הִנֵּה מַה-טּוֹב וּמַה-נָּעִים שֶׁבֶת אַחִים גַּם-יָחַד
Hinei mah tov, u’ma na’im, shevet achim gam yachad
How good it is, and how nice, to sit together as family. Psalm 133:1
Some memories of our Centennial Celebration...
At the pre-school party on Sunday, the Cantor served pizza and cake, and we all sang, “Happy Birthday to us”.
At the Religious School party, where we served 100th anniversary cake to every child in our religious school, two of our students insisted we sing, “Yom huledet sameach” - Happy Birthday, in Hebrew.
As we began the service on Friday night, and as we began havdalah at the Gala on Saturday, and even at the Religious School party, we asked our Temple Sholom families to stand up by generations, decade by decade, to show how our chain of tradition is a living one, each link a person.
The Schwartz’s, Dreiers, and Schuldenfreis sat together on Friday and Saturday and shared stories about their parents and grandparents - and then enjoyed their framed pictures of the old sanctuary in Plainfield.
Mark Nussenfeld, co-chair of the Centennial Committee, received a rousing ovation when he thanked all the spouses of our past presidents, who also gave so much to Temple Sholom.
There were so many Chai (18+ year), Double Chai (36+ year), and Jubilee (50+ year) members that they flowed off the bimah for their group aliyah.
There were bittersweet moments, as well -
Marty Schwartz remembering Rabbi Sidney Nathanson and his family’s close relationship with the Nathanson family.
Sharing with the family at her funeral, that we honored Thelma Umansky as a Jubilee member, and that the Temple office was filling up with Christmas presents for the families from Kings’ Daughters school in Plainfield - a mitzvah project started by Thelma’s relationship with Temple Sholom and the school.
The beautiful moment when our Cantor and Temple Sholom choir stopped by Center for Hope Hospice before the Founders’ Shabbat service to sing to Shelly Glaser-Freedman, and she mouthed the words along with her fellow choir members.
The service, put together by Cantor Sharlein and myself, with music and readings from across Temple Sholom’s worship history, with singing by our choir, and music by our Hava Nashira band, was appreciated not only by Temple members young and old, recent and long-term, but also by the family members visiting for the Bat Mitzvah.
Rabbi Daniel Freelander shared with us not only words of congratulations and challenge for our future, but sang a duet of his Shalom Rav with our Cantor and joined the choir for the anthem and closing song.
But, the greatest joy of all, was the proof of what Temple Sholom has been and continues to be - a place where people of all different ages, personal histories, backgrounds, and experiences can come together as a community, to share sorrows, and, on this occasion to celebrate as family. How good, and how nice.
Thank you again - to Centennial Chairs Karyn Weingarten and Mark Nussenfeld, to all those involved in the various projects that made the weekend a success, and to all of you, as members of our Temple, who have brought us this far on our journey of a century and will continue to push us forward to our new home and our next century.
Rabbi Abraham
