Thank you Rabbi, L’shana Tova,
On behalf of the Board of Trustees, I want to welcome all of you to tonight’s services and to Congregation Kol Ami - the congregation for “All our People”, for these – Yamim Noraim - Days of Awe and the High Holy Day Season.
For 35 years we have been trying to merge two different forms of prayer, into one that works for everyone. I think the Boards, Rabbis, Cantors and members, have worked very hard to find a middle ground, and we will continue to explore ways to pray together, because Judaism is about doing things as a community!
But for some… something has been missing, for those not familiar with the prayers, or the Hebrew, or some of the rules and formalities of one denomination compared to the other, we have left people at times confused, and unable to make the connections they are searching for.
Over the past couple of years the Board and Clergy have held town hall style meetings, to determine what our members want for our synagogue. Our goal is to be a synagogue where all of our members, and hopefully, many currently unaffiliated Jewish individuals and families, will find what they are looking for, right here at Kol Ami. Under the leadership of our Board, Rabbi Rosen, and our staff, Kol Ami is evolving, so that we can fulfill the original mission of the merger, to be the home for all Jews in Utah!
Last year, Rabbi Rosen took an unprecedented step, to formally welcome and recognize, right here on the bimah, our interfaith families. We openly acknowledged that there are great sacrifices in being of another faith and raising your family Jewish. We want all of these families to know how much we appreciate the commitment it takes, and we want you to know how important you all are, as part of our Kol Ami family.
This year we are taking another unprecedented step, to offer concurrent Reform and Conservative High Holy Day services. We recognize that prayer is personal, and people relate to prayer differently, as a merged Reform and Conservative shul, we have members that belong to Kol Ami as Conservative Jews, and others that belong as Reform Jews, and still others that are not one or the other, but are here to explore what Judaism is all about for themselves, and because they want to be able to teach it to their children. Our goal is to provide High Holy Day services that enable everyone to make their personal connection to God, to Torah, and to other Jews.
No longer will we try to fit everyone into a one size fits all service… what were we thinking… that never works for Jews…Even with just two denominations… we end up with at least three different preferences!
We want to make Judaism more accessible to more people. We want everyone to know that you need not look any further than Kol Ami to find multiple ways to make these connections. In honor of our 35th anniversary as a merged congregation, we have opened our home to our guests, and if you are a guest here tonight we welcome you and if you are a member of Kol Ami we welcome you, because we want everyone to realize that there is a place where we can all feel at home for the holidays… and throughout the year!
We are on a very special Jewish journey here at Kol Ami, we observe traditions that were given to us by God and have been with us for generations, and we have our own minhag or customs, that are evolving and that enable us to get closer to God today. We’d love your input, your ideas, and your involvement, as together we go through this Journey.
I sincerely hope that you will make lasting connections over the next ten days. I hope those connections are both spiritual and social, and that we will have provided a entry way for your heart, and your soul, in ways that work for you. Because Anochnu yehudim – We Are All Jews, and Kol Ami is here for all our people.
L’shana tova – On behalf of Ellen, Alana, Heather, and Melissa, I wish you a healthy, happy, sweet, and joyful new year.
L’shana Tova and Gut Yontiff
I would like to begin with this poem, which is found in the new Reform siddur, Mishkan Tefila. It’s by Ruth Brin, a Canadian Poet.
I begin with a prayer of gratitude for all that is holy in my life:
God needs no words… no English… no Hebrew… no semantics and no services…
But I need them…
Through prayer, I can sense my inner strength, my inner purpose, my inner joy, my capacity to love.
As I reach upward in prayer, I sense these qualities in my Creator.
To love God, is to love each other, to work to make our lives better.
To love God, is to love the world that God created, and to work to perfect it
.
To love God is to love dreams of peace and joy that illumine all of us,
and to bring that vision to life.
On behalf of the Board of Trustees, I would like to welcome our members and our guests to Congregation Kol Ami – the Congregation for all of our people.
So, a friend was in front of me coming out of the Synagogue on Rosh Hashanah, and
the rabbi was standing at the door shaking hands as the congregation departed.
The Rabbi grabbed my friend by the hand, and pulled him aside and said to him, "You need to join the Army of G-d!"
My friend replied, "I'm already in the Army of G-d, Rabbi."
The Rabbi then asked, "How come I don't see you, except for Rosh Hashanah
and Yom Kippur?"
To which my friend answered back, "Because Rabbi, I'm in the secret service."
Well, take a look around this sanctuary; at this congregation…I am proud to say that tonight we have more people in this sanctuary than we have had in many, many years, maybe even since it was built! So, I want to extend a sincere welcome to all my friends in Judaism’s Secret Service who are here tonight, joining together with our friends from the regular Army, as one people! Whether we are Jews by birth, Jews by choice or Keruv Yisrael Interfaith families, we are all welcome here and we are all one people. Thank you for being here.
