This past Sunday, September 7, 2014, Beth Tikvah Synagogue, Congregation B'nai Shalom, and the Boroughs Jewish Community Center combined forces to create the fourth High Holy-Day Happening. The morning began with Rabbi Rachel and Rabbi Joe leading a havdallah service, marking the end of Shabbat and the beginning of the regular week. Rabbi Rachel then blew the shofar for the children as they called out the notes. The 100+ attendees then distributed themselves among the various activity stations. The children baked holiday challah and created gorgeous challah covers. They made magnets with holiday symbols and Shana Tova bookmarks to give as gifts. One of the very special activities was the making of New Year's Cards for Israeli soldiers. Over 25 cards were made which will be sent to Ziv Zamir's IDF unit. Ziv was an emissary from Israel who worked with our congregations about 2 years ago. In addition to making cards for soldiers, the children made cards for family members that featured a photo of themselves. The shofar station was a particular favorite of the children, if not the adults; they enjoyed blowing them, a lot. At the end of the day, everyone gathered in the social hall for honey and apples. Rabbi Joe led the children in the final shofar blowing of the day.The event could not have happened without a lot of help from a lot of people. Thank you to Rabbi Joe for helping to plan and organize the event. Thank you to Congregation Bnai Shalom for hosting the event. Thank you to the best team of teachers ever, Miri, Wendy, and Cindy, you guys rock! Thank you Miri for preparing dough for about 100 mini challot. Thank you Brad for being Miri's right hand in the kitchen. Thank you Wendy for overseeing the creation of those beautiful New Year's cards for the soldiers. I am sure they will love getting those cards. Thank you Cindy for manning the entrance and being in the shofar room. Thank you Adriane for rescuing Cindy at the entrance table and for your help with the challah covers. Also a big thank you to our teens, Daya and Amy who made many bookmark tassels,and to Sarah who brought a crew of volunteers with her to help, and to Jack and Shayna who along with a friend of Jack's oversaw and helped the children make the New Year's cards, and to Ella who helped with set-up and clean up and challah baking. Thank you to our new emissaries, Tal and Aviv, who joined us in the fun. Thank you to Julia from the Boroughs JCC who also manned the very noisy shofar room and helped with some critical last minute shopping (apples and honey). Thank you to the many teachers from Congregation Bnai Shalom that helped, from music to operating the giant laminating machine and so many other activities. And thank you to the teens from Congregation Bnai Shalom that helped with various activities. Thank you to the parents who brought their children to this fun-filled event. Finally, thank you to the Jewish Federation of Central Massachusetts. This event would not have happened without the funding by a grant from JFCM.
Now, we turn our attention to the upcoming school year which begins this Sunday, September 14 and to the High Holidays, Rosh Hashanah services on Wed. Sept. 24, Thurs. Sept. 25 and Fri. Sept. 26, and Yom Kippur services on Fri. Oct. 3 and Sat. Oct. 4. I look forward to seeing everyone at our warm, spiritual, and meaningful High Holiday Services.
