Photos Courtesy of Louis Davidson, Synagogues360.org

Coming Up

Wednesday, April 18 - 6:30 PM - Board Meeting

Thursday, April 19 - 12 noon to 1 PM - Torah Thursday. Take a few moments out of your week and join us at noon on Thursdays as we begin uncovering more about Abram and family with the help of commentators Rashi, Sforno and Steinsaltz. Feel free to bring a lunch.   

Thursday, April 19 - 6:30 PM - Shalom Dinner at Perkins on Dell Range.  NO BAKING TONIGHT.

Friday, April 20 - 7 PM - Shabbat services led by Rabbi Moldo followed by Oneg sponsored by the Sisterhood.    
Saturday, April 21 -10:30 AM to 11:30 AM -  Shabbat services and Torah study led by Rabbi Moldo followed by Oneg sponsored by the Sisterhood.   

Sunday, April 22 - 10 AM to noon - Religious School.  Last class of the season. 

Sunday, April 22 -11:30 AM to 1:30 PM - Library Open. Other times by request. Call Tim Solon, 632-4105    

Sunday, April 22  - 1:30 to 3 PM - Jewish & Israeli Dancing.  For more information, please contact Mary Weinstein.  

Sunday, April 22 - 4 P.M. Hadassah Book Group will meet at Wendy Berelson's house in Laramie-please contact Phyllis if you would like to carpool. We are reading The Gustav Sonata by Rose Tremain; it was the winner of the 2016 National Jewish Book Award for Fiction. A five-page review of the book is to be found in the January/February 2018 issue of the Hadassah Magazine.    Amazon writes that it is:  “a poignant tale about the enduring friendship between two men under the shadow of the Second World War.  Gustav Perle grows up in a small town in Switzerland, where the horrors of the Second World War seem only a distant echo. An only child, he lives alone with Emilie, the mother he adores but who treats him with bitter severity. He begins an intense friendship with a Jewish boy his age, talented and mercurial Anton Zweibel, a budding concert pianist. The novel follows Gustav’s family, tracing the roots of his mother’s anti-Semitism and its impact on her son and his beloved friend. Moving backward to the war years and the painful repercussions of an act of conscience, and forward through the lives and careers of the two men, one who becomes a hotel owner, the other a concert pianist, The Gustav Sonata explores the passionate love of childhood friendship as it is lost, transformed, and regained over a lifetime. It is a powerful and deeply moving addition to the beloved oeuvre of one of our greatest contemporary novelists.”

Thursday, April 26 - 12 noon to 1 PM - Torah Thursday. Take a few moments out of your week and join us at noon on Thursdays as we begin uncovering more about Abram and family with the help of commentators Rashi, Sforno and Steinsaltz. Feel free to bring a lunch.   

Friday, April 27 - 7 PM - Shabbat services followed by Oneg sponsored by the Sisterhood.    

Saturday, April 28 -10:30 AM to 11:30 AM -  Shabbat services and Torah study followed by Oneg sponsored by the Sisterhood.   

Sunday, April 29 -11:30 AM to 1:30 PM - Library Open. Other times by request. Call Tim Solon, 632-4105    

Sunday, April 29  - 1:30 to 3 PM - Jewish & Israeli Dancing.  For more information, please contact Mary Weinstein.  

Sunday, April 29 - 6:30 PM -  Mt. Sinai Movie Night! We’ll be showing the 1980 movie, The Jazz Singer.  Our movie committee had a lot of debate over this one.  There’s the original from 1927 with Al Jolson, a 1952 movie starring Danny Thomas, and the 1980 version starring Neil Diamond and Sir Laurence Olivier.  Neil Diamond’s version won out, but it was a tough call.

SAVE THE DATE!

Wednesday, May 9 - The Infamous Holocaust: As seen and remembered by survivor, Eric Cahn will be presented on Wednesday, May 9, 12:00 noon, in LCCC’s Clay Pathfinder Building, ANB Bank Leadership Center, Cheyenne, Wyoming.   This event is presented by the LCCC History Department, free admission.  For further information contact Mary Ludwig:MLudwig@lccc.wy.edu.   

APRIL BIRTHDAYS

1             Nathan Weinstein          
12           Pat Wolf
24           Carol Fischer
24           Cheryl Hite
24           Tori Rosenthal
29           Barbara Karz-Wagman

Like to cook? Want to get together with some great people? Here is the schedule for cooking for the Yiddish Food Festival. We generally start around 5:30 on Thursdays, in the Kosher kitchen in the Synagogue. Come join us! There are free tastes for anything you cook.

