Team Organize!

L to R: Helen Feinberg, Merle Berman, Betsy Teutsch,
Simone Zelitch, and Serena Eisenberg

Dorshei Derekh has been meeting in the Maslow Auditorium since 1987. As its name “auditorium” implies, it was not designed to be a dovvening space; when our minyan outgrew meeting in a classroom, that location was what was available. It had no kitchen area for preparing kiddush, and no storage space. We made do.

Around a decade later, a fundraising campaign resulted in both the Temin and the Maslow acquiring lovely book shelves and storage cabinetry. While there’s no running water in the Maslow, we were able to equip it with a refrigerator and a small kitchenette for prepping kiddushes and other functions.

Many groups use the Maslow. Staff eats lunch there, bridge games are held, the ECP and Religious School hold programs in it, Children’s High Holiday Services take place in it, and classes and Board Meetings take place there, too, all harmoniously co-existing.

About 15 years ago, our beloved Donald Joseph introduced Schnapps Shabbat, a monthly happening. We quickly noticed that the schnapps would disappear over the course of a month, so we added a cabinet lock. Why did all the other cabinets also acquire locks? No one remembers.

Recently someone tried, unsuccessfully, to match the ancient key hidden on a high shelf to the cupboard locks. In frustration, they asked me, Dorshei Derekh’s present chair, to try to straighten out the locked cabinet situation.

After consulting with our synagogue office staff, we discovered they had presumed Dorshei Derekh stored important things in those locked cabinets. And Dorshei Derekh had likewise presumed that GJC used them. As it turns out, neither of us used them in any systematic way, and they had just slowly filled up over the decades with random stuff. This is unsurprising, given how many different people use the space.

On an appointed June Tuesday at noon, I asked for volunteers to help me with a clean-out. I pretty much expected I would be doing this solo…. Who wants to come clean out cabinets? People don’t even want to clean out their own cabinets, right? Imagine my surprise when I walked in to find Merle Berman and Simone Zelitch already flinging open the cabinets and cleaning them. And it wasn’t even Pesach!

Within a few minutes Past-GJC President Helen Feinberg and Serena Eisenberg also arrived. Our team of five included one PhD, three social workers, a rabbi, and two lawyers. We dove in and in no time flat we removed all the contents of the cabinets, sorted them, and figured out what to do with each category. With Jose and Kate’s help, endless items were moved on to new homes.

Simone was reunited with her Deviled Egg carrying case. We chuckled over the archeological records of our minyan’s commitment to sustainability: glass kiddush cups (too heavy for the weekly dishwasher to shlep), small metal cups (too light to stay on DW shelves), and an enormous collection of Dollar Store ware – bowls and trays for a lifetime. Plus the synagogue’s pre-composting accumulation of plates, cups, and cutlery in dozens of sizes, all of which we sorted. (We were very good at that, as it happens.)

We were delighted to donate our vintage IKEA plastic plates, forks, and spoons to the ECP. We used those for about a decade. One fine day, Dayle Friedman opined that she was tired of eating on nursery school plates every Shabbat, and we upgraded. But the old stuff remained in, you guessed it, one of our locked cabinets.

Within 90 minutes, we were done. There aren’t many jobs where after 90-minutes you can see  gratifying results from your efforts. (Ever been to a Committee Meeting?). We are all just compulsive enough to love looking at the newly empty closets and cupboards, with the shelves we actually use looking so orderly.

The biggest surprise? The vast majority of what was stored in the cupboards wasn’t there for any particular reason, except someone once put them there. Fixed!

Thanks to the Invisible Laborers Who Make our Minyan Thrive!

 

It takes a lot of behind-the-scenes work to keep Dorshei Derekh thriving.

Yesterday the Mazkirut (at present George Stern is outgoing coordinator, Deborah Weinstein is the Chair, and Betsy Teutsch is the incoming coordinator) thanks Mike Gross, who completed his three year Mazkirut term. We also thanked outgoing Green Coordinator Simone Zelitch and welcomed Jennifer Paget in that roll.

 This was also a chance to thank all the longterm coordinators who are listed on the side bar.

There are more folks whose work people might not be aware of. Neysa Nevins manages our listserve, and has done so for a long time. Betsy Teutsch manages this blog (though many other members are also editors and *could* post.) 

Sheila Erlbaum tends our plants. She selected them, has watered them weekly, and Jennifer Paget took care of them at home during the Pandemic. Thanks to Sheila and Jennifer, our room is graced with growing things!

Thanks, Dick Goldberg, our Minyan Muse, for celebrating our Coordinators, outgoing and presen

February 3, 2024 Kiddush

WE ARE THE VERY MODEL OF A MODERN, MAJOR MIN-I-YAN

(To the tune of “I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General” by Gilbert and Sullivan)


We are the very model of a modern, major min-i-yan!

Yes, Dorshei’s quite the prayer group in my humblest of opinions!

Whose mazkirut in ’23 was led by rebbe Georgie Stern—

From such a rebbe, oy, mein kind, a person has a lot to learn!


And speaking of the mazkirut, I think we really have to boast!

For three long years that we were blessed to have a leader in Mike Gross

And while we’re hoo- and hah-ing and we’re celebrating our dear own

How ‘bout that green coordinator, our Ms. Zelitch, a/k/a Simone!


Another who coordinated with elan, aplomb and flare

Was Ms. Naomi Klayman who saw to it that our every prayer

Was uttered with con-siddur-ation, Hebraic-ly and every time

Was led by service leaders though Kol Haneshama doesn’t rhyme.


Another who has planning skills quite peachy keen and yes, exempl’ry

Is thoughtful Toby Kessler, who booked Torah readers for both you and me.

And one to whom our gratitude is more than merely o-owin’

For all those Divrei Torah, taka, taka, Debrah Co-ohen!


For managing our membership for now and ever af-after,

We give our thanks— to whom? Of course, the gifted Heather Shaf-after!

For organizing kiddushim, of course, we must express-uh

Our sheer delight from morn to night— to whom? To our dear Pesha!


Well, LBJ, as you well know had Zbigniew Brzezinski.

The Rite of Spring was one wild thing thanks to I-igor Stravinsky.

But neither could outdo our techy poohbah I mean, come on, Dorshei, since he

Is also quite the hagbah, I mean Pinsky, Pinsky, Pinsky!


I’d like to end this ditty with a gentleman who in my view, he

So ably keeps our bank accounts, I’m talking Arnie Lurie!

In short, I think you’d have to say we are one in a trill-i-on—

Yes, Dorshei is the model of a modern major min-i-yan!