President's Message — July/August 2011

Our TOR Community

Summer has finally arrived, I think. Hard to tell with the strange weather patterns. But not to worry, our TOR Jewish community is on course.

At the June meeting, Your Board of Trustees approved new contracts for our Rabbi, Alan Rabishaw, and for our Cantorial Soloist, Carol Gunnerson. We approved a balanced budget for 2011-12 that includes for the first time a line item for communications. We had a presentation from the President and the Director of the Jewish Community Foundation of the West regarding our endowment needs. An interesting idea is the JCFW's endowed dues program, providing a donor with lifetime dues. Over the next few months we will be working with the JCFW on ideas and strategy.

The Rabbi in June led a group of congregants on a fabulous trip to Israel. Joining the Rabbi were: Cal Sachs and Sheri Reisman; Rob Burger (and his father); Steve, Beth, Jason and Sara Fassler; Mark, Rachel, Noah and Maya Silber (and Mark's mother Joanne); Neil, Lisa and Charles Harris; Richard and Karen Ziman; David and Vicky Coon; Cheryll Goldscheid; Laura Rabishaw; Mark, Sheila, Arielle and Nicole Spring. We look forward to a future article about the trip with many pictures!

One of our congregants, Louise Fass unfortunately had unexpected heart surgery while on a trip back East. Bob and Louise have been TOR members for 20 years. Bob has been very helpful with our grant writing. Louise has been co-chair of membership and creator of the dinner for eight. Bob and Louise decided earlier this year to move to North Carolina to be with their daughter Sarah, who is expecting her first child this October. The surgery prevented both Bob and Louise from being able to manage alone the move that was to take place on June 24th. Our community responded to help Bob who flew back to California on June20th. Everything was packed and "in order" for the movers on June 24th. A big thanks to David Abramowitz, Mike and Linda Prusak, Vivian Marguleas, Andrea Seminer and her son Jason, Judy Schneider, and Nicki Wampold, for their taking the time and working hard to help a congregant with a solvable problem. Both outreach and inreach are an important part of our TOR community.

This year we have had 10 Bar and Bat Mitzvahs (Jonathan Weinberg, Sara Fassler, Adam Kahn, Caleb Shifrin, Benjamin Anderson, Ethan Ginsburg, Bryan Baumgarten, Judy Schachtel, Victoria Unger and Ethan Guttman). We will have two more in August. The Bar Mitzvah of Steven Abramowitz is August 6th, and the Bat Mitzvah of Lauren Uhlig is August 13. Awesome!

Enjoy the summer. Hope to see you on the ski slopes on the 4th of July.

Edward (Ned) Cohen - president@orrishon.org
President