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November 2003

Now that the High Holy Days and the fall festivals are over, the air is turning crisper, the apples are ripe and the leaves are almost gone. I find myself taking a deep breath, ready to start the new year. I hope that all of you had wonderful, joyous holiday celebrations. Those of you who celebrated the holidays here at BAJC know that we had rich, beautiful services, thanks to our wonderful Shaliach Tzibbur and the efforts of many talented volunteers.

I’d like to thank the many people who made the holidays so special, especially Andrea and Andi for lending their beautiful voices to lead us in prayer; Moss for chanting the whole torah portion on Rosh Hashanah and Sarah, Alyse, Jacob, Lena, Gershon, Dan, and Miriam for rising to the challenge and chanting portions of the Yom Kippur torah reading; Johnny Lee and Dora for reading Haftorah; and all the other people who put in a great deal of time and energy to create both the services and the space in which we worship. If you celebrated the holidays elsewhere with family and friends, I hope that you enjoyed equally warm and meaningful services.

Rachel Prabhakar, BAJC President, with her daughter, Ella

It is with great pleasure that I can report that we are starting the year with two pieces of good news:

• Thanks to all of you, over the High Holy Days we collected more than 80 bags of food for the Drop-In Center, plus substantial donations by check or cash.
• The Design Review Board approved both the site plan for our Greenleaf home, and the change of use application. Once the appeal period has passed, we will be allowed to use the Greenleaf property as our new synagogue. We are hoping to begin renovations on the interior of the house this winter.

I hope that the year continues as it has started, with BAJC contributing to the wider Brattleboro community while growing stronger and more vital internally. Speaking of contributing to the wider community, we need more volunteers to work with the Social Action committee. Judy and Janet , the committee chairs, have put together an exciting slate of activities for the fall, including a Hunger Banquet, co-sponsored with All Souls Church, and a whole week of Jewish-Muslim interfaith dialog and cultural programming, co-sponsored with SIT. We need volunteers to make these and other programs happen. Even a few hours of your time will make a difference. Please contact Judy (socialaction@bajcvermont.org) to find out how you can help.

Other committees also need new members. Contact Faith (faith@bajcvermont.org) to join the fundraising committee and the membership committee; contact Abe to join the ritual committee. Sharon needs help on the hospitality committee. The education committee needs both a chair and some members. Start the new year right…get involved!

B’Shalom,
Rachel