I am excited and I hope you are! We have the best rabbinical team of Rabbi Sara and Rabbi Benjamin, and a wonderfully talented administrator, Mike Stombaugh. They have worked hard to quickly adapt Sinai to the technological wonders of Facebook Live and Zoom, which has enabled us to continue with our Jewish values and traditions. I know there are no words at this time to describe the change of lifestyle with which we are all faced. Questions remain as to when will we be able to return to our normal lifestyle and whether life really will be normal again. I am sorry to say that I cannot answer these questions for myself or for you either. What I do know is that your Temple Sinai Board of Directors has decided to continue our distancing for now as per Governor Sisolak’s orders. But the next question becomes: do we follow his guidelines, Washoe county guidelines, or the CDC’s guidelines? We are all up in the air as to when these orders will be lifted and, if they are lifted, does that mean we are safe to just jump back into mass gatherings? The Board has decided, it is in the best interest of our community to keep our social distancing for a period longer than the possible April 30th closure at this time. We will continue until at least June 1, 2020, and until further notice after that.

What does this mean for our members? We will continue our Live-Streaming Friday night services, Zoom meeting Sinai School, and all other events as we are today. We will also go forth with our Annual Congregational Meeting on May 17th at 11:00 am. Further details will be sent out soon on how that will look via Facebook Live and Zoom. As always, we will continue to communicate through our emails and by telephone for those who need a voice.

Speaking of the Annual Congregational Meeting, there are FIVE member-at-large positions open. If you have an interest or know of someone with some time/interest, please have them reach out to me (president@sinaireno.org) or Steve Weidman (sweidman@mac.com) over the next few days as nominations for the slate will close soon.

For those of you who were not able to attend the Passover Facebook Live Seder with the Rabbis, just know that they did not miss a beat making it seem we were all there with them in person. We are beyond lucky to have such wonderful spiritual leaders in our midst.

L’shalom,
Michael