A Beautiful Start to Solel’s Next 50 years

by John Lewsen, November 1, 2024

Our 5785 High Holiday Services

Once again, I am impressed and grateful for the smoothness of the High Holy Day services and the seamless, coordinated effort. This is no accident. It takes massive dedication from a small team of professional staff working in collaboration with the Religious Committee and its High Holiday Working group, plus a cadre of willing service leaders and volunteers.

For this month’s blog, I want to express my special appreciation to:

Rabbi Pollack, for her beautiful leadership of multiple services, for her numerous thoughtful and relevant Divrei Torahs that covered a broad range of important themes and topics, and for her selection of special readings and music.

Arliene Botnick, for supporting and providing the relevant readings and material to our cadre of chanters and readers and making sure that everyone was present and on cue.

Carol Van Thyn for being the friendly voice of the Solel office and for taking on numerous administrative tasks, including allocating nametags and lanyards to attendees.

Nillon Ross for preparing and setting up the seating and tables for each service and event, and for keeping the building clean and fresh.

Rabbi Emeritus Englander for his co-leadership of the Day Two Rosh Hashanah intergenerational service.

The Religious Committee and High Holiday working group chaired by Leo Van Thyn (with Emma Weizenbluth, Rabbi Pollack, Arliene Botnick, Joel Brown, Eleanor Stoch, Nicole Hansen, Zach Harper, Diego Torres, and Carol Van Thyn) that planned, coordinated and communicated all the details.

The Safety and Security Committee under the Leadership of Michael Zajdman for planning and incorporating several new initiatives in collaboration with Peel Regional Police and security specialists to reassure and protect our community during this time of heightened tensions.

Joel Brown for ensuring accessibility for every service by planning and managing the live stream, making backup recordings for service participants who could not attend in person, for his major role in making the current iteration of the new and accessible High Holy Day Machzor, for printing name tags, and for keeping an ongoing watchful eye on a range of other key activities.

The Board of Directors for calling members in advance of the holidays to wish Shanah Tovah, and then for greeting and welcoming members to services.

The Women of Solel for planning the apiary outing and related sweet-New Year honey fundraiser.

Cheryl Englander and Linda Sage Alexander for selecting our new Torah breastplate, yad and crowns and the beautiful white High Holy Day Torah Mantel with the dedication in “Memory of the victims of October 7th, 2023 that was so beautifully crafted and donated by Joey Silva.

To all who brought food or donated to the Mississauga Foodbank.

To the leaders of our reflective Tashlich and Ella’s Walk outings.

And to all our greeters and ushers, service participants, gabbais, chanters, skilled musicians and shofar blowers, break-fast bakers and many others who helped with many tasks behind the scenes.

It was truly wonderful to see and connect with so many members and guests who were engaged socially and the moments that we all felt as we came together in person and on the live stream. For me, the sense and cohesion of our Solel Jewish community was particularly poignant. I want to extend my gratitude to everyone who contributed in any way to what was such a meaningful High Holiday period.

John.

Filed under: President's Message

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