Upcoming Holidays

With the holidays coming early this year, planning for the holidays starts a little early. You will see lots of information related to the holidays in this issue of bulletin. Erev Rosh Hashanah is in early September, so we felt it was best to get most of our informa-tion about the holidays in this bulletin.

Take a look at the information related to Aliyahs and other honors for the holidays in this bulletin. Please let me know if you have an interest in having an Aliyah or honor during these coming holidays.

Our Board of Education has been hard at work planning for the coming school year. Thanks to Jen Bernstein and her com-mittee for all their hard work in laying out calendar for the students for the coming year!

Robert Blumenthal and the Ritual Committee have been hard at work clarifying all the details and responsibilities related to services for the holidays. We appreciate all the work and energy put forth by this committee.

As you will also see in this bulletin, we have made a decision to downsize the Gift Shop. Thanks to Deborah Adler and Terri Frolich for their dedication and hard work over the years in keeping our Gift Shop running.

In a recent Board meeting we spent time reviewing information from USCJ on Relational Judaism. We have always felt we are a warm and welcoming Kehilla. During the discussion, it was interesting to hear different experiences that people had when they arrived in our community. It was clear we have some work to do. I challenge each of you in the coming year to step outside your comfort zone and make a point to get to know fellow members you may not know. When you see somebody you do not know, in-troduce yourself. More to come on some fun activities to get to know your fellow members.

As we move into Elul and the holiday season, I hope we all find meaningful time for reflection and think about how to im-prove in the coming year!