This coming Monday, we will be travelling with Chana Raizel’s family on a two week trip to Eastern Europe where we will be exploring our family heritage and visiting some very special and meaningful places. We will be exploring current and ancient Jewish life in a number of famous cities such as Berlin, Vienna, Prague, Bratislava, Krakow and Warsaw. We will also be visiting a number of small towns and villages in Slovakia – the actual places where our ancestors lived. We have located house numbers and cemetery plots and we look forward to visiting their homes and offering prayers at our great grandparents and great-great grandparents’ graves. We will spend the Shabbatot in Prague and Budapest and I look forward to taking part in some of the services in the main Synagogues there. There is so much rich, yet tragic Jewish history in that region and we feel ready to embark upon what we know will be an emotional, yet deeply meaningful trip. We will be taking many photos and video clips of our travels to send back to you so check out our Facebook pages and come along with us!

Also please make a note and join me when I return for our pre -City2Surf training sessions. Whether you plan to enter the race or not, it is an opportunity to come together as a community for a Sunday morning social, a word of inspiration and show support for a worthy cause. We will be gathering in honour of the late Dalia Isman OBM and raising money for those suffering from breast cancer.

On another note, this Friday night in Shul we will be farewelling all those who will be travelling to Israel to compete in the Maccabiah games and wishing them best of luck. We will also be holding the graduation ceremony for the 12 Bar Mitzvah boys who will be completing our 8 session Bar Mitzvah course!

Wishing you all a Shabbat Shalom and see you in Shule!

Rabbi Yossi and Chana Raizel Friedman