TABLE OF CONTENTS
Slate of Officers
President
Adult Education
Social Action
Membership / Ritual
Sisterhood
Brotherhood / Wall of Tribute
Security / Facilities and Building Maintenance
Cemetery
Futures
PRESIDENT
Dear Temple Sinai family,
As I conclude my term as your president, I look back on our accomplishments and challenges over the past year. We have a lot to be proud of, and we also have a lot to do going forward to ensure that we continue to thrive with vitality for many years to come.
Our most important asset is you, our members and friends, who devote so much time and energy to this synagogue. We have a committed core of leaders who are always there when called upon to help with anything. Our rabbi, cantor, and executive director are the best! They are the most devoted, creative, hardworking team anywhere, and we appreciate them immensely.
Some of the highlights of the past year are:
- We welcomed several young families with children to our services and special activities just for them. We also had a successful event for young singles in their 20s and 30s.
- We received federal and state grants totaling $175,000 to improve the physical security of our building and grounds. A new access control system, surveillance cameras around the perimeter of our building, and a panic alarm system that notifies the Marblehead Police dispatcher directly, are all operational.
- We did a thorough survey of the congregation last summer to address your opinions and preferences about the future of Temple Sinai, and we acted on the results.
- We initiated a Future of the Hill working group with the JCC and Hillel to implement a vision for a vibrant future together.
- We held many joint programs and services with Congregation Sons of Israel in Peabody.
- We upgraded our Temple Sinai website with a new hosting service, and we revitalized our social media presence on Facebook and Instagram.
- Our Adult Education programs continue to attract large crowds of members and the general community.
- Our Social Action programs are second to none. The Manna Project, vegetable garden, and Knitting Club bring people from the larger Jewish and interfaith communities to Temple Sinai, while providing food and clothing for our neighbors in need. We continue to host the Jewish Family and Children’s Services Food Pantry, donate school supplies to schools in Lynn, warm winter clothing to area shelters and the New American Center, and prepare and serve food at My Brothers Table.
- Our Brotherhood and Sisterhood sponsor well-attended programs throughout the year.
- Our Library upgrade project has made tremendous strides this year. Come and check it out!
It has been my honor to serve as your President over the past two years. We have a great team waiting to take over the reins, and look forward to a great year ahead!
Barbara Rosenstroch
ADULT EDUCATION
We continue to have a robust adult education program that offers a variety of programs.
On November 15-17, we had a wonderful Shabbaton based on our theme for the year: Seeking Wisdom, Finding Joy. Our weekend was filled with learning, reflection, joy, and fellowship. We were inspired by our speakers, Rabbi Bayta Ellinoy, Rabbi David Meyer and Rabbi Or Rose. We enjoyed a joyful concert filled with music and humor by Itay Dayan’s Klezmer Quartet. The music inspired us to dance. It was an uplifting weekend.
Two of our members presented wonderful programs. In August, Dr. Anthony Zietman presented a fascinating program entitled “The Surprising Artistic Lives of Cancer Physicians.” He shared the art work which the physicians submitted for use as covers of a scientific journal he edited and the stories behind the pieces. In May, Ira Dinnes put on an entertaining and informative program on Jewish Humor. We watched parts of the documentary When Jews were Funny and had a guided discussion. Everyone enjoyed both programs.
Our music programs included a September program by Margie Satinsky entitled “The Back Story and Career of Jewish Opera Singers” and a program on November 7 on Leonard Cohen’s Eighth Yahrzeit. Rabbi Michael took us on a spiritual, intellectual and music journey to consider the secret sacred Name of God as expressed in Leonard Cohen’s songs.
Other programs included:
- a Book Discussion cosponsored by Brotherhood where authors Harry Christensen and Richard Santeusanio spoke about their book: Murder in Marblehead: Who Killed Beryl Atherton?
