TBS News and Information

We are coming home!

There has been a flurry of activity in the TBS building over the past few weeks. New carpeting is now installed in the Sanctuary, the hallways, and most of the Social Hall and public spaces of the building. The floorboard paneling will be completed early next week, and our artwork will be rehung on the walls. New tiling for the floors of the classrooms has been ordered and is expected to arrive soon. The tapestries have been reinstalled and the chairs and furnishings reset in the Sanctuary. Volunteers have been busy returning our belongings to their proper places in the building and making way for the final round of repairs.

This means that we are ready for a phased return to our building. This Shabbat morning, our 10am service will take place in the Sanctuary as one of our 7th graders becomes Bat Mitzvah. Then next Friday night, March 6, will be a “Welcome Home Shabbat,” with a 4th grade Shabbat dinner, a 7pm Family Service, singing from the Kolot Shalom youth choir, and the official reconsecration of our Sanctuary. Once the classrooms and Mrs. Ben Simon’s office are fully restored, our Religious School will resume at the TBS building, completing our return home.

None of this would have been possible without the extraordinary efforts of our TBS staff and volunteers. From overseeing contractors and selecting carpet samples to shlepping Oneg supplies and ritual items to creating an entire “School on the Go” to coordinating the myriad of details needed to keep our activities operating across three campuses, we are blessed as a community to have such talented, caring, dedicated people in our congregation.

This return to the building means that this Friday night, tonight, is our final Shabbat evening service at Abiding Presence Lutheran Church. For almost 40 years, Abiding Presence has been a true partner to TBS, and that relationship has only deepened by their hosting us for these past 10 weeks. They have been so generous and gracious in opening their spiritual home to us for Shabbat services and Tot Shabbats and Family Dinners, an Artist in Residence Weekend, tomorrow night’s Purim Shpiel, and more. We’ll will be creating additional opportunities to express our appreciation to Abiding Presence, but, for now, please join in the Shabbat service tonight as we offer our gratitude to our home-away-from-home.

Wherever we have been in this multi-campus odyssey, at TBS, at Abiding Presence, at Gesher Jewish Day School (which will host this Sunday morning’s Purim celebration and Carnival), we know what is most important. It isn’t just about the building we are in, but the people who are there. Wherever we are, it is all of you who make us, us. I am grateful for all of you for creating our TBS community in any, and every, place and space.

Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi David S. Widzer, D.D.