By Charlotte Sasso, Membership Chair

Groucho Marx certainly wasn't talking about the JCOH when he said he wouldn't belong to any club that would have him as a member! As Chair of the Membership Committee, I'm proud to boast of the diversity of our members, as well as their accomplishments and commitment to our community. This blog can be a forum for congregants to share news of  personal simchas or professional achievements. Please tell everyone what the Jewish Center means to you. In my involvement with the Jewish Center over the past six years I've made wonderful friends, enjoyed heavenly music, and enhanced my understanding of Jewish values, culture and spirituality with the guidance of our world class Rabbi and Cantor. The JCOH is an integral part of my life in East Hampton and in the global village. My son Dante is as at home on the bima as he is on the playground. We are indeed privileged to worship in our awe-inspiring sanctuary.

But the heart and soul of any synagogue are its congregation.

By Michael Salzhauer, Vice President

Further welcome to the JCOH blog and website.  This project has been a priority of the Temple’s Board and Staff.  Our congregation presents some interesting challenges and opportunities.  Personally, having recently spent time at some other synagogues, synagogues much larger than ours, my appreciation of JCOH’s warmth, depth of programming, and clergy quality were only reinforced.  At the same time, we are probably the most geographically distributed congregation in America.  Our hope is that the technologies that are now available to us will enable our congregation to learn more about the opportunities and events that JCOH presents throughout the year, to expose us all more to the great things that parts of the congregation that we might not regularly interact with are doing, and (most of all) be a wonderful communication tool that will bring us all closer together as a community.  As I said, the website and its related functions are new.  They have the capacity to evolve.  We would love to hear your constructive feedback and get your constructive suggestions.

 

By Rabbi Zimmerman

We live in impatient times.  We used to be able to think out an issue before responding to mail and everything else that comes across our desk.  We had a few days, or even a few hours, to work things out and gain some clarity before jumping in.  No longer is that even a possibility – we are each flooded by hundreds of emails each and every day and people expect an immediate response 24/7—even on Shabbat!  Patience has been replaced by immediacy, thoughtful reflection by texting dialogues that do not permit us even to look at the face of the person with whom we are communicating.  Ouch!  I feel like Charlie Chaplin in that great movie “Modern Times,” caught in these great wheels on the machine as they turn. On top of all that, I cannot even keep up with the technological knowhow of my granddaughter in kindergarten.   Take some time to visit with us face to face – look up from your texting machines and see your neighbor’s face.  Let us think about what we write or say for at least a few moments before we say it, email it or text it.