Tribute to Sam Lampert and the Lampert Library

Aileen Grossberg shared this tribute at the Shabbat service on November 23, 2024. Additional comments were made by Katherine Delaney. 

Shabbat Shalom and Happy Jewish Book Month which begins tomorrow and has been going strong for 99 years.

It’s so appropriate that today when we celebrate the many years that the Lampert family has supported the library and made books available to the Shomrei community, we also celebrate the 60th anniversary of Judy Wildman’s bat mitzvah. As Jews, as People of the Book, we hold both bound books and the Torah scroll in high esteem. Continue reading

MESH Report Nov 11, 2024

Flexibility is key!

This week in our ongoing effort to engage wider participation by accommodating congregants’ availability, we had a tag team on Monday and Tuesday.  Monday afternoon Lynne Kurzweil, Shirley Grill and Linda Wieseneck did the cooking and stored it for warming and packing up on Tuesday.

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Yom Kippur, Haftorah Introduction: Becoming a Community of Giving

Shabbat Shalom and Shana Tova.

As we all gather this morning, in the midst of a meaningful fast and without that morning coffee I know I am missing right now…I have the privilege of talking to you about, what else? Food…and housing, and the basics of the blessings of what it means to have enough…

And thinking about our neighbors and friends who don’t. Continue reading

MESH Report Oct 8, 2024

Five friendly MESH volunteers gathered in the Shomrei kitchen on Tuesday to prepare 50 hearty and tasty meals for our MESH guests. Chef Lynne Kurzweil shopped for the food at Costco, ShopRite and the Fooderie and MESH CoChair Aileen Grossberg stopped at Amazing Savings to stock up on our packing supplies.  (When you shop at the Fooderie, please remember to thank Ari from  Meat Maven for giving Shomrei a nice discount on chicken drumsticks). Helpers were Susan Rosenblatt, Carole Rothman, Carol Blau and Julie Weinstein.

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MESH Report Sept 24, 2024

 

Chef Aileen Grossberg planned an easy to prepare meal with minimum prep and cooking time. Sous chefs Alex Kent, Lynne Kurzweil , Carole Rothman and new volunteer Julie Weinstein were totally up to the tasks of cutting tomatoes and lettuce, roasting corn, doling out chili sauce and preparing the other parts of the meal until——the ovens wouldn’t work. No gas to the burners.

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MESH Report Sept 10, 2024

The Carol Starr MESH Cafe at Shomrei was back in the swing after our summer hiatus. Chef Lynne Kurzweil, along with the pro team of Alex Kent, Joan Zief and Linda Wieseneck, pulled off a splendid feast supplementing ample leftovers from Noa Baird’s bat mitzvah which were graciously donated by Rabbi Julie and Justus. Continue reading

MESH Update

MESH volunteers will be happy to hear that Joe Tyson is back working at MESH at the Bloomfield Avenue site. Volunteers who drop off Shomrei’s prepared meals will undoubtedly be greeted by one of MESH’s Joes – Tyson or Granger.

Though it’s been summer and we have not been preparing meals in the Shomrei kitchen, MESH has been the beneficiary of our excess food at kiddushes. The need for food has not decreased. MESH feeds upwards of 75 people 6 nights a week. Continue reading