KoREH News

Building Relational Leadership

Well, we made it through all of the fall holidays and are well into the month of Heshvan. I want to thank everyone who helped out, ushered, gabbai-ed, organized, planned and gave their time and energy toward making Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Hoshana Rabba, Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah such meaningful and joyful holidays.

As we start the year in earnest with our regular schedules each week, I have been thinking about what it is that our students, parents, and community members have been learning from one another. We have an incredible group of students in the Kol Rinah Religious School from ages 5-16, but also a dedicated group of about a dozen parents who have spent some time learning together each and every Sunday since the beginning of the year. And something that has come up in our learning, over and over again, is a need to feel connected, supported, and even encouraged in the project of renewing Jewish life for themselves and their families. 

We have a beautiful community with a colorful mosaic of backgrounds, experiences, traditions, passions, and skills. The best thing we can do is reach out, meet one another, and share some of those experiences to help one another become more creative with our own Jewish lives. Many families are constantly looking for new ways to enhance the Jewish experiences they already share, and new experiences to open their eyes to the possibilities of being a Jewish seeker in the modern world.

Our Jewish learning never stops, but should offer us new and exciting avenues for learning. This is why this year, our Religious School has been expanding our scope of activities, while each class focuses on specific Big Ideas that weave throughout the year. Students have been delving deeper into Jewish ritual and prayer. Since the start of this school year, we have been meeting each Wednesday night with our regular minyan and joining them for services. Also new this year, every MifgaShabbat service (for Kindergarten-5th grade students), which we hold twice a month, is featuring a different grade level. ANY families with children in that grade are invited to join in both our MifgaShabbat service from 10:30-11:45 as well as get special recognition in our main service as Youth Leaders in the synagogue. Please look at the schedule on our website or in your emails each week to see who will be leaders for that week.

I look forward to learning from each of you throughout the years ahead.

Kol tuv,
Rabbi Scott Shafrin