- an intriguing program presented by the Honorable Judge Phillip Weiner on Jewish Gangsters
- an engaging documentary on Chelsea presented by Ellen Rovner who produced, wrote and directed the documentary. We enjoyed regular and pizza bagels from Richard Katz’s bakery
Our Rabbi continued to provide many outstanding learning opportunities for our congregation. He leads weekly Torah study, monthly lunch and learn programs and a series of Tea Time for the Soul Programs. Among the programs were a three- part series learning about how to write Ethical Wills; studying Pirkei Avot from after Pesach until June; and a presentation entitled Confusing Beer and Wine- The Talmud Toasts-Philosophical Insights.
Finally, a big thank you to my committee members: Sandy Brenner, co-chair, Ira Dinnes, Claire Sandler, Carol Skowronski, Rabbi Michael, Denise Tierney, and Susan Weiner for all your hard work in planning and executing our programs. Thank you for your energy and enthusiasm.
Merle Hyman, co-Chair,
Adult Education Committee
SOCIAL ACTION COMMITTEE
The Social Action Committee filled its year with many large and small projects, all of which helped provide our local community and Israel with goods, services and needed financial resources. We have several ongoing subcommittees as part of Social Action. These include our knitting group, Manna, and working with JF&CS throughout the year.
Our knitting group meets every Tuesday morning. Over the past year we have knit and crocheted hundreds of toys, hats, scarves, small blankets and even sweaters for adults and children in local shelters and the New American Center, for preemies in the NICU at Salem Hospital, and special cotton hats and lap blankets for cancer and hospice patients on the North Shore. Several of our members learned to knit and crochet by attending our group, and have made beautiful items to share with others. We also have benefitted from generous donations of yarn to our group. Thank you to all our loyal participants, both from Temple Sinai, and from other synagogues on the North Shore.
A special thank you and best of luck to Nancy Segal, our tireless stitch sister, as she moves to Concord, NH, to be closer to her family. We already miss her enthusiasm and gentle being, and her ability to teach newcomers and experienced knitters alike, undoing all our fiber errors to help our projects look lovely before we give them away! All the best, Nancy. We look forward to having you join us on ZOOM!
Another ongoing project is our association with Manna, a group formed to combat food insecurity on the North Shore, specifically Marblehead, Swampscott, Salem, and Lynn. Manna is an association made up of members of Temple Sinai and the Clifton Lutheran Church of Marblehead. Throughout the year we have met several times to fill food bags for local food banks, New Americans, Casa Mariposa, and we have served together at My Brother’s Table. In addition, together we have had a very successful fundraiser that enables us to carry on our work throughout the year.
The Manna group is also working with the JCC preschool this year to grow food for the Marblehead food bank. Thank you to Barbara Rosenstroch and her group for continuing the project you started with SPUR.
Thanks also to the leadership and enthusiastic members of Manna for all your energy and cooperation throughout the year, especially our Manna leaders, Susan Weiner and Rabbi Michael Schwartz from our Temple, and Karin Ernst and Pastor Jim Bixby of the Clifton Lutheran Church.
The next ongoing part of our committee is our support of JF&CS (Jewish Family and Children’s Services) throughout the year. We help make sure that each family that participates receives an appropriate contribution to their holiday celebrations, in addition to making sure they have monthly donations of food. This year we produced 115 gift bags prior to holidays, including Sukkot, Hanukkah and Pesach. Our current project, Boxes on the Bimah, will be added to our continued support of JF&CS this year.
We added a new project this year that we hope we will be able to continue in the future: School supplies for the Washington Elementary School in Lynn. We donated car loads of supplies to the school twice this year, including paper, pencils, crayons, tape, scissors, and books. Please keep us in mind in late August, as we collect again to help the teachers and students at this school. Thank you, Larry Lodgen, for bringing this need to our attention, and thank you to everyone who participated in making this an easy and successful event.
We raised money specifically for Israel twice since October 7. Last year we had a JNF fundraiser, and this past January we joined the rest of the local Jewish community in a “Chik Shuk”, with all monies raised donated to relief efforts in Israel.
We have had several coat and sock drives this past year. Thanks to Sandy Brenner for getting Glover Landing folks to empty their closets of unused coats! And to all of you for bringing in several hundred pairs of clean white socks for the local shelters.
