It’s All About the Kitchen

February 2018 Newsletter Article

What would you say is at the heart of a synagogue?  The rabbi? The sanctuary? Our children? Our volunteers?

These are all great answers.  But here’s one more – the kitchen!

We all know that food is central to our practice of Judaism.  It is true in our homes, with latkes at Chanukah and matzoh ball soup at our Seders.  And it is certainly true within the walls of our temple building.  There are many examples…Nearly every Friday evening we offer an Oneg where we share food and socialize with others who have come to Shabbat services.  We hold a Second Seder each year for the community, Brotherhood makes latkes for the school children, and Sisterhood traditionally holds a dinner to kick off each new year.  In fact, I’d say that most events and meetings I attend involve snacks.  We rely on having a functioning kitchen for all of this. 

We are working to improve our kitchen.  We have been struggling without a working stove recently, and I am happy to report the exciting news this month that we have a brand new stove.  It is the culmination of many people’s efforts over many months.  And it would not be possible to have bought the stove, or to contemplate other necessary upgrades to our kitchen, without the monetary gifts that we have received.  There are three groups that have been very generous in their donations for the stove:

•             Congregation Shalom’s Sisterhood,
•             The families of the 2017 B’Nai Mitzvah class, and
•             The families of the 2016 Confirmation class.

Thank you very much to these groups, each of which has made a generous donation.  We appreciate the importance of having a working kitchen so we can gather to share food, to socialize, pray, and learn together.