Shalom Congregants,
This coming Shabbat morning (April 5) I will be marking the 50th anniversary of my Bar Mitzvah, and I’m looking forward to celebrating this milestone with my CBI Family. There is nowhere else I would rather be. Helaine and I are sponsoring the kiddush and you are all invited to join us. You have been with us for all of our moments of joy and sorrow during the past 25 years, and I know this time will be another memorable event to share.
All year long members of our community have marked and celebrated numerous occasions at CBI: b’nai mitzvah aufrufs, birthdays, wedding anniversaries, graduations, and the list goes on. Some of us lost loved ones and marked yahrzeits. Sharing these personal moments in our lives with our CBI family creates the strong fabric of our community. I encourage all of us to take advantage of these opportunities to mark these milestones together, and to make them even more meaningful by considering a synagogue sponsorship. This could be a Shabbat morning kiddush, a breakfast for the morning minyan, one of our community wide Shabbat dinners, or any one of a dozen other ways to support the synagogue financially.
I am also looking ahead to the Passover holiday when we will gather around the table with family and friends to renew our traditions, and once again tell the story of our people passing from slavery to freedom. Milestones and holidays remind me of how lucky I am to be Jewish. During the past year and half, it has not always been easy to say we feel lucky to be Jewish, but we are. We share a rich heritage that brings us together for many special celebrations. We share beautiful ways to mark important times in our lives, to recall our shared history, and to be part of an eternal people, Am Yisrael, the Jewish people. We must treasure our lives as Jews. May our Seders be joyful and meaningful. May we never take our Jewish heritage for granted. May we have endless reasons to celebrate together. Chag sameach.
Shabbat Shalom!
Henry Bloom
President
Congregation B’nai Israel
