It has been a busy  month at Temple Sinai. The Familyhood Committee put on a wonderful and highly successful fundraiser for Youth programs, the Spring Simcha Sock Hope and Silent Auction at the Grove. Thank you to everyone who helped to make it a smash, especially Beth and Adam Slamowitz, Mary Allstead, Ellen Lessinger — and all our parents and attendees who donated auction items and money. What a fun event!

Of course, we celebrated Passover at the Atlantis and Saundra Goodman and many others planned a wonderful seder for us. Thank you to everyone who attended!

Last week we marked Yom HaShoah and many of you attended Holocaust Education events for the community. We at Temple Sinai are proud of the work and dedication of Temple members Judy Schumer, Nurit Stites and Marilyn Rappaport, and next year Mindy Hertz, for investing so much care in Holocaust Education for the state. We marked Yom HaShoah as a community with a Shabbat service dedicated to the memory of the six million who so tragically perished. Thank you to the Youth Group for helping to lead a very meaningful service– and to the survivors and children of survivors within our Temple Sinai family who lit our Yom HaShoah candles.

Tuesday night, we also celebrated the culmination of the four-month Introduction to Judaism class. A hearty thank you to Jill Flanzraich, the Teaching Assistant for the class, who managed the roster, communications and logistics for the 18-session class. Next year, we will be offering an Adult B’nei Mitzvah class. Please let me know if you are interested in taking part!

This Friday we have a special Yom HaAtzma’ut-themed Family service at 6:00 p.m. with Pot-Luck dinner at 7:00 p.m. This follows Tot Shabbat at 5:30 p.m. Thank you to Tova Ramos for her puppetry during Tot Shabbat and Steve Rubin for playing guitar at both services. Come celebrate Israeli Independence Day and Shabbat! We are also looking forward to Shavuot with Temple Emanuel and Temple Beth Or on Tuesday, May 30. Please see the flyer below and send in your RSVP. It will be lovely to celebrate Shavuot with all three synagogues together two days after the Temple Sinai Israel Trip.

Finally, please look out for membership pledge letters coming in the mail soon as we ask everyone in the congregation to please submit membership renewal commitments for the next year before July 1. Thank you for your timely attention.

Shabbat shalom,
Rabbi Bair