Thank you for supporting our Toy Drive. Your generosity brings so much joy and peace to families in our community this Christmas. Because of you, children will have beautiful gifts to unwrap this holiday season. We are so grateful.
To the Editors: I have been attending Shabbat services since the end of last year when Rabbi Gadi invited me. And since I am not Jewish or looking to convert, I never would have thought that his invitation would change my life. But I love the services, and have found such a warm welcome that most Saturdays, that is where I want to be. And I never expected that the first time I saw him [...]
21 Av 5785/ August 15, 2025 Dear Chevra, In trying to get my thoughts together, many things are running through my head, not the last is our beloved synagogue. It is time for all of us to come together and move forward with faith, hope, and good will. We can start that process by coming to shul, be it in person or via ZOOM and help to make a Minyan so members can recite the [...]
To the Editors: Yom HaShoah is almost upon us. On this day, we stop and we remember. Yom HaShoah follows Passover, which ironically celebrated the freedom and redemption of the Jewish people. But the enslavement of Jews is not in the past; it is also in the brutal and barbaric reality of the terror tunnels today in Gaza. I was there in Israel last June, in the city of Ashkelon, just 5 kilometers from Gaza, [...]
I share your choice of word for the past year: gather. We need to gather, to strengthen community. We cannot stand alone. And we need to acknowledge that we are part of several communities simultaneously. The interlinking circles create the larger world in which we hope to live in peace and security. —Stephan Brumberg
[Excerpted from a letter addressed to the shul membership] Thank you for your generous gift of $600 to the Parent/Child Plus program. With support from donors like you, CAST can better serve those in need, improve family wellbeing, and strengthen our community. We currently serve nearly 1,500 families seeking to improve their food, housing and economic security. Together, we are transforming lives and making a difference in our community. Cathy Demeroto, Executive Director, [...]
Thank you so much for all the effort involved in administering the Cans For Cast drive. The cans and nonperishables collected will go directly toward feeding the 1,211 families who use our services. The work we do would be impossible without the support and collaboration of community members like you. Warmly, Center for Advocacy, Support and Transformation (CAST) Calendar for giving Tikkun Olam, a shul group that spearheads charitable giving on behalf of the [...]
An editor is known by many descriptive names, some nicer than others. Miriam Gabriel, my able colleague and proofreader, calls me “chief.” I like that one. Other names, clearly inappropriate for this family-focused publication, typically are invoked by those whose submissions I have adjusted for clarity, rejected for such shortcomings as relevance or timeliness, or found so hopelessly error-ridden that only a total rewrite could save them. An editor is the boss, the last word, [...]
To the editor: Members of Congregation Tifereth Israel Synagogue, thank you so much for your generous contribution to CAST’s North Fork Parent-Child Program. This year, we expect to have forty families attending and completing this school readiness and language development program. Thank you for helping to brighten the futures of these young community members. Sincerely, Erica Steindl Education/outreach coordinator Editor’s note: The Tikkun Olam Initiative recommended support for this program to the shul’s Board of [...]
To the editors: Special thanks to Tom Byrne, Helaine Teperman, Andrea Blaga, Stephen Meshover, Adrianne Greenberg and Rosa Lee Emerson — all of whom have graciously consented to take part in “We Call It Whiskey,” a one-act comedy that will be read in the synagogue and available on Zoom on a date to be determined in May or June. Stay tuned for more. It will be a blast. —Chuck Simon
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