Empty Basement

Etz Hayim Basement Cleared!

Yes, for several years much stuff has been accumulating in the Etz Hayim basement. We have been looking for ways to remove with little success.   Then things came together. Newly elected Board member Stephen Landau volunteered to do the job.  He and his family have been very active in Chester’s Boy Scout troop 163.  It turns out the troop holds a huge two day yard sale annually.  It happens to be this weekend June 21 and 22, 2014.  So this Thursday afternoon, June 19, 2014 Stephen brought some youngsters including one troop member to clear the basement.  They did a marvelous job.  Thanks!

Stephen Landau moving our basement to Chester.

Memory Garden

On June 15th, Jacob Riese, with the help of his mother, Eva Bak and his Aunt Deborah Litvin, planted a memory garden in honor of his grandmothers:  Zofia Bak and Sylvia Riese. Both of Jacob's grandmothers died last year just before his Bar Mitzvah. Jacob did a mini-bar-mitzvah service in Sylvia's hospital room a week before she died. Seeing him Bar Mitzvah was one of her last wishes and this helped her to pass peacefully when the time came. Here are Jacob and his mom, Eva Bak, with the finished product.

Annual Meeting

Rabbi Bryna Milkow opened the Etz Hayim Synagogue annual meeting with an invocation, report and farewell message. President Sarah Finne-Sandler, ending her two year term as head of the Board of Directors proceeded with thank you's and the election of new board of directors. She thanked all of the committee members for their work and said specific thanks to retiring Board members:  Deborah Bailin, Renee Solomon and Marci McWilliams. She presented a balanced budget which was unanimously approved. Arlene Agosto ended the meeting with a  tour of our etzhayim.org website.

2014-2015 Board of Directors:

President Steve Soreff

Vice President Jay Madnick

Treasurer - TBD

Secretary Dina Chaitowitz

Directors:

David Riese

Craig Starkman

Arlene Agosto de Kane

Jill McAlpine

Mark Aronson

On behalf of the Board a necklace was presented to our outgoing President Sara Finne-Sandler and a challah cutting board was given to our outgoing  Secretary Andy Corman.