Weekly Message from the Board President

Last week, we celebrated the very successful Yiddish Food Festival.  If you missed our newsletter, we broke our record for attendees, with 956 people coming to the Synagogue in a 4-hour period.  We’re still tallying up the money we raised, and calculating all of the expenses, but it was a very successful event.  And the fundraising is only a part of the reason for the Yiddish Food Festival. 

This is also an opportunity for us to open our doors to the community and invite them in.  They can see the inside of the Synagogue, learn about Judaism, and learn about us.  So a major reason to hold the Festival is as an outreach to the community.  And people come from all over – several came up from Synagogues in northern Colorado to see the Synagogue, and we always get people from around the state of Wyoming. 

Sisterhood has asked that we add another thank you to the Laramie County Sheriff’s Deputies and Cheyenne Police Officers who provided security for the Festival.  And a very, very big thank you to all of our Sponsors.  After all of our expenses, the real profits from the Festival come from the sponsorships.  The sponsors make a huge difference in the success of the Festival. 

We introduced new Mt. Sinai Cookbooks this year.  They include dozens of recipes from people in our community.  They sold well during the Festival.  If you would like to get one, please contact Roz Baker at 307-630-5466. Our thanks to Roz for her hard work in putting together the cookbooks, getting them printed, and then selling them during the Festival. 

But now its time to move on and look ahead to the future… and we have some exciting things planned.  

Rabbi Halfon’s last service with us will be Friday, June 20.  Sisterhood is planning a Shabbat Dinner, starting at 6 PM that day.  We’ll then move into the small Sanctuary for services at 7, and they will also be on Zoom.  It will be a regular Friday night service, but it would be nice if we had a lot of folks show up to thank him for his work on behalf of our community and wish him well in his next adventure. 

We’re going to begin our search for a new Rabbi, and that’s where you come in.  Here’s the plan.  On Thursday, June 19, at 6:30 PM, we’re going to hold a Zoom Town Hall Meeting to talk about our next Rabbi.  We want to hear from you about the next person we should hire.  What should they be like?  What will be their duties?  And more, of course… 

Then we will form a Rabbi Search Committee.  The Rabbi Search Committee will come up with a job description and the wording of an ad.  We’ll place the ad in various online job websites.  The Rabbi Search Committee will review the applicants and decide which ones to interview.  The Committee will then select finalists and present them to the Board of Directors.  The Board will invite the finalists to lead services and possibly visit Cheyenne.  After that, the Board will make an offer to someone to serve as our next Rabbi. 

We would like you to be involved in the process… from attending and speaking your mind at the Town Hall Zoom meeting, to serving on the Rabbi Search Committee if you would like to. 

The Zoom Town Hall will be Thursday, June 19 at 6:30 PM.  Here’s the Zoom info: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88276233428.  Meeting ID: 882 7623 3428. 

The following week, on Wednesday, June 25, we’re bringing back our Shalom Dinners.  Let’s meet at 6:30 PM for dinner at Tres Amigos, 2414 West Lincolnway. 

On Friday, June 27, we’re holding our second Tot Shabbat service.  This one is fun and is aimed at the kids.  It starts at 6:30 PM at the Synagogue and will be followed by our regular Friday night service at 7. 

And an early note – we’ll be holding our usual 4th of July picnic on the um, 4th of July (which is a Friday) starting at 11:30 AM.  It will be in the back yard of the Synagogue.  We’ll be grilling hot dogs and serving soft drinks, but please bring something to share.  We usually have a table groaning with the weight of salads, chips, and desserts that go well with a meat-based meal.  There are some amazing cooks in our community. 

Rabbi Halfon would like you to know that he will be out of town this Tuesday through Friday speaking in Cody and Billings. He will also speak at United Methodist Church downtown on Sunday June 15 and says that anybody is welcome.

We also want to celebrate the release of Shelby Means’ first album.  The album, entitled Shelby Means, was released about a week ago.  Shelby is an acclaimed bluegrass bass player and won a Grammy award for her work with Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway.  She’s the daughter of Sherri and Warrie Means and has played concerts with her husband Joel Timmons at the Synagogue.  Congratulations to Shelby and her family.  We’re kvelling for her… again! 

Here’s our Yiddish Phrase of the Week: 

A gast iz vi a regn.
A guest is like rain.  

Shalom,

Dave Lerner
President
Mt. Sinai Board of Directors

Donations to Israel

If you would like to send money to Israel, here are some options:

.

A selection of Basic Jewish Library (Books, movies and other resources), recommended by Rabbi Halfon.  Please click here.

Community Partner with Family Promise of Cheyenne

Community Partner with Meals of Hope

June Birthdays

4            Talia Mantaka  

5            Noam Mantaka

7              Kathleen Dow

14           Ben Thornell

24           Sherry Snyder

30           Carol Serelson