by doing a reading, in Hebrew or English.  Please send an email to [email protected] if you would like to help.

We also want to remind you of our next Shalom Dinner.  It will be at L’Osteria Mondello’s Italian Restaurant off of Dell Range.  We’ll meet at 6:30 PM on Wednesday, May 13.

Welcome Rabbi Delcau!

Here’s our Yiddish Phrase of the Week:

Es helft vi an afikoymen tsu kadokhes.
It’s as helpful as an afikoman for a fever.