Kol Ami is a sanctuary, literally and figuratively, where we create our own personal space, where we feel comfortable in private reflection, where we feel close to God, and where we find meaning and a perspective on life that helps to prepare us for the daily challenges that we face outside this building. And this sanctuary, Kol Ami, is here for you 3 days a year or 365 days a year. How many days each of us wants to use it is an individual choice, but it is here for you. At the very core of a synagogue, and a congregation, is the notion of its existence and its availability.
Kol Ami is also a place where we have the privilege and the pleasure of getting to know each other, of sharing in each others’ joys and sorrows, of studying together, of praying together, and of playing together. It is a place where, together, we are part of building and maintaining something bigger than ourselves, a place where we are about community. This place is a source of light on our present, a light that helps illuminate the pathway to our future and to the future of our children and our children’s children.
Allow me to take a moment to reflect on the present, how we got here, and how far we have come. Some of the inner and outer beauty of Kol Ami has developed over the past 35 years, under the watchful eye of lay leaders and clergy who have worked diligently. In particular, they started by doing the unthinkable; they merged two congregations and two denominations. Over the years, successive groups of leaders and members have put their time and their money into major building projects, into the development of a thriving Religious School, and into cultivating our ultimate potential by leading and innovating through our services, our social programming, our tikun olam and our tzedakah. This is a place where we have done so much, while we’ve struggled with the delicate issues of balancing budgets and maintaining a kehilla kedusha, a holy community. And we’ve done it, because so many of you recognize that synagogues need to exist and need to be available, and because so many of you have been so supportive, whether you’re part of the regular Army or … the Secret Service! Thank you for your continued support, and for the commitment of your resources, both time and money.
When I think about the past 35 years, and the stories I’ve heard, it’s sort of the Kol Ami way . . . Over the years, congregational leaders have heard from rabbis and professionals from the two movements, it can’t be done. You can’t blend the two. It won’t work. And recently, from rabbis and synagogue professionals from the movements we’ve heard you’re doing too much, you’re trying too many new things at once. All good advice, and it may well be true and have a great deal of merit.
But, in the dilemma of “too much” is the blessing of the hopes and the hearts of the people in this building . . .
For instance above all, Kol Ami is a Beit Tefila - A holy house of Prayer where we seek to offer something for everyone, not matter what your level of understanding. Join us for our regular traditional Shabbat services, where we are led in prayer by our wonderful chazzan. New this year, we hope to see you at our Learner’s minyan, led by Emily Michelson and Bill Schackman, for those of us that want to start at the beginning and understand the how and why of our services. We will begin the year with our once a month Shabbat morning Reform service in the main sanctuary. On the third Shabbat morning each month we hold our Shi Hadash experimental service. Beginning in October we hold twice a month Friday night Conservative services at 5pm. Check out the Friday night Reform schedule which includes a wonderful family Shabbat on the 2nd Friday night of each month lead by Rabbi Rosen and accompanied on guitar by one of our members Karen Neilson Anson, I guarantee your younger children and grandchildren will be singing and dancing and just love it. The Friday night schedule also includes a musical Shabbat lead by members Alan and Andalin Bachman and their Desert Wind band, and they tell me there will be conga drums and tambourines to go around for everyone. So you see there is a service for everyone right here at Kol Ami.
If you are looking for Jewish education, then you’ll appreciate Kol Ami the Beit Midrash - a house of study, where you can study Torah and Talmud with all of it’s wonderfully beautiful stories and wisdom or check out beginning or intermediate Hebrew classes, learn to read Torah or a haftorah, attend lectures and discussion groups led by Rabbi or one of our incredibly bright members who are just Jews who want to stimulate a discussion and study together, as Jews often do. And for our children we have one of the best Religious Schools Directors in the land in Rafi Schwartz, just ask the kids, they love him and he makes them want to be here.
And if you’re not looking for a study partner, but maybe a dance partner, or you prefer a night out for some culture and laughs with other Jews, then try Kol Ami - the Beit Knesset, our meeting place, where you can check out our Sisterhood or Kol Amigos Men’s Club, or our concert series, our film series, or our second annual coffee house, where members will get up on stage and sing, dance, do poetry or just act out. It’s a great night where we get to applaud or heckle, and of course they’ll be enough schnapps, so that everyone sounds great.
We want to celebrate with you throughout the year. Next week we will celebrate the Festival of Sukkot, also known as the season of our joy, with an exciting schedule of events here on Sunday morning the 30th for children and adults beginning with breakfast in the Sukkah.
And you MUST MUST also join us for our 35th Anniversary dance on November 17th –we have titled it “Forever Young”. It will be featuring the live music of Desert Wind, with music ranging from Ballroom to Rock, and again, there’ll be enough schnapps to guarantee a fun filled evening for all.
