President’s Messages

Dear Temple Sinai Members,

As I write this article, I am reflecting on one of the best weekends we have ever had at Temple Sinai! Celebrating our 60^th anniversary with all of you was extraordinary, from the moving ceremony Friday night to the great fun of Saturday night to, finally, the Mitzvah day activities with the kids. It all reminds me how blessed I am to be part of this community and to help lead it from strength to strength.

I want to particularly thank our committee members: Carol Benjamin, David and Karen Scheinerman, Ari and Ali Shell, Joyce Sturm, Cindy Lesser, and finally our committee chair Stacey Debin. They all did an amazing job!

I wanted to close by thanking Joyce Sturm for her 16 fabulous years at Temple Sinai! Her incredible dedication, hard work, and her great ability to get things done will be greatly missed. More than that, I will miss the great partnership/friendship I have had with Joyce. It has been an honor to work with her, and I know the whole Temple Community joins me in wishing Joyce a wonderful, well earned retirement.

I look forward to seeing everyone soon, and I thank you all for making Temple Sinai such a special place.

Please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions about these events or any other items of concern.

Regards,
Ken Lesser, President

Dear Temple Sinai Members,

It wasn’t so many months ago that Rabbi Bennett reminded us – with a wink and a nod — during High Holy Day services how happy he would be to see all of us at Friday evening services.  As the rhythm of the Jewish holiday calendar takes hold, let’s remember that some of the most amazing moments at Temple Sinai take place every Friday night. 

Last week, for example, Rabbi Bennett delivered a d’var message that resonated as profoundly as any High Holy Day sermon.  Cantor Lipton keeps us engaged by introducing beautiful new melodies, and from time to time she provides a “sermon in song” that encapsulates in one breathtaking moment the essence of Shabbat through music.  Cantor  Lipton livens up Shabbat by inviting talented instrumentalists among us to accompany her and Nina Miller, herself an    accomplished pianist. 

The spirit and beauty of Shabbat services brings the sacred separation from the “weekly grind.”  Friday evenings at Temple Sinai serve as much more than mere punctuation marks separating the major (and minor) Jewish holidays.  The weekly ritual brings comfort as much as awareness.  Coming together as a community each week in our peaceful synagogue to engage spiritually is a blessing.  We should all rejoice in it!

~Andrew Wizner, Temple President

Dear Temple Sinai Members,

As we head toward spring, I look forward to sharing some exciting things with all of you. I am really grateful to our wonderful Temple Community for its ongoing support.

I wanted to highlight several important things happening in the next couple of months.

First, we will be celebrating Purim on Wednesday, March 23. Our Purim Service (at 6:00 p.m.) has always been one of the highlights each year as the Rabbi and Cantor have always put on an incredible service! Donna Gordon might have retired as our cantor, but she promised to drop by. I can’t wait to see what Donna and Rabbi Bennett have in store for us this year.

Second, we will have our First Night Seder on Friday, April 22, following the 6:00 p.m. Shabbat service. We always have a terrific crowd as we celebrate this wonderful holiday together.

Last, we have our 60^th Anniversary Celebration the weekend of April 29–May 1:

• At the 7:30 p.m. Friday evening service, April 29, we will have Senator Dick Blumenthal here to celebrate with us. We will also honor our founding members, long time members, past Presidents and past Sisterhood presidents.
• On Saturday night, April 30, we will have our Gala. This will be a fun evening of dinner and dancing.
• On Sunday, May 1, the children will be making special food bags in support of our cause to help those who suffer from hunger.

I look forward to seeing you all soon!

Please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions about these events or any other items of concern.

Regards,
Ken Lesser, President

Dear Temple Sinai Members,

As we begin 2016, I am so excited about all the wonderful things planned for this spring. However, before I tell you about those events, I want to mention that we will soon be transitioning away from two great staff members of the temple.

As you know Cantor Gordon has retired as of the end of December 2015, and is greatly missed. Cantor Gordon has provided us with her wonderful work in bringing us prayer in song with her beautiful voice and has worked so beautifully with our Religious School students. She had also been instrumental in preparing our Bar and Bat Mitzvah students. She will be greatly missed. Andy Wizner is chairing the Cantor Search Committee and you will see our progress by reading their article.

Our Temple Administrator, Joyce Sturm, has announced her retirement this May. We have started the process of hiring another great Temple Administrator. Joyce has done an amazing job for us over her 15+ years. She will be greatly missed.

