Weekly Message from the Board President

Wow.  That’s all we can say.  Just wow.  We usually get a very good crowd at the Yiddish Food Festival.  In recent years, we’ve had as many as 800 people walk through the doors of the Synagogue during the four-hour Festival.  But yesterday we blew right past that and set an incredible new record.  956 people came to the Yiddish Food Festival yesterday. That’s right… 956.

We have people with clickers counting the people as they come into the lobby.  And we checked… they weren’t counting feet.  They were counting actual people.  The Social Hall was packed.  People picnicked on the grass in the back yard of the Synagogue.  We set up tables along 26^th Street, in the shade of the tall trees.  They were full.  Noam Mantaka said at his booth alone he made about $1000 in sales (it was his famous Israeli salad and hummus, so that’s one reason…)

The other incredible thing is how well everything went.  We had prepared lots of food.  Our hardworking volunteers were cheerful and welcoming.  The band (Klez Dispensers returning again) did a great job, as did Howard Rodack as our emcee.  Jason Bloomberg led dozens of people on tours of the Synagogue and the Rabbi answered a wide ranging selection of questions about Judaism. Our new Mt. Sinai Cookbooks sold very well.

Cheyenne Police Officers and Laramie County Sheriff’s Deputies provided security.  We also had several Boy Scouts from Troop #116 helping out (including doing the counting of our visitors – we checked and they were prepared.)

One fun story… the “miracle” according to a retired pastor who came to the Festival.  He said that one moment there was no corned beef… and the next minute there was.  (Our miracle was Rick Padilla running over to Sam’s Club to pick up pastrami and bringing it back.  That’s what really happened, but we can call it a corned beef miracle if you want.)

We even had online comments talking about the Festival. 

From Facebook:

What an amazing event for our community. So much fun! And so much wonderful food!

It is always so fun And yummy too.

Definitely a great time – thanks for having us as guests there 🙏

Here are some photos from the Festival:

The bottom line is that this was a great event, and almost a thousand people came and enjoyed it.  Thank you to everyone who volunteered, and everyone who came to participate.  We put on a wonderful party for the community.

Tonight is Shavuot.  The holiday actually started yesterday, but we moved services to tonight because we wanted everyone to have a chance to rest after the Festival.  Rabbi Halfon is leading services starting at 7 PM tonight.  They are also on Zoom.  The Zoom call starts at 6:30. Here’s the Zoom info:  https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83404958175 Meeting ID: 834 0495 8175.

We have some other things coming up this month to alert you to, including a Town Hall Zoom meeting on what we are looking for in a new Rabbi, the next Shalom Dinner, and a Tot Shabbat.  But for now, let’s just catch our breath and relax, and enjoy the knowledge that all of the hard work involved in the Yiddish Food Festival paid off and was worth it.

Congratulations on a job exceptionally well done!

Here’s our Yiddish Phrase of the Week:

Es iz nit mayn tsig un nit mayn khanike-likhtl.
It’s not my goat and not my Hanukkah candle. 

Shalom,

Dave Lerner
President
Mt. Sinai Board of Directors

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A selection of Basic Jewish Library (Books, movies and other resources), recommended by Rabbi Halfon.  Please click here.

Community Partner with Family Promise of Cheyenne

Community Partner with Meals of Hope

June Birthdays

4            Talia Mantaka  

5            Noam Mantaka

7              Kathleen Dow

14           Ben Thornell

24           Sherry Snyder

30           Carol Serelson