Dear Fellow Temple Sinai Members,
The days are getting longer, so the end of winter is hopefully in sight. Although most of us don’t love the cold and snow, the other seasons in New England are so wonderful, we put up with the difficulties to get to the good parts. I guess that is how life in general is for those of us who are “glass is half-fuIl” kind of people. And so it is with the Temple — wouldn’t it be great to have unlimited funds to create all the progams we would like, fix things like the parking lot, and have a huge endowment for generations to come? But we know that is probably not going to happen. We can focus, though, on all the positive aspects of belonging to Temple Sinai.
At the New Member Welcome Breakfast in January, we went around the room and asked people why they joined our congregation. The most common responses from both new and old members alike were our wonderful Rabbi and the welcoming atmosphere at Temple Sinai. Money doesn’t buy everything and making people feel comfortable is an intangible that we can all be proud of.
As always, there have been many activities from our various committees and groups; and hopefully you have had an opportunity to take advantage of many of them. For those of you who have not heard, we recently started a partnership with JTConnect (formerly Yachad), the community-wide Jewish education progrcm for 8th-12th grades. I assume we all want our children/grandchildren to stay connected with Judaism post Bar/Bat Mitzvah, and hopefully this joint venture will help achieve that goal. In March, a program will be held for all Religious School parents and children in the upper grades to discuss bullying — a topic that is important for all. More information will be publicized closer to the date of the program.
In December a few of us from Temple Sinai attended the URJ Biennial in San Diego, always an inspiring and life changing opportunity. I know that attending this event is not something that everyone can manage, but for those of you who can, please put these dates in your calendar for 2015: November 4–8. That Biennial will be in Orlando, FL, so perhaps it can be a family vacation as well. There is nothing quite like praying with 5,000 other Reform Jews.
And last, but not least, I have both good and not so good news regarding the position of treasurer — Al Resler, who has served in the position for many years and has done an outstanding job for Temple Sinai has moved to Florida with his wife, Sharon. We will all miss them both; not only for Al’s contributions, but also for the many years that the Resler’s have been wonderful members of Temple Sinai. On the good news side, we were able to recruit an excellent person for the treasurer position — Jill Dulitsky, who has many years of experience in the financial field and who will be another wonderful treasurer for us.
Carol Benjamin, President
president@sinaict.org 
Directions