Dear {{first_name}}: B’yachad means “together.” That word had tremendous meaning this past year as our community came together to share our collective pain, anxiety and loss over the events in Israel and the increase in antisemitism in our own country and throughout the world. This past year, more than ever, we turned to our clergy and our community to sing together, to pray together, and to learn Torah to help us process this difficult time. And, we also joined together to dance at auf rufs, baby namings and b’nei mitzvot, to watch our ever growing young tot community run across the bima on shabbat and through the halls of our Nursery School and Day Camp. We were uplifted by the stirring and diverse music from the Shoresh Halev Center for Jewish Music at Beth El and we laughed along with our beloved multi-generational cast from our community singing parodies about our shul at Shul Shenanigans.
There is strength in numbers and “b’yachad,” and the Beth El community has demonstrated over and over again that we are there to celebrate each other’s wonderful milestones and hold each other up in times of sorrow. Being together is what contributes to our community’s warmth and vitality. We act as one, together, for the good of all. We rely on this community and we are so grateful it is here for us, in times of individual celebrations and communal ones, and in challenging times individually and as a Jewish people.
Thank you. Wishing you Shanah Tovah, and a year of strength.
