President's Blog

I'm still absorbing the outstanding Shalomathon event, but I wanted to share my thank you letter to our organizers: Joshua Levy and Bruce Corman:

Joshua and Bruce,

I think the first meeting I had once I started as president was with the two of you. You were anxious for some guidance on what to do with securing the venue for our planned gala.  Through previous meetings, you laid out a plan for a ‘not your typical rubber chicken style gala’ and were ready to move (cautiously) forward.  But with unknowns making planning tenuous due to the ever present pandemic, we were at an impasse trying to decide whether to finalize our  deposit at the venue and hope for the best or start thinking about a plan ‘B’ (whatever that might be).

Then I started some drivel about how I used to enjoy The Gong Show which became the genesis of Shalomathon. My charge to the two of you was to plan an event that we could hold regardless of what level of lockdown the city was in. Other than updates, that was the last we talked about it.

I recalled that history to show the sharp contrast of where we started (and what you signed up for) and where we ended up.  Other than the common goals of being a 20^th anniversary celebration and fundraiser, the previous two paragraphs describe vastly different events.  The extent of our gratitude goes far beyond the outstanding event we experienced Saturday night – the fact that you had to make such a profound pivot and create a scripted event that had a completely different ‘flavor’ then what you originally envisioned is astonishing. Pulling it off so smoothly is just icing on an already beautiful cake.

I’ve been feeling disappointed that we promised our congregants a fabulous 20^th anniversary series of events that we either had to cancel or scale back. Shalomathon went a long way to filling the gap. Thank you both for doing such a great job and putting together this awesome event.

Steve Fintel
Rabbi Alan Freedman
Patti Bridwell