That was great!  We had a fantastic Yiddish Food Festival yesterday.  806 people walked through the front door of the Synagogue.  They came in so fast when the doors opened that one of our clicker devices called it quits.  It couldn’t keep up and stopped counting.  We have already ordered new clickers for next year.

We have reason to celebrate from such a successful event, so let’s do that this Wednesday, June 10.  Let’s meet at the Tres Amigos Restaurant on West Lincolnway at 6:30 PM Wednesday for a Shalom Dinner.  There’s bound to be lots of fun stories to share about the Festival.  Join us for dinner and a well-earned break!

Let’s compare some numbers.  Starting just after Covid, in 2022, 400 people came to the Yiddish Food Festival.  In 2023, that went up to 500. In 2024, the number was 780, and last year it was 956.  And this year we had 806.  We didn’t hit a record this year, but we are showing serious growth.

Noam sold 84 containers of Hummus in just over an hour.  We sold 25 of the Mt. Sinai Cookbooks (you can still buy them from our website here – https://www.mtsinaicheyenne.org/cookbooks.  230 cabbage rolls were sold, along with all of our pastries, challah, and pastrami sandwiches. Latkes were new this year and a big hit.

We haven’t tallied up all of the money that came in, and then deducted our expenses yet, but some things stand out.  We had 24 sponsors this year at $250 each, for a total of $6000.  Visitors to the Festival made $4000 in donations.  And we want to give out a big shoutout to Susan Perlman.  She came to the Synagogue with a large check to donate to our roof replacement.  If you add in the sponsors and donors to our food sales, this may be our most successful Festival yet.

Rabbi Delcau attended his first Festival as our Rabbi.  During the Ask The Rabbi sessions in the large sanctuary, he brought out a Torah, and gave our guests an up close and personal view while describing the challenges of reading directly from it.

We also welcomed a reporter from KGWN-TV who came to cover the Festival.  Our Israeli folk dancers were a big success, and the Klez Dispensers put on a great concert.  Thanks to Howard Rodack, our MC.  You can get a “taste” of the Festival here, thanks to a video from Jason Bloomberg – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23swgp2wkoY

The Yiddish Food Festival would not be successful if it wasn’t for all of our volunteers.  You pitched in for weeks ahead of time, cooking up massive amounts of food (and we ran out anyway).  And yesterday, our volunteers were everywhere, serving food, working in the gift shop, selling and receiving shekels, and a lot more.

Our guests had a wonderful time because of you, and all said they would be back next year.

We also got some great news this past week.  Jared Wagner, the son of Rick and Gayle Wagner, is being promoted to full Colonel.  Jared is a 2006 graduate of West Point, and works in the Pentagon in Pete Hegseth’s office.  His promotion ceremony is tomorrow.  We have reason to kvell!  (Kvell means to share in someone’s joy and be proud of their accomplishments.)

Please give your thoughts and prayers to Robert Georgio, Roz Baker’s son-in-law and Jacque Georgio’s husband.  He’s facing some serious health issues.  We hope he gets better soon.

Here’s our Yiddish Phrase of the Week:

Du vest es shoyn zen vi dayne oyern.
You’ll see it when you see your own ears. 

Shalom,