Warm wishes for a Zisn, Kushern Pesach!

Nissan 5779

April 2019

Dear Friend,

I hope this note finds you and your family well.

The recounting of the Ten Plagues is one of the most dramatic and theologically challenging sections of the Torah. In their way the plagues represent a kind of nightmarish undoing of creation. Water, which represents life, becomes blood, the weather and the animals go beserk and the crowning blow is not the emergence of man, but his death. All the Egyptians suffer because Pharaoh refuses to change his mind – God will not let him. Why? “So that the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I stretch my hand over Egypt and take the children of Israel from their midst.” 

Perhaps the Egyptians are the primary audience for the plagues as they are related in the Book of Exodus but subsequently, for the generations, they are to remind Israel of God’s might. For this reason, the recitation of the plagues plays a prominent role in the seder. As horrific as they were, for the rabbis, ten plagues were not enough. Rabbi Yose the Galilean, Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Akiva seem to compete with each other to say that at the Red Sea there 50, then 200, then 250 additional plagues.

The rabbis are doing more than playing math games. They are illustrating God’s awesome power, one that is sometimes is not fully recognized. As we think about the many miracles that God performed for our ancestors, we should also think of those He has done for us as individuals, as families, and as the Jewish people. I daresay that we will be able to count to a high number as well.

Sometimes it seems that what we have accomplished at the Old Broadway Synagogue, thanks to your support, is, lehavdil, miraculous as well. We have had wonderful Shabbosim with Rabbi Avi Heller of the Orthodox Union, and Cantor Eric Freeman of the Belz School of Jewish Museum at Yeshiva University. Rabbi Heller and Rabbi Elie Pollack continue to give fascinating shiurim after davening on Sunday mornings. Under the leadership of Rhonda Taylor-Ramsuer and Laura Radensky, our Women’s Rosh Chodesh group meets every month for learning and fellowship.

Songwriter, guitarist and singer Lazer Lloyd gave an inspiring Chanukah concert, and we also had a lively Chanukah party that featured arts and crafts for the children and a visit from New York City Council Member Mark Levine. Greek-Israeli musician and singer, Avram Pengas, performed at our Purim party.

We celebrated with Josie Steinhauer and Spencer Katzman the naming of their daughter, Hattie. We also celebrated the bris of Mathias and Sara David’s son, Josh, welcomed the arrival of my grand-daughter, Bayla Yosefa, and celebrated the wedding of my son, Asher, to Georgia Trester. We are looking forward to more simchas in the future.

As I wrote in a previous letter, the beams in the ceiling above the electrical room have slipped significantly. This problem is made more urgent by the fact that the stairs to the second floor begin on this part of the first floor and are being compromised by the damage. We hope to jack up the floor and install a steel beam on posts across the basement and the Ladies Room to shore up and stabilize the first floor and staircase. We will have to move the electrical, gas and water service, and accordingly, the cost for the entire project will be about $75,000. We have applied for a $25,000 matching grant from the New York Landmarks Conservancy and hope to hear soon whether if we will be awarded the funds. We have also raised $30,000 towards this project. Although we have come a long way, even if we receive the grant, we will still be $20,000 short. We hope that you will help us with this project, as you have helped us in the past.

Thank you for your generous support of our programming and for the restoration of our historic building. You have enabled us to welcome people in the tradition of Rabbi and Mrs. Kret, zikhronam le-vrakhah, with meaningful davening, a beautiful shul and a warm community. As Passover approaches, we hope that we continue to be worthy of your assistance so that we may continue to be a beacon of Yiddishkeit and Torah to many Jews in Harlem, Morningside Heights and the Upper West Side.

Thank you in advance for your help. 

Warm wishes for a sweet and kosher Pesach.

Paul Radensky

President