President’s Message – October 2022

 I’d like to honor recent times when our community has come together.  In addition to those who volunteered to help with meals during my recovery from hip surgery, our Jewish community has stepped up (even literally!) to accompany Shoshana on neighborhood walks after her back surgery. We also have had people volunteer with food for our Break the Fast meal after Yom Kippur, for our Erev Sukkot meal on Sunday, Oct. 14, and for our recent kiddush meals after Saturday services. We especially enjoyed having book club members join us as we had kiddush last Saturday, and hope to make this a regular occurrence.

We often see reminders to remember the weak, the needy and the strangers. We have been working on the first two, so let’s work now on not being strangers! Participation in our community activities is a great way to honor this mitzvah, and I encourage everyone to check our calendar and find ways to connect with people.

We had a good Common Ground Accountability Session with Vallejo City Council candidates Cassandra James – Vallejo District 2, Don Jordan – 2, JR Matulac – 2, Ruscal Cayangyang – 4, Chris Platzer – 4, Ravi Shankar – 4, Tara Beasley-Stansberry – 5, Melissa Bowman – 5, Peter Bregenzer – 5, and Wanda Williams – Solano County District 3. It was a great success, and we did get unanimous support from all the candidates in attendance to work with us should they be elected!  I really appreciate that we had 5 members of CBI in attendance. Our next leaders meeting is this Wednesday, next door at St. Basil’s Catholic Church, and I hope a few members will attend to support our continuing to have a voice in political decisions.

We will also be inviting Common Ground members to attend our Interfaith Thanksgiving Service on Tuesday, Nov. 22, and our 75th Anniversary Celebrations next year in April. Since we want to have a larger voice in our community, as well, I’d also like to invite them to our Bagel Cafe and our Havdalah Game Nights as well! Let’s build our relationships at home, and in our communities.

Cheryl Gewing