I would like to personally thank all of you for your enthusiasm and energy in making our social action work successful. I am so very happy to tell you all that Debbie Goldman has graciously accepted the role as incoming chair of this committee. She has so many good ideas for growing our work together. Thank you!
Carole Skowronski
MEMBERSHIP
It has been an eventful year at Temple Sinai. This winter the Membership Committee sponsored an evening of Young Adults at a local brewery. The event was well attended and we are hoping to host another event in the near future. Our outreach to Young Families has been very exciting. The committee hosted a Sunday morning craft event in early March. Several families attended. The children were happily engaged in decorating bird houses and the parents were able to interact with each other and with Rabbi Michael. The feedback from that event was that the families were interested in attending Shabbat services. The committee worked with Rabbi Michael and Rabbi Batya to plan a Shabbat service with a children’s service led by Rabbi Batya in the small chapel while Rabbi Michael led the Torah service in the main chapel. Afterwards, the children joined the congregation, and Rabbi Michael invited the children up to the bima to sing Ein keloheinu, Adon Olam and Hamotzi. We are very happy to share that these families have continued to attend Shabbat services at Temple Sinai. Recently, the committee was approached by Alan Barnett on behalf of the Ritual Committee to work together to plan children services in the small chapel on a more regular basis.
Denise Tierney, Membership Chair
RITUAL
The Ritual Committee has been hard at work planning additional ways to enhance the experience of services at Temple Sinai. I want to thank Rabbi Michael and Rabbi Batya for their efforts to add learning sessions so we all can learn new melodies. Rabbi Batya will be returning for another year as our Cantorial Soloist.
The Holidays this year were very meaningful with Cantor David leading the high holiday services. Last fall and this Spring Rabbi Batya lead the other festival and holiday services. I want to thank them for their continued efforts to make all our holiday services special and meaningful. I also want to thank Cantor David for always being there when we call him and say, “are you available this Shabbat.” Also, thank you, Rabbi Batya, for making yourself available for extra services.
The new Bar/Bat Mitzvah program is ready to go after many months of planning. Our first students will begin their studies soon. We continue to have joint Shabbat and holiday services with The Sons of Israel. Services this past were held at both Temple Sinai and at Sons of Israel.
The Ritual Committee and the Membership Committee have begun to plan a new program for services for the children of families that have come to our Shabbat services. It is our hope that this program will bring additional young families to our temple.
Alan L. Barnett
Ritual Chairman, Temple Sinai
SISTERHOOD
To start the year off, we collect Sisterhood dues, and the New Year’s Greetings and Memoriams which are in the High Holiday booklet. These funds enable Sisterhood to continue to financially support the operations of Temple Sinai through monthly contributions of $600 which total $7,200 each year.
In October, we held our Paid-Up Supper. After enjoying dinner, Rosalie Kaufman and her crew of women delighted us with a very special Fashion Show. We will never forget Bea Paul with her “Johnny Walker”!
Cooking Night with Ellen Lodgen was on March 4. Together we prepared several delicious Chinese dishes and then enjoyed them for dinner.
Our annual Sisterhood Shabbat was held on March 8th. As always, it was a wonderful Shabbat with many people in person, and some via Zoom taking part and participating in the service. The service was followed by a very special Kiddush prepared by Sisterhood members. We are so appreciative of Carol Dinnes for organizing this special day and for Deborah Shelkan Remis who delivered the D’var Torah.
We are excited about having a very different type of Donor event this year. On June 9, we will have our Donor Luncheon at the Hawthorne Hotel in Salem. Entertainment will be by Sheryl Faye who will portray Ruth Bader Ginsburg. We are looking forward to a very special time. We are very grateful for all who have donated to this event. A big thank you goes to the many Sisterhood members who volunteer their time for Donor.
Our Sisterhood book group continues to meet once a month, usually on the 3rd Tuesday of the month. During the winter months we meet at 2 pm. The rest of the year we meet at 7 pm. Our next meeting is on June 17 when we will be discussing The Magnolia Palace by Fiona Davis.
