High Holidays 5782 Recap

L'shanah Tovah!

This holiday season we welcomed new and long-time members, repeat guests and community members to services, gatherings and ritual events. Special thanks to our clergy team Rabbi Tsafi Lev, Ritual Director Danny Chodos and Kohenet Mikala Raver for continuing to inspire and educate us. And thanks to our wonderful returning guests Kevin McIntyre and Cantor Aviva Rosenbloom and Shofar Blower extraordinaire Randy Salter who joined us on the bimah to make the holidays a standout. We also couldn’t have done this without our dedicated staff Cindy Cohen, Julie Lockman, Hannah Gere and Audrey Freedman-Habush who helped us to pull off such a diversity of events! Then there were Eric Hernandez and Ross Benson, who kept us safe and secure onsite.

Here are some of our highlights. Please feel free to send us more!

Kol Nidre “Macher Match” Appeal
Thanks to all of you and a generous matching donation of $18,000 from Nat and Alma Rubinfeld, we brought in $37,775 for our Kol Nidre appeal. This money will be used to continue to develop programming and update our space for our entire community. If you didn’t have a chance yet to give, please consider making a contribution to BTEE at https://www.btee.org/donate

Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur Virtual Services
Thanks to Sunny Singer who read the tea leaves about the spread of the the delta variant, we decided early to move our largest services to a virtual format. Therefore, we were able to plan and develop unique and engaging services that were attended by our members and guests throughout the country and more. Once again, Johanna Moyal did her magic in producing a beautiful Yizkor video to honor those who came before us. Thanks to Rebecca Chernack, Audrey and Hannah for reaching out to our community to participate in the video.

We also heard an inspirational story from Wendy Hauptmann to prepare us for Mitzvah Day (11/7) and beyond.

Kol Nidre and Ne’ila in the Sanctuary and Virtual
With the beautiful cello playing of Lara Ausubel during Kol Nidre, shofar blowing and each Torah held up in its holiday whites, we came together in small groups to perform the rituals and welcome in the new year. Thanks to Carla Muller who served as Gabbai during all of the services of the Hoy Days, and each shabbat during the year.

Book of Jonah Play
For the second year, our Hebrew School players performed an interactive play on Zoom that brought this tale of compassion to life.

Book of Judah
(Play adapted for Zoom by Danny Chodos)
 
CAST
 Narrator-Ellie Sykes
 Jonah-Bobby Sousa
 Captain-Judah Conner
 King-Ryan Sykes
 Sailor 1-Lena Zimskind
 Sailor 2-Simone Zimskind
 Sailor 3- Maya Shalts
 Citizen 1, 2 & Messenger-Sunny Singer
 God-Zelda Sousa

Family and Community Events
From the annual Tashlich (back at the beach) to our community happy hours, BTEE families came out in droves to celebrate together. 

Sukkah
Thanks to the leadership of Neela Woodard and Michael “Cap” Canaan, our team built the sukkah in our upper yard. Thanks to Kohenet Mikala Raver who led the decorating to celebrate the harvest festival in style. Julie also led the Hebrew School students to contribute person letters into the Sukkah. The Sukkah looked amazing and it was great fun to participate in events under it!!

Mind, Body and Spirit Programs
Rabbi Lev led us in a dynamic book discussion of The Netanyahus by Joshua Cohen. On the afternoon of Yom Kippur, we held two online programs. A meditation led by the extraordinary Rabbi Malka Mittelman and a poetry analysis led by Jeff Ring. And during Sukkot, Arielle Silver helped us relieve the stress of the holidays with a yoga class in the Sukkah.

We’d like to thank all of you for whatever part you played for holiday 5782. This is just the beginning of us re-engaging after too long apart. We look forward to seeing more of each of you in the upcoming year. 

As mentioned during the services, we are always looking for people to lead programs and events. If you liked something that you want more of, or have ideas for something new, let us know how we can give you the tools to make it a reality!