I hope all of you are doing well. I have news to share, some celebratory, some solemn, and some preparatory.
Let me start with items to celebrate:
I can’t begin to express how pleased I was to see so many of you at this year’s community Seder; as hard as this might be to believe -- due to the consequences of Covid -- it has been four very long years since we last got together in-person. All praise due Music Director Gordon and Rabbi Niles for leading us in the song and words of the Haggadah, to Education Director Leah for shouldering entertainment duties with the children who attended, and especially to Itamar Abramovich and his team at Blossom catering for the superb meal and excellent service.
I’m sure all of you are familiar with well-worn jokes about banquets meals and chicken; yes, we did have chicken, amazingly prepared chicken– thank you Itamar! -- accompanied by matzo ball soup, gefilte fish, and all the other expected traditional items.
The photos that follow don’t begin to capture the joy of this occasion, but for those of you who did not attend, they at least give you some sense of how the evening unfolded. For those of you who did attend, I appreciate your helping make this a celebratory evening, which serves as a reminder of just how vibrant our community is.
Speaking of celebratory matters, a weekend of festivities commemorating our 70th anniversary, begins Friday, May 19, extending through Sunday May 21.
Friday evening there will be a special Oneg and Shabbat service honoring CBS’s past Presidents and Rabbis. Saturday brings dinner and dancing to the beat of a live DJ, a photo booth, a video retrospective of 70 years of CBS history, special gifts and awards, capped off by a silent auction where you surely will want to bid on some amazing items and experiences. Sunday will be a family day, with a pizza truck, games, and the like.
Thanks to our past-president, Ellyn Elson, and her remarkable planning committee, this promises to be an extraordinary event, one you surely will want to attend. I, for one, am looking forward to seeing all of you there!
Now for some more solemn news:
This past Monday we commemorated Yom HaShoah, led by Rabbi Niles and Music Director Gordon, featuring a guest speaker, member Sy Karfiol, who shared his experiences during that tragic period in world and Jewish history. Then just two years old, Sy was living in Antwerp, Belgium with his parents and older sister when, in 1942, Sy’s father was apprehended by the Nazis, loaded in a truck, and sent to Auschwitz. Sy’s mother realized the grave threat facing her children, but with the help of a Catholic priest, she found the Poelmans, a Catholic family, where Sy and his sister hid in the Poelmans’ home in a small village suburb outside Brussels, a remarkable story of survival worthy of its retelling.
And lastly, in preparation for our upcoming annual member meeting:
We will be holding our annual membership meeting a little more than two weeks from now, on May 8, at 6:00 pm. I cannot stress enough the need for all of you to attend, to ensure a quorum that allows us to review and ideally approve our 2023-24 budget, plus consider our proposed 2023-24 Board of Trustees slate, for which we will be emailing all members a sample ballot the week of April 24, so you can see who the Nominating Committee recommends.
Our treasurer, Fred Goldman, worked diligently to prepare this year’s budget – I am enormously grateful for Fred’s unyielding, meticulous attention to detail in what is a substantial and time-consuming undertaking -- and will make a presentation on it for the coming year.
As past Presidents have pointed out repeatedly, our operating expenses are not fully covered by membership dues. I will share more details when we meet, but I am pleased to report we have been able to balance the budget – there is no financial shortfall we need address -- with one critical stipulation: the need for help from all of you to meet what is an ambitious but achievable fundraising goal. I don’t want any of you to be taken by surprise when I make my appeal for your help.
Having served as your President for nearly a year, I do know this: all of us are in this together, and I’m confident all of us will be equal to the challenge before us.
I’m looking forward to greeting all you on May 8!
B’ Shalom,
P.S. If I have not yet persuaded you to attend the May 8 meeting, how about this for an inducement: it will conclude and the wine bar will open, with snacks and socializing to match!
Congregation Beth Shalom Napa Valley 1455 Elm Street Napa, CA 94559