Two very special volunteers moved away from our area this year. Steffie Garfield who was our Treasurer for more years than we can remember, moved to Florida, and passed on her responsibilities to Judy Locke. Rosalie Miller moved to Chicago to be closer to her daughter and new grandson. Rosalie was the backbone of Sisterhood for many years.
Once a month a dedicated group of women come together to plan these events. Our next planning meeting is June 19 at 6:15 pm via Zoom. If you are interested in joining us and helping with our efforts, please let us know by sending your email address to SinaiSisterhood@yahoo.com.
Also please remember to support the Sisterhood gift shop.
Thank you for supporting Sisterhood.
Written by Judy Locke for the Temple Sinai Sisterhood Planning Committee
Rayna Aronson Rachael Kummins
Valerie Carlone Susan Kummins
Carol Dinnes Judy Locke
Merle Hyman Ellen Lodgen
Diane Kotz Debbie Titelbaum
Robin Katzman
BROTHERHOOD
This was another successful year for the Brotherhood with our highest membership in 4 years with 35-40 men paying their dues to become part of our vibrant men’s club. Some of our members took an active part in ushering at the high holidays and putting up and taking down our new sukkah. Special thanks to Ira Dinnes, George Gammel, Ian, and Sean Anderson in their efforts to make this happen.
Creating a space that benefits our community within the walls of our library continues to be the main focus of the Brotherhood. Our renovation of this space is almost complete. Judaic books of many genres are available to be borrowed. Once a month, we have been doing movie and lunch. Thank you to Susan Weiner for preparing our delicious lunches following the movies. The Brotherhood additionally purchased a new coffee maker that is enjoyed by everyone, especially by the Rabbi.
The Brotherhood worked with Adult Ed to host speakers, The Honorable Phillip Weiner speaking on Jewish mobsters and Jack Christensen and Richard Santeusanio on Murder in Marblehead: Who Killed Beryl Atherton, a 1950’s unsolved murder case.
The monthly Brotherhood book club continues to be popular with both men and women attending the discussion each month.
A highlight for Brotherhood during year was our paid-up supper. Award winning chef Scott Katzman treated the attendees to one of his specialties, burnt end brisket with a variety of side dishes. Keep an eye out for upcoming information on this year’s dinner.
I would like to personally thank everyone who has supported the Brotherhood this past year. Whether it has been through dues, donations, books, Judaica, or sports memorabilia, your support is most greatly appreciated. It is my hope that will continue over the next year as well.
Once again with all our thanks, Larry Weiner
WALL OF TRIBUTE
We added two more plaques to our wall this year. Our top row is complete and the middle row is almost there!
SECURITY
Temple Sinai has made enormous strides in improving our physical security over the past year. We successfully competed with thousands of other applicants to win one of only 80 Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP) awards from the MA Office of Grants and Research (MA OGR). We received the maximum award of $75,000. We have successfully procured and installed three new security systems over the past year:
- Access Control System—We added an intercom to our main entrance so that we can see and speak remotely to anyone coming to our front door or classroom door and buzz them in or deny access. We installed a fob system for access to the main and classroom entrances.
- Surveillance Camera System—We installed 8 cameras around the perimeter of our building, which are monitored in our main office. The cameras record motion and can be searched to see who is approaching our building 24/7.
- Panic Alarm System—We installed 8 mounted panic alarm buttons and 13 lanyard buttons that will send a signal directly to the police dispatcher, while activating strobe lights and sirens in our building.
All of these systems are now fully operational.
Temple Sinai was awarded a $100,000 Federal NSGP security grant by FEMA. Over the coming year, we will use these funds to improve lighting in our parking lot, secure our perimeter with bolsters, render our glass doors and windows shatterproof, and create safe rooms within the building. We need to submit and Environmental Impact Statement, which must be approved by FEMA, before we can begin this procurement.
Barbara Rosenstroch
Facilities & Building Maintenance
The following projects and purchases have been completed by the Facilities Committee during this fiscal year:
- July, 2024 – Titus Masonry contracted to repair persistent leaks in patio. They have tried a number of remedies continuously this year, most recently on December 16, 2024 – $17,675. The total amount spent on patio repairs since 2021, including special paint: $32,325 (including payment to Titus). Despite all of these efforts, the leaking continues. As a result, and by Board Vote, the apartment will no longer be rented after 6/30/25.
