Author Archives: Higherimages

Some of you know Dave Bertenthal.  He’s a Carnegie boy.  Last week he was researching his family cemetery information and he found that some of his family are buried in Machsikei Hadas Cemetery.  I’m not familiar with it, but I expect many of you are.  Dave made a visit, and filed this report.
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About 5 years ago (maybe it was longer?) we made some cosmetic improvements to the social hall: new flooring, drywall, paint, etc.  But we didn’t finish it.  This meant that while the social hall was brighter and much more inviting, it still wasn’t in a condition that we could rent it out for social events.  An attractive and functional social hall would not only be a valuable benefit to our members, but also be a source of revenue for the shul.  Last week at the Annual Meeting, the Board approved the expenditure to finish the job, which includes a new ceiling and lighting, removal of the steam radiators, and trim for the doors and windows.  The work began on Tuesday and is well underway.  We expect to be done in a couple of weeks.  All of this costs money of course, and you expect that I will be asking you to replenish the shul treasury.  So be prepared.  I have no embarrassment about asking you for money for the shul.  Be generous.  This is your shul and it shouldn’t be shabby.
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We had a good meeting at the shul on May 17.  Aside from typical annual reports on finances, membership, etc., the Board approved funding the completion of the social hall renovations.  More about that in a separate post.  More significantly perhaps, the Board approved a motion to invite women to receive aliyahs.  I know that a number of you didn’t understand why there was such a lengthy debate over this issue, but it’s now decided and we can move on to other matters.  The following is the text of my formal remarks at the meeting.
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On this beautiful Spring Sunday morning, I was honored to attend the unveiling of the matzeivos (gravestones) for Stan and Lynn Roth.  It was nice to see Terry and Richard, Stan’s sister Roselle, and the rest of the family who gathered at Beth Shalom Cemetery.  Afterwards, there was a good opportunity for catching up on family news and other events of the day.  The opportunity was not lost and I enjoyed conversation with Barry Roth about shul business and with Jim Gormley (Terry’s husband) about work and politics.  But the moment was quickly passed and by 1:30 Debbie and I were back home looking at unfinished yardwork.

Yesterday I did a total makeover of the shul website. It is now based on blogging software rather than webpage software. What’s the difference? Blogging is more dynamic; for example, I’m sitting right now on my front porch typing this message into my phone. This means I can provide you more real-time news about what’s going on at shul. Of course, the new site isn’t complete yet. I have to put all the yahrzeit information back on the site. And once I have this fully operational, you will be able to subscribe to it so that shul news automatically arrives in your email inbox. More to come!