From the pages of Kadima, the newsletter of Congregation Adas Emuno:
A Message From Our President
Dr. Lance Strate
Our Holiday Season
Summer's end brings to a close a season of vacations
and recreations, and signals the start of a new school
year for students, teachers, and parents as well. It's a
time when daily life seems to speed up, as so many of
us get back to business, and things just get busier and
busier. The leisurely pleasures of summer fun fade
away in a flurry of autumnal activity.
The summer of 2012 may have been one of the hottest
on record, but it also was one of the most productive
summers that we've had at Adas Emuno in recent
memory. Attendance at our Friday night Shabbat
services has been exceptional throughout July and
August, even during the weeks when lay leadership
substituted while Rabbi Schwartz was away on a well deserved
vacation. Making our summer worship all
the sweeter was the participation of our new Religious
School Director, Annice Benamy, as cantorial soloist,
filling the gap between the departure of Cantor Luke
Hawley in June and the arrival of our new student
cantor, Alison Lopatin, in September.
Our Board of Trustees continued to work during the
summer months, with meetings that stretched almost
until midnight, and there have been meetings of many
of our committees, including Ritual, Adult Education,
Religious School, and Social Action, as well as
orientation and training for our Religious School
faculty. Annice Benamy organized an ice cream social
for our students and prospective students, parents and
congregants, and members of the community, and this
successful open house made the cover of our local
newspaper, Leonia Life. And we held a Havadallah
Talk event featuring a screening of the film Connected,
where attendance was close to 80!
I think it's safe to say we have a bit of momentum built up as we head into the Jewish holiday season. Unlike that other holiday season, which ends with the celebration of a new year, ours begins with Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year and the Birthday of the World, which also marks the beginning of the ten day period known as the Days of Awe, culminating in Yom Kippur, with the High Holy Days being followed just a few days later by the 8-day festival of Sukkot, and ending with the holiday of Simchat Torah.
The Jewish holiday season is a time for return,
reconnection, and renewal. While some of you have
been active participants in Temple events all year
round, others return to our shul after a long absence at
this time of year, and it is truly a joyous occasion when
we have the entire Adas Emuno mishpacha gathered
together in sacred celebration. And at the risk of
sounding like a Jewish mother, let me ask you why you
never call or write, why we don't hear from you more
often, why you don't come spend time with us more
often? Maybe this year you can stay a bit longer,
return more frequently, make Adas Emuno more a part
of your life?
The Jewish holiday season is a time to reconnect, with
friends and family and fellow congregants, with our
Jewish community, our heritage, spirituality, and
tradition. It's a time for reconnection with Adas Emuno,
and maybe its time to make that connection to our
congregation stronger, more long lasting, more
complete. Of course, we all live busy lives, juggle
many demands, face many challenges, and it's easy to
make everything else a higher priority than our
synagogue. But when things really matter, when we
celebrate marriage, birth, and the coming of age, and
when we must face injury, the failing of health and
vitality, and the inevitability of death and mourning,
where else do we turn, but to our congregation?
Maybe reconnecting and deepening that connection to
our congregation at other times can help restore a
sense of place, and balance, and meaning to life?
The Jewish holiday season is a time for renewal. The
calendrical cycle begins again, the yearly cycle of
Torah readings starts over again, we engage in
repentance according to our religious tradition, and
reflect on the ways in which we can live better lives. In
this time of renewal, why not make this a time to renew
your commitment to your congregation?
Renewing your membership, paying your dues, and
donations that go above and beyond the basics are
important, there is no denying the fact that we have to
pay bills and make ends meet. But there are others
ways to contribute as well, by lending a helping hand,
by offering services and skills, by participating on
committees and in activities, by being present and
accounted for.
We have great momentum to carry us through the
Jewish holiday season, and some very exciting events
planned for the coming year, and we very much want
you to take advantage of all that Adas Emuno has to
offer. We also have a great deal of work to do, the
need for renewal is a never-ending story, and it will
take time, work, and resources to ensure that our
congregation continues to survive, and thrive. The
responsibility is ours alone, if we don't do it, no one
else will. But it can be, it ought to be a labor of love.
Now is the time, this is the season, to return,
reconnect, and renew, as individuals, and together, as
a community.
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