When you're looking into synagogue websites, you'll often find words such as "warm", "friendly" or "welcoming". At the Yorktown Jewish Center, those are not just words, they are reality. Welcome to our website, let me show you around.
You'll see what I mean if you stop by on a Saturday morning for Shabbat services. I'm willing to bet (not on Shabbat) that Rabbi Seth Sternstein will notice you and will come off the bimah to greet you. By the time Kiddush is served after services you will have been greeted warmly by many members of our Congregation.
Or come into our social hall around 6:30 on a Wednesday evening. That's when our Religious School students are finishing up the dinner we serve each week at the end of classes and start singing Birkat Hamazon, the benedictions after a meal. The text may be old, but it takes on a whole new dimension when you hear it sung by young people.
On Monday evenings you'll find a class in conversational Hebrew, Tuesdays a class in Maimonides and Fridays a beginner's class in Talmud.
If you're looking for social activities, our Sisterhood and Men's Club offer a remarkable menu of events, everything from a joint brunch program to the annual Hannukah dance.
Should your interest be in helping people who are less fortunate, you'll find our social action committee supports a local homeless shelter.
Do you have a good voice? You might want to join our choir. However, if singing isn't your thing, you'll still enjoy hearing the choir, especially when they sing with our Cantor Uri Lemberger on the High Holy Days.
Even the "work" that members volunteer for, such as raising funds through a rummage sale or selling tickets at the door for Bingo, has a positive side. It introduces us to other members who we might not otherwise know. As our Sisterhood likes to say, fund raising can also be fun raising.
So yes, like other synagogues we do say that we're warm, friendly and welcoming. Stop by and see for yourself how those words actually describe the way we go about our commitment to furthering Conservative Judaism in a quiet suburban setting.
I hope to see you soon,
Richard Elkind
President
