As a child, I was fortunate to experience a large family Seder. However, it was a very different Seder from the happy festive event that Temple Sinai offers the community on its Second Seder. My grandparents were Orthodox but lived in the countryside in England about an hour from London in a large rambling Victorian house that my grandparents had lived in too. The house, while rambling, was not grand, although Passover was a grand affair.  My great aunt lived across the road and my two aunts and their husbands and cousins filled the two houses for the week, although as my cousins and siblings got older and were working, they often took the train down from London for the 1^st night.  In the UK, Jews at that time and even now only celebrate one night of Passover.  So we were about twenty people around the one table, with an add on. The table was spread with a white damask table cloth and lit with large silver candlesticks. The seats of twelve or more dining chairs were embroidered with needlepoint flowered designs sewn by both my grandparents, probably on long winter evenings. I look back on it with pleasure but I confess as a small child it was a bit boring as my grandfather read the whole Haggadah in Hebrew., and there was no English in the Haggadah.  Being the youngest grandchild, I said (not chanted) the Marnish Tanah thirteen years before the next generation appeared.  We did have communal singing at the end after dinner, with some of the same melodies we sing now, but the memory is that it was very out of tune!

Apart from the fun of having a house full of relatives, the highlight was the meal. My grandmother was Sephardic and taught me to make Charoseth in that style (included herein), which I make for the Seder plates for the Temple Sinai Second Seder. (The caterer makes the rest hopefully with my recipe)  Many of the desserts of my early Seders, especially when set out on the brilliant white table cloth, looked like a picture by Wayne Theibaud: bowls of chocolate, coffee, lemon and blackberry mousse, meringues filled with cream, almond cake and fruit salad. There was no soup. The main course was cold fried fish (well loved in UK Jewish life, but not in the USA) with a large smoked whole smoked salmon, sent by my great aunt from Scotland) which my grandfather carved from the head of the table. There was salad, mashed potato and of course matzo to accompany the meal.  My grandfather grew the horseradish in the garden as it would have been unavailable to buy in rural Sussex. Bowler hats were worn by all the men. My brother, the only boy grandchild, wore his school cap.  The next morning at 11 am, we would all gather again to read the morning service.  During the week, I remember plates of matzah for breakfast with thick Canadian honey or marmalade and delightful afternoon teas with special Rakusan’s tea matsahs ,which were round and spread lightly with butter, coconut pyramids, yummy cinnamon almond balls and the sight of my grandmother serving earl grey tea out of a silver teapot in the shape of a pumpkin, which I now have and very occasionally use.

After my grandfather died when I was seventeen, the house was sold and due to geographical distance, our family Seders became slightly smaller but still carried out in the same style and spirit.

When I arrived in Chicago with my husband in 1979, Seders took on a new light:  we were invited to a business colleague of my husband’s the first year.  The table was set beautifully for about eight people, Haggadot at each place.  When all the guests had arrived we sat down. The host opened his Haggaddah, looked at the first page, then promptly shut it loudly and announced “Same as last year, let’s have dinner”.  It was very memorable event but I was surprised.

We joined Temple Sinai in 1986 and held family Seders at home with friends for many years as we continue to do, but around 2002 I was asked to organize the Community Second Seder for TSWRJ and the Temple.  It has been an enjoyable experience doing this with wonderful volunteers and it has provided me with yet another evolutionary phase from the large family Seders that I look back on with much affection.  I hope the individuals and families who attend the Temple Sinai Second Seder embrace the warmth and happiness that the clergy, Temple Sinai kitchen staff and the caterer provide as we celebrate the biblical freedom of the Jews, especially in these troubling times worldwide.

 – Celia Josephs

Charoseth (Celia Josephs’ Family Recipe from Florrie Lucas, nee Montefiore)

The Temple Sinai Library strives to be a welcoming space for Jewish learning, study, culture, and respite for the congregation, clergy, staff and members. As the Temple Sinai librarian, I have been challenged by how best to support and lift up the many authors in our congregation. It is relatively easy if a member writes a book with Jewish content, they will often donate a copy for inclusion in the library, but it has been harder to figure out what to do with books that have nothing to do with Judaism. For a while, we had a special section for these books, but it was a mishmash of different topics and the books went largely unnoticed.

In 2023, we decided to address this need by hosting a forum for temple authors to give a book talk, sign, and sell their books, and to connect with other authors in the congregation. The Authors’ Showcase ran concurrently with the Women of Reform Judaism’s long-standing Chanukah Mart. Nine Temple Sinai Authors signed on:  Michael Dine, Leon Fink, Deborah Kalb, Sue Levine, Gail Rebhan, Ellen Sazzman, Susan Rubin Suleiman, Julie Segal Walters, and Kuri Yasuno. We were thrilled with how it turned out and will be continuing to host this opportunity to spotlight the literary talent in our own congregation.

