On May 9, Sinai held a fantastic program called Mesibat Shabbat, meaning “Shabbat Party.” The program was designed for children under five years old and their families. Over one hundred kids, parents, and grandparents came together for a pre-Shabbat evening of Challah baking, art, singing, davening, learning, and of course eating. Monique Alexander, the Assistant Director of the Sinai Nursery School, initiated and organized this fun and meaningful event.
It has been a true honor and privilege to have served as the President of Congregation Sinai for the past two years. This experience has been more meaningful and significant than words can properly express and I will never forget the experiences that we went through together and the friendships that were made along the way.
If we took a survey of our members and asked everyone to define the word God and to explain their belief system in the divine, there might be as many different answers as people answering. The different responses may include defining God as all powerful, all knowing, eternal, where our souls come from before birth and go to after death, or the initial creator (my father, of blessed memory, used to say that everything had to start from something and this initial molecule, the initial creator, is God). Some may say that God is all of the above, none of the above, or would not know how to define God. And in terms of what people believe, the spectrum would probably go from absolute and complete belief to those that may not believe that God exists at all.
This month, we celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of
the State of Israel. Jewish communities around the world, including
ours, will be pulling out all the stops to participate in the
festivities. As we attend concerts, dances, lectures, walks, Sinai’s
Scholar-in-Residence Shabbat on May 2-3, and more, we cannot help but
reflect on the complex nature of our relationship to Israel.