As for upcoming events, we have the following four special programs that I’d like to highlight:

1. Sunday, February 7, 9:15 a.m.—Our New Member/Volunteer breakfast. All temple members are welcome.
2. Saturday, February 20, 7:30 p.m.—Cindy Lesser & Friends will present an evening of musical entertainment, which will be a benefit to fight hunger in our area.
3. Sunday, February 21, 9:30 a.m.—Dr. Jeffrey Shoulson, UConn Professor of Judaic Studies, will speak.
4. Saturday evening, April 30—Temple Sinai’s 60^th Anniversary GALA celebration will take place. Stay tuned for more details.

Please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions on these events or other items of concern.

Regards,
Ken Lesser, President

Dear Temple Sinai Members,

I hope everyone enjoyed Hanukkah, and it was wonderful to see so many of you at our terrific Hanukkah Service! As the calendar turns to 2016, I wanted to give you all an update on some of the wonderful things that have just happened recently or are upcoming.

First, I had the pleasure of attending the Sisterhood’s Dinner and Silent Auction. This was the first time the Sisterhood ran this function, and it was very well attended. Ann Speyer and the Sisterhood did a wonderful job!

Second, the Social Action Committee recently completed their Turkey and a $30 campaign. It was a great initiative for a very important cause. Sarah Maltese and her committee did a great job including wearing turkey themed outfits. I have volunteered to wear a Turkey Suit!

As you know, our Cantor Donna Gordon has retired as of January 1. We are planning a luncheon for her on Sunday, January 31, at 11:45 a.m.

As far as upcoming events, I am most excited about our 60^th anniversary coming up at the end of April! We will honor some of our long time members and past leaders on April 29 at our Friday Night Service, and that will include a special guest speaker. And, on Saturday, April 30, we will have our Gala!

We have any other wonderful things planned for the year, including a concert to benefit Hunger. Stay tuned for more details.

As the calendar turns 2016, I look forward to another great year at Temple Sinai. Please let me know if you have comments or suggestions.

Regards,
Ken Lesser, President

Dear Temple Sinai Members,

On behalf of the Board, I would like to say a big thank you for your generosity. Our holiday donations to Foodshare, and our High Holiday Pledges, were very significant. I am very grateful for your continued generosity.

I am excited to report that the Temple is bustling with activity. We continue to make progress on our three main priorities of service, education, and community. In the area of service, we have decided to focus our energies on Hunger. We will look to complement the great work the Social Action Committee is already doing on this. Stay tuned for more information of how everyone can play a part.

As far as community, we have so many wonderful programs going on for our Temple Community and the wider community. Also, please stay tuned for more information on our 60th Anniversary Celebration Weekend, April 29 – May 1.

In the area of education, we recently provided training to our teachers on how to best use the new laptops in the classroom.

Finally, I wanted to share with you that the Rabbi, Carol, Joyce and I have just returned from the URJ Biennial (Union for Reform Judaism). The Biennial was pure magic, from the incredible music, powerful worship, interesting and helpful workshops, and finally to listening to Vice President Joe Biden. We have learned many helpful things we can possibly put into practice at Temple Sinai. I do want to emphasize that as I sat in meetings with Presidents from other congregations, I realized even more how special a place Temple Sinai is! I heard of so many different significant challenges facing these congregations, and we are much better off than most. I am very proud of the culture of inclusion we have, led by the Rabbi, and how we have such a wonderful caring Temple Community.

Please let me know if anyone has any comments or suggestions, and I look forward to seeing many of you at our Chanukah Shabbat on December 11 at 6:00 p.m.

Thank you.

Regards,
Ken Lesser, President

Dear Temple Sinai Members,

I hope the new year is off to a good start this year for all of you. I know I am going to focus less on being happy this year, and more on having a good year by doing good things. We have a lot of wonderful things happening at the Temple, and I wanted to highlight some for you.

First, thank you all for generosity during this holiday season. We received great support for Foodshare and to our Temple. We have decided as a Board to have Hunger as our focus for our service initiative this year. Working with our Social Action committee, we will have many different ways our congregation can do more to combat this big issue.

Secondly, we have had two groups recently meeting at the Temple. The Jewish Genealogical Society of CT is now housed at Temple Sinai, and they meet once a month at the temple. This is a great way to learn more about your ancestry. We also had a JT Connect Program for students that taught teens about the problems of homelessness; they interviewed current or previously homeless people.

On October 9, we had our Torah Study for beginners program sponsored by our Adult Education Committee and led by Rabbi Bennett. We had a terrific gathering of 24 and an excellent discussion. Please consider going to the next one on December 19 at 9:00 a.m. On October 16, we had our Welcome Back Shabbat. It was a wonderful evening sponsored by our Membership Committee.

I am excited by all the great things happening at the Temple. Finally, I wanted to remind you we will be having our 60th Anniversary Gala on April 30. Stay tuned for more details!