Below, three of the authors from our first Authors’ Showcase share a few thoughts about their experience.

– Ruth Polk, Temple Sinai Librarian

It was very gratifying to speak alongside such a distinguished group of authors and to an audience which was so appreciative of writing on a broad range of topics. It is wonderful to be part of this community.

– Michael Dine, author of This Way to the Universe: A Journey into Physics (February 2022) and other books

As someone who’s spent her entire life going to Temple Sinai, it’s wonderful to find a whole new way to connect with the community–and I found it at the Authors’ Showcase last November! I knew some of my fellow participants already, but was glad to meet the other authors and talk about writing and the often bewildering world of book publicity. And it was a real treat to talk about my books with congregants attending the Chanukah Mart–including a reunion with someone I had worked with two decades ago! Thanks so much to librarian Ruth Polk for organizing such a lovely event.

– Deborah Kalb, author of Off to Join the Circus (July 2023) and other books

I’m a relatively new member of Temple Sinai, having moved to the DC area a few years ago to be near my son Daniel and his family, who are longstanding members. (All four of my grandkids are proud graduates of Temple Sinai Nursery School and the oldest just started her first year of college!).

I confess I don’t often attend services, even though my father was trained as an Orthodox rabbi.  But I do love books and you might even say I have a professional love of books, since I spent more than 40 years as a professor of literature.  I’ve even written some books myself.

That’s why the group I feel most at home with at the temple is the Library Committee, and why I so much enjoyed sitting at the entrance to the Chanukah Mart last year with other TS authors, all of us behind a stack of books we were eager to sign for anyone who asked!  It was lovely when people stopped to chat, even if they didn’t buy our books.  I was signing my memoir, Daughter of History, which starts with my childhood in Hungary.  Lo and behold, one woman stopped to tell me about her brother-in-law, who is Hungarian!

Books connect people.  I love that.

– Susan Suleiman, author of Daughter of History: Traces of an Immigrant Girlhood (May 2023) and other books

One of my favorite childhood memories is my dad taking my brother and me for winter hikes in Mill Creek Park, near where we lived in Youngstown, Ohio. Sometimes my dad would pack hotdogs and buns in a backpack, and we would stop next to the stream we hiked along, and he would build a little fire, and we would sit on rocks and roast hotdogs on sticks. I think he also packed hot chocolate in a thermos. With a little snow on the ground, the park was beautiful and peaceful and cozy.

Over a year ago I went on one of the early hikes organized by TSWRJ. I was walking at the head of the pack with Helene Sacks, who I didn’t know but enjoyed chatting with. At some point, either that day or shortly thereafter, Helene asked me if I would be interested in leading monthly hikes. I said yes.

I was not familiar with the paths in Rock Creek Park so I purchased the best map I could find from the Nature Center store and in the early months I tried to find different paths to walk every month. All of the hikes went well enough except one. One month I made the mistake of taking hikers on a path that was very difficult and much longer than I had anticipated. Everyone was very polite about it, but I felt terrible and some ladies understandably never returned. After that I made a point of hiking every new path myself alone before I introduced it to the group.

At some point I had exhausted all the paths from the Nature Center and formed opinions about which paths were more interesting, harder, or easier, than others.  I had also learned my audience, so to speak—their pace, how far and how much time they want to spend. I found one hiking loop that is a little less than three miles, and takes the group about 1-1/2 hours, no more than 1-3/4 hours, including rest stops. The entire path is wide and not difficult, it goes down and along the creek, and there is only one steep incline, on the way back. At some point I decided this is an almost perfect hike from the Nature Center for our group, and the group agreed it was great and there was no need to switch things up. Walking the same path once a month helps you notice all the changes in the trees and fauna from the month before. Once in a while someone spots something remarkable—a Blue Heron in the creek, or a wasp’s nest the size of gallon jug of milk.

We meet every month at the same place because I want to make it very easy for people to attend. If you come regularly you know where to go and how long it will take to get there so you’re not late. You learn what to wear and if you really need water and poles (most don’t). We’re always back at our cars by 10:45. At some point I may do a special hike at a different location, but I haven’t found anything as lovely as the hike we already do.

I think my goal for the hiking group is to have this time every month simply to connect with nature and make friends. I’ve made a lot of friends.

– Liz Brenner

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