201020 Bimah Dedication Fund
Passes 1/3 Mark Toward $75,000 Goal

In acknowledgment of his many contributions, the 20 10 20 Bimah Dedication Fund was established for members to contribute towards the dedication of the bimah in Rabbi Adelson’s honor. More than $25,000 was raised in the first two months of this campaign, and we hope all congregants will contribute to help us meet the $75,000 for this special tribute.

If you have not yet contributed, please click for a printable Pledge Card to mail with your check, or for details on our pilot project for online credit card donations to this fund, members click here; non-members click here. (All major cards accepted.)

Click to download a copy of the 201020 Bimah Dedication Fund Brochure.

East End Temple Celebrates a Decade with Rabbi David Adelson
Our celebration was a huge success. Rabbi Adelson was touched and a good time was had by all!
If you missed our special Synaplex Shabbat – or were there and want to relive the moments
– view the photos below capturing highlights.

Rabbi David Adelson

The number 10 resonates in Judaism and in the stories of our ancestors.  Stories that include:

• The 10 Commandments in Exodus 20:2-13 and Deuteronomy 5:6-17
• The 10 Plagues inflicted on Egypt in Exodus 7-12
• The 10 Days of Repentance beginning on Rosh Hashanah and ending on Yom Kippur
• The 10 Lost Tribes of Israel
• The 10 generations between Adam and Noah, and the 10 generations between Noah and Abraham
• The 10 adults that are the required quorum for prayer services, and
• In Deuteronomy 26:12, the command that Jews give one-tenth of their produce to the poor (Maaser Ani) and from this verse and from an earlier verse (Deut. 14:22) there derives the practice for Jews to give one-tenth of all earnings to the poor

As we prepare to celebrate ten years with our beloved Rabbi David Adelson, we will also commemorate East End Temple’s story – remembering the past decade and eagerly setting the stage for the next ten years. 

Ten Things You Probably Did Not Know About Rabbi David Adelson

1) He brought good coffee to the Holy City.
In 1994-95, he worked as a bartender/barista at Jerusalem’s Tmol Shilshom cafe, training the whole staff to make a perfect cappuccino.

2) He is married to a member of the DAR.
On her father’s side, Lynn can trace her ancestors in the US to before the Revolution. (Her mother’s side goes straight to Poland.)

3) He will eat any candy you offer him.
Including Harry Potter-themed sardine-flavored jellybeans.

4) He is grateful for all the cheeseburgers he ate back while he still had the chance.
That is, until his slippery slope to kashrut, vegetarian and now near-vegan eating.

5) He is the most unlikely, i.e. least flexible, yoga devotee.
He can’t touch his toes, but it does touch his soul.

6) He has a recurrent nightmare about being on the bima on Yom Kippur, eating a sandwich.
Note: not a cheeseburger.

7) He works checkout at the Park Slope Food Coop.
This takes him back to all the retail jobs of his youth: bike shop, toy store, drug store, book store…

8) He mercilessly tormented his younger sister.
When their parents popped out to the store, he told her they were NEVER COMING BACK. (It turned out okay; now they are close friends).

9) He still bears a scar on his chin from being hit by a projectile Fisher-Price garage.
In all honesty: he re-met the perpetrator of this assault twenty years later as a FELLOW RABBINICAL STUDENT.

10) He is grateful beyond words for his ten years at EET, and looking forward to many more.
Oh wait, you knew that.