Dear Friends:
Next Saturday night September 17 we will be joining B’nai Shalom of Olney, Tikvat Israel, and Shaare Tefila for Selichot services and program. The evening’s events will take place at Tikvat Israel, 2200 Baltimore Rd. in Rockville, beginning with Havdalah at 8:30 pm.
Our guest speaker will be Wayne Hoffman, executive editor of Tablet magazine and author of The End of Her: Racing Against Alzheimer's to Solve a Murder, published by Heliotrope Books. This book is the true story of his efforts to uncover the details of his great-grandmother’s murder while watching his mother decline due to Alzheimer’s disease. He is also the author of three novels. Mr. Hoffman’s talk will begin at around 9 pm followed by a brief Selichot service at 9:45. Participating in the service will be the rabbis and cantors of the four congregations.
As you most likely know, this coming Shabbat morning we are having a special kiddush to mark the 10th anniversary of my service to Kehilat Shalom. Because we have been taking RSVPs for several weeks, we won’t be asking for registration via our signup sheet as we normally do for in person services. However, please make sure that you understand and follow our current COVID mitigation regulations which can be found at this link. This is particularly crucial given that we want to make sure that everyone is healthy for the coming High Holidays and because we have had several cases of COVID in our community recently.
I am having drop-in hours on Thursday afternoon from 2 to 4 at the shul. You do not need to make an appointment -- that would negate the whole point of drop-in hours -- but I’d urge you to check and make sure I am there regardless as sometimes there are unavoidable pastoral or other emergencies which might take me away from the building.
As always, if I can do anything for you or you need to talk, please contact me at rabbi@kehilatshalom.org or 301-977-0768 rather than through the synagogue office. I am happy to meet you at the synagogue by appointment. I have been spending more time in the synagogue recently but if you want to speak with me it’s best to make an appointment rather than assuming I will be there when you stop by.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Charles L. Arian
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