August 2011

Shalom Chaveirim/Dear Friends,

School News:

With summer a little more than half over, can school start up be far away?

Just a few dates to keep in mind.  School starts this year on September 7^th for grades Ganeinu, 3, 4 & 5 and on September 8^th for grades 6 & 7 (Chai School starts October 6^th).

On Sunday, September 11^th, under the auspices of the Religious School and Social Action Committees, there will be another Hike for Hunger up Mount Philo.  This Temple-wide event last year was a terrific fund raiser for Hunger Free Vermont.  In fact, Temple Sinai raised more money for them than any other organization.  As with last year there will be a prize for most money raised (a mini-laptop!) and also a BBQ at the top.

In the meantime, if you haven’t done so already, please register your child(ren) and send in the appropriate payments for Religious School.  I’m looking forward to seeing all your wonderful children again.

Adult Education News:

On July 10^th we started a film/lecture series, “The Beginnings of Judaism.”  As of this writing, we have had two very well attended sessions on two beautiful summer Sunday evenings.  There are two more sessions scheduled for the summer, August 7^th & 21^st.  As with the first two, the sessions begin at 5:00, after the first half hour lecture we take a break for refreshments, then watch the 2^nd lecture and following that, have a discussion.  If you are unable to be in attendance at any of the sessions but would like to join in, please speak with Craig about setting up a time here at Temple for you to watch the missed lectures.  By the end of August we will have seen eight of the 12 lectures in the series and we will conclude the series following the High Holidays, TBA.

This October I will once again be offering the Hebrew Crash Course for beginning Hebrew reading.  If you don’t know an aleph from a bet, this course is for you.  It’s given during Religious School hours on Wednesdays, which means if you have a child here in school, it’s a great time for you to learn to Hebrew along with him or her.

Enjoy the rest of your summer,

B’Shalom,

Judy Alexander

Director of Congregational Education