Coming Up

Thursday, April 2 – Noon – Torah Thursday cancelled until further notice.

Thursday, April 2 – Noon to 2 PM – Library Closed until further notice.

Friday, April 3 – 7 PM – Shabbat services cancelled until further notice.

Sunday, April 5 – Noon to 2 PM – Library Closed until further notice.

Sunday, April 5 – 1:30 to 3 PM – The Bea Montross Israeli Folk Dancers – cancelled until further notice.

Thursday, April 9 – Noon – Torah Thursday cancelled until further notice.

Thursday, April 9 – Noon to 2 PM – Library Closed until further notice.

Friday, April 10 – 7 PM – Shabbat services cancelled until further notice.

Sunday, April 12 – Noon to 2 PM – Library Closed until further notice.

Sunday, April 12 – 1:30 to 3 PM – The Bea Montross Israeli Folk Dancers – cancelled until further notice.

SAVE THE DATE!

The Hadassah Book Group has been postponed.  We will let you know when it is rescheduled.  In the meantime, enjoy the book!

Our next Hadassah book group read will be Gay Courter’s “Flowers in the Blood.”  Here is what Amazon has to say:  “. . . best selling sweeping saga, beautiful Dinah Sassoon, daughter of an affluent opium trader and pillar of Calcutta’s tight-knit Jewish community, sees her privileged future destroyed when her mother is mysteriously murdered.  This tragic event leaves Dinah dishonored and virtually unmarriagable…until Edwin Salem, offering unconditional love, sparks her indomitable spirit and passionate ambition.  Exotic and richly textured, Flowers in the Blood brings to life a nineteenth-century India never before portrayed.  Irresistible in its storytelling power, it is one of the finest novels set in India.”

Weekly Message from our Board President

Well, we sure didn’t expect this.  I don’t know if anyone could have predicted the Coronavirus or the impact it would have, including the closure of our Synagogue.  Tikvah is still in the office, because we have to pay our bills.

All services and activities at the Synagogue, including the Passover Seder, the Yiddish Food Festival, Torah Thursday, the Library, Dancing, and cooking, have  stopped.  We notified our security company that we wouldn’t be in the building for those activities, so we’re not seeing Maryann Palmer’s smile as she greets us at the door.  We’ve also slowed down the cleaning of our building to once every other week.

The Rabbi and his wife are self-quarantining.  If you would like pastoral counseling, or just someone to talk to while this crisis continues, please contact him via email or phone.

On a personal note, one of the ways we’ve been breaking up cabin fever is by using video conferencing to have dinner with friends and family.  There’s a variety of services, including Facebook Messenger, Skype, Zoom, Webex and more.  Most, if not all, are free. It’s a great way to stay in touch and the jokes are predictable (wait till someone in another state asks you to pass the salt…)

We have some very good news to share.  An anonymous donor has donated money to sponsor a chair in our large sanctuary in honor of Georgia Young. Georgia is a long time Board member and has supervised the gift shop for many years.  A plaque will be made with Georgia’s name on it and placed on a seat in the sanctuary.

We raised enough money to sponsor a chair for Howard Gallensky in our large sanctuary.  A lot of people contributed, and it was wonderful to see how much Howard was loved, respected, and missed.

For the month of April, we would like to honor Lila Gallensky, Howard’s wife, with a sponsored chair.  Lila is devoted to Mt. Sinai, and is still a very active member of Sisterhood.  Sponsoring a seat costs $500, but an anonymous donor has offered to cover half the amount under certain conditions. The money raised goes to the Mt. Sinai Endowment. 

A quick note about the Endowment and the Mt. Sinai Trust.  Both have money invested in the stock market in a variety of mutual funds.  Neither the Endowment nor the Trust have any plans to sell or divest any shares.  The market has dropped substantially, and to sell now would be to lose money.  We’re going to ride it out, and wait for the inevitable recovery.  So the Synagogue is not going to lose any money during this downturn, and will emerge stronger than before when this is all over.

We have a note from Lisa Zinn:

I must share the sad news of Susan Shuman Zinn Goldman‘s death. Susan passed away on Tuesday, March 17. Graveside services took place on March 18 at Golden Hill cemetery in Lakewood, CO. Susan was the daughter of the late Jack and Ruth Shuman of Cheyenne. Susan was married for many years to Bernard (Bernie) Goldman of Lakewood, CO. She is survived by her daughter Lisa and her grandsons Brandon (Sylvia) Zinn and Alexander Zinn of Denver and her brother Kai (Morton) & Jan Shuman of Berkeley, California. The family requests donations to the anti-defamation league in her memory.

Here’s our Yiddish Phrase of the Week:

Ain Hant vasht di tsvaiteh (un baideh vashen dem ponem).
One hand washes the other (and both wash the face).

Shalom!

Dave Lerner
President
Mt. Sinai Board of Directors

Rabbi’s Column

One of the many things that was cancelled as a result of last week’s telephonic Board Meeting was Torah Thursday. To help tide us over, I hope to go over a verse per week in these notes, using the same three commentators that we use on Torah Thursday. For Rashi and Sforno I will make use of the translation in The Commentator’s Bible by Michael Carasik. The verses themselves, and the notes by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz will be translated by me.

Genesis 37:18

They saw him from afar and during the time before he approached them they designed, concerning him, to kill him.

Rashi (11th century France) they designed they filled themselves with trickery

Sforno (15th century Italy) has nothing to say about the verse

Steinsaltz (21st century Israel) they saw him from afar by himself, and generally speaking in a place with nobody else;  and during the time before he approached them they designed, concerning him, to kill him. Their hatred against him was so deep and pointed that before they met him on his own away from their father’s house they had already raised the question of how to get rid of him.

While we did not hold Religious School yesterday, the students had been working on some decorations for Passover. Those decorations have now been put up, and will remain visible from the Agnes and Lester Weinstein Social Hall until this fall (by which time I hope we will be back to normal behaviors).

Some of the younger members of the community have volunteered to get things for people who are at risk, (and so should be minimizing contact with others to a very great extreme). 

Be careful, be kind, be considerate. May the next week be a comparatively uneventful one.

Community Partner with Family Promise of Cheyenne

March Birthdays

 3              Marshall Brown

 7              Stanley Sandick

 9              David Silver
                 Daniel Hillshafer 

21           Sihaya Reid

28           Jason Bloomberg

28           Rich Menkin

28           Morris Gardner

31           Dr Charles Kuckel

Mt. Sinai Movie Nights

All movies are shown at Mt. Sinai on the “big screen” and with surround sound. Refreshments and drinks provided. Come join us for any or all of our upcoming movies.