Submission #22218 by Temple Israel of Sharon Brotherhood - Sharon, MA (738)
I have read the 2021 Torch Awards Program Guidelines.
Scott Shikora
COVID-19
Page 1
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic and the several month complete shutdown of all activities including most of the activities of our Synagogue, the Brotherhood used innovative planning and out of the box thinking to keep our members active and engaged. In fact, we held nearly as many events as we had pre-pandemic. Even though much of the programs were via Zoom, they were still interesting and well attended.
Our goal during the pandemic, and especially during the lock down was to try and function as normally as we could. For those events where we could not hold “business as usual’” we would improvise as needed. We found our club members to be enthusiastic, flexible, and also understanding. Here is a brief summary of our past year. Please note that I cannot do justice in words describing the positive feelings and comfort we felt by sticking together during this unprecedented time in our lives.
Our club holds its Board of Directors Meeting every third Sunday of the month inside the Temple. We provide bagels and coffee. We felt that it was important to continue to hold the BOD meetings and function as normal as we could. During the good weather of the summer and fall, we held our Board of Director's Meetings outside in a large emptying parking lot. We brought beach chairs and placed them in a large circle respecting social distancing. We wore masks as well. We also encouraged the participants to bring their own breakfast and coffee.
During the winter, we held the meetings via zoom. They were well attended. We also held Zoom bull ** sessions. This was just an opportunity for the guys to see one another and chat. This turned out to be very meaningly and fun. In addition, the leadership telephoned all Brotherhood members just to check up on them and offer assistance to any brother in need of in need of anything.
In June, we joined with the New England Friends of the March of the Living to sponsor a Zoom speaker “breakfast” with Jared Firestone, an Israeli national skeleton and athlete and 2022 Olympic Games hopeful.
The pandemic did not prevent us from celebrating our Man of the Year Award Recipient. We held it by Zoom with good attendance. As the winner, Harold Waisel is a big scotch lover, we bought him a 5 foot by 5 foot plot of Scotland complete with an official title and a certificate of authenticity. We presented him the award and the certificate and held our usual "roast’ all by Zoom.
On November 1st, we joined the New England Federation of Men’s Clubs in a virtual Keeper of the Flame celebration and we honored Aaron Kischel for his five decades in Jewish education, youth leadership and the Conservative Movement (USCJ), not to mention his tireless service and dedication to our Brotherhood and synagogue.
The Bros came together to contribute to a generous retirement gift for Temple Israel's long-time custodian, Olavo Gomes, in honor of his more than 30 years of service to our temple and in particular, in gratitude for his outstanding service, support and friendship to our Brotherhood over all these years.
The pandemic also prevented us from having our traditional Paid Up Supper dinner party. Instead we held a "Paid Up Movie Night." We rigged the parking lot of Temple Israel with a large white screen and a computer system. We provided snacks and soft drinks. We assembled beach chairs apart from one another to respect socially distancing and that night, outside like a drive-In theater, we watch the movie, "Frisco Kid."
Our big event every year is Brotherhood Weekend. We generally run the Shabbat service and provide the Torah readers. We then have a large Kiddush. Saturday night is usually a dinner party and Sunday we have an invited breakfast speaker.
We obviously could not hold our Brotherhood Weekend. Instead of cancelling it, we did the following: We still ran the Shabbat service including the Torah reading all by Zoom. We were fortunate to have the Devar given live from Dubai. Yes Dubai. Dr. Laurent Leyani. a Jewish Surgeon living in and working in United Arab Emirates zoomed in and told us about the changing life for Jews in the Arab World. His Devar dovetailed perfectly with our Brotherhood Weekend Sunday speaker, Robert Leikind, Regional Director of the American Jewish Committee, who also discussed Israel's new relationships in the Middle East.
Saturday night we normally would have had a dinner party. Instead of eating in the Temple, We arraigned with a local caterer to have prepared steak dinners for those who wanted one. Those who wanted the steak dinner were able to pick them up outside Temple Israel after Havdalah.
We then held our popular our Lift Your Spirits Program (Scotch/Spirits Tasting) hosted by Gary Keimach and this year, directed by the Owner of the Boston Harbor Distillery, Rhonda Kallman. We all bought 6 different spirits in 2 oz nip bottles. Rhonda directed us by providing background facts about the different spirits and then walked us through a proper tasting. All by Zoom.
In substitution for out March Breakfast Speaker, we created an Evening With Michael Reiss. He is a prominent, local Sportswriter who covers the Patriots. We had the opportunity to ask him questions about our local teams and he had the opportunity to answer the questions.
Another interesting program was our Zoom visit to the Jewish Museum of Maryland for a guided tour through their new exhibit “Jews in Space.”
We ran two Zoom-based series: First, this year’s Jewish Routes Series with Rabbi Fish was on the timely topic, “MAGEFOT – The Struggles and Survival of the Jewish People Through the Plagues of History” it was a 4-part series.
Lastly, we continued our long-running award-winning Hearing Men’s Voices series. This year’s focus was on how we are all dealing with the many issues that have come to the fore during these challenging COVID-19 times.