Regards,
Ken Lesser, President

Dear Temple Sinai Members,

I want to begin by wishing you a happy, healthy new year!

When you read this we will have all celebrated the New Year, and the Day of Atonement. As we reflect during this time about the past year, we also look forward to all the possibility the new year brings.

As for me, I am grateful to be a part of our wonderful Temple Sinai Community. We are truly blessed with great clergy, great staff, and great members! Our leadership team is working hard to make things even better.

As you may recall our three primary objectives are education, service, and community. Here is a quick update on each:

1. Education: On September 13 our religious school got off to a great start, and we have 129 students. We are excited to announce we have gotten four laptops, a printer, and WiFi throughout the building. We have a terrific school program, but we need to enhance it with technology and we are.
2. Service: We are in the process of selecting one main service priority as our focus. We are looking at homelessness, literacy, and hunger as three possibilities. We welcome any feedback on this, and once we select one we will be letting everyone know how they can help.
3. Community: I am very excited to report we have made some great progress here. First, we now have the Jewish Genealogy Society of CT operating out of Temple Sinai. They meet once a month on Sundays, and it is great opportunity to be able to trace your roots. Second, we have started a partnership with UConn’s Judaic Studies Department. They will be doing a free program at Temple Sinai a few times a year. Our first program is tentatively scheduled for December 6 at Temple Sinai. Stay tuned for more details. Finally, we will be having a 60th anniversary gala on April 30!

I am excited about all these wonderful things, and I welcome any feedback you have. I also want to welcome any new members that have recently joined our congregation. I am hopeful you will find us a warm, welcoming community. Please reach out to me if I can be of any help in any way.

L ‘Shana Tova,

Ken Lesser, President 

Dear Fellow Temple Sinai Members,

I hope you all have enjoyed the summer, and are gearing up for a busy fall at the Temple.  The High Holidays are right around the corner, and I look forward to seeing you during this special time as we get together for prayer and reflection. As I have just started my term as President, I couldn’t be more excited about where we are as a congregation and our possibilities for the future.  We are a strong and vibrant community made up of outstanding staff, and terrific members.

We have three main areas of focus this year. They are: community, service, and education.  Here is a quick look at each:

1. Community—we are working hard to connect with the broader Jewish community and will have a 60th anniversary gala on April 30 to celebrate our great history. Additionally, we have many other things planned.
2. Service—we are going to select one area to focus our service efforts on and everyone is encouraged to help.  We will also continue our great partnership with Foodshare, and to support those who don’t have enough food to eat in Greater Hartford.
3. Education—we are going to enhance our current strong program by adding technology into the classrooms. I welcome any suggestions, input, or questions on these initiatives.

Finally, I want to make special note of our new members joining us at the High Holidays for the first time. Welcome!!! I look forward to greeting you.

L’shana Tova
Ken Lesser, President 

Dear Temple Sinai Members,

As this is my last bulletin article as President, I would like to take this chance to thank you for the honor and privilege of this opportunity. I have gotten to know so many of you and am always humbled by the dedication that our members have to our Temple family. On many occasions, I have asked you to participate in an event, chair a committee, financially support the Temple, etc. etc. Without fail, you have responded in a far more positive manner than may have been expected. There is no question that I could not have done this position without your help and support, so many, many thanks from the bottom of my heart.

Ken Lesser, who will be our next President, has many new ideas and a sincere devotion to Temple Sinai where he grew up and has followed in the path set by his parents. We continue to have a board comprised of dedicated people whose energy and enthusiasm will carry our congregation successfully into the future. I know you will help Ken and the rest of the board as you have helped me.

We continue to work on the revisions to the bulletin and I hope to be able to discuss this at the annual meeting on May 17. As I have mentioned before, our goal is to have the bulletin mailed to all members, but need to do that in a fiscally responsible way. I hope that you can attend our annual meeting to not only find out about the bulletin changes, but also to hear what has occurred in the past year and plans for the coming one. Also on May 17 we will be celebrating Rabbi Bennett’s special birthday and hope you will stay for this fun filled event.

Please check the May – June bulletin for the many other events in May and June. I especially would like to put in a plug for Mitzvah Day and the FoodShare Walk against Hunger which will be May 3. As I have mentioned before, Tikkun Olam (repairing our world) is an essential Jewish value and this day will be a perfect opportunity for you to participate in fulfilling our mission. Even if you don’t sign up ahead of time, please join us for a morning of activities and an afternoon of exercise! I think the weather has always cooperated, so no excuse for staying home.

Again I would like to express my gratitude for your support for the last three years and your many contributions that make Temple Sinai such a special religious community.

B’Shalom,

Carol Benjamin, President