Congregation B'nai Israel News and Events
B'nai Israel celebrates 20th year in Basking Ridge
Published: Jan 22nd, 11:43 AM
Reprinted from the Bernardsville News
BERNARDS TWP. - On Saturday, Feb. 6, more than 200 congregants and their friends will help celebrate the 20th anniversary of Congregation B'nai Israel (CBI) of Basking Ridge.
The congregation will be honoring those familes that have been part of B'nai Israel from the start.
The celebration will begin at 7:30 p.m. with a havdalah service, followed by hors d'oeuvres, dinner and dancing. There will be a silent auction and a short ceremony honoring the founding families of the synagogue.
The congregation has undergone tremendous growth since its early days. When first opening it had 25 families. That has now grown to 250 families.
At first, Friday night services were held every other week in the basement of Bishop Janes United Methodist Church and there were no Saturday morning services. Services are now held in a state-of-the-art sanctuary at 40 Whitenack Road.
The Religious School originally had about 24 students with classes held in people's homes, the Somerset Hills Montessori School, St. Mark's Episcopal Church and even the Pleasant Valley Park warming hut. There are now more than 200 students and two sessions of Religious School are held in spacious classrooms in the congregation's own building.
The first B'nai Mitzvah class had eight students. The current B'nai Mitzvah class has 37 students, and in 2011-2012 there will be more than 50.
Rabbi Charles "Chuck" Simon initially served on a part-time basis. The current Rabbi John Schechter is full-time.
For more information on CBI call (908) 204-1412, or visit www.cbibr.org.
Congregation B'nai Israel of Basking Ridge is pleased to announce the election of its new Board of Trustees for the 2009-2011 term. The Executive Board will consist of Larry Rosin, President; Michael Braunstein, First Vice President; Edana Desatnick, Vice President, Susan Goldsmith, Secretary, Lee Breslau, Assistant Secretary, Nancy Stupay, Treasurer, and Andy Tupler, Assistant Treasurer. Other trustees-at-large newly elected to join the Board include: Pam Ball of Basking Ridge, Fred Okun of Basking Ridge, Mark Shapiro of Bernardsville and Rob Simon of Peapack-Gladstone. Shari Lapa of Warren and immediate past president will also serve on the Board of Trustees.
Incoming president, Larry Rosin, has been a resident of Bernardsville for five years, with his wife, Debby, son, Sam, and daughter, Dina. Rosin grew up in Chicago and met his wife while both were students at Princeton. He obtained an M.B.A. from Wharton and in1994 founded Edison Media Research, a polling and market research organization. Edison is headquartered in Somerville. At CBI, Rosin has served as a vice president on the Executive Board, a trustee-at-large, and chaired the successful Cantor Search Committee in 2007.
According to Rosin, the new Board intends to focus its energies on the following initiatives: (1) attending to the financial needs of the Congregation; (2) increasing new membership; (3) supporting the growth and development of the Congregation B'nai Israel Religious School and the Weintal Preschool; (4) improving communications to its membership and to the larger Jewish community; and (5) offering essential programming to the Congregation's constituencies.
For the two year term, there will be twenty-three congregants on the Board of Trustees at CBI. "Each one of us brings something unique to the table. We come from diverse backgrounds, but what we share is a commitment to use our varied experiences to benefit Congregation B'nai Israel and I am proud to serve alongside each one of these individuals," said Larry Rosin.
There are mitzvahs to be done and prizes to be won as CBI collects grocery
coupons and food to fill the empty shelves of Jewish Family Services' kosher
food pantry! This community-wide project will hopefully meet a desperate
need--the pantry has not experienced a shortage of food such as this in 30
years. While JFS hopes members of the community will form teams and do the
actual shopping on Sunday, March 22nd, CBI will begin participating on March
1st.
Here is how you can help:
1. Clip coupons for purchases of kosher foods; save circulars advertising
sales on kosher foods.
2. Using your coupons/circulars, do the actual shopping and bring your bags
of food to CBI.
3. If you cannot go shopping, drop your coupons in the bin in the temple
office; someone else will do the shopping for you.
All food items must have an approved kosher symbol on them. JFS is hoping to
stock staples: tuna fish; canned soups, vegetables, fruits; baked beans; tea
bags/instant coffee; dry cereals, rice, pasta, potatoes; bottles/jars of
tomato sauce, ketchup, other condiments; peanut butter and jelly; cooking
oils; and, seasonal/holiday items.
Different criteria will be used to determine the winning team at the Sunday,
March 22nd shopping extravaganza: how much money the team saved, who used the most coupons, and who got the most food for the least amount of money.
On March 22nd, the day will culminate with a tour of the food pantry so
participants can see how they have helped to feed hundreds of needy
families. But you will be doing a mitzvah now if you can shop and/or collect
coupons starting March 1st.
Questions? Contact Kari Scaglione at cscaglio@optonline.net.
