Har Shalom Men’s Club’s monthly Sunday Morning Brunch offers an outstanding series of speakers every year. It is held in the Social Hall of the Synagogue and includes a sumptuous Brunch prepared by our Men’s Club Chefs (Kitchen Boys), a presentation and a question and answer period. Attendance includes women as well as Men’s Club members and is a regular synagogue event for many. It is a core activity of the Men’s Club. It brings together men and women to hear subjects ranging from politics, to Israel, to Jewish culture. It maintains and grows our membership, enhances our brand and sustains relations in the synagogue. Annual Joint Brunches, held with the Congregation Sisterhood, bring out large crowds of about 140 to 160 and build good relations among our organizations. Recent speakers have included: Steven Pearlstein (Author and Washington Post Opinion Writer); Professor Guy Ziv (School of International Service, American University); Elaine Apter (Montgomery County League of Women Voters); David Farenthold and Stephanie McCrummen (Pulitzer Prize Winners for Investigative Reporting in 2017 and 2018).
The particular challenge for the June, 2019 Brunch was that Covid-19 shut down the synagogue. The synagogue had just begun to use Zoom for school. However, we had no one experienced in using Zoom, including a presentation with an additional question and answer format. Since questions in the Chat function are received in a constant stream, we had to learn to record relevant questions and try to eliminate duplication before the end of the presentation component. Despite these issues, we decided to hold the event, using this innovative tool and approach. We had arranged for the County Executive to speak at a Brunch over a year ago; but we had to reconfirm and gain his agreement to do it in Zoom. We expanded the original topic of his “Vision for the County” to include County planning for Covid-19 and dealing with wide-spread racial protests. To complicate scheduling, the person in his office who made the original commitment was no longer employed and the County government was shut down.
We wanted to include the Sisterhood so that all could learn about the critical issues of COVID-19 and racial protests in the county. We worked with the Sisterhood to participate in this joint activity.
Results: We overcame severe difficulties and had a very successful program with high attendance of over 140. We received high acclaim from the attendees and the Sisterhood leadership, all of which enhanced the Men’s Cub esteem in the synagogue. Since then we’ve had successful additional brunches using the learning we obtained on this program.