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July 24, 2026
Shabbat shalom, my friends! I hope this note finds you doing well and enjoying the summer! And mazal tov to all those from Spain and those rooting for them in the World Cup! Just as victory at the World Cup takes collaboration, cohesion, and connection, so too do we strive for those attributes as a community. One way we achieve that sense of k'hilah is reaching out to wonderful colleagues of mine to share Shabbat with you when I am away. We do so this Shabbat as we are thrilled to welcome Rabbi Jaymee Alpert back to our pulpit, so that I can enjoy Visiting Day at camp with my family in the Berkshires. I hope you'll be there tomorrow to spend Shabbat with her and your Center Avenue friends. Another way we do attain new levels of connection and collaboration is by opening our doors - figuratively and literally - to new friends and neighbors. That is what we will do, beginning on August 1st, when we'll start spending our Shabbat mornings together with our friends from the JCC Gesher Shalom. The Center Avene Synagogue and Gesher Shalom will also be welcoming in the High Holy Days of 5787 together as one united community. This Shabbat we read from Parashat VaEtchanan, whose verses include what is now the liturgy in our Sh'ma and V'ahavta prayers. Fittingly, we will soon begin a new era of listening to and loving our neighbors and friends, creating a new, even stronger, k'hila. I'm looking forward to making it happen with you. Rabbi Joshua Strom
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