President shall be the official representative of the congregation and shall act as the Chairperson of the Board of Directors. The President shall supervise the activities of the officers of Sha’are Shalom in accord-ance with the policies and directives approved by the Board of Directors and with the purpose of the congre-gation. The President shall appoint all standing and spe-cial committee chairpersons.

Secretary shall prepare and maintain all official documents of the congregation, including these By-Laws, and submit these documents to the Board of Di-rectors. The Secretary shall maintain a record of official correspondence of the congregation, provide notices of meetings to the general membership and to the Board of Directors, maintain an accurate record of the proceed-ings of all general meetings and meetings of the Board of Directors (including a record of all votes taken), and perform all other duties customarily associated with the office or that the Board of Directors may direct.

Financial Secretary shall present to the Board for approval an annual budget for the following fiscal year and will monitor income and expenses reported by the Treasurer for compliance with the approved budget. He/She will recommend to the Board appropriate dues and fee structure and resolve any dues or fee issues with a member on behalf of the Board maintaining to the maximum extent possible the privacy of individual members. The Financial Secretary shall monitor the in-vestment of non-operational and reserve funds to ensure the best use of those funds. The Financial Secretary shall review any and all financial reviews ensuring any discrepancies and/or recommendations are addressed by the Treasurer and presented to the Board.

Elaine McVinney, Joan Troncoso, Michele Uhler and Lee Weinberger, treated us to a “short” educational session on the meaning of the Havdalah Symbols, and Jasha and Valerie led the Havdalah Service.

Thanks to everyone that participated in the program. It was wonderful!! A special thank you to Jasha for putting together the songbook and, of course, for playing the guitar.

It was an honor to lead the service. Thank you to Jasha for all the help with revising and printing our Haggadah and leading the Hebrew and music during the service. I want to thank all the reader volunteers who helped me run the service so smoothly. I believe this was the first time a member of the Women’s Group was given the opportunity to lead a Seder service.

And I must recognize all the ladies who organize, set up, cook, serve and clean-up. The Seder meal runs so beautifully; we must be careful not to take these dedicated members for granted. Hope to see you next year.

The Three Festivals of Pilgrimage, known as the Shalosh Regalim, include Sukkot, Pesach, and Shavuot. Of these three, Shavuot is the least known and observed. It is cited in the Talmud that even in ancient times it was not observed as much as Passover and the Thanksgiving-Festival of the Booths. Shavuot, also known as Pentecost, involves the counting from the second Seder night until the fiftieth day when tradition says we received the Torah, Revelation, at Mt. Sinai. God had a purpose for us, in bringing us out of Egypt, namely, to give us the Torah, a Jewish Constitution. The Torah made us a people with laws and defined us even as we evolved into Modern Reform, Conservative or Orthodox Jews.

The customs associated with Shavuot include eating dairy (Blintzes!), bringing flowers, and bringing grain offerings to the Temple as a thanksgiving for the harvest. The custom of Confirmation mirrors this in an educational harvest – our students committed to continued growth and learning, Tzedakah, and including themselves as part of the community.

In the 19th Century, the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation, the oldest Reform Congregation in Maryland created Confirmation as way of including young women in the process of Jewish education and to balance the fact that they were not permitted to celebrate Bat Mitzvah. Confirmation addressed this issue and became the standard at Washington Hebrew as well as all Reform Congregations, later spreading to Conservative Congrega-tions, such as Adas Israel.

The Reconstructionist Rabbi, Mordechai Kaplan, who founded Reconstructionist Judaism at the Society for the Advancement of Judaism (SAJ), also began the custom of Bat Mitzvah prior to the Reform Movement or the Con-servative movement. The first Confirmation Cantata was called ‘What Is Torah’ which reflected the idea of innovat-ing a service in such a way as to find a place for young men and women to participate in a service, especially when they might want to participate, yet in most cases they were not trained cantors or lay leaders.

Confirmation is part of a mature commitment to study. Being Jewish requires knowledge, questioning, practicing our beliefs. Most importantly, it requires you to be there without worrying about what you know or who you know. Presence is our prayer and statement of faith. If this is done with study, it is even better.

Some Congregations have the custom of staying up all night to study, as the tradition says that the Israelites pre-pared all night to receive the Torah. This custom is referred to as L’eyl Shimurim – A Night of Watching. The custom is to read the Ten Commandments, received on this day, which we will read in English.

The overlap of Confirmation and Shavuot is intentional, drawing attention to the Festival of Weeks and the barley harvest, and reading the book of Ruth (Friday evening at Sha’are Shalom). Ruth, one of the great figures in Jewish tradition, reaches out to embrace our tradition and religion, a confirmation of belief. Please join us as our students and their families celebrate this milestone in their lives and in the life of our congregation.

Now what would our synagogue be if it wasn’t for the LADIES? I want to take my hat off to all the ladies that help with the buying, cooking, and serving for the Seder, and to you, Lee, for buying the wine. Thank You to Jim Weinberger from Huntsville, AL and to Lynn Weinberger from Waldorf for setting the tables for 74 guests, which is our largest Community Seder so far.

