Early in December, a member came up to me and mentioned how smoothly my presidency had been going. Little did I know that, at the end of December, we would lose heat in the majority of the synagogue. Both boilers died after a leaking pipe caused water to get into the boiler’s electronics. 

We as a Temple should be grateful to those who stepped up during a time of crisis. As soon as we were notified that there was a heating issue, Jeff Krupel went in and discovered that there was water in the basement from the leaking pipe and took immediate action to resolve the situation.  When David Stern, who was on vacation when the leak occurred, returned home, he immediately went to work, spending over a month dealing with contractors, insurance, and when the outside temperature for several days was near zero, had industrial space heaters installed to ensure that the pipes didn’t freeze.  The good news is that we have heat again.  We were able to install 2 new boilers which are providing heat to the building.  

While most of the building was without heat, we still had heat in the Office, Library and Chapel.  We were able to move our daily Minyans and Shabbat services into the Chapel and were able to hold Onegs and Kiddushes in the Library and held services without interruption. David Margolis was able to move our Zoom setup into the Chapel so we could continue to hold all services over Zoom.  This setup will remain in place and Daily Minyan will continue to be held in the Chapel.  We will be setting up new equipment in the Sanctuary so that we can continue to provide the opportunity for those who attend Shabbat services remotely to continue to do so.

Thank you to all those who helped over the past month and half, and thank you to everyone for being understanding and flexible while we resolved the issue.