Monthly Archives: May 2024

As a long-time Temple Sinai member, I never gave much thought to the pews in the Sanctuary until I became the head of the Ritual Committee almost 20 years ago. The Ritual Committee at that time had a varied and wide-reaching jurisdiction, ranging from planning the Friday night chicken dinners, to the time of Friday night services (it will surprise many readers to discover that the majority of Friday night services in those years started at 8 p.m. and included a Torah service), to whether the clergy should perform interfaith marriages. But one of the more entertaining aspects of the job was to receive complaints from congregants about the High Holy Day services (who didn’t like which sermon from which rabbi or who didn’t like which melody that the cantor chose). Nonetheless, the number one complaint every year was how uncomfortable the pews were.

That complaint led me to explore replacing the pews with chairs. I researched chair companies and obtained some quotes, but in the end the money for this project was not budgeted, and so I abandoned the project although I remained committed to it. I told every successive Board president that I remained willing and eager to tackle the removal of the pews whenever the time was right.

Finally, the time was right. Gary Friend asked me to meet him in the Library one Sunday morning a few years back, told me of the Capital Campaign and the plan to renovate the Sanctuary, and asked me to gather information and cost estimates for the Board for replacing the pews with chairs. I became the Chair of the ad hoc Chair Committee with Tom Plotz, Deborah Scheck, Meredith Margolis and Kevin Mulshine. We interviewed chair salesmen, obtained and tried out many chair samples, debating and evaluating comfort, stackability and book racks.

The end result was all new chairs in the Sanctuary and Bet Am and new choir chairs. To my knowledge, the chairs have been universally well-received, and the complaints about being uncomfortable (physically) during services have ended.

– Lafe Solomon

As we sat enjoying our end of year pot-luck dinner on the porch of Lafe Solomon’s and Cam Crockett’s house on May 2, members of Kitah Dalet, aka The Daletniks, were trying to remember when we came together as a group of adult Hebrew learners. The best we could estimate was a little over 20 years ago when we met in the library on Thursday evenings. We were considered the “advanced” (picture air quotes) class among those offered by the temple at the time. We were blessed with Leesa Fine (z”l) as a teacher and happily trudged at least twice through The First Hebrew Primer, 3rd Edition learning enough grammar – that meant a myriad of verb tenses – and vocabulary to try to translate prayers from Mishkan Tefillah and then on to sections of the Tanakh. We translate verses for homework  by consulting several dictionaries.  As a group, we have different favorites, but we all found Genesis, B’reishit, rewarding and Ecclesiastes, Kohelet, baffling.

Before Kitah Dalet, most of us were in other Hebrew classes, some following our adult B’nei Mitzvah, wanting to continue our momentum. Some of us had attended years of Hebrew school as kids, others were fast learners without that benefit.  There has been turnover. A couple of years ago, we welcomed a new member who took Hebrew classes at college, lowering our mean age.  We now meet on Zoom for class, no longer officially a temple program, with Rabbi Marc Gruber as our teacher. In addition to Kitah Dalet, another adult Hebrew class meets on Zoom, Sunday afternoons, also translating and discussing texts. Originally known as Kitah Gimel, it is now Naan. Both classes would be happy to add new members.

At dinner, we expressed puzzlement as to why more folks at the temple have not wanted to pursue adult Hebrew to get a better feel for what we read in services. Language study is good for the brain, and learning Hebrew with friends is good for the soul.

– Ginny Levin