Yiddish Food Festival Cooking Schedule

Weekly Message from our Board President

It’s the little details.  In last week’s Synagogue newsletter, we talked about the Shalom Dinner scheduled for this week, but never mentioned the time.  So here it is…  We’ll be having dinner together at Perkins Restaurant on Dell Range Blvd. starting at 6:30 P.M.  You are welcome to come early or late, but our reservation will be for 6:30 P.M.   Hope you can join us!

The Mt. Sinai Board of Directors is meeting the night before, on Wednesday, also at 6:30 P.M.  Topics on the agenda include planning for the Yiddish Food Festival, and the Endowment Board’s plans for a concert in June.  The concert will be very exciting.  It will feature the group Sally and George.  Sally is Shelby Means, daughter of Sherri and Warrie Means, and George is her husband, Joel Timmons.  Shelby was previously part of the Grammy nominated group Della Mae, and Joel played for Sol Driven Train. The Sally and George concert will be at 7 PM on Sunday, June 17th, in the large Sanctuary at the Synagogue.  It’s a fundraiser for the Mt. Sinai Endowment, but will also be an excellent show.

Our next movie night is Sunday, April 29th, at 6:30 P.M. in the Social Hall.  We’ll be showing Neil Diamond’s The Jazz Singer.  Here’s a trailer for the movie:

The Rabbi’s column today talks about Israel’s upcoming 70th birthday.  As part of the celebration, the students in our religious school drew pictures to commemorate the event.

Work on the front doors of the Synagogue is almost done.  It is truly a night and day difference.  Our thanks to Irwin Pasternack for having the doors refinished, and to John Pacheco and his crew for doing an excellent job.

Babs Klein says this is a classic:
“Close the window.  It’s cold outside!”
“And if I close the window, it’ll be warm outside?”

Shalom!

Dave Lerner
President
Mt. Sinai Board of Directors

Rabbi's Column

Israel turns 70 this week. 

A lot can happen in 70 years. In America, our 70th year saw the Mexican-American war, the decision as to where our border with Canada should be, the acceptance of Iowa as the 29th State, the beginning of the Mormon migration and the first official baseball game played by actual rules. President Polk was in charge of all this.

A lot has changed in Israel over the past 70 years. Some ideals have not been met, and other ideals are being lived daily, even if the news does not focus on the good stuff all that often. There will probably be some changes made over the next 70 years, both in terms of Israel itself and in terms of the relationship between Israel and the rest of us. Just for the fun of it, I predict that in 70 years:

1. If the melody for the Israeli national anthem remains the same, the words will change to a combination of Hebrew and Arabic, where the hopes for a fundamentally moral state will be able to be sung by all citizens of Israel.
2. As Arabic is one of Israel's national languages, efforts will be made outside of Israel to teach both liturgical Hebrew and spoken Arabic.
3. Observance of the Nakba will be moved to Tisha B'Av, as another example of a disastrous event that enabled growth that comes with change. This will be made possible by a generation and leadership that turns Gaza into the Monaco of the southern Mediterranean
4. Jewish villages in the Jordan valley become so useful economically that other Arab countries compete to invite Jews back in.
5. The United Nations places a 30 year moratorium against discussing Israel to make up for so much discussion about it earlier. 
6. The world does not completely embrace peace, but it has convinced all leaders to refrain from chemical and biological warfare on their own people.
7. Life cycle events are no longer completely under religious control.
8. The Law of Return is tweaked to only apply to Jews under oppressive regimes, from war-torn areas or places where antisemitism is active, violent and tolerated by the government and police.
9. American Jews no longer need to prove Judaism to move to Israel - they simply have to become citizens like anybody else would.
10. Outdoor areas in Jerusalem become available to private prayer only. Life cycle events must take place indoors or on a congregation's property.
11. Active membership within Judaism includes volunteer service in another country for 2 years, within a religious strand that is not the same one as a person grew up in. Whether this is before or after college depends upon the individual. Funding for this comes from the same place that Birthright Israel used to use.
12. Judaism, in all of its many strands, will still be alive and vibrant, and will be filled with people certain that this will be the last generation of Jews.

The good news is - this is so far off that I feel certain I will never know if I am right or not.

Israel's birthday always comes with a reminder that people have died for Israel to continue to exist. May the day come when all militaries will be used to battle the aftermath of natural disasters throughout the world, without the need to worry about the enemy at the gates.