In conclusion, I want to steal a quote from the movie, Animal House. “Nothing is over until we say it is over.” That is the attitude of the Brothers at Temple Israel in Sharon. We can be slowed down, we can be derailed, but we can not be stopped. We will continue to provide meaningful programs and meaningful activities such as Tikkum Olan to our community. It ain’t over until we say it is !!!!
Our club holds its Board of Directors Meeting every third Sunday of the month inside the Temple. We provide bagels and coffee. We felt that it was important to continue to hold the BOD meetings and function as normal as we could. During the good weather of the summer and fall, we held our Board of Director's Meetings outside in a large emptying parking lot. We brought beach chairs and placed them in a large circle respecting social distancing. We wore masks as well. We also encouraged the participants to bring their own breakfast and coffee.
During the winter, we held the meetings via zoom. They were well attended. We also held Zoom bull ** sessions. This was just an opportunity for the guys to see one another and chat. This turned out to be very meaningly and fun. In addition, the leadership telephoned all Brotherhood members just to check up on them and offer assistance to any brother in need of in need of anything.
In June, we joined with the New England Friends of the March of the Living to sponsor a Zoom speaker “breakfast” with Jared Firestone, an Israeli national skeleton and athlete and 2022 Olympic Games hopeful.
The pandemic did not prevent us from celebrating our Man of the Year Award Recipient. We held it by Zoom with good attendance. As the winner, Harold Waisel is a big scotch lover, we bought him a 5 foot by 5 foot plot of Scotland complete with an official title and a certificate of authenticity. We presented him the award and the certificate and held our usual "roast’ all by Zoom.
On November 1st, we joined the New England Federation of Men’s Clubs in a virtual Keeper of the Flame celebration and we honored Aaron Kischel for his five decades in Jewish education, youth leadership and the Conservative Movement (USCJ), not to mention his tireless service and dedication to our Brotherhood and synagogue.
The Bros came together to contribute to a generous retirement gift for Temple Israel's long-time custodian, Olavo Gomes, in honor of his more than 30 years of service to our temple and in particular, in gratitude for his outstanding service, support and friendship to our Brotherhood over all these years.
The pandemic also prevented us from having our traditional Paid Up Supper dinner party. Instead we held a "Paid Up Movie Night." We rigged the parking lot of Temple Israel with a large white screen and a computer system. We provided snacks and soft drinks. We assembled beach chairs apart from one another to respect socially distancing and that night, outside like a drive-In theater, we watch the movie, "Frisco Kid."
Our big event every year is Brotherhood Weekend. We generally run the Shabbat service and provide the Torah readers. We then have a large Kiddush. Saturday night is usually a dinner party and Sunday we have an invited breakfast speaker.
We obviously could not hold our Brotherhood Weekend. Instead of cancelling it, we did the following: We still ran the Shabbat service including the Torah reading all by Zoom. We were fortunate to have the Devar given live from Dubai. Yes Dubai. Dr. Laurent Leyani. a Jewish Surgeon living in and working in United Arab Emirates zoomed in and told us about the changing life for Jews in the Arab World. His Devar dovetailed perfectly with our Brotherhood Weekend Sunday speaker, Robert Leikind, Regional Director of the American Jewish Committee, who also discussed Israel's new relationships in the Middle East.
Saturday night we normally would have had a dinner party. Instead of eating in the Temple, We arraigned with a local caterer to have prepared steak dinners for those who wanted one. Those who wanted the steak dinner were able to pick them up outside Temple Israel after Havdalah.
We then held our popular our Lift Your Spirits Program (Scotch/Spirits Tasting) hosted by Gary Keimach and this year, directed by the Owner of the Boston Harbor Distillery, Rhonda Kallman. We all bought 6 different spirits in 2 oz nip bottles. Rhonda directed us by providing background facts about the different spirits and then walked us through a proper tasting. All by Zoom.
In substitution for out March Breakfast Speaker, we created an Evening With Michael Reiss. He is a prominent, local Sportswriter who covers the Patriots. We had the opportunity to ask him questions about our local teams and he had the opportunity to answer the questions.
Another interesting program was our Zoom visit to the Jewish Museum of Maryland for a guided tour through their new exhibit “Jews in Space.”
We ran two Zoom-based series: First, this year’s Jewish Routes Series with Rabbi Fish was on the timely topic, “MAGEFOT – The Struggles and Survival of the Jewish People Through the Plagues of History” it was a 4-part series.
Lastly, we continued our long-running award-winning Hearing Men’s Voices series. This year’s focus was on how we are all dealing with the many issues that have come to the fore during these challenging COVID-19 times.
In conclusion, I want to steal a quote from the movie, Animal House. “Nothing is over until we say it is over.” That is the attitude of the Brothers at Temple Israel in Sharon. We can be slowed down, we can be derailed, but we can not be stopped. We will continue to provide meaningful programs and meaningful activities such as Tikkum Olan to our community. It ain’t over until we say it is !!!!
Page 2
Original Program
Gold