It is hard to put into words how wonderful it was to see a full sanctuary during the High Holidays. This reflects the work of a lot of people – our reopening committee under Barry Ginsburg, our High Holiday committee under Gary Singer, the Religious Committee under Naomi Halpern, our office staff, Laura Naide and Maggie Heidema for the children’s services, the rest of my fellow officers and directors, and of course Rav Natan and our guest cantor Alex Schinazi.

On Sunday Chol Hamoed Sukkot, we had our annual picnic in memory of Brian Stern. We ran out of felafel! As I write this, we’re preparing for the end of our holiday marathon with Hoshanah Rabbah, Shemini Atzeret, and Simchat Torah. I’m happy to report that after a lot of work on COVID protocols, we will have our klezmer band on Tuesday evening.

But we’re not going to sleep after that! Our activities will continue. Rav Natan will continue his Beit Midrash series, and we have other activities to offer. Keep an eye out for our weekly emails that contain the schedule of events.

One more piece of good news to offer: after a long process, we were informed last week that our plan for security camera and fence upgrades under the Homeland Security grant program has been approved. Thanks to Nate Ainspan and Jack Lynch in particular for their work on this, along with Marcy Burka.