If you missed the Yom HaShoah Remembrance Service with a Pot Luck Dinner and Havdalah Under the Stars you missed a special event. Pot Luck dinner always brings out the best, and always we eat too much. It started to rain when it was time for the Havdalah so we had to do it inside, but that didn’t stop us from doing a lot of singing.

I want to say a Special Thank You to Madelene Weinberger for planning our Yom HaShoah Remembrance Service – it was wonderful. Thanks to Madelene our synagogue has a “Book of Names” Holocaust Remembrance. This is the first time we have ever had a Book of Names that shows how many in our little congregation were affected by the Holocaust. This again is our first for our synagogue. It shows that there are a lot more “First” for Congregation Sha’are Shalom.

Speaking about “First”, don’t forget to come to service on May 12th for our First Confirmation Graduation Service. Come and support our future leaders of Congregation Sha’are Shalom. There will be a luncheon afterwards and then we will have our Annual Membership Meeting. This is a very important meeting since we will be electing a President, Sec-retary and Financial Secretary for our synagogue, approval of the Budget for next year and other items for our synagogue.

Check out the newsletter for more information on things that are happening at Sha’are Shalom and come and join us.

Shalom,
Jackie

Saturday Services and Adult Education
April 14, 10 am
Service leader Rabbi Saltzman. Oneg sponsor is Sharon Mills. Adult Education follows the Oneg: Salamone Rossi ‘Hebreo.’ Jewish Music of Renaissance Italy by a remarkable composer who stands alone in the history of Jewish music. A brief biography; influences on Rossi; styles of music; rabbinic issues; Rabbinic opinions relating to his music; recorded musical examples; the end of the Venitian Republic.
For more information on adult education, contact Nancy Gould at nmgpilot@yahoo.com or 301-863-7496.

Confirmation Class
Saturday, April 14, 4:30 pm
Class leader Rabbi Saltzman.

A VERY SPECIAL EVENING: Yom HaShoah Remembrance Service / Pot Luck Dinner / Havdalah Under The Stars
Saturday, April 21, 6:00 pm
Annotate your personal calendar – “April 21, 6 pm at the Synagogue.”

The evening will begin with a pot luck dinner. The menu is: Soups (2 kinds), Quiche, Vegetable Lasagna, Salads,
Rolls, Drinks, Desserts (3 kinds)
Please let Madelene know which of these menu items you will be bringing, 301-374-6762 or m.weinberger@comcast.net.
After dinner there will be a Yom HaShoah Service to remember the victims of the Holocaust. We have members in our congregation that were personally impacted by this tragedy. We want to honor those victims by personalizing the service. So please bring pictures, books, or anything else that you would like to see displayed. Let Madelene know, in advance, what you are bringing.
After the Yom HaShoah Service, it will be Havdalah Under the Stars. This is a special Havdalah in that it will be the first time we conduct the Service on our patio and hopefully, it will be a clear night and we will see the stars. Jasha will be playing the guitar and leading a song fest before Havdalah.
It sounds like a full evening but we anticipate that Havdalah and dessert will be completed by 8:45.
Hope to see everyone there. RSVP to Madelene no later than April 18.

Friday Services
April 27, 8 pm
Need a Service leader and Oneg sponsor.

Friday Services
May 4, 8 pm
Need a Service leader, Oneg sponsors are Randy & Jackie Schoch.

Confirmation Class
Saturday, May 5, 4:30 pm
Class leader Rabbi Saltzman.

Saturday Services, Confirmation Class Luncheon
& Membership Meeting
May 12, 10 am
The Confirmation Class will be leading this service.
Mitzvah Catering will be sponsoring a luncheon in honor of the Confirmation Class.
Membership Meeting will follow the luncheon.

The Purim Party was great this year. More people got in the mood to dress up or down for the party. It took a while for people to guess who your President was, “May Flag Pole”. When I was a kid going to school in Nanjemoy we always did the Flag Pole dance in May. It was a lot of fun. Too bad children don’t do that now.

I hope everybody enjoyed their Purim Baskets this year. I am sure Madelene will have an article in the newsletter about this GREAT fundraiser.

How were those Hamantaschen? Aren’t they the greatest! If you didn’t order any this year, you always have next year. This was the best year with 1,308 Hamantaschen. Let’s see if we can break the record next year.

Just to give you a heads up on some important dates that are coming up. April 7th will be our Community Sedar (Read the Article in this newsletter). May 12th is a very special date not only having our Annual Membership Meeting but we will be celebrating our 1st Confirmation Graduation so I am asking all members to come and support these young adults. Our young adults are the future for Sha’are Shalom.

I am still looking for somebody to be the chair for Fundraiser. Fundraising is one way to keep our dues down. Show your support and be the Fundraiser Chair.

This year the office of President, Secretary and Financial Secretary need to be filled. Each position is a 2 year position and can be elected for 2 terms. Please look at the job descriptions in the newsletter.

Check out the newsletter for more information on things that are happening at Sha’are Shalom and come and join us.

Shalom,
Jackie