- September, 2024 – New Sukkah Purchased from “The Sukkah Place.” This Sukkah is much larger than our old one 8 ft tall and 20 x 20 ft. square. $2370 + full Sukkah Kit-everything you need – $125.
- December, 2024 – toilet in men’s room unplugged – plumber call.
- April, 2025 – 75-gallon hot water heater failed. Tank (part only) replaced under warranty. Warranty will expire in August, 2026. Labor and replacement of exhaust pipe and fan to bring system up to code – $4,562 (Blaisdell Plumbing).
- June, 2025 – Replace ball valve to dishwasher in kitchen – $490 (Blaisdell Plumbing).
Jonathan Leamon and Ben Locke
Facilities & Building Co-Chairs
CEMETERY
The Temple Sinai Memorial Park Committee continues to meet periodically in person at the temple. The current committee consists of Ellen Lodgen (Chair), Jon Leamon, and Ed Shapiro. Our maintenance company is John Ross and Son, Inc in Danvers. The monthly maintenance fee was $799 through March 2025 and was increased to $823 for the period of April 2025 through March 2026. Temple Tifereth Shalom leases the burial rights to part of our cemetery (about 400 graves) and pays 40% of our monthly maintenance fee. They have completed the payments for the additional 40 spaces we had developed for them.
The interfaith section in the front of Section 1 of our cemetery has been opened and there has already been one burial. The maintenance company has marked off the location for the fence that will be erected for that section and we are gathering estimates for that fence. At our last committee meeting we approved the expense to have the interfaith section marked with metal row and space markers as required by law.
We continue discussions with John Ross and Son, our grounds management company, about the ongoing maintenance of the lawns and trimming around the upright and flush markers.
We are comparing our grave prices to those at area cemeteries and will be raising our prices to reflect the current market prices and to provide sufficient money for our perpetual care fund. Our current price per space is $850 and has been the same, and much lower than surrounding cemeteries, for many years. Before the raise in price, temple members will have the opportunity to purchase lots at the current price for a limited amount of time. Non-temple members pay a 25% surcharge to purchase lots. If someone is a non-member at the time of a burial, there is currently a $250 administrative fee.
We continue to look for one or two additional members of the cemetery committee and would be happy to talk to anyone who is interested in joining this important work for our community.
If anyone has any questions or concerns, feel free to contact Ellen Lodgen at
781-639-2003 or at pelzo125@gmail.com.
Submitted by Ellen Lodgen
FUTURES
The members of the Futures committee include Barbara Rosenstroch, Rabbi Schwartz, David Aronson, Alan Barnett, and Carole Skowronski.
Over the past year, the committee has been working closely with Pathways Advisors to explore the best path forward for both our congregation and our aging building. To better understand our community’s needs and preferences, we conducted surveys to gather input on a range of options worth considering.
One of the most promising possibilities is the development of senior housing on Temple Sinai’s land—ideally with a distinctly Jewish character. We reached out to 2Life Communities, a respected organization in this space. After reviewing our site, they concluded that the land available does not meet the requirements of their current development model. We have also initiated conversations with B’nai B’rith, who have expressed preliminary interest, though discussions are still in the early stages. In parallel, Pathways has been actively researching and engaging other potential partners.
The Future’s Committee (FC) remains deeply committed to finding a solution that strengthens the Jewish identity of the “Hill.” However, we recognize that any successful plan must include the active participation and commitment of the JCC and Hillel. In light of this, Pathways facilitated a joint meeting of representatives from all three organizations about a month ago. This collaborative group—now referred to as the “Hill Group”—has agreed to work together to identify a shared path forward. As of this meeting, Pathways and representatives of the FC have had additional meetings with leadership of the J who has committed to revisiting 2Life and to work with us to find suitable developers if the 2Life option is not reinvigorated. We are committed to continue our spiritual presence on the Hill which has been met with support from the JCC. Another joint meeting of the Hill Group is in the works.
Myranne Janoff, Chair of the Futures Committee
