I hope you are enjoying your summer as much as my family and I have been.

I can’t believe it’s already been three months since our 100th anniversary celebration! Hopefully you had the chance to participate in at least one if not all the events of the great weekend. From my vantage point, the weekend went off without a hitch. From the Friday night dinner to Shabbat Services to the Sunday evening gala … attendance was great and you could feel the excitement in the air! I want to thank the chair people for the overall event – Pearlena Bodzin and Carol Pollack – and their entire committee for the hard work and effort everyone put into the weekend. I also want to thank Amy and Jorge Lemus, who took time out of their own B’nai Moshe celebration to take such wonderful pictures of all of us. And finally, I want to thank all of you who gave any amount whatsoever in honor of our celebration. Without you, the weekend never would have gotten off the ground! (If anyone did not get a copy of the 100 Years Celebration Book, please be sure to grab one either from the office or the B’nai Moshe information table in our lobby.)

Now, I have some exciting news to share as we kick off B’nai Moshe’s 2nd 100 years. After the holidays this fall, a number of new families will be joining us. Beit Kodesh synagogue of Livonia will close their doors after 53 years of being an independent congregation. While it’s sad that circumstances have necessitated them to vacate their building, the fit between our two congregations is quite perfect. Beit Kodesh has conducted services without a Rabbi for a number of years and so they have very strong lay leadership. A number of their members are minyan regulars which, of course, are something we can never have enough of. And finally, although their Shul started in and has remained in Livonia, many of their 45 member families live right here in West Bloomfield. We will soon be working on ways to help Beit Kodesh preserve and share their history in their new home at B’nai Moshe. If you’re interested in helping with this endeavor, please let me know. And, most importantly, please be sure to approach and welcome any new faces you see visiting our Shul on Shabbat or any time.

Speaking of welcoming … we have a great community outreach program coming up on August 7th at Willoway Day Camp. We will have a "family fun day" with swimming, boating, sports, and many other outdoor activities. The goal is to promote our L.I.F.E. program and our overall congregation to families in the area. Please stop by if you can and share some of that B’nai Moshe hamish friendliness with families that don’t know us yet.

On a personal note, you’ll find some past presidents sitting next to the Rabbi during the first couple Shabbatot in August as my family and I take our first ever trip to Israel. We are incredibly excited about it and I look forward to sharing aspects of our trip with all of you in this space in the coming months.

Finally, I wanted to share that at a recent Board of Directors meeting, the Board recognized five members or families that have been affiliated with B’nai Moshe for fifty (that’s five-oh) years, making them honorary "lifetime" members of our congregation. These members were: Mr. Seymour Garsoff, Mr. and Mrs. Jonnard Greenberg, Dr. Albert Krochmal, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Ruben, and Mr. and Mrs. Harry Weberman. Please be sure to congratulate these people when you see them and thank them for their 50 years of involvement and participation in our Shul!

Thanks again for your ear. Be sure to take some time out this month and enjoy the Michigan summer. Keep in mind, though... as Rabbi Pachter is fond of saying… the synagogue is open ALL summer. Please do come (at least occasionally) to visit on Shabbat and morning and evening minyanim.