You see, at Kol Ami, we don’t care which entry ramp you use to participate with us, we just want the joy of your company… One of the holiday emails I received this week had this statement in it. Hashem determines who walks into your life....It is up to you to decide who you let walk away… who you let stay… and who you refuse to let go… and now that we have you all here, we want to see more of you, and we refuse to let you go.
The way I see it Judaism is a gift I received from my parents, my dad Sidney Burman, of blessed memory, and my mom Shirley Burman who is here with us today. It’s a gift I have passed on to my children, and as long as I am your President, I will do everything I can to pass on and share our Jewish heritage and make this treasure, that is truly a gift from God, more accessible to all of us.
If you like what you are hearing and seeing in the new Kol Ami then please join us and please support us in every way that you can!
There are so many wonderful people, volunteers, who have made this the most special place in the world, and who are responsible for making this the beautiful shul that it has become. There are far too many to name from up here, so we have included their names in the handout at your seats, if we have missed your name I am deeply sorry and I am eternally grateful for your efforts. To all of you, Yashar Koach.
I must extend my deepest gratitude to Rabbi Rosen and Cantor Loeb for making these holidays so meaningful, and for your leadership and support in all that we doing. Yashar Koach to the Gabbaim, the choir, all of the service leaders, the ushers, and to Rafi and Debora and the rest our wonderful staff who pull off minor miracles on a daily basis. And a very special thank you and Yashar Koach to Mara Arenson, our Shaliach zibbor for the Reform High Holy Days services.
But this is my opportunity to really thank the entire Board of Trustees, who are devoted and committed not only to balancing our budget, but to working toward making Kol Ami a special place for all of us. Todah Rabbah to all of you.
I have to tell you that there is one more group that has my utmost gratitude and admiration. This group of volunteers, along with Rabbi Rosen, are at the helm of this shul and have miraculously and tirelessly turned this ship around and have it picking up steam. They are the ones that show up to almost weekly meetings, to nearly all of the events, and they additionally volunteer to head committees, or more often just get the job done themselves. And if something needs to be donated, they are often the first to stand up and say I’m in. I am so honored to have them serve as the executive committee and they deserve the appreciation of all us. I know they do not want the extra attention, but I would like to call them out by name; Rick Rappaport our past president and Bruce Cohne our treasurer, these two guys have sat on or presided over nearly ever Board in this community and they do it with such passion and commitment to this community. Betty Yanowitz our board secretary, Betty is at the top of the mitzvah network. She and her very special group keep us informed of who needs our help. Ann Bernstein, who as VP of Budget and Finance, is in our office almost daily setting our books and our operations straight. I know Ann, like the rest of us, is very grateful that the office is now in the very capable hands of Debora Borenstein, our Synagogue Director. Did I mention Karen McArthur, our VP of membership? Karen is such an asset to us, she works so hard to make sure that everyone feels welcome and that everything about Kol Ami is just so hamisha. Liz Tashjian our VP of Strategic Planning, who I think has been on the board the longest of any of us and who has such insight into what it takes to make Kol Ami work. And my dear friend Beth Levine of Development, who talked me into joining the Board, and who heads up the Sisterhood steering committee because she was determined to revive sisterhood even if she had to do it herself, and who has been such a voice behind our new look and our new attitude. Thank you so much each and every one of you. We have come so far and although we have so much more to do I can confidently say that for the first time in many years, this ship is moving forward with the wind blowing strongly in our sails.
I am so proud to be a part of this team, this Board and a member of this shul, I feel so blessed to have this opportunity to share my Jewish journey with yours. I look forward to continued progress in the next year as your Congregation President… and then it will be someone else’s turn…
Finally, I am so fortunate to have the love and support of my wife Ellen, who is the other half of my soul. You have taught me more than anyone that we need to accept and celebrate that we can be Jewish in many different ways. And to my daughters Alana, Heather and Melissa… thank you for your opinions and for keeping me current… I love you.
I finish with a paragraph that is found in the book we use for the morning minyans.
What a wonderful group of menches the morning minyan attendees are. They are the ones that are always there early in the morning to pray, not only for themselves, but so that someone else can say kaddish for a loved one, or pray for someone who is ill. I urge you to attend that minyan group whenever you want to start your day off in a beautifully, meaningful way.
This paragraph like the poem I began with, is not read as part of the service, but is also there in the siddur, to per chance be found and read on our own. This one is by noted author Rabbi Harold Kushner.
What Does religion offer that our souls need? In a word, it offers community. Our place of worship offers us a refuge, an island of caring in the midst of a hostile, competitive world. In a society that segregates the old from the young, the rich from the poor, the successful from the struggling, the house of worship represents one place where the barriers fall and we all stand together and equal before g-d.
G’mar chatima Tova – May we all be sealed in the book of life for a year of good health, much happiness, and the joy that comes from being part of Kol Ami, because Anachnu Yehudim – We are all Jews and Congregation Kol Ami is the congregation for all our people.