Important Emails from Beth Sholom

Dear Friends,

A sincere thank you to everyone who bought tickets and donated for the High Holidays. Despite the myriad challenges and complications, we are poised to have a successful Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, with 507 people attending minyan at shul and many more at the separate neighborhood shofar blowings. We all owe an enormous amount of gratitude and hakarat hatov to Rabbi Antine and Rabbi Cooper for designing coronavirus-era High Holiday services, to Zahava Hurwitz and Brian Foont for planning and coordinating an unprecedented and enormously complicated endeavor, to Jesse Mendelson for arranging daveners and to all who have agreed to serve as gabbaim and minyan captains, to our reopening committee and health subcommittee for all of their invaluable guidance, and most especially to Rachel Zutshi and Stevie Friedman for organizing and implementing all of this - from selling tickets to processing donations to arranging tents to dealing with requests across the board - all while continuing to run the shul on a daily basis. If you see any of them in the coming days or if you just want to reach out to them, please make sure to give them a big thank you!
 
In addition, we raised just over $128,000 from tickets, donations, Yizkor book submissions, and lulav and etrog sales, which is a great testament to the strength of our community and the dedication of our members. While this puts the shul in a very good position going into Rosh Hashanah next week, it still leaves us about $17,000 short of our goal.
 
The window to buy a seat for High Holidays is closed - tickets are going out early next week - but there are still two ways that you can help. First, if you have not yet bought a lulav and etrog for Sukkot, get your orders in (click here to do so)! You can still purchase as many sets as you like from the shul until September 16, with the proceeds going to support our youth budget.
 
Second, if you haven’t already done so, please consider making a donation to the shul for the High Holidays. It is not too late to sponsor different parts of the services, and it is never too late to make a donation of any amount, large or small (you can do so by clicking here, scrolling down to "sponsorship opportunities."). Anything you give is helpful and appreciated. This year more than ever, we rely on the generosity of our members, even if you will not be attending shul on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. So many people have gone above and beyond this year: those who are not coming but have bought and donated tickets; those who have lent their time to ensure that the shul property is ready to accommodate so many people in so many different places in a safe way; Rabbi Antine and Rabbi Cooper, who bought seats for themselves and their families without being asked and at their own insistence despite the shul’s longstanding practice to provide our clergy with seats. If every shul family donates something, it will validate what a special community we all know that we have we have and be a tribute to everyone who has worked so hard and so selflessly to make High Holidays happen this year.
 
This week alone, we welcomed our new shlicha Yael Grunfeld to Potomac, reopened our ECC, and resumed our Talmud Torah program. We will continue providing programming, both new and old, to our shul members and the wider Potomac Jewish community, and we remain committed as always to every member's needs. Thank you for helping us keep our momentum and strength as we navigate these challenging times, and if you haven’t already done so, please chip in and consider making a High Holidays donation to Beth Sholom. Shana tova to all!

Shabbat Shalom!

Michael Koplow

President, Beth Sholom Board of Directors

President@bethsholom.org