Weekly Message from the Board President

There is a close personal connection between someone in our congregation, and one of the hostages released by Hamas yesterday.  Emily Damari is a friend of Matani Ravenna.  Emily’s older brother Ben was an officer that Matani reported to for more than a year when he served in the Israeli Defense Force.  Matani has been in touch with someone close to Ben.  He says that Emily “seems unbroken and in great spirits.  She is missing two fingers and has been reunited with her family.”

Matani sent us a screen shot of Emily talking and waving on a video call.

A cease fire was reached in the war between Israel and Hamas and went into effect yesterday.  As part of the agreement, 33 hostages were due to be released, including two American citizens.  Emily Damari was one of the first to be set free.

The cease fire and release of the hostages are cause for celebration, and we have two events coming up this week that we can use to celebrate.

On Wednesday, we’re all getting together at the Office Restaurant on Pershing Blvd. for our Shalom Dinner.  We’ll meet at 6:30 PM.  Let’s drink a toast to the cease fire and the release of the hostages.

Then on Sunday, we’re holding our annual Kugel Cookoff.  The City Creek Band, featuring Daniel Hillshafer, will be performing starting at 1 PM.  We’ll pause the festivities to taste test kugels baked by our best chefs in town.  We’ll offer a prayer of thanksgiving for the end of hostilities in the Middle East, and the return of the hostages.  Then we’ll see who has baked the best-tasting kugel in the world (or at least Cheyenne).

Our thanks to Noah Make, who created a very nice flyer advertising the concert and Cookoff.

Sisterhood is launching a new and exciting fundraiser.  They’ll be making loaves of Challah in different flavors and offering them for sale. One of the flavors will be related to an upcoming holiday. Here’s a note from Carol Fischer about it:

The upcoming holiday is Valentine’s Day and the challah will be a braided chocolate and strawberry challah that may be heart shaped ($9). A 1 pound challah for $7 and ½ pound challah for $5. There is a $4 delivery fee if it needs to be delivered. The orders will need to come in through a form on the website so we know how many to make and will be made the 9th and 10th of February for pick up on the 11th or 13 just in time for Valentine’s Day.

We’ll get the order form programmed on the website soon.

Israeli dancing is taking a break.  The Sunday sessions will be on hiatus from January 26 (next Sunday) through February 16.  The dancers will be kicking up their heels again on February 23.

The Mt. Sinai Board of Directors met last week.  We’ll have more from the meeting in our next newsletter, but we want to give you an early heads up.  On Friday, February 21, our Shabbat service will be led by the women in our community.  Those are always very popular and draw a good crowd.  If you would like to participate (maybe reading a prayer in English or Hebrew?), please contact the Synagogue office.  We’ll make you a star!

Here’s our Yiddish Phrase of the Week:

Zi iz a baleboste iber a heyptl kroyt.
She’s the proprietress of a head of cabbage.

Shalom,

Dave Lerner
President
Mt. Sinai Board of Directors

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January Birthdays

1              Chanie Mendelsohn

2              Jacob Westover

5              William Lucero

11           Stephanie White

12           Laurie Lerner

15           Steve Lerner

16           Zalman Mendelsohn

22           Thomas Silliman

25           Donna Pepper

26           Jacob Means

26           David Young

27           Erin Brown

28           Leo Wolfson

29           Howard Rodack