From our
front door one can look up and be greeted by Comet Hale Bopp. (Photo by
13 yr old congregant, from Lake Castaic Road.)On Friday night, April 4, 1997, Temple Solael and hundreds others across the continent participated in an historic, national Jewish event to celebrate what unifies us all – Shabbat! With the help of volunteers and donors, we had a great turnout at our Shabbat Across America dinner, service, and Israeli Dancing. We kept costs to a minimum (things are tough now), and bugged our members to bring their less frequently attending and unaffiliated friends.
From our
front door one can look up and be greeted by Comet Hale Bopp. (Photo by
13 yr old congregant, from Lake Castaic Road.)
We began with
a buffet-style supper, which remarkably, grew from 40 to just shy of 200
attendees as the date approached. In order to be reasonable to congregants
(we have a higher-priced Seder coming up really soon) we'd set the charge
at $6 (kids) and $8 (adults) per guest and per congregant. Though we are
a reform congregation, the community-wide focus is to be kosher, and we
made this a kosher experience. This meant learning how to Kasher up our
stove burners, ovens, and pots. The Internet was our best reference here
(see a typical link from our home page). Above right is a table breaking
bread after the Hamotzy.
Several of us
had extra bottles of kosher wines (both California and French); we had
a varietal tasting with the supper.
We put together
a creative service, with readings selected for the occasion, specially
composed songs by the cantor, and a special guest, L.A. Councilperson Laura
Chick, here lighting the Shabbat Candles with the Cantor. We even typed
up our own service with Hebrew Word for Windows 95.
Finally, for
the horah, we really did hoist the Rabbi and Cantor in chairs, Bar Mitzvah
style! The kids also enjoyed creative dancing.
Thanks to the NJOP for organizing the
event, our volunteers for the service, the meal, the reservations, and
our custodian for staying late to reconfigure the room from dinner to dancing
and then clean up our mess! And our clergy, and gosh knows whomever we
left out!