Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are already in our rearview mirror, and we're getting ready for the end of Sukkot with a special in-person Friday morning minyan at 8:30 at Sinai to celebrate Hoshana Rabbah. This will be followed by Shemini Atzeret at 9:30 a.m. on Shabbat (October 3rd).
Because Simchat Torah is this Sunday, October 4, we are doing something a tad different this year. Instead of celebrating the holiday at night as we traditionally do when it falls on a school day, we will conduct the “rejoicing in the Torah” service beginning at 9:30 a.m. Parents and children should come and participate in our festive observance. We will dance with all the Torahs, followed by a taco lunch.
The Eighth Annual Liss Lecture in Judaica will take place on Wednesday, Oct. 7, at 5:00 p.m., in McKenna Hall Auditorium on the Notre Dame campus, with a reception to follow. The speaker is Rabbi Dr. Shai Held, the President and Dean of the Hadar Institute, an innovative center for Jewish textual study and practice in New York.
Another fun thing Rabbi Tyson has planned for kids of all ages is the family trip to the Potawatomi Zoo on Sunday, October 11. The zoo opens at 10:00 a.m. Keep your eagle eyes peeled for Rabbi Tyson just beyond the admission gate near the red panda enclosure. He will lead us through the zoo starting at 10:10 a.m. and provide midrashim about the animals that appear in our texts, because we will read about Noah the following Shabbat.
General admission tickets cost $16 for people aged 15-61; $14 for children 3-14 and adults 62 or older, and free for zoo members and kids two years old and younger.
In case you hadn’t heard, B’Nai B’rith Youth Organization (BBYO) has been resurrected in South Bend by our very own Kayla New! Her mom, Megan, will be the chapter advisor. It’s for boys and girls in 8th-12th grade. Learn more at TheJewishFed.org /BBYO
Can you please share your energy and talents on behalf of Sinai Synagogue? There will be three board of director openings in spring 2027. Express your interest in filling those open slots by contacting Dan New, head of the nominating committee.
It’s not too late to bring non-perishable food items – either kosher or non-kosher – to Sinai to support our area food banks. Drop what you can on the stage and help a family in need.
It’s all part of how Sinai assists our wider community, such as helping the United Way, which wrote to us to express their gratitude for Sinai’s kindness, support, and partnership by letting it use our parking lot last month for a nearby fundraiser.
See you at shul!
Will Turbow
The President’s Yom Kippur Appeal
Every year, a synagogue president delivers the Yom Kippur Appeal, making a perfectly logical, reasonable, and well-documented plea to raise funds that might bridge the gap between what Sinai Synagogue will actually collect from member dues and other small, miscellaneous contributions over the course of the year, and the amount we’ll actually spend on educating our kids, paying our small, but dedicated staff, keeping our operating systems going, securing the safety of our members, and fixing the building.
And why do we do this? Why must the president annually appeal to our congregants?
To minimize the amount of money we withdraw from our endowment – our long-term nest egg. “Gotta protect the nest egg,” as Albert Brooks said in the 1985 movie, Lost in America.
In 5786, you rose to the occasion and demonstrated your love for Sinai Synagogue and your genuine concern for its members and staff by all the time and treasure you gave to it.
First, you were challenged to raise $45,000 for last year's appeal, and by doing so, two extremely generous member-families matched your donations by contributing another $45,000! Then you stepped up in the spring to support the Rabbi Michael Friedland Legacy Campaign, which was a great, one-time success to boost our endowment.
This year, five families got together and said if the congregation pledges $50,000 for the Yom Kippur Appeal, then they’ll contribute another $12,000 to minimize the draw on our endowment, which will inevitably be required with a forecasted $85,000 budget deficit.
With your generous help, we can do it and reach that goal.
If you’re one of the donors who pledged $500-$999 last year, consider upgrading to $1,000.
If you gave between $250 and $499 in 2025, please try to bump it up to $500 even.
And to everyone who gave less than $250 or nothing a year ago, please do what you can to make a flat $250 Yom Kippur pledge this year.
In an institution like this, we must always be raising money for it to thrive now and into the future and not just merely limp along and survive.
Take advantage of the opportunity presented here with the $12,000 challenge bonus pool to help Sinai. Give bigger than you think you can, and the return will come back to benefit you, your children, and your grandkids three-fold.
I don’t know how much more I can really ask of you. It’s really a matter of each one of you asking yourself how much Sinai means to you and positively impacts your social, cultural, educational, and religious life, and how much that is worth to you and your family.