News & Announcements

Last updated March 8, 2010

Be sure to check this page frequently to see late-breaking announcements. Click on your browser's "refresh" button to make sure you see the latest version.

Our Schedule of Events is now being updated weekly on our telephone voice mail. Just call the Temple office at 860-561-1055 and press "1" when you hear the opening message.

Our online calendar is updated at least monthly.

Check your dues statements and the weekly reminder e-mails for messages about special events.

Emergency cancellations are listed with WTIC 1080AM, WFSB Channel 3, and WVIT Channel 30.

Opportunities to Give Back

Volunteer:

• Library book plating project
• Our Religious School is looking for volunteers to join a Religious School Committee. For more information, see the Education page.
• The Caring Community Committee is always looking for volunteers to help our fellow congregants. Please fill out the form in the Bulletin.
• A Temple-wide knitting project, Knitzvah, kicked off in January and is holding drop-in sessions periodically. Check the Bulletin and calendar for dates. See the flyer in the January Bulletin for more information. You can get even more information, including patterns, on our discussion forums (BBS). You'll find a dedicated discussion forum here. If you haven't already registered for the forums, see the instructions below.
• The Social Action Committee will be serving dinner at Mercy Shelter on March 21 and May 16. Please e-mail Carol Benjamin if you can help.

Contribute:

• The 7^th grade is collecting unwanted cell phones for our servicemen and women. You can drop them off in the Temple lobby.
• The Temple is collecting non-perishable food items for the Newington food bank. Donations can be left in the blue collection bin in the lobby.
• The Temple is also collecting supplies for Mitzvah Day. You'll find a "wish-list" in the March Bulletin.

Share with the Community:

• We have added open discussion forums (a bulletin board system, or BBS) to our web site. These forums are there so that members of the Temple Sinai community can share their thoughts on issues of interest to them. These forums will only succeed if you participate. Each forum can have hundreds of topics, and we'll happily add any other forums that you suggest. Please join your fellow members here.
  
  For your own protection, you will have to register before you can use the forums:
  
  
  • Click on the Discussion Forums link in the menu on the left (or here).
  • You'll be brought over to the login screen for the BBS.
  • Look for the word "Register", and click on that.
  • You'll be presented with two buttons: click the one that applies. This is a little bit of legalese to assure us that you are either old enough to use the board, or have your guardian's permission.
  • Accept the terms of use.
  • Fill in the form on the next screen. It should be pretty self-explanatory.
  • Check your e-mail for a confirmation e-mail. This is to prevent people from registering strangers.
  • The confirmation e-mail will have instructions for completing your registration.
  • Once you're completed the registration process, you'll be able to read and post to any of the forums.
  • There's one other point you need to keep in mind: Your first three messages will be inspected before they show up in the forums. This is one last line of defense against spammers, and gives us time to check your information before your posts start showing up.

  Once you have registered, you can change your profile to add as much, or as little, information about yourself as you want. You can also allow, or not allow, people to send you e-mail and private messages through the system (without revealing your real e-mail address).

Quick Notes

• This year's Temple Passover Seder has been canceled.
• The Religious School Committee has a Religious School Parent Education series. The next event is on March 14, and will discuss the issues surrounding interfaith marriages. See the Education Committee's web page for more information.
• The Adult Education Committee has an upcoming event, a discussion of Marriage in Judaism, on March 12. The Temple's lending library has a section set aside for books related to these topics.
  
  The committee has several other events in the works, please visit their web page for more details.
• We are now offering The Taste: Dining & Activity Book for Greater Hartford for $20.00. The discounts are good thru December, 2010. Most of the discounts are for local businesses. We continue to offer the Entertainment Book 2010 for $30.00 as well. The Entertainment Book discounts are good thru October, 2010.
• There are still tickets available for the April 17 Chai Club theater night at the Bushnell. The program is a special tribute to Barbra Streisand starring Marvin Hamlisch and featured vocalists Julie Budd and Steven Brinberg. Tickets are $25.00 each. Send your check to Harvey Seltzer at 31 Whitewood Rd., Newington, CT 06111.You may also gather for dinner (on your own) at the “First and Last” in Hartford. Details about this April 17th event were in Harvey’s mailing.
• We'll be having a celebration of Rabbi Bennett's 60th Birthday on May 8, so save the date.
• Did you know that Temple Sinai has a lending library? It's located in the multi-purpose room off the main lobby, and has a large assortment of Judaism-related fiction and non-fiction, including reference books.
• We've added a complete roster of the Temple Board, with e-mail addresses for most of them, and we're adding pictures.
• Our Yom Kippur food drive raised $10,700 and brought in 1,800 pounds of food! Thank you all.
• Photos from 2009's Mitzvah Day and Walk against Hunger are now on the web site.
• Photos from 2009's Purim Spiel have been posted.
• The Temple has a project to create personalized Torah binders (sashes, or wimples). You can put a name on a wimple for a donation of $18. If you can embroider, please volunteer your skills. See the flier in the October 2008 Bulletin, or call Joyce in the Temple office.
• The Union for Reform Judaism has created a URJ blog site at rj.org.
• Photos from the Temple's 50^th anniversary celebration are on the website.